1st rd: Cleveland Cavaliers (4) vs. Washington Wizards (5)

[DCZards]

I'm saying change the focus of the game and go back to scoring a lot of points. Don't start AD and DeShawn. Start Gil and Caron and come in with Young and Mason. DeShawn's man enough to take it IMO.

Ok. Now, we're benching our best defender and going back to relying on our offense after everyone on this board has been screaming for better
D-E-F-E-N-S-E the last upteem years. All because of one loss.

Benching DeShawn all of a sudden would say to him (and the rest of the team) that it was DeShawn's fault we lost game one. I don't believe it was his fault.

And do you really expect a coach and GM (and fan base) that's been preaching "chemistry and continuity" to think a drastic move like benching DS is a good idea?

[Ji]

Waking up this morning with a lot of questions....

1. Who was that person wearing #3 on his jersey? That certainly wasn't the tough juice we've come to know. What exactly is hurting him?

2. If Deshawn continues to miss his "j" why didn't he ever drive and get his points from the lane? Shouldn't a coach tell him this before he has another horrific shooting percentage?

3. Why do you bench "the bench" when they're the ones who helped you get to this point? Didn't we beat the best the league had to offer with N1 and Dmac providing us the often mentioned "energy"? At least use up their fouls on LeBum.

4. Was Clevland's Dfense so good that they shut down Caron, Daniels, Detalk, DSong, Mason, and Blatche? Were they tired, intimidated, shut down, confused or having flashbacks of past series?

1. Ive been arguing that tough juice is brittle and getting to the point of being Hughes like with regards to getting hurt

2) Deshawn seems like a different player in the playoffs. Talk about overrated

3) Eddie likes to tighten the rotation in the playoffs...but when you go 8 minutes without scoring and Nick Young hasnt hit the court yet, you start to wonder

4) Dont ever pick up the phone again when I call you and the game isnt over yet.

[fishercob]

Ilgauskas is a terrible matchup for Blatche. Here's what Andray has to do to mitigate the damage.

On D, beat Z downcourt and push him off the block. If he continue to catch it deep on Andray he's going to score on him with the baby hook all day. But if he's shooting a mid-range turnaround with Dray's hand in his face, that's a win for the Wiz.

On O, Dray has to sprint down court every possession and make Z run. However, don't make the mistake of trying to take Z off the dribble from the top of the key. There's too much available help and it will result in a turnover.

If Z is on the court with Dray, then Gil needs to be also. Gil's pushing of the tempo is the best way to mitigate Z's considerable advantage on offense against Dray. If not, we're going to continue to see Songaila, because he's stronger than Blatche.

[LyricalRico]

-= original quote snipped =-






I agree, at this point we have to put the loss on our guys. We choked big team and if we don't win this series it's time to break this core up because it's not going anywhere.

[greendale]

1. Ive been arguing that tough juice is brittle and getting to the point of being Hughes like with regards to getting hurt

Go back to weather forecasting.

[fishercob]

Keys the series, as I see them:

1) Jamison taking Ben Wallace out to the perimeter and opening up driving lanes. This is beauty of the Princeton. Get Gil and AJ in the game together and Gil can go to the rack all night.

2) Don't let the Cavs role players beat you with 3's. The Wizards can win this series if Lebron averages 50 ppg. They can't win it of he's getting 10 assists and the Cavs are hitting 10 threes a game.

3) Control the boards. The Cavs have killed us on the offensive boards in the past. Jamison has to hold his own on the defensive boards, or Eddie will have to go big with Blatche and Haywood together. The way Lebron draws fouls, that makes me nervous.

4) Butler's health. If all big 3 are healthy, I don't think the Cavs can score enough to stay with us. We'll have a first option scorer on the floor at all times.

5) Snarl. Get our money's worth on fouls on Lebron. This is where I'd like to have Etan for 10 minutes a night, because we can't afford Haywood to get in any sort of foul trouble. Blatche has to be smart and judicious with his fouls. Whatever happens, play hard, play tough, and do not back down.

We've known for too long that -- when healthy -- the Wiz are the better team. Time to show it.

Blerg.

[dobrojim]

63 pages?!?! are U ffing kidding me?

don't know if I can stand to go through that.

went to the game <sigh> too depressed until now
to want to come online.

my take -

didn't man up - got burned - repeatedly

in the 2nd half of the 4th, they appeared to have panicked
launching 3s trying to catch up all at once instead of attacking
the basket.

by not manning up, they got pounded on the boards. Seriously
pounded. Some of it was bad luck with CLE's misses going long
when we did box out. But I think perhaps the worst aspect of
defensive rotations as a result of double teams was allowing
CLE much easier access to the boards.

That said, if I can stomach it, I may watch it again to see how
my live impression jives with the TV one.

Oh and what's with Gil? This is not the guy who was 2nd AllNBA.
While I won't necessarily say he should not have played, it was
clear that he was pretty passive. I can only remember 2 FTs.
I can also remember some very careless TOs (probably in the 2ndQ).
In such a close game, every play is critical (duh).