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Beside the Point: The Blog by Patrick McManamon

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Mike Brown

James' strong finish trumps Kobe's fast start

January 22, 2010

Kobe Bryant started fast for the Lakers Thursday night, but LeBron James finished stronger, which was the difference in the Cavs victory in a January game with a June feeling.
James dominated the final minutes — scoring seven consecutive points, making a key block on Pau Gasol, putting the Cavs ahead on a powerful driving layup, [...]

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Cavs win a close game in Philadelphia

December 16, 2009

When Wednesday's game was over and the Cavs had overcome a four-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat Philadelphia 108-101, most folks were talking about one play made by (surprise) LeBron James.
It happened when he lost control of the ball as he dribbled up court following a steal — it looked from a seat four rows up [...]

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Cavs lose the opener to Boston

October 27, 2009

Not a great opening night for the Cavs, who looked like a team still trying to find itself.
LeBron James called it a "transition period."
Coach Mike Brown said: "We will get better."
The cynic in me started to ask why Boson's transition seemed so much easier, but there is an easy reason. Boston's new guys — Rasheed [...]

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The departure of John Kuester

July 8, 2009

AOL's take on John Kuester, a very good coach who is leaving the Cavs to be head coach of the Pistons: "Despite the presence of LeBron James, the Cavs were utterly stagnant on offense before this past season; with Kuester calling the offensive shots, the Cavs featured the most efficient offense in the East. Finally a [...]

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Ranking one, two, three in something

June 17, 2009

Mike Brown, Danny Ferry and Mo Williams finished one-two-three in ESPN.com's list of the biggest playoff losers. Remember when life was rosy after consecutive sweeps?
 

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Tonight's game comes down to …

May 30, 2009

What does tonight's game boil down to? In its essence, its purest form, its DNA, its molecular structure?
Shooting.
Mo Williams took a huge stride toward regaining his form in Game 5 (after he had taken small strides in Game 4). His shooting, along with that of Daniel Gibson, opened things up for LeBron James at "the [...]

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The Cavs lose Game 1 to Orlando

May 21, 2009

Mike Brown called his team's offense in the second half of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals "stagnant."
That's putting it politely. The Cavs lost Game 1 to Orlando because they quit doing the things they had done all season, things that won them 66 games. That meant ball movement and player movement. But in [...]

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The Series thus far: Seven quarters to the Cavs, one to the Pistons

April 21, 2009

There was some angst after the Cavs 12-point win Tuesday night. That's what happens when a team sees a 29-point lead fade to seven in the fourth quarter. The Cavs had every right to expect another celebration at the Q Tuesday night, especially with LeBron James dominating every second he was on the court. But [...]

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The Cavs have a legitimate shot to sweep the major NBA awards

April 13, 2009

Awards time in the NBA approaches, and major news sites are taking their polls. They don't mean anything, but they're interesting — and a good insight into what will happen.
To the surprise of nobody, ESPN's panel of experts picked LeBron James as the league's MVP.
SI.com polled scouts and executives and James was the unanimous choice.
"When I [...]

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Cavs enjoy themselves again, and it's too bad if Boston didn't like it

April 12, 2009

Someone asked Mike Brown after the game if he worries that the Cavs' in-game, on-the-bench celebrations are becoming too much, whether other teams might resent them. The same person asked LeBron James if he worried that dancing and celebrating on the bench "disrespected" another team. No problem with the question. The guy who asked — [...]

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A nod to Mike Brown, and Ben's future value

April 3, 2009

Mike Brown has one Coach of the Year vote. He probably deserves more. Looking to the future, Ian Thomsen also points out that Ben Wallace can be a valuable player for the Cavs next season – because he will have an expiring contract worth $14 million.

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The Cavs beat the Pistons in an ugly … err … pretty game

March 31, 2009

I didn't think much of the way the Cavs played Tuesday night. They struggled in an ugly game, but made enough plays to beat Detroit.
Mike Brown, though, loved the game.
"It was a good, ugly, physical grind-it-out type of game," Brown said.
Which clearly is not the kind of game that Dayana Mendoza would play at Guantanomo. [...]

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The Magic say the refs contributed to their loss to the Cavs

March 17, 2009

The Orlando Magic will be a very dangerous team for someone come the playoffs. Dwight Howard's inside power combined with the Magic's shooting will make them dangerous — if they get by their playoff inexperience. It's likely Orlando and Boston will play, and after watching the Magic play the Cavs I'm not ready to give [...]

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Another look at Mike Brown

March 13, 2009

It's been my contention that Mike Brown is underrated and underappreciated as a coach. He's a victim of the "Cleveland woes," an illness cause by a 40-year championship drought which causes folks to be excessively critical of really good coaches just because they haven't ended that drought. In a story written before last night's win [...]

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Another very impressive night for the Cavs

March 2, 2009

 If the Atlanta win was exciting and entertaining and amazingly enjoyable to watch … well … what was the Miami win? I'm not big on writing things off TV, but that win showed a lot of guts, heart and moxie on the part of the Cavs. Mo Williams came up with big plays, LeBron James [...]

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The Cavs called about Antawn Jamison?

February 18, 2009

I don't like Antawn Jamison as a player. I love him. He is a great, great player, underrated, professional … name it. And the thought that the Cavs have talked to the Wizards about him is as pretty enticing.
This story was broken by Ian Thomsen of SI.com, and he's pretty well connected. According to Thomsen, [...]

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On Joey Crawford's call in Indianapolis, and Mike Brown's tirade

February 11, 2009

Mike Brown called it "irresponsible" and "predetermined" and had a lot else to say about Joey Crawford's call at the end of the Cavs loss in Indianapolis Wednesday night (the tape is available here on George Thomas' blog).
"Worst call I've ever been a part of," Brown said.
I watched on TV with the rest of the [...]

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Cavs must weigh Lakers loss the right way

February 10, 2009

The Cavs' loss to the Lakers, combined with the first defeat in LA, is the kind of loss that makes people in the newspapers and talk shows stand up and scream and jump and down and hold our breath until we turn blue — because we want the team to do something about it. Go [...]

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A very odd Cavs game as they beat New Orleans, and Jon Gruden is fired

January 16, 2009

Quirky, odd game Friday night between the Cavs and New Orleans. For a good portion of the fourth quarter and two minutes of the third quarter, the Cavs used a lineup that featured LeBron James as the tallest player.
James wound up at center,  with Wally Szczerbiak and Sasha Pavlovic at forward and various guards on [...]

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Cavs beat Celtics … who even try Hack-a-Ben

January 9, 2009

Gonna try this live blog thing at least thru the first half … night games produce bad deadlines. The atmosphere at the Q is pretty charged, which is no surprise. Final thoughts will come after the game … so bear with us.
First quarter: The Cavs start fast and shoot the lights out
The Cavs started [...]

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Z's thoughts are intriguing, and Mike Brown is fine as the coach … just fine

May 23, 2008

Zydrunas Ilgauskas had some interesting things to say in his year-end get-together with the media, and I wrote about those in Friday’s paper. Of possible changes, Z offered that “we have a good team here” and “sometimes you got to be careful because the grass is not always greener on the other side.” His conclusion: [...]

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Some thoughts on Game 7 …

May 19, 2008

OK … there were computer problems. But I got a kick out of this comment on the previous post stating there were computer problems. “Computer problems??? That's the same silly excuse Windy uses whenever he's running late to meet his espn.com deadline.” Why is that funny? Because it was Brian Windhorst, my esteemed colleague, who [...]

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The win, the dunk (WOW), the series …

May 13, 2008

Who’s the pressure on now? Is it on the Cavs, who must win on the road in Game 5 in Boston to maintain their momentum and keep from having to win a Game 7 in Boston? Or is on the Celtics, who seemed to tighten up in the fourth quarter in Game 4 in Cleveland [...]

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The key to game 4 isn't real complex …

May 11, 2008

What do the Cavs do to win Game 4? Just what they did in Game 3. Sounds simple, really, but that’s really it. Move the ball to find the man open for a shot, them make the shot. As Zydrunas Ilgauskas said: “The best way to attack this team is to move the ball and [...]

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Finally, an offense that resembled an NBA offense …

May 10, 2008

That’s the way a team is supposed to play, the way a team is supposed to run an offense. The Cavs claimed they did nothing different, but there had to be some new wrinkles in the Cavs' Game 3 win. The key thing they did different – especially early – was make shots and protect [...]

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