Cleveland Fans Got What They Wanted…But Are They Happy?

I said it before and I will say it again: Cleveland sports teams have a long history of not being able to win big games if they are close. I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s something in the water or the psyche of the players or the city, but it’s true. Some Cleveland fans have been begging for a more competitive series. I have been content with the blowouts. Blowouts may be easy and not as entertaining to watch, but blowouts are safe. As I watched Orlando cut in to the Cavs lead, I got an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. And then it happened: the Cavs lost their first game of the playoffs, but it wasn’t a regular loss. As Mo Williams’ shot touched the rim and came off, I watched the Cavs lose home court advantage. Now the Cavs will have to win in Orlando. It’s not optional.

As for all the people, my father included, saying that it was too much of one man and LeBron James can’t do it by himself. I say, “LeBron James played his ass off last night. It’s not his fault his teammates forgot that basketball games have two halves.” I don’t know why his teammates were having trouble scoring, but they were. If not for LeBron, the Cavs would have been blown out last night. I agree that one man can’t win a game by himself, he needs his team, and LeBron’s team went in the locker room at halftime and forgot to come back out. Yes Delonte West and Mo Williams hit some big shots down the stretch, but it was too little, too late. By the time Delonte and Mo woke up, Orlando already felt that they could win the game. I’m not going to blame Delonte missing a three pointer in the final seconds, or Mo missing a miracle last shot at the buzzer because it shouldn’t have come down to that. I’m going to blame the entire Cavs team, with the exception of LeBron, because I didn’t recognize the team that played the third and fourth quarters. The Cavs let Orlando come back on them and they let Orlando steal a game.

Everyone knew going in that this should be a competitive series that’s part of the reason why I was secretly hoping for the Boston Celtics. I wanted Boston to lose to Chicago, but when they didn’t, I wanted them to make it to the conference finals so we could beat them. The Cavs would have easily swept the floor with the Celtics. We almost beat them with Garnett, there was no way they would win four games against us without Garnett. They would have been lucky to win one or two. That said though, what’s done is done. We are playing the Orlando Magic, which means we have to show up to play every minute of every game.

My question is: How did a badly cramping LeBron manage to outplay all of his teammates in the fourth quarter? Hmm…

Status: Not really happy that my prediction was right. I would have preferred to be wrong on this one. Go Cavs!