Fear the Links: Thursday, 5/21

by Turkmenbashi on May 21, 2009 12:56 PM CDT in Fear The Links Comment 8 comments

Fear The Links brings you the best Cavs news every day. If you find any good Cavs stories online send them to Buckeye Brad at buckeyebrad79@yahoo.com and he'll add them to the links... I'm backing up for Brad today. Hope you enjoy!

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Terry Pluto provides his usual rational look at the Game 1 loss and tells us all why we shouldn't be panicking (he's slightly more rational and less loquacious and over-the-top than I was, just FYI)
Windhorst's blog provides a capsule review of the game stating, among other things, that the offense was good enough to win the game and the D should take the majority of the blame
Jodie Valade provides an interesting piece on Charles Barkley's relationship with the city of Cleveland
Livingston says LeBron alone is not enough to beat the Magic. Everyone together now... DUH!

Akron Beacon-Journal

Patrick McManamon provides a grim take on last night's game, explaing that the loss hurts more than it should
George M. Thomas recaps, noting that Mike Brown and the Cavs remain optimistic despite the loss

The Morning Journal

Jeff Schudel offers something besides lament about Game 1 by taking a look at members of the Olympic team competing in the NBA's final four

Around the Internet

Over on ESPN, Hollinger backpedals on his previous support for the Cavs and says they'll have to go small to take down the Magic
Still on ESPN, lots of depressing stuff on the Daily Dime... shield your eyes
The Orlando Sentinel has some snarky words to say about the crowd at the Q
... They also assert that the burden is on the Cavs, especially LeBron, now more than ever (warning: hints of whining about LeBron)
Bloggers at The Cleveland Fan and Waiting For Next Year recap the loss
Howard Beck at The New York Times offers a recap framed around a common theme: this is the first time the Cavs have been "tested," whatever that means
Adrian Wojnarowski at Yahoo sports touches on LBJ's cramps and Van Gundy's motivational techniques
Finally, Kelly Dwyer at Ball Don't Lie recaps, sparing no one from criticism and sticking to the "Magic in 6" prediction, despite acknowledging that it wouldn't be surprising if the Cavs "peeled off four straight wins" -- good write-up

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Comments

That Hollinger article is very interesting; I wonder if Coach Brown has any thoughts of trying something like that. As he said, offense wasn’t the problem. LeBron won’t shoot this well again but Mo and Delonte won’t shoot this poorly again, so we’ll be fine on that end. It’s the defense that I’m worried about. Maybe Z needs to play less, put Andy on Howard and go small with Sasha to play defense on Turkoglu while LeBron guards Lewis. We certainly need to try something if Orlando does this to us again in Game 2.

Damn, Orlando really does give us matchup problems. I really, really, really wish we were playing Boston right now.

by Buckeye Brad on May 21, 2009 2:33 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Well, no sense looking back on who we wish we were playing. We are playing Orlando, and we can beat them. I truly do expect us to come out with a vengeance Friday. We’ve learned too much as a team since 2007 to let the same mistakes happen two games in a row.

Besides, we never lost back-to-back games all season on our home court.

I'm *always* in the driver's seat, cugino -- Chuck

by Turkmenbashi on May 21, 2009 2:39 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

Hey people

First we went from we WILL beat Orlando…to now we CAN beat Orlando. Of course we CAN, we SHOULD, and we WILL. I just never understood how some fans were thinking sweep. Get ready to jump back on the bandwagon after game 2.

by johnnyphoenix on May 21, 2009 3:36 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I don’t think many people were thinking sweep, but I think a lot of people are shocked that the loss came in game 1 at home

I'm *always* in the driver's seat, cugino -- Chuck

by Turkmenbashi on May 21, 2009 8:23 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

hollinger, much as i like him, is a bit alarmist here:

Thus, the Cavs must go back to the drawing board

they lost a game by 1 point. a game in which they lead by 16. sure, they blew that big lead, but it had as much to do with a lack of continued execution as it did the magic exploding. going back to the drawing board is a little extreme.

by DontCallMeJoey on May 22, 2009 12:14 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think they do need to change some things on defense. LeBron’s not going to shoot this well again and, even if Mo and Delonte shoot better, the Cavs might not score 100 again. We need to play better defense, and what we’ve done so far this year against them isn’t working.

by Buckeye Brad on May 22, 2009 12:26 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs

i couldn’t agree more. i just don’t think that’s “going back to the drawing board”, which, to me, implies replacing 2 of the starters and making mo shoot lefty. that’s all i’m saying.

definitely need to d up more, and sasha needs to play. i still think we should not double howard in the post. we were up 16 in the first half, w/ howard getting like 14(?) in the half. it’s more important to play the shooters, b/c howard’s a bit of a black hole if he gets the ball in single coverage.

by DontCallMeJoey on May 22, 2009 12:42 PM CDT up reply actions 0 recs