No one is sending the tape of yesterday’s Cleveland-Boston Game 6 to the Hall of Fame in Springfield. It was not a artistic display of basketball. It was, however, a win for the Cavaliers, 74-69, and it forces a deciding Game 7 tomorrow afternoon at Boston. Cleveland overcame 33% shooting to win this one, an event unlikely to happen again in any playoff game.
This one is in the win column because LeBron James refused to let his team lose. The King had 32 points, 12 rebounds, and 6 assists in guiding his team through a physical contest. The six assists may not seem like a tremendous total, but the wine and gold had only 10 as a team, so #23 had 60% of his team’s total. The Cavs won this game despite an inability to make shots because they were relentless on the offensive glass, grabbing 16 offensive boards.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, the master of the offensive rebound, corralled five, and James and Anderson Varajao each had three. After a sluggish first quarter, which ended tied at 18, the Cavs started the second quarter in a funk, but they closed with period with a bang, Delonte West’s off balance three pointer giving them a 42-33 halftime advantage. They started the third quarter in a blur as well, stretching the lead to 13 before the Celtics mounted a comeback to close within two.
But, once again, it was James to the rescue with a little help from Anderson Varajao. James knifed through the defense for a layup, and Varajao converted a three point play to push the advantage back out to seven. The rest of the contest was an offensive struggle, but some timely hoops by Joe Smith, and a humongous three by Wally Szczerbiak, who made only one other shot all night, gave the wine and gold some breathing room. James drew a disputed charging call from Paul Pierce with under a minute to play to dash the Celtics final hopes.
Again, Mike Brown’s playing rotation draws some raised eyebrows. He tried to compensate for the loss of Daniel Gibson by trying to give Damon Jones a couple of minutes, but Jones missed two shots in his brief appearance. And Sasha Pavlovic, who did hit a key three in the second quarter, seemed to spend much of his minutes in the fourth quarter trying to find out how many times his shot could get blocked. On a side note, Devin Brown appeared on a missing person’s report at NBA headquarters.
The Cavs have a chance tomorrow because they are playing the game. This is opposed to no chance had they lost last night. Remember, the wine and gold have the best player on the court tomorrow. If his teammates give him some help, perhaps the Cavs could pull the Game 7 upset on the road.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 