Outfield Moves Coming For Tribe.

The Cleveland Indians roster is going to be in flux over the next week or so as several players, mostly outfielders, are getting healthy. It will be interesting to see what the front office decides to do.

Roberto Perez’ hand injury caused the recall of Francisco Mejia from Columbus, but that is only temporary, because he will likely be sent back today to make room for Adam Plutko, who will start tonight.

The bigger decisions will need to be made when Brandon Guyer is ready to go, and Tyler Naquin will follow soon.

Who stays and who goes when those two are ready to return?

Certainly, the offense has been helped by the return of Lonnie Chisenhall to the lineup. The former first round pick has been plagued by a calf injury since last year’s All Star Game, but he has been very productive since 2014.

Except for an off year in 2015, Chisenhall has had an OPS over 767 in three of the last four years, with a high of 881 last season. He pitched in immediately after coming off the disabled list with a bases loaded single in his first at bat.

A week ago, the Tribe decided to keep Greg Allen over Bradley Zimmer as the primary centerfielder, and were rewarded with Allen going into a slump.

The switch-hitter has gone 1 for his last 22 after raising his average to .286 on June 1st, but he had cut down on his strikeouts until fanning three times on Sunday.

We don’t believe Allen is in jeopardy right now, but when Naquin is ready, the club may decide to go with a platoon of he and Rajai Davis, assuming the latter survives the moves.

That could mean veteran Melky Cabrera gets the gate when Guyer is ready. Cabrera is no doubt a defensive liability, but he is a professional hitter.

Cabrera is hitting just .204 in 54 at bats, and his OPS is just 532, but he has knocked in 11 runs in those at bats, partly because he’s delivered four sacrifice flies already. That leads the team. Getting runs in from third base with less than two outs is a lost art in today’s game, so it is nice to see someone who can get the job done.

By the way, who is second in sacrifice flies? Another professional hitter, Michael Brantley.

Our guess is Cabrera will be let go when Guyer returns, although the right handed hitter has struggled since the end of 2016, hitting .208 in that span, and is unplayable vs. righties, with a .140 batting average since the beginning of ’17.

He’s also hitting just .245 vs. southpaws, well off his .278 career mark. So, it may not be a lock for Guyer to return.

Andrew Miller should also be ready soon, but he will probably go on a rehab assignment first. When he comes back, Tyler Olson will likely go back to AAA, as well traveled veteran Oliver Perez has taken his gig.

Terry Francona has used Perez four times since he arrived on June 2nd, and each time, he has done the job. That’s critical given the state of the Tribe bullpen over the last four or five weeks.

And when Miller returns, it seems Neil Ramirez will get the first crack at being the seventh inning guy. In his last six games, the veteran has thrown 7-2/3 scoreless innings, striking out eight.

The one thing consistent for the edition of the Indians has been change. And it appears more of that is coming.

What Could Cavs Have Done Differently?

Now that the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season has ended with a sweep at the hands of the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals, it is time for a look back at some of the reasons the season was filled with ups and downs.

One of the things that failed Cleveland in the Finals was their defense. The Warriors shot 51.3% for the four games, and shot 60.5% from inside the arc, a whopping percentage.

Many of these shots were uncontested layups and dunks by the Warriors’ “non-stars”. JaVale McGee shot 16 of 20 from the floor, Shaun Livingston was 13 of 15, Jordan Bell was 10 for 14. That’s 39 of 49 from that trio alone.

McGee in particular got a whole bunch of easy shots because the Cavs couldn’t defend the high pick and roll, something they struggled with all season.

We have railed all season long about a solid defensive plan for the team, something it could hang it’s hat on. As we have written previously, this lack of a basic defensive scheme came back to bite the wine and gold in the end.

The failure to manage LeBron James’ minutes also played a factor. While James wanted to play in all 82 games for the first time in his career, he didn’t have to lead the league in minutes.

That also falls back on the coaching staff’s reluctance to build some kind of offense when The King was sitting on the bench. We understand the plan was to put the ball in LeBron’s hands and let him orchestrate things, but when he wasn’t playing, there wasn’t a different attack.

That meant the Cavs struggled with James sitting, meaning coach Tyronn Lue had to rush him back in there to win games.

Early in the season, Cleveland was a veteran laden team, with Dwyane Wade, Derrick Rose, and Jae Crowder playing key roles. Rose got injured and left the team for awhile, and Crowder never fit in to the way to play off of James.

Wade initially was a starter, but after a few games, found his niche as the leader of the second unit, and the Cavaliers took off. We may never know what happened, but when the deals at the deadline were made, they involved Wade going home to Miami, which we feel everyone signed off on.

After those deals, it never seemed like the coaching staff involved or did anything to maximize the talents of Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson, particularly the former. Larry Nance Jr. fit in because he’s instinctual and athletic.

And Cedi Osman, another good athlete already on the roster, and a contributor after the deals, never got back in the mix after he suffered a hip injury.

From game 42 through 52, Osman played at least 15 minutes every game, of which the Cavs won eight, and he averaged almost nine points, and 3. 5 rebounds per game.

After the injury, he played more than 15 minutes three times, a win over Washington, the loss to Philadelphia where the Cavaliers almost won after being down by 30, and the last game of the season.

Could Osman’s athleticism and basketball IQ have helped in the playoffs? We won’t know because he played only in garbage time.

The failure of getting athletic young players like Hood, Clarkson, and Osman, and even Ante Zizic, a former first round pick, hurt the Cavs in The Finals.

These were things everyone was concerned about as the season went on, so much of this is not a second guess.

But if James returns to the Cavs next season, these things need to be addressed for the betterment of the franchise and more success going forward.

Being younger and having a smarter team will help going forward.

Bad Old Defensive Habits Haunting The Cavs.

The backs are firmly to the wall for the Cleveland Cavaliers. They can’t lose a game for the rest of the playoffs, and will have to beat Golden State four straight times to win the NBA title.

What happened last night was simple. Too much Kevin Durant. On a night where the second leading scorer for the Warriors was two time Stephen Curry with 11 points, Durant was magnificent.

He made 15 of 23 shots, and not many of them were layups or dunks. He added 13 rebounds and seven assists, as he kept Golden State from getting blown out early, and then once the game was close, he supplied the dagger with a three pointer from about 35 feet out.

To us, the biggest problem last night was the basic tenets on defense that the Cavs have failed to establish all year long.

How many times did a mix up on the pick and roll result in a wide open dunk by a Golden State player? This is the Cavaliers’ 103rd game of the season, and by the looks of it, they still don’t have a set way of defending this most basic of basketball plays.

You can blame it on the roster turnover, but if the team had a defensive model, the new players would have adjusted to it by now.

We have railed against the switching scheme defensively all season long too. Our basic problem is it is lazy and more so, it allows the offense to dictate who is guarding whom.

Our question is this, who does Tyronn Lue want guarding Durant? Our preference would be Jeff Green and/or Larry Nance Jr. when they are in the game. However, the Cavs seem to be happy to use pretty much anyone else.

Most possessions end up with Durant being guarding by players like JR Smith, George Hill, and Kyle Korver. Why?

Look, you aren’t going to stop Durant, he’s a gifted offensive player, who because of his length can get his shot off wherever and whenever he wants. But you can make him more uncomfortable, and putting players five to six inches smaller on him doesn’t exactly do that.

When Cleveland made the deadline trades, the players they received in return were longer and more athletic. Unfortunately, the coaching staff either didn’t develop the newcomers well enough to contribute against a team that needs length and athleticism to defend them.

Rodney Hood is 6’8″, Nance is 6’9″, even Jordan Clarkson, who although he has been terrible offensively, has been decent on defense, is 6’5″. Are these guys just not good players, or were they minimized by the staff?

Someone said last night that the Cavs don’t appear to be obsessed with Golden State. The Rockets are. Maybe it’s because the wine and gold won in 2016.

It still looks like the Cavaliers are surprised by the new wrinkles the Warriors throw at them. Steve Kerr adjusts and uses JaVale McGee, and the Cavs have no answer, or at least it takes them five minutes to adjust.

Offensively, the Cavs still seem to go away from Kevin Love, their second best scorer. Love had a great first half last night, and then took three shots in the second half. That’s a crime.

And it wasn’t like Love was shrinking or playing tentatively. One of his second half hoops was a play where he took the ball right to Durant and got a layup.

Can the Cavs win on Friday and send the series back to the west coast? Perhaps, it’s not like the wine and gold have been blown out each game. It is similar to the 2007 Finals vs. San Antonio, when Cleveland lost by 9, 11, 3, and 1 points.

Unfortunately, the defensive issues won’t be going away.

What Do Cavs Need To Do.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are down two games to none to Golden State in the NBA Finals, and many feel it is a foregone conclusion that the series will end quickly, with the same result as a year ago.

That’s the popular view.

On the other hand, the Cavs had an outstanding chance to win game one, until some questionable decisions, both by the wine and gold (JR Smith) and the officials, late led to an overtime loss, and really, on Sunday night, Cleveland still had a shot until Stephen Curry got hot in the fourth quarter.

The Warriors are shooting 54% from the floor in the first two games, compared to 43% for the Cavs, and based on that, you would think both games were blowouts.

This year’s games were decided by 10 (in overtime) and 19 points, compared to 22 and 19 a year ago.

Still, a few things need to be addressed for Cleveland.

First, the switching defense was horrible in game two. There were far too many instances of Kevin Durant being guarded by Smith and George Hill, and Curry being checked by Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Jeff Green and Larry Nance Jr.

We have said it all year. Switching is lazy and it allows the offense to dictate who is guarding who. The Cavs themselves like nothing more than to see Curry matched up with James.

The Cavaliers have to try something different and cannot allow wide open layups and dunks off the high pick and roll. We say this knowing this has been a weakness all season long, so it will be difficult to improve at this stage of the game.

In terms of the players coach Tyronn Lue is using, it may also be time for some alterations.

Smith continues to struggle with his shot, hitting just 5 of 19 shots from the field, and just 3 of 10 from distance. Although we have buried Rodney Hood recently, it may be time to see if he can provide some energy and shot making.

Jordan Clarkson is another who looks like the moment is too much for him. He’s also not shooting well (3 for 13), and seems to be playing over 100 miles per hour when the game is being played at 60 MPH.

And Kyle Korver is struggling much like he did a year ago in the Finals. It seems like the Warriors are long enough to contest his long range shots, and they are also doing what the Cavaliers did to him when he played for Atlanta.

They aren’t leaving him open.

The Cavs shot 37% from three in the regular season, they are making just 30% in the first two games of the series. They need to find someone to make shots. Only James and Hill have made more than 30% in The Finals.

It is also time for Cleveland to get more physical. Golden State has collected ten more fouls in the series than the Cavs (they have probably really committed 30 more, but that’s another story), so Lue’s group needs to make their presence felt.

Don’t be afraid to play a little bump and grind with Curry, Klay Thompson, and Durant. Because of the overtime game, this trio along with Draymond Green are averaging 40 minutes per game.

Make an effort to wear down the Warriors, and do a better job attacking players with foul issues. Durant picked up two in the first quarter on Sunday, and it seemed like Cleveland did not attack him.

Obviously, the Cavs need to win Wednesday night and get back in the series, going down 0-3 means it is over for all intent and purposes.

It is not the time for out and out loyalty based coaching. If guys aren’t getting it done, you have to try someone else.

A win in Game 3 puts the Cavs back in the series. No question about that.

One Third Of The Way In, Tribe Kind Of Treading Water

On the eve of Game 1 of the NBA Finals, the Cleveland completed the first third of their schedule with a 9-1 win over the White Sox, a game in which Corey Kluber earned his 8th win of the season.

That win made the Tribe 29-25 after 54 games, and in the last 27 games, Terry Francona’s squad went 14-13, slightly less than the 15-12 in the first 27 contests.

The offense is back on track, jumping up to third in the American League in runs scored per game. They are sixth in on base percentage and third in slugging as a team.

Unfortunately, they are ninth in the league in staff ERA, and that’s despite having three starting pitchers with ERAs under 3.14 (Kluber, Trevor Bauer, and Mike Clevinger).

The offense has been led, or maybe a more apt phrase is carried, by Jose Ramirez, Francisco Lindor, and Michael Brantley, who have formed a lethal top of the order.

Ramirez and Lindor both rank in the top five in the AL in extra base hits, the former is tied for second in the league in home runs, and the latter is tied for third in doubles.

And all three are in the top ten in OPS, with Ramirez ranking 4th, Lindor 7th, and Brantley 8th.

Edwin Encarnacion has gotten hot with the weather, now ranking in the top ten in the league in home runs with 14.

With Lonnie Chisenhall, Brandon Guyer, and Tyler Naquin getting ready to come back from injury, Francona and the staff will have difficult decisions to make in terms of the roster.

Rookie Greg Allen is making it very tough for the decision makers. Not counted on to be a big contributor this season, the switch-hitter has hit .286 thus far, and has cut down on strikeouts over the last 11 games.

When the injured return, you have to think it will be difficult for Rajai Davis to keep a roster spot.

The problem for the pitching staff continues to be the bullpen, as 43% of the runs the Indians have allowed this season have come in the 7th inning or later. In addition, the relievers have coughed up more than a third of the dingers allowed by the pitching staff (28 of the 82) so far in 2018.

We thought Zach McAllister was prone to the gopher ball last season, allowing eight in 62 innings. To date this year, he has allowed six in 21-2/3 frames.

Although he hasn’t been primarily a reliever, Josh Tomlin has allowed a whopping 18 round trippers in 36 innings. He’s pitched in 12 games, and only NOT allowed a homer in four of them.

He leads the league in that category despite pitching 26 innings less than anyone else in the top five.

We understand the front office is aware of the problem, and brought in veteran Oliver Perez yesterday, and it may be the trade deadline before a permanent solution is sought, but until it’s fixed, it will be a very nervous time for Tribe fans in the late innings.

Yes, it’s true the Indians are 2.5 games ahead in the AL Central. It’s also a fact that the second place team, Detroit, is in rebuilding mode and isn’t even over .500 for the young season.

Cleveland was supposed to be one of the four best teams in the American League heading into the season, so from that standpoint they’ve underachieved.

On the other hand, if the Tribe fixes its bullpen, there is no reason they can’t make a deep run in the post-season with their starting rotation and hitting.

Perhaps in the next 27 games, we will start to see answers for the relief corps.

What Can Cavs Do To Pull This Off?

For the fourth consecutive year, the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors will meet to decide what team will be the NBA Champions.

Most in the national media don’t give the Cavs much of a chance, and really that feeling is based on Cleveland’s defense for much of the regular season (they ranked 29th), and that the Warriors are the defending champs and the darling of those who cover the sport.

However, right now, there are only two teams who have a chance for the Larry O’Brien Trophy, and one of those teams is the Cavaliers. Talking about the Rockets or Celtics or 76ers is fruitless. They aren’t playing.

So, what can the coaching staff do to try and knock off the heavily favored Warriors?

The first thing we would do, and we said this a year ago, is slow down the pace. We understand that coach Tyronn Lue likes to play up tempo, and we would still take advantage of fast break opportunities that are there, but the reality is that’s Golden State’s game and they are better at it than Cleveland.

One of the reasons Lue favored playing faster was that was how to get the most out of Kyrie Irving’s offense. But he’s not with the wine and gold anymore, so the pace isn’t necessary, and the defense should be better as well.

Slow the game down, try to limit possessions for the Warriors, and see what happens. The Cavs have the best player on the court, let him control things.

Another thing Cleveland has done over the past year is get longer. While they don’t have a lot of height on the roster (which we have bemoaned all season), they did add Jeff Green (6’9″), and Larry Nance Jr. (6’8″), both of whom theoretically should be able to play Kevin Durant, who was the difference last season.

A year ago, Lue had to use Tristan Thompson (not quick enough), Richard Jefferson (not tall enough), and James (too important offensively) against Durant, and he had a field day.

We are sure Green was recruited to come to the north coast for exactly this situation. Now we will see if it was the right move. And don’t think for a minute that trading for Nance wasn’t made with a potential rematch with the Warriors in mind.

The other thing the Cavs need to do is match the physicality of Golden State. Yes, the Warriors don’t have a lot of height, height that plays anyway.

But we have said for years that they are coached to basically commit a foul every time down the floor, knowing the referees will not call each and every one of the infractions.

Instead of complaining, match the contact. Lue’s team is probably better suited for this after the tough series vs. Indiana and Boston, teams that banged the Cavaliers around a lot.

The last thing is to use your depth. The Warriors only have seven players averaging more than 12 minutes per game in the post-season. The Cavs have 10, nine if you discount Rodney Hood.

Use that to your advantage. Try to wear Golden State down in each game, and even more so throughout the series. Keep throwing fresh bodies at Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Durant.

This is not to suggest if the Cavaliers do this, it will work, and Cleveland will emerge as champions. However, this is one blueprint for possible success.

We will see how Lue plays it starting tonight.

Will James Ever Satisfy His Critics?

The Cleveland Cavaliers are going back to the NBA Finals for the fourth straight season.

Allow that to sink in for a moment. Four straight chances to play for the NBA title.

And to think LeBron James is responsible for making this happen. In fact, this is the fifth Finals appearance for the franchise, all with James as the centerpiece, the leader, and the best player on the roster.

James is making his ninth appearance in championship round, and the only players in history to have made more are Bill Russell, Sam Jones, and Kareen Abdul-Jabbar. That’s it.

By contrast, Michael Jordan went to only six Finals. Jerry West? Nine times, same as James. Magic Johnson? Only nine times.

Eight of those appearance by James have come in the last eight seasons, four with the Miami Heat, and of course, the last four with the wine and gold.

When Jordan was getting to the Finals on a yearly basis, outside of the two years he left the sport to play baseball, we recall the media adoring His Airness, appreciating what he was accomplishing.

It seems James gets nothing but criticism about his feat. Yesterday, we read how this season, the Cavaliers avoided the four next best players in the Eastern Conference: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Kyrie Irving, in order to win the conference title.

We also read about the terrible teams James defeated to advance to the title round.

James doesn’t have any control over either of these things. Both the Bucks and Sixers lost to the Celtics in the playoffs, the same Celtics that pushed the Cavs to seven games in the conference finals.

His team got a chance to play Boston, and they won. Would it be better for his legacy to lose this season or any of the other seven seasons? If he did, then the media critics would pound him for that.

Last season, Cleveland defeated the top seeded Celtics to get to the Finals. The year before, the Cavaliers were the top seed, and defeated the second seeded Raptors in six games.

In James’ first return year with the Cavs, the swept the first seed Atlanta Hawks.

And this year, Cleveland knocked off not only the top seeded Raptors, but also the second seeded Celtics.

In LeBron’s four years in Miami, his team was the top seed once, and beat the top seed twice to reach the NBA Championship round.

It is true that James’ record in the Finals is 3-5, but the only time you could claim his team was upset in the Finals was the loss to Dallas in the 2010-11 season. The other four losses came to the sports’ most consistently excellent franchise of the last 25 years, the San Antonio Spurs, and to Golden State.

The criticism gets really insane when the first loss to the Warriors, in which Cleveland was missing all-stars Kyrie Irving (injured in Game 1) and Kevin Love (missed the entire series), and yet the series still went six games.

And after the Cavs’ triumph in 2016, the Warriors fortified their roster by signing the league’s second best player in Kevin Durant.

When Jordan played, his teams were the equivalent to the Warriors, the team regarded as the league’s best. Meanwhile, in the last three seasons, the Cavaliers were considered the underdogs going into The Finals.

Perhaps James will be appreciated more when he retires from the sport, at least nationally. Maybe at that point, when he could be the sport’s all time leading scorer, and rank in the top five in assists, and the top 40 rebounders, we will realize his greatness as a player.

He’s not just a numbers compiler either. His nine conference titles should be proof of that.

Tough Decisions Coming For Tribe.

The Cleveland Indians have played 50 games this season, and it seems like they have been in a scrambling mode since the opener in Seattle.

Yes, there have been constants. The lineup has been buoyed all season long by their version of “The Big Three”: Francisco Lindor, Michael Brantley, and Jose Ramirez. That trio are the only three players currently on the roster with OPS over 800, outside of Erik Gonzalez, who rarely plays.

The starting rotation is also been a constant as well, as Corey Kluber, Carlos Carrasco, Trevor Bauer, and Mike Clevinger have provided Terry Francona with a chance to win every night.

The rest of the team is in flux, with the bullpen issues being front and center. For the first six innings, the Indians look like one of the best teams in baseball. Unfortunately, they’ve allowed 43.7% of their opponents runs after the sixth inning.

That’s almost two runs per game!

No one has escaped the horribleness. Andrew Miller has been on the disabled list twice since the end of April, and when he has pitched, he’s walked 10 hitters in 14-1/3 innings.

Cody Allen struck out 92 batters in 67-1/3 frames in 2017, and for his career has fanned 11.5 hitters per nine innings. This year, that figure has dropped to 9.1, his lowest since his rookie year (2012).

The rest of the bullpen can’t put two consecutive good outings together for the most part. Just when you start feeling good about someone, they get hammered.

Zach McAllister has pitched well in May, and we thought maybe it was time to give him another look see. So did Francona, who brought him into a 7-5 game last night, only to see him give up a run in the 7th to close the gap.

Meanwhile, the front office is retreading the retreads. Oliver Drake is brought in, he is gone. Evan Marshall came up, gave up 3 hits and 3 walks in 2-2/3, was sent down, now he is back.

Neil Ramirez has allowed 7 hits, including two dingers in 2-2/3. Our guess is his next bad appearance will be his last.

And Josh Tomlin? My goodness, how can a pitcher who is allowing a home run every other inning he pitches still in the big leagues?

As for the everyday players, some decisions will have to be made soon, because the injured players will start to return.

What happens when Lonnie Chisenhall comes back? Does he platoon with Melky Cabrera in right?

And who goes when Bradley Zimmer returns? Perhaps it is Zimmer, who has fanned 39 times in 106 plate appearances.

Tyler Naquin deserves a spot on the roster the way he hit before being injured (.333 batting average, 820 OPS).

Can Rajai Davis keep his spot on the roster? A 527 OPS doesn’t really help the ballclub. And what about Brandon Guyer, who hasn’t been as effective against lefties as he was in 2016.

We could see a lot more Edwin Encarnacion at first base, especially vs. lefties, with Brantley moving to DH, so Cabrera can play LF.

Our guess is Zimmer will be the first one back, and Greg Allen will go back to AAA. That will mean Zimmer and Davis will platoon in center.

But when Chisenhall is ready, that will force a tough decision. It will be interesting to see what direction the front office goes in.

Within the next two to three weeks, the Indians roster could look totally different. And hopefully that means better.

Cavs and Lue On The Brink?

For the second time this playoff season, the Cleveland Cavaliers face a win or go home scenario, trailing the Boston Celtics three games to two in the Eastern Conference semi-finals.

Besides all of the stuff surrounding LeBron James’ free agency at the end of the season, another person should be considered as if they are spending their last days in the organization.

We are speaking about coach Tyronn Lue.

It is no secret that Lue has had health issues this past season, heck, he missed nine games late in the year because of them. We would not be surprised if regardless of the result of tonight’s game or this series, or The Finals, if Cleveland can win the next two games, that Lue does not return as coach of the Cavaliers next season.

We may simply decide he’s either had enough of being a head coach in the NBA or that he needs to take a year or two off before trying again.

The head coach said yesterday that he doesn’t worry about what doesn’t work after a loss. If he’s not lying to the media, then he might be the first coach who doesn’t.

All coaches think about what didn’t work after a loss, and what they could do differently to achieve a winning result. It’s the nature of the job.

However, for tonight’s game, Lue cannot be display the patience he has used toward his veteran players who haven’t been producing in this series. There is simply no tomorrow if you lose tonight.

In game five, JR Smith and Jeff Green played 51 combined minutes and basically gave the team nothing on the offensive end. Yes, Boston only scored 96 points, which is second lowest of the series, but the Cavaliers only scored 83, tying what they tallied in Game 1.

Both players have been outscored by Tristan Thompson, hardly an offensive force, in the series, and Smith ranks behind Jordan Clarkson, who has mostly been dreadful throughout these playoffs.

Smith ranks 4th in minutes in the conference finals, while Green is 6th. Both have played more minutes than Kyle Korver, who we can all agree has been one of the Cavs’ five best players in the series, and Larry Nance Jr., who has played well vs. the Celtics too.

FYI, Smith has the worst shooting percentage (23.1%) for any Cavaliers in the series. And that includes the guys who have only played in garbage time.

Green can help, but Lue has leaned on him far too heavily throughout the playoffs. And the expectation that he will be a good three point shooter is ridiculous. By the way, he’s 2 for 9 from distance in this series.

If either player doesn’t have it early tonight, Lue has to make a difficult decision to try something else. Maybe it will work, maybe it won’t, but Smith and Green have had their chances. It might be time to see what Cedi Osman can do, or put Jose Calderon out there for a bit.

We are also tired of hearing how it is Kevin Love’s fault for the Cavs being down in this series.

Has Love played great? No, but he still leads Cleveland in rebounds at 11.0 per game, and is the second leading scorer at 15.0. His shooting has been off, but there have been reports that he reinjured his thumb in the series.

He’s not the reason Cleveland is on the brink of elimination.

With a win or go home game, this is not the time for the coach to be exercising patience. He has to look at players with a +, 0, – attitude. Guys who are being a minus should be taken out.

The Cavs and the coaching staff have to figure out a way to get this series back to Boston for a game seven.

Support For LeBron Better, Cavs Even It Up.

After the loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals, we tried to calm people by saying the Cleveland Cavaliers just needed to win their two home games, so there was no reason to panic.

The Cavs still need to win one game on the Celtics home court, just like they did going into the series after a 111-102 victory at Quicken Loans Arena.

So, tonight was not LeBron James’ last game in a Cavalier uniform because he will be here Friday night for Game 6.

And of course, James was incredible again last night, scoring 44 points on 28 shots, and he added in five rebounds and three assists. Can The King play better? The seven turnovers he had say yes he can.

The “supporting cast” also played very well too. Tristan Thompson had 13 points and 12 boards, and continued to give Al Horford trouble defensively.

George Hill has been a completely different player at home, scoring 13 points in each game, making 50% of his 20 shot attempts in the two games. And he does a good job on the defensive end as well.

What more can you see about Kyle Korver. The 37-year-old scored 14 points, had four rebounds and incredibly, three blocked shots. Korver isn’t a great one-on-one defender, and never really was, and Brad Stevens tries to take advantage of that when Korver is matched up on Jalen Brown, but he is seemingly always in the right spot, and can always be counted on to dive on the loose ball.

We are sure the Kevin Love critics will be out in full force today, because he didn’t shoot well, but he still had 9 points and 11 rebounds, despite foul trouble. And his tip in basket in the fourth quarter came at a critical time.

As for the people who think Tyronn Lue shouldn’t be second guessed if the wine and gold win, we need to ask what is his obsession with Jeff Green. Green is a solid defender, that’s true, but the combination of he and Thompson on the court at the same time needs to be junked.

The Cavs play horribly with that duo on the court together.

If Cleveland is to get the road win they need tomorrow night, they have to take care of the ball better. 19 turnovers (seven by James, six more by Love) is way too many.

The Cavaliers also need to continue the defensive effort they received at home too. Boston shot 40% in the two games at The Q, and if they can get those kind of results in Beantown, that will bode well for the team.

Yes, Boston was in the same position in their first round series against Milwaukee, and the Bucks have Giannis Antetokounmpo, a superstar, but the Greek Freak isn’t the best player in the sport, and the Bucks don’t have the experience which permeates the Cleveland roster.

What that means if perhaps the Celtics will be feeling some pressure understanding that a loss on Wednesday night means going back to Cleveland, where they haven’t played well, for a must win contest.

Right now, momentum is with the Cavs. They need to smell blood after two straight wins and jump on Boston early.

One other advantage for Cleveland. They have LeBron James. And that’s a big edge.