Three and almost out
Posted April 28th, 2007 by Brian Windhorst
Washington — Cavs take Game 3 98-92. At least it was entertaining, right? Not that anyone in NE Ohio was paying attention to anything but the Browns and NFL Draft. Well, in case you weren’t watching…
–Zydrunas Ilgauskas is playing some of the best basketball of his career. In this series he’s shooting 61 percent and tonight not only had 24 points, but huge baskets to stop the Wizards’ run in the third quarter and when the game was tight in the fourth. The Wizards cannot defend Z with the way they are guarding LeBron James right now (double-teaming him on pick-and-rolls). Especially in attempting to use Darius Songalia and Antawn Jamison when he’s setting up in the post.
–Speaking of defending Z, you may’ve seen the last of Brendan Haywood. He played 10 minutes tonight and the only thing he recorded in the box score was a foul. Meanwhile, he lost Z completely at least twice and the big man got easy hoops. I know you can’t defend a 7-foot-3 guy with a 6-foot-8 guy, unless he’s Ben Wallace, but I understand why Eddie Jordan would rather go without sometimes.
–I thought LeBron played great overall tonight. He made some mistakes, he held the ball for too long a couple times. But in the fourth quarter he controlled the game yet didn’t score a single basket. He had five assists in the fourth and all of them came out of an executed play, a few under late-game pressure. This is what many, especially me, complained about all season. That LeBron would pound the ball and the offense would stop late in games. Well right now they look like they’ve lived and learned.
–I commend Mike Brown for having the vision/trust to put Sasha Pavlovic back in the game for the last 45 seconds. Sasha was playing awful, making mental and physical mistakes (see the foul on Jamison on the 3 and the 24-second violation a few seconds later in the fourth). Oh, and the three travels. Now, in that spot the Wizards are going to take giving Sasha a wide open 3-pointer over LeBron going 1-on-1. But the Cavs made them pay for the double team, which is the story of this series to me.
–Sasha is not playing well this series, he’s playing tight and making lots of unforced errors and committing some bad fouls. Which is probably expected for a playoff rookie. Daniel Gibson also made a couple of mistakes tonight, he was not ready to handle Antonio Daniels, but overall I think he’s contributed OK when he’s been out there.
–Jamison has played great in this series and I don’t think he’s getting much national credit. That 21-4 run in the third quarter was regrettable in some respects for the Cavs. They had some bad offensive possessions (especially two Sasha travels and a shot clock violation) in there and missed a defensive assignment or two, but mostly the Wizards just made some shots. I knew it was going to happen at some point. Jamison was great in that stretch, he made some tough shots. But he used all his energy. He had nothing left down the stretch. He only had one basket in the fourth.
–Speaking of that run, I thought another key sub there by Brown was putting Eric Snow in. He picked up two assists and to two rebounds that helped the Cavs regain some momentum.
–The Cavs played great defense in the fourth quarter, especially around the basket. That included Pavlovic when he got a blocked shot in the last minute when he was actually playing the center spot when the Wizards went ultra-small. Over, the Wiz were 6-of-20 shooting. In Game 2, the Cavs held them to 6-of-24 shooting in the third quarter. Washington can’t recover from that as they are currently made up.
–In another plugged leak, the Cavs were 16-of-18 at the line and are shooting 80 percent in the three games.
–I was in the locker room before the game just when the Browns made the trade with the Cowboys to get Brady Quinn. I always seem to be glued to the TV in there, back in November all were attached to the Ohio State-Michigan game before a Cavs game in D.C. Anyway, LeBron is a Cowboys fan and so he was all over it when they were on the clock. He said the Cowboys needed a defensive back but all the top DBs were off the board at that point. When the Browns made the trade there was a gasp in the room. There are no Browns fans on the Cavs, really, except for maybe Eric Snow. I think everyone was just interested in what happened to Quinn.
–One more thing, just like the Cavs have a playoff slogan, which is "Rise Up," Washington has one too. It is "All in," perhaps playing on the poker boom and referring to the fans getting involved. Problem is, they’re not all in, their two best players are all out. Am I the only one to notice this?
April 28th, 2007 at 10:49 pm
Why would LeBron be a Dallas Fan? That makes no sense. Everyone in Ohio that doesn’t live in Cincinnati is a Browns fan. I don’t get that one.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:22 am
Maybe Lebron is a Tony Romo fan!
April 29th, 2007 at 11:04 am
wow, whoopie bw, you are very observant, what do you want a cookie. who cares who lebron like as a football team, lets get this series over with and get down to the nitty gritty. bring on the nets or the raptors it does not matter. by the way troy smith will not be drated he will be a walkon, he was not good, he might have to play cb in the nfl.
April 29th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
With all due respect to Z and his iced tootsies, when you’re tall and going against an undermanned squad of untalented dwarfs that would have difficulty compiling a regular season record of 22-60, he *should* be shooting 61%. Even if he incredibly still can’t find the gusto to dunk the ball. It’s just astonishing how soft that guy is.
I wonder how the Cavs would have fared against Miami. O’Neal and Mourning would have toyed with the Cavs’ 97-pound “top-5″ center, but as putrid as the Heat played during the Bulls series, who knows. Maybe Cleveland would have stood a chance.
April 29th, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I really believed that the cavs would of beat the heat, but the bulls would of man handle us in the first round, but, if we play them in the efinals, i believed we will woomp there butts. we are on fire. Now i know we will not get that game from z every game, but if the others player, ie, larry, drew, sasha continue to add there input we will be okay. now i know that the bulls have a very deep bench, but they do not intimidate us like the piston do. so in essence i am saying HELLO FINALS. CAVS VS SUNS
April 29th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
Alan, you are just jealous that Z is full 2 feet taller than you are.
April 29th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
WOW greedy, and a Cowboys fan??? Well I still love em… I’ll still back the Starbury’s and The Browns tho…
fishfry might just be right - I’ve got my fingers crossed. Really I’d like Cavs-GS!
Snow did OK in his thankfully limited role, but is it just me or does Pavlovic get yanked everytime he misses a shot or makes a mistake or what? Good to see him redeem himself at the end of this one, first with the block then the 3. Gotta let the kid play through it sometimes.
Pluto’s right, Z will never be good enough for some of you haters. Among qualified centers he’s up there in every category. Guess they’d rather have Diop back, or bring back Kemp and his 80 kids and convert him to Center. We love ya, Z
April 29th, 2007 at 6:43 pm
WOW greedy, and a Cowboys fan??? Well I still love em… I’ll still back the Starbury’s and The Browns tho…
fishfry might just be right - I’ve got my fingers crossed. Really I’d like Cavs-GS!
Snow did OK in his thankfully limited role, but is it just me or does Pavlovic get yanked everytime he misses a shot or makes a mistake or what? Good to see him redeem himself at the end of this one, first with the block then the 3. Gotta let the kid play through it sometimes.
Pluto’s right, Z will never be good enough for some of you haters. Among qualified centers he’s up there in every category. Guess they’d rather have Diop back, or bring back Kemp and his 80 kids and convert him to Center. We love ya, Z
April 29th, 2007 at 7:22 pm
Jim, they’re playing a team that makes Memphis look like the 1986 Celtics. Let’s not go overboard. Diop would do O.K., and any of Kemp’s 80 kids would do O.K. Especially that 56th kid, 8-year-old Tyrone “Hula Hoop” Kemp. Mad skills.
I’m curious, what is a “qualified center?” Never heard that term until now.
April 29th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Lebron is also a Yankee fan. Everytime I see him wearing that damn Yankee cap I wanna yank it off his head and stomp it.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I heard LeBron was also a Bulls fan. What a jerk.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:03 pm
He’s not a yankee’s fan. That’s just a ‘hood’ thing. Everyone single person in Jamaica wears a yankees cap and 90% of them don’t know who the yankees are.
April 29th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Really, Tom? Then how do you explain his Chicago Fire underpants?
April 30th, 2007 at 6:17 am
Hey Tukkaa:
What happened to your boy Duke Paxson? They
were down 36 in the second half to NJ last
night. Kidd is all over the floor. Boy we
never should have made a move for him instead of Damona who looks very pretty
on the bench. Is Marshall the water boy now?All he does is pass out towels and kisses.
And after watching the game on Saturday one
thing is very apparent. We have a new player
coach Lebron James. They all crowd around
him during timeouts while Brown draws cartoons on his etcha sketch. When Brown
approaches the team with his doodle they
all run away from him and rehuddle with Coach James. If Coach James becomes confused
with technical issues such as the proper
plays for Window Sasha he consults with
Damona who giggles and delivers the play.
April 30th, 2007 at 11:46 am
I wonder if Dallas fans have their own “Alan Tucker” to deal with.
Last I checked, the “best team in the league” was down 3-1, whereas our Cavs are up 3-0 and Alan is still complaining.
Hi Alan ya whiner!
April 30th, 2007 at 11:50 am
PREDICTION….
The Golden State Warriors will win the NBA Championship this year, defeating the Chicago Bulls in 7 games.
April 30th, 2007 at 12:52 pm
San Antonio Spurs over Cavs
April 30th, 2007 at 1:17 pm
You know why Lebron is a Cowboys fan? Because Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin were winning Super Bowls when he was a kid. He’s a bandwagon fan just like half the kids you went to school with.
That’s ironic, I think. Maybe we should all start rooting for the Suns or something. “Sorry, Lebron, we won’t be coming to Cavs games until you actually win a championship.”
Go Browns.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
THE “Z-MAN” is having an excellent series, but you know that you are not going to get that from him night in and night out, that is why i am expecting someone else to step up, or then again here is a better scenerio, one night, drew, one night z, one night larry, and let lebron do his thing then we will be a pretty tough team to play in the next round. nj gives us fits, but i see us winning in 6 games.
April 30th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
hey mr. tom, what exactly is a “hood thing” are you some kind of special suburbanite, get over yourself. you know the suburbs is not all that you think it is, stuff happens there just like anywhere else. and thanks to section 8 the suburbs are being overran by the hood rats, forcing you suburbanites to move to solan, walton hills, beechwood, but some of the wannabees cannnot afford it so they have to in the overan suburbs and mingle with the hood rats, then they go to sporting events and worship the players, who are what? you guess it “hood rats”
April 30th, 2007 at 4:10 pm
While I’m trying to get over myself…try to wrap your mind around the fact that I’m merely pointing out that a NY yankees cap is more of a cultural symbol than a loyalty to a team. kk thanks.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
The Cavaliers will go all to the Eastern Conference finals.
April 30th, 2007 at 6:35 pm
I’m trying to figure out how I feel about this series. I really never felt like the Cavaliers imposed their will on the Wizards. They really just wore them down and outplayed them in every single 4th quarter. That is a recipe for success in the playoffs…so hopefully it will carry over to the next series. Z is stepping up big time. I’d like to see Varajeo play better. Sasha needs to stop turning the ball over. Overall, I was happy with the decision making of Hughes and LeBron. Also, Gibson provided a nice boost coming off the bench in game 4.