Near the end of every year – and the Cavaliers are a best-of-seven away – it’s an interesting exercise to compare how preseason expectations eventually measured up to postseason reality.
Plenty of prognosticators would’ve predicted that the Wine and Gold would return to the Finals. But nobody could’ve forecasted that Channing Frye would be Cleveland’s first big off the bench, its fifth-leading postseason scorer and would likely face off against Anderson Varejao when they got there.
But that is the reality – and it’s about to play out over the next two-and-a-half-weeks.