Elbows and heads

PARIS (The Monday International Show) - This spring's NBA playoffs are turning into a bizarre bazaar! Several major questions with complicated answers are trotting around in the heads of many NBA fans, especially those in Cleveland!

What happened to LeBron James and the Cavs? What the heck are Phoenix and Boston doing in the conference finals? How do you explain San Antonio eliminating Dallas fairly easily and then getting swept by the Suns? Who could have imagined that the turning point in the series would be the last 14 minutes of Game 3, with Steve Nash and Amar'e Stoudemire on the bench and Slovenian back-up playmaker Goran Dragic turning into Dracula and sucking the life-blood out of the Spurs in their arena with 26 incredible points? Why did Atlanta play so listlessly against Orlando, seeming to tune out their fatherly coach completely? Will Utah EVER eliminate the Lakers again?

Of all these interrogations, the Cleveland question is the most complex. Okay, if LeBron's elbow was the main reason for his poor play, how do you explain his performance in Boston in Game 3 where he hit eight out of 10 jump shots on his way to 21 first-quarter points and a commanding lead? The Celtics looked cooked at that time. We all thought that the Cavs had woken up from their over-confident lethargy of the first two games at home and were ready to get SERIOUS.

Then something goes completely awry with the team's mindset, James plays like a one-armed man whose head is elsewhere and his team-mates lose confidence in themselves, their star as well as their coach in record time on the way to three straight and unbelievable losses! The "Lebacle" Game 5 was an all-time record loss (minus 32) at home in a seven-game series and once again we are amazed at how fast overconfidence can turn into doubt in basketball.

The fans watched the series, the season, and possibly LeBron James himself fade away into oblivion on that fateful, dreadful night for the sadsack sports town of Cleveland! The multiple changes undertaken and heavy investments made by the Cavs' in order to keep James were all for naught as were his two MVP trophies and two pole positions in the past two regular seasons.

The over-dependence on LeBron to do everything as a one-man wrecking crew was far from enough to beat a revived Celtics squad led by young gun Rajon "Ragin" Rondo, their best player now and the "Old" Three who backed him up a lot better than LeBron's supporting cast did for him!

For me, the difference between LeBron and Michael Jordan is the triangle offense which obliged Jordan's team-mates to participate and take on responsibilities instead of just standing around and waiting for the superstar to create something. This is the one giant and justifiable criticism that we can levy against Cavs head coach Mike Brown who also had a tendency to panic and over-shuffle his rotations when things didn't go his way against Boston.

In the end, Cleveland had the same problem as Dallas - lots of talented players who hadn't been together long enough to beat an opponent with more shared experience in tough playoff games. Shaquille O'Neal and Antawn Jamison didn't help Cleveland any more than Caron Butler and Brendan Haywood helped Dallas to reach a higher level because these things take time - just ask Jordan!

So now you can ask me, if shared experience is so important, why did the Spurs get swept by a Pheonix team that didn't even make the playoffs last season? My answer: speed, great shooting, depth, youth and, surprisingly enough, defense!

In all these aspects, the Suns were superior and when the Spurs give up around 110 points in each game, they are not the real Spurs and they won't win much. Against Dallas, they looked experienced and against Phoenix they looked old, whereas youthful subs like Dragic, Jared Dudley or Channing Frye gave old geezers Steve Nash and Grant Hill some extra bounce in their step!

I'd like to finish by pointing out that some sweeps are more painful and destructive than others. Just compare what happened to Atlanta and Utah. The Hawks were swept by an NBA record average margin of 25 points a game, seemingly giving up even before they had played a game at home. They watched the stock of their star, Joe Johnson, plummet for this summer's free agent market while the coach who helped them steadily improve, Mike Woodson, was shown the door. Ouch!

On the other hand, Jerry Sloan and Deron Williams are not going anywhere after the depleted Jazz put up a hefty fight in each game against the Lakers but just fell slightly short each time.

I guess the last questions we need to ask are: will the bizarre turn of events continue now that Boston has taken home court advantage away from Orlando? Is there one person on the planet earth that predicted a Suns-Celtics remake of that mythical 1976 NBA Finals before the season?

George Eddy