MVN - Most Valuable Network

Two-For-Eighteen: Cavs Lose Game One In Boston, 76-72

LeBron James was atrocious. Absolutely atrocious.

To be fair, Cavs fans have no reason to complain about LeBron. He has done more for the organization than anybody else could do in a lifetime. But with the spotlight of these NBA playoffs now shifting squarely on this Cavaliers-Celtics second round bout, the last person you would expect to come up this small is King James.

The fact that he was just one board and assist away from a triple-double despite having one of the ugliest games of his career is a testament to how great of an all-around player he is. But this is what really matters: LB only had two field goals in the entire game and shot 11.1 percent from the field.

That’s right: 11.1 percent.

We’ve slammed Kevin Garnett on here for being an enormous playoff choker, but Game 1 certainly didn’t help support that case. KG was huge in putting up 28 points and eight rebounds on 13-for-22 shooting. But the most eye-popping revelation of the night would have to be the fact that Ray Allen and Paul Pierce combined for four points on a LeBron-like two-for-18 shooting, including a complete shutout on Allen.

But the biggest suckerpunch of the night came when LeBron missed a potential game-tying finger roll with less than 10 seconds left that could have tied the game at 74. And it was Zydrunas Ilgauskas who paced the Cavs with 22 points and 12 rebounds while Wally Szczerbiak chipped in 13 points against his former team.

You had to expect such an ugly, low-scoring game between these two clubs. Despite being a series dripping with superstars and two high profile teams, both the Celtics and Cavs hang their hat on tough defense, and we got plenty of that on Tuesday night. Boston held Cleveland to just 15 points in both the first and third quarters, while the Cavs shut down the C’s to the tune of just 12 points in the third. The struggles of Pierce and Allen as well as the fact that only three Cavs reached double figures may just be the start of what is sure to be a tough, long, hard-fought series.

One thing that may bother you if you’re a Cavs fan is the fact that the Cavs were beat, 43-41, on the boards. The Cavaliers have always been one of the league’s elite rebounding teams, but in this case, give credit to a good team defense from Boston instead of blaming Cleveland’s frontcourt. Boston had only eight offensive rebounds, but the Cavs’ poor 30.7 percent shooting from the field gave the C’s ample defensive rebounding opportunities. The Cavs ripped 13 offensive boards, including five from Ben Wallace, but it’s tough to have much of a chance at doing anything right when you’re making less than a third of your shots.

C’s fans are going to feel like world beaters after winning Game 1, but remember: the Cavs shot 30.7 percent from the floor, their superduperstar shot 11.1 percent, and they still managed to nearly steal the first game in Beantown. You have to look at the positives: the defense on Pierce and Allen, the solid presence established by Ilgauskas on the low block, and the tough offensive rebounding from Wallace.

So when those shots start going down for #23 - and you know they will - the results are going to start being different.

(And psssst…don’t tell Boston fans this, as they were too busy drowning themselves in the sorrows of not winning the Oden-Durant lottery at the time, but the Cavs were down 0-2 to Detroit last year before ripping off four straight wins.)

Game 2’s Thursday night on ESPN from the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 6th, 2008 at 8:21 pm and is filed under Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Cleveland Cavaliers, LeBron James, Kevin Garnett, 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.