Interesting quote from the article (italics mine):
It would be tough to fawn over LBJ's performance last night. Although perhaps the most logical explanation is his elbow is really hurt? After the way he mailed in the last two games, if they do lose, I think he's going to have to have surgery on the elbow just to save face and avoid tarnishing the legacy.
Guess it could be appropriate if you're discussing the notorious rear echelon SS forces. Not so much many of the elite formations we typically see in ASL though.
Fawn, ESPN does, and does unabashedly. I went to bed last night at halftime; my superstition about big games and my cursing teams I want to win and me watching crucial games, prevailing. When I awoke and got the score off my phone, I went upstairs-without my caffeine-laced appendage-and flicked on the TV to ESPN to see the highlights of the game...
How about this, then?
Funny, that, given how much the SS is openly despised by so many hereabouts, the lesser SS formations are fairly rare on ASL boards...just sayin'...
LeBron certainly gets the attention - no doubt about that. And his no-show in game 5 was a much bigger story than a solid team effort by the Celtics. You have to admit that the best player in the NBA coming up empty in one of the biggest games of his career is a more compelling story than "4 Celts All Do Well". It's not like Rondo had an amazing performance like game 4 to steal the headlines. Frankly the story after game 5 should have been on the egg LBJ just laid.
Not sure I follow your point - much better article than the original FSN one though which had some real reaches in places though. There's certainly lots of attention on LBJ and justifiable criticism of his playoff performance so far.
Rondo doesn't have to have that sort of game to cause problems for the Cavs (or any team, for that matter); if you take away one aspect, or he's off he just moves on to the next facet of his game. The Cavs overreacted to the game 4 performance; there's a reason only two other playoff trip-doubs topped his game 4: it just doesn't happen very often.
On the one hand, it's too much to expect one player to carry a team through an entire playoff run and be successful; on the other Lebron can be a transcendant force. Questioning his mental toughness for his wildly erratic play is certainly valid, as is questioning whether Boston has found some measure of success in at least partially slowing him down, defensively and mentally. Yet, the angle has been universally his elbow 'injury' for his bad games, yet no mention of it is made when when he scores 21 in the first quarter of a game.
My point was more there was no compelling Boston story, such as Rondo's game 4, to distract from the "LBJ Lays an Egg" story. Had there been a compelling Boston story, the focus would have been more on them, but they had all of their big 4 playing well, but no amazing line to steal the story line. Rondo has killed them all series - Mo cannot guard him & the Cavs apparently feel they need Mo's O on the floor (although I wonder) and Mo struggles trying to check Ray-Ray who can shoot over him or take him down low and post him up at will. But Rondo killed them in game 1, 2 & 4 - I think they needed to do something to adapt to Rondo's dominance, although perhaps they chose poorly in the solution as switching Mo onto Jesus Shuttlesworth didn't work either (and it didn't take a rocket scientist to see that coming). And frankly since game 1, Mo hasn't brought much to the table on O either unfortunately.
In part it may be because LeBron has ALWAYS torn apart the Celtics - he averaged 36.5 against them this year in the regular season & has only failed to average 30+ vs. them 1 year in the last 5. Boston has done a good job on him & he hasn't adapted well, but frankly he hasn't looked right this series in his approach to the game on offense. Something's off in his approach and it's not just the Celts who haven't been able to guard him in the past either. Give them some credit, but something's not right too beyond the Celts doing well in guarding him.
"Universally accepted" is a little strong - people are searching for an explanation and the elbow being far worse than we've heard is a possibility. Doesn't make it true & no one has come out and said "IT'S DEFINITELY the elbow" because we don't know. Don't forget that his one transcendent game this series was on 3 days rest and he was so good in the first which lends some credence to the elbow theory. When rested he's OK & he opened scoring, which he normally opens passing & scores late, because he knew he might not be able to score late due to the elbow. The elbow theory fits in a lot of ways. It's also the classic "Cleveland Moment" where it seems everything is aligned for them and something bizarre happens to derail the title train.
Frankly the whole "LeBron's mailing it in because his bags are packed and he's going to X" conspiracy theories make no sense. LeBron is a loyal guy and a class act on the court & he grew up in Akron. What kind of guy is going to pull a Vince Carter on his hometown in his theoretical swan song in the home unis? Just doesn't make any sense. If anything he should be more focused than ever on getting a ring if he was leaving as this would be his last chance to end his hometown's 46 years of title drought. That kind of opportunity is epic - they make movies about stuff like that. This disaster of a post season to date may make it more of a certainty that he returns if anything. While in the past the supporting cast could be blamed for losses, LBJ owns this one, if Boston does win. It's all on him. The supporting cast has played well enough to win - they're not perfect but if the best player in basketball were leading them, they'd have already ended this series. And frankly that's why the elbow theory makes a lot of sense. LBJ has always shown up for big games in the past, he may not have won them all, but they didn't lose because he sucked. Not true for this series so far.
If David Stern was still alive, I'd be confident that much like Lakers-Kings game 6, this series was coming back to Cleveland. Alas, the NBA Godfather doesn't seem to have as much juice as he used to. Donaghy might have screwed that up for everyone. It's SO unfair that when Cleveland is finally due to have games fixed for us, Stern loses his mojo!
Lebron said he would defend Rondo-and he did rather well. The Celts stepped up as a team to fill in the missing offense --The Cavs did not, which may have left LeBron a bit pouty.
