It's been a few days, but a bout with dizziness (which thankfully seems to be subsidizing … I would not wish that experience on anyone) allows one to blend the past and present.
The Cavs loss in Boston was more than disappointing. Losses to the Celtics, Lakers and Magic have shown the formula for beating the Cavs: Pound the ball inside. Leon Powe had 20 points. Leon Powe! Shades of Luther Rackley and Walt Wesley.
The loss is not the end of the world of course, because the Cavs have a lot of time to get things right. Too, Mike Brown doesn't start tweaking his team so it peaks for the playoffs until late March and April (and trust me … Daniel Gibson will be in Brown's playoff plans … Brown has too much faith in Gibson's ability based on how he's played in the postseason the past two years). Every year, the Cavs play better in the playoffs than they did in the regular season. So there's no reason to panic … but it was eyebrow-raising that the Cavs looked so lackluster losing in Boston for the ninth game in a row.
A fans site called realcavsfans.com did a very thorough and interesting analysis of that loss in Boston, and it showed that six of the team's 12 road losses are against teams that right now would be seeds two through six in the East.
The Celtics went 4-8 on the road in the 2008 post-season against . . .obviously. . . playoff teams. They went 0-6 in the first two rounds. It's just the way the NBA is set-up. Home teams win more often . . . even against better teams. Right now, 6 teams in the entire league have winning road records. That's all. And only 8 teams have losing home records (just 3 in the Eastern Conference). The road loss against Orlando came with Z and Delonte sidelined. The Cavs win that game, they're 3-5 on the road against elite teams in the East. The way they get abused inside on the road has to be corrected, but the road record itself just isn't that big a deal.
I'm still waiting for a rational answer as to why Mike Brown took all of the starters out of that game with about 2 1/2 minutes left and only down by around 10. This against last season's NBA champion who they'll probably face in a playoff series. How much money did Brown have on the spread?