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Cavs start off great, then stand around
By Patrick McManamon
Beacon Journal columnist
Published on Friday, May 09, 2008
BOSTON: Safe to say that every NBA team starts its defensive game plan against the Cavaliers by saying it will try to stop LeBron James.
Few do.
Boston has.
And the Cavs simply are not good enough to overcome a team as good as the Celtics when James is not his usual productive self.
As Paul Pierce said, ''When we control him, we pretty much control their team.''
Control him? The tea in colonial days fared better than James these past two games.
And that's the reason the Cavs trail 2-0 in this series, and the reason they are on a dangerous ledge. They need to find an offense for the team, and for James, or it'll be a long offseason talking about what needs
to be done.
The Cavs started Game 2 Thursday night like they knew what to do. They scored 24 points in the first quarter and moved the ball well. But in the next three quarters, they scored 12, 15 and 22 for a grand total of 49. During that offensive outburst, they pretty much looked overmatched.
For some reason, they started standing around — and standing around and trying to run pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll doesn't work against a team as good as the Celtics.
As for James, remember all those promises he would not have two bad games in a row?
Time to do a YouTube search of Roseanne Roseannadanna and listen to her saying ''nevermind.''
James was as bad shooting in Game 2 as he was in Game 1. Worse yet, it seemed to affect him as at times he looked tentative and uncertain.
Imagine Rocco Scotti forgetting the words to the national anthem.
There were stretches where, for the first time in a long time, James did not look confident — or like he knew what he wanted to do. He shot consecutive first-half air balls and clanged consecutive free throws.
The Wizards' MO in the opening series was to rough up James, take him down on his way to the basket. The Celtics' is to clog the lane, force him into double-teams and take away what he wants to do.
The Celtics are stopping James by playing old-fashioned, hard-nosed, in-your-face, take-it-away defense.
''We're not reinventing the wheel here,'' Celtics coach Doc Rivers said.
A friend texted ''be nice to LeBron'' when writing, so let's let the numbers tell the story: In two games, he has shot 8-for-42 and has 17 turnovers.
In Game 2, James took 24 shots; 13 came from the outside, and he made one of those jump shots.
Which according to the new math is one more than none.
On his drives, he was 5-for-11, but he had seven turnovers, giving him 17 for the two games.
If it weren't for Zydrunas Ilgauskas, this game would have been a complete, instead of a partial, embarrassment.
Z was the only one who even acted like he wanted to score. The final numbers say he shot 9-for-12.
Which means the rest of the team was 17-for-61. That's 27.8 percent, which is developmental-league, USBL and all-the-other-minor-leagues-rolled-into-one stuff.
Yes, there's all the stuff about Boston won two at home, held serve, defended its home court, the series doesn't start until a road team wins, Boston lost two in a row in Atlanta, a watched pot never boils . . . all that stuff. But there's no sense minimizing things. The Cavs are in trouble.
They are looking at winning four out of five from the best team in the East with their best player looking pretty ordinary.
Yes, one year ago, the Cavs lost the first two games in Detroit and won the series in six.
But the feel of this series is totally different. Those games in Detroit both were close.
Not this year against Boston.
The Cavs played bad in Game 1 and let a winnable game get away, then got blown out in Game 2. Boston got everything it needed in the second game. Pierce shot well, Ray Allen got untracked, Kevin Garnett was strong and the Celtics' defense was dominant.
The momentum is squarely with Boston. Being at home does give the Cavs a hook for their hat.
But they could play these next two games games in Cleveland, Ohio; Cleveland, Tenn.; or Cleveland, Clinic — they could play them on the deck of the William G. Mather — and it won't matter if James does not find his offense.
If James does not get going, or the Cavs do not find a way to get James going, this series is over.
Patrick McManamon can be reached at pmcmanamon@thebeaconjournal.com. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/mcmanamon/
BOSTON: Safe to say that every NBA team starts its defensive game plan against the Cavaliers by saying it will try to stop LeBron James.
Get the full article here.
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