In celebration of the beginning of the NBA Playoffs, I’m here to do running thoughts until I drop. This year I’m rested and on time. Let’s do this…All times Pacific.
Washington/Cleveland
8:57: I wake up to my alarm going off on my cell phone…I see Stephen A Smith and Jalen Rose about to start speaking, the countdown to tipoff says ’34 minutes’…and I set my alarm for 32 minutes later.
9:35: We’re back and it’s actually gametime. DeShawn Stevenson talked a lot of trash and he’s not the most consistent player to really have to deal with an angry, hostile crowd and motivated players playing even harder against him.
9:36: What is going on in Cleveland? Why is everyone wearing UGLY mustard yellow looking shirts. A gold out? The Cavs don’t even wear gold or yellow. It just looks dumb, out of place and not everyone is doing it. If anything you have to go with a white out. Come on now people, Stern should dock them a game for making me look at this.
9:38: I love playoff intensity crowds. I know everyone talks about players kind of ‘mail it in’ during the season. Crowds ‘mail it in’ until the playoffs yet no one talks about it. The crowd in Cleveland has me juiced and I still have crusties in my eyes.
9:40: Wait, wait, wait. Last year when Washington had only Antawn Jamison and a bunch of nobodies Mike Brown wouldn’t trap him. This year he traps off Antonio Daniels on Jamison. There is no winning with this guy. Besides, Daniels just tried to go one-on-one on LeBron. Terrible results. LeBron looks like he is trying a little too hard to drop 46 on the Wizards.
9:43: Uh-oh….Wally’s World just hit a three-ball. Holly Rowe just reported that Wally wanted his D to carry him until his shot arrived. Wally and defense do not belong in the same arena. And I love that Rick Carlisle actually pointed that out. By the way, before I applaud Mike Brown for this move…what scoring is he going to get off the bench? Devin Brown?
9:45: Brendan Haywood is going to work with all 6 of the Wizards points. Apparently Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison are waiting until Gilbert checks in to play any sort of offense.
9:46: Haywood with a dunk….him 8, Cleveland 13. And as I type that Jamison gets a layup. Speaking of which does Eddie Jordan realize that Ben Wallace is covering Jamison?
9:47: First timeout after a fantastic 7 straight minutes of basketball at a nice pace. 13-10 Cleveland with 5 minutes left in the first quarter. So far LeBron doesn’t have a field goal (2 pts, 0/3 shooting), Wally’s hit a three and Ilgauskas and West each have 4. It’s been the Brendan Haywood show for Washington….who thought that would ever happen?
9:49: By the way….the more I think about it, the more I think that today the Cavs may have killed the ‘everybody in the arena wear the same color t-shirt’ ideal. If Miami was the peak than this is the low-point. And yes I’m very bitter the Blazers never did it during their playoff years.
9:53: Gilbert is in the building. Is he Gilbert or Agent Zero? We shall see.
9:55: He airballed his first shot. 17-12 Cleveland with 2:48 left as we’re watching Haywood (10 pts ) vs. Ilgauskas (8 pts). LeBron still has no field goals as does Caron Butler and Gilbert. If I’m the Wiz I’m happy…you’re down 5, shooting terribly and have gotten 2 points from your main guns.
9:59: Gilbert knocks down a 3-ball, backpedals and the camera catches him mouthing something to someone in the crowd. This….is not good for Cleveland. By the way all that positivity of starting Wally goes out the window when your bench lineup is Gibson, Devin Brown, Varejao, Joe Smith and LeBron. Zone the hell out of this lineup if you’re Eddie Jordan.
10:02: 7-0 Washington run, Wizards are up 19-17 with 1:10 left in the first quarter. Eddie Jordan is going to make someone else beat them. LeBron…0/3 so far.
10:03: Replay shows Andray Blatche pretty much socked LeBron right in the mouth. The LeBron Rules??? Wizards are heating up on a 9-0 run in the last couple minutes. The Wizards are sending a message…aka the opposite of what the Pistons did. LeBron only made one free throw.
10:06: Gilbert nails a ridiculously deep three with .7 left in the quarter. Ridiculous. Like you didn’t even see him in the camera shot as it was going in ridiculous. 24-19 Washington as they ended the quarter on a 12-2 run. Cleveland has gotten nothing from their bench and nothing from LeBron so far. Meanwhile Washington weathered a rough start thanks to Haywood, got a spark from Gilbert off the bench and are in good shape. Cleveland hasn’t scored a field goal in the last 4:52.
10:11: Get him a briefcast cause Gilbert is going to WORK. God I feel like Mark Jackson. Another 3-ball. 15-2 and Cleveland has a lineup with Devin Brown, Gibson, West, Varejao and Ilgauskas. It will be a miracle if this lineup scores.
10:12: Oh wow, ANOTHER 3-ball from Gilbert. Damn. Damn. Damn. 30-19 Washington with 10:19 left in the quarter. Wizards are on an 18-2 run.
10:16: Still no LeBron but the Cavs finally get a bucket from Ilgauskas. Oh wait nevermind LeBron is back in, 32-21 Washington.
10:19: Ilgauskas is keeping the Cavs alive…unbelievable that I said that. By the way, Roger Mason shoots one more time and Eddie Jordan should break his kneecaps. Someone tell me why Antonio Daniels is sagging off Gibson when he can do one thing and one thing only?
10:20: The answer is because he is an idiot who only can do a Statue of Liberty dunk. Gibson three-ball cuts that lead to 6.
10:21: LeBron hits his first field goal…it’s about time. Welcome to the playoffs.
10:22: One thing that will kill Washngton is if they let Cleveland get offensive rebounds. Any team will hurt you if you keep letting them get chances, but you can’t let an offensively challenged team like Cleveland get second chances.
10:28: Wally shows off that vaunted D of his by getting scored on by Jamison. 38-34 Wizards. Varejao travels on the other end…remember when the Bobcats almost gave him all that money?
10:29: WHAT….A…..PLAY. You’ll see it on SportsCenter. Cleveland may win just because of that. Seriously. the lob was high and behind him and he caught it except his body kept going forward. LeBron might not miss after that.
10:32: Wizards somehow weathered that storm and are still up 42-38 with 2:19 left in the half. Cleveland’s crowd is kind of letting them down, they are way too easy to shut up.
10:36: LeBron has his mojo going, the lead is cut to 2, the crowd is ready to explode at a tie game..and Delonte West decides to jack up a pullup three from the top of the key. Unbelievable.
10:37: Cleveland, same scenario….West jacks up a pullup two ball. Short. Jamison layup and the lead is back to 44-40.
There was a minor ‘scuffle’ or ‘everyone just start at each other with mean mugs’ session. It was pretty much started by a hard pick on LeBron by Haywood. They called the foul, LeBron got tangled up with Haywood and everyone ran over. How Ilgauskas didn’t get a technical was unbelievable.
10:41: Tie game at 46 at halftime. Wizards have got to get Caron going, he only has 2 points. Also DeShawn has to hit at least one shot. Cleveland has to keep getting buckets from Ilgasukas, West and Wally. Those three have 29 of the Cavs 46 points.
11:00: LeBron just got his first easy layup of the series. Not a good omen.
11:03: Cleveland is absolutely in control right now. They are only up by 3 but are just in control. LeBron has been back to being LeBron since that dunk.
11:04: Even though Antonio Daniels just hit that fadeaway jumper, I wonder if Washington fans get that same sense of nervousness when he has the ball in his hands like I did in Portland. You can’t help it…he just seems so out of control sometimes.
11:05: LeBron got the alley-oop and then mocked D
eShawn’s Stevenson ‘You can’t see me’. Stevenson will not make a shot all day after that. I almost promise you that.
11:08: Just like that Caron Butler has 4 points in 10 seconds…and just as I type that Rick Carlisle says it. I hate when that happens.n Washington is up 54-53.
11:13: Gilbert’s back in the game for Washington. Wizards are down 59-56 with 6 minutes left in the third. And Delonte West needs a haircut. Really bad.
11:19: Soulja Boy’s career might be over thanks to LeBron James.
11:22: Jamison 3-ball gives Washington a 63-61 lead, followed up by a Gilbert pullup. 65-61 Washington. The Wizards are up 9-2 since Gilbert came back. The Wizards are a completely different squad with Gilbert in the lineup, everyone just seems much more comfortable and defensively they step their game up. Can’t believe I just put Gilbert and defense in the same sentence, my credibility may be shot just like when MC Hammer put out a CD on Death Row Records.
11:24: Jamison with another bucket, 67-61 Washington as The Q is silent. Until Gibson hits a big three.
11:25: Antawn Jamison is in the building. That’s 7 in a row. Is it time to start calling him super underrated or what? 69-64 Washington with 2 minutes left in the 3rd.
11:32: Hilarious. Daniel Gibson faked the heck out of Gilbert, the crowd went ‘ohhhhhh’. He didn’t shoot it. Got the ball back and traveled. Don’t you hate when people go ‘ohhhh’ on a non-scoring play? It happens in pick up games at least 10 times. Cross over, cross over, ‘ohhhhh’, dribble off your foot.
11:33: Washington is up 69-65 at the end of 3, ended the quarter on a 15-4 run. Gilbert’s played 16 minutes so far, and I’m not big into plus/minus but he should be about +1000 right about now. He also should be able to play the rest of the 4th quarter. By the way, Wally and Delonte have pretty much disappeared for the most part. DeShawn is going to have to hit a big shot in this quarter, he’s been a mess offensively so far.
11:37: Mike Brown majored in Coach Speak. Unbelievably dry interview in which I kept thinking ‘what a moron’. That’s just me though.
11:38: Devin Brown sighting??? Devin Brown jumper?!?! No way. 69-67 Washington as Cleveland is back to their LeBron-less lineup.
11:41: Gibson hits a two-ball to put the Cavs up 71-70 as LeBron chills on the sideline. Roger Mason shoots again, pretty much a terrible shot even for Roger Mason standards. Do not be surprised if he disappears before Game 2.
11:42: Cleveland is up 73-70 with 9:39 left in the game, that’s a big 8-1 run with the bench lineup. Give it up to Ilgauskas, he’s scoring and when he isn’t scoring he’s attracting a TON of attention from Washington’s D. And the crowd is back into it. And LeBron has been on the bench the whole time.
11:47: I’m convinced with the way annoying way he plays, if Varejao was 6’2 he would get punched in the face a lot.
11:49: Holy crap Sideshow Bob can hit a midrange???? Unbelievable. 77-73 Cleveland with about 8 minutes left….Roger Mason takes another shot. Roger Mason may be playing himself out of the league right now. What is he doing? Seriously? He’s offering nothing. Ever play pickup with someone who can’t score and is guarding a non-factor, thus giving you absolutely nothing. That’s Roger Mason right now.
11:51: DeShawn Stevenson just missed two point blank, wide open threes. You can’t talk trash and then not show up at all. 6:17 in the quarter and the Wizards have zero field goals while Cleveland is getting shots from their supporting players.
11:53: Ilgauskas hits a deep midrange…what the hell is going on??? 82-77 Cleveland. Gilbert cuts the lead to three with a bucket. I don’t know if Washington can get stops because it is almost LeBron time.
11:54: The Z-Man is feeling himself. Haywood blocks Ilgauskas’s mid-range and Stevenson hits a three-ball from the corner. Wow. I told y’all he was going to have to make a big shot…and he sure did. Tied up at 82 with 5 minutes left in the game. This….is a game.
11:57: Turnover by Gibson out of the timeout. Uh-oh. Gilbert blows by Delonte for the layup and puts the Wizards up 84-82.
11:59: Why has Varejao taken the last two shots for Cleveland? Someone explain this to me? Delonte bricks a jumper…the secondary guys are missing those shots now.
12:00: Jamison has missed about three wide-open ‘dagger’ shots that could have really killed the crowd. Instead the Wiz are still only up 2 with 2:44 left in the game. By the way has anyone seen Wally?? Anyone? Apparently he disappeared after making his first shot.
12:04: LeBron nails both free throws to tie the game up at 84. That’s really all I have to say about that…they can’t all be winners.
12:05: Cleveland’s crowd may have also killed the towel gimmick. Terrible towel…literally. I think Jamison has missed his last 5 shots. LeBron with one of those tough LeBron finishes. 86-84 Cleveland.
12:07: Gilbert misses a forced fadeaway….on the other end…LeBron knifes into the lane and hits a floater. 88-84 Cleveland with 55.3 seconds left. It’s LeBron Time.
12:09: Listening to white people try to interpret the intricacies of the Jay-Z/Soulja Boy insult/comment. I mean..literally they could ask anyone to explain it so they don’t sound like such idiots. I mean you don’t have to acknowledge it.
12:13: Gilbert misses a layup and we can change this game’s name to Saran cause it’s a WRAP. Gotta love corniness, and LeBron missing/killing an MVP chant. Washington had the game in their hands, they were up 84-82 and missed shot after shot after shot.
12:14: LeBron missed both free throws let me stop my analysis of the game.
12:16: Butler misses a good look and that should do it. Give the Z-Man major credit for the Cavs winning this game. He had 22 but made the Wizards attract attention to him. Also LeBron shrugged off the slow start and was LeBron. The role players hit big shots in the 4th quarter to take the lead. Washington did a great job, probably should have won if Jamison could make one of those jumpers and should have confidence going in to Game 2. They need DeShawn to step up though. Think about this: they went 4-20 in the 4th and still had a great chance to win.