Re: Must be nice...
Average role players? You mean the best role players in the league. They have the best record in the nba and lebron did not do that by himself. No player can. They are playing a squad that they don't match up well against. Everyone on the cavs is struggling from the floor including lebron but because of his size he can get to the rack and foul line the other guards can't. Last year ray allen played like dogshit through the playoffs would you call him an average player? All players go through cold streaks but it's difficult to win when it's your entire team struggling. Kobe has a much more talented squad but cleveland has the best role players in the game. They need to knock down those shots but so does lebron. The problem is cleveland can't finish and it has become obvious lebron isn't strong enough to do it by himself
Are you watching the same series I am, Boston? Love your analysis usually but I have a couple counterpoints to this argument of yours:
A) Lebron is having trouble making shots? You do realize he's shooting 50.9% from the floor against Orlando, right? That's better than his 48.9% during the regular season and even better than his 50.6% during the Detroit series. Also consider that he's hoisting an average of 6.8 3's a game, connecting at a 33.3% rate and that 51% FG rate is astounding. He's actually shooting nearly 57% on anything inside the arc. Look at his Orlando series averages: 42.3, 7.3, 7.3 on 51%/33%/75% and 1.5 steals/1.25 blocks.
B) His supprting cast sucks, period. They're an overrated bunch on defense and they can't hit open shots to save their lives in this series. A bad game here and there can be forgiven, but this has been an awful series for the Cavs. Good role players needn't be all-stars but by definition, they should excel at their roles on a nightly basis (see Bowen, Bruce for a perfect example).
Consider: Everyone points out that the only game the Cavs won was the game where Lebron scored under 40, the implication being that Lebron's unselfishness/willingness to get everyone involved was a key factor in the win. But check this out, in that game Lebron played more minutes than any other game in this series (other than the OT game) and yet, he totaled only 5 Assists and 4 Rebounds, both series lows, and excepting a Game 2 blowout against Atlanta (where he played only 31 minutes) his lowest totals in either category in the entire playoffs. So does that mean the winning formula is to have Lebron as uninvolved as possible in every aspect of the game? Obviously not. Does that mean that the supporting cast lifted up their games to compensate from the lack of production from Lebron? Yes and No...
On the "yes" side, Z put up 15 boards and really helped to keep Howard in check (Dwight finished with 10 points on 3-8 shooting). They outrebounded Orlando 38-30 and got them on the offensive glass as well.
On the "no" side, all starters not named Lebron totaled 47 points on 18-46 shooting. Read that again for added emphasis.
18 of 46 (39%) for 47 points.
So, the question remains: what was the winning formula for Cleveland in Game 2 (other than that miraculous shot by Lebron to win it)?
- Control the glass. Game 1 rebounding diff. was -3 for Cleveland. Game 2, +8, Game 3, +2, Game 4 +2. They need to control the glass and limit Orlando's 2nd chance points, as often times, an orlando off. rebound results in a 3 or a Howard dunk.
- Win the FT battle: this is multi-faceted... A couple details.
a) Game 1, Orlando shoots 12-14 (86%), Cleveland shoots 12-17 (71%) and Orlando wins by 1.
b) Game 2, Orlando shoots 17-25 (68%), Cleveland shoots 21-26 (81%) and Cleveland wins by 1.
c) Game 3 (with Joey Crawford), Orlando shoots 39-51 (77%) and Cleveland shoots 26-35 (74%) and Orlando wins by 10. I'll break down a couple things from each game in a second, but suffice to say, anytime a team gets to the line 51 times they're going to have an edge, particularly when said team is a jump shooting team that has averaged 22 FT attempts and 27 3-point attempts in the other three games.
d) Orlando shoots 19-27 (70%), Cleveland 30-36 (83%) in a game that Cleveland really should have won. Also, for those alleging official bias in this game, please note that Cleveland's +9 FT attempt margin can easily be explained by the fact that nearly half of orlando's FG attempts (38 of 80) were from behind the arc.
I feel like I've written a thesis on this series by now but let's do a quick breakdown of games:
Game 1: If Lebron gets one iota of help from his supporting cast, the Cavs win. 20-30 shooting? 49-6-8 line? Ridiculous.... His "supporting cast" shot a blistering 23-58 from the field (~40%) and West and Williams combined for a 10-32 (31%), 5-16 (31%) from downtown evening. And yet, if Lewis doesn't hit that crazy 3 or if West hits that wide-open look on the James dish in the closing seconds, the cavs take this game.
Game 2: it's already all been said, but again, the Cavs won despite the supporting cast, not because of it. the cavs did not play particularly well, shooting 45.5% from the field, 26.3% from downtown BUT they outrebounded the Magic by a significant margin and James hit The Shot.
Game 3: cavs win if Orlando doesn't shoot 51 FTs... Or if Z, Delonte and Mo don't combine to go 13-37 (35%) and 4-15 (27%) from downtown... As bad as Lebron's shooting numbers looked: 11-28 (39%), those numbers were made substantially worse by his 1-8 shooting from downtown. He was 50% (10-20) from inside the arc and also got to the line 24 times. Orlando's worst shooting game of the playoffs (42.9%/35.3%) was balanced out by the whopping 51 FT attempts. and the Magic won a game they shouldn't have (and won by 10).
Game 4: Orlando shoots 45% from downtown on 38 attempts. What else needs to be said. Meanwhile, Mo goes 5-15 and yet again leads his team to defeat.
So, again Boston, I think you need to clarify what you mean by "the best role players in the game". good role players hit that shot in game 1 that West missed (think Horry, Kerr, Paxson, Mario Elie, et al.). Good role players may not add a ton to the table but they don't take anything off. The cavs best role player (by the all-star voting standards) hasn't just taken stuff off the table, he's taken the table with him. And he's done it 4 straight games now. Good role players don't play 25 minutes and submit a 0-4-1 line (Pavlovic in game 3). A good role player (C or PF) doesn't play 76 minutes over a 3-game span and put up the following
cumulative line: 76 minutes, 17 points, 10 boards, 1 assist, 16 personal fouls. That's the sum of Varejao's contributions the last 3 games. A good role player doesn't have 4 consecutive game of 33% shooting or less on an average of 17.5 attempts per game (Mo Williams). Good role players provide
some support and these guys have provided absolutely none.
With that said, it is possible for the Cavs to take these next 3 IF the Cavs role players step it up on both ends of the court. Get Howard in foul trouble. Don't over-rotate on perimeter shooters. Make FTs. Let Lebron do his thing. But for god's sake, help Lebron out just a little...
