Sunday, April 27, 2008

West Delivers

Hey, everyone! It’s AC, checking in from the road – what’s happening?

Sunday’s game was outstanding and the Cavaliers now have a golden opportunity to wrap this series up on Wednesday. LeBron James was the hero, but it was really an outstanding game for Delonte West.

Delonte hit the big shots and he was much more poised in Game 4 than in Game 3. He competed, and I think in Game 3 he just didn’t compete. He just sort of let the atmosphere of the arena overtake him. On Sunday, he kept his head in the game and he stepped up and hit some big shots. Both he and Boobie changed the complexion of the game.

The shots that they both hit came at crucial times of the game; times that either fed the momentum or changed the momentum.

The way Delonte played on Sunday is the way I’ve wanted to see him play. I’ve wanted to see Delonte be more assertive, more aggressive. And there were a couple times in the second half – (he didn’t do it the first half) – where he came down in the transition game, he saw an opportunity and he took it. Once he made the shot and was fouled, the other he got a layup.

He’s got to do a lot of that. He’s capable of it.

It wasn’t just the point guard play on Sunday. The Cavaliers frontline completely controlled the middle. And when you control the middle – in any sport – you have a chance of winning most ballgames. The only variable you’re fighting is the perimeter game. And that’s why teams like Orlando are tough. Because you can slow them down in the middle, but they still have the perimeter game to fall back on.

But on Sunday, once the Cavaliers began controlling the middle, you could see that Washington was starting to crumble. They started taking bad shots, they started rushing things. You could see it was starting to happen because they couldn’t get anything going inside.

Defensively, Ben Wallace played a great game on Sunday. He didn’t score any points, but he did everything else well. He defended well, he played Jamison well – (which is a tough guard for him for as much as Antawn plays away from the basket) – he got his hands on a lot of balls and saved a lot of baskets.

The team on Sunday was the Cavaliers team that we’ve been looking for. There was a big difference between the team that showed up Sunday and the one that did last Thursday night. We went to do our pre-game prep for FSN, and in the Cavaliers locker room, nobody was smiling. Everyone had their game face on on Sunday afternoon and I think all of them were focused.

The Cavaliers – as far as I can tell – aren’t bothered or distracted by all that Jay-Z, DeShawn Stevenson stuff. All that stuff doesn’t have much to do with the game itself. It’s a media-hype thing. It creates an ambience around the game that sells more tickets and gets more people involved. But as far as the players are concerned, I don’t think it adds a lot to the series.

One thing I’ve learned in sports: if you have to resort to what Washington has had to resort to, there’s a weakness somewhere. And their weakness is they don’t think they can beat us. In the end, that’s what it turns out to be; they don’t really believe they can beat us. So they’re going to resort to other things to pump them up and get them going. And it’s not working.

On Wednesday, I’m expecting our crowd to be in it right from the beginning and give the Cavaliers the same kind of boost that Washington’s crowd gave them on Thursday. After that, it’s essential that Cleveland just goes right at them. And I’m expecting us to come out fired up and ready to go.

The Cavs are still honing their style in this series; to get it to a point where we can rely on it through the rest of the playoffs. Our style is rough-and-tumble; we’re an ugly, defensive, down and dirty team – knees scarred up, elbows scraped with some bumps and bruises. That’s how we play.

And you can see that aspect of the team starting to come out. This is obviously a different team than the one we saw in the last month of the regular season.

I think they’re tougher mentally. You could start to see it late in the season, but what the playoffs have done for the Cavaliers is focus more for a longer period of time. Whereas before, they couldn’t seem to stay focused for any amount of time.

At the same time, Coach Brown is learning his matchups and his rotation – who to put in when he wants points, who to put in when he wants some stops. He’s learning all that on the job, but the playoffs will make you focus better and longer.

So now the Cavaliers are closing in on beating Washington for the third straight season. It’s not going to be easy, but I think the Cavs are definitely feeling good about their chances.

Gilbert Arenas said before the series started that the Wizards wanted the Cavaliers. But I think it’s a case of the old saying: Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

No comments: