MVN - Most Valuable Network

“F” For Effort

I was at last night’s massacre at the Rose Garden. If you don’t know what happened, you would probably think that I’m talking about the first-place Cavaliers marching into Portland and steamrolling the bottom-feeding Trail Blazers as I watched on in great delight.

What actually ended up transpiring was a straight up nightmare.

There were a ton of LeBron and Cavs fans in Portland last evening. There were even a lot of cheers as the Cavaliers took the floor for shootaround, and the team (especially Damon Jones, for whatever reason) acted as though they were a pack of celebrities who were just making another stop on their tour in some small town. LeBron even “ooohed” and “aaahed” the crowd by doing some crazy stuff in the pregame warmups. But as it turned out, he and the Cavs seemed to treat the warmups and their interesting theatrics during the lineup introductions far more seriously than the actual game.

The Trail Blazers played hard. For a team that has been hurting at the box office all season long, they knew that the town would come out to watch The King and his first-place Cavs. The Cavaliers, on the other hand, thought that they had the game won shortly after tip-off and that the Blazers had no right to even be on the same floor as them.

And the trick shots that were falling during the shootaround bricked off the front of the rim once the first whistle blew. It was a pathetic display against a horrible Trail Blazers team that relies heavily on two rookies - Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge - and starts one guy who is a 29-year old getting his first shot in the NBA (Ime Udoka). The Cavs spent over half the first quarter without a single field goal as their only points came off two Zydrunas Ilgauskas free throws. Before Anderson Varejao came off the bench to do something about it, Cleveland - one of the five best rebounding clubs in the L - got crushed on the boards. Drew Gooden might as well not have even showed up. And Larry Hughes refused to take his glass body to the rim hard enough, getting blocked embarrassingly several times as the home crowd cheered in delight, completely shifting the momentum Portland’s way. Before either team knew what was going on, the Blazers had tattooed the Cavs to the tune of 94-76.

The Cavs, a veteran bunch that has playoff-tested talent, made Roy look like a seasoned All-Star instead of a guy trying to win Rookie of the Year. Portland’s young star looked like everything Larry Hughes is supposed to be, finishing with 19 points, 10 boards, and an astounding six steals. Blazers All-Star candidate Zach Randolph recovered from a slow start and finished with another double-double, this time for 26 points and 12 rebounds.

Sure, the Cavs were tired. It was the second night of a back-to-back and their fifth road game on this West Coast trip. But this was probably the Blazers’ most dominating home win in several years. The Blazers - the Blazers - actually looked like the first-place team here while the Cavs looked like some young team that hadn’t been to the playoffs, trying to find their niche.

And the time has come to point the finger at LeBron.

I know it may be sacreligious in Cleveland, but the guy simply does not get it. When you are 6′8″ and 255 pounds with his quickness, there is absolutely no reason that half your shots should be from over 20 feet out. Most fans believed him when he was blaming the new synthetic basketball at first, but the “old” ball has been back now for a little over two weeks. He is simply in too much love with his jumper. Bron’s bread-and-butter was attacking the rack with his bulky frame and either finishing strong or getting to the line. Nowadays, he either likes to force the Cavs to sink or swim (usually the former) with his jumper or brick free throws when he does get to the line. It’s no coincidence that his numbers are down across the board from the last two seasons. The guy has gone from being on Kobe Bryant’s level of megastardom to just being your run-of-the-mill star player, no different from a Tracy McGrady or Paul Pierce.

And despite getting to the line an astounding 45 times, the Cavs made just 28 for a 62.2 percent clip. The worst free-throw shooting team in the NBA continued to shoot themselves in the foot by failing to make their free throws and boxing out on the boards, as Portland won the rebounding battle as well, 44-38.

“We ought to feel embarrassed with our performance,” Cavs head coach Mike Brown told reporters after the beatdown. “There was no effort whatsoever on our part. They kicked our [butt].”

Way to understate it, coach. I entered the Rose Garden proud to don the Cavalier colors and proud that people were turning out to watch Ohio’s finest. I left embarrassed that Cavs fans who were at the building seemed to care about the outcome of this contest far more than the Cavs players themselves.

This was also a team that had blown another gimme game the night before in Seattle, 101-96. Again, they had failed to box out on rebounds (especially in the fourth quarter, when the Sonics kept grabbing offensive boards) and saw their supposed second option, Larry Hughes, put up another dud. Hughes, who shot three-for-12 in the loss at Portland, scored seven points in 40 freaking minutes at Seattle. Yeah, that’s the same Hughes who signed a five-year, $65 million contract in 2005. The same Hughes who was met with much fanfare after he signed and was pinned as the Scottie Pippen to LBJ’s Michael Jordan. The same Larry Hughes who misses half the season and maddeningly underachieves even when he does play.

Memo to GM Danny Ferry: Corey Maggette is still on the trading block in Los Angeles. Inquire. Now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 18th, 2007 at 2:51 pm and is filed under Cavaliers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.