The 2009 Cleveland Cavaliers: One miracle shot away from being the biggest disappointment in Conference Finals history.

Logan on 05 27, 2009

It’s as simple as that. If LeBron doesn’t hit that ridiculous buzzer-beating three to win game 2, the Cavaliers are sitting at home right now just like the rest of us…being tortured by those damn LeBron and Kobe puppet commercials during commercial breaks of these NBA Playoffs.

How does a team that went 66-16 in the regular season, including a league-best 39-2 at home, fall behind 3-1 to the Orlando Magic (59-23 regular season) in a best of 7 series? How does a team that steam-rolled its way into the Conference Finals, going a combined 8-0 in the first two series, proceed to drop 3 out of its next 4 games when it matters the most? That’s a good question, and one that I’m sure is perplexing even LeBron James at this very moment. Well LeBron, let me break down a few things that are going on:

One guy in particular I’d like to focus on:

Mo “Mr. Guarantee” Williams: When the postseason began I wrote an article pertaining to Mo’s importance to Cleveland’s success in these playoffs. I referred to him as “the most underrated player in the NBA Playoffs,” clearly I was right about one of those two statements. Williams has been in the ball park when it comes to comparing regular season vs. postseason numbers in terms of points, assists, and assist/turnover ratio, however his shot has been M.I.A. to this point. In the regular season Mo shot .467/.436/.912 (% FG/3P/FT). However, in the postseason those percentages have decreased in every single category and now look like this: .400/.333/.704, a very noticeable differential. After William’s guarantee, he proceeded to shoot 5-15 from the field in Tuesday night’s loss in Orlando. Come on Mo, you’re supposed to be an All-Star.

Mo isn’t the only one hindering Cleveland’s ability to compete with Orlando, even LeBron has a little something to do with it. Now don’t get me wrong, I love watching LeBron play. I would love nothing more than to continue to watch him shoot the ball every Cavs possession, but I can’t do so without pointing out that it’s killing this team to some extent. LeBron is getting his numbers, impressive ones at that, but he has become a volume scorer. Instead of doing what he normally does, making his teammates better while still “getting his,” he has become one of those players who just shoots so often that anything less than 30 points would be a disgrace. LeBron averaged 19.9 shots per game in the regular season, to which he converted into a healthy 28.4 PPG. This post-season he has averaged 27.5 FGA and 35.3 PPG. Now, his FG% has actually increased 42 percentage points, however those stats are a bit misleading. While LeBron is taking control of games, his supporting cast (mainly Mo Williams) is struggling to find their strokes because of a lack of touches and opportunities to get a rhythm going, ultimately hurting the overall offense.

Also, Dwight Howard gets a lot of trash thrown his way in regards to his free throw shooting prowess (or lack thereof), but why is nobody on LeBron’s case? This guy is shooting 53% from the field in these playoffs but can’t manage over 75% from the line? Averaging 3 out of 4 from the line isn’t necessarily atrocious by any means, but watching some of the “King’s” attempts towards the end of a close game is becoming embarrassing. He hardly hit the front of the rim late in game 3 in the process of going 0-2 after a shooting foul.

The bottom line is that this team needs to get back to what it did in getting to this point, and that’s play better team basketball…especially on the defensive end. LeBron can’t do it all, much to the dismay of guys like Zydrunas Ilgauskas who seem to be just hoping to ride his coat-tail to a championship ring on his goofy white finger.

The Cavaliers are going to have to buckle down and win game 5 in order to not only bring the series back to Cleveland and have a chance of coming back in this series, but also to avoid becoming one of the biggest disappointments in recent NBA Playoff history. If LeBron and Co. can’t manage that, then the NBA sure wasted a ridiculous amount of money promoting that Kobe vs. LeBron final…and David Stern may have to be put on suicide watch.