NFL Mock Draft Review: 02/11/08
February 11, 2009Lebron’s Complaining vs. Bad Referees
February 11, 2009Before everyone freaks out over last night’s loss, do not discount the Cavaliers current state. No Delonte West. No Sasha Pavlovic. No Tarance Kinsey. No guard depth, especially in regards to size. Ben Wallace can only be used for 25 minutes at the most. J.J. Hickson cannot be trusted. The current seven man rotation is logging way too many minutes. They played and looked tired in Conseco Fieldhouse last night, that is the bottom line.
Lebron James did all he could to pull this one out, but his 47 points weren’t enough. On the positive side, Lebron’s late fourth quarter game was more of what we want to see. When the Cavs needed a big bucket (other than his three answering Danny Granger’s with his team down seven), he went to the hole and either “threw the hammer down…at Conseco Fieldhouse, ” or got fouled and hit his free throws. 15-21from the floor, 13-14 from the line. Those numbers are as good as you’re are going to get.
Newly crowned all-star Mo Williams struggled from deep, missing all five of his attempts, despite finishing with 15 points. Wally Szczerbiak, pressed into playing entirely way too many minutes (42), had an off night as well, missing all three of his triple attempts. Even Zydrunas Ilgauskas played one of his worst games of the season, going 5-17 from the floor. The Wine and Gold shooters – Daniel Gibson, Williams, and Szczerbiak – were a combined 2-12 behind the stripe.
With all of this said, the Cavaliers were one bad call away from forcing overtime. You’ve seen it by now, Granger trying to field an alley oop pass with Lebron jumping in front of him. To the eye, it’s a no-call, but in all fairness, Granger’s foul on the other end could also have been a no-call. Granger’s body-block of James however had to be whistled. James’ foul didn’t. Granger hit his first free throw with 0.1 left on the clock and that was the ball game.
But the fun was just beginning. Coach Mike Brown, in a move completely out of his character, went off on the officiating crew for what he saw as a “premeditated call” by notorious grudge holder Joey Crawford.
“I went back and I watched the last two plays and that last call on LeBron was the worst call I’ve ever been a part of. I cannot imagine another worse call than that by that official. It was an awful call and for him to take away a basketball game from a team with .4 seconds on the clock is irresponsible. That is an irresponsible call.”
“It was predetermined from the call that was made on the other end of the floor and it was very unfortunate because there were a lot of men out on the floor that were working their (behind) off to try to win the ball game. We got that game taken away from us on a horse — excuse my French — horsecrap call with .2 seconds left on the clock by that official. Absolutely horrible.”
“You can not … you can not … you can not predetermine a call to try to make something up for the other end of the floor. I saw it. I was a foul down there with .4 second. Down here, it was not. LeBron was in between his man and the basket. He went up in the air when the ball was tipped. And for that official to predetermine his call was awful. It was awful. That why we lost the game. I never blame the officials. But that call was a predetermined call and he should have swallowed his whistle on it. But he did not.”
Kudos to the coach for defending his star player and his team. Regardless of whether or not he felt this strongly about the call, going to the media so angrily is a smart, calculated move. Brown is no dummy. His players will see and hear these quotes and love the fact that their coach will go to the wall to defend them. He has always been a mild-mannered, calm guy, but he showed the other side last night after the controversial lost, and I for one loved it.
Our boys have now lost their first back to back games of the season, and to be honest, you all had to know this was coming sooner rather than later. The team hasn’t played its best basketball of late, and is extremely banged up. With Pavlovic, West, and Kinsey down, Szczerbiak went from the one trading chip the Cavs could potentially use to get the big man they need, to the only viable big two guard option. He is at his best off the bench as a spot up shooter for 15-20 minutes a night. Now he is playing 35-40. Gibson has struggled all year with his shot and he is now the only third guard option. The front court hole is still there, especially with Hickson’s play of late. Z is still rounding back into form. Lebron and Mo Williams’ minutes are up and The King is taking a beating physically.
Don’t fret Cavs fans. Every team goes through tough stretches. It wasn’t that long ago that the Celtics lost seven of nine. Everyone thought the sky was falling there too. What happened? They went out and ran off 12 wins in a row. The Cavaliers are a tired and banged up club. There is still plenty of time between now and the end of April when the playoffs begin.
Lets just hope the All Star break can re-energize this club and Delonte West can indeed come back and contribute right away.
11 Comments
J.J. is getting beat up too much. just because an older savvy vet took advantage (somewhat) of a rookie. J.J. Played Lamar A LOT better than Andy or Ben did that was for sure. His numbers the past month and a half have been decent, Everyone wanted him to play so he could be ready for the playoffs, and with us probably not making a trade, well then he needs to get in his growing pains.
I agree. The Cavs were tired. Everyone who is healthy has been playing too many minutes. We’re exhausted, and they’re being forced to different positions for different minutes than they’re used to. I don’t think Z is completely healed yet either. He’s getting beat on every play and is slow to help. Still love him, but he’s just getting old and is taking a long time to get back to form.
I’m optimistic that the all-star weekend will provide us with some much needed rest, and hopefully a healthy Delonte (and i pray he doesn’t take long to get back to full force). We could really use his perimeter defense, and his shot from beyond the arc. Take the Lakers game for instance. Kobe is always going to get his regardless of how sick he is, but imagine if Delonte was there to slow him down so that Lebron didn’t have to be stuck on him all night. Perhaps Bron could have been more available for help out defense on Odom. West brings alot to the court and we really need him back.
I agree they are tired. My question is how are they going to get energized because starting the last week of February through the first week in March they play 9 games in 14 days. Only 2 of those games are against “crappy” teams. Not to mention the week after that run we go out west again. It doesn’t get any easier here Cavs fans.. Let’s pray they can get that much needed 1 seed, and really step up in the playoffs.
GREAT post – gives exactly the perspective needed at this point in the season. You really cannot overstate how badly these injuries have hurt us. Gabriel brings up the impact having Delonte would have had against the Lakers, and he’s right on, but I would have even settled for Sasha, who could have competently guarded Kobe allowing LeBron to shift to Odom.
As for last night, it was clear they just didn’t have it. The team is physically worn down and I think that between the Mo All Star snub, the injuries, and the questionable officiating decisions over the last few games, they’re getting psychologically down as well. The All Star Break hopefully will allow these things to heal. If Delonte is able to come back and contribute anywhere even close to what he was doing, that will make a world of difference.
Love to see Mike Brown get fired up. You’re right, it was a calculated move, designed to inspire the players. We’ll see if it pays off.
I’m glad Z isn’t an AllStar. we need him to get his rest. His shot has been falling short lately, and hopefully a couple days off will help him regain some strength.
Another note; I have had enough of wallace playing so many minutes. He can start, and if he is actually contributing, then fine, play him like normal. But once its evident he will not catch passes, blow dunks, not rebound, or shut down mediocre offensive players, it’s time for a chage. I’d rather have Darnell in there than big Ben. He will atleast give a crazy amount of effort, and about the same offensive output. Why not play a young guy who will run all over the place when Ben doesn’t seem to be giving the cavs any out put at all?
Great post TD–I agree with a lot of what you said.
If we’re letting injuries, some poor officiating and All-Star snubs be our reasons for losing than we don’t deserve to be an elite team. I’m not saying that the injuries have been easy to overcome, losing Z before and being without Delonte really hurt this team. But to think that we are struggling as a result of missing Sasha’s 4.9 PPG or Kinsey’s 1.7 PPG is just silly. We’re all lying to ourselves if we think that having them healthy right now makes that much of a difference. There are much bigger things in my opinion to worry about than Sasha and Kinsey’s ankles.
We just lost to the (21-32) Pacers, those Pacers, in which we shot just .436 percent. This game had 2004 written all over it, outside of LBJ nobody shot the ball or for that matter moved without it. Gibson has been a huge letdown as of late, he needs to stop worrying about his haircut and start hitting jump shots. The Varejao we have right now is the one we need to get used too, 8 excruciating points, and 8 wild rebounds, nothing more and unfortunately sometimes less. We all said we wouldn’t put pressure on J.J. this year so let’s not, he can’t cover the bigs in this league yet and his pump-fakes down low aren’t even getting me to jump. Wallace’s back may be catching up to him and this is something that we seriously have to acknowledge and react too, his numbers have been on a steady decline every year since 2004 and there is no reason to think that this trend will suddenly change. The most-locked-down, sure-to-happen, take-this-expiring-contract of the season has been forced into a starting role and certainly can’t be playing 40+ minutes a night. Mo needs to get back to attacking the hoop, he loves his jump shot, and so do I, but when it’s off he needs to be penetrating and getting to the free throw line (case in point LA 2-2 from FT, Pacers 1-1).
We didn’t play a bad game last night and by no means am I standing up on a ledge, but we certainly didn’t play Cavalier basketball and that what is scary. We’ve never had a record like this and we’ve never had coverage like this so to settle now could be easy for players, thinking that everything is handed to them already.
Fortunately the season is only half over. A lot of people had punched their tickets for June, but I say let’s just get healthy and clicking on all cylinders for May. #1 seed or not, we still have the most dominant player in a 7-game series come playoffs. Let’s worry about who’s going to cover Odom once we get past the Magic and the Celtics.
(If Tarence Kinsey is unconscious come June I’ll eat my words.)
Tired? Are you kidding me? They had three days off and the Lakers picked them apart. Last night’s loss really hurt since the Pacers are so bad. I think this is a wake up call. LeBron, stop whining to the refs every time. The whole team needs to focus on the game instead of the refs, all star snubs, and triple double being taken away. It is early and we got a lot of season left, so let’s turn this thing around.
The Pacers have now beat the Cavs, Celtics, Lakers and Orlando at home this season. Not an excuse, but still worth mentioning.
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