I’m Gonna Be, Gonna Be Like ‘Bron…
May 7, 2010While We’re Waiting… Cavs/Celtics Game 3, Cleveland Football, Wood Promoted
May 8, 2010
Well, it sure has been a long three days.
Those that jumped the fence into Armageddon are free to come back over on to the side where the fans have remained calm. Sure, the Cavaliers got blown out at home during Game Two. Sure, the team still hasn’t found a way to stop Rajon Rondo. And sure, the intensity has been lacking in three of the four quarters of play.
But the series is tied one-to-one. This isn’t soccer – point differential means nothing.
LeBron James and Anderson Varejao have been receiving treatment over the last three days and both players are said to be good-to-go. There has been discussion about some defensive assignments (hint: do not count out LeBron James guarding Rondo for stretches of this game), rotational adjustments (hint: more JJ, perhaps?), and less towel throwing (hint: Ainge was docked $25K).
We have done our best to pull everyone off of the ledge over the course of the last few days. If you need a refresher, try here, here and here. Most sports books have the Cavaliers as a one-point favorite tonight; not much of an adjustment considering that they were only favored by six when at home. Vegas believes. Hollinger believes. We believe.
Feel free to follow along in the comments. In the event things go haywire again, let’s try our best to keep it clean. Oh, and in the meantime – try to win free stuff. Cheers!
113 Comments
Besides how well we executed, you have to like the blueprint for the rest of the series. Playing off of and consequentially staying in front of Rondo lets the rest of the defense stay home. Make Pierce, Garnett, and Allen beat you. Even if Rondo is hitting outside jumpers, you live with it because he’s not getting the astronomical assist totals.
@ Rut – The Future is a mysterious place. I think LeBron is attracted to the crazy future sunglasses that Jay-Z has.
Let’s not get too cocky. This is what the Cavs can do when they play at their absolute best. It’s fantastic – and it doesn’t happen all that often, sadly. Game 2 was a giant amalgamation of everything that could go wrong. This game was the converse of that.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t enjoy this game – because it was the bosoms. But we also shouldn’t gloat about it too much.
It was a good game in a best’o-7 game series. But wow it felt good.
Hey Cavs fans, just wanted to say congrats on your win tonight. I am a lifelong Sonics fan, so unfortunately I’m teamless at the moment, but I appreciate good basketball teams and fierce competition. This has definitely been a series I wanted to watch, and so far has been entertaining but quite disappointing at the same time. You guys looked awesome tonight, so congrats, not sure if any team could have beaten you guys tonight. But this being said, while all teams have some serious homerism going on, from an unbiased point of view, I find the refereeing in this series making it hard for me to watch. The SA/PHO series on the hard hand has been very consistent, but this one has been quite favorable for your Cavs. I felt Boston got alot of calls last year when they played chicago, but Cleveland has definitely been getting the benefit here. I mean this 1st quarter seemed like the cavs were getting some home cooking, lol, as they went up by 20. Anyways,I wish the refs would be a little more consistent and less biased, as this has such great players on both sides involved b/c for the general public the SA/PHO series is way more watchable and that’s 3-0. Just my 2 cents, gluck to you guys against boston and orlando if you move on. I’m guessing the calls would be more on point if you meet the lakers in the finals.
Just feel I should point out that the title of my Bulls Game 4 Recap was “Can we see this team *every* time?” and Friday night was the first time we’d seen it in almost two weeks / three games.
@Historycat – It’s Antawn Jamison. I would let it slide normally but you consistently misspell his name. That is all.
Denny, I absolutely intend to gloat. For how much pain game 2 caused, I am going to enjoy the next 48 hrs.
SeattleJay – Nice Try dbag. We all know you are from Boston
Even if not from Boston, the fact that there were 2 more fouls on Cleveland than BOston for the game should indicate there isn’t exactly an anti-Boston conspiracy among the refs here. The Celtics just got outplayed, up and down – starters, bench, rebounding, points in the paint, everything. And for all who complain about the number of calls Lebron gets, I recommend getting the NBA package and watch all 82 Cavs games in a season, and see how many times Lebron is fouled without a call because he’s just so big. Yeah, he gets calls sometimes; he also doesn’t get calls sometimes. You can’t just point to fouls he does get as favoritism.
As much as I love Delonte, I prefer to not be bipolar with my sports fandom. WE SHALL NOT GLOAT.
The “No regard for human life” dunk is easily found online. Please notice the forearm to the ribs of Mr. James.
No foul called.
@96 – yes, thanks, that was tasty last nite.
anyone else noticing and liking the doppelganger of ORL coasting undefeated into ECF while cavs play through some adversity… kinda like last year’s ECF.
@93 – and on the refs. i enjoy using this game’s total foul count to illustrate ref fairness because it’s the same kind simplistic statistical analysis that BOS/CHI use to illustrate bias in our favor. ie, ‘CLV had a lot more FTs so the refs are biased.’ never mind that CLV takes it to the rim while sheed, kg, allen shoot fallaway jumpers. likewise, after the 1st qtr the refs seemed to be giving borderline calls to celts in an apparent attempt to square things up even though the damage (making BOS afraid to play aggressive D) was already done and did impact the outcome.
all that said, that WAS a flagrant foul on lebron. perkins did not attempt to go for the ball. it bothered me to no end that none of the announcers noted what the rule is today, preferring to wax nostaligic about the good-ol-days of hard fouls. tell ya what jeff van gundy: we’ll wipe out that flagrant foul and you let us hand-check rondo. mm-K? right, thought not.
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