Cavs: Cleveland Fans Deserve Better than that Game 2

If it looked pretty flat and smelled pretty flat. Then by golly, the Cavs played flat.

It was as if Rajon Rondo took a galion roller to the Cavs roster. To provide a visual, Rondo played the role of Austin Powers while the Cavs embodied the absent minded security guard in the following clip:

Terrible. Cleveland fans deserve better.

If the Round 1 Game 3 loss to the Bulls served as an innocent wake-up call to the Cavs, this Round 2 Game 2 loss should serve as a disrespecting slap in the face. I was glad the Cavs lost that third game to the Bulls. I’m terrified that they lost this game 2 to the Celtics.

The Bulls were a young team with little veteran leadership, and the Cavs lost an away game. Minor bump in the road. On the other hand, the Celtics are a team full of veterans with playoff experience and a championship ring to their name that just beat the Cavs in their house. They also head back to Boston knowing that they just out dueled the Cavaliers in 3 out of 4 halves played. And in Cleveland, nonetheless.

Tonight, the Celtics stole both the momentum and the home court advantage for the series. This is a big deal.

The Cavs started slow and finished slower. Sure, they had a decent run at the end. But it was too little too late. The message had already been sent: They took this team too easy, and the Celtics made them pay.

After a sluggish start in the first quarter, the Cavs went on a decent little run to pull within 1 before a Rondo 3 to end the quarter put Boston up 4. Second quarter? Same thing. Slow start, Boston begins the quarter with a 9-0 run followed by a Cleveland run that pulls it back to within 4 going into halftime.

I was already worried at this point. It seemed obvious that the Cavs were taking the Celtics lightly. Sure, we started off slow and they might be winning now. But we can turn it on later and get the victory. No big deal.

I think this overconfidence will prove to be the Cavs Achilles heel. That, and free throw shooting.

They don’t seem to play with a sense of urgency unless they have a fire lit under their butts. In Game 1, it was Mo Williams dunk that sparked a Cavalier comeback. In Game 2, it was a “Holy Sh*t, we’re down 20 with only 8 minutes left.” As we all unfortunately know, that “Holy Sh*t” moment came too late.

With home court advantage now in the favor of the Celtics, hopefully the fire is aflame under the collective Cavaliers butt. The sense of urgency begins now.

Cleveland fans deserve a better performance than they saw in Game 2. We are a proud, championship starved city that sticks with their teams through thick and thin. Regrettably, its usually a lot more thin than thick.

But with this 2009-2010 Cavs, they are the thick. Thickest team we’ve had in a while. All Cleveland fans want is to see them play with heart for 48 minutes.

We don’t deserve an “Ah, we can get ’em later” attitude and halves that are effectively mailed in.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: this Cavs team should win a championship. Now its up to them to hold a blowtorch to their rears, play with some heart, and win one for the City of Cleveland.

Cavs – I want some mo of Mo.

With about 5 minutes left in the third quarter, the Cavs trailing by 11 and playing even worse, Cleveland needed a lift.

Enter Mo Williams.

After stealing an errant Rajon Rondo pass, Williams raced down the court with LeBron James to his left and Paul Pierce ahead ready to go up for a block. I don’t know about you, but as this play unfolded I was thinking: “Alley-oop to LeBron. Alley-oop to LeBron!” But Mo Williams had a different idea in mind. Completely disregarding the taller Pierce awaiting him near the basket, Mo Williams rose up and threw down a dunk, effectively posterizing Pierce.

It pumped up the crowd, it pumped up the team, it even pumped up Mo himself, who decided to go on a tear that third quarter by putting up 14 points. Most importantly, it sparked a Cavaliers comeback to beat Boston and take the series opener.

Actually even more importantly, it triggered one hilariously unintentional comedic response from Mike Brown. Seriously, Cheech and Chong could have come up with a response that sounded less stoned. Check out the dunk + Mike Brown reaction here:

Now when this play happened, I knew it was a big deal. But I didn’t grasp how big of a deal it was. Here are some cool tidbits about the Mo dunk:

• It was only Mo Williams second career dunk. As in ever. As in he’s only dunked twice in the NBA. Ever! I couldn’t get over that. It’s also his first career dunk as a Cleveland Cavalier. It couldn’t have come in a better time.
• Not only did the dunk feel like the turning point of the game, it literally was the turning point of the game. For proof, I’ll provide this little stat bubble, courtesy of ESPN.com:

Via ESPN.com: Mo Williams Dunk proves to be the turning point of Game 1

• That little box really says it all. Before the dunk, the Cavs were shooting poorly, playing bad defense and were down 11. After the dunk, the Cavs played better offensively, defensively, and outscored the Celtics by 19.
• Mo’s stand out performance in Game 1 wasn’t limited to one play either though. He played well throughout and put up a pretty solid statline: 20 pts, 5 rebs, 6 assists, 1 steal, and only 1 turnover.
• Interesting note about Mo’s night: Zero. That’s the number of 3 pointers Mo Williams made in Game 1. That’s right. The three point shooting point guard had that big of an impact while going 0-3 from beyond the arc. Normally when Mo has a big night, he is on fire shooting threes. Saturday night, he found other ways to do it. Impressive.
• Now, I normally could care less about the +/- statistic, but Mo had an impressive +23 on the night. I couldn’t ignore that. It was more than double the second highest +/- number (Antawn Jamison had +11), and was more than triple of LeBron (+7)!

In my Round One in Review, I wrote that Mo Williams needed to step it up. In Game 1 against Boston, he answered the call. He didn’t just step it up, he bought a stairmaster.

Better Late Than Never: Cavs – Celtics Preview + LeBron MVP Thoughts

With the Cavs set to take on the Celtics tonight in the first game of Round 2, I wanted to put down some quick thoughts on the series as well as LeBron’s second MVP award and those who did not vote for him:

Quick Thoughts:

• This Celtics team can be very dangerous. If the Cavs slip up and take one or two games lightly, especially at home, that could leave the door open for the Celtics to win the series.
• Again, the Cavs should win a championship this year, which means that they should beat the Celtics this round. But that does not mean the Celtics are not a dangerous team. Indiana Jones had the talent to avoid the booby traps and retrieve the golden idol in the opening scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark. He should have been able to do it. But one slip up, and he’s a goner.
• It’ll be interesting to see how Mike Brown decides to go about this series, whether he opts for the bigger, half court game, or the younger, more athletic small ball. Against Chicago, he kept trying to force feed the half court game and get Shaq involved even though it wasn’t working. I was fine with this then, because playing small ball played to the Bulls strengths. They had young, energetic and athletic bigs in Taj Gibson and Joakim Noah, so they would excel in those fast pace, running the floor games.
• I believe we should come in with the opposite strategy for Boston: play small. The Celtics have aging farts, err… veterans in Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, Michael Finley, and Rasheed Wallace. Yes, they have younger energy guys in Kendrick Perkins, Glen Davis, and a young stud point guard in Rajon Rondo. But aside from Rondo, this team isn’t best suited for a fast pace game. Garnett’s knees are weaker than a Kevin Durant bench press. The Cavs should run them into the ground.
• But knowing Mike Brown, you just never know. If the Cavs play to the Celtics strengths, and go big. I could see this going 6-7 games. If the Cavs play that athletic small ball, the series should be over within 5 games.
• My Prediction: Cavs in 6.
• Why 6? I just don’t see it going 7, but I can see the Cavs slipping in one game and Mike Brown slipping in another. So there’s my reasoning for six. Steel trap logic, I know.

More Random Thoughts that were brought to my attention from others:

• Brian Windhorst tweeted today that the since the Cavs and Celtics met in the 2008 Conference Semi-Finals, the Celtics have the exact same starting five (Rondo, Allen, Pierce, Garnett, Perkins), while the Cavs have exactly one same starter. I’ll give you three guesses as to who that is… Guess yet? … Okay … Trick question: Damon Jones.
• Seriously though, that type of continuity is what makes the Celtics a very dangerous team.
• The Cavs starters, other than LeBron, in that ’08 series? Delonte West, Wally World, Ben Wallace, Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Tonight, the Cavs will start Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, Antawn Jamison and Shaquille O’Neal, with West & Z available off the bench. Nicely done, Ferry.

Final Thought on this series:

• Simply put: this series should be awesome. I’m giddy for it. Ever since their last meeting, I’ve been hoping the Cavs and Celtics would meet in the playoffs. There is some bad blood between these two teams. You all know that last game on Easter Sunday: the Cavs making a 20+ point comeback, LeBron hoisting the ill-advised 3-pointer for the win as opposed to taking it to the rack and into overtime, Garnett grabbing his crotch and yelling at LeBron, Tony Allen talking trash to LeBron (yes: Tony Allen talked trash to LeBron. Idiot.) Combine that with “Big Baby” messing up the Diesel’s ability to hitchhike, several playoff meetings, and you have yourself a heated rivalry in Round 2!

Oh Yeah! LeBron won the MVP!

• LeBron will be named the leagues Most Valuable Player for the second year in a row, becoming only the tenth player in league history to win the award back to back.
• This may have been the most anticlimactic MVP announcement in recent memory. ESPN.com writer, Bill Simmons, scrapped his favorite article of the year (his MVP countdown) because it appeared to be such a foregone conclusion. LeBron was viewed as the preseason pick for MVP by many pundits. And ever since the first month came and went, he left little doubt he would be named MVP until the announcement became official.
• Seriously, LeBron’s season was just absurd. He averaged 29.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, and 8.6 apg. He nearly swept the Player of the Month awards! And most importantly, he was the best player on the best team in the league.
• LeBron had such a convincing MVP performance this year, it was like a bizarro health care issue: there was no debate. He may not have won the award unanimously, but I had yet to see someone publish an article putting LeBron 2nd or below. I think that’s because they know that if they let anyone know they didn’t vote LeBron as MVP, they’d develop a reputation of having an IQ lower than Sloth from the Goonies. And deservedly so.

• Here’s how I imagine a conversation going with someone who didn’t vote LeBron as MVP:

– “Wait. You didn’t vote LeBron as MVP?! Who did you vote for?”
– “BA-BY… RUTH!”
– “Huh? Babe Ruth? He’s a baseball player. And he’s dead.”
– “BABY RUTH!”
– “Oh, Baby Ruth! As in the Chocolate Bar. OK … Wait, that makes even less sense!”
– “Choc…..co…..late.”
– “…”

…

So how do you think the series will turn out?

– Sam