The Inexplicable Collapse

So I’m done with this team for Game 5 – if it goes to six, I’ll tune back in.

As you know, I’m a huge baby, and have no tolerance for a team that doesn’t play to its potential. My (I assume) final word for the season on the Cavaliers:

1) LeBron posting up inside has a 100% success rate. That’s not an exaggeration.

2) When they’re driving and moving on offense, there’s little problem scoring, and it has a nice residual affect of throwing ORL off their offensive rhythm by making them concentrate on other things. (Not that they’re not a good defensive team, but you’re really helping them when you just stand around the perimeter holding the ball.)

3) For some reason, at really inopportune times and for no apparent reason, 1 and 2 just stop happening for awhile. Stan Van Gundy, when asked what ORL was doing differently on national TV, said “nothing”.

4) This is an ongoing thing, but why is the last minute of every quarter some kind of “LeBron goes one-on-one while everyone stands around” zone? If you’ve been scoring running “A” for eleven minutes, what is it about minute number twelve that makes you run “B”?

5) More than anything, they lost lasterday because they kept making stupid mistakes. Just dumb little things like not hustling for a loose ball (Z in the 4th), or Boobie making that idiotic foul on that old fisherman guy, or especially how they screwed up using the clock in the last minute of regulation. There’s no excuse for not calling a time-out there and making sure everyone has their heads on straight.

This is the antitheses of how they played all season – this was a team that has had a total of one turnover in a game before, and while they played hard this series, I don’t think I saw that rabid defense even once – the one where they’re all up in your face before you can even get the shot off.

This looks like one of those infamous 5-game sweeps, and I have no idea how it happened – how does a 66-win team get swept by this Orlando group? I mean, they’re really good and everything, but they start Rafer Alston and a rookie in the backcourt. Dwight is great and will fix all the problems in his game eventually, but right now, you can drop a double on him the instant he gets the ball, and you’ve got a good shot at a turnover.

I think this one deserves a name.

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Go put this in like other places:

Toasterhands

Magic - Cavs series is almost like the 5 game sweep of Pistons over LA in 2004 ,except that these games have been much closer.
Yahtzee

Sorry for the double post, but I think Carmelo actually played PF... but LeBron's role on that team was that of a finisher, which is what I was getting at.
Yahtzee

I, for one, have bought into the media hype and am actually hoping for a Kobe vs LeBron finals.

My justification is this:

LeBron is an athletic freak who completely runs the show in CLE, we all know that. However, LeBron, though even dominant now, is not being properly used. LeBron relies on athleticism to create shots for himself and his teammates, but also has a tremendous handle, vision, and streaky jump shooting.

LeBron should not be a distributor, at the core of his game and skill set, he should be a finisher. He needs a Nash, a Billups, a Paul, a Kidd.

Kobe, on the other hand, helps his team the most as a distributor first, as you can see with his cerebral dissection of Denver tonight. The mere threat of Kobe opens things up, and he conserves energy to close by deferring and doing more coaching than the Zen Master himself.

Essentially, I want Kobe and the Lakers to expose the mishandling of LeBron's talent, a problem I blame Mike Brown for. While LeBron can distribute effectively, he was made to finish plays. LeBron needs an effective PG to get him the ball in easy places to score... LeBron could play like Malone if he had a Stockton.. and could be even more effective.

Just look at the Redeem Team... LeBron was pretty much the third option on offense, playing PF. And it worked to deadly perfection.

I also agree with Brian's sentiment concerning LeBron's 100% success rate when posting. The dude should be in the paint, like, all the time.

In conclusion, screw Mike Brown and his "give LeBron the ball at the top of the key" offense. LeBron is too great of a specimen to be forced to play a role he is not ideally suited to play. Perhaps, however, LeBron believes he is a guard in a forward's body...
alexiskn

you know that even i, a Magic fan, thought this series was going to be a Cavs sweep. i am shocked at the way this has turned out, so far.
... and I'm not gonna go any further into it because I'm afraid of boys who think girls don't know anything about sports.

however from a marketing-person standpoint, as much as i love the puppet commercials, i would love even more to see stupiDenver & Magic finals because i think seriously preemptive marketing is utterly ridiculous. (that goes for both Nike and Vitamin Water)
Brian

Wouldn't a Magic-Nuggets Finals inspire countless articles and criticism of those same preemptive marketing attempts, thus garnering even more attention than the promos did on their own?

Cavs were up 3-1 on the Pistons in 2006 under similar underdoggy situations such as this, and then lost the series. It's all I got.
Boney

up 3-2 chuckles

and in Game 7 Cleveland only scored 68 points in Detroit which was the last time Detroit PWND Cleveland.

in the media, LeBron is never the underdog. It's absolutely ridiculous to see all the LeBron and Kobe commercials during this round of the playoffs, and then ESPN running a show called "The Dream Season" where they show highlights of LeBron and Kobe from the end of the medal run until now...

it's a bullshit media circus, and it's backfiring (thankfully) on the NBA and ESPN.
alexiskn

kinda like the Mavs being up 3-0 over the Heat in '06 finals and then losing.... ugghhh *facepalm*
goathair

Do you think it has anything to do with most of the team wearing the same LeBrons?
Kingsley Le Corbusier

Doesn't the blame for this fall to Coach Mike? If he doesn't want LBJ taking those shots, he should tell him so and get them playing another way. He's being out-coached, and Van Gundy does little more than keep his guys focused. (Which I don't mean to undersell - Phil Jackson is also great at this.) He's certainly not running new schemes every quarter to counteract what the Cavs are doing, because they aren't changing things up either.

I say blame Mike.
Brian

I refuse to believe he wants LeBron taking those shots, but I guess he shares some blame. The isolation is probably a play, but the way LeBron does it is dum-dum.

Thing is, LBJ flat out says he doesn't like playing from the post, so I'd guess he's resistant to any and all pleas/requests to do it.
Greg Odens tonsils

The Cavs ought to take a lesson from my Pistons about not quitting and digging deep to find the resolve/fortitude that every Champion who owns a 'ship has within themselves.
Boney

as a Piston fan, all I can say is...

LOL
Greg Odens tonsils

They need someone like Rasheed Wallace, who's infectious workman-like spirit will motivate Lebron to stop standing around/dribbling and get into the paint and mix it up!
Boney

they've already got the ghost of Ben Wallace who Brian thinks will bring in a big name guy next season.
Kingsley Le Corbusier

Wow - that is one long platitude,
orange5o

after rashard repeatedly beats varejao, how is ben wallace the replacement? just put a wing on him and be done with it already. yes i blame mike
Boney

I blame spitcup
nrojb

can someone tell me what was going on with the cavs' assistant coach leading every huddle from about 4 minutes left in reg through the end of OT? towards the very end Mike Brown wasnt even within earshot of what the assistant was saying. it looked as if brown was just trying to stay in frame so that the good people watching on tv would remember that it was he, not the guy actually doing the coaching, who won the coach of the year.

Has this been happening all year??? How did this man win coach of the year if he can't be trusted to instruct the last 5th of the game?
BothTeamsPlayedHard

If it helps — and I have no idea why it would — even us non-fans are disappointed in your team. I guess presuming Mo Williams would shoot better than 32% was a little lofty.
orange5o

how on earth does that help?? ugh
Brian

We'll probably win Game 5 so we have to watch the Magic win it on their home court. What's more torturous - that or losing Game 7? Per Cleveland law, that's what'll happen.
orange5o

oh i don't know. going to game seven might breed optimism for next year.

i was finally in the acceptance mode and saw mike bianchi's new column. i am entirely sick of his obnoxious columns and will root for ANYONE out of the west solely because of him.
Brian

I don't know what a Mike Bianchi is.
orange5o

orlando sentinel:

"One more win. This is the only way the NBA will know that maybe it is marketing the wrong superstar. This the only way Nike will know it should have locked up Dwight years ago, put him in that puppet commercial and instructed the world to witness his greatness. Are you kidding me? After Tuesday night's nail-biting, heart-palpitating 116-114 Magic overtime victory shoved the Cavs to within the brink of playoff elimination, Phil Knight is this close to realizing that not signing Dwight will go down as Nike's biggest mistake since being tied to child-labor sweatshops in Pakistan."
orange5o

and i mean optimism to stand pat. not good things. not good things.
joe

i still think cavs will win it. but, I still think lebron would rather just be an outside shooter. hes young, rich, and happy. why beat yourself up going inside and get fingers poked in your eye and have dikembe mutombu shatter your face, when you can shoot 3's and go to the playoffs every year?
Wish

I find this entire series hilarious in the same way as I'd find two midgets fighting hilarious. Neither of these teams has the pedigree to be a great team as one team is just a bunch of misfits thrown together and the Cavs are relying on one person to carry them to the title. Neither is your prototypical NBA championship caliber team.

Right now the Cavs remind me of the Memphis Tigers so much....they run through an easy schedule but when they start to face some resistance they falter. Some would say it's perplexing but you could see it coming. Weak people fall back into bad habits when adversity hits them. LeBron can only do so much and it doesn't help when he's jacking up jumpers instead of driving and dunking, which he could do just about every time down the floor.

That being said, if the Cavs find their Craig Hodges/Cliff Levingston/Steve Kerr (someone off the bench stepping up) moment they can easily win this series. The power of having the best player on the planet is great.

I don't know what the contract breakdown is for this Cavs roster but if they don't make the Finals this season they could be in big trouble as they'll have to figure out a way to get there next year and they can't with the players they have. It's nice to have the best player on the floor but when the opponent has the 2nd, 3rd and 4th best player it's not so good.

Good luck in Game 5, I'm shutting this off until Game 6 as I'm guessing that the NBA will get involved and stretch this thing out.
Brian

Ben Wallace is an expiring this year, so they can get something good for him in the form of a low post presence I hope. I think they're in pretty good shape - their longest term deal is Mo through 2011, I believe.

See I primarily blame LeBron, or whoever is putting the ball in his hands so much, because he does jack jumpers, and often brings everything to a halt. When he starts from the block, or gets the ball and acts right away, good things happen. The "50-jab steps over 15 seconds and jack a jumper" move he's patented just doesn't seem to work for me.

And yeah, the Cavs aren't a prototypical championship team, but they were certainly good enough to win it in NBA 2009.
Boney

no one is going to WANT Ben...

should've dumped Wally at the deadline if he's not going to play

The Inexplicable Collapse

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