Rd 2 Gm 4 - GuaranSheed: "We going to bust their ass!" (Mon 5/15, 7p, TNT)

[realistic]

I'm no longer a believer that, in this series, a low final score favors us. Or that Dice can play anything resembling defense. Frustrating. Sheed should have been on the floor for that last offensive play. Would have opened up space for Rip in the lane.

We've got ourselves a series now.

[UxKa]

im sad by this. but i still cant see how we dont prevail. what scares me more is how cleveland will grow in the years to come, i believe in lebron now but will always mock the 'witness' shite. hopefully by the next game my b-day ben wallace inflatable defender will be here, and we will police the game together via tv. the only thing i wonder is if i should change my pc wallpaper back... i had a ben one on til they went on their 'slide' during the season, so i put it back. they started playing fine again, then i changed it right before these two losses. i try not to be too superficial but thats kinda scary.

[Kstat]

While we still play great defense, I agree an up-tempo game is much, MUCH better.

[Glenn]

This sucks.

While I still am not overly concerned about this series, there are too many factors that the Pistons don't control for anyone to be overly confident at this point (Cav's rising confidence, LeBron being "the Chosen One" in every way, Sheed's ankle, etc.). The LeBron thing is sort of why I would have preferred to play the Wizards, he's got a lot of people banking on his success, and in some ways it seems like they are trying to accellerate his learning curve, if you know what I mean.

If you ever want to see evidence of homecourt advantage being a big deal, see Anderson Varejo taking a charge from an MVP candidate, and in a span of about 30 seconds, the refs then swallow their whistles when he hacks Rip.

And am I the only one left wondering why the hell we even signed Dale Davis if he's going to keep getting DNP's even when Sheed goes down? I mean, playing Mo Evans at PF for defensive purposes? I know, I know, Dale's the new "Shaq Stopper", bleh! So much for the "they are just saving him for the playoffs" line of thinking. Dude needs to be out there patrolling the paint and setting hard-ass screens whenever Ben is resting, especially when Sheed is out too.

Flip's going to need to make some adjustments if he wants this "offensive genius" label to stick, 'cause to me, this looks like the same old stagnant offense right now, just add about 3x the jumpshots/3 point attempts.

In the end, they still need to beat us at the Palace, which for the love of all that is holy, shouldn't happen. Playing these extra games just exposes us to more potential injuries and gives our next opponent more time to rest and scout/prepare for us.

I'm bitter.

[Gecko]

Pace of the game, slow or fast hardly matters. This is the same team that made a living out of grinding it out. Really the bottom line here is the Pistons took the Cavs for granted after the first two games and thought they would win by showing up. Flips play calling is also not an issue.

There was very little passion, energy or emotion, besides Sheed talking. Rip was fairly aggressive out there but outside of him everyone else looked like they just woke up from a nap.

The Cavs played damn good defense and didn't allow us to get open looks but then again it's not like we were trying to get open looks. I really can't tell you what they were trying to do offensively out there.

I could analyze this thing 6 days to Sunday but if they just change there attitude and take the Cavs serious they go back to winning by a dozen or more.

The good news is the next game is at home and like Glenn said Anderson Varejao shouldn't be Ben Wallace on the road.

[Fool]

The Pistons could lose tomorrow and I wouldn't be worried. The same squad has had to play against better teams and from worse positions and made it through. They clearly didn't play that well yesterday, it happens, especially with this team.

[TK]

I fucking hate TNT with a passion. All they do is focus on the "star". Did anyone realize that Rip had 30 focking points last night? I barely did. LeBron....did.....NOTHING!!@# And yet after every commercial break, after every time out, TNT's cameras would focus directly on LeBron. What the hell did he do? He should've made 30 free throws, with the way they were calling the game, but he ended up with 21. Seriously, if you paused the game long enough so I could take several smoke breaks, I think I can score 21 if I got a foul called on every shot. He did nothing to help his team win. He missed a last second shot (choked) and missed a free throw even later (choked), and yet there he was, posing like some wannabe gangsta after the game. Fuck him. I never knew how bad I detested that guy until TNT had to throat his hog all night. Did you see in the last game when LeBron jumped up and stole the pass and landed on Tay? Foul, Tay. What the fuck could he do to avoid that foul? He was STANDING there, and LeBron landed on top of him.

The best part is he's 21 and we have another 15 years of this shit. Great.

[realistic]

Literally, we had about 8 shots yesterday that were in-and-out. Just one of those nights. And then Sheed turning his ankle didn't help. These Cavs ain't the Milwaukee Bucks--they've got heart and grit. And I hope in the next game we see a better offensive play than kicking the ball to Tayshaun Prince for a 20 footer. I hope Dice realizes that we NEED him to do more than smile in his uniform.

If there is a single positive, then maybe these struggles will prevent us from sleepwalking into the Miami series. Better to giftwrap a game now than in the ECF.

[Gecko]

I fucking hate TNT with a passion. All they do is focus on the "star". Did anyone realize that Rip had 30 focking points last night? I barely did. LeBron....did.....NOTHING!!@# And yet after every commercial break, after every time out, TNT's cameras would focus directly on LeBron. What the hell did he do? He should've made 30 free throws, with the way they were calling the game, but he ended up with 21. Seriously, if you paused the game long enough so I could take several smoke breaks, I think I can score 21 if I got a foul called on every shot. He did nothing to help his team win. He missed a last second shot (choked) and missed a free throw even later (choked), and yet there he was, posing like some wannabe gangsta after the game. Fuck him. I never knew how bad I detested that guy until TNT had to throat his hog all night. Did you see in the last game when LeBron jumped up and stole the pass and landed on Tay? Foul, Tay. What the fuck could he do to avoid that foul? He was STANDING there, and LeBron landed on top of him.

The best part is he's 21 and we have another 15 years of this shit. Great.

LeBron didn't do anything because he was taking 2 and three defenders everytime he had the ball. Even more funny is he didn't do much but still almost had a triple double.

I didn't see a whole defensive scheme revolve around Rip? Lebron pretty much deserves the accolades.

[Glenn]

LeBron did have 8 TO's as well, not to minimize his game, but it's worth mentioning.

Hell, he almost had a quadruple double then!