Some thoughts on the Cavs and Team...

Tonight is Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Cavs and San Antonio - and I would say that this is a "must win" game for Cleveland. They're already down 2 games to none so another loss would seem to make victory in the series to be insurmountable.

This series has been frustrating to me - not from the perspective of the game on the court - but from the point of view of all the experts who have said that Cleveland is the worst team to ever make it to the NBA Finals. They may not be the Celtics of Larry Bird & Co. but they did beat the team that all those experts said they couldn't beat (Detroit) so they've certainly earned their way into the Finals.

But the Cavs won't be successful unless they truly work as a team. They have the best player on the planet in LeBron James but obviously he can't do it alone. He is arguably the most team-oriented superstar in the NBA and at times tries to force his teammates to participate with him in games. But that hasn't worked; LeBron's teammates need to trust themselves, the coaches and LeBron and get out of their own way so that they can perform at the level they're capable of.

So how do our business teams react to new, possibly stressful "championship" series? Do they stand around and let the 'superstar' do everything? Has the Coach (the business owner) given them the gameplan they need to be successful? Are they trained well enough to get out of their own way and let their talents produce the results called for in the gameplan?

There is a lot we can learn from sports teams and then apply it to our businesses. Learn from what the Cavs are doing right now and do the same with your business. Your challenge is to continually update and revise the gameplan to beat the competition and raise your team's perfomance to championship level.

Let's hope that the Cavs' coaches create a great gameplan and the players trust the plan and themselves enough to turn this series around.