Cleveland/Washington
This game let me know one thing; the Cleveland Cavaliers are simply not championship material. I don’t think they could beat Detroit or Miami, or even Chicago in a 7-game series. One of the biggest reasons; Mike Brown. He simply is not a good choice. I mean his team lucked out by getting the #2 seed. You would think that their coach would have them ready to play their hardest to send a reeling Washington team a message. If you’ve beaten a team twice or a team is struggling, if you come out on a 10-2 run that lets them know they have no chance. They’ll start getting doubts in their heads. What did Cleveland do? They allowed a depleted Wizard team to hang around before they ran out of gas in the 4th. Washington has ONE scorer. Did Mike Brown have his team double-team them and get it out of his hands? NO. If Jamison had made some shots, Washington would’ve had a chance to win it. Cleveland is still winning this series but it certainly won’t be as easy as they thought. You have to feel for Antawn Jamison..it’s like he’s on the Warriors all over again.
Lakers/Suns
I texted this to Couper when the Celtics came into town and played the Suns; Leandro Barbosa is going to be the key to Phoenix’s run. Did he jack up a lot of shots? Yes. But he got the Suns going, he got them back in their pace and back in their comfort zone. The Lakers had them where they wanted them, but Phoenix made their run and LA had no answer. As brilliant as Kobe was early, he was awful in the 2nd half. Simply terrible basketball by Kobe Bryant. I don’t care what you say, watching him play 1 on 5 the last five minutes of the game was simply atrocious. Contrast Kobe’s second half with T-Mac’s first half. T-Mac struggled…but he still had 5 early assists and got his team going. Then he took over when his team needed him. Kobe doesn’t have that or isn’t willing to go that mile. He’s not on the same page as the rest of the team. He is allowing the Phoenix Suns to triple team him. If you pay attention to those last 5 minutes, Shawn Marion was not guarding Lamar Odom. He as close to Kobe as legally possible. Odom could’ve shot an easy top of the key three anytime he wanted, but he was going to Kobe. Kobe is taking acrobatic two pointers over two people…just terrible basketball. He allowed them to double team him, he allowed them to get away with murder. There were open guys, you’ve got to give them a chance to make the shot. It would have made his life easier. Instead he comes out looking horrible. I’m disgusted..I don’t ever want to hear a Kobe/MJ comparison after that. Remember that MJ gave two clutch shots in the NBA FINALS to John Paxson (94) and Steve Kerr. Game winning shots for the title and he gave them to the open guy. Kobe was trying to do way too much. For the Lakers to win, I think they have to establish Odom and Walton early. Get those guys going and let the Suns know ‘Ah shit we can’t double from these guys’. Then Kobe can do his thing and do it easier. Now he’s got 4 guys standing and watching, Raja Bell’s great D, someone coming to double team and everyone else shadowing.
You know the NBA Playoffs have arrived when there are like 3 hours of Inside the NBA. I love it.