The NBA's roster of analysts, along with several sports analysts, is, by no means, ready to recant on their season-long belief that the defending Champions Cleveland Cavaliers are a lock for their third successive trip to the NBA Finals.

Multiple analysts had to demote the Cavaliers to a season-low No. 7 in the latest edition of the weekly NBA Power Rankings because LeBron James and company are 8-9 since the 2017 All-Star break entering Monday night's key game against the surging San Antonio Spurs. Many are considering that the Cavs are in need of a wake-up call.

As per ESPN.com, only twice in league history has a team which posted a sub-.500 record after the All-Star break had gone on to win the championship. These former teams are the 1957-58 St. Louis Hawks (12-16) and the 1968-69 Boston Celtics (19-20).

In addition to that, Cleveland's lackluster offense and disintegrating D have all combined to take LeBron James out of the Most Valuable Player race. As individually brilliant as LeBron James has been statistically throughout his career, he is not going to contend for an MVP award when his team is currently classified as a disappointment.

According to Yahoo! Sports, the anticipated matchup between the Cavs and the Celtics on April 5 is going to be a key matchup in determining who reigns supreme in the East. When the calendar flipped to 2017, Boston was six games away from the first place in the Eastern Conference.

Now, in the final week of March, most sports analysts are giving the Celtics a 66 percent chance to swipe the East's No. 1 and dominate in the playoffs.

This week is going to be a big one, full of key matchups between the West's three best teams, with Warriors at Rockets, Warriors at Spurs, Spurs at Thunder, and Rockets at Warriors, which will all conclude to Cavs at Spurs.

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