Honestly, our loss last night is inexcusable, period. The original post in this thread is fantastic, and can make us feel a lot better about our loss (or some of us at least); but it really doesn't address why Mike Brown decided to bench LeBron starting the 4th; why he allowed LBJ to chuck contested shots, 3-pointers, etc; why the call for man-to-man D was ignored by LeBron which ended up in terrible mismatches like Mo on Allen or West/Andy on Pierce; etc etc etc...
At what point does someone man up and suggest that our game plan isn't working and will not work going into the playoffs? My confidence in Mike Brown took a huge hit last night. When is he going to start coaching this team?
Well, I agree that Mike Brown's coaching was horrendous last night...but it was pretty easy to see that the defensive strategy we've been using for almost every game we've played was not what we used last night. We implemented some gimmick "don't let Allen or Pierce have the ball" garbage strategy on the defensive end. It didn't work, and I guarantee we never do it again. All it did was leave us short a big in the paint after a pass, and it didn't even affect Pierce or Allen, they weren't forced to do anything until later in the game when we finally switched off of it..but it was too late..they only had to play 1 quarter worth of offense, so of course they're going to kill it during that quarter.
It was just a bad strategy that MB though would be good because KG was out, he though "If I blitz Allen and Catfish, they won't have anybody". It would have worked at the Q probably, but not in the Garden. I guarantee you us staying home and taking them 1 on 1 and just focusing on stopping their role players(Rondo, Perkins, Davis), while staying home on Allen and putting LeBron on Pierce(normal LeBron, not once in a blue moon big softy LeBron). We would have beat them with that strategy last night, and we would scorch them with that strategy at the Q, even with Garnett(oh hey, we already did..by 15)
Just a bad gimmick call by Mike Brown. Simple as that. I'm sure he realizes he screwed it up, and I'm sure it won't happen again. The only thing I really question Mike Brown about is his rotations, and him taking LBJ out to start the fourth. Those are what I'm not confident in, but in the playoffs he always seems to have a solid, set rotation.
Not to mention, we still have a game on the Celts, and we still get to beat the crap out of them at the Q one more time. We're gonna get home-court, and even better, we're gonna take game 6 in Boston in the ECF and win the series 4-2 to move on to the finals.
Then in the finals, barring more injuries and assuming Ben comes back(for the sake of argument), L.A. will get a dose of a 4 deep big rotation, coupled by a completely healthy back-court and 48 minutes of pure LeBron James hell.
The L.A. series will go 7 games. Game 7 will be a tie game at some point in the last three minutes. LeBron vs. Kobe. Kobe hits a fade-away, LeBron hits a lay-up...Kobe hits a three, LeBron answers with an and-1 dunk..35 seconds left, Kobe drives, gets swarmed on...triple teamed...spins, stutter steps, pump fakes, spins back,then takes a bad fade away shot over LeBron, Delonte, and Z all in his face...*CLANK* he misses, Joe Smith grabs the rebound....Mike Brown calls timeout. 10 seconds left.
Mike Brown doesn't even talk, everyone knows what the play is. We inbound to LeBron. He takes it at the top of the key...L.A. has a foul to give..he immediately drives in..they use it. 8 seconds left, plenty of time. LeBron gets the ball, drives past Kobe on the right side meets Bynum, spins, Gasol, Bynum and Kobe are surrounding him, 3.8 seconds left. It's like watching a replay of Kobe's drive, except instead of spinning, stutter stepping, pump faking, and spinning again into a fade away miss, LeBron dishes to a wide open Mo Williams in the corner....1.3 seconds. Mo shoots...ball in mid-air...buzzer sounds....SWISH.
The Cavs will bring home the Larry O' Brien trophy, and all of you negative "it's the end of the world" posters will claim you believed in the Cavs all along.
Book it.
