The Cavaliers lost to the Bulls on national TV last night, and it was pretty typical of what they’ve done all year – long jumpshots, stretches of 65% effort, etc.
Yes, they were shorthanded, and as is their way, they took the opportunity to use that as an excuse. At least the players did.
This may surprise you, but we’re leaning off Coach Mike a little these days. As much as he’s an inept offensive coach, we simply can’t wrap our head around the idea that “launch contested jump shots” is part of the gameplan.
His words back it up. Larry Hughes’s words are far more revealing, though.
“When we settle, especially for quick shots, we’re not a good team,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said. “It’s not just Larry, our entire team is taking contested jump shots and it is something we have to continue to try and address. When you do that, it is deflating.”
“For the most part, I think I took good shots,” Hughes said. “Shots that gave the team a chance to offensive rebound and myself a chance to knock it down. I just needed to make some more of those.”
Hang on a second.
Okay, we’re ready.
HUH?
That’s a great strategy, Lar. We know our coach used to always say stuff like that – “Guys, launch a bad jumper – it’ll give us a chance to get the offensive rebound.”
Isn’t that like taking the longer route to a destination so that you can get there faster?
Dude is clearly in open rebellion, and he’s not the only one. At the end of the half (we think), LeBron was coming off the court, Coach Mike and Eric Snow were trying to explain something to him, and LeBron completely blew off Coach Mike. Wouldn’t even look at him.
Coach Mike had that look on his face like his spitting cup had abandoned him. Sad/confused/lost/abandoned – like when your girlfriend does something crazy, you try to discuss it rationally, and she says something like “two years ago you were a half hour late picking me up for a movie!”
It’s that “I don’t know why you’re so mad at me and how do I respond to something like that” look. It’s quite telling – regardless what anyone thinks of Coach Mike’s job performance, LeBron James clearly will no longer have sex with him.
Even a make-out session is doubtful, and that’s a problem.
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For the most part, I think I took good shots,’’ Hughes said. “Shots that gave the team a chance to offensive rebound and myself a chance to knock it down. I just needed to make some more of those.’’
Sounds like something I’d say after playing ball. Keep chucking it up Hugheser!
So let’s explore Larry’s thinking last night, based on what we’ll call “scoring opportunities”:
Me (miss)
Team play is how we win!
Me, Me (miss)
Me
Me
Me (miss)
Definitely me (way off)
Meeeeeeee for threeeeeeeeeee (miss)
Me: ignore the misses! (miss)
I have teammates? (miss)
Me (good, feeling it now)
Me (defenders are like magic, if you BELIEVE they aren’t there, then they aren’t, 100% luck)
Sweet lord, yes, ME (miss)
Me (miss)
Me, pass … oh crap, no … gotta make up for that assist
Me, Me (miss, miss)
Fine, I will pass … NOT … dunk
Miss, grab own board (trying to set an example here folks), make
Sharing is caring!
Whoops
Whoops
Whoops
Yes!
No!
LeBron is like dating a crazy chick except he’s the SECOND crazy chick. At first you’re all guarded and scared and eventually you let him into your heart hoping you don’t get burned with another crazy chick. Then, once you trust her, and it seems like everything will be ok – WHAM! – here comes the crazy hammer.
I’ve always thought the only thing that could stop James was himself. And he has. He’s gotten into his own head. It’s over. It was fun while it lasted, but at least when he leaves for Brooklyn or NYC or wherever, I won’t care. I know like 45 minutes ago I was being optimistic, but the body language on that team was disgusting. At other times, I’ve thought they just weren’t smart when they didn’t move on offense or weren’t trying. But yesterday it really seemed like they were putting it in the tank and they didn’t care who saw. And I only saw the second half of the fourth quarter.
It is absolutely 99% the players. A guy freaking said he took good shots to “get an offensive rebound” from. Ok guys, you’re running – you’re pushing the ball everytime, but you’re still scoring 80 points per game. Uhh, Coach Brown’s fault. Larry, you pull up and take 20-footers on fast breaks even though you’re 6′5″ and can get to the basket. Uhhh, Coach Brown’s fault. It is not Coach Brown’s fault that LeBron can’t hit a free throw. It’s LeBron and Hughes. Everyone else gives you what they’ve got. Admittedly it’s sometimes not much, but it is what it is.
Another in a looooong line of Cleveland sports disappointments.
Larry Hughes: On a MISSion
Or: Missing With A Purpose
Or: You Call Them Terrible, Terrible Shots, I Call Them MISSed Opportunities
Roger what’s really sad is I don’t know if I can come back with LeBron even if he turns it on again.
Even though things are different now, lack of effort is why I still can’t stand T-Mac (Orlando) and Vince (Toronto). Shaq I like as a person, but as a player, he’s always bugged me because of his lax attitude.
Oh that’s awesome.
Larry needs to look at the numbers: the Cavs make 44% of their shots, just slightly below the league average of 45.69%, but they’re ranked 26th out of 30 teams!
The Cavs need to (obviously) make more shots!
Effort is the one thing you can always control in sports. And it’s irritating to see someone waste so much talent on a nightly basis. But I don’t get why this is happening now. Did the Cavs win the championship last year and I missed it? While the Cavs did well to take the Pistons to 7 games, nothing about the experience should have led to this overwhelming sense of complacency.
Yeah if anything it should’ve been “we know how to do it now – let’s kick the NBA’s ass.”
The Cavs just arent that good dude. Let’s call this an intervention. They never were that good. Yeah they love taking jumpshots, but who can they throw into in the post? Who is supposed to be the GOOD shooter on that team? Lack of effort? More like throwing guys out there that have little to no talent. Oh and defensively you arent exactly the Pistons circa 04-05. Face it, they are no better than the Orlando Magic. You think Toronto might be better too?
Day after day the Cavaliers continue to show you that it was in fact the Pistons and/or Rasheed Wallace’s injury that caused last year’s series to be close and not the fact that the Cavs are actually “better” than the Pistons and that it was the Cavs that “gave” the series to Detroit and not the fact that Detroit was just good enough (with Sheed’s injury) to beat the Cavaliers.
It’s ok though, because as much as I hate to say it, it’s the same feeling the Mavs fans have now. They feel like they gave the series to the Heat when actually the Heat were better during that one 7 game series.
Hey, the Cavs lost and look who shows up … do you two pop into cancer wards to remind the patients how much their lives suck during your free time?
“It’s ok though, because as much as I hate to say it, it’s the same feeling the Mavs fans have now. They feel like they gave the series to the Heat when actually the Heat were better during that one 7 game series.”
Let’s not forget they choked away a 3-1 lead on the Spurs and would have never been in the Finals had it not been for Manu’s idiotic foul on Shaggy and ensuing 3 point play. Hopefully The Cubanettes won’t get the calls from the refs this year and all will be well with a Spurs/Pistons finals again. It’s only right that the two teams that play beatiful basketball the right way get to duke it out again.
Real basketball fans don’t care whether you score 120 points in a game. Real basketball fans love watching beautiful basketball like Tony Parker said.
I hope it is a Detroit vs. San Antonio finals. That was actually the most evenly matched Finals of recent memory, truly could’ve gone either way.
I’d hardly call a Cavs’ loss the same as making fun of cancer patients. Cavs win by 1 over the Gnaptors and everyone is back on the bandwagon. It’s fun to read how everyone keeps saying “this is Lebron’s year” and then at the all-star break everyone is saying now how he lacks killer instinct.
The Cavaliers have virtually the same amount (if not less talent) of talent they had the season after they drafted LeBron. Let’s look, just for comparison’s sake k?
LeBron James (20.9 PPG, 5.5 REB, 5.9 AST) 2004
LeBron James (26.5 PPG, 6.8 REB, 5.7 AST) 2006-2007
Carlos Boozer PF (15.5 PPG, 11.4 REB) 2004
Drew Gooden PF (11.5 PPG, 8.5 REB) 2006-2007
Ricky Davis SG (15.3 PPG, 43% FG%, 5.5 REB, 1.1 STL) 2004
Larry Hughes SG (14.8 PPG, 40% FG%, 3.5 REB, 1.25 STL) 2006-2007
Z C (15.3 PPG, 8.1 REB) 2004
Z C (11.7 PPG, 8.2 REB) 2006-2007
Let’s use Jeff McInnis as PG (11.7 PPG, 7.5 AST, 1.2 STL) 2004
Let’s use combo of Boobie and Eric Snow..
Boobie (5.0 PPG, 44% FG%, 1.1 AST) 2006-2007
Snow (4.7 PPG, 41% FG%, 4.4 AST) 2006-2007
There are other odds and ends that I could add in, to make it basically even out or show the lack of talent on this squad compared to LeBron’s rookie year.
So why is it some sort of surprise that this team is “underachieving”. It should come as no surprise to anyone that this team is destined to overachieve (at best) at anything they get. As evidenced by the statistics you see LeBron has been carrying this team since he’s been in the league with no support from anyone else. Add that to the fact that he feels he’s owed everything in the world and he thinks he can just ignore his coach. Your boys made the mistake when they fired Paul Silas.
Could it be that the teams that were actually “good” are getting older or worse or staying the same? In the case of teams like the Wizards (finally), Pistons, Bulls, Magic, and Raptors, I’d say no other team has really substantially gotten better since 2004. The Nets have stayed the same, if you remember, they went to the Finals a few years ago. The 76ers have gotten older and then now they’re worse, they went to the Finals too. The Pacers have gotten old, ghettofied, and now worse, and they went to the Finals recently.
The Heat have always been on the brink of being decent since they originated. They got lucky when they got Shaq AND Wade together, but now that “dynasty” is done. The Celtics have been average at best. The Hawks have been terrible since ‘Nique hung them up. Charlotte Bobcats? Please. Knicks have just recently become horrible. Milwaukee is horrible.
Is it really that the Cavaliers have gotten that much better, or is that the Eastern Conference has gradually gotten worse OR older? Detroit is an older team, Philly got old before recently, Nets are getting old and are injury prone, and the Heat are old and injury prone and those are the last 4 to represent the East.
Your thoughts?
To be fair, the Cavs do have an excellent record against the West, and they have losses to the Sonics and Blazers in there. That’s really the best thing I can say about them.
“I hope it is a Detroit vs. San Antonio finals. That was actually the most evenly matched Finals of recent memory, truly could’ve gone either way.”
Classic series. 7 games and all but 1 were decided in the final minutes. Had Robert Snorry not ressurected in game 5 you probably would’ve won back to back titles.
“As evidenced by the statistics you see LeBron has been carrying this team since he’s been in the league with no support from anyone else.”
If you listen to The Cavalier tho this is a team that “underacheives” and that when they play at their best, no one can beat them.
Alrighty Cav. Daniel Gibson is the truth, tho. Too bad LeBore’s ego won’t ever give the guy a decent shot of being a true second option, you know with his whole “Let me hold the ball for 22 seconds and shoot an awkward running fadeaway.”
That is true. Good record against the West, I’ll give them that.
I think it’s the heat’s fault for not trying last year for most of the regular season and then turning it on for the stretch run. The fact that they (won/were given) the championship, just showed everybody else that half-assedness during the regular season pays off if you’re decent enough to make the playoffs.
Now with the wade injury, I predict the cavs will be in the finals this year.
If you’re just into winning championships, regular season half-assedness is not a bad strategy. But if you just enjoy basketball, it sucks. I would much rather watch old tapes of dallas-sacramento when they were putting up 70 point halves and know the outcome than watch a current San Antonio game without knowing if SA was going to bore the other team into losing or not.
That’s awfully optimistic considering how great the Cavs have been playing lately.
Looking at it realistically, they’ve been terrible (TERRIBLE) all year and are still 9 games over .500.
Its sad that Larry Hughes is now applying the Kobe Bryant assist to his game. For the record, Kobe was quoted saying that he was taking so many shots last year to give his teammates opportunities to make plays. Now I am no Kobe Bryant hater, I love his game, but that reasoning is just insane. Add to the fact Larry is not a good enough player to even have that line of thinking. The past 2 games have been terrible: no interior defense, lack of hustle, and so many bad jumpers that Steve Francis and Tim Thomas are jealous. This team needs a make over by getting rid of Gooden and getting a point guard but that will not happen until summer. Z’s, Larry’s, and Drew’s contracts dont help either. Oh yeah, we dont have a 1st round draft pick until 2009. Hooray for Paxson!!!! The playoffs are going to be brutal.
good post boney, could not have said it better myself
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