The Cleveland Cavaliers’ sweep at the hands of the Golden State Warriors was apparently just as crushing on the inside as it looked from the outside.
After their season-ending 108-85 loss at home in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Friday, multiple reporters relayed that the Cavs’ locker room was totally silent with players just staring into space and LeBron James slumped at his locker.
Pretty devastating scene in the Cavs locker room. LeBron, ice on his knees, feet in an ice bucket, right hand wrapped in ice and a towel over his head is slumped back in his chair. Everyone else quiet with 1000 yard stares.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) June 9, 2018
Could hear a pin drop in the Cavs locker room right now.
— Scott @ WFNY (@WFNYScott) June 9, 2018
Don't expect to hear anything from @KingJames for a while tonight. I am in #Cavs locker room, and he is still sitting at his locker with a towel draped over his face. (No photos allowed, per NBA media rules.)
— Chris Sheridan (@sheridanhoops) June 9, 2018
This was Cleveland’s fourth straight appearance in the NBA Finals but easily their worst showing yet — they lost the four games against Golden State by a combined 60 points and dropped the final two games at home as the Warriors wound up celebrating on their floor. Yes, they were heavily outmatched from a talent standpoint from the very start of the series. But the Cavs never seemed to recover from their spectacular collapse in a winnable Game 1 at Oracle Arena, and that had to make getting swept that much tougher to swallow.
Now the team enters into an uncertain future with LeBron James set to become a free agent (and many teams already looking to vulture him away), and you get the feeling that the Cavs may see this as the end of an era.
