Big threes in Game 3: Cavs vs. Celtics Behind The Box Score
April 23, 2015Four primetime games for Ohio State football in 2015
April 24, 2015Happy Friday WFNY! It’s the morning after another Cavaliers playoff win. I know you’re feeling good about that. Let’s go!
The Cavs don’t disappoint in game three…
After the Cavaliers beat the Celtics for a third straight time to begin the 2015 NBA playoffs, LeBron told Allie Clifton after the game that the team hadn’t played their best game yet. It’s hard to disagree with his assessment, but it’s also hard to say that this wasn’t the best game yet for the Cavaliers.
It was a gritty game with lots of tension… Now that these teams are at peak familiarity, having already played two games against each other, things started getting a bit snippy. Specifically, it seemed like maybe the Cavaliers heard Jae Crowder’s comments about not being intimidated. He seemed to be at the heart of the tension, and I believe I saw LeBron pull a vet “psyche-out” move before Crowder missed his second free throw.
There was 1:14 left on the game clock and the Cavaliers were clinging to a five-point lead 98-93. LeBron walked past Crowder before his second free throw and appeared to say a few things to him, at least from my vantage point on the couch. Sure enough, Crowder missed his fifth free throw of the game after starting 4-4 from the free throw line. J.R. Smith grabbed the rebound. One LeBron miss, a Tristan Thompson offensive rebound, and a Kevin Love three-ball nail in the coffin, and the game was over with 26 seconds remaining.
Speaking of Tristan’s offensive rebound… I’m going to just say that I don’t know as much about setting rotations as David Blatt. I was frustrated and confused at various points of the season when the Cavaliers’ fourth quarter rotations excluded Mozgov in favor of the smaller Tristan Thompson. Well, at least for one night, Blatt looked especially wise for his preference for Tristan Thompson. Seven rebounds, five offensive rebounds, two blocks and tons of hustle points.
Thinking about Marcus Mariota some more…
I’ve talked a lot about Marcus Mariota because the Browns are the “frontrunner” to trade up and get him. That means different things to different people, but all it means to me is that the Browns have the most ammunition on draft night with their two first rounders. All I think I know is that the Browns have Mariota on the board… Somewhere.
After chatting with Lane Adkins this week, I now feel very confident that there’s some support for Mariota in the Browns front office. I also feel pretty confident that there’s no major consensus like the kind that saw the Browns offer everything they could in the universe for Andrew Luck or RG3. That has me feeling pretty good about the Cleveland Browns and their relationship to Marcus Mariota.
You can feel confident that the Browns know all they need to know about the QB because they hired Kevin O’Connell who helped Mariota as a coach. While some might consider that a detriment and potential to overvalue a candidate, I actually think it puts the Browns in a clear position to know exactly where to slot him as a player for their draft strategy of the right player at the right price.
Maybe I’m giving the Cleveland Browns too much credit as an organization. We won’t know whether I am or not for another year or two, but that’s what I’m going with right now based on everything I do know and all the things I do not.
Right now, despite Ray Farmer’s text penalties, I am thinking of it this way. Ray Farmer was an up and coming GM candidate when the Browns chose him and unloaded Banner and Lombardi. He was given a chance to put his own people in place this year in his personnel staff, and he’s working with his defensive-minded head coach, who likely has the proper amount of bargaining power in the organization considering his staff was “victimized” by the texting issues.
It’s based on hope and conjecture, but those are the reasons that I’m not worried about the team and Mariota. We’ll find out very soon what’s going to happen, but I’m pretty zen with the prospect that they can execute a cohesive draft plan.
Your weekly moment of soccer zen…
This is a thing of beauty sent to the WFNY chain by Will. The long run is an individual play and he follows it up with a beautiful feed to Neymar for the finish.
52 Comments
I played soccer growing up. I was a keeper for most of my time,but also had stints in midfield and stopper as a freshman in high school on the varsity team. My kids are starting to play, but they’re still to young for me to know if they’ll ever REALLY play the sport. I love it still though. I play old man style still to this day.
I’ve been saying this all along. You still don’t know what you have in Manziel or Shaw. I’d play those 2 guys all year and hope they win. If not, you’re picking high enough to get an impact player.