This afternoon, the Cleveland Cavaliers are beginning the most important stretch of their title defence against the Indiana Pacers inside of Quicken Loans Arena. LeBron James and his teammates have been looking forward to this moment for weeks now.

Fans that follow the team know that the entire unit hasn’t had much practice time this season due to the age of the roster and scheduling concerns. Add the numerous injuries that they have endured to the picture and it is easy to see why time to iron things out has been scarce.

Head coach Tyronn Lue got a chance to bring his players together on Friday to participate in a full workout and a film session. The type of focus that the Cavs have lacked at times this season simply cannot happen in the postseason if they are to repeat as champions.

Joe Vardon of Cleveland.com shared that their coach isn’t taking any of this lightly heading into Saturday’s tilt against the Pacers. In fact, Lue was up until six in the morning on Friday trying to prepare for his first round opponent.

This is not the coach’s first rodeo - he has the shiny Larry O’Brien trophy to lean on and prove it - but that still doesn’t mean that he can rest on his laurels and hope that these past accomplishments will mean that everything is going to be absolutely fine.

His players have adopted a similar approach that has seen both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving basically cast off any comparisons between this year and last year. This is a very different team because of the new parts and how they fit in.

Paul George has of course seen LeBron in the playoffs before as this will be the fourth time they have met in the Eastern Conference bracket. All of their previous meetings were while The King wore number six with the Miami Heat.

Indiana and their leader respect the Cavaliers, but the Pacers also know that they could catch the defending champions off-guard if the opportunity presents itself. Now, it will be up to the lineups that Tyronn Lue puts on the floor to ensure that the drama will be kept to a minimum.

Drama is something that has followed Cleveland every single day since King James returned in the summer of 2014. That constant cloud of scrutiny would be a small price to pay if he can deliver the second straight championship to the region.