(Sniff, sniff) Is that the playoffs?
January 26, 2008So, we are at an impasse
January 27, 2008LeBron had his 4th triple double of the year, and his second in as many nights.
The scary part is that he didn’t even seem to be giving his best effort. In the end his 30 point, 11 board, 10 assist performance was good enough to lead the Cavs to their 3rd straight win, and 4th in 5 games. The Pacers were outmatched without star Jermaine O’Neal, who missed his third game with a knee injury. But despite the disadvantage, the Pacers nearly stole this one.
While LeBron was on the bench resting (wait, stop me if you’ve heard this one before), the Cavs surrendered the 10 point lead they had. LeBron returned to take control of the game. LeBron didn’t shoot particularly well, especially from behind the arc where he was 1-6. But the offense ran through him, especially after Gibson picked up his 6th foul and ejection following a technical after only 15 minutes.
Gooden had a good game, with 23 points and 12 rebounds. Sasha Pavlovic had 22 points, and a strange shooting night. He made 4-8 from deep, but only 7 of 18 overall. He did penetrate and get to the free throw line, which is something the Cavs need from him more often. Zydrunas played 31 sluggish minutes, recording 8 points and 8 boards.
The Cavs have a tough week ahead, with 2 games against Boston, and a game apiece against Detroit and Toronto. This will be a good test for the Cavs. Can they go 3-1 this week? Anything less than 2-2 will have to be considered a failure. We’ll be watching the game at home tomorrow against the Celtics.
6 Comments
let’s see now, boston has 3 all-stars on their team and the pistons starting 5, sans ben wallace, have all played together as a team for what seems like a gazillion years and yet if the cavs only go 1-3 over their next 4 games, you say you would consider it a “failure”??? so what happens if they lose all 4, will the world come to an end??? talk about over-inflated expectations. the cavs have lebron james and who going up against some superiorly overall talented teams??? it’s amazing that the cavs even have a winning record at this point in the season when you consider how much the deck has been stacked against them by the nba’s evil schedule-makers. have you checked out how bad the bulls and heat have been with similar schedules to the cavs??? i, for one would very much like to see them go 2-2 over this tough 4-game stretch, but even if they do only go 1-3, i would hardly call it a failure. maybe a bit disappointing, but certainly not a failure. a “failure” is what the indians did in the alcs against boston after taking a 3-1 series lead. they “failed” to win the series and ended up having to watch boston go on to win the world series. now that’s a “failure” in every sense of the word. going less than 2-2 in a 4 game stretch in an 82-game regular season against some better teams overall is nothing to get your panties all in a bunch over. there’s still 3/4 of the season yet to play, so chill.
Dave- I understand your point, but if you want to consider the Cavs an elite Eastern conference team then don’t they have to beat the other teams in the conference? We only play Boston 4 times this year. I would say that these 2 games against them should be somewhat significant. Perhaps you are satisfied with the #4 or #5 seed in the playoffs. I for one think that the defending conference champs should shoot for the top or 2nd spot.
Ask the Indians how important it is to beat your division opponents. They won the Central this year because they beat the Tigers and Twins, not in spite of it. If the Cavs want to sit above the Pistons in June, then they need to take care of their business against them in December.
By the way, the Bulls have the 24th toughest schedule in the league so far. Miami is 10th, Cleveland is 5th.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi?season=2008&sortColumn=sos
well, so far the cavs are 1-1 in this 4-game stretch of potential “failure” with an absolutely awesome overtime win over the celtics, but an absolutely horrible loss to the pistons and i’m not just talking about the game either. as you probably already know, lebron sustained an injured finger in the first half against dee-troit-bass-kit-ball and sat out the entire 2nd half as a result. so then, just as you might expect, the rest of the cavs were unable to cope without lebron on the court and the cavs proceeded to score a less than grand total of 31 points combined in the 3rd and 4th quarters as a team en route to their worst loss of the season. i can honestly say that if lebron doesn’t play against either toronto or boston, they will most certainly only finish 1-3 and will indeed be considered a “failure”.
Perhaps the bright side is that Bosh and Bargnani might not be able to go for Toronto on Friday. A win there and we have our 2nd win. Honestly, if LeBron isn’t able to play then 2-2 would be a serious victory for us.
There is no doubt that LeBron can lead his team towards the Final. He is triple double threat to other teams and I know for sure that he is worthy to become an MVP.
JEm23
LeBron James fan