There was a pivotal sequence towards the end of game 3 that was symptomatic of Cleveland's problems. The game was on the line, time was running out and the Cavs were down by 2 or 3. LeBron drove the lane, but Timmy closed it down. So LeBron had to dish it out to Varejao who was open since he was Timmy's guy. If you freeze that moment, you'll see the problem with the Cavs. What can Varejao do with the ball? Nothing really. He can give it back to LeBron and the King can start all over again. The point is, the other guys are worthless in this series. The Cavs got nothing, definitely not enough for the Spurs. I like Z and Snow and Gibson and even Varejao in their own ways, but this is not a finals cast by any stretch of the imagination. As if to prove the point, Varejao didn't kick the ball back to LeBron. Instead he put the ball on the floor, drove, spun and threw up a wild shot. Ball game over. Series and championship for the Spurs. Whenever Vaejao puts the ball on the floor, it's an adventure, but this one came at a horrible time for the Cavs.
This game was close, but was uglier than the first two since nobody could shoot the basketball. King himself had an OK game with 25-8-7. He cut his turnovers down from 6 to 5! They finally shut down Larry Hughes and started Daniel Gibson only to see him shoot 1/10. Pavlovic shot 5/15 and the Cavs just didn't get the job done. The Spurs were not as good as they were at home either. Timmy had just 13, Tony had 17 and both didn't shoot that well. Ginobli was totally off shooting 0/7 for 3 points. The Spurs were saved by their three point shooting as they shot 10/19 from 3 with Bowen and Barry shooting 4/5 and 3/4 respectively. The Spurs just can hurt you in so many ways and one thing or the other always works out for them plus their defense is always there to save their life.
So the ugly finals continue, but not for long I suppose. The Spurs should wrap it up in a game or 2. I don't think the Cavs or their fans are really upset by any of this. They are just happy to be there. They think they are way ahead of schedule and I agree. But here's the problem. If they don't make solid additions to this team, they can very easily lose in any round of the playoffs next year. Remember, they got the easier half of the bracket and the King just stepped up big time against the Pistons to get them here. Their path to the Eastern finals will look a lot different next year. You watch the Cavs ugly offense and you wonder how great a fit Mike Bibby would have been for this team. It would have been a genius move if only it had went down as planned. His shooting and ball handling would have just changed so many things for the King and this team. May be thats the kind of off-season move they make to keep this growth on track.
San Antonio @ Cleveland- 75-72
Finals schedule for 06/14/2007
San Antonio @ Cleveland - It's all academic now. Will the Cavs win one? Will King dominate at least one game?
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