When Delonte West beats you from three point range and shuts down your three time all star, you probably don’t deserve to win a playoff game, let alone an entire series. No offense to Celtics fans, but Delonte West is really not that good. Yet the Wizards let him dominate and drive a steak through their hearts, which effectively ended our chances to either win or climb back into this series. To be blunt: three all stars couldn't stop a former Celtics bench player.
The domination pretty much started and ended with the Wizards pissing off King James and the resulting fury he unleashed on his unwitting opponents. Hard fouls, trash talking fans, Deshawn Stevenson calling him “overated.”
What on earth were they thinking?
This is the third player in NBA history to average 30 points, 8 assists and 7 rebounds in the regular season. Guess who the other two guys are: Jordan and Oscar Robertson, two of the best players of all time. King James answered the Wizards challenge with 34 points and a near triple double. Nice try, said the King.
Playing good defense is one thing and Game Three proved how the Wizards could mitigate King James by denying him the paint. But trying to intimidate, bloody or even psyche-out Lebron has proven to be disastrous thus far and he really made the Wizards pay for their cheapness and petty tactics. For instance, Deshawn took a vicious swipe at Lebron in the 2nd quarter and risked being thrown out of the game for unsportsmanlike conduct. And then Deshawn started talking more trash after he got the flagrant foul! Deshawn has played excellent basketball this year, but now people will remember him as the guy who talked Lebron into kicking our asses four times in a row.
The domination continued with atrocious rebounding. The Wizards couldn't rebound if their lives depended on it and the Cavs scored about 30 points on second-chance shots. On the strategy front, the third quarter could have been a time to play guys like Blatche, McGuire, and Songaila (some guy as babcock likes to call him) who can actually rebound. But Coach Jordan didn’t think to “go big” until the 4th quarter and by then the damage was done by his smaller lineup. Smaller players = terrible rebounding for the Wiz.
But I’ll give credit where credit is due: King James, Gibson, and Delonte West really played well and they essentially ended the Wizard's hopes for an 7 game series. 1/20 teams, down 3-1 in the playoffs, come back and win. And judging from today's performance, Game Three really just looked like an abberation which sucks because they really got me excited with that blow-out.
Pending a miracle, this series is over. And to think of what the Wizards could do against Lebron when they're not talking trash or making cute passes makes me wish next season was here already.
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