Game 3 Thoughts: Don't Panic

I know it's hard, but we can't look at last night's loss and say "here we go again. This team can't win on the road. Looks like another 7 game series." Last night was just one of those nights. The Cavs were completely in rhythm. I've felt all along that they were much worse after making that big move. I don't know that I've changed my view now, but I certainly never envisioned those guys playing the way they did last night.

The Celtics were out of this one early. They had a lot of good looks in the first quarter, but those shots just wouldn't fall. I actually thought we'd be fine once the shots did start falling. Between an absurd number of first quarter misses, and the transition opportunities that those misses created for Cleveland, the Celts were outscored 32-13 in the first quarter. They outscored Cleveland 50-47 if you combine quarters two and three. Cleveland outscored Boston by eight in the fourth, but that can most likely be attributed to free throws and the fact that Doc raised the white flag and put the bench guys with about 4 minutes left. It was that first quarter that put the Celtics in a hole. Despite how bad the situation looked for the entire game, they played LeBron and Co. pretty even from that point on. This is encouraging to me, because I think that's about as well as the Cavs are capable of playing.

Like I said, there is no need to panic. If they lose Monday night, absolutely. I will be panic-stricken if they lose Monday night. But, for the time being, let's just all try to live our lives as normally as we can.

Final thought: Ferrante sent me this article on Friday. It's been too bad that we haven't seen much of Eddie House. I think he would have been an especially nice option in game 1 with Ray Allen shooting so poorly. He looked great when he came in during the fourth quarter last night. He was pushing the pace, he was finding guys down low. The guy can play, he's been great this year, why not use him more with our point guards struggling the way they have? Plus, Cleveland won't be able to ignore him defensively the way they have with Rondo, because he'll make you pay if you leave him open.