Checking In On The Kids
April 12, 2008No Suspension For Byrd
April 12, 2008LeBron’s Back Reason For Panic
If you only watched the highlights on Sports Center, then you missed it. The ESPN highlight show had plenty to say about the Cavalier superstar scoring 24 points in the first quarter, and that he finished with 34 points. They actually said that he showed no ill-effects from the bad back that had plagued him. ARE YOU SERIOUS? Did they see the second half? Read this recap from ESPN.com-
James, averaging a league-leading 30.2 points before this game, showed no sign of the recent back trouble that caused him to miss practice on Monday and Tuesday. He scored 33 points in a 104-83 win over New Jersey on Wednesday and kept it going against the Bulls, with the sort of theatrics another No. 23 used to perform here on a regular basis.
WHAT? How about the 6 minutes of clock that LeBron laid flat on the floor with heating pads under him? If the Cavs hadn’t snuck back into the game, LeBron never would have come back in. He would have missed the entire fourth quarter. I guess that fact escaped the World Wide Leader.
As for the game, it was another terrible performance by the Cavaliers. The Bulls out-hustled Cleveland to every loose ball and dominated the Cavs from the second quarter on. The only Cavalier not named James that had a good game was Joe Smith. Smith scored 20 points in only 25 minutes and really looked good against his former team. Ben Wallace? No points. Daniel Gibson? 6 shots, zero points. Andy Varejao? No points.
Delonte West had a decent game, chipping in 16 points, at least 8 of which came on slashes to the basket. Zydrunas Ilgauskas was off all night, and was harassed by Bulls rookie Joakim Noah who had 4 blocks.
The Bulls take the season series 3-1. They did it without Drew Gooden, who will miss the rest of the year with an abdominal strain that has sidelined him for the past 7 contests. Larry Hughes played 30 minutes and scored 9 points on 3 of 11 shooting and 2 assists. Yeah, that sounds like Larry.
Cleveland fans this team is absolutely stumbling into the playoffs. Truthfully, the way they are laying right now, they’ll be lucky to win a first round game, let alone a series. Don’t believe me? Take it from Mike Brown (courtesy of Branson Wright), and no this isn’t coach-speak.
“Their bigs did a heck of a job and we had no answer for them,” Brown said. “They rebounded, dunked the ball and just controlled the game all night. We were a passive team and no one really feels us. I’m embarrassed with the way we played as a team. We’ve got to improve on this or we’ll get our behinds kicked going into the playoffs if we don’t get focused.”
Or take it from Andy Varejao-
“We won’t [be in the playoffs long] if we play like this,” Varejao said. “[Chicago] played hard and played better than us. We have to get back to playing better again.”
Afterwards LeBron said the back was not a concern. Now that sounds like coach-speak.