Cavs 87, Bobcats 94 – Unlike Chuck Norris’, LeBron’s Tears Don’t Cure Anything.

This is the face he made a lot last night.

Hey look – I’m in Ohio and got to watch a game! That’s the extent of the fun news for me. The Cavs played in Charlotte last night and looked not good. The troubling aspect of the game was the horrendous defense played by the Cavs in the first 3 quarters. Gerald Wallace did the point-scoring thing against the Cavs and absolutely shredded the Cavs all game. I guess that’s as good a starting off point as any, but let’s look at things a bit more.

The Cavs offense was very, very slow to get going. Mo was doing his thing pretty well, but the rest of the offense didn’t look all that good. Ball movement was happening (LOL), but things weren’t coming together all that well for most of the game. There were a few really nice moments where the interior offense got the ball around and some nice passing. Hooray for positives! The fourth quarter defense (which is when it was really needed) was good, but the Bobcats got too much of a lead for the Cavs to get all the way back.

There were a lot of issues for the Cavs in this game. Defensively, the team was a wreck in the first three quarters. Charlotte came out and gave a lot of one-on-one looks, which gave the Cavs fits. They were dropping tons of shots and looked quite good offensively. This was the biggest problem for the Cavs, and ultimately did them in. (Tidbit: Danny Green had as many minutes as Delonte. It’s gonna be a long season, kids.)

On a side note, I’d like to point out that for me, LeBron’s whining has turned the page and really begun to sour me on him. Yes, he filthy good. Yes, I live in DC (BUT I WATCHED THIS GAME IN OHIO). Yes, a few people concurred with me on the Twits, and another one likely chuckled. But look – it’s absurd. At the end of the second quarter, LeBron got called for a charge. He proceeded to flip out (Words used have been WFNY Edited), posture, and whine to Mike Brown. Then he got yanked for the rest of the half, and did the pouty thing.

It was a textbook charge.

He didn’t grind the offense to a halt last night, to his credit. But, he WALKED back on defense after a couple of no-calls (that were a bit more iffy but still not blatant either way). He got tied up once and apparently that should be a Flagrant 2 on the other team.

I love what he does on the court when the ball is moving, the offense is being run, he’s in the open court, he chases people down, etc. I really, really don’t love what he does when he takes the ball and runs a 22 second iso play. I don’t love when somebody touches him and the world ends.

When the team is losing and he’s busy whining and thinking about one call and not getting back in the game, I draw the line. It was clear in the Washington game. It was blatantly clear last night. I don’t know about the games in between because I didn’t see them, but maybe similar things happened in between. All I know is I want the guy that I like to show up, and not the guy that likely things he can part Lake Erie (OR THE HUDSON RIVER OMGGGGG) just by walking towards it.

Cavs need to play better. Doing so tonight against the Mavs would be wise.

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Photo Credit: Chuck Burton, AP