Game 6

About 20+ minutes away from tipoff in Game 6…and I’m actually *gulp* excited to watch this game. I am completely reinvigorated as a fan and I love it. Thank you LeBron. You can even tell the giddyness from the Inside the NBA crew and the crowd in Cleveland. Big-time feel right now, I love this. So many questions right now…can LeBron do it again? Which (if any) of LeBron’s supporting cast are going to step up to the plate? Will the Detroit Pistons be possessed enough to take this game? Can the crowd push the Cavaliers to the next level? Which coach is going to blow it?

I’m going to go with Detroit. Why you might ask? They have been in this situation before as a matter of fact they’ve done this four years in a row. They know exactly what they need to do. Cleveland does not have that same comfort level, yeah they were here last year but they blew it last year. Steve Kerr has been saying it, but the main reason why Detroit is down 3-2 is because they are uncharacteristically struggling down the stretch. I think that their poise and composure will win out tonight. Cleveland’s offense is not free-flowing so if the Cavs get tight they are done. They cannot let this get into exclusively a half-court game, they have to get some easy buckets. If they can get some easy buckets early then Cleveland should win this…if not its going to be tough.

“They gonna get run out of this damn building tonight” – Charles Barkley…he picked Cleveland

Detroit needs their swagger back immediately.

Very focused start by the Pistons. You can already tell that Detroit is absolutely not going to let LeBron beat them tonight. Good adjustment by Flip and his staff. I think more than any game, whichever coach can make an adjustment on the fly is going to see their team win. By taking the ball out of LeBron’s hands it is making other guys do things they are not quite used to aka Drew Gooden trying to throw no-look passes or Larry Hughes trying to throw a lob to Sasha Pavlovic. Can Cleveland’s supporting cast keep this up for four quarters? Absolutely not. If you’re Detroit you can’t be too mad that Larry Hughes came out and hit his first two shots because now he’s going to be thinking more shooting than passing. Also the Cavs aren’t taking Detroit out of their offense.
McDyess is going to add a completely different element to this game.
Sidenote…Pavlovic is a bitch and he has taken over Ginobli’s spot as ‘that Euro guy I hate’
Could Cleveland be taking Detroit’s best shot?
Cleveland has taken a hit and their role players have responded. Hughes and Pavlovic with 6 and Varejao with 5. That means Detroit is only beating those 3 guys by 4 points. Yikes. Great leadership by LeBron, does Detroit panic and start playing him straight up or keep the pressure on the role guys?
If Bavetta was reffing this game this would not have happened. Plus David Stern would’ve called him to submarine Cleveland for this episode. Geeze.
Dear Flip, Lindsey Hunter cannot guard LeBron James. Stop throwing him out there to guard him. It is way too easy for LeBron against Lindsey.
This is Cleveland’s game to lose.
And…they’re losing it. Oh boy Cleveland’s supporting cast without LeBron to help them is not the best sight to see.

Halftime aka adjustment time. Cleveland is going to have to figure how to make Detroit pay for all the attention they are giving LeBron. I am unsure if Mike Brown is a good enough offensive coach and offensive mind to do that in such a short span. Detroit’s defense (aka what they should have done last game) has been sound and you can see in that 2nd quarter that it pays dividends. Hughes had 3 in the 2nd after a 6 point 1st. Pavlovic only had one bucket in the 2nd quarter. Varejao had none. The way Detroit’s playing it is going to wear on the Cavs…nothing is easy on LeBron and their supporting cast is having to do way too much for them to be very successful. Its more than just LeBron not scoring, its other guys being put into roles they are not used too. Huge statistic that shows that is the 10 Cleveland turnovers at halftime. All 10 by people not named LeBron James. That 21 minute delay really hurt Cleveland’s supporting cast…they had the crowd in it, they were into the flow of the game and they came out cold. If you’re the Pistons you’re happy but still hungry. It is all still on the line. I haven’t sensed a huge amount of consistent desperation, they need to bring that from the get-go in the third. Tayshaun Prince has missed at least three layups, everyone else has been in rhythm.

The Death of the Detroit Pistons – 8:18 PM Pacific Time..it started with Gibson’s threes and ended with Sheed’s Ejection. The big question coming into this series was who was going to step up and Daniel Gibson stepped the bleep up. He had the game of his life point blank. Detroit had a great gameplan…get the ball out of LeBron’s hands and make someone else beat them. Unfortunately, Daniel Gibson beat them. This is the end of the Detroit Piston era…its gonna be a nasty off-season. I can just feel it.

Kudos to LeBron for his passing ability and his poise to not force anything. He took what little Detroit gave to him and still managed to impose his will on this game. Meanwhile, Tayshaun Prince disappeared in a nasty way. Prepare for a lot of mud-slinging from Detroit. Flip Saunders…ohhh boy.

Should the Cleveland Cavaliers be in the Finals? Hell no…but they are. Games aren’t played on paper. Somewhere in between Game 2 and 3 Detroit lost their passion, their fire and their swagger. Detroit wasn’t outcoached, they had the better players…Cleveland just played their game through and through. Detroit lost their ability to impose their will and lose their way.

Now..time to put my party-pooping hat on. Cleveland is going to get demolished by San Antonio. Popovich is about a million times a better coach than Mike Brown. Cleveland can’t pull it off again. Sorry.

Quick screw you to the New Jersey Nets for beating Chicago on the last night of the season. Things would have been waaaaay different had Chicago won that game.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH YEEEEEEEEEAH! I’ll give it you LeBron that was kind of clean. One last note, congratulations to the city of Cleveland. You deserve to at least go to the Finals after all the heartbreak that MJ gave you in those great teams of the past. A good city…you came into the league with us. Congrats Cavalier fans.