I'll begin by saying I still believe the Cavaliers will be the team to eliminate the Celtics this NBA post-season. I feel the team has what it takes and that Boston's personnel will not rise to the level of performance they have needed in order to push aside the Cleveland contingent in the last two of their three series wins.
It is accepted that Cleveland allowed Game One to escape them. The Boston bench bunch stunned the Cavs in Game Two, which was a contest the visitors led healthily before allowing the lead and the game to get away---which, of course, is what it also permitted yesterday in Game Five.
Rajon Rondo and Kevin Garnett will not reproduce what marksmanship they managed, so critical to last night's outcome. They both rose magnificently to the occassion last evening, spurred on by their home crowd, joining them in refusing to lose.
But that is not why the Cavaliers lost. For that, look at Lebron James.
I know it is sacrilege to criticize James, who is undoubtedly a superb athlete, a regional gem, one of the sport's---anywhere in recent professional sports!---most gifted talents. This is about a singular aspect of James' play, and it is not about his free-throw shooting, either.
James needs to resist becoming overly impressed with his own considerable virtuoso capabilities. He needs to better trust his supporting cast. He needs to quit freezing-out his mates. He needs to think back to how his hero Michael Jordan began winning titles once he entrusted the Steve Kerrs, John Paxsons and BJ Armstrongs---even in critical contests and situations.
In team sport---and I know Lebron knows this, evidenced by the many outstanding assist games he has had---one must trust one's teammates. One's success is dependent upon them. The games the 2007-2008 Cavs have played especially well are those in which the role players were maximized and allowed full expression of their own potentials.
One is not trusting one's mates only when one needs them urgently, as might apply to that late occassion when Wally was granted a token three-point attempt from the right corner. Naturally, he missed it. Rare (Damon Jones?) are the guys who can go quarters without a touch but deliver with a 3 when it is desperately required.
For a shooter---be it Wally, or Z, Sasha or Daniel Gibson---to be denied active participation by someone electing to instead monopolize the ball himself, as if he did not believe the others were capable of helping him, is comparable to being treated with disdain only to be suddenly expected to rescue everyone when times are toughest. It doesn't work that way, as anyone who has experienced such treatment on a basketball court can attest. This is particularly difficult for someone coming to a new outfit mid-year.
When a key teammate is showing deficient confidence in you, it is very difficult to remain confident in yourself. Without a requisite level of self-confidence, most athletes will struggle to achieve, much less to excel.
A team leader brings out the best in his mates. That Lebron did not come close to winning the MVP speaks volumes about his widely-perceived shortcomings in this area. As benevolent and sharing as he can be, he nonetheless seems overly-consumed with feeling it is he alone who can deliver the franchise and its fortunes.
This is why I cringed so much yesterday, hearing too many voices calling for a bust-out performance from the team's superstar. It is not an individual's achievements that win championships, especially against the caliber opponent one is going to see in the latter rounds of post-season play.
Z had five shots, despite proving to be a very difficult matchup for the Green all series long. Wally had eight points in the first quarter, but totalled only eight shots on the entire evening. Gibson had four shots. James had but five assists.
So you don't think this is just one "hater's" rant, listen to what Ray Allen had to say after the game. "We did a good job of recognizing when he (James) was gonna score and when he was gonna pass...(the game turned for us) when we began to make the extra pass."
Everyone identifies the clutch and much-needed pair of threes hit by Rondo just before the half as integral to Boston's resurrection, opportunities afforded him despite his being but 5-for-19 on such shots all season long. One has to wonder: "Would James have even allowed Rondo a touch in such a situation, his team down double-figures and very much in need of points?" I'm guessing he would not have. Why? Because he's characteristically denied so many of those who'd helped fuel Cleveland's last two wins over the Celts in the Q.
I think Ray Allen and his mates sensed James would elect, instead, to try matching Boston's offensive exploits with wondrous creations of his own. Sometimes, James succeeds; sometimes he doesn't. We all saw that ill-advised hoist from the top of the key during one of Boston's third-quarter runs. We've seen too many of these over the years with James, too many of them part of Cavalier losses. We've rarely seen the club fail when James involves his mates for a full four quarters.
At this point, a writer might interrupt himself to apologize for daring to take to task so marvelous an athlete as James, less he be accused of encouraging him to leave town for New York, New Jersey, Miami or some other distant, big-market enterprise. I'll not do that. This is not about disparaging James or his play.
This is about hoping he learned a lesson last night. If he is going to win it all, as he says he intends to, he is going to have to learn to trust his teammates---not only most of the time, but all of the time, especially when it matters most.
Last night's contest was a winnable ballgame, as were the other two lost to Boston. Conversely, the Celts cannot say the same about their two losses in Cleveland. The Cavs can---and I believe will---win this series, making history Sunday in Game Seven. They are capable of outplaying Boston and showing them matchups they cannot overcome.
But being forced to stand around and watch their incredibly-gifted mega-star relegate them to bystanders is not going to enable the rest of the Cavs to get it done, but will create more nights like last night, when the rebounds and loose balls landed in the paws of the opposition.
As NBA analyst Tim Legler contributed last evening: "None of the other Cavs were in rhythm; it was all Lebron all the time."
Many blame the head coach. Perhaps they should. Then again, perhaps it is the superstar who overrides what is instructed. I don't know nor do I need to. I only know the club's best chance of eliminating the NBA squad with the best regular-season record is by attacking them en masse, as a team, from all directions.
It would also help if everyone made their free throws, too.
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Speaking of fouls, contrary to what was opined on the radio waves this morning, it is not believed the referees necessarily rendered judicious treatment to the visitors on the victor's court, though the Cavs shot 41 free throws to Boston's 23. Many were the times a Cavalier was fouled hard on the body during a drive to the hoop without a whistle. How could what Kevin Garnett did to flatten Delonte West during a fourth-quarter drive go without consequence?
What is more, Boston was most evidently fouling with deliberation. How else could PJ Brown merit four calls in fewer than eight minutes? Big Baby Davis had three in eleven, though some of that is rookie clumsiness. Boston fouled to prevent layups, to send a message, to put wear on the Cavs and to require the visitors to earn their points on the line, confident they could and would not. They won because of it.
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Onto a pair of non-basketball items.
The absence from OTA's by Browns' TE Kellen Winslow, Jr. is entirely insignificant, inasmuch as he'd be unable to participate anyway, with yet another operation having occurred on his oft-troublesome right knee.
That is not revelation material, of course. It has been clearly reported elsewhere.
It is brought up to say Winslow has little ground upon which to stand should it be he does, in fact, intend to clamor for a new contract. He has openly admitted he will never be what he might have been had he not caused injury to himself attempting to master the motorcycle---precisely the type of off-the-field behavior standard NFL contracts prohibit, for precisely that reason.
Since he is, therefore, providing even less than what is was he was drafted to do and doing it less athletically than he admits he would have, it is disingenuous, hypocritical and most assuredly self-serving to argue he should be paid more. It is as if he were saying: "Though I'm giving you less than I once could and will never be what it was you dealt-up in Round One to acquire, I should be paid more than you've already contracted to pay me."
Hey, it's not my money. The Browns are smart enough to know all of this themselves. They can do as they wish. But these are my thoughts on the matter.
It matters not that Kellen has worked very hard. He should. Professionals do that. It is what they are paid so handsomely to do. It matters not that his numbers have been very impressive, resulting in two consecutive Pro-Bowl caliber campaigns. That is also what he was drafted for and is being paid to do. It also matters not that the young man may have a self-imposed abbreviation on his once-promising career. Winslow did that to himself when he decided to go his own way in regard to the motorcycle purchase and subsequent escapades.
To expect to be paid more for being less is simply absurd and ridiculous.
Lastly, on a baseball-related subject, refer to page 37 in this week's Sporting News. There, in a piece titled "Inside Dish," Sean Devaney (presumably) writes: "The chief concern about Indians DH Travis Hafner isn't so much his poor batting average. It's his inability to generate power. 'You can see him pulling off the ball way too much,' says one scout. 'There's no way he can drive outside pitches.' Indeed, Hafner, a lefty, has hit better against lefthanded pitching than righthanders. It would be wrong, though, to blame Cleveland's offensive woes on Hafner---every regular other than C Victor Martinez and CF Grady Sizemore is hitting under .250."
Read the complete post at http://www.xanga.com/MALeonard/657095544/hoping-lebron-learned-a-lesson-last-night.html