MVN - Most Valuable Network

That’s Why It’s a Best-of-Seven

Now you know why it was a bad idea to even think about taking out those brooms. Heck, it was a bad idea to even look ahead to the Celtics in round two.

As quickly and surprisingly as the Cavaliers notched their most lopsided postseason victory in franchise history in Game 2, Thursday night gave us a double-dip: Washington’s most lopsided postseason win combined with the Cavs’ most lopsided postseason loss. Ever.

We all know that this team has a bad habit of being schizophrenic. But this is ridiculous. I expected the Witnesses to come out hot and fired up for Game 3, but a 36-point shellacking three days after a 30-point win? LeBron looked like he had the game won by just showing up and doing his chalk clap right in the faces of the Washington faithful.

Yeah, he’s amazing. But it didn’t look like winning Game 3 was on his agenda on Thursday night. The body language showed it. The pregame and one-man theatrics seemed more important. In the closing seconds, it didn’t look like LB was concerned that he was on the business end of a nationally-televised pounding.

The shot was there, as 10-for-19 from the field clearly shows. But after a dazzling 12-assist performance in Game 2 that really showed why LeBron is a far different player than the Kobes and Iversons, James had a measly three assists.

LeBron, Daniel Gibson, and Delonte West were also the headliners in contributing to a ridiculous 23 turnovers, including 15 in the first half alone. Each guy turned the ball over four times, while Zydrunas “I like to lay it up from two inches instead of dunk with two hands even though I’m freaking seven-foot-three because I’m a freaking pansy and look like a giant light bulb” Ilgauskas and Devin Brown each had three.

Gilbert Arenas got his first start of the series for the Witnesses but left after 10 minutes of burn. The guy who wanted the Cavs in the first round got his first start since the middle of November and finished with just two points.

Antawn Jamison and Caron Butler, however, picked up the slack for D.C., but it was DeShawn Stevenson who led the Witnesses with 19 points. That was quite appropriate considering Soulja Boy was in the house after LeBron compared Stevenson to the one-hit-wonder while calling himself Jay-Z.

What was even more amusing than that were the Witnesses fans who booed LeBron every time he touched the ball and chanted “overrated” when LB stepped up to the charity stripe.

Way to heckle a guy who has made you his bitch for over two years now. It’s not like LeBron used to play for the Witnesses and left as a free agent or demanded a trade. It’s not like he was caught with firearms outside a D.C. nightclub. It’s not like he trashed the Witnesses organization and the city just to draw the ire of Witnesses fans.

No. LeBron was booed simply because Witnesses fans know that he owns their team. It’s guys like this who can afford goofing around for one game, taking the day off, and not taking a first-round playoff game seriously, because you know what’s coming next.

After that treatment from the D.C. fans combined with Game 3’s putrid performance, get ready for a monster Game 4 from LeBron. I’m talking 40+ points and a near triple-double. He’ll be absolutely unstoppable Sunday afternoon. Think along the lines of Kobe’s Game 2 demolition of Denver.

This isn’t 2006-07 LeBron, aka the LeBron who just doesn’t give a crap. This is a guy who called his 50 at MSG last month. This LeBron just won a scoring title.

And this LeBron really isn’t going to let a group of big-mouthed fugazis get away with calling him overrated, calling his team out, and then trying to threaten his career with cheap shots.

As long as he doesn’t think that he’ll win by just showing up to the court, you’re going to see something special from LB on Sunday afternoon at Verizon. And hey, wasn’t I the one who told you to expect the Witnesses to come out rolling in Game 3?

Tip for Sunday’s at 1 pm Eastern on ABC.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 24th, 2008 at 9:21 pm and is filed under Delonte West, Caron Butler, Antawn Jamison, DeShawn Stevenson, Devin Brown, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Daniel Gibson, Cleveland Cavaliers, Washington Wizards, Gilbert Arenas, LeBron James, Boston Celtics. 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.