3 words: gilbert for brand

I don’t know what to say. Can’t read the game thread or anything because I don’t have the stomach for it right now. The thursday night game was the greatest game I have ever been to. I just loved everything about it from the national anthem to dance cam and how much heart and fire the players showed. Then I witnessed this debacle and I’m heartbroken. As you say – the blame goes all around but for me I’m most disappointed in Caron. I was bewildered by the way he played the first three quarters. Also the horrible rebounding. Not sure what will happen with this team, heck the series isn’t even over but Grunfeld is going to have his hands full. But I also trust him to do what is right for this team. Whatever that is, I don’t know right now.

Very depressing loss today. Something’s missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. Except to say that for the last 4 years, I absolutely expect the opponents to hit 50% of their 3 pointers against us. Hell I think that Ben Wallace could hit a good 40% if he played against us every day. These are the names that haunt me on sleepless nights: Damon Jones, Janero Pargo, Ramon Sessions, Delonte West, Mo Williams, Mo Peterson,... on and on

I, too, hate when sportswriters struggle to capture a game in a single moment. That game had a lot of ups and downs. Extremely frustrating on the whole.

After a few hours to digest it, I feel much better though. I am refusing to talk about what this team needs to do in the offseason. This is a team that responds to adversity much better than it responds to prosperity. The individual players play better with a chip on their shoulder. And I don’t trust this Cleveland team to close it out. Cleveland is certainly in control of the series, but that’s no reason for unbridled despair or self-flagellation or proposing absurd trades. The distorting nature of fandom can lead to any of those, but I’m taking a different approach, perhaps just as unreasonable: relentless optimism.

I know this sounds crazy but why do I feel that somehow the Wiz is going to pull out this game on Wedenesday. I am not sure if it is the arrogance of Lebron when asked if the Wiz could possibly win game 5 or the fact that the Wiz did not seem to play with a sense of urgency on Sunday. Maybe I am just a foolhardy hopeless Wiz fan but the games you think they will lose they win and vice versa. I don’t know. Sunday was a heartbreaker though. As for next year, who knows who will still be here and who will leave. Something has to be done though. It’s like Ground Hog day with this team. You keep waking up to the same thing year after year.

b/c there were so many things the wiz did inadequately. i look at it like this:

if you want to write a book on how to lose in the playoffs, you can pretty much start and end with a tape of this game.

1 – turnovers. in each of games 2, 3, and 4, at the end of the first quarter, the wiz should have been ahead by about 10 points more than they were. in game 4 the culprit was turnovers. in this case, they were all on gilbert. he played MISERABLY at the start of this game. the wizards are seriously handing the cavs 10 points each game with a failure to make simple basketball plays in the first quarter.

2 – giving up offensive rebounds/not meeting the challenge. the wiz were EVISCERATED on the boards. even non-wizards fans are telling me it was painful to watch. to me, it just looked like a gap in effort, ability, or both. there were plenty of times when the wiz players (in some cases 3 players) were in the right position to get the rebound, and yet time after time the cavs came down with the ball. to me, AJ and CB get the bulk of the blame for this. those are our team captains, folks, coming up small.

3 – composure. all things considered, the wiz held together pretty well in the second half – despite repeatedly going one-on-one at the start of the second half, despite the brutal offensive rebounds, despite the backbreaking threes by west and gibson. however, they may have lost the game in the second quarter when they completely derailed for about 4 minutes of game time. they’ve looked debilitatingly shaky for long stretches in each of their losses. these aren’t runs the cavs are going on, they are demoralizing routs.

4 – coaching gaffes: if you’re already getting killed on the boards, why put songaila and jamison in together at the 4 and 5? i understand benching underperformers, but why play guys out of position and put lineups out there that haven’t played together all year? why is a guy who is hobbling around on one leg and hasn’t really played all year getting 30+ minutes and going one-on-one for four straight possessions in crunch time? do you really think there is a realistic chance that this player or the team is going to perform at a high level in such circumstances? why are your players losing their composure? why is your team looking so out of sorts for long stretches in each playoff game?

sadly, outside of timely shooting from west and gibson, cleveland didn’t play that well. worse, the refs did absolutely everything they could to keep the wizards in this game. just about EVERY call went the wizards way for the bulk of this game. and the wizards still couldn’t pull this one out. watching the first half of this game was absolutely infuriating. watching gil play huge minutes in the second was mind boggling.

mike wise chooses to sum all this up by saying “lebron owns the wizards”. i disagree. lebron shouldn’t get that much credit. i look at it like the wizards are their own worst enemy. they simply do not seem to grasp the fact that every possession and every basket counts.

i still think the wiz are the more talented team. i even still think they can win this series if they’d just get it together and play up to their potential. on the other hand, if they don’t play to their potential, how can you evaluate this team?

if the wiz don’t come back and pull this series out, i see EJ out of a job. we’d have plenty of time to think on whether that’s fair.

let’s hope they turn it around.