MVN - Most Valuable Network

Athlete LeBron But Kid Cavs

:(. That was a really, really, really tough game to lose. Especially considering how well LeBron played in the first half and how well the team did in the first half. I was thinking at halftime: “All we need to do is step up offensively and we’ll win.” LeBron was doing great, and who would have thought he only scores 12 points in the second half after a 23 point first half? And no one else beside Delonte West steps up? If we would have won that, you take away the home court advantage that the Celtics had and made them win one game on your home floor, where you have only lost 1 game this post-season and where the Celtics have won zero on the road.

We played so well to start the game…so well. We were up by 10 points at times and we were doing fine on both ends of the floor. But the turning point in the game is when the Celtics went on a run, with around 4 minutes left, to cut the halftime lead down to 2 or so. Without that run, the Celtics probably don’t win that game. That gave them the momentum and the confidence they needed for the second half.

That big spurt was because of Rajon Rondo. When he starts hitting perimeter shots, you’re in trouble. The Cavs could afford to sag off with him being a bad outside shooter because he disrupts the defense once he gets in the middle. But once he started hitting shots, the Cavs had to close out on him hard and that opened up the middle and is what killed the Cavs defensively.

Does Kevin Garnett ever miss a jump shot? I mean seriously… Does he? I don’t think I’ve seen him miss one freakin’ jumper this whole entire playoff series. The guy is just unbelievable.

While our defense was solid, we let 3 Celtics get into the 20’s. When you have two great defensive teams playing in a series, there is not a whole lot of points to be scored. But when you have 3 guys get into the 20’s, scoring wise, that almost guarantees that team a win. Paul Pierce had 29, Kevin Garnett had 26 and Rajon Rondo had 20. In the two games that the Cavs have won, no player on the Celtics has reached the 20 point mark. But when the Cavs have lost, the Celtic players have reached the 20 point mark 4 times.

I’m hoping this game doesn’t get Paul Pierce going. He shot the ball well last night and really played well. I think part of the reason he did so well was because LeBron was trying to save himself for offense, knowing the Cavs would need him.

Little things win games and that’s why we lost. We didn’t hustle for the loose balls like the Celtics did. We didn’t tighten up defensively when we needed to. We didn’t make smart decisions when we need to. And we didn’t take smart shots when we needed to. The Celtics just wanted it more and it was obvious.

Speaking of little things… what the heck is the matter at the free throw line? If we hit around 72% of our free throws, we win that game. That’s only 2 or 3 more. That’s how much of an impact free throws have on a game and is part of the reason we lost. The good news is we got there, but the bad news is not converting.

LeBron showed up, the Cavs didn’t. He played well, despite his drought in the second half. I mean the man still had 12 points in the second half and ended up with 35 points in the game but the rest of the group didn’t. Delonte West was the only other guy who showed up, putting up 21 points. The only other player we had in double digits was Wally with 10 and the next highest was 7 points. That’s not going to cut it offensively.

This is the problem when LeBron tries to dominate the game: we have little ball movement. I place this mostly on Mike Brown for not calling the correct sets out and letting LeBron go 1-on-5 the whole night but at some point LeBron has to realize that a play isn’t working and do something else. Pass the ball off and cut. Post up more. Move more without the ball. Use screens to your advantage. Mike Brown should be taking more responsibility on the offensive end and doing those things. We won the two games with ball movement, player movement and assists. We only racked up 11 assists total, which is less than Rajon Rondo.

What was with Z? Granted he didn’t get many shots or touches (Mike Brown needs to get him more), he seemed really tentative and hesitant all night long. He didn’t seem like he wanted the ball and when he did get it on the low-post or elbow, he seemed to rush his decisions and play hot potato with it. The last few games he’s been Mr. Relaxed with a high confidence level. The other night he seemed like he didn’t want anything to do with the ball. Hopefully going home will cure that.

Delonte stepped up. He really made some nice plays down the stretch and kept the Cavs in the game. The best part of the whole game was when Delonte was aggressive and attacking the rim. It made the defense worry so much more about him and they really started to collapse on him, which will over time create open shots for others. And when he did get to the rim, he was getting to the foul line and knocking down free throws.

Joe Smith has been stellar. The guy is Mr. Consistency and has come in and provided an instant impact for whenever he’s on the floor. I really think that if he truly developed into the #1 pick potential that Warriors saw in him, we could have seen another Kevin Garnett.

We shot decently. I mean it’s not like we were throwing bricks at the hoop. Albeit our free throws and 3PTers were bad, we did shoot the ball at a decent clip.

Bad News Boobie. Looks like we won’t have Boobie for the rest of series and perhaps the rest of the playoffs, if we were to move on. Damon Jones, Sasha Pavlovic or Devin Brown will have to step up and give us some points off the bench or else we’re doomed.

Let’s just hope we can rebound and play well on Friday and hopefully force a game 7. I’m hoping for the best… I really, really am. I just hope the well coached, well oiled machine shows up and not the Mr. Potato head coached and rusty machine show up Friday.

If we can win, we have a definite chance. I honestly believe that. I think if we can get some momentum going in Cleveland it could carry over into Boston for game 7.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2008 at 6:04 pm and is filed under Damon Jones, Rajon Rondo, Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak, Z, Boobie Gibson, Devin Brown, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, LeBron James, Boston Celtics, Kevin Garnett, Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, 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.