Think big, and little, picture
Posted May 15th, 2006 by Brian Windhorst
Tonight is a huge game for the Cavs.
That’s an easy enough statement to understand, it’s a second round playoff game and a chance to tie the series, etc., etc. But when I say that I mean more than just a singular game. I know that as a fan you can get really wrapped up in every play and every quarter, but I’m talking about more of the grand scheme. Tonight the Pistons really want to win and they’re going to play like it and how the Cavs handle that will be very, very telling to just where they are in their development.
Even though I admired the guts they played with in Game 3, that’s all it really was, guts. They were really handled for much of that game. The Pistons’ game plan was working just fine and the Cavs were in deep trouble until LeBron started making plays. Which is exactly the point.
Can LeBron continue to rise above his team’s flaws and use his ability to overwhelm a better team when they’re working like hell to stop him? Eventually that’s how the Cavs are going to win a championship, with LeBron doing it. That’s how this thing is being built and games like tonight, to use a well-worn analogy, are like bricks in the foundation. If he can carry the team, and the team believes he can, they will be setting themselves up down the road.
Furthermore…
–Seriously, I’d completely ignore Rasheed Wallace’s comments, it’s just part of what the Pistons do. Pay more attention to how the Pistons adjust to what they Cavs threw at them in Game 3. The Detroit News’ Chris McCosky breaks this down well.
–I know everyone is in love with Anderson Varejao for how he’s played. I’m all about him, I was the one who nicknamed him "Wild Thing" after a preseason game in Dayton when he was a rookie. Should’ve trademarked that damn thing do, Cavs are selling merchandise with it. At the beginning of the playoffs I wrote he was the Cavs’ most important reserve. Yet please notice that he gave up four straight offensive rebounds to Antonio McDyess at one point in Game 3, he does have flaws. Though I credit him for not showing the least bit of fear of the mighty Pistons, some teammates can learn from that.
–Also, and I know I’ve been getting blasted on the air and in message boards about my sticking with the importance of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. But I don’t care. The Cavs halfcourt offense is a joke and he doesn’t get enough chances. He got six shots in Game 3, made four of them. He made two shots in a row and then got yanked for the rest of the game in the third quarter. And did you see what happened then? I was watching very closely. In the next seven possessions, the Cavs tossed up five 3-pointers (making one) and had two turnovers. This is unacceptable and they got lucky Detroit didn’t bury them right there. Someday someone will come over to my side on this, but if I have to continue to bang the drum solo and slowly I’ll be glad to.
–Why do columnists from opposing cities continue to bitch about officiating before games even start? This is myopic and foolhardy. Some columnists whined before, during and now, even after, series are over. Others thought "strange whistles" affected Game 3. These people are my peers, but I’m really, really tired of all this crap about the officials. For the most part they do a very good job and from watching hundreds of regular season and playoff games maybe one percent is decided by an official. Despite what people say, the game almost never comes down to one call. Deal with it people!
May 15th, 2006 at 7:55 am
Brian what are the chances of Pete Carril coming next year as an assistant?
May 15th, 2006 at 10:56 am
Strange call? The replays CLEARLY showed the ball bouncing off Big Ben’s wristband and then went out of bounds. Unless the wind redirected the ball right as it went next to Ben’s arm.
May 15th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Brian (not BW, but the commenting one):
Yes, evidently Carril knows what he’s doing. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and there are other teams now using various versions and hybrids of his offensive designs. But you need the personnel. You don’t hire a speed specialist like Tim Montgomery to coach a team of paraplegics to run the 100-meter dash, do you?
Brian the blog host certainly knows more about this than I do, so I hope he chips in here. I’ve been doing some research on that “Providence offense,” there are some excellent sites on the Internet that really break it down. From what I can tell, it’s designed so that the center is the integral part of the offense and the offensive flow. With emphasis on the word “flow.” Constant movement.
Brad Miller, for example, is a pretty decent passer, is fairly nimble, and unlike one center I can think of, his overall athleticism does not resemble that of a Brontosaurus stuck in a tar pit. Vlade Divac was damn slick, a damn good passer and had great court awareness. The same could be said for most of their personnel during Carril’s time in Sacramento. Pretty athletic guys, good passers, good cutters, good outside shooters, so that offense seemed to work. The offense really complemented the players.
Now compare that with what the Cavs have. ‘Nuff said. So unless Ferry has plans to make some major changes, and reasonable minds must conclude he has no such plans, precisely what good could Pete Carril and/or his offensive schemes possibly do?
May 15th, 2006 at 2:28 pm
Pete could tell management they need to get a new center.
May 15th, 2006 at 3:36 pm
Alan - I assume you are referring to the “Princeton Offense.” Unless, of course, the Providence offense is what Florida was playing under Billy Donovan and Andy can be our version of Joakim Noah.
May 15th, 2006 at 8:05 pm
I never read message boards, but thank you, Brian! I pressed that link in the “Z RULZ AND BITE ME!” portion of your post. As a direct result, I discovered two important facts. These two facts made me (a) self-confident and (b) made my pants larger. Can a man ask for anything more?
Fact 1: I’m famous. Some guy, in comment #15, actually quoted one of my Windhorst blog posts in its entirety to make his point. Quoted me verbatim. Wow! I truly haven’t been this honored since that night in 1987, the very final time I had pity sex with my ex-wife.
Fact 2: Some guy (at least I assume it’s a guy) named “LePIP” has some mighty fine taste. If you are now reading this and you are either a heterosexual male or a lipstick lesbian, then I very strongly encourage you to immediately click the above link and take a quick gander at the saucy video that accompanies LePIP’s Cavs posts. VA VA VA VOOM!
May 16th, 2006 at 4:47 am
I must say Coach Brown has been doing an exceptional job in the playoffs and is outperforming Flip Sanders.
Outside LeBron and maybe Hughes, the coach has a roster full of role players who all have obvious limitations. The work he has done juggling minutes and keeping players relatively motivated has been lost in all the Ferry hoopla and misguided criticisms of Brown’s use of Z.
Maybe Brown doesn’t get much credit because he’s not interested in campaigning for it. I can see why players reportedly like him.
May 16th, 2006 at 9:20 am
An interesting note today on Z’s adherence to the old commie practice of kettlebell training, Brian. He must be strong!
May 16th, 2006 at 11:11 am
Just wanted to say that I am back in the writing world. Check out Most Valuable Network!
May 16th, 2006 at 11:44 am
Really? I apparently missed that portion of today’s Z Publicity Update. They force Ilgauskas to pump kilograms on the kettlebells? What sportswriter wrote about that?
A bit of trivia you may not know: Kettlebells weren’t originally the intellectual property of the Commies. Actually, kettlebells are originally from Scotland. It helped them train for curling.
So perhaps Ilgauskas is merely training for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. I’ve really got to hand it to him, it’s paid off. If there’s ever been a guy that’s spent years looking like he’s been playing a game on ice with granite stones, it’s been Z.
May 16th, 2006 at 12:19 pm
The kettlebell item appears near the bottom of Brian’s story about the Hughes funeral. It duly notes Z’s muscle mass and is a nice piece of comic relief.
I’ve also heard Z attained his great footspeed through intense Twister training sessions led by Lauren Bacall. She learned the practice through Bogie’s old friend, Sidney Greenstreet. Z wears a nicotine patch on his left ankle as a tiny badge of honor.
May 16th, 2006 at 1:26 pm
I could sense your wild enthusiasm, so I went and read the story. Very interesting. Very funny, too. Exactly as you said it would be.
However, Larry, I believe you may have confused the Greenstreet influence with the Soviet Mr. Green Jeans influence. Indeed, if you stop and look very closely, you can clearly see the Captain Kangaroo in Z’s thighs.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:07 pm
That would explain the beard too.
May 16th, 2006 at 7:40 pm
I don’t like to beat a dead horse…or a dead Z. But this is really one of those topics that just grates and grates and grates on me like sandpaper on a piece of stinky cheese. Or something like that. I just completed reading something in the Beacon Journal, and it has launched my rant sequence.
Local sportswriters defend and defend and defend and defend and defend Ilgauskas. Which is ironic, as in almost 10 years, he rarely has defended a damn thing. But this is like a loving marriage that just never ends. ‘Til death do us part. I will love and I will honor and I will protect you. No matter what.
You see, it was not anything the Wizards coaching staff did. It is not anything the Pistons coaching staff is doing. It is not because he plays horrible when he is double-teamed. It is not because he plays horrible when defenses collapse.
No, instead we read it was Mike Brown being an offensive ignoramus. Nobody was feeding Z the ball. Well, that excuse appeared to work for awhile, but then that story eventually grew kind of weary when it became self-evident that he actually WAS getting the ball. The small problem was, he was turning the ball over whenever he did.
So therefore the sportswriters had to come up with something new. So it became, “Z is in a slump.” Happenstance. Unfortunate victim of bad timing. Z as the victim. You can’t fault a victim, can you?
Well, eventually that wasn’t cutting it, either. So then the sportswriters subtly modified it. It became, “Z is in a funk.” So it was still not his fault, per se, but now we have modified his apology to one of a mental block. A “funk.” Depression, if you will. Once again, Z is portrayed as a victim. He has the talent, he has the skills, he has the gifts, but there is something in his head that is holding back this dedicated, hard-working, Top-5 center. It happens to everybody. We are all human. Even sportswriters sometimes get writer’s block. It is not his fault.
But the final straw that has put me WAY over the edge is this fresh charmer I just now read from Terry Pluto, an otherwise very talented writer, which is set to run in Thursday’s newspaper: “The 7-foot-3 Ilgauskas has struggled on offense because of his own state of mind in the playoffs.”
“His own state of mind???” ENOUGH ALREADY!
It this also why Ira Newble cannot sink a jump shot? Ira’s “own state of mind?” He is otherwise a very talented player!
Accordingly, it stands to reason that after a couple of quick sessions with Dr. Melfi, that Ira and Z will soon dominate playoff series after playoff series after playoff series. It’s all in their mind!
When hometown sportswriters have become so ridiculously desperate to protect a guy they root for, that they are now actually grasping for existential bullsh*t to use as an apology, then it is time for all readers to stand up in unison and just say “STOP!!!”
May 17th, 2006 at 4:00 am
Didn’t Pluto state in that same article that Brown sat Z because Varejeo was a much better match up with the Pistons? give PLuto some credit here..
May 17th, 2006 at 6:33 am
Give credit to a sports columnist for quoting his interview subject? Applehead, that is *Wayne Embry’s* opinion.