The start of the month is controlled by the league's heavyweights - four squads slugging it out to reach the Finals and the two winners fighting for the crown. The end of the month is controlled by the league's lightweights - who perennially hold the keys to the NBA Draft.
That's the case again this year, with the Timberwolves, Wizards and Grizzlies - three clubs that combined for one more win (67) than the Cavaliers had as a team - dictating the events of much of the first round.
The T-Wolves have now become the biggest players in the entire Draft. They don't have a head coach, but they do own the 5th, 6th, 18th, and 28th picks in Round One. Word on the street is that they're looking to move up to get Hasheem Thabeet and are willing to move No. 5 and 18 to get him.
The Wolves' dealings don't immediately put them into playoff contention, but a healthy frontline of Al Jefferson, Kevin Love and Thabeet is one to watch in the future. And it's worth noting that this is one of the deepest point guard Drafts in recent memory. The Wolves can soothe the pain of trading O.J. Mayo - and fill the hole left by recently-dealt Randy Foye - by grabbing any number of quality ones with the No. 6 or 28 selection. (Or packaging those picks.)
Mayo's current club - the Grizzlies - hold the top pick in play (Blake Griffin is a lock for L.A.). They can stand pat and select Thabeet - who, like Spanish playmaker Ricky Rubio, is not thrilled with the idea of languishing in the River City. Or they can deal it to any number of clubs who covet the seven-footer from UConn.
That leaves the Wizards - the Cavaliers' three-time playoff nemeses - who dumped a bunch of salary and acquired Foye and Mike Miller. You have to hand it to Wiz GM, Ernie Grunfeld. Despite repeated disappointments, he refuses to break up D.C.'s Big Three of Antawn Jamison, Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas. (Of course, let's see if that's still the case on Friday morning.)
The Wizards dealing the No. 5 overall selection was one of two big trades on Tuesday. The Bucks and Spurs made the other deal, with Milwaukee sending Richard Jefferson to San Antonio in exchange for Bruce Bowen, Kurt Thomas and Fabricio Oberto. (Oberto was then dealt to Detroit for Amir Johnson.)
How will these moves affect the Cavaliers?
Other than Bruce Bowen being in the Central Division, not much. But the Cavaliers have not ruled out getting up into the first round, and Minnesota is obviously flush with picks. Milwaukee's salary dump might also give them the cash they'll need to ink Charlie Villanueva, who could be a Cavaliers' target in free agency.
Although some local radio personalities seem to think there's no players that could benefit the Championship-contending Cavaliers in this Draft, there are quite a few athletes that could improve the squad. Just this past season, the Magic reached the Finals with a rookie (Courtney Lee, No. 22 overall) as their starting two-guard.
The 2009 Draft is point guard heavy, and although the Wine and Gold would have a hard time passing on a plummeting point guard like Ty Lawson, Brandon Jennings or Patty Mills, the glut of guards could push some wing players and big men towards the bottom of the first round.
Danny Ferry conceded on Monday that the Cavaliers are in the market for some length and athleticism and there should be plenty to choose from near the second half of the first round. These players may not make the immediate contribution that Courtney Lee made in Orlando, but both Cavalier rookies were integral in Cleveland's 2008-09 season, including Darnell Jackson - the No. 52 overall pick.
Cavaliers' PR whiz and amateur draft guru, Garin Narain and I have been comparing wish lists as Thursday approaches. He's high on a pair of UNC swingmen - Danny Green and Wayne Ellington - followed by rock-solid big man, Jeff Pendergraph, of Arizona State and rangy guard, Patrick Beverly, who started out at Arkansas and wound up playing (naturally) in the Ukraine.
My wish list consists of DeMarre Carroll, the do-it-all small forward from Missouri, followed by PAC-10 Defensive Player of the Year, Taj Gibson of USC, and then the crafty Tar Heel, Ellington.
The Cavaliers would do well to get any of these six players at No. 30 and there's an outside chance one could slip to No. 46.
Of course, by the time you read this, Minnesota might have already made another trade or two. But that's the beauty of the last week of June. Moves are made, new blood invigorates the league as teams are built and re-built.
In many ways, the 2009-10 season begins on Thursday night. And after the unfortunate ending to the Cavaliers' campaign earlier this month, I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting to get the next one rolling right now.
He's only 24-years-old, and sometimes you're foolish enough to think you've seen it all.
But last night, LeBron James did something else that made you immediately take stock of where you were when you saw it. I was in the media section where you're supposed to maintain an air or impartiality. I didn't care. I don't care.
I went nuts - just like you did. Because just when we were foolish enough to think there was something LeBron couldn't do - he did it. He saved the season in a single second.
Rashard Lewis gave Mo Williams just enough space to find LeBron, who rattled home the game-winning buzzer beater. Had LeBron missed, the Cavaliers would've gone to Orlando, a place they haven't won this year, down 0-2.
It's a moment you'll probably remember for the rest of your lives. I had a friend in - from Cleveland now living in New York - who had never been to The Q before. Friday night's memory is what he'll take back to the Big Apple.
LeBron's shot didn't erase the pain of "The Shot," but maybe it signaled that Cleveland will be inflicting some pain instead of always absorbing it. (That familiar "painful Cleveland feeling" when Hedo Turkoglu sank his jumper with 1.0 remaining was palpable. In me and in the building.)
Friday night's game-winner immediately goes into local lore -- joining **** Snyder's runner in the Miracle season or Sandy Alomar's home run off Mariano Rivera in the 1997 ALCS.
"As a kid, you practice those types of moments," said LeBron. "As a basketball player, you are sitting in your backyard, you are in the gym and you are five, four, three, two, one (buzzer) ... you don't have to be in the NBA to know what I'm talking about. Everybody knows those types of moments. And to hit a shot like that at the buzzer - wow."
As Stan Van Gundy explained after the game, the Magic were thinking about the lob play that the Cavaliers ran in a bizarre game in Indiana in February - essentially a side-out alley-oop for LeBron. But James popped out and with Hedo in his face, canned the game-winner.
After the 96-95 win, Mo Williams explained the list of options on that last play: "Okay, Option B was LeBron. Option C was LeBron. Option D was Big Game James. And that was Option D - that you saw."
Cleveland isn't supposed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. But on Friday night - referring to the author of the original "Shot" - Michael Jordan - LeBron James served notice that there's a new marshall in town, and that things might be a little different around here.
"Well, that guy is not in the league anymore," smiled James. "The other 2-three is on the good side now. That other 2-three is gone, so we don't have to worry about that no more."
The biggest difference between LeBron's idol's shot and his was that MJ's dagger sent the Cavaliers home for the summer. The new 2-three's shot only put the Magic away for 44 hours.
The Cavaliers haven't had any success in Orlando this season, dropping both contests by an average of 20 points. But in any sport, there's always a huge momentum swing - in a game or in a series - when one team goes for the kill-shot and misses and the other team gets new life.
Savor every second of Friday night's big win. We are truly witnessing basketball genius.
But the series rolls on this Sunday night in the Magic Kingdom. And when gametime rolls around and No. 23 begins running through his pregame warmups, I'll be wondering, just like you ...
A team knows it's had an extremely successful season when it plays its 91 games before facing the first "must-win" of the year.
Both cases are true for the Cavaliers, who have put together the finest campaign in franchise history, yet face a "must-win" Game 2 on Friday night at The Q.
"We cannot go down 0-2 on our home court because that puts you in a huge hole," stated Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who doubled-up with 10 points and 10 boards on Wednesday. "We'll worry about Orlando on the road when we get there, but tomorrow is a must-win for us."
Less than 24 hours after the Wine and Gold dropped their first game of the postseaon, you've seen all the numbers that explained how it happened: Orlando has now won nine of their last 12 against Cleveland and have shot almost 50 percent against them in four games this year. Last night, the Magic shot 64 percent over the last three quarters and Rashard Lewis was 5-for-5 in the final quarter.
And, of course, there's the statistic that says that during the LeBron James Era, prior to Wednesday night, Cleveland was 100-5 (.952) in the regular season and 10-0 in the playoffs when it held a lead of more than 15 points at home.
But maybe the biggest number to re-examine is "3" - the number of fouls Dwight Howard had at halftime. He didn't get No. 4 until the 1:12 mark in the third quarter as the Cavaliers turned into a jump-shooting team after intermission. The Magic outscored Cleveland, 30-19, in the third period - erasing a 15-point halftime lead and putting themselves in a position to win it in the fourth.
For many, Wednesday's game was eerily reminiscent of the Cavaliers' only other true loss at The Q.
The Cavaliers took the practice floor on Thursday afternoon, looking to regroup for Game 2. There was a noticeably businesslike atmosphere at Cleveland Clinic Courts, exemplified by Mo Williams - who took much of the blame upon himself on Wednesday night.
"You're not going to make all your shots, but I felt like there were points in the game where I wasn't a threat to them," said Williams before Thursday's practice. "If I'm on the floor, I have to be a threat."
"This year, we're not used to losing at home, and guys were kind of shocked - we had a whole arena full of shocked people," quipped Delonte West, whose three-pointer with 40.8 seconds to play briefly gave the Cavaliers the lead in Game 1. "But you have to put things into perspective. It's one game, and that's the beauty of the playoffs and a seven-game series."
LeBron James put on another dazzling display on Wednesday night, topping his previous postseason high with 49 points to go with eight assists, six boards, three blocks and a pair of steals. But as the Chosen One routinely reminds us, his personal stats don't mean a thing if his club can't close.
"We weren't supposed to win last night," opined No. 23. "We let a team come into our building and shoot like that, it's going to be tough to win anytime. If a team shoots 55 percent for the game, you can't win that kind of basketball game. We know Dwight's going to shoot a high percentage because a lot of his stuff is in the paint on dunks. But the rest of those guys - like Rashard going 9-for-13 - played great, so we have to try to contain some of those guys."
The Magic have had too much success against the Cavaliers to call what happened last night a fluke. And the Wine and Gold know that if they don't reverse the trend - quickly - the smooth-sailing postseason will hit some rough waters.
The playoffs are about adjustments - from quarter-to-quarter and from game-to-game. So, for Friday night's "must-win" Game 2, let's see what adjustments Mike Brown and the Cavaliers will make to knot the seven-game series before it heads to central Florida.
In the Eastern Conference, the postseason hasn’t exactly gone according to script. But the mission remains the same for the Cavaliers.
After Orlando’s convincing Game 7 win on Sunday night in Beantown, the Wine and Gold won’t get to avenge last year’s playoff loss to the Champs, and they take on their second straight foe that they’ve never faced in the postseason.
What they did draw was a team that has beaten Cleveland on eight of the last 11 occasions, including two of three this year. The last time the Cavaliers faced Orlando, they were sent packing with their worst loss of the season, a 116-87 drubbing on April 3 in the Magic Kingdom.
It’s pretty fair to say that the Magic have truly had the Cavaliers’ number over the past few years. Stan Van Gundy’s club even swept the Wine and Gold out of the Far East, taking both preseason exhibition games in Shanghai and Macao back in 2007.
But in any postseason, it’s a matter of who’s-hot-when and the Cavaliers haven’t lost a meaningful ballgame game since, well, since that 116-87 drubbing on April 3 in the Magic Kingdom. (Cleveland ran off their next five, rested their starters in the double-overtime loss in the final game of the season, and rumbled through the first eight games of the playoffs.)
That early-April loss to Orlando followed an equally frustrating defeat the night before in Washington. And it seemed to ignite the Cavaliers through the rest of the season. Players and coaches were visibly rattled by the back-to-back losses.
“It’s not about the games you lose; it’s about how you lose,” lamented LeBron, who still led Cleveland with 26 points despite not playing the fourth quarter of that game. “And the last two games aren’t how we play the game of basketball.”
“You’re going to lose,” added Mike Brown. “You’re going to lose two, three, maybe four games in a row, but there’s a way that you lose games. Tonight we should be embarrassed with the way that we played.”
The Cavaliers, who had already hit a new gear after the All-Star Break, were a different team from that point forward.
While both teams play completely different styles of basketball, they both rely on their defense when push comes to shove. Orlando finished with the third-best defensive scoring mark in the East – behind Cleveland and Boston. They have the league’s Defensive Player of the Year; the Cavaliers have the runner-up.
Both squad flourish on the road – locked in a three-way tie (with Boston) behind the Lakers at 27-14.
LeBron James erupted against the Magic in the only home contest against Orlando this year – going off for 43 points, 12 boards and eight assists. Mo Williams chipped in with 21 points as the Cavaliers won a 97-93 St. Patrick’s Day thriller at The Q. With that win, the Cavaliers distanced themselves over Orlando for the top spot in the East – a homecourt advantage that could loom large in the coming days.
LeBron did not erupt in either game in Orlando. In an 11-point loss on January 29, LeBron notched 23 points, but he was only 10-of-27 from the floor to get there. Wally Szczerbiak blew up in the first half, notching 14 points in 5:34, but he only had two points the rest of the way and the Wine and Gold – still without and injured Zydrunas Ilgauskas – had a four-game streak snapped.
Those losses and the win in Cleveland are all ancient history now. In 2007, the Cavaliers lost three of four to the Pistons before knocking them out to reach the NBA Finals. When they got there, they met a San Antonio Spurs team they’d swept that season.
This is the NBA’s “second season” and past is not a prelude. The Cavaliers will hit the practice court on Monday afternoon with one goal in mind – and go one day, one game at time to reach it.
I remember the night the Cavaliers clinched the playoffs for the first time since 1998; the first time in the LeBron James Era.
It was a 13-point home win over Dirk and the Mavericks in late March and, although the fans went nuts, GM Danny Ferry effectively squelched an organization-wide celebration. I remember being angry about that at the time.
Now that the Cavaliers are on the eve of another Eastern Conference Finals appearance - with an even greater goal in mind - I totally understand Ferry's thinking back in 2006. Making the postseason back then seemed like THE goal. In reality, it was just a small step towards the goal.
The Cavaliers have won six playoff series since then - sweeping the last two in historic fashion. The celebrations have decreased as the goal has increased. After the Wine and Gold dismantled Atlanta in four straight, Monday night's locker room celebration amounted to a mid-February win over the Grizzlies.
(The bus ride to the airport and plane ride are a different story; but we can't go into that here.)
Zydrunas Ilgauskas sat, subdued by his locker stall, chilling (literally) with his big dogs soaking in an ice bucket. The veteran big man who's seen more playoff games than any Cavalier in team history knew that there was no reason to pop any corks after Cleveland's second round sweep.
"We have nothing to celebrate," said Z. "We have bigger goals than this. We won a game and we're moving on - that's about it."
Big Z came up bigger as the series went on - going 5-for-15 for 13 points and 10 boards in Games 1 and 2; going 12-for-22 for 28 points and 20 boards in Games 3 and 4. The Cavaliers starting center has been one of the major reasons that Cleveland has outrebounded their foe in all eight games of the postseason.
Mo Williams - who canned four three-pointers in Monday's series-clinching win - also remained calm, cool and collected in the postgame locker room, showing about one-fifth of the excitement that he did after winning a jump-ball in Game 2 at The Q.
"I don't expect to beat every team by 10 or 12 points," deadpanned Mo. "In these playoffs, teams get better and better through every round we go, so we can't expect to win every game. We just have to go out and compete and give 100 percent on our side and give ourselves a chance to win. And thus far in these playoffs, we have."
LeBron is almost never quiet in the locker room, and Monday night was no different. But you could sense by his measured approach at the post-game podium that he had no intention of getting too high after winning eight straight - piling up more mind-boggling statistics. He continues to put up numbers on par with the all-time greats, but one easy set of digits to digest is the fact that LeBron, over the four-game series, scored 135 points in 153 minutes.
"Why should we celebrate?" offered LeBron. "We're a team that's fighting for a championship. An advance is an advance - whether you win in four games or seven. We're not taking for granted what we're doing right now. We're excited, because we're playing great basketball. But we're not satisfied."
The Cavaliers' Eastern Conference Finals opponent is still unknown. What is known is that the Wine and Gold will continue to take each game of the seven-game series one at a time. They're not satisfied now. Ask them again after eight more wins.
The month of June is one of the NBA's best.
