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
Cleveland Sports Perspective 