Round 1 Game 3 | Cavs vs. Bulls | April 22, 2010 | 7:00 EST TNT

I think the Cavs need some adversity in the early rounds....hopefully this is a wakeup call.

Game 4 is so damn important, I really think Mike Brown needs to make a drastic change.

I don't know about you guys, but Shaq has done squat the last 2 games. Blame it on the thumb, blame it on the rustiness, blame it on the age, whatever it is the Cavs are in the playoffs and I just want to win.

We were playing harder and faster with J.J. out there, and for once I want another team to have to adjust to us, rather than Mike Brown scratching his head trying to adjust to another team. Bring Shaq in off the bench so he can play with the 2nd unit with Mo. Shaq is suppose to be the leader alongside LeBron, but he honestly looks like he's never been in the playoffs before. No intensity, bad turnovers, losing ahtleticism, not taking it strong. He's hurting us out there!

i love okc's crowd. screaming like there is no tomorrow.

Chones is saying someone should have knocked Rose on his butt at least once.

There are so many reasons we lost this game. Too many to list. The idea that it's Parker's fault or a coaching fault or any other ONE reason is just silly. We could start listing all the bad things the Cavs did and did not do and still not get them all listed.

Did the refs blow the LBJ charge call? Yep.
Could Parker of passed it to Delonte? Yep.
Could we have made maybe about three more free throws, instead of missing eleven of them? Yep.
Could we have played just a little bit harder for the first 3 1/2 quarters? Yep.
Could we have came out any more passive than we did? Nope.
Did we pretty much blow chunks for over 3 full quarters tonight? Sure did.
Did we think we could simply show up at Chicago and the Bulls would hand it to us? It seems we thought so.

on and on and on and on....

Could LeBron have started guarding Rose a tad sooner instead of with 2:30 left in the game? Yep.

Did we take far too many threes? Definitely.

We sucked tonight in all phases. I can't really look to any single thing we did REAL well. The Bulls kicked our collective asses for the most part. I don't believe they can do it again on Sunday as hopefully this was the snooze-alarm for the Cavs.

I swear it seemed like ROSE shot like 75% in this game, yet he only shot 50%.

The fact that we still use Jamison souly as a shooter is really discouraging. We have had the guy for a little more than a month and it still seems like we have no idea what he can do offensively for us. And we have a problem when we have to shoot 35 threes just to keep the game close and we still lose. Jamison had his usual quiet 19 and 11 game. Mo had 21 points but shot 5-11 from three and 7-16 from the field. We had no attacking other than Lebron and you can even say he shot the jumper a little too much. Shaq is just not effective right now more so on defense than on offense.

An even bigger problem was our defense. Our guards cant guard a fly right now. Rose is going where ever he wants and Kirk had all the jumpers he could ask for and he hit them. Noah had 15 rebounds with 4 of them offensive.

Oh yea and Lebron and Mo shot crappy form the line. Lebron was 7-13. He is just not concentrating enough on his shot. He rush's it and he never tucks his elbow in.

At the end of the day we played crappy defense and Mike Brown needs to rip into his guards and Lebron because Deng is having a very solid series so far and that is just unexceptable.

With all that said, i like the fact that we are being tested. Last playoffs we ran through the first 2 rounds and met the Magic and lost our first game and we had no idea how to take that lose. This team has now felt the results of defeat and they will grow stronger from this from here on out in the playoffs.

35 of the Cavs 82 shots were 3s.

BTW- Chones is saying the Cavs played scared.

kidduck said:

BTW- Chones is saying the Cavs played scared.

Click to expand...

Really? "Careless" is the word that came to my mind.

I guess Noah is going to come back to Cleveland.....

kidduck said:

35 of the Cavs 82 shots were 3s.

BTW- Chones is saying the Cavs played scared.

Click to expand...

Who the hell is Chones?

Idk if theyre posted
Windhorst:

Stu Jackson, who oversees officials for NBA is here. And Cavs are putting full court press on him after game. First Danny Ferry then Brown.
12 minutes ago via web

Click to expand...

Brown just took Jackson into locker room. Maybe to discuss questionable calls. Guess that is better than ripping and getting a fine from him
11 minutes ago via web

Click to expand...

I thought there were a couple tough calls, especially LeBron charge with 1:18 left. But refs did not impact result, Cavs missed 11 FTs.

Click to expand...

Jim Chones, ex-Cavalier.

His comment about playing scared was expanded on by his saying they weren't playing with the confidence of a championship team. He feels they let the Bulls dictate the pace of the entire game.

CHIMOCHIS said:

I swear it seemed like ROSE shot like 75% in this game, yet he only shot 50%.

Click to expand...

That's because Mr. Williams has trouble fighting through a screen to save his life. Delonte and Jamison did a decent job trapping Rose at the 3pt line, which Mo couldn't do. Yes, Derek Rose is amazing, but Rondo and Jameer are gonna dick Mo all game. Granted, I don't expect Mo to stop Rose altogether, but he at least has to make him hesitate and fight for his shots. Chicago (hopefully) winded their starters just to win a single game at home, so all the Cavs have to do is stay cool and not over-think things. Hinrich is their wild card for this series; if he hits shots, they're going to stick around even if the Cavs are hot. Rose will be Rose and Noah will be Noah, just don't let their role players get started, because that's what gives Chicago legs.

Sure, Mo could have been an easy blame for poor defense and free throw shooting, but he sank some big shots. And Parker? Whoever thinks he should have passed it with 3 seconds left is blinded by the loss; it was a half court shot either way.

All season long, a lot of the posters here said that the Cavs team go as Mo goes. Just make some better entry passes to Shaq early, step up the defense and hit some free throws. That'll be something the refs can't even stop.


Mo Williams' Road to Defensive Redemption beings now.

EDIT:

Silky:

With all that said, i like the fact that we are being tested. Last playoffs we ran through the first 2 rounds and met the Magic and lost our first game and we had no idea how to take that lose.

Click to expand...

Right on, get the losses figured out now. Save the important wins for later.

The impact of the bad calls of the refs can not be seen. Some of the bad calls are game changers that can turn the game around for our team or theirs. In this game, the bad calls was called against us and I think it cost us momentum that we needed to win. The "charge" that was called on James should not have been called. There was a similar type of contact in game 1 and they did not call a block or a charge against it. That kind of a contact in a tight game in crunch time should just be let go.