definitely.

I've said it before, the Cavs can't win a 'ship with Mo Williams as their PG.

Lebron will be coming to New York and joining the Knicks.

Knicks will be on the rise and Bosh will come join him.

Have been too busy to post much lately, but that was a huge win for the Celtics. Something was clearly amiss with Lebron today, because his shot was WAY off and he couldn't keep the Cavs in touch when the Celtics got KG and then Ray going in the 3rd.

I'm guessing that Lebron's elbow is coming up better some days than others, because he has been dominant in other games this series. Whatever it is, Cavs fans better hope he can come good for game 6, because the Celtics are playing great team basketball right now and there is no way the Cavs win without Lebron scoring and creating effectively for his team.

If the Celtics close this series out in Boston, you could be right LC, that might have been Lebron's last game for the Cavs at the Q. It would be sad for Cavs fans if Lebron has a dud elbow and that were to lead to an early exit and a Lebron defection though.

If Lebron knew it was his injury that cost them, perhaps he would still resign with the Cavs? He does seem to have a genuine connection with his hometown of Akron.

3 MRI's have determined there is literally nothing wrong with LeBron's elbow, it's Lebron, he always does this kind of stuff, can we drop the injury excuse?

I was wrong about Cavs, I thought they'd win it all, but man, they are a shocking team arent they?!? Worst offense in the league, desptie having probably the best offensive player in the game, Mike Brown is a dud - if LeBron's hasnt got it going they are a mess.

LeBron needs a bit of Kobe in him in my opinion, just doesnt seem to have that urgency on every possession.

And I HATE Mo will, he is a shocking player, could name LOADS of PG's who would make that Cavs team better.

By the way, I don't think its that far fetched to say LeBron took it easy today and will have a playoff performance to remember in game 6 and the Cavs advance in 7 - but I do expect the C's to wrap it up on Friday.

While its certainly not looking good for Cleveland, it isn't over yet. The Cavs can win in Boston, they've proved that. If they can get the win in Game 6 you'd have to favour them in Game 7...you wouldn't want to bet against the home team in a Game 7 in the NBA. Game 6 is going to be huge.

Either way, Orlando will be going on to the Finals. No question.

I can only pray to god that Phoenix can top the Lakers. I can't bear to see the Lakers in the finals again.

If OKC just learned to box out when a shot goes up, we would have probably had a game 7 in LA with the potential upset.

Knicks should look at grabbing Joe Johnson with Lebron so they have a scoring punch. They'd be idiots to release David Lee.

I must say, an Orlando vs Phoenix NBA Finals would be quite entertaining!

As a non-fan of the Knicks and Cavs, it would be hilarious if Le Bron went to the Nets, as fans of both feel they are going to have him next year.

New owners, new Stadium deal in Brooklyn.
Would probably get Bosh to sign as well.
Harris
Lee
James
Bosh
Lopez
Biggest turnaround in one year in NBA history right there, which might be enough of an incentive for Mr James!!!

And also potentially number 1 pick ... John wall then trade Harris

Jules, "Mike Brown" is a dud.
What?

That's ridicolous. Brown has brought out the best in guys like Andersen Varejao, JJ Hickson, West and Parker. Brown has done a fantastic job--I don't think too many coaches could coach such a superstar like Lebron, whilst enjoying the team success that they have had.

Your blaming Brown for the loss. Check the box score today and see that Lebron went 3-14 fg, 0-4 3pfg for just 15 points. Check the box score and see that the Cavs had 17 turnovers. Check the box score and see that the Cavs got outrebounded 41-31

Brown didn't shoot 3-14 from the field. Brown didn't committ 17 turnovers. Brown didn't get outrebounded 41-31.

The Cavs, IMO, were the best regular season team because Brown did such a fantastic job. The reason why they have struggled in the Celtics series is because the players haven't stepped up.

Jules, your comment just sums up how ignorant GM's and fans react when their team is struggling.."Oh it must be the coaches fault". Im sick of hearing it. Sure when it happened with P.J. Carlisemo= fair game..he was terrible.
But why look at the coaches all the time? Avery Johnson was fired after leading the Mavs to 67 wins in the regular season. Then they lost the playoff series against GSW. Johnson was fired, which was B.S. because guys like Dirk, Jason Terry, etc. didn't step up..None of them got fired!

Noones thought that Ive Le'Bron moves would he goto the Bobcats. MJ helped him get where he is, might be something between the 2 of them to get him there. Personnally I'd hate that but owell

Jules, it may not be his elbow, but if not that, he must have really been feeling the pressure in yesterday's game, because his shot was so far off it was like one of my social games! It's a real head scratcher for me, because Lebron has generally performed fairly well in pressure situations in the past and it has been his team that has let him down.

Still, as a Celtics fan I'll take it! After the second half of this season, who'd have thought they'd be in a position to meet the Magic in the East Finals? It sure has been sweet to see KG finally playing like the KG of old. I had been at the point of accepting that the Celtics would be saddled with a gimpy KG for the next two seasons, but now I'm starting to feel like this team can still compete for a title after all.

Haha wow MACDUB,

If you knew anything about basketball you probably wouldn't have said anything you just said - and for the record, I hate the Cavs with a passion, this has nothing to do with an angry fan looking to vent, it has to do with Mike Brown losing again in the playoffs when he should be winning.

Want to know why Mike Brown is a disgrace? And no, it's not the Cavs shooting percentage, rebound advantage or any other stats you just ignorantly threw at me (although he is the coach, he has a lot to do with it) - It's because he has no idea how to win, panics like crazy and has made the WORST, most unneccessary adjustments in this series its mindblowing.

Should I start with his rotations? Why is he playing Shaquille O'Neal so many minutes??????? He is a black hole on offense, makes the ball freeze, clogs the lane and takes away space from the greatest player in the world (yes, Shaq is a huge reason LeBron went 3/14 and had to setttle for jumper after jumper)...in a series where Cleveland are younger, and way more athletic, Mike Brown has decided he doesn't want that advantage, and that he'll let the 2nd oldest team in the league Celtics be the ones with that advantage. Also, just read a statistic, without Shaq and in the games LeBron still played, the Cavs were 21-4.

It's not just playing Shaq so many minutes though, has anyone else wondered where the hell JJ Hickson has been????? Why Moon isn't playing more? No way the C's match up well against that small ball lineup the Cavs used in the regular season...they play that lineup of Hickson, LeBron, Moon, West and Mo and they would run the C's off the ground (as they did in the regular season against them - now they are all playing under 10 minutes or not even getting on).

I mean WHYYYYY has he just all of sudden reacted in some bizzare way and completely muddled up his rotations; not only does it say that he is panicking like crazy and lets the other team know about it...but its a clear message to the guys that were getting it done..."I don't think we'll be a chance with you on the court" - a good message for your young guys.

If you need anymore Dirt on Mike Brown MACDUB read Bill Simmons' latest on game 5...he makes the same points (in a much more humurous way might I add) as everyone who has the same thing against Brown that I do: a few of my favourite journal entries:

- Throw in his illogical rotations (41 minutes for Shaq and Ilguaskas?????) and the panic move of playing two guys who hadn't played all series (Ilgauskas and Boobie Gibson) and the only way Brown
could have hurt Cleveland more in this game is if he clubbed LeBron with a tire iron during a timeout.

- Questions David Aldridge could have asked Mike Brown in that last interview: "Have you decided which Realtor you're using to sell your house yet?" ... "Are you intentionally trying to lose this game, or does it just
seem that way?" ... "Are you playing Shaq because you think it's 2001?" ... "Are you going to take a year off, or do you think you'll get right back into coaching?"

And those players that Brown has apparnetly made better - Parker was much better last year in Toronto with a rookie head coach, Varejao has been the player he is now for the last few seasons, Hickson contributes because hes a good young player and LeBron spoon feeds him 5 dunks a game...and Delonte? That guy has hade serious game since he joined the league, he was better in Boston, better in Seattle, the only thing that's changed since he moved to Cleveland is less minutes, less points, a gun possession charge and the fact that he missed several games due to a serious case of depression.

Jules

I think we can give u an A++ for your report card of why Mike Brown is a Failure as a coach

Content was all true

Good Work!

Yeah you got me there Jules.

Been reading Bill Simmons Jules? At least have the decency to reference his diary!

Um, doc, I did mention him...twice.

And a lot of its obvious stuff, you don't need to read Simmons to know Shaq and Z should not be playing as much as they are - note I wrote Mike Brown is a dud before Simmons even published that journal.

I should probably read your whole post before I trash it. That would be good.

I don't disagree with you though - some strange rotations.

Haha probably

Mike Brown knowns LJ cant win a championship on his own, play the biggest man you have and hope he plays it out..like he has in the ohh how many other championship rings does Shaq have???

Mike Brown is a great coach. He's taken the Cavs to great heights. Not surpized with Cavs losing, they are good but not great IMO they have just overachieved

predicted 6gms before series so we'll see if they'll close this out.

think Boston will go to finals with LA

I reckon the Cav's can bounce back today and force game 7...

Only watching the stats today, but holy crap there is a tonne of pressure on LeBron across the planet today. Scores close coming into half-time.

I'm gonna say it incase it happens - LeBron is going to have a huge 4th qtr (much like he did against Detroit a few years back).

The clock is ticking for the Cavs...

Did everyone hear the news this morning Lebron was late for the playoff game....

He lost track of time whilst packing his bags getting ready to move to New York!

The Cav's are...

G.O.N.E.

GONE!

Reports are that he has been sighted as either heading the New York or Chicago...

7 points down with 1 minute 30 left, still possible.....

Lebron will be bolting to Chicago, forget New York...

Game over! Yaaaaay! Bye-bye LeSycophant!

I also believe his private jet is destined for the windy city...

Pretty crazy stat line from Lebron, 27 points, 19(!) rebounds, 10 assists 3 steals and a block.

The flip side is there were also 9 turnovers and he only shot 8/21 from the field.

Judging only from stats he clearly left it all out on the court and didn't have a game 5esque disappearing act, disappointing to see the game's biggest name out at this stage though, love him or hate him it would have been really interesting to see how he went as the playoffs continued. At the very least I was looking forward to a game 7 I could enjoy live.

Yeah - he was 1 turnover shy of an unwanted quadruple-double! But you are right, hje tried everything but could not pull it off on his own.

I was puzzled to see how few minutes JJ Hickson saw on court, both in today's game and in the entire series. He barely got a chance to work up a sweat!
He had a great regular season and for some reason has been shelved in this series...

Did anyone actually watch the game? From the boxscores, it appeared that LeBron had a huge game, but was forcing the issue (9 turnovers).

Was that the case?

LeBron was awesome...got swarmed, Celts threw doubles and triples and trapped him on pick and rolls...he made good passes, guys just weren't hitting shots or making plays...he was a little passive in the first half but I still think he played it well. I feel sorry for him. Did anyone else think he look completely relieved it was over? Last year he walked straight off and didn't shake hands...was fuming...this year he shook hands, said words to all the Celtics, high fived the fans, gave away his headband...he looked happy it was over, I think the team quit on Mike Brown and LeBron will be saying 'first of all, if you wanna keep me, drop that fat f#@k'

Chicago?? naaaaah...not a good fit, Bosh or Amare to Chicago, LeBron will stay or should look at New Jersey if they get John Wall and add another big free agent.

Wooooot! What a turnaround for the Celtics this season. Watching KG and Pierce limp around in the last week of the season, I had very little hope they would be healthy enough to take the Cavs. But the Celtics were foxing big time!

Jules, I agree that Brown could have made some better decisions regarding the Cavs rotations, but I don't think it would have changed the outcome of the series. The Cavs weren't better than the Celtics two years ago and they aren't better than a HEALTHY Celtics now.

Once I saw KG come out in game one, move like the KG of old and completely own his position, I knew the Cavs would be in trouble. With a healthy KG, the Celtics defence and rebounding is back and they have a guy who is almost an automatic two points either on the box or with his spot up jumper. All of a sudden if you're the Cavs, you have a problem, because no-one on that team can guard KG one on one and if you double team, you've got the best passing big man in basketball finding Allen, Pierce, Rondo and Perk all game long.

Secondly, Thibodeau and the Celtics have absolutely worked out Lebron and they executed their defence against him beautifully. Their team defence was so good, not only a gimpy Pierce was able to defend Lebron, but Ray and especially Tony Allen also did great jobs on him. No other team plays Lebron even close to as well as the Celtics do.

Combine that with the obvious - that Rondo and Allen are going to be able to have their way with the Cavs very average backcourt - and you know its going to be tough for the Cavs to win.

Just think what would have happened if Pierce was even close to as fit as he was in 2008!

New jersey would be a great option for Lebron when u add in John Wall, Yi Jianlian, Brock Lopez with Courtney lee.

A nice lineup especially for the future

C- Brock Lopez
PF- Yi Jianlian
SF- Lebron James
SG- Courtney Lee
PG- John Wall

6th Man Devin Harris

Jules, you're right, Lebron did seem relieved it was over. He has been under a lot of pressure and something has not been right with him in the last couple of games. The Celtics pressure was part of it, but Lebron also made a lot of uncharacteristic fumbles with his dribble, none moreso than that dribble off his leg that Rondo picked up for an easy layup after he'd got the lead back to 4.

Where James plays next season is going to be the most interesting story in basketball this off-season. No-one can really know what he will do. I don't think he will make his mind up until he sees what the Cavs are willing to do to keep him in the off-season.

They have a lot of retooling to do. Clearly the team as constituted is seriously flawed. I don't know what contracts players have and how much flexibility there is to make changes, but the only guys on that team that are must keeps are James and Varejao. Everyone else is expendable, from the coach on down.

I agree with your last paragraph entirely Beantown with one exception, I also think JJ Hickson is worth keeping.

Ah, I knew someone would say that LC. Hence I said everyone else is expendable. I don't mind Hickson, he's a solid young player, but he's not a guy they need to build around. If you can get a player or a pick that will help you by trading him, you do it in a hearbeat. Same can be said of guys like West, Moon, Parker. Solid players, but there's dozens of players out there who are just as good to take their places if necessary.

The play of jamison didn't help either. The "stretch" 4 man was 3-16 for the series form the 3pt line. He also took away Hickson's minutes who has a knack for getting to the right spots to get the easy buckets.

True BT.

But you do need role players, and he has proven to be a guy that actually flourishes playing alongside LeBron. He finishes around the hoop, and not many other Cav's players can do that.

But yes, he is an expendable player - but for the right replacement.

Here is a list of players still contracted by the cavs

Jamison $13.4M
Mo Will $9.3M
Varejao $7M
D West $4.7M
Gibson $4.1M
J Moon $3M
A Parker$2.9M
Hickson $1.6M

Free Agents
Shaq, Illgauskas, Darnell jackson, Danny Green, Coby Karl and Cedric Jackson

But Lebron has a Player offer for $17.2M
Telfair has a player option $2.7M
Leon Powe has a Team option for $1M

and Jawad Williams has a Qualifying option of $1.1M

This team needs to do something to retain Lebron and it will involve a massive trade of some of the exisiting contracted players in hope that lebron likes the changes or he will decline his player option and goes to NJ, NY or Chicago for $25M

Someone I know compared Jamison to Pippen after games 1 and 2. It was a ridiculous comparison.

If lebron leaves, where does this leave cleveland as a franchise?

they will be a non playoff team and likely lose sponsorship $$$ and crowd declines.

What will happen?

The Cavs are going to have trouble retooling until Lebron decides where he is going to play next season.

No big ticket free agents will sign with Cleveland in the fear that Lebron is leaving. Lebron is the FA drawcard. When you best player (outside of Lebron) turns out to be Antawn Jamison, your not going to go deep into the playoffs.

On a positive note, Shaq's $21 million is coming off the books, but they are still in salary cap hell.

Antawn Jamison = $15 mill
Maurice Williams = $9 mill
Anderson Varejao = $7 mill
Delonte West = $4.5 mill (not guaranteed)
Daniel Gibson = $4 mill
Jamario Moon = $3 mill
Anthony Parker = $2.8 mill
Sebastian Telfair = $2.7 mill (player option)
J.J. Hickson = $1.6 mill
Leon Powe = $1 mill (team option)

Cap Holds:
Shaq = $22 mill
Lebron = $16.5 mill

No way LeBron re-signs with the Cavs, IMO. They've had more than enough seasons to get him a championship-winning supporting cast, so I don't know why James would expect they'll be able to do it in the future.

dingo - if LBJ leaves, then Cleveland goes back to sucking like they generally do in pro-sports!

Looking at the cap numbers for the Cavs, they haven't got a lot of options to improve the team. Even once they renounce Shaq's cap hold and every other FA not named Lebron, they are still well over the cap. They have no assets other than James that anyone would want to give up much for. So all they can do is offer up expiring contracts to see whats on offer. That would be West, Parker, Telfair, Powe and Jawad Williams.

Probably their best option is to try to package Mo Williams and maybe Hickson and Parker for something. Wouldn't exactly have teams beating down their door for that bunch though.

An interesting side note to all the speculation about James is what will Shaq do now? Will he retire? Or look to go for one more run with a different contender? If he does, he will be taking a massive pay cut from $20 mill to maybe $3 or $4 mill if he's lucky!

Hickson should have played A LOT more minutes than what he did in this series!

I think Big Z should have been on the end of the bench...

Hey Banker, who's this Brock Lopez cat?

Is he related to Brooke & Robin Lopez?

Its his brother and Brock is better then robin

For me the Celtics success has been dependant on how fit KG is for the post season. If anyone watched the Celtics closely late in the season they'l have noticed that he was getting his legs back and looking pretty good. I think because his minutes were still being limited and he wasn't been made a focal point on offense his stats were still underwhelming but his influence during the games was becoming more noticeable.

I think people (fairly) underestimated the Celtics a bit because of their relatively average regular season record and people doubted that they could just turn it on come play off time.

I think the Cavs could have done better with Ilgauskas (and other bench players) playing more because he spreads the court with his range and that would have drawn the defence away from the key. Coaching wise the Cavs could have taken a few more risks. Jamison on KG was a joke. Rondo burnt Williams constantly.

I like the Celtics chances against the Magic, especially if the referees calls continue to go against Howard. We took them to 7 games last year and that was without KG.

I think Lebron leaves the Cavs this off season.

Shaq is terrible & embarassing to watch. He's won c'ships with Kobe & Dwayne cos of his huge frame but the guards were the reason. Retire! Look how much better Pheonix are without him.

Orbit, you're kidding right? Shaq was a total monster when he won in LA, ridiculous comment to suggest the guards won it for him.

Shaq is a beast. the biggest specimen ever in the game

Orbit once again proves he is a tool.

Bring on Celtics Vs. Lakers, take 2. Although Magic Vs. Suns would be interesting?

Expect the Magic to run all over the Celtics.

Celtics had a very good game plan against Lebron James--however he and Mo were the only two the Celtics had to defend.

Different story with the Magic..Alot more scoring threats: Howard can get it going, Carter can light it up, Nelson is a serious scoring threat, Lewis can light it up from the perimeter and they get good offensive productivity from the bench with Pietrus, Williams and Anderson.

Want proof of the Magics scoring ability..They scored 114 points, 112 points, 105 points and 98 points in the 4 game sweep of the Hawks.
Celtics going to have their work cut out on defence. KG going to be tired defending Howard, Ray/Pierce going to be tired defending Carter and Rondo going to be tired defending Nelson...Will it limit the Celtics offensive abilities considering they are an ageing team

my prediction is Celtics in 6 over Magic

I don't see that happening MACDUB. The Celtics are playing very well right now and showing no signs of fatigue. Pierce is the only guy who isn't fully fit, but he is still dangerous.

Let us also not forget that the Celtics took Orlando to seven games last season with a frontcourt rotation of Perk, Big Baby and Scalabrine! If fatigue hadn't finally got them at the end of the series, they could easily have won it too!

I don't know where you get the idea KG will guard Howard! That is Perk's job and he has been very effective at keeping Howard under control in the past. This is a critical matchup and with both players foul prone, games could turn on whether one of the two sits a lot due to foul trouble.

Nelson v Rondo is the other critical one I believe. Nelson has been playing very well and is a very dangerous weapon for Orlando, but lets not forget how much damage Rondo can do as well!

Outside of those two matchups I feel very comfortable with a recovered KG against Lewis and a tag team of the Allens and perhaps Pierce on Carter.

The wild cards for the Magic are Pietrus, who has always played out of his skin against the Celtics and Barnes, who also had a good game against them earlier in the year. With Pierce being a step slow at the moment, his matchup against Barnes and Pietrus is probably the one I'm a bit concerned about. If it was 2 years ago, I'd say Pierce would flat out embarass Barnes, but right now the Truth is not himself.

I see this series going 7 games. Hopefully whoever wins will have enough left in the tank to smash the Lakers!

If you all consider watching Shaq throw clangers good basketball then maybe i should become a 36ers fan. He may have been of value in the early oo's but has now expired. How can you not get 17 boards a game with that size? Did any of u see that game yesterday? He can no longer play!! LC i think you get a bit personal when someone else is right...

Orbit this is what you stated about Shaq: "He's won c'ships with Kobe & Dwayne cos of his huge frame but the guards were the reason."

As pointed out by others, this was not the case. Shaq was the reason for the titles...not the guards - at least at the Lakers in any case.

Nothing personal taken, just pointed out your sheer stupidity yet again.

Beantown,good points made. Lewis could be the key to this series for the Magic. If he does have KG on him, he can really exploit that matchup for his benefit and for the benefit of the teams.

If KG has to guard Lewis on the perimeter, expect the likes of Howard and Carter to really exploit the interior without KG's shot-blocking/shot-changing ability.

someone posted on another forum (a post that I can't find now naturally) that reckoned Lebrons sub par performance in the last game was down to the fact that he had just found out that Delonte West had been having a relationship with his mother. Could be bullshit, could be true, I have no proof either way but made for interesting reading.

Have read various internet news stories regarding a possible relationship between Gloria James and Delonte West
Im starting to believe that the affair did occur and that that was the reason for Lebron's poor performance. Supposedly Lebron found out just prior to Game 5.

In game 1:
-Lebron scores 35 points (12/24 fg, 3/6 3pfg, 8-11 ft) to go along with 7 assists and 7 rebounds, and just 2 turnovers

- West plays 27 minutes..8 points (4/6 fg)


In game 5:
-Lebron scores 15 points (3/14 fg, 0/4 3pfg) 3 turnovers

-West plays 9 mins..2 points (1/3 fg)


That is a pretty big difference between 2 games (Game 1= before Lebron knew about the affair; Game 2=after he knews about the affair).
I know players have bad games and all, but its so unlike Lebron to fold like he did
And someone tell me why Delonte's playing time was reduced from 27 minutes to just 9 minutes..Perhaps Lebron told coach not to play West or coach heard of the incident and refused to give him more minutes
Boy theres more questions than answers at this point.

and now Delonte Wests owns Lebron... Everytime Lebron kicks Wests a$$ on the court, all West has to do is walk away and say "I ****ed your mum".... Doesn't get much worse than that...

And then LC is he good in the locker room? $20 mill a year & sooks if something doesn't go his way. He is a joke & so are you! If he is playing i turn the tv off & i'm a bball junky. Pathetic!

WTF???

Your on another planet. 'Orbit' back to Earth or leave the forum.