Celtics Clobber Cavs; Was It LeBron's Last Game In Cleveland?

LBJ, Cavs Feel Harsh
Wrath Of Twitterverse

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Wow.

Not much else can be said about Tuesday's Game 5 between the Cavs and Celtics, won easily and embarrassingly by the visitors in green.

That is, if you're a Cleveland native and die-hard sports fan from Ohio, where a major professional world championship trophy hasn't been paraded around the state's northeast corner in, well, a long time.

And according to trustworthy news sources on Twitter, one won't be seen in Cleveland for, well, a long time.

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LeBron James' performance was dismal when it needed to be dominant, prompting the easy question about the King's future in Cleveland. Was that his last game in Cleveland?

Personally, regardless of the outcome of this series or any other series the Cavs might play in this postseason, I think James will extend his contract in Cleveland. I wrote a month or two ago that playing in New York is no better than playing in his home state. Sightseeing and fine dining are great, but LeBron is trying to win basketball championships.

And if Boston bounces the Cavs in the Eastern Conference semifinals, especially after Tuesday's ugly Game 5 in front of the home friendlies, do you think an ultra-competitive guy like James would be able to live with himself for not even coming close to finishing what he started in his own backyard?

During and after the game, especially when the Celtics started to run away with it in the second half, the Twitterverse got a little harsh on LeBron and the Cavs. Here's a sampling below:

@JerodMSF: "It is amazing come nut-cutting time watching the difference between a champion and a pretender. Boston showing why they won two years ago."

@MikeAmmo: "I'm not talking about the blowout, even when down a bit the crowd got totally uptight, depressed and deflated. That's on LeBron."

@Rachel_Nichols: "Fans courtside asking me if this is LeBron's last home game as a Cav. A couple of them teary."

@microtony: "At least LeBron can find comfort in all those times MJ let his team lose by 30. In the playoffs. At home."

@ClevelandFrowns: "The more embarrassing his playoff flop, the HARDER it will be for LeBron to leave. I don't understand the opposite argument."

@Chris_Broussard: "No question that if healthy and not old, Boston has more talent than Cavs. LJ supposed to make up for that deficit, but that's a lot to ask."

@ChrisMannixSI: "Question: would the Cavs be a different team with Stoudemire instead of Jamison and Hickson? It's going to be asked."

@sportsguy33: "The 'Kobe is better than LeBron' demo is reacting right now like Don Shula's house after the Tyree Catch."

@sharapovasthigh: "Wow, can't believe this score. This is what I think it takes for LeBron to leave Cleveland."

@EdgeofSports: "Never been speechless in my life. I'm Speechless about LeBron's absence of game tonight. Maybe Gund should pay to have Jay-Z court side."

Cavs-Celtics: Who's Saying What?

Rajon Rondo Carries
Boston To Game 4 Win

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Less than 48 hours after the Cavs torched the Celtics in Boston, the Cleveland team that so many people thought was a strong contender to win an NBA championship assembled a performance Sunday that was at times as flat as its embarrassing Game 2 loss.

And just when you thought Rajon Rondo couldn't hurt the Cavs any more than he had in the first three games, the Celtics' point guard played out of his mind in a 97-87 win that tied the Eastern Conference semifinals at 2-2. Game 5 is Tuesday in Cleveland.

Rondo had 29 points, 18 assists and 13 rebounds in 47 minutes Sunday. Here are some other notes:

+ Antawn Jamison is not getting it done. His numbers aren't bad, but he rarely plays with passion. J.J. Hickson is more aggressive and was enjoying a fine second season in Cleveland until the Cavs picked up Jamison at the trading deadline, forcing Hickson to the bench.

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+ The Celtics are playing with more heart. Sure the series is tied, 2-2, and it looks like each team will win its next home game to set up a Game 7 in Cleveland next weekend, but Boston is just two years removed from an NBA championship and still has most of that nucleus in tact. The Big 3 certainly are collectively older and slower, but a Game 7 -- even on the road -- scares me because that Boston team is a proud one.

+ I give Danny Ferry credit for trying to put the proper pieces around LeBron James the last couple of years, but this hardly looks like Michael Jordan's first championship team with the Bulls. Jamison is no Scottie Pippen, Mo Williams is inconsistent and Shaq will need to give more than 21 minutes and six rebounds if Cleveland wants to advance.

+ Cavs coach Mike Brown should have given some other guys -- Ilgauskas, Moon, Powe, Gibson -- more minutes in Friday's Game 3 blowout.

+ The problem still in LeBron's game is his sometimes erratic play. Jordan seemed to cherish the basketball more. Even Kobe doesn't throw the ball away as much or take as many bad shots. But James does follow up sub-standard games with excellent ones, so expect some electricity in Cleveland on Tuesday. LBJ followed his three previous lowest-scoring outputs this postseason (24, 19, 24) with 40, 35 and 38, respectively. He scored only 22 today.

And here's what some people were saying on Twitter after the Boston victory:

@sportsguy33: "Triple-double for Rondo in 3 quarters. After this 2010 playoffs performance his nickname should be 'The Big One.'"

@SI_PeterKing: "Just home from seeing Rondo the Magnificent beat the Cavs. Careful now. I might have to reconsider my diffidence for the NBA."

@PDcavsinsider: "Terry Pluto and I keep asking Mike Brown how the Cavs could play with such lack of fire and he basically keeps saying 'I don't know.'"

@GESmithJr: "I hope Mo Williams' mother has a bad mother's day."

@MikeAmmo: "It's not an overreaction by Cavs fans when you visibly SEE the lack of effort/focus."

@JamilSmith: "You know how much I love the Cavaliers. But they played today like they had rollover points from Friday's deluge. Frustrating."

@MrTrpleDouble10: "Once paul pierce returns from carbonite hibernation things could get interesting."

@celtsfan33: "All I can say is HOLY COW. What a GREAT GAME by the CELTICS. All Rajon Rondo - all Passion!!"

@Adel_C: "Um...If Rondo had the confidence to launch threes, I don't even want to know how much of a nightmare it'd be for the opposition."

@jalenrose: "(Esp in the playoffs)Celts Rondo has become the most all around productive PG in the NBA! (pts/rebs/assts/defense/wins/title etc)"

OGS Notebook: Derby, Big Ben & Gretzky's House

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

A few topics made headlines in the sports world today. Here are some nuggets for you:

+ The Kentucky Derby should never be run at night. I understand the sport could use some new money, and an evening telecast certainly would address that issue, but the Derby is one of those events that should just stay where it is. Modernists love to rip the traditionalists who appreciate the pageantry of sport, but the tradionalists never get their way with anything. Just look at the NFL Draft, which was moved from Saturday at noon to Thursday and Friday evenings. I read today that it rated well and I'm sure the NFL pockets are deeper, but does it always have to be about the money? Is maximum profitability the only way to do it, or can just being profitable ever be enough?

+ Ben Roethlisberger said Monday he won't appeal the six-game suspension the NFL handed down last week. Smart move. The only way to climb out of the hole he's dug for himself is to do it slowly, and I think he will. He clearly had advisers write that statement for him today. No reason to think they'll abandon him going forward.

+ A buddy of mine called today to say he was in a restaurant recently and overheard a National League pitcher say, "Yeah, I met her at Gretzky's house. She was playing tennis and she was hot as hell." No link. Just funny.

+ I love how people are asking whether Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are losing their edge. Remember when the Cavs began the regular season 0-2 and ESPN was freaking out in November? Remember how the Cavs lost to the Bulls on Thursday and suddenly LeBron and company were being pushed to the limit? Remember how LBJ carried his Cavs to a Game 4 win in Chicago Sunday, putting his team one game away from advancing? Prior to both the Cavs-Bulls and Lakers-Thunder series, most folks said they wouldn't be surprised of the top seeds lost a game in the early round. I wish people would calm down, stick to their guns and quit changing their philosophies or abandoning rational thought just because of the outcome of one game. I realize the Lakers are tied 2-2, but the defending champions are still a very dangerous team in the Western Conference.

+ I'm embarrassed that I haven't watched much of the NHL Playoffs, especially considering I wrote this about the Stanley Cup back in December.

Cavs-Bulls: Who Said What On Twitter?

LeBron James Leads Cavs' Fourth-Quarter Rally

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I've watched the first two games of the Cavs-Bulls series and I have to say I'm not so enthusiastic about my hometown squad.

The Cavaliers certainly are deserving of the hype heaped unto them by many experts who claim they are the favorite to win the NBA Championship. Where I'm not enthusiastic is in the area of general interest. My college football project was exciting, watching last month's NCAA Tournament was exciting, but now knowing that we've got possibly two months of these playoffs, it's hard for me to get jazzed.

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So I'll let you read some of what other people were saying on Twitter Monday night as the Cavs pushed their best-of-seven series lead to 2-0:

+ @Jpdabrams: "That's probably as well as Bulls can play as a team. They played their tails off. In the end, it wasn't fair."

+ @jemelehill: "Watching the CHI-CLE game w/ my mother. Now I know how dudes feel when they watch a game w/ a woman who doesn't follow sports."

+ @chadzumock: "Noah looks like he should be running the register during lunch rush at Arbys."

+ @straightbangin: "if lebron hits three straight my-back-was-to-the-basket-when-i-started-to-fade-away jumpers, the game should just be called."

+ @WFNYScott: "Win or lose, big props to Jamario Moon for taking advantage of any opportunities he's given."

+ @thefarmerjones: "A lot of people think they have valid reasons to hate LeBron, but please stop pretending his game is one of them."

+ @WhitlockJason: "Watching Noah stitch a Shaq-Cavalier clown suit makes me wonder y anyone believes Cavs r better prepared for DHoward this year."

+ @Sha_Ron: "Bron: You want to wink at ppl after a good play but you don't want to shake hands after you're beaten? I see you, son."

+ @mzemek: "Well, Chicago just might win one game in this series. One more than I expected."

+ @theupsetblog: "Lebron's celebrations are annoying. That is all."

+ @RealSkipBayless: "Big picture, going forward, I didn't love what I saw tonight from LeBron. Especially wouldn't if I were Cavs fan. Tell you why tomorrow."  

Dear New York: LeBron Doesn't Want You

King's Crown To Be Worn In Cleveland

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Condescending New Yorkers can laugh all they want about how bad a city Cleveland is. I'm a proud Clevelander who's been living in the Big Apple for four years now, and it's been pretty entertaining watching the arrogance.

Sure, the Mistake On The Lake even sets rivers afire, but equally embarrassing are New York and its assumptions rooted in an ugly habit of self-absorption.

If this was the 1980s, certainly LeBron James would want out of Cleveland in favor of New York, probably even New Mexico.

But it hasn't been the 1980s for a long time. Tired of being the butt of late-night jokes, Cleveland turned itself around and enjoyed a prosperous 1990s. That mini-renaissance, however, began so long ago that the city has returned to being miserable again. That much I can admit.

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That Cleveland seems the antithesis of the destination city New York has long been is hardly the matter when we're talking about James' NBA future. Folks love to talk about how great of a city it is here -- and it is -- but why do we put so much weight on that fact? LeBron isn't a tourist; he's a pro athlete who for probably no more than 10 more years will devote eight, nine, maybe 10 months each calendar to his employer. And when he doesn't have Team USA commitments in the summer, he'll make his commercials and appearances wherever Nike and others need him. If it's in New York, a 90-minute flight on his own plane is more than manageable. Whether he's reppin' the 212 or the 216, LeBron Inc. will continue its march toward total global domination.

He already has a few dollars in the bank, and with what the Cavaliers will offer James this summer after he leads them to their first NBA championship, he'll have many millions more.

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And if you think leading a New York team to yet another championship would be a crowning achievement for King James, imagine what it would be like for him in Cleveland, perhaps more starved for a championship than any American city in the last several decades. He's Cleveland's only active hero and not even one NBA banner has been raised. The love affair will only grow stronger between James and his hometown if he carries his team to the title in June, giving an entire city's population reason to believe several more are on the way.

The funny thing is that in all the will-he-or-won't-he columns I've been reading, what gets written about the least is the actual basketball portion of the equation. Is it because New Yorkers know their city has been a basketball wasteland for more than a decade? Relocating to The City That Never Makes The NBA Playoffs might possibly raise LeBron's international profile, but how much room is there realistically left for that at this point? James' top priority for the balance of his career will be winning championships, not sightseeing. Regardless of what happens in Cleveland's postseason run that begins next week, a move to the Big Apple will no doubt set back his quest for a first or second ring.

Now, I know the Knicks have been clearing cap room for two full years under Donnie Walsh, not only to increase their ability to lure LeBron to New York but as well as a second elite player in what is expected to be the sexiest free-agent class ever. But just because a move will be possible, what makes playing -- not living, but playing -- in New York so great? On the basketball court, at least, why do locals up here assume that being a Knick is so much better than being a Cavalier?

In those same two years, Cavs' management has shown its dedication to championship basketball by acquiring Mo Williams, Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison. General Manager Danny Ferry has slowly assembled a supporting cast similar to how the Chicago Bulls began to build themselves in the late 1980s. They eventually won six titles with Michael Jordan, but not until his seventh year in 1991 did they win their first. This is James' seventh year in Cleveland.

King James is pretty close to maxing out when it comes to image, celebrity and access, three things that do not help him win basketball games. He needs more than he wants, and the only significant void left in his life, even at the young age of 25, is championships. Winning rings in New York certainly has a nice, well, ring to it, but I can't imagine it gets much better than winning in your hometown with a team that's showed its commitment to both the present and its future.

When the 2010-11 season tips off around Halloween next fall, expect LeBron James to be dressed up as a Cleveland Cavalier, ready to treat his employers to a second straight NBA championship.

Amar'e Stoudemire Would Hurt Cavs' Chemistry

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

I once started dating a very attractive girl with whom I worked in Cincinnati, going into the deal knowing full well that she was the poster child for red-flag dysfunction.

This was about a decade ago; I was a typically shallow guy blinded by how hot she was, and in the long run -- more than two years later -- I paid for it dearly on the emotional front.

I share these personal details with you because that's how I see the Cleveland Cavaliers' potential acquisition of Amar'e Stoudemire.

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On the surface, he is definitely hot and trading for him would seem to be a great addition to an already strong lineup. Certain temptations are hard to resist.

But I think the temptation to do nothing, to stand pat, should get more consideration in Cleveland, and the logic is simple.

Nothing against Stoudemire, but the teams that win championships are teams rich in chemistry. And just because chemistry is an intangible that doesn't show up on the highlight reels or in the boxscore doesn't mean it lacks value.

Whenever I have the chemistry conversation, I tell people to consider the New England Patriots. They won three Super Bowls in four years, pretty much without any superstars. Tom Brady was more efficient than he was a superstar, and guys just did their jobs, filled their roles and at the end of each game, they had more points than the other team. Even if Brady was a star then -- and he sure is now -- he was the only one on those title teams, and in 11-on-11 football, if you win with zero stars or just one, you probably know a little something about chemistry.

Or, if you want a local example from the shores of Lake Erie, how about those Indians of the 1990s? They didn't win a World Series, but they got to that final round twice, bringing hope and excitement to a city perhaps more starved -- and still starved -- for a championship than any in the country. Guys like Carlos Baerga, Kenny Lofton, Jim Thome and Sandy Alomar were such facilitators of chemistry that Albert Belle's occasional meltdown came and went with little drama.

Trading for Stoudemire would strengthen the likelihood that Lebron James stays in Cleveland beyond this season, but it will also disrupt the chemistry enough to harm this season's championship chances. On the other hand, if the Cavs held on to J.J. Hickson -- who this year is starting to look like a rising NBA star -- and veteran center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, I think the chances remain strong for a title this season. And isn't a championship the ultimate case for the please-stay-Lebron argument?

Sure Stoudemire would bring a dominator's game, but Cleveland already has one of those in King James. The Cavaliers have shown twice this year they can beat Orlando, and twice more that they can beat the Lakers, and the longer the season plods along, the less dangerous the Celtics look. The Cavs are fine just the way they are.

Nothing is broken, Danny Ferry, so please realize there is nothing to fix.

Kobe Or Lebron? I Vote Lebron

By JOHN P. WISE
One Great Season

Kobe or Lebron? Lebron or Kobe?

To try to figure out who the best player in basketball is right now, you need to define what "best" means. Because every time someone sides with Lebron, someone says, "Well, all I know is if the game is on the line, and you only have time for one shot, I want the ball in Kobe's hands."

True as that may be, and I agree with it actually, how exactly do you figure out who the best player is? Kobe has four championship rings, four more than Lebron. Does that mean Kobe's better? In the last 15 years or so, our just-win culture has placed so much more emphasis on championships than there used to be.

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What's complicated isn't determining who's better. The difficulty is actually in defining your terms. So what does "best" mean?

In my opinion, if you're the best player in the game, you:

+ Score many points
+ Pass and rebound well
+ Play good defense
+ Are dangerous at any point on the court
+ Involve all of your teammates
+ Make your team better than the sum of its parts
+ Win

Kobe doesn't really lack in any of these areas, but Lebron does the majority of them slightly better, which makes him more of a complete player. And in my book, that makes him the best player in the game.

The only knock I have against Lebron's game is that he'll put up a real ugly shot once in a while. But he can beat you in more ways than Kobe can, so Lebron gets the nod.

Is Kobe a brilliant assassin? More so than anyone in the league. And he certainly has that nice jewelry collection. But for the sake of cheap speculation, who's to say Lebron wouldn't have rings if Shaq -- in his prime -- was his wingman, and Phil Jackson was his coach?