Must Wins and Must Sees

Game 2 is a must game for Cleveland. The 232 format makes it impossible for teams down 0-2 to win. My disdain for the 232 is recorded in my previous post. As with any long series the most important adjustments are made between games 1 and 2. If I were holed up in a hotel suite in San Antonio with Mike Brown these would be my suggestions for getting back in the series:

• Run guard guard screen rolls on the wing with LeBron setting the screen for Gibson/Hughes/Pavlovic. Since the Spurs jump and double LeBron on ball screens this gives him the opportunity to force a mismatch and if they still double you have a ball handler with an open drive or a shooter on the strong side of the floor. It also gets the ball in LeBron’s hands going toward the basket.

• Play some zone defense to make the Spurs play outside in rather than running the offense through Duncan. The Spurs shooters are pretty streaky, I’d rather live and die by them than Duncan. You should also bring strong doubles to Duncan on the catch early in the game, if you can frustrate him early on he tends to fade for a while.

• Need more Boobie – Daniel Gibson needs to play more, he is the only guy they have who can attempt to control Tony Parker off the dribble, it would be a different story with a healthy Hughes. He also presents a legitimate shooter who you should be able to open up with the doubles on LeBron. The other guards need to feed off his fearlessness and find ways to assert themselves.

• Transition conversion percentage – There will not be many opportunities to run because San Antonio gets back and recovers better than just about any team I've ever seen but when you get a chance you can’t brick a layup, you have to convert.

A few quick thoughts:

Knocked Up – Funniest movie I’ve seen since Wedding Crashers, easily the funniest and maybe one of the 5 best of the year so far. It isn’t perfect, it drags and some of the characters are superfluous, but it is well worth the admission price. It was nice to see a movie that was genuinely funny without resorting primarily to bodily humor jokes. Plus Katherine Heigl is worth seeing.

Ocean’s 13 – Was disappointed by Ocean’s 13, it was clearly better than 12 but nowhere near as fun and stylish as 11. The tone was off and it the plot was confusing. Yeah its fun to see all the characters you are familiar with, Clooney and Pitt are charming, the other guys play their roles well but it was just missing something. I walked out thinking it was just an excuse for Clooney and Pitt to hang out and get paid. On a side note, it didn’t help that the guy behind me took off his shoes and put his feet up on top of the seat next to me then answered 3 phone calls with his ringer on loud and felt the need to comment back to the movie after every joke/comment/surprise.

Early Oscar Watch – Saw a preview for American Gangster with Denzel and Russell Crowe and directed by Ridley Scott. It’s based on the true story of Frank Lucas from the 70s. It’s got gangsters, cops, Vietnam and two of the best actors of our generation. Set to arrive in theaters in November.

Yankees – Nice to see the Yankees found out the season started already. People will credit Clemens’ comeback and ARod’s walk off vs. Papelbon but the real story behind the comeback is the return to small ball. They have started to hit and run, bunt and actually score runners from third with less than two outs. Don’t overlook them in the second half if Pettitte can stay healthy.

Springsteen – Even if you are not a hardcore Springsteen fan, I defy you to pick up his new live cd and tell me you don’t enjoy it. It is composed of songs recorded in Dublin on his last tour with the Seeger Sessions Band. A 20 or so piece band he put together that plays folk music inspired by Pete Seeger. They also rework some of the Boss’ staples. I especially enjoy his rewrite of How Can A Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live. A song originally by Blind Alfred Reed that Springsteen reworked and first covered at the New Orleans Jazz Festival last year. It is undisputed that The Rising is the single best commentary on 9/11, and this song is as good a description of the wake of Katrina as I have heard.

Television – Though Summer is traditionally home to bad TV I must recommend the Fox reality show, On the Lot. It’s a filmmaker reality show that is refreshing in the amount of talent of the contestants. The show runs usually on Tuesdays and is like seeing a good Short Film Festival. I would also be remiss if I left out the new comedy central show Lil Bush which follows little George W. Bush and his friends (Condi, Dick and Rummy) through harrowing adventures. It debuts Wednesday at 10:30. If you have seen the previews you know that this is clearly must see TV.

Sopranos – For those who care, and I’m fairly certain at least half of my co-bloggers don’t, I predict Little Carmine will come back, eliminate Phil, retake his rightful place as the Boss of NY and broker a peace with Tony. The most important thing is that Silvio pulls through.

I’ll meet you further on up the road

Could it be, Cavs in 7?

First of all, if you know anything about me, you know I am not going with the curve when I make predictions. I think had the Albany Great Danes in the Sweet 16 in this years NCAA pool. It is easy to pick the Spurs, that doesn’t take any sack; it’s like rooting for John Wayne; to quote Ray Liotta in Goodfellas, “Jimmy (DeNiro) was the kind of guy who rooted for the bad guys in the movies.” I am that kind of guy when it comes to picking sports. I could say Spurs in 5 and then when that happens, nobody cares. However, if I say Cavs in 7 people listen; if I get it right I am a genius, if I get it wrong still nobody cares.

For the past few days as the hype has picked up I have started to closely analyze this series. And being a history buff I always look to our past to see if I can help make sense of the future, which is a good lesson for all the kids out there. Also, reading my own hyperbole about the rise of LeBron and the rise of Jordan to greatness (which, Dan, was what my piece was about not comparing their games or styles of play) I began to harking back to the days when Jordan first step foot on an NBA Finals court.

The year was 1991, the other Bush was still President, Saddam Hussein was alive, famed Yugoslavian Poet Vasko Popa died, Sonic the Hedgehog debuted, the Troodos Haven sunk in the Mediterranean carrying 144,000 tons of crude oil, Boris Yeltsin was elected president of Russia, Mount Unzen in Shimbara, Nagasaki, Japan erupts, and Pee Wee Herman was arrested in Florida for whacking it in a movie theatre. I could go on, but do you really care that in Hamlet, North Carolina, a grease fire broke out at the Imperial Foods chicken processing plant, killing 25 people or that Baudouin I, King of the Belgians died on July 31st, probably not.

Anyway, what was my point?

Ah yes, Michael Jordan was about to rule over the NBA and popular culture in America for the next decade. Again today I want to look at the comparisons and relative similarities to the situation LeBron James faces this June as did Jordan in June of 1991. Jordan squared off with the Magic Johnson lead Lakers which as we found out would be the end of their Showtime Dynasty. LeBron faces off with Tim Duncan’s ultra-conservative but supremely effective Spurs squad who have been the dynastic team of the last nine or so years.

We all forget that in 1991 Jordan was not yet Jordan. He was an upstart young player who people didn’t think had what it took to win, mainly because he didn’t yet make his teammates better. He got past a weaker Eastern Conference, and yes the conference was weaker, it was top heavy with the 2 time defending champion Pistons and the end of Celtics run as a good team. Otherwise the East had a mediocre 76ers, Knicks, Bucks and Hawks squads who all finished with no more than 48 wins. Magic’s Lakers battled through the West, sweeping a Houston Rockets team whose core would go on to win 2 NBA Championships later in the decade. Then the upstart Warriors with the best young trio in the league had upset the Spurs in round 1 and the Lakers disposed of them in 5 games. In the Conference Finals the Lakers faced the rival Portland Trailblazers who had been to the NBA Finals the year before and would the year after, the Lakers handled that in 6 games.

Over the previous 8 seasons the Lakers had averaged 60 wins a season and won three championships. The Lakers had a superstar player in Magic Johnson who was still terrific but in season 12 was on the other side of his career, along with teammates like James Worthy and Sam Perkins. They had some good young talented players like wingman Byron Scott and center Vlade Divac. Nobody really thought the Bulls had enough to take on the time tested and playoff experienced Lakers squad. But guess what happened, Jordan stamped his name on the game

Now if you look at it this series is setting up extremely similar. The Cavs got through a much weaker conference playoff bracket, really only being challenged by the only good team in the East (and 5 time consecutive Eastern Conference Final team), the Detroit Pistons. The Spurs had to get through the Western Conference which contained two 60 win teams. The Spurs had to beat the Denver Nuggets who had the best second half record in the league, then took care of the Suns in 6 games; the fun and gun Suns who everyone thought would win the championship with a two time MVP and 2 first team all NBA players. Lastly the Spurs easily handled the Utah Jazz won 51 regular season games. Sound familiar, if no just wait.

Over the previous 8 seasons the Spurs have averaged 58 wins a season and won three championships. The Spurs had a superstar player in Tim Duncan who was still terrific but in season 10 was on the other side of his career, along with teammates like Robert Horry and Michael Finley. They had some good young talented players like wingman Manu Ginobili and point guard Tony Parker. Nobody really thinks the Cavs had enough to take on the time tested and playoff experienced Spurs squad. Can LeBron stamp his name on the game?

Cavaliers in 7 games.