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cavincali said:
good game. us fans got what we wanted. hopefully the celts will take it to the nets tommorrow. please boston please.

tronto is in milwakee maybe they will got to overtime.


Probably not gonna happen, Rose and Peterson both having 24 Pts each, an easy win for the Raps..
 
Eh, Im still in belief that this game was sorta given to us. Doc not putting in his starters in the end of the game looks like a total give away. It may have not intended like that, but it sure did seem like it.
 
You have to love the way vets like Tractor and Snow stepped up tonight. Great effort from the bench.
Sasha even hit 3 big jumpers.
LeBron had a great 1st half but made some poor decisions in the 2nd. Did come up with a couple of big steals though.

I also have to question if the Cavs would have be able to pull this win out if Rivers would have played his starters more though. That's not a good sign for the Boston-NJ game tomorrow. You have to wonder if Boston will bother to give an effort and play key players.

McInnis really stepped up big tonight. I can't wait until this punk is out of a Cavs uniform for good.
 
Resign Tractor! Great game!
 
Cavs Win... GO CELTICS!

By: L.R. Andress- CavsTalk Writer
4/19/2005 11:15:56 PM



It is truly amazing how much your perception of a team can change in a few hours. Coming into tonight’s game against the Boston Celtics, I had the team pegged as a bunch of whiny, me-first players who individually had talent but were not playing as well together as they could. Now, and for the next 24 hours, they are my second-favorite team in the NBA.

That is because the Boston Celtics are the key to the final playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. For the Cavaliers to make the playoffs, the Celtics had to lose this evening in Cleveland and then win tomorrow night against New Jersey while the Cavaliers win in Toronto as well. So Boston, as it says in the movie Major League, “All of Ohio loves you!”.

However, before we turn our focus solely to Wednesday night’s game in Toronto, lets first look back at the win this evening. It was a must-win for the Cavaliers, literally. With the Nets winning tonight over Washington by the score of 109-101, the Cavaliers were forced to win or be eliminated from the playoffs.

At the start of the game, that intensity simply was not there. In much the same way that the team has played over the past few games, the starters simply were not getting the job done, were not playing with energy and the Celtics took an early lead. Unlike recent times where Brendan Malone had tried to fight through the slump with his starters, knowing his back was against the wall, Malone went to his smaller bench unit, featuring Eric Snow, Sasha Pavlovic, Anderson Varejao and Robert Traylor. This unit was the difference.

It was this unit that led the team in the second quarter, outscoring the Celtics 35-22 to take a 58-47 lead into the half. It was this unit that clamped down on the defensive end, then pushed the ball up the court to get easier baskets.

Even after that success though, the starters were back on the court to open the second half, with one key difference. Eric Snow was in place of Jeff McInnis who was reportedly battling a stomach bug and was unable to return. That unit again struggled, getting outscored 24-19 as the Celtics made a charge back into the game.

Again the coaching staff went to the bench to provide the pick-me-up. In doing so, you saw the same results. The defensive improved, giving the team more leak-outs and easy points. It culminated in a 100-86 victory for the Cavaliers.

Some will say that the Celtics gave up on the game. Both Antoine Walker and Paul Pierce saw very limited minutes in the second half, and were notably absent as the game closed. Some reports leaked out that the Celtics are quite upset with a game they played against the Nets, and with the Celtics already assured of the third seed and home-court, they had nothing to play for outside being a spoiler to one of the two teams. With their spot already clinched, they could easily afford to lose this game and rest their starters for the second game of the back-to-back against New Jersey.

Still, the bench unit for the Celtics did cause the Cavaliers some problems as the Cavaliers opened the fourth quarter with five turnovers in the first five minutes, which allowed Boston back into the game. It wasn’t until blocks by Anderson Varejao and Robert Traylor, along with a steal by LeBron James pushed the Cavs lead from four to ten in the span of under a minute.

So it now all comes down to game 82. The Cavaliers will play at Toronto while the Nets will play at Boston. For the Cavaliers to make the playoffs, Cleveland must win and New Jersey must lose. If the Cavaliers lose or the Nets win, New Jersey makes the playoffs and the Cavaliers would complete one of the biggest collapses in recent memory. If things go the Cavaliers way, they will open the first round of the playoffs in sunny Miami.



Team Leaders:

- Points- LeBron James (32)

- Rebounds- Robert Traylor (10)

- Assists- Eric Snow (13)

- Steals- LeBron James (5)

- Blocks- Three tied (2)



Playoff Picture:

- If the Cavaliers lose in Toronto, the Cavaliers are out of the playoffs.

- If the Nets win in Boston, the Cavaliers are out of the playoffs.

- If the Cavaliers win and the Nets lose, the Cavaliers are in the playoffs.

- The Cavaliers magic number is at two, the Nets magic number is at one.



Notes:

- DeSagana Diop and Lucious Harris received DNPs on the game.

- Jeff McInnis saw just six minutes on the court on the game before being removed due to illness. In that six minutes, the team committed six turnovers, from that point on the team committed just 14 more.

- If the Cavaliers make the playoffs, they will be just the second time in NBA history that a team will have had a winning percentage of under .400 after the month of February.

- This was the final regular season game at Gund Arena, was the 18th sellout of the season, and was Fan Appreciation Night. The crowd was amazing, booing Ricky Davis again, a loud chant of “M-V-P” at the end of the game, not to mention making it difficult to hear anything at the end of the game.

- Zydrunas Ilgauskas saw 30 minutes of action and Drew Gooden saw 21 as each battle injuries.

- Jiri Welsch saw two minutes of action, backing up Eric Snow at point guard in the second half.

- Four Cavaliers had seven or more rebounds on the game. Robert Traylor had 10, Anderson Varejao had nine, LeBron James had eight, and Drew Gooden had seven.

- Robert Traylor had an amazing evening going for 22 points (a season-high) and 10 rebounds in 19 minutes. He was a force late in the game, on the glass and on the offensive end.

- Even with that, Traylor did have a mistake that could have cost the Cavaliers dearly. Late in the fourth quarter, with the Cavaliers up by just four points, Traylor received a technical foul for falling on a player going for a loose ball. Traylor got called for the technical and promptly went over and kicked one of the ads on the sideline, breaking the front of it. It was a meltdown that could have proven crucial later in the game, luckily Ricky Davis missed the free throw and the Cavaliers felt no ill effects.

- Oddly, on Fan Appreciation Night and possibly the most important home game of the season, Daniel Gilbert was not in attendance.

- Eric Snow was simply amazing at the point for the Cavaliers. He played 40 minutes off the bench and had 13 assists to go along with six points and four rebounds. His defense was above-average and his pressure helped force the Cavaliers’ run to win the game.

- The final game of the regular season will occur Wednesday evening at 7:00 PM in Toronto. Local coverage will be on WUAB and the Cavaliers Television Network.




If you wish to contact the author of this article you may do so at andress@cavstalk.com



http://www.cavstalk.com
 
Infante said:
Eh, Im still in belief that this game was sorta given to us. Doc not putting in his starters in the end of the game looks like a total give away. It may have not intended like that, but it sure did seem like it.
I read that he will be doing the same vs the nets....DOH!!! we need them to lose but i think doc is gonna give nets the game if its close at 3/4 time
 

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