DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cleveland Cavaliers playoff thread Pt.3

All right guys ..... lemme let you in on a secret ........

I didn't watch the 1st half of the game. I walked into a bar right before the half .... and Orlando hit the 3 to pull to within 1.

I had 1 drink and left.

I didn't watch the game at home.

I stayed away on purpose. I figured that maybe they'd play a little better without the pressure of knowing that I was watching them.

Holy Toledo, that was a good game........cause the Cavs Won! I knew if Howard would just start shooting his normal %, and they don't make EVERY darn three we'd pull it out.
Now if it can just continue. Just shoot normal %, and Cavs win.

I predicted after game 1 that the Cav's season was toast in 6. I want to be wrong, please make a fool of me. PLEEEEEAASSE! If I had to bet my house.... this series doesn't come back to Cleveland. PRAY HARDER!

Call the police. The Cavs are trying to kill me.

I said it before and I say it again, Orlando is garbage without the 3 pointer working, they look clueless when the three isn't falling.

keep it up.

I didn't watch the past couple games, but from what I have seen, and from my own experience, I've found that if you just make a team beat you with 2s, you have a much better chance. I know it sounds so simplistic, but it's true.

Think about it, if you match 2 for 2, you're going to be right in the thick of things.

But, if they hit 2 3s, you now have to hit 3 2s. If they hit 3 3s, you have to hit 5 2s, and so on. That one point difference adds up really quickly.

Yeah, teams are going to hit 3s at times, but you just can't let them score 30 points on them. Think about it, if you only allowed them to hit 5 3s instead of 10, you just took off 15 points.

Once again, it's so simplistic, but I've found in my own personal experience that it makes such a huge difference. What my teams always did was overplay the 3 to the point of just outright denying a guy the ball. They might beat you back door and get an easy bucket, but that's the chance you take. And, you'll sometimes get some good D, maybe the guy misses, and now you're right there with them.

JMHO

Don't keep up with it much. I did tune in last night though and saw danny gibson knock down a couple of big threes. Had to give a shout-out to a horn.

I agree, which is why I've been a strong advocate of just letting Dwight get his. If we attack Dwight on offense and get him into foul trouble (which we've discovered is very easy to do because his defense consists of flailing his arms at the ball), then his minutes are going to be limited, and Gortat, while good, is not going to do the kind of damage that Dwight is.

Turkoglu and Lewis are the scoring threats for Orlando, and we need to recognize that and play with that in mind.

i thought our rotations on d looked really good last night. Some sighs in the early 4th on what 3 or 4 turnovers in a row, but they kept the fire on D up and was the difference maker.

Our early offense should consist of a high-screen, followed by Lebron driving the lane right at Dwight, and AV sneaking in behind. Lebron can either dunk it in over Howard, or sneak it over to AV for a backdoor layup. In both cases, Howard is looking at a possible foul.

That's what we did on a few occasions last night ... and what do you know ... Howard got into foul trouble. Once that happens, we don't have to over-play the middle with our help defense, and actually cover the three point shooters.

Last night, I think we played one of our best quarters of the series.

Put a few more of those together and we win.

i really hope our guys take what's going to be said about them to heart...

because they've already been pounded this morning and last night, but will continue to get pounded by the critics until this game starts.

and maybe rightfully so. it wasn't all lebron like they said, but it was mostly lebron...

As much as the D played better, for once, Orlando looked tired, gassed,...and some of that has to be from trying to shut down LeBron. It was good he got the rest earlier in the game, but that tended to keep it close. It's a double-edged sword.

They will have to play nearly flawless to win in Orlando, but if so, it "should" really take all of the wind out of their sail, having to come back here for Seven.

Crapshoot,....

Z on Howard seemed to work better,....got him in foul trouble though.

Boobie was huge. Bonus there.

And MO finally playing is a key factor.

AV fouling out was a good sign too.

as great as boobie was, he does not shoot well on the road. i don't think we can depend on him, i hope i am wrong. he'd be a great key for a game 7 though. he was so big last night.

AV seems to be REALLY starting to irritate Howard, which is a good thing. Eventually he's going to lose it IMO.

You can only throw 3-4 intentional elbows before you're eventually caught (or you connect). I could easily see Howard getting tossed from one of these games but we'll see.

Game 5, I believe, was our hump game. Finally got the other guys back on track and LeBron didn't let up at all. If We get a similar effort tomorrow night, we'll definitely be in great shape to force a game 7.

This is somewhat off topic...

But Ben Roethlisberger...DROP DEAD AND GET THE HELL OUT OF OUR ARENA. You are NOT allowed to cheer for the Cavs.

Sorry, but seeing the QB of the team I hate most COURTSIDE at OUR ARENA fired me up like no other. Thank God Quinn was there too.

" Elbows " ??? The ref. is right on top of it and dosn't call it ..

The Cavs werent gonna remain off their game forever and Orlando cant shoot 3's at a stellar percentage forever.

It's still gonna be tough but we need to drive to the hoop every possesion. Orlando fouls like crazy and Howard will go by the 3rd quarter.

Pressure is squarley on Orlando to close out at home.

I am just a casual NBA fan and am pulling hard for the Cavs, but I noticed the elbows flying. Why the heck don't they call that? Howard is constantly throwing his elbows around; I can see why the Cavs players get upset with it. He's already nailed Mo.

From what I've seen, drive at him every time - especially LBJ, as he is big enough to take him on - and he'll be gone by the 3rd quarter or at least spend a lot of time on the bench.

it's because howard is a star player.

but it's garbage. it's horrible basketball. and it will come back to bite him. i think if andy keeps going the way he is going, eventually there is going to be an incident. and andy would gladly sacrifice himself for the chance at getting dwight howard ejected from the game.

he's getting away with murder though, and if the refs aren't going to call him for his elbows, or for spending 5 seconds in the paint, we have to overcome it.

webbage

Rob Oller commentary: James makes up for Cavs' bad matchups
Friday, May 29, 2009 3:02 AM
By Rob Oller

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Amy Sancetta | Dispatch
In one quarter last night against the Magic, LeBron James had 17 points, four rebounds and four assists.

CLEVELAND -- Maybe you haven't heard, but NBA offenses -- where teams run, like, actual plays -- are a thing of the past.

The latest craze is to hand the ball to one player and let him do it all. It's something to see.

There is, however, one teensy-weensy stipulation. The one player needs to be LeBron James. Otherwise the one vs. five strategy doesn't work. Not at all. Looks pretty pathetic, actually. Probably will resulting in a 30-point loss. Or 40.

But if you are fortunate enough to have James on your team, and the Cleveland Cavaliers are ohhhhhhhh so fortunate, then all you have to do is get out of his way. It works. Honest.

Matchup issues? Not with the "LeBron Strategy." Sure, the Orlando Magic is causing the Cavs major headaches, as seen by its 3-2 lead in the Eastern Conference finals. Magic 6-foot-10 forward Hedo Turkoglu makes the player guarding him, 6-3 Delonte West, look like he belongs in the Shire. And West is one of Cleveland's best defenders.

Meanwhile, down low, center Dwight Howard is making Zydrunas Ilgauskas look like a 33-year-old with two lead feet to go with two wooden legs.

Basketball is a game of matchups, and the Cavs do not match up well against the Magic -- going 4-10 since the 2006-2007 season.

But last night in Cleveland's 112-102 win in Quicken Loans Arena, the only matchup that truly mattered was James against the Magic. One against everybody else.

And the one won. James did in one quarter what many players would love to do in an entire game. The league MVP scored 17 points, grabbed four rebounds and had four assists. It was, in a word, incredible. Even if it wasn't exactly pretty because, well, a finely tuned team game it wasn't.

Then again, who would you want running the offense? James or Mo Williams? No offense to Mo, who broke from his scoring/shooting slump with 24 points, but he's not one of the best players ever to wear a Cavs uniform. Or any uniform, for that matter.

James had a triple double -- 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists -- but it was his fourth-quarter performance, in which he accounted for 32 of Cleveland's 34 points, either by scoring or through assist, that will go down as one of the best ever in a playoff game.

"LeBron was huge for us, as you know," Cavs coach Mike Brown said, uttering an understatement for the ages. "We just gave him the ball (at the top of the key) and said, 'Give us some good looks, big fella.' And he did."

James smiled in the aftermath, knowing what he had done but making sure to make it seemed -- wink, wink -- like his teammates were a big part of things.

That was partly true. Williams finally broke out, going 6 of 8 from three-point range. Ilgauskas had 16 points and West 13. The bench also did something positive for a change, with Daniel Gibson chipping in 11 points.

But without James

"We didn't want to disappoint our home crowd by coming out and not playing as hard as we can," James said. "It's win or go home."

Cleveland isn't going home. It is going back to Orlando, where it looks to beat tough odds. Only eight teams have come back from a 3-1 deficit, including only three in the conference finals, the last time in 1981.

If it can be done, then James is the one to do it. Just as he does everything else.

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy admitted he's not sure how to stop LeBron. Stopping an entire offense is one thing. But stopping a one-man show?

The plot thickens.

Rob Oller is a sports reporter for The Dispatch.

roller@dispatch.com

It's amazing....I'm reading a bunch of articles on the game last night....it's like noone actually watched the game and just looked up from time to time to see that LeBron was initiating the Cavs offense and assumed it was game5 vs. Detroit from 2 years ago.

few mention that LeBron was actually looking for teammates and getting them easy shots....fewer mention that they were hitting those shots that they were missing in games before that...none mentioned Gibson drilling a crucial 3 down the stretch that I thought really gave the Cavs confidence and led to them stretching their lead.

I mean, LeBron has made tremendous progress in his approach and take on the game where he can now lead instead of take over....and yet, few (EJ last night was an exception) actually acknowlege it.

Missed shots are going to happen. But a turnover with the other team hitting their shot after the turnover is a 4 point shift at best, maybe even a 6 point shift at worst.

It just plain KILLS a team to not even get a shot when you're down at the offensive side of the court.

A win is a win...but LBJ's missed free throws are worth mention. One could argue they cost us Game 4, and though they didn't hurt too much last night, they were still prevalent.

This season he had gotten to a point where I didn't go into nervous rapture when he hit the line...right now I'm terrified.

i think he's going for 50+ tomorrow night, win or lose.

is it too much to ask 4 starters and a bench to come up with 50 more points?

It's a fair point because in other games during the series he hasn't looked comfortable at the line....

but last night he was 15/19 from the charity stripe. I'll take that without complaints. and that was with going 0/2 on one trip.

definitely one area Kobe has an advantage on him and I would rather Mo or Z be on the line down the stretch....but he's definitely better than in the past and last night was an example of that