The Night Watch
By Coup
….or what should be titled The Delirious Morning Watch.
As I type this it is 6:36 in the morning on the west coast. I sit in the Phoenix airport blogging away. Unlike Coup I don’t have a sweet story about bumping into a general manager. Instead, I have a sweet story about bumping into some guy named Leon who almost surely is wearing the same outfit he wore to the club. I also argued with a skycap about whether or not D’Antoni was staying. He legit thought that he was going to go to New York…which definitely scared me. More so because of the media’s control on people’s brains than anything. I’m also slightly delirious thanks to a day full of packing and a night full of waking up and staring at the clock all night. For one to make sure I didn’t sleep through my alarm and the other was to make sure my ride woke up to take me. There’s no better way to get a good night’s rest.
I sit here eating a maybe steak, probably not egg and cheese sandwich. It practically won by default by being the only place open. I was in the terminal that didn’t have Wendy’s….yay me! My beverage of choice? Unsweetened iced tea, Diet Coke, Mr. Pibb and a hint of Sprite. At any other time this would be disgusting. Right now…just the kick in the pants I need to get by. Everytime I think about falling asleep I just take a sip of the concoction and shake my head. Screw coffee, make you a Mr. Iced Diet Coke Sprite and you’ll be good to go.
Above me is CNN. I of course positioned myself so I can’t see the screen. Not by choice just because it was the closest seat. In between trying to type coherent words together, my brain has been blasted with “cyclone, hurricane, Obama, Clinton, death, murder, death, murder, Obama, war” for about 5 minutes. I consider the I-Pod…but I’m not sure Madonna can help me right now. Go listen to Hard Candy and tell me it won’t make you move your feet. Exactly.
Did I mention I’m delirious right now?
Boston 89, Cleveland 73
If Game 1 gave you the belief that Cleveland can win this series, Game 2 definitely had to make you think three times.
Forget the Big Three, forget LeBron’s struggles, forget home court advantage. This series is coming down to what adjustments Mike Brown can make offensively. So far he has been unable to put his team in a position for success. They played great in the first quarter, made all the right adjustments. Unfortunately Boston adjusted and Cleveland never did. LeBron is still doing the same things he did in Game 1 with the same results. And honestly…Wally’s World is coming off ball screens? Really? Wally, the guy who can shoot the ball is handling the ball and getting a pick and roll. How could you ever let that happen Mike Brown?
(Brown is doing such a shoddy job my partner-in-crime had the nerve to put Doc Rivers and outcoaching in the same sentence. Notice the difference…Doc and outcoaching not Doc and outcoached.)
LeBron is struggling and these playoffs are definitely putting a chink in the armor of his legacy. I ceased wanting to ever hear him compared to MJ after his incessant whining in the Washington series. Now I can’t even compare him to Kobe after his performance in the past 2 games. We all know Game 1…Game 2 was equally as bad. 21 points, 6-for-24 shooting, 7 turnovers, 6 assists and 5 rebounds. He got out-rebounded by Delonte West.
We’re all Witnesses…..to a beatdown.
The thing about it is Boston is not only holding Cleveland’s shooters, they aren’t even letting them shoot. Wally got off 4 threes (1/4), LeBron got off an obvious 4 (missed all). Daniel Gibson shot 1 three and 2 shots on he night. Delonte West…1 three. Those are the guys who killed Washington and they can’t even shoot the ball against the C’s. It would be foolish to say this series is over but let’s take a look at the facts. Cleveland is depending on their offensively braindead coach to make offensive adjustments. Boston is basically telling Cleveland, “we’re going to make LeBron earn every cent he gets. Not only that but we’re not going to let anyone else shoot. We’ll take KG, Ray and Paul over LeBron, Ilguaskas and Wally any day of the week”
And honestly…that’s what it’s coming down too. Cleveland is getting production from three guys and those three can’t add up to Boston’s three. Brown has got to find a way to get LeBron easier buckets, either running him off screens to free him and give him angles or *gasp* maybe even post him up once or twice. He’s also got to find ways to free West and Gibson. They can’t win if those guys don’t score. We’ve seen magical things from the Cavs in The Q (dating back to their underdog near-upset of Detroit a few years back) and they are going to need every trick from that crown to lift them up.
We’ll see if Boston shows up on the road for once. The crowd in the Garden energized them in that second quarter. 16-3 run. One possession where four Celtics dove on the ground for a ball. Can they keep up that same effort on the road? Or could Atlanta’s athleticism have been the only problem for the C’s?
(By the way…not sure how I feel on Cassell taking three more shots than KG. Just my take.)
San Antonio 110, New Orleans 99
I’m really surprised how easily people can doubt the combination of Pop, Duncan, Manu and Parker.
One move is all it took to swing this series around. Taking Bowen off of CP and putting him on Peja. Biggest move of the series. In Game’s 1 and 2, Peja hit over 60% of his shots and had 20+. In Game 3 Peja had 8 points on 2-for-7 shooting. Also by putting Bowen on Peja they indirectly did what they wanted to. They made Chris Paul a scorer. Sure he had 35 but he only had 9 assists and took 25 shots. Bingo, bango, bongo.
Popovich is still playing chess people. He starts Manu, BAM he and Parker both drop 31. Duncan’s stats look ineffective but he’s making good decisions despite facing constant double-teams.
Tonight their moves worked. The question is will Byron Scott have the power to checkmate those adjustments and take the lead to 3-1 or will the Spurs be able to survive?
I’m not sure…but I do know I’m going to sleep.