Last year, after losing to the Orlando Magic, LeBron served up this gem when asked why he didn’t shake hands with the Magic:
“I’m a winner. It’s not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you’re not going to congratulate them. That doesn’t make sense to me. I’m a competitor. That’s what I do. It doesn’t make sense for me to go over and shake somebody’s hand.”
Um, LeBron, I hate to burst your bubble, but that’s exactly what being a poor sport means.
On Wednesday, when asked if he was disappointed in his brutal performance in Game 5, he said the this:
“Me? Personally?” he said. “Nah, I’m not disappointed. I’m never disappointed in my play. I feel like I could do more, but I’m not disappointed at all.”
In other words, if you think you could do more, then you failed to meet your own expectations, and you are therefore disappointed.
Now, no one says that you have to wallow in that disappointment, but it doesn’t change the fact that you are at some point disappointed with your own play. LeBron said himself that he is never disappointed in his own play. That’s impossible.
This reminds me of that line from “The Princess Bride,” when Inigo Montoya is talking to Vizzini and the latter says his favorite word: “Inconceivable!”
James couldn’t make a jump shot. He tried 11 jumpers and made only one of them. Every miss was short — most of them well short — and a couple drifted off to the right. I suppose this could have happened just by chance, but a far more likely cause is that his elbow was bothering his shot.
I counted several others in which James had a clear opening for the jumper and turned it down. One could argue this was a reaction to his cold shooting, but that has never stopped him before. Instead, I would surmise that he knew his elbow limited his effectiveness as a jump shooter.
We have one other data point to support us: his track record in this series. Since Game 5 of the Chicago series, James’ effectiveness has correlated directly with how much rest he had between games.
Witness: Games 2, 4 and 5 came with just one day of rest; in those three, he shot 0-for-13 on 3s and 17-for-47 overall. Games 1 and 3, on the other hand, had an extra day of rest beforehand, which seemed to allow his elbow to feel much better: In those two contests, he was a one-man wrecking crew, making 26 of 46 shots from the floor and scoring 73 points. Needless to say, those were the two Cleveland wins in this series.
What it all means for the Cavs is rather worrisome because Thursday’s must-win Game 6 (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) comes on one day’s rest again.
If rest is the key for LeBron, he’s going to have a tough time performing well in Game 6, and that gives the Celtics the advantage. It’s funny — heading into these playoffs everyone thought that a grizzled Boston team would play better with more rest, but with LeBron’s injury, the opposite seems to be true, at least in this series.
With Boston’s impressive win in Game 5 on Tuesday night, the series has once again swung the Celtics’ way, and they have a chance to close out the Cavs in Game 6 on Thursday.
Has there ever been more riding on a conference semifinal playoff game?
While there are those that believe LeBron James is more likely to leave Cleveland if the Cavs were to win the title, the general consensus is just opposite. If the Cavs suffer another pre-Finals flame out, most NBA fans believe that LeBron will sign elsewhere this summer.
But it’s not like LeBron had one of his monster near-triple-double games and his teammates let him down. The other Cavs shot 46% from the field, 45% from 3PT and hit 18-of-22 free throws. Shaquille O’Neal posted 21-4 (hitting 7-of-10 free throws) along with four blocks.
Meanwhile, LeBron shot 3-of-14 from the field (0-4 from 3PT) and scored just 15 points. For the first three quarters, he settled for long jumper after long jumper and missed most of them. Once again, his unwillingness to go in the post limited his options in a game when his jumper just wasn’t falling. Two of the game’s great wings — Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant — made/make a living on the block, especially when they were having trouble scoring elsewhere.
It’s not quite over yet, but the C’s are leading by 27 points with 3:01 to play, so I’m going to go ahead and call Game 5 as a Boston win.
What a performance by the Celtics! Ray Allen hit 6-of-9 three pointers (25 points), Kevin Garnett (18 points) abused Antawn Jamison on the block, Paul Pierce (21-11-7) had his best game of the series and Glen Davis added a crucial 15 points off the bench.
If the Celtics manage to close out the series in Boston, this may very well be LeBron James’ last game as a Cav, and if it is, it might be the worst of his career. He went 3-of-14 from the field, settling for jumper after jumper and didn’t start attacking the rim until the fourth quarter. Once again, his lack of a post up game (or unwillingness to play on the block) limited his options in a game where his shot was not falling.
The Cavs have their backs against the wall now. They’ve proven they can play well in Boston and they’re going to need a great performance in Game 6 to stay in this series.
Rajon Rondo posted 29-18-13 (the fourth triple-double of his career) and Tony Allen added 15 points (on 6-of-7 shooting) to lead the Celtics past the Cavs in Game 4, 97-87. Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen had 18 points apiece, but it was Rondo and Tony Allen who put Boston over the top. These playoffs have featured some great performances by reserves. Goran Dragic almost single-handedly beat the Spurs in Game 3, Kyle Korver shot the lights out in Game 3, and now Allen posts this crucial performance to keep the Celtics in the series.
While the Lakers, Suns and Magic look like they’re going to cruise to the conference finals, this Cavs/Celtics series is shaping up to be a dogfight. Boston outrebounded Cleveland 47-33 and held the Cavs to 40% shooting from the field.
This game isn’t even over yet, but the Cavs are up 98-74 early in the fourth quarter and the Celtics don’t show any signs of making a comeback.
LeBron James came out in the first quarter like a man on a mission, scoring 21 points to lead the Cavs to a 36-17 lead at the end of the first period. He currently has 35-7-8 and it doesn’t seem like the much-discussed elbow is bothering him much.
At this point, the Cavs are shooting an astounding 61% on a normally tough Celtics’ defense, and Cleveland owns a 36-20 rebounding advantage.
It’s looks like we’re heading to Game 4 with the Cavs leading, 2-1.
The Celtics led by four at halftime before a blistering 31-12 third quarter that left the Cavs and their fans completely stunned. Cleveland managed a 15-0 run in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to 10 with 4:33 to play, but the C’s woke up and rattled off their own 11-3 run to put the game away.
LeBron James posted 24-7-4, but didn’t look like himself for long stretches of the game. He turned the ball over five times and went just 10-for-15 from the free throw line. He seemed to be favoring that elbow, so speculation about his health will continue. Antawn Jamison went for 16-6, while Shaq played just 19 minutes and posted a measly 9-4. Mo Williams was the goat for the Cavs. He went just 1-of-9 from the field and scored just four points. (However, he did dish out seven assists.)
Rajon Rondo (13-19-4) thoroughly outplayed Williams and controlled the tempo of the game. Ray Allen (22-7) got hot, and Kevin Garnett chipped in with a solid 18-10.
And then there’s Rasheed Wallace. I wrote earlier today about Doc Rivers’ comments about Wallace’s defense, wondering why he’d bother trying to motivate Sheed through the press, but the big man responded with 17 points on 7-of-8 shooting. To put that performance in perspective, Sheed scored 17+ points in just five games this season.
The Celtics have to feel great about heading back to Boston for Game 3 tied 1-1. They’ll have three days to rest their old bones and need to win both games in Boston to have a real chance to win this series.
One thing’s for sure — Cavs fans are a lot more worried now than they were a few hours ago.
“[Wallace] has to play better, bottom line,” said Rivers, who has given Wallace plenty of rope this season. “He has to play better defense — the offense will come — but he has to be a better defender. And we can’t wait for him. He has to be a better defender for us.”
Wallace, underwhelming for much of the 2009-10 season, continues to provide little in the way of production in the postseason despite all the playoff experience he brought with him to Boston. After logging a mere two points and two rebounds over 13 minutes in Saturday’s Game 1 loss, Wallace is now at minus-20 in the plus/minus for the postseason, the lowest number on a team that’s won four of the six games it has played.
Rivers on Sunday seemed unwilling to completely yank Wallace from the rotation, but noted that [Shelden] Williams won’t be overlooked.
Why can’t he yank Wallace from the rotation? From what I saw in Game 1, and from what Bill Simmons has been writing about all season, Sheed has been basically useless this year. His PER is 13.18 (a career low), he is -3.7 in production and -4.1 in net +/- (per 82games) and is shooting a miserable 41% from the field and 28% from long range. Is Rivers afraid to bench him outright because of the poisonous attitude he may bring to the locker room?
Rivers is a pretty good coach, but I don’t understand these comments. Why bother going out to the media at this point in the season? If Wallace can’t get motivated enough in Game Freaking 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals — against the Cavs, no less — then why would he think that making a few statements to the media make any difference?
