Lil Red Machine

The Cavs struggled against Orlando for the past few years for good reasons, and they are getting hung out to dry in this eastern conference finals. I’m trying not to overreact here. Cleveland is only down 2-1. A victory Tuesday night at Orlando, and it regains homecourt advantage.

Outside of LeBron hitting another miracle shot, is there any reason to believe that the Cavs can do that?

Where to start? Our frontline is aging and/or unathletic. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had had a terrible series, and Anderson Varejao is doing nothing but flopping and complaining. Mike Brown needs to run out a smaller lineup out there, because the current plan isn’t working. Lets try and match up with their style of play.

In the backcourt, Mo Williams and Delonte West have been huge disappointments, needless to say. With Daniel Gibson and Wally Szczerbiak virtually nailed to the bench this series, those guys have been needed to really step it up, and have failed miserably, as they couldn’t even hit the broadside of a barn at this point. Mike Brown has used Sasha Pavlovic more than normal, but lets face it, Pavlovic is an incredibly inconsistent player who takes bad shots and disappears for long stretches of time.

With all that going on, the Cavs are reverting back to what they were when Mike Brown first took over. Get LeBron the ball, and have everyone else get out of the way. He gets his numbers, but it makes the team stale, and it makes them predictable. Of course, with the way the supporting cast has played, I can’t blame LeBron for playing this way. Of course, he deserves some blame, too. He left some points up on the board with his poor 4th quarter. A failure to execute from the free throw line is a recipe for disaster this time of the year. Also, he was terrible from the perimeter, only making one shot the entire game from out there.

Orlando obviously deserves some credit. The Magic move the ball around, and Van Gundy has been able to plug in the right personnel and has gotten them to play an aggressive defense that doesn’t allow for easy shot opportunities.

Game 4 is Tuesday night. The Cavs are in big trouble. Will the supporting cast continue to play THIS bad? It’s hard to imagine. However, playoff basketball has a way of making some guys unravel. Without them, though, Cleveland is done.