Cavaliers news, features and notes
- Jason Lloyd: Lottery victory brings Cavs plenty of options through trades and draft
- Cleveland Cavaliers win draft lottery, will pick No. 1 again
- Cavs win draft lottery, will pick No. 1 in NBA Draft
- NBA Draft lottery: Cavs’ third-best odds have history of turning into top selection
- 2103 NBA Scouting Combine: GlenOak graduate C.J. McCollum hopes to be a lottery pick
- 2013 NBA Scouting Combine: Cleveland Cavaliers focus on drafting good players, not overall strength of draft
- 2013 NBA Scouting Combine: Otto Porter seems like perfect fit for Cleveland Cavaliers but no meeting on agenda
- 2013 NBA Scouting Combine notebook: Nerlens Noel won’t play until late December but still interests Cavaliers
- Projected top pick Nerlens Noel won't be ready for start of season, targeting Christmas
- Former Ohio State star Deshaun Thomas refuses to give NBA team his phone number at combine
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Officially fair
Washington -- Sorry it has been so long between posts, the playoffs are an intense grind for the writers as well. It has been a great series between two evenly-matched teams and here on the afternoon of Game 6 I still don't think you can for sure say who is going to win the series. The Wizards have three good players and a couple role players. The Cavs have one great player and more role players plus homecourt advantage. There's been enough written about all this.
What I think is important is to stop worrying about the officials in this series. Despite what some fans posing as columnists say, the officiating in this series has been fine. LeBron has charged a bunch of times. The Wizards know that when he goes to his left he tends to lower his right shoulder so they try to get him to do it. Gilbert Arenas gets fouls when he goes to the basket and the Wizards have gone to the basket more than the Cavs in the series, which is why they've drawn more fouls.
Did LeBron walk in Game 3? Yes. Did Ruffin foul him? Yes. Should either of those calls me made at that time? Probably not. Did the Wizards have a disadvantage in Game 5 because two guys had fouled out? Yes. Were they screwed? No way, the Cavs got to the line 25 times in the first half and set the stage for all that foul trouble.
Enough with all the whining and shame on Eddie Jordan and Mike Brown for taking the lead and getting the crowds into it. Look at it objectively, as the refs do, and the fouls and the calls have been fair.
Every game in this series has been decided on which team can impose its will and style on the game. The Cavs played to the Wizards style a little in Game 5, but that works when they are at home and it really works because of LeBron.
The X-factor in determining who wins is, in my opinion, whether Zydrunas Ilgauskas can finally become a factor and whether the Cavs can limit Jamison or Butler. They can't stop Arenas and probably not both of the others, but they can't continue to let those guys all get 20 points or more.
