Lebron James and the mystery of game 5

[Dark Horse]

To see if I had a bet for game 6, I needed to understand what happened in game 5. Why was Lebron so disinterested?

Let's go to the game's play by play at NBA.com.

Cleveland is up 29-21 in the 2Q, and Boston calls timeout with 9:44 to go in the half. So far, Cleveland is in control. Did something happen here?

Boston makes it 29-23, and James is taken out with 9:06 to go. Now he's on the bench. Ilgauskas comes out at the same time and is replaced by Shaq...

With 8:22 to go Shaq misses a shot.

With 7:10 left Shaq causes a turnover (offensive foul). He then picks up a technical as well. James comes back in. He's rested all of two minutes. The Cavs lead is down to 3 points: 29-26.

Shaq comes out with 4:02 left in the half. The Cavs committed six turnovers during his five minutes on the floor and failed to score a single point. The 29-21 lead is now a 29-36 deficit. Shaq was negative 15 points here...

Now without Shaq, but with James and Ilgauskas, the Cavs are able to come back to 40-42 with 1:49 left in the half! It's a game again.

The Celtics close out the half strong, and take a 50-44 lead into the locker room.

With the above in mind, I don't believe that James could have been too happy with Shaq starting in the second half. Ilgauskas did not return until the start of the fourth quarter! By that time the game was lost. The Cavs were trailing 63-80. Another minus 11 points added to Shaq's total, which is now minus 26 points.

It's not rocket science. And it's obvious why James can't say anything. What's he going to say? "Why on earth is Shaq playing when he messes up the team chemistry we worked for years to build?!"

======================================== =========
Edit. Fact check at popcornmachine.net for things not shown on NBA.com.

Shaq had started the game and was 0 plus or minus for his first stint of 8:19. That means the Cavs build their lead to 29-21 with him out of the game. So the Shaq theme is even worse than it looks at NBA.com. Lebron must be astonished at the stupidity of the coaching staff.

Ilgauskas came back in with about 3 minutes left in the 3Q and was +1 during that period.

It's not only Shaq. He played alongside Jamison for the first half, the other new addition. When they came out, they were replaced by Varejao and Ilgauskas. Same idea. The 'old' Cavs make it work, the new pieces do not.

[shari91]

Wow. Thanks for the write up
After reading that it'll definitely be interesting to see how Brown utilises Shaq in this game.

[beanbag]

very nice write up!!

[RobertPaulson]

thanks for this Dark Horse ...didn't get to watch the game.

[magic8ball]

Good write up. So now if I were a gambling man, I would have to be betting on weather James can keep Brown on the bench.

[wrongturn]

Good write up on Game 5. But putting the blame on Shaq and coaching stuff for Lebron's bad performance is a little bit too much. If it is true, isn't Lebron a little immature? Maybe he is.

[Dark Horse]

Good write up on Game 5. But putting the blame on Shaq and coaching stuff for Lebron's bad performance is a little bit too much. If it is true, isn't Lebron a little immature? Maybe he is.

If it was something new, yeah, but he may have been walking around with it for quite some time. With Ilgauskas and Varejao they were beating the Celtics in game 5, and with Shaq and Jamison they were losing. For a coach not to see that is absurd.

Remember that the one NBA player who makes everybody better, Steve Nash, had a huge challenge last season trying to fit Shaq in. They missed the playoffs. Only time during the Nash years.

Shaq should just retire, instead of whoring himself around the NBA because he's not legendary enough until he wins another ring. He gets by on his charm, but is messing up teams, instead of helping them. And nobody has the guts to tell him in his face. So I can understand that a coach like Mike Brown can't just bench him.

[Holdin Aces]

Very good write up.

[nobull]

very interesting angle on game 5. can you provide the how shaq & jamison performed in the 2 games that CLE have won in this series. i think the series is done with BOS closing it out in game 6. they're clutch when it comes to closeout games at home, with the lone exception against ORL last season, which was without Garnett.

[wrongturn]

But if they don't give Shaq enough minutes, he won't be ready to battle with Howard when they need him. Desperate time needs desperate measures, they probably should cut his time deeply in game 6 to survive first. But no matter how they play Shaq, Lebron needs to go aggressive from start, like game 3. That is the way to make rest of team respond, including Shaq. Not playing that way in game 5 has just no excuse from Lebron. Now it may be too late for CLE because BOS is definitely making moves to counter that, unlike game 3, they were taken by surprise.

[36mafia]

excellent insight and writeup

[wrongturn]

also remember in game 4, cle only trailed by 2 points going into 4Q, but they benched shaq, and proceeded to lose by 10. so it is not really cut and dry about shaq.

[Dark Horse]

very interesting angle on game 5. can you provide the how shaq & jamison performed in the 2 games that CLE have won in this series. i think the series is done with BOS closing it out in game 6. they're clutch when it comes to closeout games at home, with the lone exception against ORL last season, which was without Garnett.

I went to NBA.com for the story of the game, including shots and fouls, but this site has the scoop for each player in each game. Game 1:

http://popcornmachine.net/cgi-bin/gameflow.cgi?date=20100501&game=BOSCLE

[Goat Milk]

If you're doing your right up based on NBA play-by-play....
All I got to say is watch the game- study film. All my boys that make a living just gambling are huge NBA nuts and study film, diagnose matchups, and watch line movement all day. You're not going to get a read on "emotions" from a website.

[spider1usa]

Nice write up man

[big0mar]

What? A post about this series that doesn't include

OMG LEBRON SUCKS. HES NOT JORDAN OR KOBE. OMGZ OMGZ OMGZ

For a second I thought I was in the basketball forum, not players talk

[Dark Horse]

FWIW, the team coming off a loss in this series has responded in the next 1Q: 4-0 ATS.