It May Be More Difficult Than You Think For Cleveland to Win The East

Cleveland steamrolled through the league losing only two games, one was meaningless because the season was essentially over.  LeBron's supporting cast was lighting up the league draining  wide open threes.

Mo Williams 17 ppg  playoffs: 12 ppg; his assist totals ave not changed at 4 per game and he is averaging 5 points less in round one. 

Delonte West  11 ppg  playoffs: 12 ppg; one less point and has a history of becoming a brittle player at the most in opportune time.

Zydrunas Ilguaskas 12 ppg  playoffs: 12 ppg; he is averaging three more rebounds a game, yet he leaves you wondering why he doesn't average a double double. 15-10 is not to much to ask for.

LeBron James 28 ppg  playoffs: 30 ppg; he brings it every time he steps on the court.

Andersen Verajao: 8 ppg  7 rebounds playoffs: 6 ppg 4 rebounds; an energy player who annoys his opponents but loved by his teammates. He is averaging 3 less rebounds a game and one less point.

key bench players:

Daniel Gibson 7 ppg playoffs 5 ppg; 2 less points a game

Joe Smith 6 ppg 12 ppg; the only one that has elevated his game, but at his age you cannot ask him to play starter minutes.

Wally Szczerbiak  7 ppg 2 ppg; he has seen better days

All these pieces were assembled to take some of the load off of King James, but in the last two games they have not produced. 

Game two with a double digit lead going into the fourth quarter, Detroit had already removed their starters.  King James and his buddies were yucking it up on the sidelines. 

The unthinkable happened the bench could not score or defend the lowly Pistons.  Mike Brown had to put the starters back in to preserve the victory.

Game three: Detroit made a game off it again with the score tied going into the third. James and his starting court mates you guess were on the floor again in the fourth.

This should certainly raise some red flags, because James is not gettng any rest and with the atheletic Hawks, or the scrappy heat waiting for them in the next round.

You can argue that they will sweep the Pistons and James will get all the rest he needs.  I still think that this is an issue that may undermine their championship hopes if Mo Williams does not elevate or  at least produce 17 ppg in the playoffs.