This is a good breakdown (from BasketballBreakdowns) of a number of LeBron’s head-scratching plays in Game 5.
We’ll see if he bounces back in Game 6.
Tag: 2010 NBA Playoffs (Page 14 of 32)
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.”
Sorry to pull the dictionary out here, but this is what Merriam-Webster has to say about the word disappoint.
to fail to meet the expectation or hope of
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!”
Montoya’s response?
Photo from fOTOGLIF
Check out Brian Scalabrine (the redhead in the suit coat on the sideline) as he greets his teammates after Paul Pierce throws the ball out of bounds.
Tony Allen and Glen Davis…shame on you!
That video is almost as funny as this. Almost.
John Hollinger re-watched Game 5 and wrote a good piece about what may be going on with LeBron James. (Insider subscription required.)
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.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
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.
Defensively for the Cavs, it was another story.
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