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.