Recap: Cleveland 101, Boston 93 (or, Game and Blame)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8FNfB6WfwM4

Cleveland’s Cavaliers defeated the Celtics in Boston, Sunday afternoon, and eliminated them from the playoffs, and I was never so angry after a Cavs win. Sadly, the most memorable stories from this game had very little to do with basketball. Kevin Love is in a sling, Jae Crowder allegedly went to the hospital, Kendrick Perkins and J.R. Smith are probably facing suspensions, Isaiah Thomas made a mockery of professional basketball, and Tony Brothers and his incompetent officiating crew let it all happen. Celtics players, Cavs players, both coaching staffs, Tony Brothers and Co., the NBA, and even the announcers let this game and this series devolve into some of the dirtiest and least professional basketball since the “the Malice at the Palace.”

The Game

First Quarter: It’s hard to remember that there was an actual game played, and that it wasn’t just a 48 minute scrum. The game started out peacefully enough with two quick Cavs offensive rebounds causing a Brad Stevens timeout 98 seconds into the game. Cleveland locked in on D, and Timo layups and J.R. Smith threes made the Celtics pay for overplaying LeBron and Kyrie. The Cavs were off to a 19-10 lead halfway through the first quarter. At 5:22, Kelly Olynyk yanked on Kevin Love’s arm while battling for a rebound, and Love ran straight to the locker room, looking like his shoulder was dislocated (lots more on that later). After Love left, LeBron was aggressive on defense, and the Cavs were playing smart and hard. Shump and James Jones gave the Cavs some bench points and closed the quarter with a three from Kyrie at the top of the key with 11 seconds left to put Cleveland up 29-19.

Second Quarter: After Isaiah Thomas set up Sullinger and Marcus Smart for quick baskets, and everyone was speculating on the Love injury, the Cavs locked in. They played unbelievable defense and held the Celtics without a point for five straight minutes. They looked like they were playing in straight “Eff you” mode. Then, at the six minute mark, Jae Crowder helped the Celtics reel off seven straight. It was as if the news from the locker room had filtered down to the bench (with Mike Miller going back and forth, it probably did). The Cavs played inspired, gritty ball again, and ran off eight straight of their own. Then, Kendrick Perkins came in and put Jae Crowder on the deck with a screen that sent a forearm shiver to Crowder’s face (more on that later, too), which drew a flagrant-1 for Kendrick. A couple minutes later, Kendrick actually canned three freebies to help the Cavs go up 57-36 to close the half.

Third Quarter: The Cavs came out seemingly focused more on retribution than basketball. After missing a couple shots, J.R. Smith went for his vengeance after being pushed in the back of the head by Jae Crowder for the umpteenth time. J.R. swung behind his head wildly with a closed fist, and apparently knocked Crowder unconscious. Crowder’s leg collapsed and bent backward, and he was carried off the floor. Smith was ejected (more on that later). Cleveland lost their focus and just stopped playing anything other than isolation offense, while their shooting percentage kept plummeting. As fans, we were were all so angry, we didn’t even notice. The Cavs sent the Celtics to the line several times, and ended the quarter up 70-61.

Fourth Quarter: LeBron and Kyrie went into attack mode and kept driving and attacking. Despite that, the Cavs couldn’t shake the Celtics, and they only maintained a nine point lead halfway through. Cleveland needed to win. They couldn’t risk any more injuries from the Celtics’ bruisers. The game basically turned into a free-throw contest down the stretch as the Celtics couldn’t stop fouling, and Cleveland kept making freebies (nice work, LeBron and Shump). Unfortunately, one of the most incompetent plays of Tony Brothers’ career happened right in front of him as Isaiah Thomas followed LeBron out of bounds, and grabbed him from behind while he was inbounding after a made Boston basket. This led to a turnover and two made Boston freebies to cut the lead to six.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgZHZHdDqSI

The next play, Thomas was hanging onto Kyrie’s jersey as Boston stole the inbound pass again, and Luigi Datome missed a triple (whew). Kyrie hit two more to make the final score 101-93.

The Blame – The Players

There was a lot of blame to go around for this freaking mess. Let’s start with the players. I’ve heard lots of people defending Olynyk, and that the Cavs are exaggerating how “dirty” the play that injured Kevin Love was. Here’s the video. The photo evidence is damning. Olynyk basically hangs on to Love’s arm and yanks. I don’t care if it was just for a second. That was, as LeBron, Kyrie, and Kev noted, “not a basketball play.” I don’t believe Olynyk meant to hurt Kevin, but he lost his mind and sense of sportsmanship for a brief moment, and it was enough to do damage. It was an unacceptable play and Kelly looks like a lunatic in the photo. He needs to be fined and suspended. If an appropriate review of the play had happened at the time, this game may not have gotten out of hand.

The Kendrick Perkins illegal screen was ridiculous (video later). As much as we Cavs fans, who were frothing at the mouth at the time, enjoyed it in the moment, it was an absolutely ridiculous basketball play. It’s a good way to get a guy hurt, and it escalated an already tense situation. Kendrick should have been ejected (the lack of ejection led to escalations in the second half), and Perk should get at least a game suspension.

I’m sad for J.R. Smith. For all the good play, great defense, and maturity that we’ve seen this season, the punch to Jae Crowder’s head was the kind of play we all feared from Earl the third. In the video, Crowder and Smith are setting up for a fight from the opening frame. J.R. and Jae start the video with a violent collision, then Crowder lives up to his name as he basically uses his forearms to push Smith in the back of the head. J.R. swipes wildly, with a closed fist, to try to clear out Crowder’s arms and just cold-cocks Jae right in the head and knocks Jae unconscious. After the game, J.R. sounded contrite. “I tried to swing my arm loose thinking it was the best way to try to get my arm up in position to rebound and we made contact. There was nothing malicious about it. I didn’t try to do anything to hurt him or anybody else.”

But anyone who’s followed J.R.’s career for any length of time knows that this is what he does. Whether it comes to elbowing Jason Terry in 2013, untying guys’ shoes last year, brawling in 2006, or killing his friend in a car accident a year after collecting “27 points against his license from April 22, 2005, to Jan. 10, 2006, with eight violations on seven dates” J.R., at times, simply does not think about the consequences of his actions. In the case below, J.R. completely failed to take the safety of the players around him into consideration when he was swinging his arms around. I hope that Crowder’s injuries do not have long term implications. Smith should be suspended for at least two games, and given Smith’s history, it will probably be for longer. He was reportedly, “nervous as Hell,” about being suspended after the game. He should be.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxyWn2AiORY

The Blame – The Coaches

As much as the players are to blame for the events of yesterday, the coaches are just as culpable. If you look at the the video of the Perkins screen, what stands out is David Blatt’s utter calm about the events unfolding in front of him. There is not an ounce of shock, surprise, or remorse on his face. His arms stay calmly folded the entire time. It’s clear to me that Blatt knew exactly what was going to happen on that play, and either ordered or condoned it. That led to unnecessary escalation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_0pC0IA8ac

And if you think Brad Stevens doesn’t deserve any blame, then you’re surely mistaken as well. Stevens failed to control his team’s roughhouse antics the entire series, and he was fully complicit in the chicken**** show that was Kelly Olynyk’s appearances for the remainder of the game after Love’s injury. Stevens refused to put Olynyk on the floor at the same time as Perkins — Cleveland’s “enforcer.” At one point in the third, Olynyk was ready to check in, and then Blatt sent Perk in, and Olynyk sat back down. This was nothing short of a gross display of cowardice by Olynyk and Stevens, and a complete and total abdication of leadership by Brad. Any kind of leader that has any kind of brains and guts knows that Kelly’s teammates were going to pay the price for his actions if Olynyk was on the bench.

Stevens should have taken Olynyk aside and said, “Look. You did something really stupid. If I don’t put you back in to take your licks, we’re all going to pay for it. Go in. Perk, or someone is going to hit you with an elbow or a dirty screen or something. Be ready. Don’t react. Take your punishment and that will be the end of it. If it’s excessive, I’ll deal.” Stevens didn’t do that, and the whole game spiraled out of hand.

But taking responsibility for one’s actions on the floor is not the M.O. of this Boston team, a team run by one of the great instigators in league history, Danny Ainge. (I still remember when Ainge winged a ball as hard as he could at Robert Horry’s head, when Horry had his back to Ainge on an inbounds play — Horry threw a towel in Ainge’s face when Danny was his coach a couple years later in Phoenix). The Celtics were outmanned in the series from the start, especially inside, and tried to even up the series by “physical” play. By “physical,” I mostly mean rough fouls, pulling guys down from behind on rebounds, and Jae Crowder’s general “tough guy” attitude (and forearms up around players’ shoulders and heads).

Basketball, like most sports, is defined by bravado. By game four, Crowder’s attitude and the inevitability of a Cleveland victory infected many Celtics with a raving case of unprofessionalism. By the end of the series, and especially in the post-game press conference, Brad Stevens seemed completely overwhelmed by coaching grown men and completely unable to control the antics of his team. The fact that Isaiah Thomas was up on the post-game podium snickering, after blatantly cheating and making a mockery of the game late, proves that Stevens either has no respect for the game of basketball or no control over his players.

While I ascribe Blatt’s sins to malevolence and Stevens’ to incompetence, none of this would have been necessary if the NBA Officials would have policed this series and kept it from getting out of hand. As Blatt said in his post-game presser, “If you don’t police it all the way through, sooner or later, it’s going to happen,” Blatt also hinted that the Perkins play was intentional, as Joe Vardon of the Northeast Ohio Media Group noted.

Blatt said Perkins’ play was a response to the Cs’ physicality – he called it a “Jim Loscutoff play” after the former Celtics hatchet man who played for the Cs teams Blatt rooted for as a child.

It wasn’t clear if Blatt put him into the game with the order for Perkins to crush Crowder, or if Perkins’ shot was in direct retaliation for Olynyk, though that was precisely how Boston legend Red Auerbach used Loscutoff in the 1950s.

Blatt was waiting for the NBA to police the game and protect its players and its stars from rough play. That policing never came. Blatt waited too long to protect his players and, frankly, was not vocal enough in defense of his players earlier in the series. It is on him to take a technical when Kyrie is getting thrown around while going to the basket and not getting a call. He has to make those officials protect his players.

The Blame – The Officials

But protecting players was something the NBA officials failed to do this entire series. Both teams waited for protection from the officials that never came — whether it came to Kyrie Irving or Isaiah Thomas getting hit on the head, calling a technical, on J.R. Smith when Jonas Jerebko was glowering over a fallen Kyrie, all the uncalled loose ball fouls — on both teams, the hard fouls on LeBron, or the Keystone Cops routine that Isaiah Thomas (video above) put on at the end of Game 4. The officiating in this series was inconsistent at best, and more troubling, let the series get out of control. The refs should have broken up Crowder and Smith five seconds earlier, and Tony Brothers’ gross incompetence at the end of the game was one of the worst missed calls in NBA history. If that had led to a Boston comeback, we’d be calling for his firing. As it stands, he needs to be suspended from officiating for just as many games as the players in these games are suspended.

The Cavs and Celtics both waited on the officials to clean up the games, and that control never came. Fox Sports’ Sam Amico said as much.

Both sides of Cavs-Celtics series concerned with what they viewed as lack of consistency from refs. Felt it contributed to the chippiness.

— Sam Amico (@SamAmicoFSO) April 27, 2015

Hopefully, Adam Silver will not allow this officiating crew to work together in the playoffs again, and all those involved will have “full-throated” discussion with the commissioner.

The Blame – The League

The league bears its share of responsibility as well. Part of this comes from rewarding failure and allowing a completely overmatched 40-42 Celtics team take on a 53 win Cavs team in a seven game series. The league needs to look at a couple different things to ensure that a team that is ticked off about getting its butt kicked for three straight games can’t just come out to injure players. Perhaps some of the bad blood would be mollified if the league took the first round back to a five games series format.

Regardless, the league has to do a better job of protecting players. Someone in NBA officiating needs to be reviewing games for missed calls, especially calls that are hard contact fouls. They lead to injuries like Kyrie Irving’s gimpy hip. Missed calls need to be addressed openly, and officials need to be made painfully aware that protecting players and the integrity of the game are the number one priorities, even more than entertainment and “letting them play.” Additionally, coaches for both teams and the league replay center should be allowed to ask for a review of plays for flagrant fouls, even minutes after the incidents occurred. I’ve no problem with a retroactive flagrant or technical if it’s warranted. The Cavs should have been able to have Kelly Olynyk’s arm bar reviewed in-game.

The Blame – The Announcers

It’s the policy of ESPN and this blog that we are not allowed to criticize media members and broadcasters, and for the most part, it’s a good one. I’m going to be diplomatic here, and say that a large, vocal percentage of our readership found the Mike Tirico and Hubie Brown announcing crew to be almost openly rooting for Boston. I will probably get myself in trouble here, but the commentators decisions to ignore the antics going on in the game, and to pretend that there weren’t serious problems brewing, contributed to the overall lack of professionalism with which the game was played, officiated, and broadcasted. The broadcast completely ignored the simmering discontent on the floor, and even blamed Kevin Love for his injury. Here’s a direct quote from Mike Tirico.

“Love grabbed Olynik’s arm. Olynik tried to pull away.” – Mike Tirico pic.twitter.com/7OHc8xNafK — TenCentBeers (@TenCentBeers) April 26, 2015

I was incredulous when I heard it. I had this to say during the game.

This might be the biggest disconnect between the commentary and what’s actually happening on the floor in an NBA game, ever.

— Nate Smith (@oldseaminer) April 26, 2015

In looking back, I was probably being overly critical. Announcing is not easy, and it’s a conversation. Sometimes conversations between two people ignore obvious truths because conversations are inherently biased toward individual viewpoints. But as the game wore on, Tirico and Brown seemed oblivious to the fact that the game was devolving into a farce as Isaiah Thomas ran around cheating. Even I began to wonder if the boys from Bristol were openly rooting for the Boston team that plays a few miles down the road, rather than just a competitive ballgame. (The fact that Mike Tirico commented that he voted for Brad Stevens for coach of the year gave me significant pause). These were not sports broadcasting’s finest hours.

The Praise

I’d like to commend LeBron James (27 points, 10 boards, eight assists in 46 minutes), Kyrie Irving (24 and 11 rebounds), Iman Shumpert (15 points, 10 rebounds, three blocks), and Timofey Mozgov (12 points, 11 boards, three blocks) for putting together great efforts that had little to do with antics, and everything to do with winning a basketball game. You can say a lot of things about LeBron, but he’s never been a dirty player. He lets his game do the talking, and he shook hands with opponents after the game. From Boston, Avery Bradley (16 points), Marcus Smart (11 points, six rebounds), and Jared Sullinger (21 points, 11 boards) all had stellar games, and, for the most part, just played basketball (which got much easier to do, after Smith, Perkins, and Crowder were gone). That’s all we want to see. Just the best players in the world playing basketball.

In Closing

I certainly don’t want to see a repeat of the late 90s/early 2000s that saw basketball devolve into a mess of yearly brawls and debilitating fouls. We, as fans, and as people should not root for these things, no matter how much the baser parts of us want to see Kelly Olynyk get whipped around by his wispy flowing locks. As northeast Ohioans, I want us to be better than that. I don’t want us to be a frothing mob. Part of that desire is the resolve that comes from growing up and living where “nothing is given. Everything is earned.” I know that the dark parts of some folks want to give up on the season now, wallow in despair, and focus on retribution of our cursed sports fandom. Remember, we’re lucky to live here. We have first world problems.

I’m beyond annoyed with fair weather fans and couch surfing sports injury experts who cry that Kevin Love is out until next year, or that the greatest player in the world, and one of the world’s greatest point guards are suddenly doomed. I want those folks to stop spouting off like whining idiots, and calling for players’ heads. Let the doctors and trainers do their job, and just let everyone play basketball. That’s all I asked of the knuckleheads involved in Sunday’s events, and that’s all I ask fans. Let them play the games. Be a fan. Hope for the best. Stop worrying about failure and excuses. Enjoy the ride, the spring, life, and this awesome basketball team. You never know what’s going to happen, and you can’t control any of it, so you might as well relax. Oh, and send a strongly worded email to Adam Silver while your at it, will you? Hopefully, this will all have calmed down by next week, and we’ll have real actual basketball to savor. Let’s hope.