Bucks 108, Cavs 98
–If the Cavs played the Bucks, say, 15 times a season and not four, Larry Harris might be up for Executive of the Year instead of being out of a job. The Cavs can’t cover Mo Williams or Michael Redd the way they play against them and I’ve seen four or five different guys try at this point. The Bucks averaged about 107 points against the Cavs this season and that is simply never going to work. Williams averaged 26 points and 10 assists, Redd averaged 25 points and made a 30-footer to beat them.
–Despite the matchup issues, the Cavs played lethargically all night. LeBron took a bunch of jumpers and whined about non-calls when he went to the basket. He rebounded well, but this was not his best effort. It is a matter of not bringing it against every opponent.
–It did not help the Cavs that the officials were not allowing any touching on penetration. Sasha Pavlovic was not permitted to breath on Redd. So that makes them tough to guard, but the game was called the same way at both ends. Bucks shot 52 percent, Cavs shot 37. It was amazing it was only a 10-point game.
–Before Anderson Varejao wanted to prove he was a scorer he led the team in field goal percentage. Now, he routinely misses handfuls of shots in a row. He should have a rule. Any time he dribbles, he is not permitted to shoot. Catch-and-shoots or layups only.
–That’s five straight losses on the road, though four of them were on the second night of back-to-backs. Still, at some point, the Cavs are going to have to win on the road in the playoffs.
Recap:
Pregame
Starting lineups
Cavs: Delonte West, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Bucks: Mo Williams, Michael Redd, Desmond Mason, Charlie Villanueva, Andrew Bogut
Officials
Matt Boland, Scott Foster, Courtney Kirkland
–Another case of the Cavs being disadvantaged on rest. They are playing their fourth game of the week and are on a road back-to-back while the Bucks have had four days off. It seemed to me in the locker room before the game that the team seemed tired. The Bucks like to score, so we’ll see if it is a factor.
–Last time the Cavs were here, Williams ate up West in his second game as a Cav. Turnovers and transition defense hurt the Cavs in that game, even though it was Redd that made a 3 at the buzzer to win the game. The Bucks will try the same tactic tonight, we’ll see how the Cavs adjust.
–Ben Wallace is out with a bad back. He had an MRI today that didn’t show any damage. Varejao will start in his place. That may not be a terrible thing, he can guard Villanueva a little better maybe. Joe Smith should get extended minutes off the bench as well.
–With Wisconsin and Marquette playing in the NCAA Tournament today, I don’t think many here in Milwaukee are too interested in this game.
Halftime — Cavs 46, Bucks 46
–Interesting first half to this game. In the first quarter the Cavs looked dead flat, couldn’t begin to deal with the Bucks in transition and gave up 65 percent shooting while making 6-of-24 themselves. Consider this nightmare stat: the Bucks had 24 points in the paint in the first quarter. In the second, the Cavs didn’t allow Milwaukee to get a single fastbreak point and slowing the game down benefitted them greatly as they were able to make a comeback. The Bucks were just 7-of-21 when they had to play halfcourt basketball. The Cavs also had 16 points in the paint in the second quarter, the Bucks had six.
–The bench deserves the credit so far. Damon Jones did a great job settling the team down, Devin Brown led some fastbreaks, Joe Smith was very aggressive around the hoop and Wally Szczerbiak took advantage of his size by getting some post baskets. Wally also had three assists in the second quarter.
–LeBron looked really tired at the outset and started 4-of-12 from the floor. Mike Brown gave him some extra rest before putting him back in, letting him sit for seven minutes in the second quarter. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, though, is looking pretty loose even though he’s not been great on back-to-backs with his back issue.
–The warning in this one would be that Michael Redd has just four shots and four points so far and it surely seems like Mo Williams can turn it on against the Cavs whenever he wants.
Postgame
Stars
Mo Williams, 29 points, 13 assists
Michael Redd, 21 points
LeBron, 29 points, 11 rebounds
Quotes
LeBron: “When these guys get it going it doesn’t matter what you do. They’ve been in a zone against us.”
West: “(Williams) is a very gifted ball-handler and has great quickness. So you have to respect his drive, but he’s got a great pull up game. When he’s at his best, he is tough.”
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So far, so bad. There’s no reason to get off to such a bad start against this poor of a team. I’m sick of the back-to-back excuse…..these guys are professional athletes and are supposed to be conditioned to handle such situations.
They were down 17….now it’s 10. They may end up winning this game, who knows…..but for some reason they just love to dig themselves into huge holes on the road.
The Bucks were draining everything to start the game, they wont be able to shoot like that all night. The Bucks shooters will cool down and they were look more like the scrub team that they are. LeBron just wants the game somewhat close going into the fourth so he can smash on Redds head this time, trust me LeBron isnt goin to let this team beat us at the buzzer again.
Will someone please give Mo Williams a hard foul? He gets into the lane as if he’s the only one on the court. I’d love to see someone hip-check him onto his ugly ass the next time he tries it.
brittle fingers , i could not have said it any better myslef , i’m so sick about hearing about back to backs . we are talking about the bucks at the end of a back to back , not the ‘96 bulls
ok so lebrons the franchise and the best player in the NBA but these are the games that lose him MVP votes. He is playing lazy and half-heartedly. This is absolutely awful to obnoxious to watch when he plays this way. Does he not care that the poor Milwaukee Bucks would be 3-1 on us this season? That is embarassing
Did anyone notice when LeBron was waiting to check in during the 4th quarter that he sat in front of McLeod. It was hilarious watching Fred try to look around LeBron to call the action. LeBron knows what’s up.
Seriously, cut the crap with the back-to-back excuses. Yesterday they were at home, both figuratively and literally. The Bucks are not a good team, and just finished firing their GM. The luxury charter flight to Milwaukee takes a little over an hour. It’s not like they had to take an overseas flight packed like sardines riding in coach on the United Airlines Screaming Baby Express.
Listen, I realize the regular seasons in the NBA are a complete joke and don’t mean a damn thing considering more than half the teams make it into the playoffs, and the East is a total farce. Which is the real reason a 23-44 team is presently trashing them, they simply don’t care that much, and won’t until the playoffs start. If this team was in the West, they’d be in the lottery, even with the great LeBron carrying them game in and game out, because in the West the regular season actually means something this year.
The array of excuses belched out by the local apologist sportswriters make me ill, and I don’t have enough crates of Gas-X in the house as it is. Seriously, I’m running low. And on a related topic, that obscene cover on this morning’s Plain Dealer pretty much finalizes any argument as to just how shilltastic the local papers are, from the sportswriters on up to the publishers themselves.
Well, we know that Lebron was absolutely bs’ing everyone by saying that this game meant something. This was a jump shot practice for him tonight and he shot terribly. He never, well maybe the last few minutes, looked to attack. Not one bit. He shot terribly, from the perimeter, and this team cannot overcome a bad game from Lebron. They just can’t. A wasted nice game by Wally, too.
We miss Ben when he’s not in. It’s just a fact they they do. Anderson starting is bad news. Very bad news.
Dan, nice post. And exactly correct. He lied out his a$$, saying that the win over Toronto meant nothing if they lost this game. He couldn’t give two shyts less about this game.
Your warning was spot on. The only good thing I have to so about this game is a least we didn’t get beat on the inside.
wow! another dead-ass third period! i am shocked! can they fire mike brown for a quarter of a game?
Brian, if you vote LeBron the MVP (5-5 in the last 10 games), than you’re an embarrassment and a shill.
Kobe or CP3. It has to be one of them ( I say Kobe because they’ve had so many injuries, yet have the best record in basketball as of right now).
Again, Brian – you will be held accountable if you vote LeBron MVP (Cavaliers would not make the playoffs in the west, you do know that right?)
Why is everyone just now seeing LeBron takes games off? He’s done it all year and he did it half of last season. That attitude can spread throughout the whole locker room and some nights it does. The local papers are terrible with the bias toward him. Plain Dealer writers are especially guilty of this. He is humble, polite, and a nice guy?? He comes across as cocky and arrogant these days. Games like this are why we won’t get to 50 wins. Oh well maybe the crew will show up next week against good teams.
Game Thoughts:
1. This was such a disgusting game that I have to admit I did not pay extremely close attention past the 3rd when the Cavs went back to mailing it in.
2. I know this will come as a shock to everyone but I think a lot of the blame here goes to….drum roll please….Mike Brown. It’s amazing how good teams–professional–teams can come out on night 2 of a back-to-back and at least play with some fire. The Cavs, on the other hand, always make it a jump shooting extravaganza. What does this have to do with Mike Brown? Well, if you had a coach that actually had authority over the players and wasn’t just their biggest fan, he could make statements like “Hey Andy, if I see you shoot another jump shot, I’m benching you for the rest of the game,” or “Hey Lebron, MVPs don’t put big 41 cent stamps on games against teams against whom they just lost a few weeks ago.” But I suspect Mike Brown has neither the authority nor the guts to make players fall in line like this (How else can you explain Larry Hughes not being benched or fined in game 5 against the Nets last year).
I’m just sick of it. I’m sick of the inmates running the asylum. This team is never going to get any better as long as they have a gushing fan on the end of the bench. Fair or unfair, if the Cavs get knocked out in the second round this year, I think its time to make a change (OK, now you can all start the uproar about how I’m making insane statements and the Cavs JUST went to the Finals a year ago….I know. I’m still ready for a real NBA coach).
3. I’m shocked to see Windhorst talking about Lebron whining and taking too many jumpers. I know he’s not employed by the team but he better be careful or he might get sent to live with Mike Reghi in Gilbert’s secret dungeon. By the way, I’m curious how many of you prefer Bran Flakes McCleod over Reghi.
4. Thank god there are no back-to-backs in the playoffs. It’s just asking too much to require guys to come to work on two consecutive days and actually care.
Gringo…I’m not upset that he takes games off. Believe it or not EVERY player in the history of the association has done that. I’m just pissed that he made such a big deal about the Toronto win meaning nothing if they should lose to the Bucks and then coming out and basically taking jump shooting practice against the Bucks.
Lebron, I’m one of your biggest fans. I do realize that the gap in talent between you and your closest teammate is the biggest in the league. I do realize that you do more for your team, than any other player in the league (no matter what “fans” like douglar claim). I do realize that you may take a game off or two every now and then. But damn, man, don’t try and BS your fans by crazy comments like, “this game means nothing if we don’t win tomorrow night”. You just didn’t mean that. It was obvious to anyone watching last night’s game. That doesn’t change him from being the best in the league. He does the most with the least, but it was just a sad performance AFTER some strong talk.
Biff…again a great post. Keep it up.
Umm, LeBron is playing with Wally, Ben Wallace, and Zydrunas. You know what they all have in common – they’ve all appeared in All-Star games! Stop talking about the Cavs as if they have zero talent.
By the way, Kobe, is playing with one all-star (Pau Gasol – and now he’s winning without them). Stop acting like Kobe is playing with the most talented roster ever.
douglar, look at the rest of that squad too. Granted Bynum is out, but Luke Walton has become one hell of a player and Lamar Odom is nothing to scoff at. Derek Fisher is better than any point guard on our roster far and away. His backup in Farmar is no joke either. Vujacic, is a talented up and comer as wellThat roster is super solid.
CP3 is overrated. How did the Hornets do last year when all their scoring options were often-injured? Now that Paul has scoring options to pass to the team is winning.
Steve Nash is more valuable to the Suns than Paul is the Hornets.
21.5, 11.2, 2.7 vs. 17.5, 11.3, 0.6: Which would you rather have? The first is CP3 and the second is Nash. CPIII is probably even more valuable to the Hornets than Nash is to the Suns. And I wouldn’t be calling Paul overrated either. To do what he has done in that conference is awesome. It’s just as bad as the people who scream about Lebron being overrated.
I’m tired of the East vs West garbage. The Western Conference is deeper than the East, not better. The two best teams in the NBA reside in the East, not the West. You can’ t say that if the Cavs were in the West, they’d be in the lottery, because they haven’t played the same teams the same number of times, and won’t. The Cavs have been beaten pretty good by Houston and Denver. Phoenix swept the Cavs, but struggled at times. Everyone else has split or been swept. The Cavs would likely be right in the middle of it.
Great points, Chuck.
People fail to realize that if the Cavs were in the West they’d play SEA, MIN and MEMPHIS 12 times. I’d imagine most of the western playoff teams have beaten those teams at least 10 times.
Oh, come on, Douglar … who cares what somebody might have had in their tank years ago? Wally, Wallace and Z? Please. The Cavs retiring Nate Thurmond’s number was the equivalent of the Sonics retiring Pat Ewing’s number. Only the Sonics never retired Pat Ewing’s number. Some things in Cleveland never change. If the Cavs go deep in the playoffs, it will still be because of LeBron and LeBron. Kind of like when Windy once posted the Cavs’ starting five, and did a fairly funny Freudian slip of posting LeBron’s name twice.
do you guys want some cheese to go with that whine? you guys are crybabys, this team is not going to win every game. stop your belly aching and wait for the playoffs, then you whiners can cheer again, yall are such fair weather fans.
First of all white, shut up. Second of all, there is a difference between not winning every game and nearly losing half of them. Excuse us for thinking we should be better considering we have the best player in the game.
Second, as far as this east wast stuff goes, the west is better. Would the Cavs be a playoff team if they played in the West? I would say almost certainly. Still, when CPIII can lead the hornets to the level they are at when they play good teams so often is pretty awesome.
Nobody’s “acting” like anything douglar. The absolute 100% non debatable fact is that Kobe’s help is better than Lebron’s. Odom would be the second best player on the Cavaliers. Without a doubt. Bynum would be, too. Counting Gasol, that’s three players better than anyone not named Lebron on the lakers, not counting Kobe. Oh, who is the Lakers’ coach? Oh, that’s right. The 9 time champion Phil Jackson. No, douglar, Kobe has far more help.
Could Denver beat Cleveland in a seven-game series? Obviously. But as it now stands, Denver isn’t even going to make the playoffs, let alone have an opportunity to beat Cleveland in a seven-game series.
The Eastern Conference is a joke.
By the way, today Iverson played 43 minutes in a game that was 1,500 miles away from home. Scored 36 points, too. And yet somehow the Denver sportswriters find a way not to use his minutes as an excuse.
The Lakers have more help now that they have Gasol, I’ll concede that. But, there wasn’t exactly a chasm in talent differencial before that. Lamar Odom is extremely talented, Laker fans want no part of him getting the ball late. His mental capacity reminds me of Gooden.
Sasha V was awful last year, as was Vlad Rad (when healthy). They have D-fish now, who’s solid, but like Vlad Rad and Sash – can’t defend anyone. Bynum was putting up the exact same numbers as Z.. so if Bynum is a world beater, so is Z (obviously Bynum shoots 60%..but can’t hit a jumper if his life depended on it, and way shaky at the line).
I think before Pau came over, the talent was pretty similar. And the Lakers had Smush and Kwame last year.. Kobe deserves more credit for winning at all with last year’s team and their subsequent injuries.
I dominate arguments!
Kobe would not let his team go 5-5 at the end of the year like Lebron is. MVP is done. If Windy votes LeBron, he should lose all voting privileges!!
Of course Alan, Denver didn’t play the night before which is what Windhorst made a point of – the second night of a back to back is hard on all NBA teams, and the Cavs seem to do particularly poorly in them. (The Nuggets, for example, score 5.1 points less per game on a back to back, and that includes home games.) I’m not sure how saying that is making excuses or being an apologist or a shill, but you’ve never let facts or reason stop you from making your straw man arguments reinforcing your hatred and disdain of the Cavs, Windohorst, and Ferry.
Also, the Ewing/Thurmond comparison is not a good one. Thurmond played for the Cavs on what was to that point, the best Cavs team ever, a division winner that made the Eastern Conference Finals. He played well in the playoffs (9rpg,2bpg) when thrust into a starting role for Chones. AND he was a local, growing up in Akron and going to Central Hower. Ewing sucked in his year in Seattle, they didn’t make the playoffs, and he was born in Jamaica.
Back to back, Chuck? They barely had to travel. An hour on a private charter loaded with everything but hookers? No, I take that back, I assume they’re even provided hookers. This back to back stuff is a copout. Bottom line is if they had to try and had to have talent every game, as all teams competing for a Western Conference playoff spot, this team would be swimming with the lottery fishes.
By the way, not that truth means anything in this blog, I don’t have disdain for the Cavs and Windhorst. Wrong, Chuck. But Ferry? That part you have pegged correctly.
Wanna know how the West has so many 40+ win teams? The record of all 8 western playoff teams v. the bottom 3 of MIN SEA MEM is 65-8, that’s an .890 winning %.
It’s stupid to debate East vs. West because the Western Conference, on the whole, is clearly better. That being said, Kobe is the second best player in the NBA and the Lakers aren’t getting out of the Western Finals.
LeCavalier… you do realize that Eastern conference teams have mopped up against the New York Knicks and the Miami Heat right? Oh yeah, and the West teams have mopped up against the middle of the East (Chicago, Indiana, Milwaukee, New Jersey, Charlotte, and Atlanta right?).
Nice try.
I wish people around here would start talking about something that both makes sense and is productive. For example, McManamon has adopted the ultra-silly, “Until next time – there you have it” as his Sunday column signoff. In that vein, I think Windy should add a catchy sign-off after his “Dribbles” filler stuff. Maybe something witty like, “Until next time – trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat.”
There are a couple of days before the next Cavaliers game, I think it would quite interesting to read some other sign-off suggestions for his stuff.
douglar i will contritely say i disagree with your points regarding the lakers. bynum is a bigger post presence defensively and on the glass, although truthfully i still take z over him. odom puts up better numbers than gooden and while he doesnt bring it every night even some of his off nights he looks better than gooden on his good nights. and you never even discussed how incredibly solid walton and farmar have been
Alan’s right. Poor McManamon has been trying to package his column in different ways and it’s been pretty ugly.
“Pat’s Point of View” is awkward, but I especially liked “Pat’s Beside the Point,” which was probably more accurate considering his writings at times.
Maybe BW could try something like, “Until next time … Everyone knows it’s Windy,” like the song. Or maybe, “… Everyone knows but Windy,” which could allude to his faith in old Boatshoes.
“Kobe would not let his team go 5-5 at the end of the year like Lebron is.” I disagree. Again, you gloss over who his coach is? Why, oh why? I realize it is a players league, but coaching does make a difference. Plus, it’s not the end of the year.
I like how it’s the loss to the Bucks, not the wins over the Pistons and the Raptors, that people are talking about. I’m not saying that the Cavaliers are playing well right now (they aren’t), but I’m not sure how a win in Milwaukee would have changed that. But a loss in Milwaukee, well, that’s apparently a sign of the apocalypse. Even *if* the Bucks have the personnel that can exploit the weaknesses of the Cavaliers (in a super-quick point guard and a super-streaky outside shooter), they aren’t making the playoffs, and none of the other playoff teams in the East have those two weapons together.
Look, for all of the advances that LeBron has made, he just doesn’t care about the regular season. He knows that the team with the best record has come up short the last 4 years. So it doesn’t matter what the Cavs do from here on out, other than get healthy. If that means a couple of half-assed performances in Milwaukee, well, who cares?
I don’t care how the Cavs look right now, there isn’t a single team in the East *or* the West that would look forward to seeing the Cavs come playoff time (except the Washington Wizards, those guys are apparently masochists). For all of Mike Brown’s weaknesses, we know that the Cavs take it up a notch defensively in the playoffs, and their big front line causes problems for everybody. Add those advantages to the best closer in the game, and you have a solid playoff team.
So feel free to whine and complain, it’s healthy. Just don’t use this loss to the Bucks to conclude that the Cavs are going to be bounced in the first round by the 76ers, or that LeBron isn’t the MVP. Otherwise you’ll look a little foolish when you’re watching him drop 45 on the Celtics in Game 5.
Go Cavs.
Mike C.
The back-to-back thing is a legitimate qualifier, Alan. It isn’t so much the travel time, it’s that one team is playing the second night in a row, and fatigue plays a greater role in the game. I know these are world class athletes, but surely everyone knows that your muscles respond considerably worse on the second night of such physical exertion. This would be fine if both teams were tired, but that hasn’t been the case for the Cavs this year.
A few years ago much attention was raised because some teams seemed to perennially get an inordinate number of back-to-back games. Obviously, the feeling was that these games create a competitive disadvantage. The NBA acted and more or less equalled out the schedule.
As far as I know, no one has checked on the equality of the opponents’ schedules, but they should. The Cavs will finish the season with a total of 21 times playing back-to-back games. The teams the Cavs have played will finish with 9. 20 of those times, the Cavs will have played a rested opponent while the Cavs are on the 2nd night of back-to-backs. For their opponents, only 8. In other words, the Cavs are playing on tired legs much more often than the teams they play — one of every seven games.
The Cavs have played particularly poorly in the former types of games (6-12 thus far). Typically Eastern Conference teams have won about 40 percent of such games when tired.
Even then, however, there are some extenuating circumstances: Seventeen of the Cavs’ 21 “tired” nights (the second game of back-to-backs) will end up being road games. (It’s currently 16 of 18.) As I’m sure you are aware, NBA home teams typically win 60 percent of their home games. Only one in three teams (9) has posted home record .500 or below, and only six teams have records at home that are significantly below .500.
So to summarize, the Cavs are playing many more games tired than the teams they have played, and they are playing a wildly disproportionate number of those “tired” games on the road. I’m comfortable in asserting that no other NBA team has had such a disproportionate number in each case. Collectively, it is quite significant.
Alan, I posted for you in response, but for some reason it didn’t take. Here is a summary of my post. (Hope this one goes through.)
The second game of back-to-backs is important in assessing the Cavs because they have played so many more games “tired” than the teams against which they have competed and because so many of the 2nd games on these back-to-back nights have been road games.
It isn’t the travel time, it’s the fatigue factor.
Why won’t my comments post?!
Alan, I think you’re wrong about the back-to-back games. It has less to do with travel time than it does with the fatigue of playing on the second night of back-to-back games.
The Cavs have played many more games when they are playing back-to-back and their oppoments are rested. (17 of the current 18 back-to-backs have been against “fresh” opponents.) Further, the Cavs have only had the “rest advantage” (playing their opponents with frewsh legs when the opposition was playing the second night of back-to-backs) five times.
Even further, 16 of the 18 times the Cavs have played back to backs, the second game has been on the road. As you’re aware, road teams win only ~ 40% of their games straight up, let alone on the 2nd night of back-to-backs.
I’m comfortable in asserting that no other team has approached this kind of scheduling disadvantage, and it’s significant. (I’ll acknowledge the Cavs haven’t done particularly well in these situations.
I’m sure everyone can understand that the back to backs put teams at a disadvantage. It’s just tiresome reading about it.
What’s important for the team in addition to getting healthy is getting some consistency in execution after all the roster turnover and injuries. I think that’s what has many fans impatient and worried and inconsistent effort doubles the worry.
It’s a valid concern that really can’t be explained away by scheduling. In fact, consistent execution lessens the fatigue factor because consistent teams don’t have to break their backs coming back from large deficits, covering for blown rotations, etc., etc.
Farmer and Walton have been solid this season. But not exactly all-stars. They’re nice role players. Farmar is a great hustler with poor shot selection and a shoot first mentality. Walton’s extremely erratic with his shooting – terrible shot selection. He’s a very good passer though, can’t defend anyone.
Nice role players. That’s about it. Kobe makes them look far better than they really are.
Favorite sign-off?? Oh I got one….
My name is Alan Tucker and until my next post an hour from now, I’m a coma-holic!
it’s not about back to backs. it’s about us being a mentally soft, poorly coached team, period. plenty of “good” teams can handle back to backs – especially against the likes of the bucks – because they actually have some competitive intensity.
we’ll get it together in the playoffs, where the celtics will hand us our asses in 6 games.
People can talk all they want about how strong the West is but it’s going to be won by the Spurs or Suns, probably the Spurs. Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, L.A., G.S. Utah— all have nice records but clearly cannot win the west.
Once the playoffs begin the Spurs will kick into high gear and destroy those teams.
The regular season is meaningless in the NBA. It is a time for posting numbers, making All Star games, and making sure you make the playoffs. Home court “advantage” gets you one extra home game, and only if the series goes that far. No matter where the seedings fall at the end of the season, Boston, Detroit and Cleveland will cross paths at some point, barring a major upset in the first round, so all of this battling for seedings is really a minor issue.
I get a kick out of these Laker apologists who seem to think Kobe has never mailed in a game, makes his teammates look good, and doesnt have or need a supporting cast. The fact is, Kobe hasnt won anything since Shaq took his massive shoes to Miami. Bynum is mediocre and now has a tricky knee. Pau Gasol was a steal, and may be your savior when the playoffs roll around, but more than likely, Phoenix will send LA packing again because Raja Bell (who?) shuts down Kobe every time they play. I cant wait to hear the excuses again.
I think this year will play out very similarly to last season. Boston is very good, but anyone who thinks they’re licking their chops to get a shot at LeBron and co is kidding themselves. Cleveland is a team no one wants to see in the postseason.
Great posts, Kevin. Where did you find that info? I think it is important to note the back to back games, because they don’t happen much in the playoffs.
I also don’t think it’s clear who will win the West – only Utah & Golden State would really surprise me.
The reason I assume you hate the Cavs & Windhorst, Alan, is because I have never seen you post anything positive regarding them.