After a near-disastrous start to their hugely anticipated season, things are now looking rosy for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In spite of some ongoing Kevin Love drama, the Cavs are winners of 29 of 36 games and sit comfortably in second place in the Eastern Conference. With the playoffs just two weeks away, they have to feel good about their chances of emerging from the East.
Tangible success like that can make more ineffable concerns - like chemistry - seem obsolete. Love made headlines last week when he admitted he and teammate LeBron James aren't exactly best friends, but James has something similar to say about Kyrie Irving, who has certainly seemed to be a close confidant to James (at the least, he's been present in his Instagram photos) throughout this oft-trying season.
"People get so infatuated with the best of friends, things of that nature," James told Joe Vardon of the Cleveland Plain Dealer. "First of all, I've got three very good friends in this league, and that's Carmelo (Anthony), and that's (Chris Paul), and that's (Dwyane) Wade. And after that I have a bunch of teammates. I have guys I ride for every day.
"But Kyrie is a guy I understand how important he is to this team, how important he is. And the same with Kev as well."
Irving was open about the fact his relationship with James hasn't always been smooth sailing. While he expressed a healthy respect, appreciation and affection for his teammate, he also recalled the friction they had earlier in the season.
"I don't want to say it's not been rocky at all," Irving said. "Obviously, he sees the game one way, I see the game another way. What makes it great about being on the team is that we both can see it together in our own way."
Irving talked about his struggles in trying to adapt to playing with such a multi-talented and multi-positional force of nature.
"Coming in this season, when you have a guy like that who plays the one, two, and three positions (like James), some games are going to be that way. I feel like that's the biggest thing we've built is we're starting to trust one another more. It took time."
The winning undoubtedly helped. Notions of chemistry and continuity carry a whole lot of buzz in the basketball world, but those things tend to be the upshot of on-court success, rather that the other way around.
"Friends or no friends, at the end of the day we're all here to do one thing, and that's to win," James said.
"In order for us to reach our potential, the Big Three has to be big," he added. "And it can't just be Kyrie one night, me one night, and Kev. We all have to be clicking at the same time in order for us to be successful."
