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I'm assuming the last one was locked due to length, so I figured I'd start another one.
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I also did not title this "The run for the ring", because we need to win this series before we start talking about rings 
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I also did not title this "The run for the ring", because we need to win this series before we start talking about rings
Funny coming from the guy who is giving Kentucky the national championship before any of their guys even get to campus 
#gmstrong
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I also did not title this "The run for the ring", because we need to win this series before we start talking about rings
Funny coming from the guy who is giving Kentucky the national championship before any of their guys even get to campus
To be fair, I said we will compete for a national championship 
Winning a title is hard, regardless of talent... But, you'd be hard pressed to find a more talented team 
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#gmstrong
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Kentucky should be very talented, of course it's not like Carolina last year because all of their talent was returning and had played together for a while.. that will be the challenge for Kentucky is getting all of that talent used to each other and playing together... Congratulations on winning the John Wall sweepstakes...
Back to the Cavs...
yebat' Putin
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Anybody know the line for Fri?
-9 last night......I would think it would be -4 (or -5) tomorrow night. Although, Vegas might think it could be a blowout game for the Cavs. Who knows (well, Vegas usually does).
“...Iguodala to Curry, back to Iguodala, up for the layup! Oh! Blocked by James! LeBron James with the rejection!”
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Ask David Stern, he's controlling all of the outcomes anyway... he must have given one heck of a halftime speech last night.
yebat' Putin
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Kentucky should be very talented, of course it's not like Carolina last year because all of their talent was returning and had played together for a while.. that will be the challenge for Kentucky is getting all of that talent used to each other and playing together... Congratulations on winning the John Wall sweepstakes..
Having vets in college sports is starting to mean less and less. Memphis two years ago got to the title game with a young team. Ohio State the year before, etc.
Now, back to the Cavs lol.
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it's 9, across the board, every major book has them at -9
it doesn't surprise me, because vegas is just trying to get equal action, and i think people still expect the cavs to win this series, which if they do, it would have to start tomorrow.
i do expect it to drop down to 8, maybe 7.5 by tip.
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LBJ was absolutely brimming with adrenaline in the first half...once the Magic started to creep back into it he just looked deflated and stunned. I think we burned ourselves out too fast.
Howard is a very gifted athlete, but he's wildly undisciplined. We seemed to be alright in the first half suffocating everyone else and just letting him get his...He can eat Z's lunch all series for all I care...they can't beat us on that alone.
Also, I wondered why we didn't keeping attacking him as he racked up fouls. He could've fouled out much sooner, we had him reeling.
LBJ needs to stop hoisting up 3's and 20 footers when he gets upset.
Andy messed up at the end, plain and simple.
Is Mo Williams' shoulder a factor or is he just cold?
The off-time hurt us. The clips of the team shooting halfcourt shots with no shirt on don't seem so lighthearted anymore.
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The off-time hurt us. The clips of the team shooting halfcourt shots with no shirt on don't seem so lighthearted anymore.
Sure they do, what do you expect them to do, practice hard 12 hours a day? I'm sure hoisting up halfcourt shots wasn't all they did that day.
yebat' Putin
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Sure they do, what do you expect them to do, practice hard 12 hours a day? I'm sure hoisting up halfcourt shots wasn't all they did that day.
I'm not knocking them for doing that stuff...but I think that time off hurt us. We spent ourselves in the first half.
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yebat' Putin
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it's really tough to replicate the speed and intensity of the game in any sport...
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Tough loss, but I think we'll bounce back. It took a horrendous game by us and them shooting lights out for them to win by 1 point.
All I want to know is this...when Dwight bobbled a couple alley-oop passes and then caught them when the ball was above the cylinder, why didn't they call him for goaltending? It happened twice.
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I was surprised we didn't hack Howard more often. Isn't the guy a 50% foul shooter? Even if it's to throw of their timing a little or at the end of the game.
Was Howard out there for the final 15 seconds? If so wouldn't fouling him and sending him to the line be a prudent move with that amount of time left.
A 50% shooter has a 1 in 4 chance of making both shots. I like those odds.
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Was Howard out there for the final 15 seconds?
Nope. He fouled out. Should've fouled out earlier IMO but we didn't attack him.
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A 50% shooter has a 1 in 4 chance of making both shots
Umm... 
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Forgot that he fouled out.
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J/C
I can't wait for tommorow night! I need to get this off my mind. 1-1 and we're back in it!
Last edited by RememberMuni; 05/21/09 10:18 PM.
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No doubt Muni! I am flyin in for the weekend.. Gonna be another dogfight tomorrow.. gonna be chippier tomorrow in game 2... cavs gonna play with a lil anger 
I heart winning
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I was surprised we didn't hack Howard more often. Isn't the guy a 50% foul shooter? Even if it's to throw of their timing a little or at the end of the game.
60%.. but I get your point. Problem is that he's SOOOO much stronger than Z, that you end up with Z in foul trouble and Howard getting as many 3-point opportinuties as not.... In the end it wasn't Howard that beat us, the most you can say is that he kept them within striking distance in the first half...
yebat' Putin
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I think if the Cavs kept allowing Howard to get his points in the paint while limiting the outside stuff, the Cavs win that game handily. And, if the Cavs can get Howard in some foul trouble, he can't be as aggressive underneath which limits his effectiveness.
I am unfamiliar with this feeling of optimism
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nuggets win in LA last night.
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nuggets win in LA last night.
I guess that means the Lakers' season is over. I mean, one loss means the entire series is lost, right?
Wait, so that means the Nuggets' season is over, too. I don't get it.
I am unfamiliar with this feeling of optimism
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I think if the Cavs kept allowing Howard to get his points in the paint while limiting the outside stuff, the Cavs win that game handily. And, if the Cavs can get Howard in some foul trouble, he can't be as aggressive underneath which limits his effectiveness.
Absolutely. Let them kick it in to Dwight and have him go one on one. Defend the perimeter. I don't care if Howard gets 40 points a game, as long as he isn't getting 10 hockey assists a game as well when he passes back out.
We also need to quit honoring the drive. These guys are jump shooters and not much more. I'd say to put Mo on Alston, Lebron on Lewis, and keep Delonte on Turk. Lewis will be shut down if Lebron's on him, and I think that Alston will be negated by Mo. Andy would have to be guarding Lee, but Lee is more of a threat to drive than to shoot, and Andy's better at guarding that.
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nuggets win in LA last night.
I guess that means the Lakers' season is over. I mean, one loss means the entire series is lost, right?
Wait, so that means the Nuggets' season is over, too. I don't get it.
dude, nobody is winning the championship this year, because everyone has now lost a game.
it will just be blank when you look up who won the 2008-2009 nba championship.
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I'm just happy to get at least a day of reprieve from arrogant Lakers fans, who I swear came out of the woodwork yesterday to bash Lebron and the Cavs. 
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I'm just happy to get at least a day of reprieve from arrogant Lakers fans, who I swear came out of the woodwork yesterday to bash Lebron and the Cavs.
denver should be 2-0 right now. no joke. laker fans should worry about getting a win in denver.
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Only 7% of teams that lose game 2 go on to win a 7 game series. It's not do or die tonight but it's close.
We really need a big game from someone else other than LeBron.
In a way, I think LA helped our psyche last night (if we had any issues after game 1). Seeing them lose home court as well might not make our guys feel so bad. Just get it to 1-1 and make it a best of 5.
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Only 7% of teams that lose game 2 go on to win a 7 game series. It's not do or die tonight but it's close.
Is whether or not you won game one figured into that calculation at all?
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It's not do or die tonight but it's close.
Oh it's real close.. you can't go down 0-2 losing both games at home...
yebat' Putin
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The Cavs are going to have to change their rotation, its going to have to happen. This is about the 3rd game this season that the magic have exploited matchups.
People all over are saying "just get physical with Howard"...ok....with who? Z? Z is not a physical presence under the basket, and Ben looks completely lost out there, so to "get physical with Howard" your going to have to double team, which the Cavs had done in the reg. season. Then you leave Lewis and Turkeyglue wide open for 3's.
The answer is to go small, start Andy on Howard, and limit Z's minutes. Let Joe Smith play alot, and guard Lewis. Keep LeBron on Turkeyglue, and also let Sasha play, since he is alittle bigger body. We have to get someone that can get through those pick and rolls set by Orlando, because Delonte, Andy, and Wallace kept getting lost, and allowing dribble penetration.
The Cavs are gonna have to let Howard get his, and not let the other 4 guys get wide open shots on the perimeter. They are also going to have to change some match ups on Howard to atleast slow him down. The offense was not all that bad, 100+ should win games with our defense.
The Cavs are a better team, by quite a bit, but Orlando has nearly perfect match ups defensively and offensively against us. Mike Brown is going to have to earn his paycheck this series.
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LeBron and Mike Brown have both mentioned that Sasha is up to get a look tonight.
Hopefully he is up to the task...would like to see him get a chance on Rashard (think of what he did to a similar-style Vince Carter 2 years ago).
#gmstrong
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J/C
I think this is going to be a really hard fought game, let's hope the Cav's can even the series up tonight with a victory!
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People all over are saying "just get physical with Howard"...ok....with who? Z?
I heard Howards bench press stats the other night.. they are linebackeresque. 
In addition to what you said, most of which I agree with... LeBron needs some help on the other end, West, Mo (preferrably both) are going to have to find some rhythm and shoot the ball......
yebat' Putin
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As you allude to, if it is another night where nobody but LeBron is doing the scoring, it won't matter how physical we get (or don't get) with Howard; it will be another loss.
Had Z, West or Mo shot anything like their normal percentages the 2nd Half, I'd bet that the last game wouldn't have been even close... and if they had ALL shot average, it'd have been a blowout. Sadly, even with wide open shots, they all were completely flat.
Mo: 6-19 Z: 5-11 West: 4-13, 3 of which were for 3, but that leaves just ONE SHOT that he made inside the arc in 46 1/2 minutes of play.
And Wally going 0-2 didn't help either. I don't care what anyone may say, but Wally has been a HUGE part of our successes this year. Had just ONE of his shots gone in, the pressure at the end would have been on ORL at the end of the game.
Browns is the Browns
... there goes Joe Thomas, the best there ever was in this game.
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I believe that if Williams and West can keep pace with Lewis and Turkoglu in scoring, the Cavs should win...
Alston, Howard, Lee, Pietris et.al.... should not be able to outscore LeBron, Z, Andy, Joe Smith, and Wally....
yebat' Putin
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Mo: 6-19 Z: 5-11 West: 4-13, 3 of which were for 3, but that leaves just ONE SHOT that he made inside the arc in 46 1/2 minutes of play.
Like I mentioned earlier in the thread ... most of those "makes" were in the 1st half. The three of them combined for three shots, and a heck of a lot of misses ... and they were getting open looks too. If any of those three were to have shot "normal" percentages, we would of won that game with a few points to spare.
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That Pietrus is an interesting cat.
Saw him last year? A couple years ago with Golden State? And I really like that guy's game. He's got all the physical skills to be really, really good but he hasn't brought it all together yet.
He could be a good one though.
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guess I'll up this since its game time...
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Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cleveland Cavaliers Playoff
thread, cont.
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