While I was gone...

So I decide to take a weekend trip to Santa Barbara to stay with my sister, just for a few days, and apparently while I was gone, the Cleveland Cavaliers forgot how to play basketball. What the hell happened? They won 8 straight games, by a combined 124 points, they breezed into the conference finals. LeBron was being LeBron, and he was getting help from his teammates too. Everything appeared to be on course.

So what went wrong? First of all, some credit should be given to the Orlando Magic. After defeating the Celtics, I believe they had somewhat of a revelation, that went something like this: "Heeey, we have the best center in the league, and every other player on our team shoots at least 85% from three... maybe we should dump the ball into Howard, and shoot a lot of 3s..." Bingo! This worked out quite well seeing as the only people the Cavaliers have to guard Howard are Zydrunas Ilgauskas (an older, less graceful version of Pau Gasol) and what appears to be a Troll Doll wearing a sweatband.

So that's what I have to say about the Magic. They are playing fine, we aren't worried about them.

The rest of the blame for what has happened to the Cavs falls squarely on themselves. LeBron is still scoring, that can't be it. The rest of his team is producing about how they did during the regular season, I mean lets face it, no one else on that team really needs to do much. So if they are scoring enough... um... Oh that's right! They are playing horrific defense.

Hey Cavaliers! Maybe you should write this down or something. You are playing horrific defense. Seriously, you guys aren't stopping anyone! I know the Magic are making a ridiculous number of 3s but you gotta stick your hand in their face, you gotta stay on them off the ball. Hell, pull down their pants when they aren't looking. Do something for heavens' sake!

Now, with the series at 3-1 in favor of the Magic, I realize it isn't over yet. The Cavs get the next one at home (where they lost only 1 legitimate game during the regular season) and if they can steal a tough game 6 at Orlando, they might have a shot.

But, in reality, this series should be over already. The Magic have outplayed the Cavaliers in each of the first 4 games, and if LeBron James wasn't 250 pounds of amazing, yesterday's game would have completed a 4-game sweep for the Magic.

I don't want to sound like an NBA representative, but the nation wants to see Kobe vs. LeBron (even though there really is no argument about who is better right now, seriously don't get me started on Vitamin Water's Great Debate crap) and the NBA wants whatever the people want. I have been looking forward to LeBron James' second NBA finals appearance (and first one with a legitimate shot at winning), I think as an individual, he deserves it more than anyone. But as a member of a collective team, he doesn't deserve it nearly as much as each player who dons the Orlando jersey.

I think maybe its time to give up on the idea of LeBron winning a championship in Cleveland altogether. He will be gone in the next 2 years, and he will get a chance to play with a big market team, and he will win plenty of championships in the future.

As for 2009, I have only one question for you - Do you believe in Magic?