Below is an incomplete list of reasons that the Cleveland Cavaliers shouldn't make it to the 2018 NBA Finals. Some of these reasons are from the past, some are from the present, but all of them have been legitimate arguments at some point during this season. 

They're too old. They're led by a 33-year-old who has made the Finals seven straight seasons and is exhausted. The Raptors are really good. The Pacers can exploit their weaknesses. JR Smith has been in a 19 month slump. The roster went through too much turmoil. There's no second ball-handler after the Isaiah Thomas trade. They miss Kyrie Irving too much. The Celtics are going to be excellent (before the Hayward injury, and then after the injury, and then periodically after the Irving injury). They peaked at the wrong time. Their coach sucks. They don't appear to have a game plan more than once every few games. They are relying too much on 37-year-old Kyle Korver. They're mediocre on the road. Kevin Love can no longer be the #2 guy on a great team. The camaraderie of the title-winning team is largely gone. Tristan Thompson went from being a very good player to benched to a playoff starter in less than a year. They're too old. They don't communicate at all on the court. They point fingers after every missed defensive assignment - and there are lot of missed defensive assignments. They can't keep up with younger, faster teams. When things start to go bad, they watch LeBron James dribble for 22 seconds and take contested pull-up jumpers. Jeff Green is taking what feels like 25 three-pointers per game and making 30% of them. There is nobody on the roster to lead a 2nd unit, unless you trust 36-year-old Jose Calderon. Oh, and they're old as dirt.

And yet, by virtue of having LeBron James on the roster, this team was still penciled into the Finals for long stretches of the season.

Here's how good LeBron James is: In game five, LeBron James posted 26 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, and a steal. He went 11-22 from the field. He had six turnovers, which is objectively too many. 

If any other player in this series posted that stat-line, people would be going wild over how great a game they just played. Imagine Al Horford going for 26/10/5. Imagine Jaylen Brown going for 26/10/5. Imagine JR Smith, Jayson Tatum, or Terry Rozier doing it. How about five-time All-Star Kevin Love posting a line like that? People would be stunned, and rightly so. But how do we feel about LeBron's game five performance?

Underwhelmed. Unimpressed. Concerned. LeBron's playoff per-game averages mostly dropped with that stat-line. He came into game five averaging 33.7 points, just fewer than 9 rebounds, and 9 assists per game, shooting 56% from the field. He put up a performance that every other player on each roster would kill for, and it was a drag on his overall playoff numbers.

All of this is just a long-winded way of saying that an ever-present "lEbRoN Vs. jOrDaN" debate is putting a drag on appreciating how unbelievably great LeBron James is and has been, on a near-daily basis, for the past 15 years. We, as a basketball fandom, have been wondering "is LeBron slowing down?" or "is this the beginning of LeBron's decline?" for the past few years, and every year he has come up with a way to make us look stupid. This year, regardless of whether or not James is slowing down, the cracks in the rest of the team's armor have become too big to ignore, even for him. The Cavaliers may still win this series (17% of teams that lose the 5th game of a 2-2 series come back and win it), and LeBron may get help from everyone else, but those guys are not reliable enough for anyone to have real confidence in that happening. This could well be the end of the road.

In any case, there's at least one more game left, and the Cavs have their work cut out for them. LeBron James looked gassed in game five, and there just needs to be someone who can help lighten his load. For what it's worth, it's entirely possible that he was just feeling a little bit off in that game - ever have a day when you simply don't have the energy to perform like normal? Sure you have. LeBron might have had that on Wednesday. He may come back looking spry and fit again on Friday night. He may not. Whichever happens, he needs Jordan Clarkson to hit more shots (if he plays). He needs Jeff Green to stop taking three-pointers. He needs Kyle Korver to keep flying around screens and hitting jumpers. He needs Ty Lue to play Kyle Korver more minutes. He needs Tristan Thompson to be the version of himself from game four instead of game five. He needs Kevin Love to make some plays around the rim. He needs Ty Lue to realize that a lineup that includes Thompson, Nance, and Jeff Green is going to be terrible offensively. He needs George Hill and JR Smith and virtually everyone else to just play average or better basketball. It has been a struggle to get that out of this group.

It's a weird prospect for the Cavs. It has been a foregone conclusion for the past three years that this team would make the Finals, and we're seeing the first real test of that assertion since, well, since the Pacers series this year. But before that, the last time the Cavs were facing elimination in a non-Finals game was in 2010. If they lose, a new world of uncertainty opens up - LeBron's future obviously dictates what could be another complete roster overhaul and a tank-session that could last years. 

So yeah, a lot is riding on the rest of this series.

The Cavaliers need to get their stuff together on both ends of the floor. They need to play at home how they've played at home, and they need to play on the road how they've played at home. It hasn't been pretty, but there's still a chance.

Here's hoping that my next article isn't a season review.