Cleveland Cavaliers News

LeBron James is robbed in MVP voting

 Nobody is questioning if Kobe was deserving of the recent MVP award. Kobe has been a fantastic player for years, and was almost always deserving of the MVP.  

The only question becomes, did LeBron deserve to get fourth place in the voting?

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Allergies force Cleveland Cavaliers Ben Wallace to miss most of the game

Cavaliers forward-center Ben Wallace left the court with about eight minutes left in the first quarter of Game 2 on Thurs day night because of pain and dizzi ness.

Wallace’s pain was so severe that he had to lay down across several chairs on the bench for relief. It appeared he was hit in the face during the game, but Wallace said his problems were from allergies.

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Cavaliers are doomed without LeBron’s scoring

The Cavs started Game 2 on Thursday night like they knew what to do. They scored 24 points in the first quarter and moved the ball well. But in the next three quarters, they scored 12, 15 and 22 for a grand total of 49. During that offensive outburst, they pretty much looked overmatched.

For some reason, they started standing around - and standing around and trying to run pick-and-roll after pick-and-roll doesn’t work against a team as good as the Celtics.

As for James, remember all those promises he would not have two bad games in a row?

Time to do a YouTube search of Roseanne Roseannadanna and listen to her saying “nevermind.”

Celtics dominate Cavaliers to take 2-0 lead

Paul Pierce scored 19 points and Boston’s defense was again dominant as the Celtics beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 89-73 in the National Basketball Association playoffs.

Thursday’s victory gave the Celtics a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference semi-final series.

“It was a total team effort,” Pierce said. “We kept the turnovers down, we rebounded the ball, we made the extra pass and then we got the job done defensively. That’s true Celtic basketball right there.”

James, Cavs can’t find touch

“I’m a little shocked that he’s 8-for-42, but this is what we work on. We work on trying to contain him,” said Pierce, who was 2-for-14 in Game 1. “LeBron is what makes them go. And if we can somehow control him, we control their team. And with the help of the guys around me, we’ve been able to do that.”

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After reviewing the game video, Cavaliers coach Mike Brown said some of the team’s standard offensive principles of ball movement and of general rotation broke down in the 76-72 loss in Game 1.

Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James has history of rebounding from bad games

King James human after all

LeBron James emerged from the trainer’s room, headphones on his ears, to face the music. Well, not the music, exactly. But to face what has become a commonplace battery of television cameras, microphones and reporters’ notebooks that surrounded his locker and left barely enough room for the big man to stand

This was before his Cleveland Cavaliers took the court against the Celtics last night in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Afterward, he had plenty more questions to answer following what was arguably, especially considering the circumstances, the ugliest game of his brilliant career.

Don’t expect to see a repeat of game 1 in the Cavaliers Vs. Boston series

1) Kevin Garnett can get his shot whenever he wants. And unlike so many times in his career when he deferred at the expense of taking over a game, he might like the taste he got in Game 1.

2) Garnett doesn’t have to cover Ben Wallace. No opposing big man does. But Garnett isn’t just any opposing big man on defense.

3) Ray Allen’s shooting slump won’t last seven games even if the Cavs do.

4) Two of the Boston Three Party aren’t likely to bomb on the same night again.

5) Rajon Rondo and Sam Cassell. This is like trying to hit a knuckleball after facing a 95 mph fastball. Just shy of his 65th birthday, Cassell not only still looks for his shot but can make it.

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Papa John’s Pizza was handing out T-shirts with Lebron James’s number and the word “crybaby” under it.

Now, after the Cavaliers eliminated the Wizards in 6 games, they are crying and have issued and apology to Cleveland and Cavaliers fans.

Papa John’s will sell Cleveland residents (how about Akron?) a large, one-topping pizza for 23 cents on Thursday.

The company also will donate $10,000 to the Cavaliers Youth Fund.

The shirts started after James complained about hard fouls, and Wizards center Brendan Haywood called him a crybaby.

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Lebron James was very excited to win the first playoffs series three years ago. That’s when Damon James hit the winning shot against the Wizards and Lebron James tackled and the rest of the players followed.

”My first year I was excited I was able to finally get there,” James said. ”Winning a playoff series was the best thing that ever happened to me at the time.”

This time, the expectations are different,  ”Now, every time I work out in the offseason, I am preparing to play until June and into the Finals,” James said. ”I always want my team to know we’re playing to make it into June. That is how I focus myself and make myself a better player.”

This afternoon, the Celtics and Hawks will face off for game 7. The winner will play the Cavaliers likely on Tuesday.  The pressure is heavily on the top-seeded Celtics who earned NBA best 66 wins during the regular season.

Round two bullets:

Last night the Hornets stung the Spurs in the first game of the West semi conference finals in a decisive 102-82 win.

“Things just didn’t go my way,” said Duncan, who offered only a few terse comments in the locker room. “They did a great job. … I played badly, so credit to them.”

“They took away our inside game. Timmy had a rough night,” Parker said. “We need to do a better job to get him the ball and try to get him some shots, basically. Tonight, New Orleans did a good job to take that away from us. That’s not Timmy.”

Detroit Pistons beat up Orlando 91-72 and held Superman, Dwight Howard, to 12 points and eight rebounds and three blocks after scoring 20 points and 20 rebounds in the first round against Toronto.

“We got outplayed badly,” Van Gundy said. “We need to bounce back.”

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Reserve forward Darius Songaila was suspended by the NBA today for Game 6 tonight for hitting LeBron James in the face with his hand.

Songaila participated in Washington’s shootaround at its arena Friday morning, before the league announced the suspension.

He made contact with James’ face in the first quarter of Washington’s 88-87 win over the Cavaliers on Wednesday in Game 5. That victory allowed Washington to cut Cleveland’s lead to 3-2 in the best-of-seven series.

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Cavaliers fan were excited and ready to celebrate a Cavalier win last Wednesday. That didn’t happen and tonight the Cavaliers will try again.

Reasons to be optimistic about thonight’s game:

1- In the past two postseasons, Cleveland has eliminated the Wizards at Verizon Center

2- The Cavaliers have failed to close at home last year in game 5 against the Nets, and the previous year against the Pistons.

3- The Wizards haven’t been eliminated on the road since 1988, when they were knocked out in the first round at Detroit.

4- Cavaliers in game 5 missed 15 layups and 16 three-pointers  and still lost by just one point.

Game Bullets:

- Wizards new tactic, Shut up and play:
“We just said, ‘It’s time to stop all the talking.’ A lot of guys were trying to defend themselves as far as this and that. But it wasn’t working,” Jamison said Thursday. “We said: ‘The ultimate change-around is for us to just be quiet and find a way to come back from 3-1 and win the series.’ I think they finally got it.”

Neither DeShawn Stevenson nor Brendan Haywood met with the media after the Wizards’ brief practice and video session Thursday.
- Mike Brown on the Cavaliers Wacky play:
“I don’t know if wacky is the word,” Cavaliers Coach Mike Brown said when asked to describe this series. “The playoffs is a season into itself. You can experience a lot of highs, a lot of lows, a lot of good things, a lot of bad things, and we definitely have run the gamut so far.
- Coach blames self for not calling Ilgauskas’ number
”It was bad decision-making on my part; I didn’t call his number,” Cavs coach Mike Brown said of Ilgauskas Thursday after practice. ”I thought we had some good
looks — one look that was a little questionable was probably LeBron’s 3. In terms of Z not getting touches down the stretch, I didn’t call his number, but I’ll live with every other possession we had besides that 3.”

Ilgauskas offered no criticism of what happened, emphasizing that the Wizards played him well.

”It’s hard to get anything in the post because they bottle up and send two people. I had a hard time getting the ball,” he said. ”Usually they have two people on me even when I don’t have the ball, usually someone in front of me and someone in back.”

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I’m tryin’ to see the forest but there’s this one tree –Reuben Studdard

In 1987, Curry Kirkpatrick, writing for Sports Illustrated, reflected on a memorable 1983 Hawks-Celtic Playoffs fight. Tree Rollins elbowed Danny Ainge; Danny made the mistake of tackling Tree; one tetanus shot and a permanently reduced ability to give anyone the finger later, the conflict passed into legend.

The Boston Herald ran a Tree Bites Man headline the following morning and although some fans chose to believe Danny bit Tree, Rollins’s reputation was set in stone.

Tree is no stranger to controversy. Leaving Clemson after four years of double-double season averages and joining the Atlanta Hawks, Tree found himself in the middle of a heated debate concerning high school / college athletes and generous (and by generous, I mean illegal) gifts bestowed by recruiting colleges.

Sports Illustrated (SI), in March of 1982, cited Rollins as admitting to accepting gifts and cash from Clemson outside of the NCAA guidelines. Their source for this information was a pre-publication copy of Taylor (Tates) Locke’s autobiography, Caught in the Net. Locke, head coach at Clemson when Rollins was recruited, left Clemson in 1975 after the NCAA charged the university with 40 rules violations and placed it on a 3-year probation, starting with the 1975-76 season. Continue Reading…

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The Wizards have tried everything to beat the Cavaliers. I mean everything except playing basketball.

With all the trash talk, hard fouls, flagrant fouls, and fines, the Wizards are facing a possible early summer vacation when they face the Cavaliers tomorrow at the Q.

With a win tomorrow, the Cavaliers, will close out the Wizards for the third straight year

Wizards fans are tired of the loosing. Here is a letter to the Wizards by one of their fans:

“And with this so-called feud between Stevenson and James blown way out of proportion, with the likes of Jay-Z and Soulja Boy drawn into the orbit, things have completely gotten out of hand.  It obviously has distracted DeShawn Stevenson to the point where his play has been ineffective, except for one good game in the lone Wizards win.  Oh, and by the way, Mr. Stevenson, you think you can keep LeBron in front of you a few times instead of watching him go by on his way to the basket? Just keep quiet and play ball. And Mr. Haywood, who has spent the better part of his time in the NBA underachieving until finally showing some promise this season, who are you to make any comments? I admit, I’m surprised that you are even here after how last season ended. Prior to this season, the thing you were best known for was fighting with Etan Thomas. Just keep quiet and play ball. And Mr. Arenas, while I admire your candor on your blog, perhaps it’s time to rein it in just a bit so that you can focus on your game and sharing the ball with your teammates. Let’s just say while it was nice to see you try to do your modern-day Willis Reed impersonation the other day, Game 4 was not one of your better outings. Just keep quiet and play ball.”

You can read the full letter here.

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