Overview: In a hard fought-game the whole way, the Cavs barely took it to overtime and got outplayed in the period, losing by two to the Magic. The Cavs need three wins in a row to stay alive.
Bullets:
All bullets are in stream-of-consciousness order.
I mean, I don’t know what to say. I didn’t know what to say four hours ago and I don’t know what to say now. This was a winnable game. A very winnable game. And the Cavs lost it. The second very winnable game they’ve lost in this series. And now it’s 3-1. We’re a second away from being swept in this series. Times are bleak.
I guess we start with LeBron, right? That’s what we’re supposed to do? Because LeBron and Kobe are the only players that matter in this postseason? Because everything that happens in the conference finals is a function of them?
LeBron was amazing, great, the best player in the planet. But he was very, very far from perfect. Oh so very far.
Do you focus on what he gave you? The best post play of his career in a big game, 44/12/7 on 58% TS against the best defense in the league? A game-tying play with four seconds left to play? Almost every point in overtime? Two threes in the extra period, one of them of a ridiculous fashion to keep the team in the game? If you Believe, there’s plenty for you. But if you’re brainwashed, if you’re determined to find fault, if you need to buy into the idea that LeBron and Kobe is what’s being decided right now, if every play is revealing his character, there’s plenty for you guys, too.
Turnovers, too many turnovers, down the stretch. Going for the dagger jumper on the final full Cavs possession. instead of driving and trying to put the game today. Missing one of two free throws the possession before. If Hedo takes the clock down on the final posession and makes a shot with time expiring, this is an unforgiveable choke. But he didn’t. And it wasn’t. Same game, different story. If he’d made that final ridiculous 35-footer, and it had a chance, he’s got. But he didn’t. And he’s not. This is LeBron. This is Water. This is Water. This is Water. Greatness, unbelievable greatness, unprecedented greatness, but there are questions. There will always be questions. There is an argument to be made, with facts, against LeBron. Glen Beck has enough facts to fill an hour a day with his arguments. It’ll still be wrong. But the argument exists.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to talk about the game, which is my job.
The team got stagnant offensively in the 2nd half. For long stretches. I called it at halftime of the live-blog, and I hate being right. I rarely am, so it’s not something I deal with often. All the good things near the end of the first half-LeBron in the post, LeBron off the ball, Delonte making drives-are things that the team the team loses confidence in in the second half. And LeBron driving to the basket against a defense that knows he’s coming has worked in many a stretch run. But not against the best defensive team in the league. And when it wasn’t LeBron pounding, it was Mo dribbling in circles, or Wally or Andy forcing a shot, or Delonte forcing a shot. Miserable offense 1-5. Miserable, miserable, miserable.
Real simple diagnosis: Here’s a ranking of who the best players on the floor were tonight:
1. LeBron
2. Dwight
3. Rafer
4. Hedo
5. Rashard
6. Pietrus
7. Delonte
We need somebody in spots 2-6. That’s just a fact. It’s just what needs to happen.
Another thing: 6 threes from the Cavs. 4 by LeBron off the dribble. 2 by Boobie, one contested and one off the dribble. That’s zero sucessful drive-and-kicks. This is not how to crack that defense. Threes must be made.
The non-LeBron unit: -8 in 4 minutes. 2-point loss. Terrible.
Something my Dad told me a long time ago seems to ring true about the Magic team. My Dad had a friend who was in the military (disclaimer: SVG is right-basketball is not war. There are troops overseas risking their lives every day. This is a game. Important to rembember. But some principles ring true), and a guiding principle is that every soldier, no matter what the rank, should know the mission, and, at all times, should be qualified to make decisions when the chain of command breaks down. Every player on this Magic team is prepared to make the play, make the shot, at any time. Go under one screen, cut off one option, two options, and the man with the ball in his hands is ready to make the shot. The Cavs team is still looking for LeBron to provide guidance, to make the play. The Magic are functioning as a unit ready to take a good shot at any time, whenever it presents itself. That’s not risky basketball, live or die basketball. That’s how the game should be played. 5 players, all dangerous and waiting to make the play if it presents itself.
Rafer Alston is the best example of this; the Cavs were sagging hard on Rashard and Hedo, going under Rafer and not helping off them in any circumstance. Rafer was ready to make the shots, and he did. Absolutely monstrous. That’s the play the defense allows, and the play that got made. You live with it, except now you’re down 1-3 and really not living with it.
What do you do against this offense? Tonight, they decided to cut off Hedo and Rashard and gave up looks to Dwight and Rafer. All night long, they made the plays. 3rd and 4th options ready to be 1st and 2nd options when the situation calls.
A million little plays. LeBron misses a free throw down the stretch. Delonte slips running for a long rebound. Rashard hits a turnaround three. LeBron makes a turnover early in OT miscommunicating with Booibe. LeBron throws a fast-break pass to a Magic player. Boobie misses two open threes down the stretch. LeBron doesn’t get three free throws on an up-fake in OT, and Z gets a 2. Pietrus steps up and gets a three when the Cavs go under a double-screen in OT. Those are all more important than LeBron missing a 35-footer.
On the final plays of the fourth quarter: LeBron drove hard. He didn’t really have a shot. He went down. He got the call. It’s not my job to discuss the refs. He got 2 points in 4 seconds. It was a good play. I’m just glad he made the free-throws. And Dwight didn’t get a call with contact under the basket. Not an automatic call. The game isn’t decided by message boards, it’s decided by the scoreboard. And both plays worked on the scoreboard. That’s all I can tell you.
Delonte was agressive and did everything right except hit the threes off LeBron penetration that we needed to break this defense.
Give Dwight Howard a lot of credit. Most big men go their entire careers, even Hall of Fame careers, without a clutch takeover like he had. There was no answer for him down the stretch, and he made the big free throws. The Cavs can’t guard him. This team, offensively, so dangerous. They’re like Lyoto Machida. They strike where you don’t expect it, and there’s no way to cover it all. The Cavs can play great defense for 4 rotations and still give up a good shot to the 4th option.
Great job on the boards tonight from Cleveland.
That’s all I can give you tonight. I’m sorry. I wish there was more. There’s just not. What I will say: Take care of business at home. Then, game 6, make that a must-win for Orlando. Sorry to be unladylike, but sphincters will tighten on Orlando’s side. This series is far from over. But it’s much further from being over on Cleveland’s side. We’re a second away from having been swept. But we’re alive. They still have to beat us, for 48 minutes, one more time. We won’t make it easy. I hope.
You know what my friend’s girlfriend did to occupy her mind tonight during the game? She quilted. Equally silly, much less emotional pain. Go quilt. That’s as close I can come to giving comforting words.
If LeBron makes that final shot, we all have to agree that he’s not human. And it looked good for a long while.
The major probelm is that they doubled from the top of the key instead of the weak side, that gave Dwight an easy pass for an open three. Double from the weak side and Dwight “the best Christian who loves to cuss out/elbow opposing players” has to make a very tough pass behind his back. He’s not a passer, he won’t make the play.
On a side note, Ben needs to play Dwight straight up. Where’s the pride? He’s old, but he’s strong (call it old man strength or what you will), he needs to prove it.
Boobie sighting, but not play-making.
LeBron, hit Wally at the top of the key for the open threes. Rashard was cheating so hard it was that it made Jon and Kate (plus 8!) beg for tabloid coverage. Wally can hit open shots if you give him a chance. Mike Brown–tell Wally that if he drives he is no longer allowed to high-five teammates. That’ll keep his dribbling to a min.
Delonte needs to post anybody and everybody. Even on 6-10 Hedo Turkoglu he was making a difference (BTdub, have you ever played BBall against Turkish dudes? Gross. Think “Along Came Polly x 10 – deodorant).
Mo, hit some fucking shots. I realize you were goaded into that Guaran-sheed, but seriously, hit a fucking shot and run off the ball when you get a chance. No one is giving you sympathy for the Johnson play, so quit flopping and step the fuck up.
Everyone, go over the screens and have the bigs flash HARD on the pick and rolls. This will slow down Melty-Face McHedo from sodomizing your D. Get over yourselves.
Team– I love you, but you need to realize (like you should have tonight) that every possession is the last of your season. Put in the effort.
If the Cavs win, most people will say it was rigged to amp up the intensity on a Cavs-Lakers series, but honestly, it would be fan-fucking-tastic. Get to work, fellas. I love all of you.
Here’s what I don’t get – why the hell is JJ Hickson not playing?? In limited minutes he was very good during the season. Having him at the PF spot would force Rashard to battle against a big that can legitimately score in the post on his own. And as far as JJ’s defense on Rashard, well, it can’t be worse than what Andy and Wallace have been doing! More importantly however, it will force Rashard to defend and expend energy doing so instead of guarding no-offense guys like Varejao and Ben Wallace and allow us to get some much-needed points from the PF spot.
What say Cavs Nation???
Quick note… I believe JJ is still injured, so we’re left without that weapon unfortunately.
The thing that dissapoints me so much about this series is that one of our greatest strengths throughout the season, our end of game execution, has been killing us. All season this team would make the right plays, control the ball, and pull out close games… crisp passes from Lebron, dagger threes by Mo or Delonte, shut down defense.
But each of these games this series has been winnable, maybe no more so than last night. In the last 4 minutes the Magic had 2 turnovers and were 1-6, the only points scored being Dwight going 1-2 at the line and Lewis’s three with 4 seconds left. Problem was Lebron had 3 turnovers in that stretch and a couple long jumpers and broken plays that should have counted as turnovers.
It’s not over!
It’s not over!
It’s not over!
Miracles do happen. It’s not over.
Please make your in-rhythm, open jump shots.
Thank you.
Will someone, anyone, somewhere please explain to me how Lebron does not take advantage of Pietrus in the post EVERYTIME?! I mean, I’ve been saying this all series long but last night it has never been more evident. Even my girlfriend could see it and she just started watching basketball!! Everytime Lebron (or even Delonte on Lee or Alston) posted up good things happened. He either scored, got fouled or both. The Magic had double team, as well, which sent their defense scrambling like ours has been having to do all series. That’s how we made our final push in the 4th!! Two Lebron post-ups that resulted in fouls, a Delonte post-up on Alston that resulted in a turn around 10 footer and another Lebron post-up that resulted in a lay-up. This Lebron 1-on-5 crap for whole quarters and halves has to stop if we’re going to win anything!
My thoughts from the game…
- LeBron needs to not take 3 pointers. Ever. He’s 6-9, 260 lbs. He should constantly be driving or posting up in the low block. If someone is strong enough to guard him down there, then LeBron is quicker than them. If they’re quick enough to guard him, LeBron is too strong for them. Why he continues to shoot long range shots is beyond me.
- Suit up Darnell Jackson. I know it sounds ridiculous, but why do we have Tarence Kinsey suited up when EVERYONE knows that he isn’t going to play. Instead, have Jackson suited up to be an enforcer down low, cause God knows Z and our other big men aren’t going to do it. He’s a young rookie who doesn’t care if you’re Dwight Howard – he’ll scrap and knock you on your butt.
- Choose what we’re going to defend. Either let Howard get his and defend the 3 or stop Howard and let them shoot. You can’t do both. When you try it, you get pulled in both directions and end up letting them get open looks and Howard getting his, too. I think we have to run the shooters off the line and force them to put it on the ground. If they shoot over 20 3′s, then that is a loss for us. They CANNOT get that many open looks. Force them to put the ball on the floor and make plays. They thrive off of making the long ball, so take it away from them! That’s what we did in the beginning of Game 1 and 2 – we did hard close outs and forced the shooter’s to put the ball on the floor. What happened when we used that strategy? We got a 17 and 23 point lead in both games.
Call me crazy, but I still think we’re gonna win the series. This is close to being a 3-1 series in the favor of the Cavs, but we continue to beat ourselves. Turnovers, missed open looks…those are killing us.
Keep the faith everybody!
I don’t know about anyone else, but this series has made me doubt Mike Brown as a head coach. 4 straight games of 2nd-half offensive collapse. He needs to bring the backcourt & Lebron together & make a serious plea to avoid the 1-on-5.
Even if the Cavs fall in Game 5, I want to see the best effort, which means NOT intentionally repeating the 2007 finals. Lebron’s turn-overs were painful, and all credit to the Orlando defense for working it hard, but these guys need to stop dribbling so much. Ball travels to the hoop faster on a pass than a dribble —-
I have only been reading this blog and it’s comments during this particular series, and I am very pleased with what i’m reading and I am very suprised. Most Cavs fans I’ve spoken to about this series before it started were completely convinced the Cavs were untouchable, and called me crazy for taking the Magic in 6 or less. Now I know it’s not over and as a Magic fan believe me it’s far from over, the magic have an annoying habit of losing when they’re supposed to win so until the magic actually attain that 4 win I wont believe this series is done. But there is one little thing I want to say and you can call me an @$$ or whatever, but there was this one little annoying Cavs fan known only as “Jose”… and he was talking a lot of trash… I was just wondering where he and all his annoying little comments are now…
One thing that is becoming obvious is how much of a better “coach” SVG is than Brown.
SVG is making Brown adjust virtually 100% of the time.
Coaching does make a difference, especially in close games.
LeBron almost had a quadruple double!
8 turnovers. You seemed to have forgotten that.
SEVEN in the final period + OT. That’s GAMETIME.
Oh yea..about why Lebron won’t post up? He can’t. WEAK post game.
Why not play player X? Why not sub player X?
BAD COACHING.
What should’ve been the headline earlier in the playoffs.
“LeBron named NBA Coach of the Year. Mike Brown to accept award on his behalf. “
Loved the Machida reference. I gotta say, I underestimated the Magic from day 1. I thought that they were the 4th best team in the league, and could never win a series against the big 3 (LAL, CLE, and BOS). When my Celtics lost Garnett and Powe, and it still took the Magic 7 games to beat them, I only used that as further proof that the Cavs would squash them.
Boy was I wrong. Either that, or I underestimated how good the hobbled Celtics were, especially Perkins. Because Dwight and the Magic look terrific. As for the Cavs, their intensity, their defense, and Lebron have masked a lot of flaws. It’s commendable that with those flaws they were as dominant as they were in the regular season.
Regardless of the outcome, I think of the 4 remaining, no team is head and shoulders above the rest.
i’m sorry but everyone who voted for mike brown are hiding under a rock sucking their thumbs. svg has out-coached mike in every facet of the game. mike doesn’t even draw up his own plays. who the f allowed wallace to guard lewis? mike continues to fail at making adjustments including his decision to not change the starting lineup. sure the players have to man-up, however it’s the coach who ultimately places those players in the right situations to succeed.
Haha, love you Cavs fans.
Clinging to your last shred of hope.
We all knew coming into this series that the Magic matched up really well against the Cavs.
And we all knew that the Cavs struggled all year against the Big 3(LA, Bos, Orl) while the Magic were dominant.
But, instead of Mike Brown buckling down and getting his guys to prepare for the big challenge ahead, he allowed his arrogant team to crown themselves prematurely.
While they were busy coreographing their next pregame routine, SVG and the Magic were mentally preparing. That’s why the Magic caught them off guard in the second half of game 1.
But did the Cavs learn their lesson. No Way. Mo Williams continued the arrogance with a “Magic can’t beat us 4 times” claim.
Then when the Magic beat them again to go up 2-1, did Mo Williams learn his lesson? NO. He says “we’re the best team in the league” and guarantees a win. Gimme a break Mo. You couldn’t jinx your team any worse.
Now they’re down 3-1. Can’t wait to hear Mo Williams claim they are “a dynasty.”
For the record, I love Lebron and I like the Cavs. I’ve always admired LBJ’s desire to get teammates involved and I think he’s the best player in basketball right now(D Wade is second, but even less of a team around him) Kobe’s an arrogant prick.
BUT, until you dumb fuck Clevelanders realize that champions let their play do the talking, you will continue to be “the mistake by the lake.”
Go Magic!! Mo Williams is a crybaby.
The Cavs have run into a buzzsaw. Orlando has had their number all season (remember the biggest L of the year). Orlando plays tough defense on the perimeter and can rebound that really has gummed up the Cavs offense based on the outside shot and putbacks. Lebron has been a very good player on his own. The things he has done for Cleveland that will not be forgotten. It pains me though that he gets this Michael Jordan envy going. The King is a better athlete than Jordan was, but is light years away from Michael’s mental part of the game. Jordan would not have let a game or series get to this. Even when the Bad Boys had the Jordan rules you never felt like Chicago was out of it until the 7th game was over. He still has not learned when to take the game over and when or how to get the teammates involved. Give up talking about Michael and be Lebron James. The Chosen One is still in high school being unmotivating before the big games, messing around during warmups, and fading when the opponent gives him their best game. Does New York really want this guy who has as much personality as a ringless Patrick Ewing?
I saw the game tonight in the Denver/LA series. The Nuggets were getting away with hacks at Kobe and oh so much physicality. Funny stuff. I was thinking for all the conspiracy theorists that Kobe was going to get these strange calls lebron has been getting. But no. He wasn’t. he was getting hit, stripped, bumped, things that have not be allowed for Lebron. So really what I think is this: there is no Kobe Lebron conspiracy. Lebron is literally so fast and so strong physically that calling any play on him is impossible without slow mo, and so why not give him the benefit? he is the best in the world, the guys guarding him are not as fast, its within a milisecond of was he leading or were they late, besides they were probably late whether he was leading or not, so the calls go against the magic. I mean there would be what seemed to me even in slow mo no contact but the thing is, at regular speed, i Couldn’t even tell. Kobe, for all his skills, doesn’t move like lebron. no one does. so really, I think in this series, I’ve never been as upset at the bias of the officiating, and yet I’ve also never really understood how insane it must be to call. Aside from a few horrible calls, most of them have just been: Am i really supposed to believe you stopped him from getting to the rim when he is faster and stronger than you and has a step on you already? and the refs answer has always, almost, been No. So its a foul. Cleveland can still win. And despite what anyone says, they are in these games when they are executing, and their guards are missing wide open looks. When they can put any streak of shots together that doesn’t involve james every 2 out of 3 shots, they are crushing the magic. its silly: im serious: go back and look, if there was a possession where cleveland scored 3 straight times and lebron didn’t make more than 1 of those scores, I bet anything the magic were starting to lose that momentum and trail. and if there were times where the cavs scored three and lebron had 2/3 or 3/3, I bet the magic were not so bad off. its the simple fact that as great as lebron is, even when his jumper was falling, it was at the expense of the offensive beauty of how the cavs played in the first halves of both game 1 and game 2. that cut pass to AV that lebron made last game, I think if he wanted he could wait for things like that a lot more. even after the defense adjusted it prolly turns into a 45% play from a 95% play, but think about this: is 45% really worse than the average chance of a midrange/long range LBJ jumper? anyway, hes the best in the game, with dwight as a physical superhuman a very close second, and these are some of the thoughts ive been having.
DONT WORRY LEBRON WILL LOSE HIS THRONE THIS YEAR.HE IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE SO I FORESEE LAKERS WITH MAGIC MAKING IT TO END, LEBRON PUT DOWN YOUR CROWN BECAUSE HE DOES NOT HAVE IT WHAT IT TAKES TO MAKE IT HAPPEN.
Pay attention! He’s using CAPITAL LETTERS! The lack of punctuation is risky and bolk. I like it.
Atrivino, make sure you post this Shakespearean prose on as many messages boards as you can. Dwight Howard needs you!
Yes, I meant to write bolk, not bold.
T-Bags,
Sorry for being a fan of my team, and supporting them throughout the season. Sorry I haven’t given up any hope regardless of being down 3-1. Sorry for providing any analysis on what we need to do to win, despite being outplayed for the past 4 games. I mean, we lost already right, being down 3-1? I have some T-Mac rookie cards for you.
The last time I remember being in a situation like this… 2007. Down 2-0, media giving us no hope against a strong team that beat us during the regular season. We pulled it out with resolve. Against a team we “couldn’t match up against.” With a joke of a supporting cast. 4 straight victories.
Orlando is breaking records to beat us. They are playing fluid basketball and are making their shots. Any curveball we try to throw at them are pinpointed and taken care of. They are playing out of their minds against us.
On the other side – the Cavs are not resembling anything close to what happened during the regular season. Missing open looks… missing defensive rotations, mentally stagnant. Minimal ball movement, no cohesiveness. This can change. This needs to change.
Despite the fact that Z can post up and score over Rashard, Delonte can post up and Mo can score over Lee/Alston, LeBron can barrel over anyone…. we’re not playing the team ball that brought us to 66 wins. We’re executing our game plan but not the final touch. Our halftime leads of 10 should be closer to 20. We’re just not making shots. Open shots.
Things will change… starting tonight. Go Cavs.