Before the finals start, it’s probably for the best to do a re-assessment of this Cavalier team after watching the Celtics take six games to completely dismantle the Orlando Magic and become the Eastern Conference Champions. After the conference semis, Cleveland’s performance against the Celtics looked like a completely inexplicable collapse; now it looks like a more explicable collapse. Here’s some of what we now know:
-Rashard Lewis’ performance in the conference finals should take some of the heat off of Mo’s performance in the conference semis. I’m not saying that Mo didn’t suck for the vast majority of the conference semis, because he did.
What I am saying is that it’s not fair to say that Mo dogged it or was off his game in the conference semis. Mo, like Rashard Lewis, is a player who lives off of open catch-and-shoot threes. Boston does a fantastic job of rotating out to the perimeter to prevent drive-and-kick threes, and Cleveland wasn’t able to execute their back-screen sets that gave Mo open looks in the regular season against Boston either.
You can blame Mo for not working harder to create easy shots for himself, but 88% of Mo’s shots during the regular season were jumpers. During Mo’s brief flashes of competent play during the Boston series, he was forced far more aggressive driving to the basket than he was at any point in the regular season.
This has been said about Lewis’ performance against Boston, and it should be said for Mo’s performance as well: Mo’s problems during the Boston series were as much a symptom of Cleveland’s problems as they were a cause of those problems. When the offense is working, Mo gets easy shots. Against Boston, it wasn’t and he didn’t.
-After watching KG shut down Lewis on defense and have very little success against him on offense, Antawn Jamison’s offensive series looks pretty good in retrospect. His defense on Garnett does not.
-If the Cavs had made it to the Magic, Shaq would have looked like a very good acquisition. Having a player capable of guarding Howard straight-up changes the way that entire team works.
-Kobe looks like a house of fire right now. That much cannot be denied. About the only caveat left is that he’s been carving up the Jazz and the Suns, both of whom were below-average defensive teams this season. This Celtics defense is just a different animal. It’s swallowed up Wade, LeBron, and Dwight Howard: now it’s Kobe’s turn to take a crack at pulling the sword from the stone.
If he can have success against that Celtics defense and lead the Lakers to another ring, this is officially the Kobe era. There are arguments to be made, I’ve made a lot of them, and a lot of them are valid in their own way.
However, the crushing fact is that the Lakers are 10-1 in playoff series since they got Gasol. The Cavs are 3-2 in playoff series since they got Mo Williams and starting winning 60 games in the regular season. Right or wrong, that’s going to be an argument-ender for 95% of the populous. Prepare yourselves.
-Rajon Rondo is a terrifying, terrifying player who seems to only thrive when the other team makes mistakes. He’s good in the half-court, but where he really shines is when he can pray on the sloppiness of his opponents. You know those horror movies where the killer is scary, omniscient, and immortal, but the only people he kills are the ones that make little mistakes like getting separated from the group? That’s Rajon Rondo.
-With Paul Pierce looking like himself again against the Magic, it might be time to give LeBron some credit for making him a complete non-factor during the semis.
-The final ruling on the Barnes/Moon conundrum: The Cavs probably would’ve been screwed either way. Enjoy your Wednesdays, everyone.
Great post, John.
I was waiting for someone to write something like this ever since the first two games of the BOS-ORL series. All good observations that help me sleep just a little bit better at night (even the Kobe one, which isn’t due to relief so much as catharsis).
Hey, John. Love your blog.
A little help:
It’s prey on, not “pray” on, and it’s house afire, not “house on fire.”
To follow Ed, it’s also “populace,” not “populous.” I’m pretty sure I’ve seen you use these all correctly before though, and I know you’re a creative writing major, so this is all almost certainly fatigue and typos.
About the Kobe thing: I’ve been squarely in Lebron’s camp for 2-3 years now, but Kobe has just looked ridiculous this year, especially contrasted with Bron’s game 5. The stupid intangibles and “killer instinct” are actually looking like legitimate criticisms for once. Kobe gets mad at himself when he messes up, mad at his teammates when they do, and mad at the other team for anything. He might not be the most fun teammate, but he demands execution in a way Lebron just hasn’t with the Cavs.
Have you seen the FA machine? definitely not something that makes me happy. All the top FA as a slot machine to figure out where they will go…..
As the writer of the Heat blog HotHotHoops.com I must point out that the Celtics did not “swallow up” Wade but rather his teammates. His series averages of 33.2 ppg, 6.8 assists and 5.6 rebounds speak for themselves. The Celtics did a great job on James and Howard but I just had to point that out.
Oh please, Kobe has a great series against the defensive turds from Phoenix (which is not even romotely in the ballpark of the series Lebron had last year against Orlandos top defense btw) and suddenly he is the greatest.
If it hadn’t been for Gasol Kobe would have been out in the first round.
Kobe against OKC: 24-4-4 on 40% shooting, first round exit if not for Gasol => best player in the league, stuff of legends these playoffs
Lebron against BOS: 27-9-7 on 45% shooting against best defense in the league => complete breakdown, embarassing, no killer instinct, not in the same league as Kobe, this complete turd of a series will haunt the rest of his life
And don’t forget defenses can concentrate on Lebron because he plays with starters that are several years older than the geezers from Boston and not as good to begin with (except for Shaq half a decade ago)
Kobe has Gasol, Bynum, Odom, Artest and is not even the best player on his team.
When Kobe was out for 5 games this year the Lakers had a 10+point margin against mostly playoff teams without him and now he is a god because they barely beat Phoenix in 6 games.
yah i dont get the kobe/lebron stuff popping up all of a sudden like kobe had the series for the ages…phx played out of their minds to make that a series…bynum is completely useless and gasol saved the lakers azz numerous times going back to the first round…not taking anything from kobe of course he’s good…but c’mon i would love to see that dude play on a team with no other real star player and see how he does…see how much ‘killer instinct’ he has when his teammates cant get the job done…
i also dont think it matters about the celtics and/or magic and how that series played out compared to the Cavs…lets face it the Cavs gave up and the C’s wanted it more and thats the bottom line…no comparing to the Magic or the Celtics got better..the Celtics got better due to caring more and making proper adjustments…Cavs didnt do anything and when their leader decided to call it a day they all followed suit….
If the Cavs wanna build around Lebron…thats fine…but its clear that he cant be running the team in every possible way because that just doesnt work or help the team…
and another thing:
Everybody says these playoffs prove how much better Kobe is than Lebron, yet objectively Lebrons postseason (in which he played 6 of 11 games against a ridiculous Boston defense while hurt and having noone on his team to defer to) was statistically better than any postseason (or regular season) that Kobe has ever posted in his 14 year career. And that includes this years playoffs by a quite comfortable margin.
Hmm, swallowed up Wade, well he only averaged 33.2 pts a game, and 6.8 assists, let Lebron or Kobe try and play with the supporting cast Wade had. Name one player on the Heat Roster who could start for another team.
definitely agree on Wade, the guy won a game basically alone against a big 4 Boston team.
Another piece of data on Kobe’s brilliance these playoffs:
Kobes defensive rating in these historically great playoffs: 113
worst defensive rating ever committed by Lebron: 107 (in his first playoffs)
(this year was Lebrons 2nd worst at 103)
bonus info:
the leader in win shares this postseason is Pau Gasol
stop being butthurt trolls and haters. the cavs are home fishing and Lebron’s staging Larry King live interviews. Enjoy the Summer. Cheers.
the FACT is that in the time between having 7ft. all-star centers on his team kobe went out in the FIRST ROUND twice (something LBJ has NEVER done) and didn’t make the playoffs once. “kobe era,” my ass….