Cavaliers have their critics, but they'll be a tough out

	LeBron James led the Cavs to victories in each of their first six playoff games. John Biever/SI

In the NBA, abuse is the sincerest form of flattery. So it is with congratulations I hereby report that the Cleveland Cavaliers have become a team their rivals love to hate.

No rival scout or executive will say so for attribution, but in casual conversation I'm always hearing complaints about Cleveland (and for once they have nothing to do with the city itself): that the Cavs are overhyped and underperforming, that LeBron James gets a free pass from criticism and that, bottom line, they just aren't very good.

It's true that the Cavs can be hard to watch, and that they've rarely played with the offensive flow of the regular-season elite like Dallas, Phoenix, San Antonio and Detroit (against whom Cleveland went 3-7 during the regular season). And it's true too that James is not yet an all-league defender.

But it's also true that the second-seeded Cavs are 6-0 in the playoffs, that they've won 10 straight overall heading into Game 3 Saturday at New Jersey, and that they're building toward a conference final against No. 1 Detroit. Are the Pistons going to flick away Cleveland as they've done thus far to Chicago? Detroit would be favored in the next round, but I would argue that the Cavs may prove to be more substantial than their unattractive style may imply. Here's why:

LeBron. James is often criticized for his defense; in recent years I've quoted several experts to that effect. But let's be fair. Are there any perimeter MVP candidates who consistently play all-out defense? The same scouts complain that Dwyane Wade no longer defends every possession, and some also maintain that Kobe Bryant picks his spots. Carmelo Anthony, Vince Carter, Tracy McGrady, Paul Pierce -- none is known as a supreme defender.

The obvious rationale is that they can't afford to get in foul trouble, especially with the restrictions on perimeter hand-checking.

James is aiming to become his generation's iconic Michael Jordan, and so on those grounds he deserves to be compared -- in this case negatively at the defensive end -- to his role model. But Jordan also spent the better part of a decade maturing into one of the league's best defenders, whereas James has just finished his fourth year. As a 22-year-old, James carried the league's seventh-winningest team while averaging 27.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and six assists. He has also led the league in minutes over the last four years, which brings fatigue-management and wear-and-tear into the discussion. Ultimately James will be compared to Jordan in terms of the subtleties that win championships, including his defense. In the meantime, he's doing historically well for someone who could be a senior in college.

Here's another thing that incenses people around the league: the news event that James had to play Game 1 against New Jersey with a head cold. There have to be dozens of players competing in the playoffs despite far worse ailments, yet it became a story that LeBron had to blow his nose a few times. He didn't ask reporters to make too much of an insignificant fact, but to people from rival teams it's another example of how James has been anointed to a more accommodating standard than any other player in the league -- and it's all the more annoying to them because James' elite status hasn't been earned with championship rings.

In Game 2 against New Jersey, however, James looked like a hungry star who was trying to earn that status, to live up to his hype. Scouts say that he settles for too many jumpers and occasionally takes nights off during the regular season, which again falls short of the Jordan standard. But on Tuesday he was driving to the basket and creating for himself and others along the way. The bottom line is that the biggest talent still alive in the playoffs is peaking at the right time.