Joe Borowski, “Decidedly Better”
May 8, 2008Oh, So THAT’S Why The Browns Lost
May 8, 2008Cleveland Cavaliers (45-37, 4-3)
vs Boston Celtics (66-16, 5-3)
TD Banknorth Garden, Boston, MA
Thursday, May 8, 2008
7:00 p.m. ET
ESPN/FSN OH/WUAB, WTAM
Live Blog: 6:45 p.m. ET
The Cavaliers find themselves down 0-1 in this series with Boston. It’s not surprising when you consider the fact that this franchise has never won the opening game of a road series. Sad, but true. So the Cavaliers find themselves in a familiar hole. In 2006, Cleveland lost the first 2 games on the road against Detroit before winning 3 straight games and taking Detroit to 7 games before the Pistons could put Cleveland away. Last year, Cleveland fell into an 0-2 hole against Detroit in the Conference Finals and then ran off 4 straight wins to dispatch the Pistons. Then, in the NBA Finals, they once again fell into an 0-2 hole on the road against the Spurs and, well, we all know how that ended up. But the point is, if recent history is any indicator, Cleveland will probably lose tonight. The question will be whether Cleveland can win 4 straight or just 3 straight after falling behind 0-2. Or maybe Cleveland will write a whole new chapter for themselves and actually split the opening road games in a series for once. Wouldn’t that be nice?
I wouldn’t expect any changes to the starting lineups tonight, but I do think Sasha Pavlovic will probably see more minutes. In 14 minutes in Game 1 he shot 2 of 3 from the field, including 1-1 from three for 7 points. He wasn’t great, but he was effective on the defensive end, and with Devin Brown evidently in the Mike Brown doghouse with Damon Jones, that would seemingly open up more time for Sasha, who is still recovering from his injury.
Wally Szczerbiak was just 5 of 14 from the field in Game 1. He’s been unbelievably streaky since joining Cleveland. Playing an important road playoff game probably isn’t the best way for one to rediscover their confidence and their stroke, but Wally played big in an important road game in Round One, so hopefully Wally can recover tonight. If the Cavs can’t get better production from their backcourt of Szczerbiak and West, then tonight could be a long night, especially is Ray Allen and Paul Pierce are able to get going.
I said before the series that I thought Joe Smith might be an X-Factor in this series. I really thought his versatility on offense could help open the lane a little bit for LeBron, but after posting a -13 in Game 1, it became quickly apparent that Smith has no chance of stopping Kevin Garnett on defense. This is a major problem for the Cavaliers and it will be interesting to see what Mike Brown does with Smith’s minutes. For all of Mike Brown’s shortcomings on offense and making in-game adjustments, he actually does make very good adjustments from game to game, and the distribution of minutes at the power forward/center position will be key. Despite being a complete black hole on offense this season, Andy Varejao was still just -2 in Game One, mainly because he was effective on defense. He might get more than the 11 minutes he got in Game One if Kevin Garnett is going off again tonight.
As always, rebounding and turnovers will be important again in this game. The Cavaliers cannot allow themselves to be outrebounded once again. Furthermore, they need to cut down on the turnovers. In particular, LeBron needs to cut down on the turnovers. LeBron struggled in Game One with Boston’s defensive pressure, just like he did in the February 27th matchup with Boston. If Mike Brown understoond offensive principles in basketball, he would realize that having LeBron move without the ball and having teammates set him up in positive scoring positions would be a great way to alleviate some of that pressure and to reduce LeBron’s opportunities to turn over the ball……but don’t hold your breath. There’s no reason not to expect much more of LeBron dribbling with the ball at the top of the key. It will just fall on LeBron to make smarter decisions in this game.
Cleveland can’t match Boston’s efficiency on either end of the court, so finding ways to gain possessions while reducing Boston’s will be the key to winning this game on the road. It seems to be much easier to manufacture possessions when you are at home with a rowdy crowd behind you, so it will fall on the Cavs players to dig deep, play smart, and increase their aggressiveness. Otherwise, tonight could look awfully familiar as the team will once again dig themselves into a deep hole.
Vegas Odds
Boston -8.5
Over/Under 178
From The Outside Looking In
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