No Excuses

Monday night’s loss to the Pistons kind of hurt. Thursday’s loss really hurt.

Whether it was the 12-point halftime lead, Rasheed Wallace hitting the game-winner or the non-call on LeBron’s last-second drive. It was a tough take.

The Cavaliers dropped the first two games of their Second Round series against Detroit last year, getting thumped through the first six quarters. Cleveland came back and won the next three meetings, including a thriller back in the Motor City. But that was as good as it would get, with the Wine and Gold dropping a Game 6 heartbreaker at The Q and Game 7 at the Palace.

This year, the Cavaliers could just as easily be up 2-0 instead of the inverse. They’re not.

As much as LeBron James and Mike Brown must have wanted to cut loose during their post-game pressers, they wisely took the high road.

“We're a no‑excuse team, you know, and we can't look at the last play as why we lost,” said a somber, understated James. “We've just got to get better. But I do feel there was some contact.”

“The officials get paid a lot of money, and that's their job,” dead-panned an equally sullen Mike Brown. “If they don't see anything, they don't see anything. We're a no‑excuse team. We've got to get ready for Game 3.”

LeBron James can be a victim of his own talent. He fights through so much contact so often that referees don’t call fouls because they don’t always affect him. Rip Hamilton fouled LeBron on that last play; the only question is whether it was bad enough to get called to decide a Conference Finals game.

“It was an isolation play, which is exactly what LeBron wanted,” said Larry Hughes. “He was aggressive going to the basket and we thought that he got hit a couple of times, but we were able to get the rebound and get another shot off.”

The final score and tough ending weren’t the only similarities to Monday’s game. In both, the Pistons blew past a lethargic Cavaliers’ club after intermission. It was a 17-6 run on Monday and 15-4 run on Thursday – with the Wine and Gold blowing a six- and twelve-point lead, respectively.

Cleveland will practice for two days and try to figure out that problem. And, despite being down 0-2, the Cavaliers have to feel pretty good about themselves heading home. Detroit hasn’t dominated – far from it. And despite what they say publicly about not playing well, they have to know it’s going to be hard-scrabble stuff for the rest of the series.

“We know we can compete with this team,” said Drew Gooden. “But then again, it’s a tough break type of game. Knowing that we have two home games, we'll see what happens.”

Gooden will have to turn up his game for the series to head back to Detroit. Actually, the Cavaliers simply need more than LeBron and one other starter to heat up. Anderson Varejao and Boobie Gibson are getting in the swing of things and the home court should give the road-weary Cavs a lift.

They’ll need it, heading into the weekend with their backs against the wall.

Finals First Blood

LeBron James thinks of himself as a football player, so here’s a football analogy for what the Pistons did to LeBron the basketball player on Monday night: They made him go East and West instead of North and South.

James patrolled sideline to sideline, looking for that small crease to get up-field. It never materialized.

Of course, nobody’s blaming James for last night’s heart-wrenching 79-76 loss. There’s no blame to be had. The Cavaliers merely got (slightly) out-slugged by an experienced Pistons team on their home floor. But if the Cavaliers expect to compete in the Eastern Conference Finals in Games 2-7, they will have to figure out a way to get LeBron untracked. And, more importantly, get him going North and South and to the free throw line.

“They played great,” said James, when asked about the Pistons’ D. “I mean, their defensive mindset is very good. But for me, I just take what's there. You know, if you get a good look at it, you go for it. If not, you kick it to a teammate. Simple as that.”

Coach Mike Brown was in a less-giving mood. “I've got to go back and watch the tape, but I don't know how LeBron plays 45 minutes and doesn't get a free throw attempt,” said Brown. “I thought he went to the hole a couple of times. Obviously with the zero free throw attempts, he must need to go harder. So that's something that we can work on.”

One thing that Mike Brown and the Cavaliers definitely need to examine moving forward in the series is the disturbing trend of getting jumped on as they come out of the locker room in the third quarter. Detroit went on a 17-6 run coming out of halftime and the Cavaliers were forced to scrap back to make things competitive.

“It's just something that we've got to work on and get better at,” said James. “At times we look to take too many jump shots to start the third quarter instead of attacking.”

Despite having a Playoff-low in points, LeBron did manage to finish one assist shy of a triple-double. That one assist could have been the game-winning three-pointer had Donyell Marshall – who drained six of them against the Nets to get the Cavaliers into the East Finals – sunk his attempt from the right corner.

“I was telling Eric (Snow) that probably felt better than any that I hit in New Jersey,” quipped Marshall. ”But that’s the way the game goes. Sometimes you’re going to miss those. My teammates believe in me. They came to me, and I’m going to get more opportunities and continue to try to knock them down.”

One Cavalier who knocked down seemingly everything he put up was Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Big Z was 9-for-17 from the floor for 22 points (and a team-high 13 boards) and hit one big shot after another down the stretch. He was a non-factor in the Cavaliers’ Second Round series with the Pistons one year ago, but could factor huge in this year’s rumble. The last thing Chris Webber wants to do is run out at Ilgauskas 17 times per night.

“They paid so much attention to LeBron that I was able to pick and pop and find the open spot on the floor and knock them down,” said Big Z. “We’re going to have to make some adjustments because we need to get him some easier looks. I’m sure that they’re going to make adjustments, so we’re just going to take it one game at a time.”

Z’s young contemporary in the post – Anderson Varejao – had another solid Playoff game against Detroit, which doesn’t seem to know what to do with the Wild Thing in the postseason. The high pick-and-roll play with LeBron in which Anderson rolls straight to the basket worked in the seven-game Semis last year and it worked again last night. Strangely, every other team seems to have figured that one out.

The Wild Thing finished 6-of-9 from the field for 13 points and grabbed eight boards – five offensive. “I think that the more you play, the more things that you can show, so coach put me in the game the first quarter and kept me in the game almost the whole second quarter,” said Varejao. “When you play a lot you have more chances and it gives you more confidence and more focus, which is important for me.”

The Cavaliers will make their adjustments at practice on Wednesday at The Q and will head back to the Motor City to do it again in Game 2 on Thursday night. Did the Cavaliers give one away or are they close to figuring out their Central Division rivals? Has Detroit figured out how to handle LeBron or will he bounce back? Neither team played their best game on Monday, so on Thursday night – as they say on TNT – let the truth be told.

Back to New Jersey

There’s no putting lipstick on this pig … the Cavaliers stunk it up in Game 5 on Wednesday in Cleveland.

Fortunately, the NBA Playoffs are not single-elimination, so hopefully everyone – most notably the ridiculously impetuous boo-birds at The Q – can calm down as the Wine and Gold attempt to close it out on Friday night in Jersey.

No team – even in a Championship run – makes it through the postseason without a clunker or two. The Pistons laid a serious egg one night earlier against the Bulls in a close-out game, and they’re still the odds-on favorite to represent the East. The Cavaliers have lost two games among their last 13 and still lead their Second Round series, 3-2.

On Wednesday night, the Nets shot 1-for-15 in the fourth quarter and still won by 11. The Cavaliers couldn’t hit a shot, couldn’t spring LeBron James and didn’t get squat off their bench. They turned the ball over 18 times and had three more assists as a team than Vince Carter – not exactly known for his generosity – had as an individual.

Yeah, it was ugly.

“We’re human, just like everybody else,” said Coach Brown following the loss. “They came in, they did it. We just didn’t do it. It’s as simple as that. There’s no excuse I can throw at you. They just played better than us tonight and they deserved to win.”

The Playoffs are all about which teams adjust from one game to the next and the Cavaliers have to hit the drawing board to find a way to figure out the Nets. Give Lawrence Frank and his staff credit: they came in with a good game plan on Wednesday. They killed Cleveland with the high pick-and-roll and packed the middle to take the ball out of LeBron James’ hands. They forced Mike Brown to play Zydrunas Ilgauskas sparingly and made the Cavaliers beat them by shooting jumpers.

“I thought our guys did a very, very good job of protecting our paint,” said Coach Frank. “When you do that, obviously you have to live with some jumpers from the perimeter. But our guys were very in-tune. We were very fortunate (Cleveland) missed some shots that, by in large, they can make.”

More than anything, the Cavaliers need to make the Nets pay for double- and triple-teaming LeBron. He would never publicly call his teammates out, but James said as much after Wednesday’s loss.

“They definitely did a good job of defending me,” said James. “Our guys have to make them pay for that. We had a lot of open shots. I created a lot of open shots and we just have to knock them down – myself included. We all have to step up and knock down shots. That would help take away some of the double teams, especially when I’m in the middle of the floor or in the post.”

The best player on the floor for Cleveland for much of the night was Eric Snow, who kept the Cavaliers in the game for most of the second half – getting under Vince Carter and Richard Jefferson’s skin every time they touched the ball (and even when they didn’t.) Snow is easily the Cavaliers’ best on-the-ball defender and he validated his value on Wednesday as he has throughout the postseason.

Wednesday’s loss was not that different from the one in Game 3 – with New Jersey’s Big Three doing most of the damage and LeBron unable to get into the paint or find a shooter to bail him out when he did. The Nets were the more physical, more aggressive team. The Cavaliers adjusted after that 11-point defeat and, hopefully, they’ll put the puzzle together for Game 6 on Friday night.

“It’s one game,” said Larry Hughes, who struggled mightily from the floor on Wednesday night. “We have to go to their place and give a better effort. We understand we can win in their building; we just have to do a better job for 48 minutes. When we step out on the court, we have to understand that this could be the last game instead of looking past and looking forward.”

Let's Get Physical

They say a playoff series doesn’t start until the home team loses a game. Of course, the home team’s starting center planting the opponent’s two-guard with a mid-air shot to the chest tends to kick a playoff series into high gear as well.

Like the Suns-Spurs battle out West, the Cavaliers and Nets series is beginning to get a little hairy, punctuated by Mikki Moore’s flagrant foul on Sasha Pavlovic on Monday night. Aside from the bruise on Pavlovic’s backside, the foul worked wonders for the Wine and Gold.

Before that play with 8:48 left in the third quarter, the Cavaliers were trailing by five. Two-and-a-half minutes later, they were up by seven.

“That foul that (Moore) had on me changed the game and made us play together and stick together and play more physical,” said the soft-spoken Serbian. “And that’s why we won the game.”

It’s been a relatively clean series for an Eastern Conference battle, but seeing the same team every other night can certainly breed some bad blood. And the Cavaliers – who can clinch a spot in the East Finals with a win on Wednesday – have frustrated New Jersey’s superstars on a pretty regular basis.

“You see the team over and over and over again; they know what we’re doing, we know what they’re doing,” quipped Coach Mike Brown. “So you’re not going to trick one another too many times. You get sick of seeing the same jerseys night in and night out. It’s like Training Camp – after a while, you’re ready to go against somebody else.”

The Cavaliers will go against the winner of the Bulls-Pistons series if they can get past Jason Kidd, Vince Carter and Co. Of course, New Jersey will really pull out all the stops on Wednesday night as they’re in a win-or-go-home situation. In other words, Wednesday’s game could be even more physical.

“We have respect for them and they have respect for our team, but more than anything I think it’s just frustration,” said Zydrunas Ilgauskas. “But you have to be smart because one stupid move or one swing could change the series and just like that you can be going home. So you have to protect yourself and your team, but you also have to be smart.”

The Suns – and to a lesser extent, Spurs – know what Z’s talking about. Following Robert Horry’s hip-check of Steve Nash in the closing seconds of their Game 4, Boris Diaw and Amare Stoudemire left the bench and were given the mandatory one-game league suspension. Horry got two games, but is obviously less vital to his team than the Suns’ duo.

What was most impressive following Mikki Moore’s physical play on Pavlovic – besides the 13-2 run that swung Monday’s game – was how quickly LeBron James stepped in to defend his teammate. After the Pistons’ Rasheed Wallace bloodied Z with no retribution last year, the Cavaliers were once again labeled “soft” by local and national media.

LeBron was determined not to let one of his teammates be intimidated this year.

“I guess (the Nets’) intent was to go at Sasha in a harmful manner in Game 3 and I didn’t notice it until I watched film the next day,” said James. “And I think they tried to do the same thing in Game 4 and it really ticked me off that they would do that to Sasha and try to hurt him. Me, as a leader, I had to stick up for my teammate. I didn’t like it at all.”

The Cavaliers are one win away from reaching the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time in 15 years. They’ll expect a physical and aggressive Nets team on Wednesday. Cleveland will respond, in-kind. But it’s a safe bet that they won’t let New Jersey – and Mikki Moore – distract them from the bigger picture.

“They probably think I’m good for our team and they’re trying to mess with me,” said Pavlovic. “But Monday’s game is over and I’m just thinking about (Wednesday) and trying to get to the (Eastern Conference) Finals.”

No Respect

Cleveland – and its teams and athletes – is used to getting disrespected. It’s part of our charm.

But that all seemed to change when the Wine and Gold won the NBA Draft Lottery in 2003 and a kid from Akron named LeBron James came to town. The young King represented Northeast Ohio like no other athlete in the city’s history. He was a superstar before he ever stepped on an NBA floor. And it seemed like the days of disrespect were over.

Apparently, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

On Thursday, the league announced its All-NBA Teams and after cracking the First Team in 2005-06, James found himself on the Second Team in 2006-07. The First Team not only didn’t include James, but didn’t feature a single player from the Eastern Conference.

Obviously, there’s no shame in being named Second Team, but most people – including myself – feel that he was slighted. Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash are inarguable. Amare Stoudemire is there as the figurative center. Tim Duncan and Dirk Nowitzki are superstars, but they didn’t do the things that LeBron does.

Duncan is surrounded by great, complimentary players and Dirk has limitations, as Golden State proved not long ago.

“The guys that are there – they’re all terrific players – and with LeBron being our guy, I’m a little biased, too,” said Head Coach Mike Brown. “But I don’t understand some things. I mean the guy goes 26, 6 and 6 – (only one other guy has ever done that for three years in a row) – and we won 50 games. I guess I just don’t understand.”

“For us, he’s our MVP and that’s all that matters,” said center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. “As far as I’m concerned, watching him play for the last four years, there’s not a lot of guys better than him, period.

“There’s nobody I’d rather have than him. I’m sure it doesn’t matter to LeBron. He wants to win.”

LeBron didn’t have the season statistically that he had in 2005-06. And it also became vogue for national pundits to pile on him for not coming out of the gate as strongly as he did last year. The main complaint among critics was that he was spreading himself too thin – citing the FIBA World Championships and his numerous endorsements.

But James still averaged 27.3 points, 6.7 boards and 6.0 assists per game in 78 starts. The only other player in history to average those numbers for three straight seasons is Oscar Robertson. He was the East’s leading vote-getter for the All-Star Game in Vegas and responded by scoring 28 points.

LeBron went on a monster tear after the All-Star Game and was second to only Kobe Bryant in scoring during the stretch run, averaging 29.2 ppg through the final 27 games. And most importantly, he was the undeniable impetus behind the Cavaliers’ second straight 50-win season.

“Aside from the fact that he’s one of the top overall talents in the NBA, we’ve also won 50 games,” added Larry Hughes. “(Finishing Second Team) is definitely a knock on us and it’s a knock on him because he’s done everything that’s asked of him – especially for our team – to help us be one of the best teams in the league. And I definitely think he should have been rewarded.”

In essence, LeBron is a victim of his own greatness. He is, and will be measured against himself because, frankly, there’s nobody in today’s game quite like him.

Of course, in true LeBron fashion, he downplayed an individual achievement.

“It doesn’t matter to me at all,” said a stone-faced James. “I’m just happy I’m part of the elite group. It doesn’t matter if I’m First Team or Second Team or anything like that. I just have to continue to play well for my teammates and continue to get better.”

But perhaps a better barometer of how he truly feels will be seen on Saturday afternoon and beyond. He won’t show his frustrations to the media, but he might take them out on the Nets.

And if he does intend to use it as motivation, he won’t admit as much.

“We’ve got enough motivation,” said James. “We want to win a Championship.”

But perhaps it was Hughes who succinctly summed up the First Team snub best.

“He knows and we know; the league knows,” said Hughes. “It’s not hard to figure out.”

The Waiting Game

The Cavaliers – fresh off the first sweep in franchise history – are now stuck in a holding pattern.

The Bulls and Pistons will get busy on Saturday and San Antonio and Phoenix will begin on Sunday. Three series are left to be decided – Nets-Raptors, Rockets-Jazz and Warriors-Mavericks. The Nets can wrap it up at home on Friday, Utah will attempt to stave off elimination at home and Don Nelson’s “midgets” have a chance to shock the world tonight in Oakland.

The Cavaliers are watching all three series with varying degrees of interest. At this point in the season, rest is good. But how much is too much?

“I think it can go overboard as far as coming back in and being game-ready,” said Larry Hughes following Wednesday’s workout. “We’ll do everything we can to prepare ourselves and to make sure that our scouting reports and our bodies are where they need to be. But there’s nothing like playing in games.

“So I think at this point of the year, two, three, four days are OK. But if you get longer than four days, it gets kind of tough.”

LeBron James openly admitted pulling for Toronto on Friday to get the extra days’ rest. Should the Raptors hold off the veteran Nets in East Rutherford – forcing a Game 7 on Sunday afternoon in Toronto – the Wine and Gold won’t suit up until Tuesday night.

James – between last year’s Playoffs, the FIBA Championships in China and this year’s All-Star Game – doesn’t usually get a week off.

“It’s not like the National Championship Game – where you get 50 days rest,” said LeBron, making his usual reference to football.

He also doesn’t seem to be a believer in the fact that players can get soft with too much rest. “If you’re not in shape by now, there’s a problem,” quipped the young King.

The Cavaliers can speak from experience on what it’s like to come off an emotionally-draining series into a hostile environment against a well-rested club. In last year’s postseason, Cleveland won their First Round series against the Wizards on Friday night in overtime and faced the Pistons at the Palace early on Sunday afternoon.

Detroit crushed the Cavaliers – 113-86 – before Mike Brown’s men had a chance to catch their breath.

So, if they had their druthers, players will always prefer a few days between games.

“Sometimes if it’s too long you can get stagnant,” said Zydrunas Ilgauskas. “You work hard during practice, but it’s not the same as the game – intensity-wise. So you don’t want to sit too long. But by the same token you want a few days to get your legs back.”

Asked if going longer than a week off is getting dangerous, Z laughed: “I don’t know; I’ve never been in this situation before. Usually it’s the other way around.”

So for the time being, LeBron and Co. will play the waiting game.

“(We’ll) just relax, stay home, watch games,” said James. “You walk your dog, wash your car. I just have fun with my son and … do nothing.”

Before the season began, the Eastern Conference’s Central Division was thought to be the toughest in the Eastern Conference, if not the entire NBA. The Pacers underachieved and off-court problems forced a mid-season trade that didn’t work out in their favor. The Bucks were simply decimated by injuries.

But as far as the teams that did make the Playoffs, it’s hard to argue that they’re not the tops in the East – especially if you’re from the Southeast Division.

Injuries, youth, and age aside, it’s hard to argue with the results. The Central swept the Southeast in 12 games this postseason and made it look easy. Chicago wiped out the Champs, Detroit exposed Orlando’s inexperience and the Cavaliers took care of business against a short-handed Wizards team.

Like most of the NBA, Cavaliers’ players addressed the report done by a professor and grad student at Cornell University, published in the New York Times, that essentially stated that white referees call a disproportionate number of fouls on black players than white.

Larry Hughes: “That’s a tough study to do. I really don’t think it’s relevant as far as our game. We have the same discussions we have with white refs as we do with black refs. It’s no different. I definitely wouldn’t say that a white ref has it out for the black guys in the league. That’s just not possible in our game. Just the work that everybody does in the league; there’s no way that we can even justify saying something like that.”

Zyrdrunas Ilgauskas: “I’m a bad example, man. I’m the all-time leader in fouls here, so I get called by everybody. I don’t think there’s much to it, to be honest.”

And finally …

LeBron James: “It’s stupid.”

How Sweep It Is!

Last year, LeBron James carried the load for the Cavaliers in the postseason. He averaged almost 36 points per contest in the six-game First Round series against Washington – including a 45-point outburst in a critical Game 5 at The Q.

In the following round, the Pistons knew that if they could stop James, they could stop the Cavaliers.

But with Monday night’s 97-90 win – and the efficient four-game sweep of the short-handed Wizards – the Wine and Gold served notice: to beat the James Gang this year, teams will have to deal with half-James and half-Gang.

In 13 postseason games in 2006, James averaged 30.8 ppg. The next-highest scorers were Larry Hughes at 11.1 and Zydrunas Ilgauskas at 10.4. Through the first four games this year, James averaged 27.8 ppg with Z and Larry Hughes right behind at 19 ppg each.

This is the way James prefers it.

“We can’t win if Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Larry Hughes don’t play well – it’s as simple as that. I need them every game to be a factor,” said James.

“I always want my teammates to shine. I don’t like having it by myself. Any time my teammates do well, I am more happy for them than they are for themselves.”

In Monday’s win, Ilgauskas and Hughes scored 10 points apiece in the fourth quarter – hitting one big shot after another. That duo also pushed the Cavaliers over the top in Game 1, with Hughes leading Cleveland with 27 points and Z’s seven straight fourth quarter points being the difference. In Game 2, it was the Drew Gooden Show and in Game 3, LeBron fed a wide-open Sasha Pavlovic – who struggled all game but stroked the game-deciding three with 25 seconds to go.

“(James) opens up a lot for me,” said Hughes, flashing his trademark lazy smile. “If everybody watches him play and can see what he can do with the basketball, then no one will leave him open. It allows me to get a comfort – shoot a couple 10-footers in rhythm and within the offense.”

Hughes was big from the floor, but just as big from the stripe. He hit 25 of the 26 free throws he attempted and the Cavaliers as a team were clutch from the line – hitting on .826 of their shots.

The First Round sweep – the first ever in franchise history – had to be especially pleasing for Ilgauskas, who went through a rough Playoff run in 2006 and was devastated by a family tragedy earlier this year.

“It’s obviously nice to help the team the way I have this series, and hopefully I can continue doing that,” said the Large Lithuanian. “I know it’s going to get tougher; the teams are going to get tougher, but I’m glad we performed well.”

Barely a media session goes by without LeBron James telling reporters that he’s “a football player.” It’s the one topic that James is always ready and willing to talk about, whether recorders are rolling or not.

So on Saturday afternoon, with James preparing for his pre-game meeting with the media and the NFL Draft playing on the locker room TV, James was especially animated. His team – at least for now – is the Dallas Cowboys and postponed the punditry while Dallas prepared to make their first round pick – No. 22.

Of course, they traded that pick to the Browns and LeBron joined the writers – and a couple Cavaliers – in amazement around the TV. On Monday night, after the dust settled, the former gridiron standout weighed in …

“I think (the Browns) got some good draft picks,” LeBron dead-panned. “They must have known something to be able to get Brady Quinn in a trade with the Cowboys. It’s a good pick for them and I know Browns fans are excited and I’m looking forward to see what they’re going to do.”

He then added: “Hopefully, the Cowboys won’t put the Browns on their schedule. I wouldn’t know who to root for.”

Before Monday’s game, NBA Commissioner David Stern – making his whirlwind tour of the Playoffs – spoke with the D.C. media on the state of the league, the NBDL, the Sonics’ possible move and, of course, overseas marketing opportunities.

“LeBron James (and team) are going to Shanghai and Makow, China – together with Dwight Howard (and team) as a couple of the rising stars in the NBA,” said Stern, referring to next season’s exhibition game.

“We have 300 million people in the U.S.; Chinas has 300 million basketball players,” quipped the Commish. “It’s an extraordinary marketing opportunity and the opportunity to take the Cavs there is very exciting for us.”

Many of the Wizards had a feeling that Monday’s game would be their last of the season. And one knew it would be his last as a Wizard.

On Monday morning, after both teams completed shoot-around, Gilbert Arenas saw the Cavaliers heading towards the bus and took a moment to break chops with some of the guys – notably Damon Jones. “Are you going to play in the last game tonight?” Arenas joked. The DJ, never at a loss for words, shot back, “I’m going to play as many minutes as you, (expletive deleted)!”

Arenas will be back to torment the Cavaliers on the court next season. One player that will not be alongside him when it happens is Wizards center, Brendan Haywood.

The former Tar Heel got in Eddie Jordan’s doghouse in early April – emerging for a few productive minutes in Game 2 last week – and got right back in towards the end of the series. On Monday night, Jordan played every player who suited up – except Haywood.

Haywood – who was a Cavalier on Draft night for about 20 minutes before being traded for Michael Doleac – began walking off the court before the final buzzer, left the Verizon Center before any player and his name plate was already missing by the time reporters got into the locker room to ask him about it.