Nothing comes easy this season for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They could have wrapped up their first round series against the Washington Wizards by winning at home last night. However, they played without a lot of playoff intensity and dropped an 88-87 decision last night to force a sixth game in Washington on Friday night. The wine and gold only have to win one of the last two games, but you have to believe the Wizards will be ready on their home floor tomorrow night.
The Cavs started off the game lethargic and didn’t show any playoff intensity until the fourth quarter. They trailed by seven after the first quarter, and at that point, the Wizards were a one-man team, with Caron Butler scoring 16 of their first 25 points. Cleveland trailed by two at the half, and by three after three quarters. The Wizards backs were to the wall, and they played like it. The Cavs didn’t match their intensity, as they didn’t even dominate on the glass, as they normally do.
Cleveland didn’t shoot the ball well, and the biggest reason was their continued use of the three point shot. When you are making almost half of these shots, it’s a good option. When you are hitting only 36% of these shots, it might be time to look inside. Particularly in the closing minutes of the game when you have the lead, you need to attack the basket, especially at home. Ironically, the wine and gold shot the same percentage from the floor overall, as no one outside of Zydrunas Ilgauskas could hit consistently from the floor.
However, I think the biggest flaw was one that is made by many coaches. The Cavs stopped running offense too early. With a five point lead and less than two minutes to go, Cleveland seemed to be running a stall, trying to run as much of the clock as you can, before taking a shot. Unfortunately, when you do that, it usually results in a bad shot. The Cavs needed to play at their normal pace until about 45 seconds remaining. They also reverted back to the give LeBron the ball, and everybody watches offense they lapse into far too often. They ignored Ilgauskas in the fourth quarter as well. Yesterday, it cost them a game.
Another disturbing development has been the performance, or lack of it, from Anderson Varajao. The Brazilian seems to be trying to do too much on offense, and it is dragging down his entire game. In 16 minutes last night, he hit just 1 of 6 shots and grabbed just three rebounds. Of course, he wasn’t the only one missing shots. The quartet of Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, Varajao, and Devin Brown combined to hit just 3 out of 23 shots. One of those guys hitting one more shot would have resulted in a win.
So, now the Cavs have made it difficult. There is no reason they cannot win in Washington, heck they did it last Sunday. The Wizards’ backs are still against the wall. However, the Cavs need to put this series away. No matter how many statistics people will come up with on seventh games at home in NBA history, and how the home team almost always wins, it still would be one game, and anything can happen. The Cavs need to treat Friday night’s game like it is Game 7.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 