Labron can not do anymore than he has. But overtime and 2 point games is not dominating. But a 3 to 1 lead makes it a tough road back with no room for errors. The pressure is on.
The games have been close, but a 3-1 lead is dominant, since teams with that lead win the series something like 80 percent of the time.
I knew I read that someplace this morning, but I couldn’t find it just now. 96 percent, then.
FWIW, neither the call on Pietrus that sent LeBron to the line nor the box out by Varajao was a foul. The refs called both those plays with the consistency they do during the season though, namely, if you have the ball and fall over, it’s a foul; if you don’t, it’s up to their wildly subjective discretion.
I see the Cavs coming out hard Game 5, squeaking by with a victory and, shockingly, losing in Game 6. I would have never, ever predicted this, especially with how trashy Orlando looked against the Sixers. Nicely done by the Magic; no two ways about it.
As for tonight: go Nuggets. I hope they filth up the Lakers. I have a feeling it’s going to be hideously ugly. That favors Denver.
I think the Nuggets got a huge ammount of confidence from the last game. Their best offensive player was puking his guts up in the locker room before the game and did nothing in the first three quarters, yet they still won by almost 20.
Chris Andersen, JR Smith, and Linus Kleiza are playing with amazing confidence now, something we haven’t seen against the Lakers all season and post-season until the last game or two. The Nuggets had seven players with 10 or more points last game and three guys with 13 or more rebounds. The Lakers have Kobe and Gasol and Kobe looks gassed. Kobe’s averaging over 40 minutes a game and Gasol even more.
Fisher or Vujavic needs to get hot from three or it’s going back to Denver 3-2 Nuggets.
If you’re pulling for the Nuggets, that’s a good thing. Vujacic has been atrocious and seems to shoot every time he touches the ball: like Antoine Walker but white. And worse. And Derek Fisher is decomposing before our very eyes.
Ariza’s played well though, even beyond those two game-sealing steals. Definitely the third best player for the Lakers this series. Beyond him? Odom’s been shabby, Bynum might as well be DJ Mbenga, and Luke Walton is a complete not factor.
You’re right about the Nugs too. Contributions from top to bottom, guys playing above their heads, tons of swagger and confidence. A win in LA makes things VERY interesting. A loss and I see it going seven. I hope we aren’t talking about the refs tonight.
sigh Oh Cleveland, why must you break my heart.
I give the Cadaverliers a 5:1 shot of making the miraculous comeback. If Varejao can goad Howard into another technical and get him suspended for game 6 he’ll be the mayor of Cleveland.
Bullshit. Watch the replay. Howard was yanking on Varejao’s arm and pulled him into him.
I haven’t had any luck finding a replay so far, unfortunately. What’s the reasoning here? Howard wanted to get off the court and get a better view of LeBron in overtime? Why is he pulling his defender toward him and off the court instead of moving toward the hoop?
I’ve got no dog in this fight and think you could’ve called a foul on either Howard or Varajao. I liked the no-call here.
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Also bullshit. Orlando has 117 FT attempts to Cleveland’s 114.
Because Varejao had him screened and Howard was trying to draw a foul.
Trying to draw a foul is the argument there, I think.
Mmmhmmm. Now go back and see how many fouls were actually committed by each team.
The way I saw it - It was a desperation at an alley-oop or tip in with 0.5 seconds left. As far as the colission went, it was 50-50 for position but Howard out-jumped Varajao and ended up almost on top of him. Howard came down off balance and wrapped his arm around Varajao’s, and Varajao either pushed or fell backwards out of bounds.
It looked bad on Varajao at first, but after seeing it a few times there was enough fault either way to just let it go.
This is a stupid argument and you know it. Number of free throws attempted says absolutely nothing about the fairness of the officiating absent additional context. I’m arguing that Cleveland and Orlando are not getting the same definition of a “foul.” Some very large percentage of the fouls called against the Magic are bullshit; a much smaller percentage of the fouls called against the Cavs are bullshit. That Cleveland is committing a larger number of obvious, legitimate fouls (big old hacks against Dwight Howard, who they cannot stop under the net in any other way), and therefore Orlando ends up with about the same number of free throw chances, demonstrates nothing about the fairness of the officiating.
If a consistent definition of a foul was used for both teams, the disparity in attempts would be much, much larger.
That said, if you’re a Cavs fan, as you appear to be, I don’t begrudge you your biases. I always think it’s a ball when the Mets are hitting, and a strike when the Mets are pitching, you know?
The refs are calling any physical contact as a Magic foul. If they were calling things down the middle, Cleveland would have taken 1/3 fewer free throws.
Yeah, okay guys. I’m sure the Cavs are just fouling the crap out of the outside shooting Magic and it’s not getting called. The fact that a team like Orlando, who lives and dies by their outside shooting, has more FT attempts should really foreclose any arguments about the officiating they’re getting.
Not when the Magic get whistled after LeBron trips over his own feet.
I have nothing against James, really, but I think it’s hilarious that The Shot That Saved Cleveland - which ABC and ESPN couldn’t stop orgasming over on Sunday, saying it canceled The Shot, The Drive, and every other bad Cleveland sports moment all at once - is a game away from being rendered irrelevant. It was a great play, but the fuss the networks made over a shot in Game 2 was the height of stupidity.
Good point. The Magic were #2 in FT attempts in the regular season… only it’s not such a good point, since the Cavaliers were #5.