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Do IT this week: Layering
Lesson learned in Game 5 brings victory in Game 6
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal sports columnist
Published on Sunday, May 04, 2008
WASHINGTON: If the Cavs learned a lesson from losing the fifth game of their first-round playoff series against Washington, they learned it well.
Because the way they played offense in the deciding sixth game of the series was exceptional.
The Cavs moved without the ball, they moved the ball, they got open shots — and it all led to an easy win.
It helped, of course, that their shots went in.
But the offensive adjustments made by Mike Brown and carried out by LeBron James won the game.
The Cavs did two things that changed the feel of the game.
First, they got the ball to James on the run. Often another player would bring the ball up and James would run the baseline or run around a pick to get the ball while moving.
Needless to say, this makes him much more effective than when he takes the ball near midcourt and dribbles for 20 seconds.
In Game 5 at key times, James did just that. In Game 6, he got the ball in much better positions.
The other adjustment entailed getting James the ball on the wing, the side of the court.
That drew the defense to him, and James would beat it by passing crosscourt, often for an open 3-pointer set up by a pick on the block by a big man.
It worked because the Wizards would double James, then play zone on the other side of the court.
Daniel Gibson got at least two open 3s late in the first half with that play, and at least two of Wally Szczerbiak's 3s came from crosscourt passes.
It also worked because Gibson and Szczerbiak made their 3s.
After missing them in Game 5, the two combined to go 10-for-19.
And they also didn't settle just for 3s. Several times they pump-faked and drove, getting another open shot. Washington is not known for its defense, and the Cavs took advantage.
''When we make shots from the outside like we did tonight — what Daniel did, what Wally did — we are a tough team to beat,'' James said. ''You can pick your poison. You can play me one-on-one or zone up on the backside and let our shooters shoot it, and our shooters came through for us.''
Coach Mike Brown took a lot of heat for the Game 5 miscues.
In Cleveland, a loss always seems to lead to extreme angst and cries to fire the coach and get rid of the players.
Well, the offensive emphasis in Game 6 and the adjustments did not come from air.
Brown had to recognize what went wrong late in Game 5. He did and emphasized the right changes that helped his team win.
This coach who ''can't coach'' has gone 23-12 in playoff games against the Eastern Conference. He has won five out of seven playoff series as a coach. And this is the ninth year in a row that he has been on a coaching staff that has advanced at least to the Eastern semifinals.
It sure helps to have James carrying out the plays, but the numbers say Brown is doing something right.
Looking back
Some final thoughts on the series:
• James called it a ''gruesome series.'' Was it? Well, only if you consider 12 technicals, four flagrant fouls (two per team), one $25,000 fine and one suspension artistic.
• The final game was officiated excellently. One might assume the league had the three referees well briefed.
• Brown might have won the series with his post-Game 1 statements about James getting clobbered on his way to the basket. The Wizards' hard fouls in Game 1 and Brown's statements following seemed to bring the physical play more to light.
• Washington folks were irate that the NBA suspended Darius Songaila for the final game. Their reasoning — with everything that went on, Songaila's offense was mild and it didn't even warrant a flagrant foul. The NBA said that it's automatic: When a player is hit in the face in a nonbasketball play, the suspension is immediate. Stu Jackson of the league office said the NBA believed Songaila's action was intentional.
• Some of the criticism of the suspension of Songaila seemed a bit over the top. Words like travesty and injustice were used. World hunger is unjust; pro sports can sometimes be inexplicable.
• It is hard to figure, though, that Songaila was the one suspended after everything that had happened.
• But it's harder to figure how Songaila's presence would have changed the outcome — in the series, he averaged 5.8 points and 2.6 rebounds in 15 minutes. Kind of like taking Anderson Varejao from the Cavs — and I think we all know how much that would have hurt.
• After all the talk about fouls, it's interesting that 139 were called against the Cavs and 137 against the Wizards. Cleveland shot 175 free throws; Washington, 174.
• Amazing, isn't it, when shooters make shots, they are good shots. When they don't, they are bad shots. One common complaint about the Cavs after Game 5 is they ''settled'' for 3s. In that game, they took 25 3s. In Game 6, they took 24, but they made 46 percent, so it didn't seem like a lot of 3s. The difference in the two games was not that the Cavs ''settled'' for 3s in Game 5; it was they did not run an offense through a good part of the fourth quarter. In Game 6, the 3s came off plays and movement, making them better shots.
• Boston sure seemed to be playing nervous in Friday night's game in Atlanta. Now the pressure grows. A Celtics loss would rank as one of the worst collapses in Boston sports history. And the longer Atlanta stays close today, the more you would imagine Boston would feel the pressure.
• Kobe Bryant had a marvelous season, and he's probably the second-best overall player in the NBA (after some guy who plays locally). But the MVP? Let's think for a second. At the end of January, the Lakers were 28-16 and had lost four out of five games — largely because of the loss of Andrew Bynum with a knee injury. On Feb. 1, they acquired Pau Gasol in one of the most one-sided trades in recent memory. They finished 29-9. That's a won-lost percentage of .636 without Gasol and .763 with him. Could the argument not be made that Gasol was the final piece for the Lakers, that as great as Bryant was, the Lakers would not have been the No. 1 seed in the West without the trade?
• The MVP played right here in Cleveland. But if James was not going to be voted MVP, the award should have gone to New Orleans point guard Chris Paul.
Until next time — there you have it.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
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