Cavs Lacking Key Role Player
| 10
|
by user I am a cpcp
The Cleveland Cavaliers came to Columbus this past Saturday for what's becoming an annual tradition of a preseason game at Nationwide Arena to get Central Ohio fans excited about Cleveland basketball.
Unfortunatly, losing to the Atlanta Hawks isn't a way to get many people that know anything about the NBA excited. As Coach Mike Brown said in his post game comments, the Cavs didn't show any poise in the first half. In fact, they were flat-out sleepwalking. They started to play in the second half and made a small comeback, then really turned it on at the end of the fourth quarter tying the game. I'll come back to this in a moment, but first I must digress a little.
This is my second year attending an NBA preseason game (last year I saw the New York Knicks visit the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas) and I've become convinced that they are just as pointless - if not more - than NFL pre-season games. The players don't try hard enough to learn or develop anything for the regular season. I understand it give the teams some idea of how their bench players can handle themselves, but the Cavs didn't play Shannon Brown, Daniel Gibson or their new acquision (whose name eludes me at the minute) from the Boston Celtics.
Back to the game, the Cavs tied it up with a few second left and they got the ball inbounded to Lebron James. James quickly looked around to see if he could pass the ball and then made an effort at a Jordan-esque ending only to throw up an airball and whine about not getting a foul call.
I love James' pass-first mentality and the fact that he's a team player, but whether it's it's youth (my guess) or his personality, James does not have a killer instinct. Most superstars want the ball in their hands to win a game. The biggest game-winning shot for the Cavs last year was a James assist to Damon Jones. Is Jones going to be the one that comes through in the clutch every game? I doubt it. I don't think he was on the floor at the end of the game in Columbus. (The game went in to overtime with an anti-climatic ending, by the way.)
LeBron might grow into the clutch roll and learn to focus and take over the game in the last few seconds, but until that time (or in case he doesn't) the Cavs need to find someone that can handle that. Maybe it's someone already on the team, maybe it's someone they need to go get.
Either way, if they're going to win a championship with James at this point, they're going to need someone that can win the game for him if it comes down to the last few minutes.
