Let's get this straight, Lebron, and the Cavs as a whole, had a miserable game last night. No excuses, nothing.
However, I find it sickening how many of you seemed to be waiting for him to fail so you could jump all over him. I've never seen so many people be so excited that someone failed. It was an awful performance, but it's one game and the series still isn't over. I can't remember another athlete being rooted against in the way many of you on here are with Lebron. It's not as if he's done anything morally offensive to turn people against him (no rape allegations, no drug scandals, no infidelities, etc.), yet it's as if many of you are celebrating after last night. Every star has had bad games, it happens.
What I've seen absolutely no mention of so far is anyone giving any credit to the Celtics. First of all, defensively they have been damn near perfect against Lebron. When tuned in, their starting 5 still plays better team defense than any team in the league. In fact, I struggle to think of a single blown rotation on Lebron last night from any guy on the court. Many of you on here have absolutely no understanding of the game of basketball so maybe you don't see it, but not only have the Celtics been perfect in their doubling and hedging on Lebron, but they have altered their rotations to jump out on Lebron's first and second go-to passes like no team this year has been able to do. This is why you've seen Lebron get doubled and then seem to freeze in the air with the ball, very uncharacteristic of him but it's being forced by the defense.
Second, the Celtics execution on offense yesterday was the single best performance of any playoff game thus far. Every single person on the team was hitting their shots. Any time the Cavs adjusted to stop the hot hand, whether it be Rondo, Pierce, Garnett, etc., the Celtics countered perfectly. I don't know if Doc was making the calls from the sideline or if the players were reading it themselves, but they were absolutely in sync on both ends of the floor last night. Make no mistake about it, the Celtics are playing by far their best basketball of the season right now.
That said, this is not an excuse for Lebron's or anyone else. Great players need to be able to adjust and last night Lebron struggled to find the right adjustment. His jumper was clearly not there last night, whether it be because of his elbow or not. This allowed the Celtics to go under every screen being set and even further shrink the floor. I'm sure Lebron spent a good amount of time watching tape last night and will hopefully find a different way to attack.
Again, I'm not defending the performance, but let's give credit where credit is due and stop with knee-jerk overreactions.
However, I find it sickening how many of you seemed to be waiting for him to fail so you could jump all over him. I've never seen so many people be so excited that someone failed. It was an awful performance, but it's one game and the series still isn't over. I can't remember another athlete being rooted against in the way many of you on here are with Lebron. It's not as if he's done anything morally offensive to turn people against him (no rape allegations, no drug scandals, no infidelities, etc.), yet it's as if many of you are celebrating after last night. Every star has had bad games, it happens.
What I've seen absolutely no mention of so far is anyone giving any credit to the Celtics. First of all, defensively they have been damn near perfect against Lebron. When tuned in, their starting 5 still plays better team defense than any team in the league. In fact, I struggle to think of a single blown rotation on Lebron last night from any guy on the court. Many of you on here have absolutely no understanding of the game of basketball so maybe you don't see it, but not only have the Celtics been perfect in their doubling and hedging on Lebron, but they have altered their rotations to jump out on Lebron's first and second go-to passes like no team this year has been able to do. This is why you've seen Lebron get doubled and then seem to freeze in the air with the ball, very uncharacteristic of him but it's being forced by the defense.
Second, the Celtics execution on offense yesterday was the single best performance of any playoff game thus far. Every single person on the team was hitting their shots. Any time the Cavs adjusted to stop the hot hand, whether it be Rondo, Pierce, Garnett, etc., the Celtics countered perfectly. I don't know if Doc was making the calls from the sideline or if the players were reading it themselves, but they were absolutely in sync on both ends of the floor last night. Make no mistake about it, the Celtics are playing by far their best basketball of the season right now.
That said, this is not an excuse for Lebron's or anyone else. Great players need to be able to adjust and last night Lebron struggled to find the right adjustment. His jumper was clearly not there last night, whether it be because of his elbow or not. This allowed the Celtics to go under every screen being set and even further shrink the floor. I'm sure Lebron spent a good amount of time watching tape last night and will hopefully find a different way to attack.
Again, I'm not defending the performance, but let's give credit where credit is due and stop with knee-jerk overreactions.
