Expected to rise among elite, Cavs not quite there yet

	Lebron James' numbers are down from last season, but he also hasn't gotten much help from his teammates. Greg Nelson/SI
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Sometimes expectations can be a curse.

Take the Cavs.

Before the season many pundits (including myself) picked Cleveland to win the Eastern Conference. After all, the Cavs were coming off a 50-win season and a trip to the second round of the playoffs, where they took the heavily favored Pistons to seven games.

Plus, they had LeBron James.

But a funny thing has happened to the Cavs on their way to the Finals: They haven't played all that well.

After a strong start to the season, LeBron and Co. (27-21) had lost eight of their last 12 games through Tuesday to fall to fourth in the East. Nothing to panic about. But nothing to get Cleveland fans dreaming of a championship parade along Lake Erie either.

"I think we're still learning how to win," Cavs GM Danny Ferry said. "This is a team that hasn't won a division title in 30 years. We're still relatively new to this. We came in with pretty high expectations. We still have them. But along with that we made some changes. We changed the way we're doing things offensively.

"We've made some progress. But sometimes you've got to take one step back to take two steps forward. Could we be better? Yes. But there are still [34] games left."

While Ferry does his best to preach patience, Cavs players are starting to show signs of frustration. James, whose scoring average has dropped five points this season, even came out Tuesday and gently questioned second-year coach Mike Brown's defense-first philosophy. The 6-foot-8 forward and three-time All-Star said he would prefer the team run more.

"We've got enough athletes where we can get up and down the court," James said. "At times the coaching staff feels the same way, at other times, no. We're kind of playing basketball for the playoffs. Our offense is geared toward half-court basketball instead of getting out and running."

Clearly, the Cavs need to do something to spark an offense that has stalled like a jalopy in the Cleveland winter. Despite James' amazing skills, the Cavs rank 24th in scoring (95.9 points), 26th in field goal percentage (44.1) and dead last in free throw percentage (68.4). Eight times this season they have scored five or fewer fast-break points.

Last season the Cavs' offense often bogged down as teammates stood around and watched James. Brown tried tweaking it this year to get more movement and make it less predictable, but so far it has not worked. Cleveland's offensive numbers are actually worse than they were a year ago.