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Magic 101 – Cavaliers 86 (Box)

The good news is that Ben Wallace looked like he knew what he was doing last night with his nine rebounds, four blocks and a steal. I guess we can ignore his 0-for-1 from the floor (another miss from point-blank range), as we didn’t bring him here for his offense.

The bad news, the entire Cavaliers team shot 38 percent from the floor (including LeBron James’ 6-of-22), and committed 16 turnovers. I’m willing to accept the fact that James may be dealing with some back issues, which can account for lack of accuracy. He got it done elsewhere, tallying seven boards, nine assists, two steals and two blocks. However, if he’s not able to finish on offense, someone else has to. And this is where Mike Brown comes into play. You need to have contingency plans in stock, and we obviously have none.

The Cavaliers have notoriously been an awful third quarter team, so the 17 points in that period really didn’t surprise me much. However, when you’re supposed to use the fourth quarter to compensate for the rough third, 14 points isn’t going to get it done – especially when you continue to get torched by swingmen. Rashard Lewis dropped 23, Hedo Turkoglu put up 21. That will not win you playoff games if you’re on the other end.

Brian Windhorst is going to bat for Mike Brown, opposing those that have blamed the last two losses on the head coach. He’s closer to the action and gets a better feel for these types of things that I would. However, you can firmly place me in the camp that will point the finger at Brown all day long. He’s ridden the coattails of LeBron James this far, you would think he would have had enough time to at least come up with something in the event that James cannot carry the team for an entire 48 minutes. Over the last few weeks, I have yet to see it. And I think it will only get worse over the final stretch.

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