A couple more observations as I watched some video this morning:

What was LBJ doing by himself, and not playing D on the final possession? Was he hoping for an early missed shot in order to get Rebound #10?

And, why isn't LBJ demanding to Coach Brown to have the ball in his possession in the closing seconds to shoot FTs instead of inbounding? Some are quick to fault Brown. Me thinks perhaps LBJ isn't ALL that comfortable shooting FTs when it counts.

The game never should have come down to Gaines having to hit a 3 to win.

Lebron traveled before hitting the 3 after he missed a free throw to make it 86-85.

Can't believe Footwedge never pointed that out.

JakeGiant wrote: A couple more observations as I watched some video this morning:

What was LBJ doing by himself, and not playing D on the final possession? Was he hoping for an early missed shot in order to get Rebound #10?

And, why isn't LBJ demanding to Coach Brown to have the ball in his possession in the closing seconds to shoot FTs instead of inbounding? Some are quick to fault Brown. Me thinks perhaps LBJ isn't ALL that comfortable shooting FTs when it counts.

Who was he supposed to guard? Jawad on Korver, V on Okur, Parker on Sun Gaines and Delonte on Price...leaves him to guard Miles...What should he had done different? He was guarding the man throwing it in. The man throwing the ball in is the most dangerous guy on the court(except when hes the guy throwing it in to a guy who is knowingly going to immediately get fouled).

As for why LeBron was taking the ball out, ask the guy with the big pic on this page, how important it is to make great inbound passes. He watched his team shit down their leg against the Lakers last year in the playoffs because of blown inbound plays. Their 2nd best passer is out of the game so why not keep him as in the in-bounder? What I dont agree with is Parker taking the FT's. Should have been Delonte.

There was just no Help D on his part. He pretty much stood right near the basket.

Rest assured, had Mo been in the game, I don't think he's the inbounder(hey, I could be wrong, though). He'd be the one the Cavs would want to shoot FTs. Since he wasn't, then LBJ should be the one demanding to get the ball to him, not inbounding. Of course, just my 2 pennies.

What's it going to take for the Cavs to win the NBA title?

It's a great question and hard to answer since they never have before.

Obviously it's going to take a decent amount of team basketball and support but I'm not sure the Cavs can be the team that the Celtics were two years ago and the Lakers were last year. In the end, LeBron will still be required to do a lot of heavy lifting. His level of production and how far he needs to go when he's tired is just how far it takes to win the title.

Terrible loss.

#1, what the hell is Mike Brown thinking making Lebron throw the ball in? Give the ball to Bron, he may not be the GOAT FT shooter on the team, but he's still clutch and will make his FTs.

#2 Lebron is ridiculous. I can't think of a player in the league who just takes over a game when his team just gives up. You know in the 4th quarter when Lebron's team is down, when he gets the ball, it's going in the hoop. Ain't no doubt about it.

#3, Re-read #1

#4, I'd just like to add, Sundiata Gaines is a great story, but he's a perfect example of why game winning shots are almost statistically irrelevant, and nullify Kobe's game winners as being important. He's taken 1 3-point shot, and it was a game winner, and under the laws of Kobe's greatness, he is the greatest of all time. I'm not buying it, and neither should you.

Sundiata Gaines was a great player on some horrible Georgia teams. The kid was always a winner who battled, and I know most UK fans respected the guy. Good to see him hit such a big shot.

Skyhook79 wrote: The game never should have come down to Gaines having to hit a 3 to win.

Lebron traveled after hitting the 3 after he missed a free throw to make it 86-85.

Can't believe Footwedge never pointed that out.

I thought the same thing haha

Damn, I didn't watch one minute of this game....hate those late starts, but sounds like Gaines led Team Utah to another victory over Team Cleveland.

Tough loss but were still in perfect position.

I haven't liked the guy in two years, but I'm officially ready to start the Fire Mike Brown fan club. I hope I'm not the only one that heard the interview after the first quarter, where Brown basically said "the nice thing about LeBron is that he makes my job easier, he allows me to be able to sit on the bench and just watch the games." Nice call coach, then you managed to let your team play like shit the next two quarters, and watched them piss away a should be win at the free throw line. I hope your seat is real comfortable. I have several problems with his "observing" during games.

1. Mo Williams has been streaky through the first half of this season. He was streaky last night. However, Delonte came in and scored some quick points for us. Why Mike Brown didn't let a hot Delonte West play more than 22 minutes, but had cold Mo Williams playing nearly 40 is beyond me, not to mention West is 2x the defender that Williams is.

2. Why does he wait until we LOSE our lead to call a time out? Call the damn time out when the opponent goes on a 7-0 run, not after they go on a 10-0 run or whatever it ended up being, and let them get complete momentum.

3. As a COACH, I know he doesn't really coach, but part of his job is to put the team in the best position to win. Someone earlier mentioned "why was LeBron inbounding the passes at the end of the game?" Thats what they have done all season, but, its not LeBron's job to change the game plan, thats Mike Brown's job. He should have been the one saying give the ball to our #1 guy, Z, you inbound from now on. It should never have mattered, Parker should not have gone 2-4 in the final seconds to cost us a win. He makes those, we aren't even talking about a Gaines buzzer beater.

4. This is my biggest point. We WILL NOT beat anyone in the conference finals, or finals, if we can't put together 4 solid quarters of basketball. I get sick of seeing us come out blazing early, then watch quarters 2 and 3 us play like shit, then have to put up 25+ in the 4th to MAYBE win a game. This is going to be a real problem, and the sad part of it all is that its the SAME problem we had last season. We've added more talent, but its like the coaching hasn't learned a damn thing.

h2thaizzo wrote: I haven't liked the guy in two years, but I'm officially ready to start the Fire Mike Brown fan club. I hope I'm not the only one that heard the interview after the first quarter, where Brown basically said "the nice thing about LeBron is that he makes my job easier, he allows me to be able to sit on the bench and just watch the games." Nice call coach, then you managed to let your team play like shit the next two quarters, and watched them piss away a should be win at the free throw line. I hope your seat is real comfortable. I have several problems with his "observing" during games.

1. Mo Williams has been streaky through the first half of this season. He was streaky last night. However, Delonte came in and scored some quick points for us. Why Mike Brown didn't let a hot Delonte West play more than 22 minutes, but had cold Mo Williams playing nearly 40 is beyond me, not to mention West is 2x the defender that Williams is.

2. Why does he wait until we LOSE our lead to call a time out? Call the damn time out when the opponent goes on a 7-0 run, not after they go on a 10-0 run or whatever it ended up being, and let them get complete momentum.

3. As a COACH, I know he doesn't really coach, but part of his job is to put the team in the best position to win. Someone earlier mentioned "why was LeBron inbounding the passes at the end of the game?" Thats what they have done all season, but, its not LeBron's job to change the game plan, thats Mike Brown's job. He should have been the one saying give the ball to our #1 guy, Z, you inbound from now on. It should never have mattered, Parker should not have gone 2-4 in the final seconds to cost us a win. He makes those, we aren't even talking about a Gaines buzzer beater.

4. This is my biggest point. We WILL NOT beat anyone in the conference finals, or finals, if we can't put together 4 solid quarters of basketball. I get sick of seeing us come out blazing early, then watch quarters 2 and 3 us play like shit, then have to put up 25+ in the 4th to MAYBE win a game. This is going to be a real problem, and the sad part of it all is that its the SAME problem we had last season. We've added more talent, but its like the coaching hasn't learned a damn thing.

I know people have been annoyed by those who want Mike Brown fired... but he really isn't a good head coach. He can get guys to play defense... but he lacks with everything else. When the opposition gets going on runs he lets the team lose the whole lead if not a very large chunk of it before calling a time out. He can't put together a competent offensive game plan to save his life.

I think he's been completely carried by LeBron thus far in his career.

But I think the Cavs stick with him as long as LeBron is ok with it.

I really don't think anyone would care if Mike Brown was gone. His job is to keep Lebron happy....that is just about it.

I have said it before that Brown needed to be fired years ago and I say it during wins also.

The guy hides behind LeBron's efforts every night.

wes_mantooth wrote: I really don't think anyone would care if Mike Brown was gone. His job is to keep Lebron happy....that is just about it.

Yeah, I agree.

But really, there aren't many coaches that will let James bark at him, and if you have a coach that clashes with James that coach is gone.

That's why I don't mind Mike Brown as a coach, but it wouldn't matter who was coach because James is the coach.

Skyhook79 wrote: The game never should have come down to Gaines having to hit a 3 to win.

Lebron traveled before hitting the 3 after he missed a free throw to make it 86-85.

Can't believe Footwedge never pointed that out.

What I will point out. Ticky tack fouls on the Cavs all night long...especially in the second half. The descrepancy in fouls for the home team was a disgrace.

The Jazz were in the penalty with 8 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter.

They fouled out Mo...and by doing so, cost the Cavs the game.

Any other observation Skyjizz?

devil1197 wrote: I have said it before that Brown needed to be fired years ago and I say it during wins also.

The guy hides behind LeBron's efforts every night.

Mike Brown is a damn good coach. Basically, NBA coaches are graded on how well they play defensively. He gets an A in my book.

And he has done an even better job this year over last year given all the new pieces. Leave it to Cleveland fans to bitch about Brown.

Unreal.

JakeGiant wrote: A couple more observations as I watched some video this morning:

What was LBJ doing by himself, and not playing D on the final possession? Was he hoping for an early missed shot in order to get Rebound #10?

And, why isn't LBJ demanding to Coach Brown to have the ball in his possession in the closing seconds to shoot FTs instead of inbounding? Some are quick to fault Brown. Me thinks perhaps LBJ isn't ALL that comfortable shooting FTs when it counts.

LeBron was obviously guarding against the backdoor cut or a high lob to the rim...like Boston pulled a couple nights ago. I thought the defense was pretty good in the last possession...however, I think the guy who had Gaines should have denied him the ball...even if it meant a possible back door cut.

With that said...if Parker makes 3 out of 4 from the line (77% this year) OR Z makes both of his (75% this year), then the Cavs would foul on that last possession....and win the game that way.

Mike Brown = GOAT

Footwedge wrote:

devil1197 wrote: I have said it before that Brown needed to be fired years ago and I say it during wins also.

The guy hides behind LeBron's efforts every night.

Mike Brown is a damn good coach. Basically, NBA coaches are graded on how well they play defensively. He gets an A in my book.

And he has done an even better job this year over last year given all the new pieces. Leave it to Cleveland fans to bitch about Brown.

Unreal.

Are you fucking high?

Brown got completely out coached by Van Gundy last year in the playoffs, Brown had absolutely no answer rotation wise. He was like a lost puppy dog trying to figure out what the hell to do.

Yes, he is a great defensive minded coach but he has no clue what to do on offense and for the majority of the year his rotations have been piss poor. And when the team doesn't come out with intensity on the defensive end, we'll be screwed because he just sits on the bench and prays that LeBron puts up 40 every night.

Brown would have been fired a long time ago if he didn't have one of the greatest players in the game right now.

Fuck the defense hoopla bullshit. You know when good defense matters, when you look up at the scoreboard at the end of the game and see you were up by at least one point. Is it good defense when you lose 86-85? Bad defense when you win 112-110? His unwillingness to learn offense costs this team time after time. How many games in the past year can you remember us giving up double digit leads and wind up losing? I'm gonna guess its at least ten. And that represents good defense how? He's been here what, 5 seasons, and where he could have learned how to coach both offense and defense, he instead appointed an "offensive coordinator". Yeah, that's great coaching.

What Mike Brown does to this team would be about the same as turning on the Colts game this weekend to watch Indy run the ball 40 times. You have LeBron James, arguably the best scorer in the NBA currently, and your team can't score 100 points? We have a team of guys that can score. Mo Williams, nearly a 20 PPG guy last year. Parker nearly 11 PPG last year. Delonte nearly 12 PPG last year. etc. Mo's scoring is down almost 3 ppg. Parker and West's averages are down 3 ppg on the season. We are taking two less FG per game than we were last season.

Our opponents are taking more shot attempts than we are. These all add up to reasons why we lose. Look at last night. Utah took 11 more shot attempts than we did. They only shot 40% for the night, but those 11 extra attempts resulted in them making one more field goal than we did on the night, and guess what, that last field goal is what beat us. That's why I say fuck defense. Our best defense is scoring 100 points or more. You know why? We've lost one game all season where we scored 100 or more points. We're 23-1 when we score 100 or more, and we're 7-10 when we score less than 100 points on the season. Go back to last years results, its nearly identical. So, why when you're nearly unbeatable when you score triple digits, and practically .500 when you don't, do you NOT preach to your team to score as many points as possible? That slow, sluggish offense we run every game kills us. The way we play ball, we HAVE to shoot well in order to win, that's not good coaching. Good coaching is Jerry Sloan. You know LeBron's gonna get his points, let him. Make sure you contain everyone else, and its imperative to take as many attempts as possible. If we took this mentality, I guarantee we would be a much better team.

Man, people love freaking out over a loss...

I also got a good LOL at the Lakers fans who come in here and try to get some jabs in... sigh...

LTrain, its much more than a loss, it's becoming a trend for this team to blow big leads. There's no reason for it, at all, yet it happens I'd say every other loss for us. It's like the guy goes into the locker room telling our guys "just maintain that lead the second half and we will win the game".

devil1197 wrote:

Footwedge wrote:

devil1197 wrote: I have said it before that Brown needed to be fired years ago and I say it during wins also.

The guy hides behind LeBron's efforts every night.

Mike Brown is a damn good coach. Basically, NBA coaches are graded on how well they play defensively. He gets an A in my book.

And he has done an even better job this year over last year given all the new pieces. Leave it to Cleveland fans to bitch about Brown.

Unreal.

Are you fucking high?

Brown got completely out coached by Van Gundy last year in the playoffs, Brown had absolutely no answer rotation wise. He was like a lost puppy dog trying to figure out what the hell to do.

Yes, he is a great defensive minded coach but he has no clue what to do on offense and for the majority of the year his rotations have been piss poor. And when the team doesn't come out with intensity on the defensive end, we'll be screwed because he just sits on the bench and prays that LeBron puts up 40 every night.

Brown would have been fired a long time ago if he didn't have one of the greatest players in the game right now.

Then send in your resume. I'm sure this team would do better with you calling the shots.

Only in Cleveland....and I mean ONLY in Cleveland... will you find assholes that will complain about a coach that, according to his peers and the media, earned NBA COACH OF THE YEAR last year.

What that means is....he was rated better than 31 head coaches, including the Yoga Maharishi himself in LA.

Devil...you need to get a breath of fresh air.