Wrapping up our December catch-up session with a little sad face post…
After our beloved Cleveland squad beat the Milwaukee Bucks in convincing fashion Friday, we made an agreement with ourself not to do our write-up on the “Cavaliers of ole December 06″ until the conclusion of the road game of against the Bulls Saturday.
By halftime, we were 2/3 convinced this team may have finally gotten their heads on straight – they legitimately tried for the entire half, and the malaise that had overtaken them since Game 3 of the 06-07 season wasn’t present.
The next event?
A third quarter, 24-0 run by Chicago.
Did Mike Brown call a time-out? Did he make any adjustments? Did he say “Hey, why has the ball been out of LeBron’s hands for 5 minutes straight?”
No, he didn’t, which is why we’re exactly in the same place we were when we last spoke of team over 4 weeks ago:
Mike Brown has to go.
If you want to know why, go back and read that other post. We’re sick of lazy play, we’re sick of stagnant offenses, we’re sick of reading “we just have to figure this thing out” quotes after every game, and we’re sick of our team being unwatchable.
There was an awesome three-part profile in the Beacon Journal on team owner Dan Gilbert over the weekend, and it was littered with quotes from the man. These two are kick-ass.
“You have to empower people to say, ‘That may be the rule, but it’s stupid, it doesn’t apply,’ ” Gilbert said. “There was a school system that required every student to take driver’s education. Even blind students. No one wanted to say, ‘That’s just dumb. Let the kids take another class.’ Finally, someone did after it became a big deal. Why did it take so long for someone to use common sense?”
“Some people will never get it. The biggest mistakes I’ve made in business is not getting rid of some people when it was clear they had to go. I waited too long, and they just poisoned others. When we did let them go, in the office it was like `Ding dong, the witch is dead!’ People were thrilled.”
Follow your own rule here, Dan – for real.
You’ve got a team that’s been playing like blind kids in drivers ed, running an offense that has some other analogy that fits, and it’s showing no signs of change. Make the move. (No, we don’t know who to bring in. Rick Adelman? At least we’ll get out and run.)
Other than that, not much about the Cavs is worth mentioning – we have a hard time watching them, and turned off several games at halftime in December. We know from your emails that we’re not the only ones.
If there’s one additional thing(s) we do want to say, it’s to LeBron: stop getting tattoos, drop the arm sleeve (we’ll contend 800 times over that you don’t actually need it), and please, please, please, please, please, please stop kissing your wrists. Please?
Gilbert profile Part 1.
Gilbert profile Part 2.
Gilbert profile Part 3.
NOTE: It’s now Sunday morning, and we’ve read Coach Brown’s post-game comments, wherein he says this loss was about defensive letdowns…um, someone tell him if that 24-0 run was even like 24-17, we would’ve won. (Hint: You have the weapons to be one of the most potent and efficient offensive teams in the NBA.)
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Yes, but when it comes to lip balm and spit cups, Coach Mike is NUMBER ONE! Loogies.
I’ve been watching Coach Mike do that for over a year now, but only now when you say this am I asking myself wtf he’s spitting.
He accidentally ate his playbook.
The only reason I don’t like Mike Brown is because he looks like he always has some half-assed smirk on his face… other than that, the Cavs played solidly against the Pistons.
Happy new year Cav!
I watched this game (being a huge Bulls fan) wondering if the Bulls might finally be able to pull one off against these Cavaliers….To my enjoyment, about halfway through the third a liquored up Johnny ‘Red’ Kerr begins to question why the Cavaliers have not been giving the ball to Le-Bron. This amazed me because usually he only comments about women in the stands with large boobs. Nevertheless, when the Cavaliers finally gave Le-Bron the ball with about 2 minutes to go (in the game), he went on a scoring spree and pulled the team within striking distance. It was very weird to watch. My main question is….Does Le-Bron usually slip and fall so much during the games? He slipped like 5 times without anyone touching him against the Bulls. What’s up with that?
Not usually, no. It was odd at best, although the rest of the 3rd quarter collapse was pretty status quo for Cleveland. Mike Brown likes to tell stories about orphans dying in forest fires at halftime.
One thing that did piss me off about Le—Bron (and this is because I want him to be good) is that a couple of times the Bulls defenders played good D on him and then he tapped them on the head. Sort of saying, “Nice job”. You would have never seen MJ do this to John Starks. He would have picked up Starks on D the next time down, made Starks cry and then come down (without passing the ball) and proceed to dunk on the entire Knicks team. Seriously, Le—–Bron is missing that ‘killer instinct’. While Mike Brown sucks, sometimes Le——-Bron needs to just take the ball, say “Fuck that play” and just throw it down on the D (because, he is that good).
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