CLEVELAND -- In many ways, Monday night could have been considered a moral victory for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Having lost three straight games, the Cavs took the court against the Golden State Warriors with an energy they've rarely displayed in the past three weeks. LeBron James and Isaiah Thomas showed their clearest glimpses of being a dynamic duo and thanks to a well-executed game plan of goading Stephen Curry into foul trouble, Cleveland took a seven-point lead into the locker room for halftime.
That hot start, however, proved to not be nearly enough. In the end, the Cavs still lost by double-digits, falling to the defending NBA champions for the second time in as many matchups this season, this time by a score of 118-108.
If there was a cause for concern for the Cavs on Monday night, it wasn't necessarily because of their blown lead. Rather, it was the sobering reality that this Golden State team is once again playing on another level and barring a league-shifting trade or untimely injury -- maybe two -- that's not something likely to change by June.
Two years ago it was the slimmest of margins that led to Cleveland's 2016 championship and in the time since, the Warriors have added Kevin Durant. The Cavs, meanwhile, lost their second-best player -- Kyrie Irving -- last summer and although Thomas has shown flashes in his first seven games in Cleveland, his deficiencies were on full display in a second half in which Cleveland was outscored by 17 points.
Last year, the Warriors beat the Cavs in five games in the NBA Finals and now more than halfway through this season, you'd be hard-pressed to argue Cleveland has done anything but lost ground. Golden State, to its credit, now appears to be a better version of itself, with Durant only further integrated into what was already a historic roster.
I'm not prepared to go all Charles Barkley and cancel the Cavs' NBA Finals plans -- after all, for all their shortcomings, they still have LeBron. Oddsmakers still list the Cavs as the Eastern Conference favorites (-140) and give them the second-best odds (+625) behind the Warriors to win the NBA title.
Cleveland fans, however, may want to focus on the former rather than the latter.
Should the Cavs make it to the Finals for the fourth straight year, the Warriors will likely once again be waiting. And if Monday was any indication, it would be wise not to expect much from them -- unless you're willing to count more moral victories.
