Man i love lebron i think he's a really good player and im rooting for him this series, but holy crap he keeps choking on this free throws lol wth he's too busy practicing all his trick shots than his free throws. He relies too much on his driving abilities and jacking up threes. I think he should practice on his pop up jumpshot and he should develop his postoffense and fade away with his size and strength he would be unstoppable. Lol I always watch basketball with my cousin and he swears LBJ is better than MJ. In game 1 i whispered to him "MJ scored 63 against one of the best teams the celtics in the playoffs and played two OT and never got tired" and today I whispered "MJ never miss free throws wen it counts." Lol all this young guys need to stop comparing lebron to MJ cause MJ is untoucheable even the great kobe can't be put on the same sentence as MJ.

lebron is not clutch. no clutch player misses free throws. kobe is a complete stud when it comes to games down that stretch that puts him to the line.

i agree with ct - lebrick? well, he just bricks. i never liked lebron's game. he has the body and never really posts up. great players always develop the post move - malone, kobe, jordan, pierce, etc.

lebrick is just not a good enough shooter at this time. but if he can still develop he's going to be scary.

mo williams jinxed the cavs.

i think the cavs are good but damn, down 3-1, a huge hole to get out of. if lebron gets his team out of this hole, it will be one of his greatest feats in his career.

The Cavs aren't losing bc of Lebron.....and maybe you guys haven't watched him enough but his jumpshot is much much better than previously. If Lebron doesn't post, it's not bc he doesn't want to..it's bc Mike Brown isn't running the offense that way.

The Cavs are losing bc they have no other person that can score the ball. Mo was automatic in the reg season. He can't buy a shot in the playoffs. Most of these games could've gone either way with the exception of game 3. If the Cavs win at home tomorrow, I still think they could pull the series out. It will be tough but I still think if there is one team that could do it....it's the Cavs.

I question Mike Brown and his ability to coach. When I saw him make the switch to put Wallace on Rashard last night.....I practically cringed. When the hell did Wallace become a perimeter defender!? Didn't you all see that coming?

I've been saying this all along....Lebron's post game is amazing, but Mike Brown never uses it.....why? who the hell knows

MB does not equal COY.

i never liked mike brown's decisions. i've watched him quite a bit. before all they did for offense was pick and rolls with no real way to score the ball all that well unless lebron did some one on one moves.

i would like lebron to post because if he decides to kick the ball out to his shooters and if the shooters miss he has the body and height to get the offense boards.

i think lebron improves every year but i just don't want to admit it. BUT like i said, the interior for the cavs are a problem. joe smith, big ben, and zeke doesn't really do anything significant. i must admit that zeke has been one of the most consistent big men in the game today but being consistent is not good enough, he needs to score. cavs needed a player like gooden but they traded him away. that guy would have quite a few good games posting near 20 and 10 a night. but now the interior is OLD.

Go Denver! I hate LA lol

Well the Magic always give a Cavs a hard time even during the regular season and yes the CAVS are losing because of lebron. If the Cavs are winning right now everyone will give him credit but if they are losing suddenly it's not his fault. It's not like the magic is blowing them out, actually most of the time the Cavs usually have a big lead till the 4th quarter the games are always close, and Lebron doesn't deliver on the free throws during the last two minutes it kinda pisses me off as a Lebron fan to see him practice his trick shot in youtube and he can't even shoot a damn Free throw. Lol dwight howard out free throwed LBJ. I remember almost pulling my hair out when he barely made that last free throw at 4th quarter at game 4 he got lucky with the bounce.

Then he jacks up Three pointers, he needs to totally take that shot away from his arsenal he needs to develop a pop up jumpshot to throw defenders off, and a fadeaway shot and with his driving abilities he is going to be crazy. Yes he really did improve his J but still not consistent and lol Lebron has one of the ugliest shooting form in the NBA sometimes i don't even know how his shots go in. Everyone makes so much of a big deal on his Statistics and PER but it takes more than numbers to win Championship, this might be hard to swallow for me but i don't think the Cavs is advancing to the finals. I know i might be a lil hard on my criticism but i have a lot of expectations from him. Oh yeah it also hurts when you are getting out coached lol lebron on alston seriously?

Your crazy if you think Lebron is losing it for the Cavs. He's done exactly what he's done all year and more. He's scored 40+ in every single game this series. He's not the greatest free throw shooter, but he still makes the majority of them...considering that he takes the most free throws in the NBA.

Mo Williams, on the other hand, was a 90+% free throw shooter and has missed more free throws than he has all season long. Forget the fact that he couldn't bribe the bball to go in the hoop. He's been the biggest flop this postseason. Lebron has tried to carry his team as a result of no other offense. He's somewhat succeeded, but you can't ask him to revert to his old ways when this entire season it was a team effort.

IMO the coaching is at fault here for at least one of the losses....game 4. Seriously.....James on Alston?? Ben guarding the perimeter on Lewis? This has got to be a joke. Combine this with the fact that Lebron needs at least one other offensively skilled player to create for himself....that was supposed to be Mo Williams. You take him out of the question and we are back to Lebron basketball of the previous years.

mike brown doesn't know coaching. he is going to get the boot if the cavs aren't going to make it to the finals with the season that they had.

lebron isn't costing games for the cavs. basketball is a team sport. the whole team lost the games they've lost so far in the conference finals. why? coaching, the bench not really getting anywhere, and starters except lebron, who can't score or make a stop.

a lot of burden is on lebron - passing, rebounding, and scoring. which is crazy because they have a legitimate point guard in mo williams, and 2 legitimate power forward and center in wallace and zeke. but they aren't doing their job.

mo williams got punked and jinxed the series for the cavs. if it wasn't for lebron's lucky 3 pointer, this series would have been OVER already! i never thought lebron had good supporting cast around him. not even this year. they played great basketball in during the regular season but it's all about the playoffs.

against a legitimate contender like orlando or the celtics, it is a different story. atlanta and philly are good teams, but they aren't championship contenders yet, just in the playoff run or good enough to be in the playoffs. not like the west where any team from 1-5 spot are pretty much contenders.

i think the cavs season is coming to a close tonight. their core needs to be changed with the exception of lebron. they need shooters and defenders. wallace was a mistake to begin with, zeke is old, and mo williams is inconsistent.

with that said, the orlando magics are a huge team. they have length and they play defense. 3 of the 5 starters can knock down 3s and have 20+ point games. they got height and they are long. younger, faster, and more atheltic.

magic pose a great deal of trouble for every team in the NBA. if the Lake show meets up with the magics in the finals, it's a 7 game series, no question.

i don't think it's gonna signal the end of mike brown. i do agree with the point that basketball is a team sport, etc. etc. it is, however, a complete shame that the cavs can't take advantage of lebron's 42/7/7 numbers. 42/7/7. i mean, seriously. LBJ is a god walking amongst mortals.

but look at the offense. in game 4, mo and delonte had a whole bunch of wide open looks that they normally bury. this series, however, both have gone stone cold from 3 pt range. these are guys that are ~40% for the season! mo came out on fire, too, but then his jumpshot went as wayward as ray allen's in the last series. but the point is, they're getting open looks, they're just not hitting their shots. so you can't fault the plan 100%, you fault the execution as well.

orlando is the nightmare matchup for them, and for the rest of the league, as well. it's not just 3 guys on the perimeter, it's 4, + superman manning the paint. rashard and hedo have been clutch all year long (haha, hedo being clutch...how things have changed...), and they're just outhustling the slower cavs.

game 4 was disgusting, though. superstar call to take it to OT? give me a break already, i hate the refs enough as it is.

Hmm i don't think you understand all i'm saying is that lebron is the face and the leader of the Cavs and if he's teammates/coach are not performing up to standards then it's his job to set them straight, call them out if he has too, look at howard called out his coach and look at them now. Also i didn't say cavs lost because of lebron solely, the dude pretty much carried this team this series. But also you gotta realize this is a team that won 66 games this season and consider by many coming in to the series as one of the best teams especially defensively this season suddenly they are playing like the clippers, something happened to them mentally and as a leader he has to realize that scoring 40 points a game is just not going to cut it, **** MJ scored 60 and still lost. Also If lebron would have made his free throws it would be 2-2 right now and that says a lot to lebrons game even though he's team is performing poorly the game is still very close. Lebron is beyond awesome but scoring 40 ppg and taking 20 plus shots a game is bad for a team its hard to get a team going when their job is to watch him shoot the ball. I'm not calling out lebrons game cause i know he's the best player in the league, i'm calling out his decisions and his leadership skills. Kobe proved my point last night dude shot 13 times only scored a mear 20 points but got his team going and damn the Lakers looked really good last night.

yes look at Lord Kobe, he only scored like 22 points last night, and the Lakers beat the Nuggs. Lebron has 0 help.

I understand what your saying, but I don't think the Cavs can beat great teams without Lebron throwing up at least 30 points. They don't have the talent the Lakers have offensively. The Lakers can score very easily against any team...the Cavs can score very easily against anyone but the elite. Almost every player on the Lakers can create their own shot as we witnessed last night. The Cavs are a very different team altogether...they are role players on Lebron's team. It's always been their nature. If one person doesn't perform their role, the entire team will struggle.

It's very easy for the elite teams to see how they can shut down the Cavs primarily bc they have all the right pieces and don't have to sacrifice any of their positions. Let's face it.....if we had a center with a little bit of speed, energy and jumping ability, we wouldn't be in this situation. Or at least another big forward that is offensively capable. This is indeed a matchup problem....as everyone has stated thus far. It was the same problem in the reg. season.

It's gonna take a miracle for the Cavs to pull this series out.....unless the Magic get all panicky and start to choke

Lol im not even going to watch it cause i might throw something out the window.

what the Cavs are lacking is the interior. they need a big man that knows how to finish at the rim or get other big men to get into foul trouble.

i remember when the Lakers played the Magics last year and everytime howard had the ball, it was an offensive foul that Gasol drew out of him.

i think that chamionship teams still need a good big men in the paint, i'm not talking about straight up centers, but centers and power forwards. look at the magics, they have superman in the middle. with the Lakers, they got Gasol and Andrew, with the Celtics, they had KG, and with Spurs, they had the Admiral and now with Duncan.

with a big man that can score and dominate on the defensive end, that team has always the advantage.

inside the paint is where team can draw fouls and eventually put the team on the charity and get some free throws. another advantage.

my boy Kobe did what i didn't think he would do, play point guard for game 5. i thought he was just going to torch the nuggets, but damn, his plan worked. what he needs to do is get his team mates in the game early to build some confidence. then late in the 3rd or 4th he can take over and play decoy as well.

but lebron doesn't have that luxury. his shooters are bricking left and right. Cavs are still Lebron and Lebron is still the Cavs but I don't think for long.

the problem with the Cavs is that the game doesn't go through a point guard, it goes through a power forward that HAS TO PLAY POINT GUARD to get his team in the offense and make plays so that others can score. he is a passer but the offense shouldn't come from him and him alone.

kobe had to do that years ago and it come him no where in the deep western conference teams. but now he doesn't. fisher, farmar, shannon and even sasha runs the plays and he just makes the plays.

Lebron is a power forward that CAN pass and CAN make great plays but he's not the one to do it in every possession. and this i think is mike brown's fault. he's just letting lebron do all the work. where is mo williams? where is the point? everyone is looking at King James to make a play!

lets see what happens in game 6 tonight.

from the looks of things, i looks like there will be a game 6 in orlando. trading baskets with cavs is a bad idea. orlando needs to get a stop or else the lead is going to be much bigger!

lol Cavs blew the lead in all 3 losses. Wouldnt be shocked if they did it again

cavs won it, it was a good win for the Cavs. but game 6 in orlando...

Didnt deserve that win. You need to learn how to defend a 22pt lead.....

lol Cavs reminded me of the Lakers tonight.

I hope LBJ comes to New York. Cavs are crap without him. Maybe we could become dominant. We have a team who proves they have what it takes but we just arent consistent.

Usually this far into the playoffs your playing the best teams in the NBA.....huge leads can come and go as they please. More times than not, games are balanced in the NBA. It's all about finishing properly.

I hope he will also but you could argue the same thing for NY. Ok ok they are a tad bit better...:tiphat:

haha Knicks > Cavs without LBJ.....I guarantee if he comes here we will win.

if the knicks want lebron they have to show him that they are a contender and not just throw money at time. nike will just make up whatever the difference is with his contract so money is not an issue. and i don't think mike can do that great of a job with lebron.

NY is a great fit IMO

I agree and I think D'Antoni could do great things with him if he's still there....not to mention NY loves Lebron as it is

Hell yeah! I cant wait till 2010 lol

mike doesn't preach defense and doesn't get on player's cases when they screw up. did the suns learn anything from not playing defense? yes, and that is not going to the finals. getting beat down every year against defensive minded teams in the playoffs when he was with the suns.

if lebron joins NY with out a true center at the helm, which i mean by a center that can score in the post, rebound, and maybe block 1 or 2 a night, going to NY just creates better revenue for everyone.

small ball is fun to watch and play but it's not going to win you games when players are cold and your biggest and tallest player on the floor is 6'10 or 6'11.

i see it like shaq coming to phoenix, although he's a big presence in the middle, the suns at heart were still a run a gun team and with him in the middle, the offense and defense was just out of whack. i'm talking about the time when mike was still a coach with the suns.

you bring porter in, which i thought was a good move, but the core is still a run and gun team, no body looked like they wanted to play defense, and so with the coaching, their season went up in flames. same could happen with lebron. mike brown's system is that of the spurs, defense first, which is why Cavs are still a good team with aging players and with a decent supporting cast. you bring small ball to the table and they probably would have had a hard time with Atlanta and the conference finals would have been over by now.

lebron to NY will bring him fame and fortune. but when that teams doesn't win, all the blame will be on him and why he can't carry a team. truth is, small ball is fun and while successful, it has yet to be proven that it can be a championship type team. contenders, yes, but rings and trophy? no.

don nelson has been preaching small ball for years now and although the mavs went to the playoffs they were a real contender until avery show them some defense and went to the finals. otherwise, look at the warriors, they got hot that one season where they upset the mavs. but look at them now, lottery. and will probably be another lottery team the next season.

NY has been a lottery team for years. man, i can't wait for them to be strong and everything, but with them blowing off contracts, saving the cap space and unloading players, why would Lebron even consider NY by the time his contact is up? granted you won't be paying him like the Lakers did with Kobe but by signing him up, you will then need to have some decent players at the core and a good coach, and that means a coach who can adapt and change things up and play defense because basketball is already a given offensive game because that's how you win games by scoring, but playing defense gives you a better chance of winning. who else are they going to sign with Lebron? that's the questions, because if i was Lebron, i would be looking at places that are already contenders. money ain't a thing to me if i'm lebron, nike, and all the other major sponsors will give me plenty of contacts to sign and fill my bank. i want rings and rings and rings.

these kobe v. lebron ads are annoying the hell out of me. i can't wait until next year when my trail blazers return to the court.

Booya, Lakers take western conference championship.

DAMN STRAIGHT!!!!! 27 point BEAT DOWN!!!

luck

I keep having arguments with my friends saying that Trevor Ariza ain't ****. But I think Trevor Ariza in the starting lineup is excellent. I also think that this victory by the lakers tonight pulled them together as a complete team that not only can win a championship this year but at least another 3 or 4 seriously. It doesn'really matter which team the Lakers face in the championship they will win although I think if Cleveland makes it by some crazy act of god that it wont be a very competitive finals. If Cleveland can't match up with Orlando there is no way they will against the Lakers.

lakers played a game they should have been playing in the playoffs, everyone was good for the get go. fisher and bryant dissed out assist like no one's business in the first half which is why there was a 13 point lead to end the 2nd quarter. getting people involved while knocking down shot is kobe bryant at his best. but the point is that everyone got touches and made big plays. walton with 10 point and a dunk over melo? priceless. ariza with 10 points in the first quarter and 3/4 from the arc? ownage. drew getting some rebounds and shots? unexpected and pau posting up and passing like wow.

i hope the lakers now know how to play like a real team.

cavs going fishing!!!!

i can't believe this. a huge upset. but i guess the magics are the better team in the east.

Yeah congrats to the magic for advancing to the championship. Kinda dissappointed on lebron he just walked out and didn't even congratulate the other team and no press conference. I understand he was upset but that was very unsportsmanlike he's the league MVP and should act like one, hopefully he learns from this . Anyways this would be a good series both teams matches up perfectly and both teams fought hard to get there and they both deserve to be here. I honestly don't know who's going to win but i'll be happy if either one wins.

One thing why does everyone says that kobe only won championship because of shaq. Most perimeter player legends won championship with HOF big man. Magic only won championship with legends such as kareem and james worthy, larry bird won with legends such as robert parrish, mchale and some time with tiny archibald and bill walton. Jerry west only won one with chamberlain. Drexler only won with Olajuwon Jordan is the only one that didn't win with a HOF big man and the only one that led a dynasty with only one legitimate HOF and no HOF bigman. Yet everyone discredit Kobe just because he can't win one without HOF big guy. This jordan comparison is going a lil out of hand give this guy some credit he plays hard all the time he takes criticism like a champ he jas keeps playing on no matter what all this so called experts says about his team and his game. Then you got his mentor Jerry West come up in tv and say that lebron is a better player than him.

oh yeah, you have a very good point there.

when it was magic's team, kareem was there, and when kareem retired, magic johnson never won another one. but jordan had the best power foward and small foward at the time and good bench with ron harper and steve kerr and tony.

i think jerry west is trying to get kobe pissing and get him on another level.

Dennis rodman is good and he did have other good players but none of them are legitimate HOF status, most dynasty have multiple HOF/Top 50 Players in their team like 80's lakers and boston. The bulls had a bunch of role players then pippen and jordan.

wow dennis roman not hall of famer? winning with the pistons and bulls. the man has more rings than most of hall of famers. and he was really good. at 6'9 he gets the ball. i mean he just gets the ball. it was a skill, dennis knew where the ball was going to be after the first bounce off the rim or the backboard. the man was fast and furious and played mind games with people. he had speed, quickness, agility, and strength in the middle. he man could score easily as well. everyone thinks he's just defensive but damn, he can score at will but he doesn't need to because when playing with the pistons, he had thomas and dumars. and of course with the bulls, jordana and pipen.

the man is a legit hall of famer, 5 rings and 2 back to back defensive player of the year award and those defensive awards were back in the day when players were warriors and not chumps like todays basketball players sitting out with ankle sprains and toe issues.