Cleveland Cavaliers' Lackluster Play Is Being Elbowed off the Front Page

Personally, I don’t care so much about LeBron James’s elbow.

He says it’s fine. That’s good enough for me. If it’s not, we’ll know soon enough, anyway.

However, here’s what I do care about: The Cavs played below their capabilities—again—on Tuesday, and needed some favorable, and rather questionable, calls to put away the Chicago Bulls and advance to the second round of the playoffs.

That worries me.

After losing Game Three to the Bulls, the Cavs dominated the next contest. Afterward they declared, contritely but confidently, that Game Three had been “a wake up call.”

Well, somebody must have hit the snooze button, because they were comatose for much of Game Five.

You’d think by now this team would know you just can’t do that in the postseason.

A year ago, the Cavaliers looked like they had all the pieces in place to make a run at the title, and then came up short.

Experience may be the best teacher, but only if you’re willing to learn from it.

They retooled and restocked, and once again finished with the league’s best record.

Let’s not kid ourselves; expectations are even higher this time around. The unspoken truth is, nothing less than an NBA championship will do.

You know it. I know it. Mike Brown knows it, and so do his players.

So why the mail-in game on Tuesday night? Okay, maybe LeBron’s elbow was the reason he took just three shots in the first half.

But these are the playoffs. “Win or go home,” as TNT so diligently reminds us.

With three minutes left in the first half, Cleveland led by 12. Elbow or no elbow, Chicago was on the ropes. It was time to go in for the kill.

Instead, we were treated to an assortment of long-range jumpers that repeatedly missed their mark.

The lead dropped to seven at the half, when it should have been 17. The Bulls pulled within two after three quarters and actually took the lead early in the fourth.

I wanted to throw things at the television. Shoot, I wanted to throw the television .

Then we were treated to some on-the-job rules changes by the officials.

Derrick Rose was denied an obvious continuation call (I didn’t need a replay to see it, and neither did you), and a possible three-point play that might have altered the game.

Brad Miller and Joakim Noah, jostling for low post position with Shaquille O’Neal, were called for not one…not two…but three straight fouls—all in the space of a minute.

This is what the Cavaliers needed to beat the Bulls? A fourth-quarter bailout that would make the Obama administration proud?

It shouldn’t have to be that way. The Cavs are a powerful team, one that has the ability to blitzkrieg all opponents and steamroll their way to the title.

So, why don’t they?

Orlando sure didn’t mess around. They dispatched the Bobcats in four straight.

When Michael Jordan and the Bulls won six titles in the ’90s, they swept their first round series every time.

The Cavaliers can’t afford to be “good enough.” Every team still standing from this point on can say that.

They have to be great. They have to be the best.

They have to do it now.