Disappointing, disjointed, disrespected.
The Cavaliers were such things all season.
Their appearance in the 2007 NBA Finals, said TNT-TV analyst Charles Barkley, was a fluke. Actually, a fluke is Jimmy Valvano's boys over Phi Slamma Jamma in the NCAA Tournament. Flukes do not occur in best-of-seven series.
The run to The Finals led to unrealistic expectations this year. The East, the NBA's unwanted step-conference, got far better with the revitalization of the Celtics. Detroit did not farm Rasheed Wallace out to a rubber room either and remains the conference's second-best team. Dwight Howard became the best center in basketball in Orlando.
But consider what the Cavs went through:
They had a starting rotation that was in place about as long as it takes to fire up the incendiary swords in pre-game introductions.
Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Varejao, rebels without a cause when they held out, went down with serious injuries after they returned. Pavlovic was felled twice, including for the first round of the playoffs.
They took a six-game West Coast road trip early, when they were undermanned by the holdouts. Record: 3-and-3.
They played 21 back-to-back games, with the second on the road 17 times. Record: 8-and-13.
Suddenly daring, general manager Danny Ferry swung a three-team trade in February that had players flying hither and yon. The deal tore up the roster, yet still provided many shooters who can't defend and defenders who can't shoot. Record with the new players: 14-13 after Wednesday's meaningless home loss to Detroit.
They won their "Alamo game" after the trade, beating Washington with six players and two minor-league call-ups.
Most of all, LeBron James missed seven games and did not finish an eighth. Record: 0-8. Winning even half of those games would have put them very close to the 50 victories of 2006 and 2007.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas missed nine games, more than any since 2001-02.
The Cavs did not win the season series against many teams with winning records, only three before Wednesday. But they swept the Lakers, with James outplaying likely NBA Most Valuable Player Kobe Bryant. They split with the powerful Spurs, Jazz, Mavs and Celtics. If they reach the second round, they won't fear Boston a lick.
National writers hilariously insisted that James can't be the MVP because his team did not win enough. Actually, this season did little but bolster his case for MVP. The Cavs might have finished in the D-League without him.
They were the Cardiac Cavs, going 10-8 in one-possession games decided by three points or fewer. Overall, they were 14-8 those games plus overtime games. That's over a quarter of their schedule.
If Michael Redd, Deron Williams, and David West weren't beating them at the buzzer, James was hitting a swerving reverse layup at Portland, or bulling through almost everyone, or going crazy for 24 points in the last quarter at Toronto.
He was taunted at courtside at Toronto. The Washington Wizards, 0-2 in the playoffs against the Cavs the last two years, have done a lot of talking too, about both James and his team.
Conventional wisdom favors Washington. But against James, conventional wisdom might be as foolish as the jabbering Wizards
