Season In Balance

Last night, in a game that should have been approached as a must-win game 7, the Cavaliers came out on their home court and played like it was a scrimmage. Hell, I'd expect a team to show more intensity in an off-season charity game. The Cavs were outperformed in nearly every aspect of the game as Boston dismantled Cleveland in a 120-88 blowout, good for the Cavs' worst home playoff loss ever.

If you're a Cavs fan, you'd like to credit Paul Pierce and the Boston defense for holding James to 15 points on 3-14 shooting, but the fact of the matter is that LeBron's poor performance falls largely on his own shoulders. He started the game getting his teammates involved with 4 assists in the first quarter, which is all well and good, but he should have started attacking the rim sooner than he did. James just couldn't hit a shot in the first half, and when he did start to take it to the hoop in the second quarter, Boston smartly made him earn it at the line to prevent him from getting in rhythm.

The second quarter was possibly some of the ugliest basketball I've seen during these playoffs outside of the Hawks pitiful performance against the Magic. The Cavs were stuck at 29 points for nearly 6 minutes, turning the ball over and missing shot after shot as they basically invited the Celtics to take the lead into the half. Garnett was having his way with Jamison, Pierce got into a rhythm for the first time this series, and Mo couldn't keep up with Ray Allen as he moved without the ball and knocked down jumpers. Keep in mind that a lot of this was going down without Rondo on the floor.

Killer Instinct

I really liked the way the Cavs went after the Celtics right from the start last night. Lebron killed it in the first quarter, lighting it up for 21 points on his way to 38, 8 rebounds, and 7 assists. The Cavs defense turned Rondo into a jump shooter. He did make several shots, but the Cavs will live with that all day, especially when he takes threes.

Mike Brown did a great job with the match-ups, putting Anthony Parker on Rondo and Mo Williams on Ray Allen. Parker's length makes it a little tougher on Rondo and his position defense is far better than Mo's. Ray Allen is less consistent in games now so he could hide Mo Williams on him. As soon as Ray Allen got a couple shots over Williams and started to get in a rhythm Brown pulled Williams and brought in Delonte West, who is a much better defender. I think this definitely kept Ray Allen from getting hot, he finished 2-9 from the floor for only 7 points.

The Cavs Length Issues

The Cavs have had to deal with a couple of transitions since the trade deadline. The Antawn Jamison for Zydrunas Ilgauskus swap is the most obvious one, but the return of Mo Williams and Delonte West in the backcourt is almost as meaningful.

Before their return, the Cavs rotation was heavy on forwards. Mike Brown would often go to a lineup of Daniel Gibson, Lebron, Jawad Williams, Anderson Varejao, and Shaq or Z at center. Heavy on forwards, this lineup provides extraordinary length on the perimeter and really strong rebounding. Delonte and Mo coming back takes away from that length. Jamison instead of Z in the rotation is also a minus in length.

I hate to say it, but I think playing Mo less would help. Mike Brown tried to play Delonte West at shooting guard last year, even having him guard Hedo Turkoglu in the east finals, and it didn't work. I think Delonte is an excellent defensive point guard, which he showed with two key blocks tonight, but he is not a very good shooting guard defender. He just isn't tall enough to hang with most NBA 2 guards. The more Mo Williams plays, the more Delonte is the second shortest guy, thus he would guard the 2.

It's tough to call for less Mo Williams minutes as a Cavs fan, but I think they would just work better defensively with Delonte at the point. Not that I think they should be playing Jawad Williams 25 minutes a game or something, but they need more perimeter defense now that they are getting more scoring from the power forward position with Antawn Jamison.

Nike's Cooking Up Something Amazing

Some photos have surfaced on the web from a Nike commercial being filmed featuring Andre Iguodala (above), Mo Williams, Rashard Lewis and Kevin Durant. Judging by the 80s Hip Hop-inspired outfits, this is gonna be good.