Shhhhhh .....

[swerb]

http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/bas ... 030842.htm

Free-throw fix?

The Cavs aren't talking about it much -- perhaps they're trying to avoid a jinx -- but over the past two weeks, their free-throw shooting has improved dramatically.

They remain last in the league from the line at 69 percent, but in the past six games, they have hit 126-of-157, which is 80 percent. James, whose percentage was the worst of his four-year career, has gotten to the line 46 times in his past four games and made 36, for 78 percent.

Hughes is a remarkable 31-of-36 (86 percent) in the past six games, and Sasha Pavlovic has made 11-of-13 (85 percent).Zydrunas Ilgauskas, whosecareer-best string of 31 ended last week, has made 35 of his last 36.

[British_Pharaoh]

goody gumdrops

jsut in time for the battle for the 2nd seed and the playoffs

[pup]

Just another sign that this team, as led by LeBron, could care less about the first 3/4 of the season.

[consigliere]

Just another sign that this team, as led by LeBron, could care less about the first 3/4 of the season.

Isn't this reminiscent of the Indians in the 90s? When they sleepwalked through the season, had enough talent to win 90 games still, then tried to turn it on in October? That used to drive me nuts about the Indians.....1995 was the last true great-fun regular season until 2005.

[Wolfy]

HERE WE GO! Consig manages to turn everything into the Indians like LeOff oooops I mean LeBron turns everything into HIS. I am already sick and tired of watching this (big) little boy call the shots and run this town, team, and organization like he owns it. I wonder if this method would work with raising my kid? You know…let her have everything before she is even potty trained and watch her call the shots while forming her first words…hmmm…I wonder how that would work out? Let’s just hope LeOff, ooops, shit I did it again…LeBron doesn’t trip over his dicky-do before wining a championship. Last time I checked a Monarchy doesn’t work. I hope King James doesn’t get everything before we make him earn something.

[pup]

From Sports Guy latest blog, an e-mail from a reader says:

The LeBron era was summarized on Sunday night in Boston (I went to the game): LeBron, who had inexplicably taken the night off, was suspiciously absent from the Cavs' bench for the first five minutes of the third quarter. After arguing with my friends as to whether or not he realized he was wearing a purple suit in the first half and decided to change, LBJ finally strolled in from the locker room, only there were no seats left on the bench. He wandered to where David Wesley was sitting, and stared at him for about seven seconds, before Wesley got up and more or less sat on Damon Jones' lap. Wesley and Jones remained in the same seat, looking extremely awkward, for about five minutes until the next timeout on the floor occurred. Priceless."

[Wolfy]

Need I say more? This is LeBrons world...We are all witness!

PS Nice castle King James

[Wolfy]

How come my Avatar doesnt work? Picture if you dont know what that means.

[pup]

Wolf, try this:


http://www.theclevelandfan.com/boards/v ... b3b6c0ddf9

[swerb]

How come my Avatar doesnt work? Picture if you dont know what that means.

Wolf ... Post the pic in any thread and I'll get it working for you if you can't.

[FUDU]

That used to drive me nuts about the Indians.....1995 was the last true great-fun regular season until 2005.

Consig, the following season 1996 was great and so was 98 or 99 IIRC when we had Roberto Alomar and we scored like 3 million runs.

[leadpipe]

Just another sign that this team, as led by LeBron, could care less about the first 3/4 of the season.

Wouldn't this imply that the rest of the team will be better the last quarter of the season? Lebron CANNOT go balls out and get beat on for 82 games and be in top form in the playoffs. This is the Cavs problem, it's not that the rest of the team doesn't care, it's because they aren't all that scary talented. Again, as I mentioned yesterday, the stars in this league and in the past 25 years (Jordan, Bird, Shaq, Duncan etc.) find away to get some time off. The Cavs need either A. To be able to deal with him taking some time off or B. Get good enough so he doesn't need to single handedly carry them in the playoffs.

At the end of the day he's not a perfect player, but he's creating the offense by himself, he's the only guy on the team that generates easy buckets passing the ball (That courtesy going unreciprocated) he's watching guys air-mail 12 footers and hitting the undeside of the rim with lay-ups. He's the face of the franchise, and he deserves some of the blame during lulls, but I think he's doing all he can under the circumstances to help them win.

[pup]

Wouldn't this imply that the rest of the team will be better the last quarter of the season? Lebron CANNOT go balls out and get beat on for 82 games and be in top form in the playoffs. This is the Cavs problem, it's not that the rest of the team doesn't care, it's because they aren't all that scary talented. Again, as I mentioned yesterday, the stars in this league and in the past 25 years (Jordan, Bird, Shaq, Duncan etc.) find away to get some time off. The Cavs need either A. To be able to deal with him taking some time off or B. Get good enough so he doesn't need to single handedly carry them in the playoffs.

At the end of the day he's not a perfect player, but he's creating the offense by himself, he's the only guy on the team that generates easy buckets passing the ball (That courtesy going unreciprocated) he's watching guys air-mail 12 footers and hitting the undeside of the rim with lay-ups. He's the face of the franchise, and he deserves some of the blame during lulls, but I think he's doing all he can under the circumstances to help them win.

Would you say the Cavs played their best basketball last year in the playoffs? I would. Then I expected them to build on that going into this year. Well, they have not. They are the same team this regular season as they were last regular season. If they turn it on again this year, then you could easliy say they didn't play all out during the first 3/4's.

Doing that from the #2 seed will lead to another great series with Detroit. Doing that from the #5 seed will lead to them having to work balls to the wall to get to Detroit. Or, they could have gone balls to the wall earlier in the season and have the #2 seed locked up right now.

It all starts with number 23. All those guys won before finding ways to take nights off. Once LBJ wins a title, he can go that route. Until then, they all need to play harder for the entire season. Nobody else will until LeBron does.

[leadpipe]

Pup, what I'm saying is that he isn't winning the title playing balls out for 82 games. Not on this team, with little help. I think this is where I differ with many here. You claim those other guys found ways to win before taking nights off. That's up for debate. What isn't is the help they had. Not to re-hash my opinions, but point guard? Drew Gooden? Larry Hughes? Snow? Marshall?

If he's carrying it all, no can do for 82+. If he has some help with the load, then they'll contend for a championship.

[pup]

My only point of contention is they ALL played better in the playoffs last year, except Z. They all played better, because they all played harder and more focused. Why? Because their leader played harder and more focused.

When those other guys took some time off, you never got the feeling that thier intensity or determination took time off as well. Maybe they were not as involved with the offense, or backed off on D with a lead, but they never looked disinterested.

Pup, what I'm saying is that he isn't winning the title playing balls out for 82 games

No, but you sure as hell can lose it. Getting the 5 seed would be tragic to this team.