Minor League Baseball’s website (www.milb.com) has a story featuring today’s games about Tribe farmhand Carlos Santana.  The article refers to San Francisco calling up their prime catching prospect Buster Posey, and wonders if Santana is next.  To this I say, ha ha ha ha ha.  How naive of these people. 

 

Instead, Indians’ skipper Manny Acta told the media that the team is looking forward to bringing up some of their top prospects AFTER THE ALL STAR BREAK!  Why the wait?  After all, everyone in Cleveland is interested in seeing the Columbus Clippers win the International League title.

 

Uh, no we aren’t.  Tribe fans have no interest in seeing Columbus win the IL, nor do they care if Akron wins the Eastern League. 

 

What they do care about is when the current regime will put a competitive team on the field once again. 

 

This weekend was a perfect example of the problems this team has. 

 

First, Tony Sipp’s problems were slightly predictable considering the workload put on him by Acta, mainly because he is one of two pitchers the skipper can count on late in games.  Sipp has been in 23 of the team’s 48 games.  That’s too many. 

 

That’s not to blame Acta, because what other choice does he have considering the make up of his relief corps.

 

Rafael Perez has shown signs of life recently, but largely has been horrible much of the season.  Jamey Wright is a bum who can’t throw strikes on a consistent basis, but we knew that going into the campaign. 

 

Aaron Laffey was good early in the year, but lately has forgotten that he’s not a strikeout pitcher who can get away with a walk here and there.  His problems being a consistent big league pitcher has been the inability to throw strikes.  Saturday’s game earned him a trip back to Columbus.  Jensen Lewis is Jensen Lewis, meaning he’s up and down like an elevator.  And Hector Ambriz is only on the roster because he’s a Rule 5 guy, and has to be offered back to Arizona if he’s not on the major league roster.

 

By the way, when Saul Rivera was traded to the Diamondbacks, did GM Mark Shapiro ask for permission to send Ambriz to the minors in exchange?  Or was he ordered to take the cash considerations? 

 

Of course, some radio guys decided to rip Sipp, who along with Chris Perez have been the only reliable options for Acta. 

 

Why doesn’t the front office get some help for the manager?  Frank Herrmann has pitched 25-1/3 innings this season for Columbus and has an ERA of 0.36, allowing just one run all season.  He’s fanned 18 batters and walked only eight.  He was signed as a non-drafted free agent, so he’s not recognized as a top flite prospect.  But, could he do worse than Jamey Wright? 

 

Vinnie Pestano just came up from Akron and hasn’t allowed a run in 7-1/3 frames while striking out 13 hitters.  Why not give him a shot as well? 

 

It’s the fear factor that consumes this organization. 

 

Benjamin Franklin said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.  Too bad Franklin isn’t the general manager of the 2010 Cleveland Indians.

 

MW

 

What a great Memorial Day weekend to come if you are a fan of the Cleveland Indians.  Your team gets to spend the long weekend in the Bronx, battling the defending champion (and 27 times overall, they don’t let you forget that!) Yankees. 

 

Based on the recent outcomes, this series could wind up being a massacre, because the Tribe is not playing well, and the bottom of the order is giving them absolutely nothing. 

 

Despite this "optimistic" view, we do have some questions for the Tribe management:

 

1).  Exactly when will our top rated farm system start to show some dividends?  The assumption is that catcher Carlos Santana could be here sometimes next week, but isn’t it time for guys like Carlos Carrasco to get an opportunity as well?  Carrasco spent all of last season in AAA, and now has spent two months there this year.  He’s ready to pitch in the big leagues, experience wise.  With Justin Masterson struggling, Carrasco should be in the Indians’ rotation.

 

2).  If you aren’t recognized as a top prospect, why don’t you get a chance?  Many Tribe fans don’t realize there is a pitcher now in the Columbus rotation who is 5-1 this season, won 14 games last season at Akron, and has a career minor league record of 48-21.  That would be Josh Tomlin, and why exactly isn’t anyone in the organization touting this guy for a chance.  All he’s done is pitch well.  OF Jose Constanza is another example.

 

3).  Why is Rafael Perez still on the roster?  This has been discussed before here.  Manny Acta can’t bring him into a game that is still in doubt.

 

4).  Why replace Masterson in the rotation with Aaron Laffey?  This team still needs two southpaws in bullpen, well, three if you include Perez.  Laffey has been okay as a starter before, but he is needed in relief.  That is, of course, if the Indians don’t want Tony Sipp’s arm to fall off.

 

5).  Why was Shapiro promoted?  We have always respected Shapiro’s work, particularly with a limited budget.  However, since 2007’s ALCS appearance, it’s been all downhill for this franchise.  Why move the man responsible for this upstairs?  And why let him promote his first lieutenant into the GM position?  This team needs an outside voice badly.  Yet, the front office acts like everything has been wonderful the past few years.  A different set of eyes is definitely in order.

 

6).  Will the Tribe draft the best player or the best player who will sign at a reasonable rate?  Right now, the team is saying they will draft the best player, but with the recent history of the ownership, one has to be skeptical.  This is an important draft for the Indians.  Last year’s draft looks good so far, but the organization still needs a major talent infusion.  Now is not the time to start pinching pennies.

 

Also, their are several local kids who are thought to be high draft picks in the up coming draft.  Why not take someone like St. Edward’s Stetson Allie or Walsh Jesuit’s Tyler Skulina early?  Or does the front office believe no one in this area can play the game?

 

KM

 

 

 

 

Indians’ GM Mark Shapiro always says a team needs to wait until a quarter of the season, 40 games, to properly evaluate the ballclub.  Well, the Tribe’s record is now 16-27 on the season, which is 43 games. 

 

So Mark, how about taking a look at your team.

 

This is a team that coming into the season was supposed score runs but have troubles with their starting pitching.  However, just the opposite has wound up being the truth.

 

The Indians rank 12^th in the American League in runs scored and rank 13^th in the league in slugging percentage.  The bottom third of the lineup on a nightly basis can’t buy a hit. 

 

Meanwhile, the pitching staff’s ERA is about a half a run lower than last season at 4.48 for the season.  And that’s with several pitchers falling below expectations. 

 

This team has too many of the same players currently on the roster.  For example, let’s look at LF.  The Tribe currently has Austin Kearns, Matt LaPorta, and Shelly Duncan on the team.  They are all right-handed “power” hitters.  There aren’t enough at bats for all of them.

 

LaPorta, who was the centerpiece of the trade for C.C. Sabathia, has to play every day.  If he’s not going to do it in Cleveland, then he should be sent to Columbus so he can get some rhythm.  Playing sporadically is not going to help his development. 

 

He could get playing time at first base, but Shapiro decided to sign Russell Branyan as a free agent.  Branyan is a left-handed bat that adds nothing to this offense except an occasional home run and a boatload of strikeouts. 

 

The last three guys in the batting order on most nights are Luis Valbuena, Lou Marson, and now Jason Donald.  Donald will be excluded from this example because he was just brought up.  The other two guys have OPS of under 600!  A good number is 800.  Both players have slugging percentages of less than .253, which is a mediocre batting average.

 

Unfortunately for Shapiro, he doesn’t have anyone to play instead of Valbuena, except 40-year old Mark Grudzielanek, who has NO extra base hits on the season. 

 

Marson can be replaced by hot prospect Carlos Santana, who hopefully will be on the major league roster soon. 

 

Compound this with another player who is consistently in the middle of the batting order in Jhonny Peralta, who has a slugging percentage of less than .400.  Peralta has shown beyond any doubt that the success early in his career (2005 and 2007) is not the norm, and he is nothing but an average big leaguer at best. 

 

So, with the injuries to Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore, who wasn’t hitting when he was in the lineup, it spells a batting order with more holes in it than a sieve. 

 

The only productive regular players are Shin-Soo Choo, Kearns, and Travis Hafner, who even though he’s nothing like the hitter he was in 2004-06, is still putting up decent numbers at .275/.394/.420.  And Kearns right now is hitting over .400 on balls put in play, which will not continue. 

 

You can make the case that Santana will be the third or fourth best hitter on the team when he comes up.

 

Donald and Trevor Crowe are young players that the organization are trying to find out about, and Valbuena’s season last year puts him in that category too, although a trip back to AAA to get his confidence back might be helpful, especially for a team who is always talking about the mental aspects of having success.

 

That leaves Branyan and Peralta and why are they continuing to be put in the lineup.  The management is being fooled by the occasional bursts of offense. 

 

If this franchise has any hope for the future it comes from developing young players and trying different things. 

 

However, we should know by now that the real agenda for the Cleveland Indians isn’t winning.  We don’t know what it is for sure, but it probably has something to do with money.

 

MW

 

The first change of the off-season happened in the Cleveland Cavaliers’ organization last night when coach Mike Brown was fired after five seasons in the job. 

 

Brown led the Cavs to The Finals in 2007, and also to the league’s best overall record in the regular season the past two seasons, winning 66 and 61 games.  However, he could not parlay that regular season success to the post-season, as his team was ousted in the conference finals last season, and in the second round this season.

 

That’s the ultimate reason Brown lost his job. 

 

The coach came here with a defensive mindset he learned from Gregg Popovich in his time as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, and he changed the identity of the wine and gold into a defensive team.  That emphasis paid dividends as the Cavaliers extended the defending champion Pistons to a seven game series in the second round during Brown’s first year.

 

The following year, the Cavs upset the Pistons in the conference finals earning the franchise its only appearance in the NBA Finals. 

 

After a loss in the second round in 2008 to the eventual champion Celtics, Cleveland needed to upgrade its talent base, particularly at the offensive end.  Mo Williams was the first piece brought in, and he was the first player acquired who wasn’t a particularly good defensive player. 

 

In the end, Brown couldn’t integrate Williams, and later Antawn Jamison into his defensive schemes, and that caused his downfall as a coach. 

 

The reason is he couldn’t integrate either into an offensive game plan as well. 

 

Maybe LeBron James wouldn’t let him, but regardless, Williams and Jamison were never as effective with the Cavs as they were with their previous teams, particularly Jamison, who has been a 20 points and 10 rebounds guy throughout his career. 

 

Fault can be found with Brown about his use of other players brought on the roster by GM Danny Ferry, most notably Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon.  Both players are solid on the defensive end, but either weren’t used correctly used on the offensive end (Parker) or hardly used at all (Moon).

 

There could be other reasons that we don’t know about, but the bottom line is the Cavaliers were favorites to win a championship the past two years, and didn’t even get to The Finals in either season.  When that happens, the coach usually loses his job.

 

The unfortunate thing about firing Brown is the Cavaliers really cannot search for a successor until they know what LeBron James is going to do.  His presence on the Cavs’ roster makes the job more desirable for the elite coaching candidates, such as Phil Jackson (should he not be back with the Lakers) or Mike Krzyzewski.

 

The potential to play for a title immediately would be there.

 

If James goes elsewhere, owner Dan Gilbert and Ferry are looking at a rebuilding project, hopefully, a short one.  That means they would be looking for an assistant from another team, somebody who can teach and emphasize defense.  Somebody like the guy they just jettisoned.

 

Therefore, a new coach will not be named soon. 

 

In the end, like all coaches, Brown was a victim of his own stubbornness.  He didn’t realize his offensive philosophy was archaic, and wasn’t willing to try something else.  He will get another job because he is a good defensive coach, and defense helps teams compete night in and night out. 

 

It’s part of being a head coach.  If you have a team that has championship aspirations, and you don’t win, you lose your job.  It’s not fair, it’s just part of the gig.

 

JK

 

Some baseball teams operate with an eye toward player development, and others operate solely based on what the major league club is doing.

 

There is no question that the Cleveland Indians run their organization with an eye toward the bottom line, but they also seem to always be looking at a worst-case scenario.  This leads to making decisions out of fear. 

 

Take for example, the case of one Rafael Perez.  The lanky southpaw was one of the game’s best relievers in 2007 and 2008, but last year fell on hard times, posting an ERA of 7.34.  In 48 innings pitched, he allowed 66 hits and walked 25 batters.  Basically, he allowed almost two men to reach base in every inning he pitched. 

 

This year, his ERA is 8.18, and he has allowed 21 hits and nine walks in 11 frames, allowing almost three hitters per inning to reach base. 

 

This means for the last year and two months, Perez has been knocked around like a batting practice pitcher. 

 

Yet, he remains on a big league roster. 

 

Why?  Because the Indians are afraid he may go someplace else and re-capture the magic he had two years ago. 

 

Listen, organizations should unload players because they’ve had a couple of bad weeks, or even a poor month.  However, Perez has had eight consecutive bad months.  Manager Manny Acta only uses him in games that are totally out of reach, and still the southpaw gets pasted. 

 

Perez is out of options meaning he can’t be sent to the minors without passing through waivers.  Obviously, the Tribe is afraid he won’t make it through. 

 

Let some team pick him up.  Even if he does return to the pitcher he used to be, it’s not like Cleveland disposed of him without giving him a boatload of second chances.  He simply doesn’t deserve to be on a major league roster at this point.  The Indians shouldn’t be giving their skipper a short roster.

 

It’s the same logic they use in regard to Jhonny Peralta.  It’s obvious that Peralta is no more than a slightly below regular in the majors, yet the Indians seem afraid to try someone else.  Certainly, money is an issue once again, but you are going to have to pay him whether or not he plays regularly.

 

They also seem scared to bring up prospects that are obviously dominating in the minor leagues.  Carlos Santana is ready to play in the majors.  In fact, he may be one of the team’s best hitters when he finally gets the call to the big leagues.  His superior bat would offset whatever shortcomings he may have in calling a game. 

 

The young catcher, remember he is older that Lou Marson, is currently raking at Columbus at a .336 clip, with 9 HR’s and 36 RBI’s.  His on-base percentage is a whopping .463, while his slugging percentage is at .617.  These are numbers that Albert Pujols puts up at the major league level. 

 

Santana has now spent six weeks at the AAA level, and on June 1^st, he will have passed the point in service time that would allow him to be eligible for arbitration one year earlier than normal.  He’s served his time in the minors and needs a new challenge. 

 

The Indians are wasting his talents by having him spend another month or two in Columbus. 

 

Other teams react quicker.  Heck, the Tigers just sent Max Scherzer and Scott Sizemore to the minors, because they need an upgrade.  They don’t want to give away games.

 

That would be a welcome attitude in Cleveland.

 

KM

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers were eliminated from the playoffs almost a week ago, and the sting still lingers for fans of the wine and gold.  Of course, the biggest news from the worldwide leader is the constant speculation about where LeBron James will play next season. 

 

Just as big is the question of what will happen to the Cavs next season.

 

Many of the national media have James long gone already, and there isn’t any doubt that word is coming from LBJ’s camp that he is ready to leave.  However, remember that James has to be disappointed with his team’s early exit, and that feeling is still part of what he is thinking about his future.

 

In the next six weeks, that disappointment will wane, and LBJ and his “team” will look at his future from a calm, rational perspective.  What team will give him the best chance to win a title?  Maybe that team will be Cleveland, maybe it won’t, but Dan Gilbert has proven that he will do what it takes to bring an NBA title to this city.

 

If he stays in the wine and gold, the Cavs once again will compete for an NBA title, but there will definitely be some changes. 

 

The first change will occur any day now, and that will be finding a new coach.  Mike Brown established a defensive mindset during his time here, and that served the franchise well.  He took the team to its only conference championship. 

 

However, his offensive shortcomings will doom him.  He simply didn’t find a way to use newcomers Antawn Jamison, Anthony Parker, and Jamario Moon effectively.  His solution for Shaquille O’Neal was to have him stand in the low post, for the most part.  This team had offensive weapons, and they weren’t utilized correctly. 

 

As for those who say the new players weren’t capable on the defensive end, that may be true, but it is incumbent on the coach to put them in a scheme where they can be hid, or at least minimized.

 

As for the players, it is unlikely that Zydrunas Ilgauskas will be back, opting for retirement instead of coming back for another season.  Perhaps O’Neal will be asked back, but only if he takes a rather large pay cut.  Therefore, there will be a need for additional big men, and those guys should be defensive minded more than anything else.

 

Also, look for GM Danny Ferry to look for an upgrade in the backcourt.  Mo Williams is a good offensive player, but his lack of ability to stay in front of quick point guards proved to be a huge problem, particularly in the playoffs.  If Williams were back, perhaps he would be better suited to a role off the bench, similar to what Jason Terry does in Dallas.

 

The problem is the salary cap, though.  If James stays, Cleveland is over the cap, and it is doubtful that any team is going to help them out by taking a big contract for an all-star type player. 

 

So, the changes will have to be for role type players using guys like Boobie Gibson as trade bait.  Management will have to look for players who are under-utilized elsewhere, much like Delonte West was in Seattle. 

 

If James leaves, then all bets are off.  The Cavaliers will have to start a major rebuilding process, because O’Neal will be gone too, and the team’s best players will be Jamison and Williams.  That’s a team that barely makes the playoffs at best.

 

Therefore, the difficult thing for the organization is they are hamstrung until James makes his decision.  His presence determines what mode the franchise is in.  It’s a difficult time not only for fans of the Cavaliers, but for the people who run the team as well.

 

JK

 

On a recent telecast of “More Sports and Les Levine”, the host referred to a radio interview with MLB Networks’ Peter Gammons, in which Gammons said the commissioner’s office is very concerned about the franchises in Tampa, Oakland, and Cleveland. 

 

Levine said Gammons continued that MLB has started putting pressure on Indians’ owner Larry Dolan to move the franchise out of Cleveland.  (I am paraphrasing Levine because I didn’t hear the interview, although I trust the credibility of both Levine and Gammons, and in fact, I am a great admirer of their work).

 

If what the highly respected Gammons said is true, then more than ever, Bud Selig should be replaced as commissioner, and sooner rather than later, because he is an idiot.

 

Yes, the situations in Tampa and Oakland are dire.  The Rays might just be the best team in baseball this season, and yet their attendance is poor.  Tropicana Field is not in Tampa; it’s in St. Petersburg, and despite their newness as a franchise, the building is old and not state of the art. 

 

Oakland has had problems getting a new stadium and currently plays in a park that has been ruined in order to accommodate the Raiders.  Plus, the A’s have had problems drawing fans even when they were one of the dominant teams in the game in the early 1970’s and late 1980’s. 

 

Cleveland is a different situation.

 

First, if the Indians were winning, people would come to the ballpark.  In fact, it has been less than ten years since the end of a consecutive sellout streak at Jacobs Field, which reached 455 games.  Remember that, Mr. Selig? 

 

The honchos in the MLB office cite the decreasing population of Cleveland as the biggest reason for the declining attendance, but that doesn’t seem to hurt the Cavaliers, which regularly play to sell out crowd at Quicken Loans Arena.

 

Yes, the city’s population is dropping, but the metropolitan area is still ranked as the 26^th largest in the US, with more people in the area than Kansas City, and Selig’s hometown of Milwaukee.  Why aren’t those cities mentioned as problems?

 

The problem with the attendance in Cleveland has nothing to do with declining population or a poor stadium; they have to do with the lack of confidence in team’s ownership, the Dolan family. 

 

This team won 65 games last season, and did nothing in the off-season outside of minor moves.  Why would fans get excited?

 

Most of the communication from the ownership to the fans is based on complaints about how tough it is for smaller market teams, and how the best the Indians can hope for is to contend once every few years. 

 

And the commissioner’s office wants to know why no one goes to games?

 

If MLB baseball wants to turn things around with this franchise, then instead of telling the Dolan family to move the team, they should instruct them to sell it.  Sell it to someone who will make a commitment to winning, or at least show people they are trying to win. 

 

At one point, the Dolan ownership was considered successful.  Through 2007, the family owned the team for eight years, made it to the post-season twice (2001 and 2007), and went to the final day of the season with a chance to make the playoffs in 2005.  Since ’07, the success of the team has steadily gone downhill, and it appears it will be a few more seasons before they will make the post-season again.

 

You can change the uniforms, bring in aging superstar players, and have the greatest sales people in the world, but in this city, only one thing brings fans into a sports venue.  That is winning.  Nothing else really matters.  Dan Gilbert understands this, and Larry and Paul Dolan don’t. 

 

The place the Indians play isn’t the problem; it’s the people running the franchise.

 

MW

 

 

The best thing to say about Game 6 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals is that it wasn’t over at halftime.  The Cleveland Cavaliers were in the game until the final couple of minutes, but still lacked something as they dropped the contest and the series, 94-85. 

 

It marks the second time in three years that the Celtics knocked off the Cavs in the conference semis, and back-to-back years where the wine and gold had the league’s best regular season record only to come up short in the playoffs. 

 

And of course, the speculation will begin as to where LeBron James will continue his career, although he took a beating from the media for his play and his seeming lack of fire throughout the series, save for the third game. 

 

James had a triple double, scoring 27 points, grabbing a career high 19 rebounds and dished out 10 assists.  However, despite the lofty numbers, it wasn’t a dominating performance, due mainly to nine turnovers. 

 

Mo Williams finally showed up, scoring 18 points in the first half, but finished with only 22 in 46 minutes. 

 

The only other Cav who played well was Anderson Varajao, who had six points and seven boards, draw charges, and generally played the type of game Cleveland fans have been accustomed to seeing over the years. 

 

In the end, we said at the beginning of the series, the key was to control Rajon Rondo, who make no mistake, is now the Celtics’ best player.  They couldn’t do it, as the smallest guy on the floor dominated the series, much like Tony Parker did in The Finals in 2007.  The other matchup that killed Cleveland throughout the series was the decided edge Kevin Garnett had at power forward. 

 

The coaching staff seemed slow to put Varajao on Garnett, who is simply too big for Antawn Jamison. 

 

Mike Brown declined comment about his future after the game, but it is doubtful that he will be back after another disappointment in the playoffs, and the fact that Doc Rivers outcoached him in every way possible. 

 

For example, the Cavs started Game 6 with Shaquille O’Neal guarding Garnett.  Instead of continuing to have Garnett post up against the larger O’Neal, Boston took The Big Ticket outside, away from the basket, thus foiling the Cleveland strategy. 

 

Rivers and his staff had an answer for everything the Cavs did, you can’t say the same thing for Brown and his staff.  When Williams got going in the first half, the Celtics defense got up on him in the second half, and no one else could take advantage.  The Celtic defense was also determined not to let James go to the hoop freely, fouling him as he got near the basket.

 

The King couldn’t get anything going from outside, so Boston was content to give him the outside shot.  Jamison, who was acquired to be a second scoring option for the team, finished with just five points, although once again, there was nothing run to give him a good scoring chance. 

 

We’ll say it once again, when you go up against good defensive teams, who have to have a plan offensively, and the Cavaliers don’t have such a plan.  Even Hubie Brown, the guru of NBA analysts, was on the Jim Rome Show, and he pretty much said the Cavs have no plan on offense.

 

There can be a ton of excuses as to why the Cavaliers were eliminated, but for the second straight year, a regular season that ended with a team poised to win a title, turned out to be a disappointment of epic proportions. 

 

Whether James stays or not, there will be changes once again for the Cleveland Cavalier organization.  If the fans think they are upset, my guess is it pales in comparison to owner Dan Gilbert.  He said many times, the team was "all in" this season, unfortunately for him, the dealer turned up with blackjack.

 

It will be a long, long summer of anticipation for Cavalier fans, hoping that when James switches his number to 6 next season, it will be on the back of a Cleveland Cavalier uniform.

 

JK 

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers laid a huge golden egg in game five of their Eastern Conference semi-finals with a 120-88 drubbing at the hands of the Boston Celtics.  Most of the blame will be heaped upon the league MVP, LeBron James, and certainly he didn’t play up to his standards.  However, one of the problems this team has had since Mike Brown became coach was the real problem…the lack of an offensive structure.

 

The Cavs spent most of the game in their normal one guy with the ball, another in the post, and the other three spaced around the three point circle.  There is no movement, no cutting, no nothing.  It makes it very easy to guard James, becasue the defense can play a virtual zone defense, packing everyone in the paint, particularly if no one is hitting open shots. 

 

Why not start James below the free throw line, where he is a threat to score as soon as he catches the ball?  Is James the guy who wants to play with the ball at the top of the key?  Getting James the ball near the basket puts pressure on the defense right from the get go.

 

The lack of movement on offense also lends to a lot of long perimeter jump shots, which if missed, turn into long rebounds and fast break opportunities.  And when Rajon Rondo gets in the open court, he is a most dangerous offensive weapon.

 

Just watch the Celtics on offense, Ray Allen spends most possession running all around the perimeter.  They dump the ball into Kevin Garnett, and cut to the basket off of him in the low post. 

 

The Cavs will do this occasionally with Shaquille O’Neal, but most times the big guy gets the ball and waits for the double or triple team before passing out to the perimeter for a jump shot.

 

The management has put some offensive weapons around James, but they are not used properly.  It is telling that Anthony Parker, Jamario Moon, and even the recently acquired Antawn Jamison were all better offensive players with their former teams than they are with the Cavs.  Perhaps it is James demanding the ball, but more likely it is a poorly designed offensive concept. 

 

The Cavs led 29-21 in the middle of the second quarter, when Boston went on a 15-0 run, and the wine and gold settled for mostly perimeter jumpers in that stretch, because there is no motion in the offense. 

 

If you are playing a team with a good defensive scheme, such as the Celtics, it becomes more prudent to run sets where you know you are going to get a good shot.  The Cavaliers have no such plan, and that makes it a stuggle to score. 

 

Now, the team who has had the best regular season record the last two seasons faces the daunting task of going to Boston in a must win situation to continue its season.  Unless someone on the bench can solve the Celtic defense, which swarmed James everytime he touched the ball, and put together a package where you can penetrate the Boston virtual zone, this season of promise will be over. 

 

And the Cavs will likely be looking for a new coach, or at least someone who has some offensive game planning to help Mike Brown.

 

JK

 

We said after game three that the Cleveland Cavaliers had to be greedy and go after game four to take a commanding three games to one lead in the series.  However, they weren’t and the series heads back to Cleveland tied at two. 

 

Once again, the culprits were a seeming lack of intensity by the wine and gold, and a curious substitution pattern by coach Mike Brown.  The first reason is curious, and the second is predictable, based on the past.

 

However, the biggest reason for the loss was the play of Rajon Rondo.  Normally, the Cavaliers have the best player on the court when they play in LeBron James.  Sunday, that wasn’t the case as Rondo played a game for the ages.

 

Rondo scored 29 points, dished out 13 assists, and grabbed an incredible (for a guy barely 6 feet tall) 18 rebounds.  The Cavs once again let him shoot, and he took 21 attempts, but they allowed him to get to the foul line 16 times, and he made 11. 

 

Besides the play of Rondo, the wine and gold were simply out hustled and out worked.  They were out rebounded, 47 to 33, had five blocked shots compared to eight by Boston, and had only six steals, compared to ten for the Celtics. 

 

Boston didn’t shoot particularly well, hitting just 45%, and made only one of fourteen three-point attempts. 

 

But the Celtics did get a lot of production from their bench, getting 28 points and 13 rebounds off the bench, primarily Tony Allen, while Cleveland got just 11 points and 7 boards.  This is in part because Brown didn’t use his bench, as only Delonte West and Anderson Varajao got extended minutes.

 

West didn’t have a good game, missing all seven of his shots from the floor, and Varajao took an ill-advised baseline jumper in the fourth quarter, although he did get a three point play to bring the Cavs within two with four minutes left.

 

However, where was Jamario Moon?  Anthony Parker played 42 minutes chasing Rondo around.  Why not give Moon was time getting in his way.  J.J. Hickson played only five minutes.  And despite this, Shaquille O’Neal didn’t play in the fourth quarter after picking up his fifth foul early in the period.

 

Shaq had five rebounds in 28 minutes, the only Cavs who had more were James, who had nine, and Antawn Jamison, who had six boards in 36 minutes.  Plus O’Neal is a deterrent to little guys, like Rondo, who like to drive into the paint.  Why didn’t he come back?

 

Cleveland’s offensive philosophy also fell apart.  Gone was the ball movement they had in game three.  Instead, the team fell back into the stand around attack.  Early in the game, they had Jamison outside and let him use his quickness to get to the rack against Kevin Garnett.  They didn’t use that much the rest of the game.

 

The Celtics are loading up defensively to stop James from going to the basket.  Therefore, the offense has to move the ball in order to get the Boston defense moving.  There simply is too much standing around, which plays into the Celtics’ hands.

 

Doc Rivers is getting credit for putting Ray Allen on LBJ, if the Celts are going to keep doing this, James must take him into the post.  There is no way Allen can handle him near the basket. 

 

Now, it’s a best of three series, with the Cavs having two games at home.  The team has to find a way to keep Rondo in control, because he is the primary reason the series is tied.  If they can’t, Boston could find a way to win one at “The Q.”

 

JK