A Long Look Back at the Cavs Early Playoff Exit

It has been a long week and a half, and I have not been able to force myself to write anything productive about the Cavs.  Fortunately, time heals all wounds, and that medicine is finally starting to take effect.

So, I went back to the Game Six loss against Boston (who are currently whipping the Magic, thankfully) and wondered exactly what it was that did us in.

I came down to one conclusion, we made the wrong adjustments after Game Five.

But hey, that is like saying Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were on steroids.  It is obvious after the fact, but while it is going on we are too swept up in things to notice or care.

In a do or die situation following a disheartening loss on their home floor, the Cavs and then-coach Mike Brown decided to stand pat with their rotation.

In these situations, you can either take the "everything's okay" approach and risk under-reacting to a loss, take the "uh oh" approach and risk overreacting, or make subtle tweaks.

The "uh oh" approach is a high-risk, high-reward approach for almost any team, and would have been for sure with this Cavs team.

If Brown were to shake up the rotation in order to fire up the underutilized players in the series (J.J. Hickson, Jamario Moon, Daniel Gibson) and send a message to the possibly outmatched players in the series (Mo Williams, Shaq, Antawn Jamison), he could end up with bruised egos on the bench and players green to playoff situations on the court.

Still the fact must not be ignored that Hickson, the man they refused to offer in a trade deal for Amare Stoudemire due to his potential (his future's so bright he has to wear shades) played only nine minutes a game in the Boston series and averaged 20 during the season.

The "uh oh" approach has it's benefits, mostly a bench player catching fire, leading to a chain reaction on the floor. 

Take the 2007 Eastern Conference Finals for example. 

A young buck named Boobie Gibson was placed into the game for a horrible, awful, terrible, atrocious, worst player ever, Larry Hughes (to be fair, even though I don't want to be, he was injured).  He came off the bench and scored 21 points in Game Four and then 31 in Game Six.

I am thankful for Larry Hughes in that situation and in that situation only. If it wasn't for his plantar fasciitis I am thoroughly convinced that Brown would have played him 35 to 40 minutes in each game, and who knows what would have happened.

If Gibson doesn't come from out of nowhere in Game Four, does LeBron go into the end of Game Five and score 25 of the last 29?  Does Cleveland win that series? 

Maybe, but maybe not.

However, if Brown did decide to play more of Hickson, Moon, Boobie, and hell, maybe even some Jawad Williams, they could have collectively got cold feet and yakked the game away.  And, when Brown decides to bench them for his regulars, maybe they feel offended (I'd put a pretty penny on Shaq being the most upset of the bunch).

Now for the approach Brown made famous, the "everything's ok" approach (maybe with the outcome I should call it the "serenity now!" approach).

In Games Five and Six, the starters (Jamison, LeBron, Shaq, Mo Williams, and Anthony Parker) played 31 and 30 minutes, 42 and 46, 27 and 24, 34 and 47, and 40 and 29. 

The biggest change made between the games was giving most of the 11 minutes in Parker's differential to Anderson Varejao.

After the worst superstar playoff performance in my memory by LeBron in Game Five, I was sure to see major changes, until I remembered who was on the sidelines.

Sure enough, Brown trotted out the same rotation, Williams couldn't guard Ray Allen, Jamison was getting abused on the post by Kendrick Perkins, Shaq clogged the lane and was slow to defend the pick and roll, and the rest is history.

That being said, I don't want this to be a "pile the hate and blame on Mike Brown" piece.  He did one thing that I want to applaud him for. He gave the Wild Thing good minutes.

He knew coming into the game that the team needed heart, hustle, and inspiration to win the game. Andy gave him just that.

Say what you want about Varejao. He's overpaid, he's a flopper, he isn't a real NBA big man, but don't tell me that man doesn't want to win as much as or more than anyone on the floor.

Near the end of the game I got a text from fellow Cavs B/R columnist Aaron Green (check him out) as the Cavs were walking up the floor and jogging to cover the Celtics who were just running the clock out. 

They quit on Brown, it said.

Brown was still on the sidelines coaching for his job and possibly his career as a head coach, while LeBron and company were playing regular season Rasheed Wallace defense.

Everyone did but Varejao.

In the last 4:30 of game clock in what could prove to be the end of the LeBron Era in Cleveland, Varejao plucked an offensive rebound, two defensive rebounds, drew a shooting foul (made both shots), and was the one to take the three at the end of the game. 

He ran the whole time.

That will be my memory from the Cavs disappointing 2010 postseason run. Everyone quit on Mike Brown—except Varejao.

He wanted the miraculous, he wanted to play one more game, and maybe another round of basketball, but his teammates quit.

So thank you Wild Thing, you are still my favorite Cavalier, I hope you stay here your whole career. Cleveland loves you.