Six quarters into this series, and Lebron has made 5 of 31 shots.

That's beyond horrible. I've never even heard of such a thing!

What a pathetic collapse in the second quarter. This team irritates the living shit out of me.

Face it Shep. The Cavs are going nowhere this year. I was happy that they beat Washington in 6. As inconsistently as they have been playing the whole season they really don't deserve (and likely won't) make it past the Celtics. That's Ok. It really isn't their year anyways. The karma is not there. Momentum is with the Lakers, Hornets, Celtics, and Pistons. Not the Cavs.

It will be a deep draft next year. Maybe they can get some help through the draft. I was hoping that the big trade would breathe new life into the team, but that has obviously not happened. Time to bring in some fresh legs and add some other athletes into the mix.

something about hearing Boston Celtics "fans" chanting overrated made me really hate the NBA...

6 of 24 from the field. Is that bad enough for you?

If a team relies so much on one (Lebron ). The opposition is going to key in on him. We do not have Gooden,or Houghes like we did last year. If you notice teams like the Bulls. They had "other players" who could take the load off of <MJ>. Cleveland does not have that player.. It won't be long before Lebron is in a Lakers uniform at this rate..

A deep draft ain't going to help them ... getting a new coach would though, then maybe they can run a pro style offense and find the missing components that they need. Mike Brown sucks. I've never seen an NBA go this far in the playoffs year after year with absolutley no offensive game plan.

Z set them up perfectly to start the game. dropping every jumper dished to him. He hit all but about one the rest of the way, the problem is that they only went back to that play about three times from the first five minutes on. NEVER established anything after Z's jumpers. NEVER used that to draw Celtics out of the paint to have to guard Z out wide. NEVER went back to Z to make them pay for not rotatiing out. Just chalked it up as something that worked then went back to Lebron-off-the-dribble-against-five and then finally kicked it back out on the perimeter after being down by twenty for some desperation shooting.

This is the best Z has played in his entire NBA career and we are pissing it away this play-ground offense. The rotations are so mixed that it keeps everyone inconsistient. When something works, we drift from it, never capitalize on it.

Only time the Cavs win is if they bring more energy than the opponent ... that erases coaching.

The Lakers have Kobe, Odom, Gasol, and a soon to be very rich Andrew Bynum. That's one place LBJ WON'T be!

If he leaves, he'll go somewhere with an opening for a max deal superstar. Which means he'll probably go from the frying pan into the fire, perhaps in New York.

I could live with it. We'd sign and trade him for a pack of draft picks and free up a ton of cash. He just isn't shooter enough to carry a team against a good defense.

I'd rather be Portland or Atlanta right now. Especially Portland.

So he's 8 of 42 in the series?

That's like 18%. You hit more than that when you close your eyes and throw it baseball style. It's a fact.

That's just a total meltdown.

I've been one to defend LeBron pretty loyally, but it's getting hard now. 8 of 42 is bad even if he's facing 10 defenders.

I'm hoping that in game 3 he'll get comfortable in front of the home crowd and hit a few shots, then regain his confidence. If that happens and we win game 3, the series is on.

And theres a reason they didn't go back to Z, because after he hit those 5 or 6 shots, the defense starting guarding him. He's not shooting those with a man in his face, so they can't just keep goign back to him. They gave it to him in the post a few times, and he wasn't nearly as effective.

Theres only one player on this team that can GET their own shot, and doesn't need it provided for him.

One thing is clear -- they need a new coach. Mike Brown can't even get a set play to work out of a time-out, for christs sake.

Besides, theres not one other coach in the NBA that would let LeBron keep hoisting these jumpers.

quote:

And theres a reason they didn't go back to Z, because after he hit those 5 or 6 shots, the defense starting guarding him. He's not shooting those with a man in his face.

I disagree ... they didn't go back to Z because he was being used to set picks down low to free up guys like Wally to come underneith, reach their potential spot, and the pass would then come a second later ... which then resulted in bringing it back out, playing hot potato, and someone firing up an ill-advised outside perimeter shot.

Had the defense came out and guarded Z, like the Cavs should have wanted them to do, that would have cleared up the paint for LeBron to slice-up or kick back out for an open jumper. I figured that was the whole purpose of feeding Z for the jumpers early, so that they could disperse some of the clog in the paint.

One thing about LeBron in this series is that he doesn't look like he can handle the ball very well.

I know what you mean, the started setting picks for Wally and Boobie to come free.

But do you really think had kept going to Z that Boston would just ignore it? The same play isn't going to keep working over and over. It's amazing that it worked the 5 or 6 times in a row that it did. You're not just going to get 30 points for Z that way, the defense will adjust like I think they did.

It would open the middle, you're right. The reason why that didn't help? Because Boston backed off LeBron, guarded his drive, and dared him to shoot. So he shot. And they didn't need help in the paint.

Besides, I don't think Z setting a pick for someone takes 24 seconds. He can set it and still get to the perimeter for a shot with plenty of time left.

It's like when Boobie and Wally are hitting open from the outside, it'll stop working if LeBron isn't effective enough to keep drawing double/triple teams. Those shots just aren't going to stay open against a team like Boston.

IMO

I agree about Brown, he is pretty clueless as a coach. I think the Cavs should look into getting a new coach this offseason.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
So he's 8 of 42 in the series?

That's like 18%. You hit more than that when you close your eyes and throw it baseball style. It's a fact.

That's just a total meltdown.

Let's make that 20 of 78, 25%. Well. every NBA player goes through a stretch where they can't hit the broad side of a barn, too bad LeBron picked the playoffs this year to have his bad patch. They easily could have beaten Boston in game one if LeBron had only been mediocre.

BTW, what was really disturbing to me tonight is the way the Cavs were in general just totally standing around on offense. Maybe it was because (as they should have) been spending all their energy on D. I'll say this- Wally bailed their ass out big time.

quote:

Originally posted by shepwrite:
The Lakers have Kobe, Odom, Gasol, and a soon to be very rich Andrew Bynum. That's one place LBJ WON'T be!

If he leaves, he'll go somewhere with an opening for a max deal superstar. Which means he'll probably go from the frying pan into the fire, perhaps in New York.

I could live with it. We'd sign and trade him for a pack of draft picks and free up a ton of cash. He just isn't shooter enough to carry a team against a good defense.

I'd rather be Portland or Atlanta right now. Especially Portland.

You could live with it- the fans of Cleveland wouldn't. LeBron's shooting weakness? Duly noted. Celts were daring him to take jumpers. Moving LeBron would be the Kosar fiasco- not just squared, but raised to the fourth power.

Football analogy- let's trade Jim Brown for draft picks. Not happening. Recent history says LeBron stays put. Other than Shaq, from Jordan on down, most NBA super-duper stars play the majority of their career with one team.