Post-mortem: Cavs 112, Magic 102
Yeah, I know. Nice blog, George. Sorry. It was either type during the game and deal with pain or type a game story along with the blog and deal with excrutiating pain. I chose the former.
Probably the Cavaliers’ most complete game of the series thus far. The big difference: they played like they did for the entire season. LeBron James was the spark with his triple double of 37 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists, but he got a lot of help from his teammates as Mo Williams showed up in a huge way with 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
More importantly, they wer eable to connect from the outside, as they hit on 50 percent of their three-point shots when they’d been hitting just 26 percent. Huge improvement.
In the process, they held the Magic to just 32 percent from the three-point line – a stark contrast.
Then what else do you say about James? At one point during the game he involved himself in 32 consecutive points.
Game: Cavs vs. Magic – Eastern Conference Finals Game 2
Broadcast: TV: TNT. Radio: WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM).
Starters: Cavs: LeBron James (F); Anderson Varejao (F); Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G). Magic: Hedo Turkoglu (F); Rashard Lewis (F); Dwight Howard (C); Delonte West (G); Mo Williams (G)
Injured-inactive: Cavs: J.J. Hickson, Lorenzen Wright. Magic: Jameer Nelson.
Pre-game observations:
Prepare for the kitchen sink strategy. Mike Brown employed it the other nightand they almost pulled one out.
You can look back on that game and they did so much right as a team – mostly in the area of defense – in regulation that watching the overtime implosion proved extremely difficult. It’s as if what they were doing right until that point, they suddenly forgot.
Here it is: I’m on record right now saying that the Magic hit nowhere near 40 percent from the three-point arc, which will be key. Magic center Dwight Howard will get his, but I see this one going back to Orlando.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
You were kinda right about that 3-point prediction, George. But that’s only because Alston got kinda cocky with his recent shooting aberration, and heaved 1 of 7. Take him out of the mix, and they shot 39% from 3-point.
Second straight game Ilgauskas exercised some semblance of self-control on the 3-point heaves. Good for him.
It took me a very long time, all these years I thought Ilgauskas moved like a lumbering dinosaur. But for some reason, I just now realized tonight that Ilgauskas actually moves more like The Mummy. Not the newfangled Brendan Fraser stuff I’ve never actually seen because it seemed way too cheesy in the trailers with the highfalutin special effects, but the Boris Karloff stuff. It’s uncanny. George, I know you must have Karloff’s entire collection on DVD, you’ve gotta agree with me on this.
Alan,
Mummy 1 and 2 with Fraser were pretty good. Can’t say anything about third since I haven’t seen it yet, but the critical reviews are not as good.
Nice win by the Cavs, but I still stand by my $1,500 bet for Game 6.
Mo Wms. looked awfully confident early with the threes, taking a few that you wouldn’t normally see a slumping player take. I wonder if they spotted a hitch or something that is now straightened out.
What’s with all this “excruciating pain” stuff you’ve been complaining about for the past few weeks, George? I assumed you got a hold of a bad hot dog at the arena. I certainly hope that’s what it was, because I went out of my way for you, and only for you. Otherwise, I made a terrible, terrible mistake in using my political contacts to bring Gilbert to his knees. http://jfs.ohio.gov/warn/pdf/ARAMARK2.pdf