Cavs lose Game 5 and it's back to Washington
Posted April 30th, 2008 by Pat McManamon
Tonight's loss was pretty dadgum frustrating. How else to say it when a team has a five-point lead with less than two minutes left, has the ball — and loses. This game was lost for three reasons:
1) Poor offense down the stretch. It's what I wrote for Thursday's Beacon-Journal. The Cavs didn't run an offense late in the game. They stood around and watched LeBron James dribble, then hoped he could create a shot or an open pass. This is all well and good when one play is needed to win. But when the Cavs did it over and over again in the fourth period it was maddening. What's wrong with setting picks? With running plays? Remember how aggressive James was when he curled off a pick in Game 1 to make the two key shots? That play was nowhere to be found. Zydraunas Ilgauskas had a six-inch height advantage on Darius Songaila, yet the Cavs never once posted Z up to give him the ball on the low block. They let James dribble and dribble and dribble — and when he found open guys they did not make the shots. Please … next time more than one possession is needed to win a game … how about a screen … a pass or two … some motion … something other than "give the ball to LeBron and everybody else get out of the way" (Delonte West's description).
2) Poor shooting — The Cavs shot 36 percent, 27-for-75. Joe Smith could not get a basket. James was 8-for-21, including what he admitted was a bad three late in the shot clock with the Cavs up five and less than two minutes left. Z was 8-for-11, but I'll bet the only time he touched the ball in the final two minutes was on a rebound. Wally Szczerbiak (1-for-6) and Anderson Varejao (1-for-6) struggled, as did Devin Brown (1-for-5) and Smith (0-for-6). That's 3-for-23 from four pretty key guys.
3) Too many threes — The Cavs seemed to rely on threes, taking 25 after taking 28 on Sunday. They averaged 19 threes per game in the regular season. You can make the argument that three-point shooting won Sunday's game, and it did. But in this game officials were sending guys to the free throw line when they took the ball to the basket. The Cavs simply did not do that enough.
End result, it's back to Washington.
Remember when James said he did not think Washington could get back in it. Guess what, the Wizards are back in it.
Oh … the foul call at the end of the game, or the non-call to be precise. Yes, Songaila jumped into James. Yes, it was probably a foul. But I heard Campy Russell say on TV that you're not going to get that call, that officials want the players to decide. James might have deserved a foul call, but Caron Butler also might have deserved a call on his game-winning shot.
To their credit the Cavs followed their edict: They did not make excuses.
