Cavs Jump the Shark….Season Close To Over
As if every weakness was suddenly exposed and magnified, the Cavs season is now 2 games from being over.
Worse than an 89-73 thrashing…worse than LeBron’s sudden shooting woes, is a total bewilderment at how to attack Boston’s defense. The Cavs are a rudderless ship. A gun without bullets. A team without an offense.
Prime suspects are Mike Brown, Danny Ferry and Dan Gilbert…the group who assembled the ship, and the man who has been unable to create a viable offense. Perhaps the attention to defense has robbed this group of their ability to shoot. More likely, the team is just not very good.
No anger from me. Just reality. The Celtics used their badness to buy 5 good players, and turn their team around. Cleveland got two of Boston’s castaways from a 25 win season. Is it any wonder which team is up 2-0?
Cleveland needs to reload its roster. Wally, Ben, Damon, Allred, and Dwayne need to be gone. We need to free up cap room to get a respectable team around LeBron. It’s gonna be a tall order indeed.
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Comment by: Steve in DE
Posted on May 9th, 2008 at 7:10 amWell. lets just say the Celtics studied the film from last years Finals. They are doing the same thing that the Spurs did. They have the physical and quick players to guard LeBron and get in his face. One year later and the Cavs still have no third option that teams must guard or fear that will beat them. Wally, Sasha, and Boobie are not consistent enough to warrant breaking the double teams against LeBron.
Maybe the Cavs will win two games at home, since the Celtics have not won a road playof game, but it is looking bleak. Danny Ferry must address the teams lack of a second big scorer in the off season. no disrespect to Z, the only one last night that hit with authority. The loss of Ben Wallace’s defense was immense. When he left the inside presence was gone, the lead disappeared and the Celtics controlled the paint. Does anyone know what is wrong and if he will play Saturday?
LeBron has to put his head down and drive to get the Celtics in foul trouble. The Cavs also need to quit standing around and watching LeBron dribble at the key. Post him up and take advantage of the mismatches. I now believe that this series will go six games and not in the Cavs favor. Lets hope I am wrong.
Comment by: admin
Posted on May 9th, 2008 at 8:06 amI believe it will be 5 and out. We are not competitive offensively. Wallace said it was allergies. We’re allergic to their defense. Moo.
Comment by: Zen
Posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:27 pmMoohead, I don’t understand your pessimism here. The Celtics blew out ths Hawks at home too, yet couldn’t win a single game on the road against them. And that was against a sub-.500 team!
Let’s see Boston win a playoff game on the road, against a raucous crowd and that annoying PA announcer of yours, before eulogizing the defending Eastern Conference Champions. Let’s also give LeBron James a chance to come out of his funk and turn this series around.
Have you already forgotten what happened last year? The Cavaliers trailed the Pistons 2-0 in the ECF, largely due to a pair of mediocre games by LeBron. But upon returning to Cleveland, he erupted for 48 points in Game 3 and helped the Cavs demolish the Pistons in four consecutive games! How do we know that history won’t repeat itself? Must I remind you that the Boston Celtics are coached by the Maven of Ineptitude, Doc Rivers? Must I remind you that Paul Pierce and Ray Allen have a tendency to disappear in close games and that Kevin Garnett rarely delivers in the 4th quarter?
Despite the two losses in Boston, I saw at least one good things in the Cavaliers - the play of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. He’s been a scoring machine in this series, and probably the only reason why the Cavs didn’t get blown out by 40+. He’s draining mid-range jumpers with the silky smooth precision of Michael Redd. He’s rebounding the ball extremely well, and doing a nice job of boxing out Boston’s smaller bigs (like Perkins and Powe.) He’s blocking shots, playing aggressive basketball, and even stripping faster players like Rajon Rondo. I don’t know how anyone can watch this series and be upset with Ilgauskas.
If LeBron James can play like LeBron James at home, if Ilguaskas continues to play like an All-Star, and if one of Gibson/Szczerbiak/West start hitting outside shots at a consistently high clip, then watch out Boston, this series is far from over.
To me, the pivotal game in this series will be Game 3. If the Celtics win it, then Boston will roll over Cleveland in 4 or 5 games. But if the Cavs come up big in Game 3, then the whispers will grow louder about Boston’s inability to win on the road, and the Celtics will crumble under the pressure. The Celtics know how to blow people out, they don’t know how to execute down the stretch of a close game.
Comment by: Zen
Posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:33 pmOne other thing to keep in mind - Boston was supposed to win the games on its home floor, and the home team is 10-0 in the second round thus far. How can you be down on the Cavaliers when the series is progressing exactly as forecasted?
Had the Cavaliers stolen one of these games, everyone would be jumping on the Cleveland bandwagon. One of these remaining 8 playoff teams need to lose a game at home first before we declare any of them dead. It’s tough to win on the road when you’re going up against the crowd and the referees.
Comment by: RobfromLittleRock
Posted on May 9th, 2008 at 12:44 pmI say this… If we can hold down home court these next two games, it’s anybody’s series! Seriously