Sports 4 Dorks

Washington 88,
Cleveland 87 

The Battle of the Teams With Too Many Holes rages on, LeBron
James failed to accurately size up a last second straight-on bank shot that (I
believe, and I might be off) was taken about three centimeters away from the
front of the rim, Caron Butler was his all-over-the-place self, and we’re
heading back to Washington with the Wizards still alive.

And that’s a good thing. Washington’s too good to let this
series die in five games, and with Gilbert Arenas finally owning up to his own
lack of explosiveness (seriously, that’s a much tougher move than you would
think, for any player) and shutting it down, the Wiz can get back to being that
no-bench, top-heavy team that feels lucky to score 90 points every time out.

They didn’t score 90 on Wednesday, but it was enough,
especially with Cleveland’s
insipid and uninspired offense ticking off everyone with a taste for the game,
half a heart, and a basic cable setup. The typically-poor Cleveland offense
went a long way toward the team not being able to put away Washington while at
home, be it in the last 90 seconds of a close game, or in the second quarter of
a game that could go either way.

Do we blame Mike Brown’s playbook for guys like Wally
Szczerbiak and Joe Smith missing heaps of makeable shots and finishing with a
1-12 mark from the floor? No. Do we fully credit his offense for Wally and
Joe’s post-trade tail-off in Cleveland?
Not really. Is it Brown’s fault that Larry Hughes was an All-Star for
Washington, and one of the worst rotation players in the game in Cleveland? No.

But it is his fault that LeBron James too often has to turn
into a Jamal Crawford-type, having little left to do at the end of a possession
but use his hops to fire up a 25-footer. And it is his fault that he’s unable
to get the game’s leading scorer any easy looks beyond the occasional fast
break lob.

And it’s mostly his fault (LeBron needs to spark the break
more often) that Cleveland - sometimes a great defensive team, and always a
dominant rebounding team - doesn’t get into transition play anywhere near the
amount of times that it should.

This is old news. So was Caron Butler’s play on Wednesday,
the sort of all-around work we became accustomed to back in January and
February, and it was nice to see a national TV crowd get re-acquainted with
Tough Juice’s career year. 32 points, hit half his shots, nine boards, five
assists, two steals, and Butler turned the ball over just three times in spite
of playing nearly 45 minutes and having a hand in just about every Washington
possession. That might be his most impressive stat.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Wizards held their own on the
glass (a 40-39 advantage for the Cavs overall), which is no small feat against Cleveland.

Starting guards
Antonio Daniels and DeShawn Stevenson combined for ten boards, everybody was on
the lookout for long rebounds, and the Wizards held the Cavs to just 12
offensive rebounds in spite of Cleveland
missing 48 (!) shots from the floor.

Boston
110, Atlanta 85

A lot of times sports analysis ends up focusing on
too-simple tenets and loses sight of the overall picture, and then again, a lot
of times the analysis needs to be simple in order to get down to what is really
right, and what is really, really right.

It was that simple on Wednesday night: the Boston Celtics
made sure that their three superstars were shooting the ball more than anyone
else, and ramped up the defense as the C’s outclassed the Hawks and won by 25.

As I partially
expected and predictably hoped (you always want to see teams working at
peak capacity at this time of year) for, the Hawks didn’t shy away from the
challenge. The team tried to work the ball; it got to the line (25-29 from the
stripe), worked defensively, and attempted to run when possible.

The problem is that it’s rarely possible to run when you’re
taking the ball out of the nets at the start of most of your offensive
possessions. The Celtics made "only" half their shots from the field in the
first half, but turned the ball over one time. One time!

And though they
managed nine second-half miscues, hot shooting (Boston
ended the night at a 53.6 percent clip) made it so the newfound Atlanta running game
never took hold.

Josh Childress is going to make some team very happy as a
free agent acquisition this summer, but he’s going to have to stop using his
placement on the bench as an excuse, and come through with nights like these
(2-8 from the floor, five points, four of his shots were blocked) less and less
often.