LeBron's dunk over Garnett was unbelievable. The crowd at the Q was just waiting to explode. Looking for ANYTHING to go nuts about. I mean LeBron could have just made a jumper. But he did THAT!
I'm going to make a poster out of that dunk.
I had to turn off the uninspiring post-game show.
Charles Barkley was just lamenting that neither team gets easy baskets.
Then he said the Celtics aren't a good defensive team.
Or, NICE TO SEE SOME TEAMS THAT ACTUALLY PLAY DEFENSE. TAKE NOTES GOLDEN STATE, WASHINGTON, AND TORONTO
The Cavs outplayed the Celtics the entire game, and earned a much-deserved win by playing excellent defense, and making just enough plays to get the W. LeBron James' shooting percentage is still down, but I think credit really needs to be given to to the Celtics Defense. Twice LeBron had open looks for 3 and he hit both of them. The Celtics are a VERY GOOD defensive team and everytime the shot clock winds down, the Cavs pass it to LeBron and look for him to bail them out. Whether it's Posey or Pierce it seems they are instinctive of this and put enough of a body on LeBron to make him fade away and throw off his balance. In the 2nd half he didn't want to get called for anymore charges (from the ref 30 feet away from the play) so he basically hoisted up a bunch of fade-away 3s as the clock was ticking down on the Cavs bad possessions. He said after the game that he and the coaching staff just decided he needs to shoot himself out of the slump. I think he needs to spend more time crashing the boards. He LIVES outside the 3 point line, and as the most athletic player in the NBA, he should not be doing this. I go crazy when LeBron is just sitting there while other guys are shooting. I don't know if the he is trying to conserve energy, or if the coaches want him to be back on D, but it seems like if he picked his spots, he could crash the boards a lot.
The media coverage of the Cavs is simply pathetic - it always has been. I give lots of credit to the TNT announcers - Doug Collins and Kevin Harlen always do a great job. Other than that, it's the same old story. Cavs win = Other Team Lost. LeBron's struggles are highlighted night in and night out.
In this game, he had 13 assists, a few steals, a few blocks, and he has played outstanding D on Pierce this entire series. He was 7-20 and still clearly the best player on the court. Plus he threw down a dunk only HE could throw down.
His shot selection could be better, but the Celtics defenders are doing a great job of keeping him off balance, and out of rhythm.
As far as the Cavs role players - it is really encouraging to see Boobie Gibson healthy again. He is confident driving, and even though the Celtics are chasing him off the 3 point arc, he is finding ways to score.
The Cavs are a good rebounding team. Even though they lost their best rebounder in the trade (Gooden) they really got a solid rebounder in Delonte West. He has a great nose for the ball and saves the Cavs a lot of possessions with his great leaping ability. He came up big again tonight even though it didn't show up in the box score.
When the role players play well, the Cavs ceiling is much higher than last year's team. Varejao finally played decent tonight. If he could get back to 2007 form I think the Cavs would be the undisputed team to beat in the East. This series feels somewhat similar to the series with the Pistons last year. Not quite the same, but that dunk on Garnett felt eerily similar in context to this dunk:
Once again the Cavs showed they cannot impose their will on a team. A few times I thought they could have broken the game open, but they didn't. Part of the problem was in the 2nd quarter, the refs were calling HAND CHECK FOULS AWAY FROM THE BALL and the Celtics got into the bonus early - allowing them to slow the game down and stay close. Then when LeBron got his 3rd foul, they went on an 8-0 run. Also, RayRay finally hit a few shots. But the Cavs really just played better the whole game, and finally had something to show for it in the final 3 minutes. Some nifty passing by the Cavs. I haven't really seen that at ALL since the trade. So maybe these guys are getting more familiar with where they are in space.
Ben Wallace had a few nice touch passes, LeBron found Joe Smith with a sweet no look dump off in traffic, and Joe Smith found a cutting Varejao for a bucket late. Cavs really need to play well in game 5. They don't necessarily have to win. But they have to believe that they can beat Boston on the home court. The Cavs don't believe Boston can beat them on their court. But Boston has the home court advantage. I don't think the Cavs will need a miracle from James in game 5 like last year against the Pistons - but he is going to have to limit turnovers and find other guys for some big shots if the Cavs want to win.
Pretty impressive dunk, but don't wet yourself.
The no-jump, tiptoe three pointer / pose was nice too.
It's hard to phathom that the Celtics can't win even one road game in the playoffs.
Good thing they have home court throughout.
Check this out. The small 3 had 6 pts in the 2nd half for boston. HA what a joke!
Ast: boston 16, James 13: edge boston
Blocked shots: boston 4, James 2: edge bos
Steals: boston 3, James 3: edge even
3pointers: boston 3, James 2: edge boston
Shooting %: boston 38, James 35: edge bos
BADASS DUNKS: James 1, boston 0: edge JAMES!
Does anyone in baaston see these stats? These are your team stats VS. one of our players. You chumps don't even realize what kind of butt-whoppin you got comin the next 2 games! Yeah 2 games. Biznitches!
not only is lebron a ballhog who puts up 13 assists in a playoff game.
he also is not clutch, and plays no defense. and believe me i should know. i was at the winking lizard, then the Q, then christies in the flats last night.
Watching Lebron James play last night puzzled me. He did not look like he was playing well. In fact, it looked like he wasn't doing anything, but when the game was over he has 23 points and 13 assists. I see this all the time with Tim Duncan. That is why they call him The Quiet Assassin. But you just do not expect this kind of sneak up on you stats from someone like Lebron James.
I think the problem is that James is just so impressive physically that you expect him to go into a game and just dominate it all the time. But that is just not the way basketball works.
I am not a big fan of dunks. They count the same as layups and so many times they are just someone ahowing off. But that dunk last night was impressive. It was not a showoff dunk, it was an "if he doen't dunk it, he does not get it in," type dunk.
Either both teams played great defense last night or both teams offense was off. I am not sure which, but there were lONG stretches where neither team scored. I think it might have been a little of both. It almost looked like neither team really wanted to win the game. There were a lot of shots that just missed that almost but not quite went in.
And it seemed that Garnett was not even there much of the game.
Tsunami,
Great win lastnight for the Cavs and one the surely needed.That dunk by LeBron was sick. He may have had a bad night of shooting but he did enough to win and well that's what matters most right? Anyhow the series is tied, Boston still sucks on the road and the Cavs have to feel confident going back to Boston. Goodluck the rest of the way to your boyz.
Spurcse - good analysis of the game. LeBron often has games where it doesn't seem like he's really doing much and then when you look back you realize he was a huge a part of the game. I think the reason for this is because he plays within the flow of the game very well. He rarely jacks up 6 straight contested jumpers and hits, sending the crowd into a frenzy because he's "ON FIRE". He will hit a shot, make a few nice assists, throw down a dunk, make a nice block. And then maybe go 6 or 7 minutes without attempting a shot, but grabbing a bunch of rebounds and getting a few more assists. Last night I thought he played well on the defensive end, and made some nice passes, but he looked terrible on offense for most of the game, at least until the end of the 4th quarter.
Did you see LeBron yell at his Mama to
"SIT YO #### DOWN"?
..not once, but twice.
I saw the play, when PP grabbed him and they almost went down, but I heard on Dan Patrick's radio show this morning that it was his Mom all in P-Double's grill....pretty funny.
I thought A.I.'s Mom was the only Thug-et out there. Mrs. James was ready to rumble.
LMAO.
Spurcse...the reason it looked like LBJ wasn't doing much is because he also dropped 13 dimes.
Gibson-14 pts
Varejao-12 pts
Joe smith- 8 pts
Szczerbiak-14 pts
even the Big Z had 9 pts. when those guys can hit their shots, LBJ won't have to do too much, and he won't have a 30 point game...and his scoring will appear to be somewhat sporadic, as it did last night. but all the while he's just doing surgery.
the dunk over KG was a nice poster dunk, and KG should be ashamed for his lack of lateral movement on that play.
GameStormC2C, yeah, I think I mentioned that. I think assists are probably the most missed things by fans who are watching. Few people sit around and say, "Wow, did you see that assist?" unless you were a point guard in another life.
People don't give non point guards enough credit for assists.
Too many people are impressed with scoring. They expect the star to score. But if the star passes off to someone else who scores, it counts the same as if the star made it. The points are supposed to belong to the team.
As I said earlier, we get that kind of game from Tim Duncan all the time. A lot of people think his skills have "slipped" because he does not score as much as he did at the beginning of his career. But with guys on his team who can score like they do, he does not have to do it all anymore.
Was that really Lebron's mother in the front row when Pierce put a hard foul on him? I noticed she seemed really upset and Kevin Garnett was holding her back from Pierce and Lebron...
That's too funny!!! She was ready to swing her purse...
Dude you were THERE?! Oh man, I envy you. Me and X are going to get tickets to game 6 if the Cavs win game 5.
J-Dizzle - I was going CRAZY in my house when he threw down that dunk, and then I heard the call from Kevin Harlen - that was the best call I've ever heard.
goTO - Yeah, that was Gloria James. She had a history of getting into it with players when they took cheap shots at LeBron in high school and once she had a run in with Paul Pierce about 5 years ago. She's been pretty tame since then.
Spurscse - I agree. It's not just about scoring, it's the impact you make with passing, and how you get the offense rolling. Doug Collins did a good job pointing out all the things LeBron does other than scoring.
NBA - While I was watching the game, as Wally and Boobie were stroking 3s, I texted a friend and told him we'd be the undisputed favorites to come out of the East if Varajeo could jump.
Think about it. Last year, two of the 5 most important people on the Cavs were Varajeo and Pavlovic. Pavs was the go to scorer when LeBron was on the bench, and Varajeo was determined to be the 2nd most important player after LeBron when they looked at the Roland Ratings for oncourt/offcourt.
This year, Varajeo looked AMAZING before he got injured in the winter, and Pavlovic finally had 2 good games before he went down with injury. Since coming back, both guys have been complete non-factors. If they play the way they did last year, and the role players do what they have done the last 2 games - the Cavs ARE the best team in the East - easily. And the trade make
LBJ is definitely the engine to the Cavs team...but any car that has an engine can break down if the other parts ain't working. LOL
LBJ has always been a good passer and rebounder and defender, cuz he's so strong...i said it last week that the rest of the team simply has to step up and fill their roles. if they do, then LBJ will have quite a few more "quiet assassinations".
I don't like the Cavs but I really hope they destroy the Celtics because I hate the Celtics so much. What if Paul Pierce and Lebron's mom would have started fighting?
For the few people that said that Kobe is better or surpass Jordan.
GET OF CRACK.
For the people that are comparing Kobe to Bron.At least you are comparing apples and apples.
I give the edge to Bron,if he was on the Lakers he would Avg 30.10.10 without trying.Cleveland has a BAD coach and a really BAD team.Can you imagine Phil coaching LBJ and he had half the talent that the Lakers got?
GAME OVER for the rest of the league for the next 7 to 10 years.
Yes, this was a great dunk. However, it is extremely OVERRATED. People can't stop talking about it, but it was a meaningless dunk. The Cavs were already up seven with a minute and a half left.
The game was over and the dunk happened. Yes, it was a nice dunk and i am not trying to take anything away from Lebron, but its just a dunk lets move on.
It have been meaningless to you, but the look on KGs face was classic. that stung and they didn't want to see that. it's called motivation people and that dunk ment the world to that city and team.
Curse is not the word for Cleveland Sports - this is a design that has been well-executed . I love God, but He is NOT a Cleveland Fan. Interestingly , after that period(the one after Fan), Fox Sports notified me that I had 666 characters remaining. Now, I'm rethinking whose architecture this "curse" really is...
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