that made me run to my laptop

i’d also point out that it’s debatable whether we lost the ECF’s to the cavs because of being tired, but it’s observable fact that they repeatedly exploited the pick and roll, took advantage of a hapless tayshaun and pressured chauncey into numerous mistakes. i think from now on, after every loss we should grade the team on how well they did against those issues. if they continue to be the reasons we lose we have a serious problem.

i think the only way to do that is to turn the team into a true meritocracy, you produce, you play, you don’t, you don’t. until flip is ready to start the second half with herrmann on dirk and tay on the bench we’ll just watch the same old faces with the same old problems.

Fans clamored for a guy who just shoots jumpers; we went out and got Hayes. Fans clamored for an end to Flip Murray’s reign of backup terror; we drafted Rodney Stuckey. Fans raged over LeBron’s 25 straight points in game 5; we drafted Arron Afflalo, traded for Walter Hermann, signed Jarvis Hayes (who I am pleasantly surprised by and really like as a defender), and we’ve given Lindsey’s playing days an almost season-long respite in order to preserve his defense for the playoffs. Webber’s gone and in his place is the quietly essential Antonio McDyess. Maxiell is the real deal this season. It’s all good news from where I sit, even when we get to the ECF.

So here’s what I say. No more losses to the Western Conference during this regular season. Make them worry. I invite all Eastern Conference teams into the rally. May the best Eastern team win the EC playoffs and go on to whip whatever is left of the WC as though they were a bunch of little schoolgirls. [thumbs up]

lebron was one problem in one series, these are the reasons we’ve been losing for years (not that we lose a lot, of course, but when we do). i hope we’re improving in these areas, but it seems everytime we lose these are the reasons why. we’ve got the superior team and an absolute embarrassment of riches in terms of our bench, i totally believe that. it would be a shame to lose in the playoffs because of a set of problems we’ve known about and had years to prepare for.

my point wasn’t that a ridiculously inferior squad beat us because of lebron, they beat us because they, like all the nba know our weaknesses. teams know exactly what we’re going to do and know what to do to make that hard for us. most teams aren’t good enough to do it, but enough are.

My big red flag and the thing that scares me most about the playoffs is that this team seems to abandon their motion/passing offense whenever they get challenged by a good defensive team (Boston, San Antonio, Cleveland last year, Dallas sometimes, Chicago whenever they play us).

“but the only evidence to back it up was generally arrogance and past glory.”

i think it was backed up with amazing regular season play that included dominant performaces against top tier teams. that’s why i won’t get too excited about our success so far. we can run roughshod over the regular season, we usually do, but if we don’t deal with the same four or five things that seem to kill us every year, it won’t matter.

does the fact that we lost two in a row bother me? not at all. but the way they did it bothers me. how many times will i have to watch a team gleefully leave tay open to brick 8 or more shots? how many more times will i have to see our offense turn to confused crap because they’ve started trapping chauncey? how many times will they get run ragged trying to guard the pick and roll? maybe only 3 or 4 teams in the league can really make us pay on those counts, but our road to another ’ship is bound to be strewn with them.

we got beat by ridiculously inferior squad in last year’s ecf’s. they beat us because they knew our weaknesses and exploited them. the fresh legged starter theory is an excellent starting point, but we can’t just hope it solves all our other problems. i hope we’re working damn hard at plugging those holes, because you know other teams are working damn hard to exploit them.