Eastern Conference Finals Game 5: Open Thread
May 28, 2009While We’re Waiting… What Others Are Saying About Game 5
May 29, 2009
Cavs 112 – Magic 102 (box)
The Cleveland Cavaliers didn’t need a miracle three-pointer from LeBron James to win game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals. They did need a triple double from LeBron James and a few sparks from teammates that had been quiet throughout the rest of the series. And with this ten point victory the Cavs have only earned the right to go back down to Orlando to somehow try to find a way to keep breathing long enough to drag the Orlando Magic kicking and screaming into a game 7 back in Cleveland. Enough about game 7. The Cavs did what they had to do in game 5.
Although for a while it looked as if the Cavs were going to fall into a similar trap as game 1. The Cavs burst out to a 22 point lead in the first quarter. They ended up finishing the quarter up 17 as the Magic started to come back. And that is exactly what they did. With just over nine and a half minutes left in the second quarter, the Magic had cut the Cavs lead to only 9 as the Cavs were stuck at 35 points for the first two and a half minutes of the quarter. The entire Magic team got in on the action including the usual culprits but also Tony Battie and Anthony Johnson. All said and done with the first half, the Cavs were white knuckling a 1 point lead with the score 56-55.
The third quarter wasn’t much better, but that is nothing new for the Cavaliers in this series. Before Delonte West could give the Cavs their first basket almost three minutes into the third quarter, the Magic had jumped out to 64 points on jumpers by Turkoglu, Courtney Lee and a short range bucket for Dwight Howard. The quarter was marred by countless misses and turnovers. It was so bad that it seemed to take almost every bit of air right out of The Q Arena. The fans genuinely seemed as scared as the Cavs were tight.
But somehow the Cavs managed to snap out of it in the fourth quarter. All said and done, the Cavs outscored the Magic 34 to 23 in the fourth quarter. Daniel Gibson was on the court and poured in a couple threes. Mo Williams seemed to snap out of his slump a bit and also had a three. The rest was the ill-advised LeBron James show. I say ill-advised because it is sometimes maddening to watch the Cavs spread the floor and stand around and watch LeBron go one-on-one. Tonight it worked. LeBron drove hard to the hoop. He made jumpers. He hit some free throws. He made an excellent pass to a driving Anderson Varejao for a bucket and-one. In the end, LeBron had a triple double with 37 points, 12 assists and 14 rebounds. More importantly the Cavs got a win.
It might seem silly to say, but LeBron seemed to get his swagger back in this game. Granted he was only 11 of 24 from the field, but he made the shots when they counted. He also made sure to jaw heavily with Dwight Howard after driving through the lane, and drawing Howard’s sixth foul. I am not sure what they were saying to each other, but let’s hope Dwight Howard’s jawing has the same effect on LeBron as Chris Bosh’s girlfriend has had on him in the past. Cavs fans better hope too because finding a way to win game 6 in Orlando on Saturday night could prove to be difficult.
21 Comments
YES. YES. YES. YES YES!!! Can’t get to game 6 without winning game 5 (if you’re down 3-1 that is)…remember Mo guarenteed the series, not game 4, thanks for scaring us mo. let’s head down south and get a win!! WE CAN DO THIS!!! STAY UP CTOWN!!!
Sager interviewed Pietrus after the game and he said “We’re still up 3-1 and have two games left at home.” Huh?
The entire TNT post game was focused on LeBron and how it will be impossible for him to carry his team like that in 3 straight games. Instead of reveling in the beauty of it, they were overly negative.
Will anyone talk about the lead that the Magic blew in this game? They were leading, weren’t they?
Were not dead yet!!
@The Other Tim-
Thats just the kind of wonderful “insight” you get from the TNT crew
Ugh
I thought we got a ton of calls tonight with the game on the line. Howard’s fouls were head-scratchers (again). Mo saved the ball on a pivotal possession while technically out of bounds..etc.
With that said, I think we can still win the series (absolutely cannot count out LeBron..he’s just playing at a different level).
Problem is, Magic shot 33% from three while Cavs shot 50% and this game was still in doubt. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that they’re the better team in this series, but doesn’t mean we can’t win.
Oh and we won this game in the fourth with non-stop isos. Funny how this is what many fans on here had been complaining about. LeBron went one-on-five and made it work tonight in the fourth. Granted, I don’t think that’s going to work in Orlando. But so many of you blamed Mike Brown for that in previous games, yet I don’t here anyone ripping him tonight – proving, if it works, and we win, it’s all good. If it doesn’t and we lose, Mike Brown stinks.
Mike Brown haters stink.
That was hard game to watch outside of the opening and closing minutes. However, I think it supported all those who said that, sooner or later, the Magic were not going to be able to shoot the lights out. It’s just good to see Mo being Mo again. And Boobie definitely has a role out their on the floor.
I would like to see us slap the ball out of Howard’s hands more often, much like we did in game 4. That’s the best defense against him.
@# 2 The Other Tim : Funny quote from Pietrus. Let him go on thinking that until game 7!
I don’t think the TNT duo were biased. Miller thinks the Cavs are going to lose, that’s it, and so do a lot of other people. It’s true that they did not emphasize the Magic let-down, but I think that’s the benefit given to visiting teams. Miller doesn’t think the Magic can have such a let-down at home. We know that that has not always been true in the playoffs. Let’s hope he’s wrong on Saturday night.
#4 plenty of people were ripping the offense in both the live chat and in this column… not sure what planet you’re on. “ill-advised”
and overall the officiating wasn’t terrible. still stupid touch fouls that get called compared to muggings that aren’t. they missed a baketball on top of the backboard off a free throw. for every cheapy that DHo got, Z and AV picked up 2.
Let’s just all put a moratorium on the officiating. It doesn’t do us any good.
Maybe I’ll write something on this for the weekend.
Finally, someone other than Lebron decided to play this game too. If mo can keep his momentum going into Orlando and D West or Boobie can step up again, Cavs should be able to win game 6. No matter how tired Lebron is, you know he’ll be putting forth a super human effort. Oh yea, and someone needs to play defense on Pietrus! That guy has absolutely killed us all series. He’s single handedly beating our entire bench. Where the hell did Joe beast go??
Yea, I’m definitely not a fan of the iso, but the small lineups were nice to see. Delonte def struggled on the defensive end, but thankfully Rafer Alston finally realized he’s Rafer Alston. Evened things out a bit.
Also, great to see TNT catching up with the rest of the world and playing the Hastly Made Tourism Video last night.
@ cursedclevelanddotcom: I’ll gladly bash Mike Brown for the way he’s coached this series. He’s definetley been out coached by Stan Van Gundy. Until last night, he hasn’t found a way to stop the Orlando offense, and the way he’s handled the bench has baffled my mind. We’ll play these two guys tonight, then someone else tomorrow, then another guy and the guy from the first night…..there’s been no consitency like there was in the regular season.
That being said, I’m glad, and relieved the Cavs won last night. I honestly think we’re going to go into Orlando and win to bring it back home. GO CAVS!
Howard’s fouls were fouls. He wasn’t positioned before the ball got there and he doesn’t jump straight up in the air. He brings his arms over. People just think he should get that call because it is the playoffs
Also, look where Lebron started his one on fives last night. Right above the free throw line. I loved that. It gave the defense a lot less time to react to his moves
“Problem is, Magic shot 33% from three while Cavs shot 50% and this game was still in doubt. I think it’s pretty clear at this point that they’re the better team in this series, but doesn’t mean we can’t win.”
That is one of the more insane things I’ve ever heard. Um, hello, the Magic have shot 43% from 3 while the Cavs shot 30% from 3 through 4 games, and all of those games were still in doubt. So, does that mean it’s pretty clear the Cavs were the better team through those games?
#5: I’ve heard enough about how the Cavs are getting calls. Orlando has stayed in these games early because of the touch fouls called 40 feet from the basket. Howard parks in the lane and been called for 3 seconds once this entire series. Howard and Gortat continuously hip check and crossbody block on the high screen. I watched Gortat push drive his man off the screen halfway down the lane last night. No call on any of these. Yet, if Z doesn’t count 3 Mississippi on his picks he gets whistled. LeBron gets fouled 3 times on his way down the lane everytime, and gets the call maybe a third of the time.
I’m really tired of hearing Orlando fans, and LeBron detractors whine about the calls he gets. If I remember correctly, when he came into the league he got none of them, so he’s earned them.
And how many elbows does howard get to throw before the league steps in and starts fining him? None of them have connected, but when one does it’s going to seriously hurt someone.
The horrible officiating goes both ways this is ultimately my point here.
And Orlando shot 41 free throws.
I wish Wally would have leaned forward when Howard threw his elbow and taken it on the chin. Would have been an easy suspension for Howard in game 6
It’s good to stay alive, but you’ll have to excuse me if I’m still not very comfortable with the way the Cavs have played in this series. The difference last night was obviously the uptick in offense with Mo breaking out big time and Boobie chipping in with some clutch 4th quarter 3’s. The good shooting enabled the Cavs to go into LeBron mode and have success as the Magic couldn’t cheat off our shooters. While I’m not a huge fan of LeBron mode, this one was more defensible for 2 reasons: 1) the shooters were hitting so the Magic couldn’t cheat; and 2) they were giving LeBron the ball only about 17 feet away from the hoop with LeBron having a live dribble. In previous iterations of the LeBron mode, he’d get the ball of a high screen beyond the 3 point line and already dribbling. This was much better. The shooting percentages FINALLY turned the other way in the Cavs favor in this game, and they got the W.
But the Cavs still have no answers for the Magic on the defensive ends. The Magic still scores more than 100 points and Howard, Turkoglu and Lewis got open looks pretty much at will, with the role players also getting good looks (but for once missing). I just think Mike Brown’s system relies too much on the Magic missing shots and turns the game into a situation where the Cavs are mostly relying on Orlando to miss shots. Tonight they did.
Let me give you an example which epitomizes my concern. Third quarter, Anthony Johnson has the ball at the top of the key and begins to dribble drive. The lane is already clogged and Johnson has no path to the basket. Lewis’ defender (I believe Wally) does what he’s been trained to do all season – try to stop the dribble drive and force the long range shot. Johnson sees Wally cheating and throws it to Lewis who is wide open for a corner 3. Lewis happened to miss the shot, but that play should never happen. The Cavs don’t need to cheat off of Lewis or Turkoglu to help on Anthony Johnson, Rafer Alston, Courtney Lee, or even Pietrius, yet they repeatedly do it. Hell, I’m not even sure I’d double Howard if it means repeatedly given up open shots.
So I’m a lot happier this morning with a Cavs win, but I’m worried that what happened last night is not sustainable.
fact: Howard was 4th in the NBA in # of fouls during the regular season and 1st in the East in fouls per game
why hasn’t he been complaining all year then?
@ amc – i’m with you. sorry to be a pessimist… but how can you be a championship team and be so inconsistent? were the cavs that good in the first quarter, or were the magic that bad? how do you give up 20 pt. leads in 3 games? where did all that fantastic ball movement go in the 2nd quarter? it seems they just get comfortable and get out of their game after these leads. brown, imo, has to start being a bit tougher on these guys when they lag and give up these huge leads. that game was sooo frustrating to watch. it should not have been that close.
it takes 4 quarters of selling out at 100% to be a champion. do the cavs have that? i haven’t seen it in this series. i do believe they CAN do it… but will they? these 5 games have told me, no. please prove me wrong and stomp on their necks, cavs…