The (4) Boston Celtics blew out the (1) Cleveland Cavaliers 120-88 last night at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland in Game 5 of their Eastern Conference Semi-final series. The Celtics now lead the series 3 games to 2. Ray Allen had 25 for the Celtics including 6 3-pointers, Paul Pierce had 21 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists, Kevin Garnett had 18 points and 6 rebounds, and Rajon Rondo had 16 points and 7 assists for Boston. Glen Davis also chipped in 15 points in 21 minutes off the bench. When you look at these numbers, you see what an all around effort it really was for the Celtics. Cleveland was led by Shaquille O'Neal with 21 points, LeBron James with 15 and Anthony Parker with 14.
The big story of the game was how ineffective LeBron James was. He didn't make his first field goal until midway through the 3rd quarter and had only 3 for the entire game. As aptly noted on television, he just didn't appear to be aggressive and never got into much of a rhythm. I think Cleveland is in a lot of trouble, it doesn't appear as if they have much of an offensive scheme other than "Let's give LeBron the ball and hope something good happens." To be fair, a lot of times good things do happen with that strategy, but it's not as sound as a solid system is.
I think Cavaliers coach Mike Brown was outcoached last year in the Conference Finals by Stan Van Gundy of Orlando last year and I think he has been outcoached in this series by Doc Rivers, accounting for the series looking the way it does now. James is a good player, but he would benefit from better coaching and a better system around him. The Celtics have a number of really good players and good coaching to help harness their abilities for the betterment of the team. The Magic have fewer really good players than the Celtics, but have a lot of good players and a good coach who gets them to play team basketball. Good coaching is a big deal this time of year in the NBA and I think that will carry the Celtics to a series victory tomorrow night in Game 6 at the TD Garden. That game starts at 6 p.m. MT and is on ESPN and espn3.com.
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Lebron James is one of my favorite players in the league and it's so frustrating and shocking to see how his team is falling apart. I completely agree with you about Mike Brown -- the dude is being raped in the coaching game. It seems that Lebron has needed to come up with huge numbers for the Cavs to win any game in this postseason. Nobody else on the team has much of a chance to step up when Lebron isn't playing well, because like you said, their offense IS Lebron.
ReplyDeleteI think the coaching and surrounding players in Cleveland aren't good enough to get Lebron in position to win the title. It's too bad that he's getting all of the blame. Dude had an off game and the Celtics played phenomenally. I would like to see the Cavs win tonight and ultimately win the series, but I just don't see it happening anymore. The Celtics are too good when they're in their mode. It wouldn't matter if the Cavs won this series anyway, the Magic will beat whoever they play in the Eastern Conference Finals, and then they'll lose to either the Suns or the Lakers in the Finals.
I'm still half-expecting Lebron to surprise me with another "48 Special" type of performance, but I expected that on Tuesday as well, and got nothing. But like Bill Simmons wrote, "On Thursday night, the cement will be poured for LeBron James. It's time. I have no idea what will happen, and neither do you."