You see what he did there?

“Don’t believe the hype.”

Orlando has been screaming this line since probably 20 minutes after they bumped off Boston in reference to league MVP LeBron James, led by Orlando Sentinel ‘writer’ Mike “My 15 minute egg timer is down to four” Bianchi.

Well I’m here to tell you right now that you shouldn’t believe the hype… about Dwight Howard.

Somehow lost in the Howard lovefest from Charles Barkley and certain Floridian “journalists” is a glaring fact: Dwight Howard is a huge cheap-shot with a reactionary nature that could–at best–be described as wholly childish.

Yeah, I said it.

How many times this series have we seen Howard get fouled this series only to throw an elbow at whoever had wronged him? I can think of at least five, including two last night (against Z and Wally, the latter being considerably more egregious).

It is quickly becoming the 800 pound gorilla in the corner of the room that the media is flat-out refusing to discuss. Does Howard have to actually connect with one of his post-foul ‘bows before the sports media gets upset? People really glossed over it when he rearranged Sam Dalembert’s face in the first round with an accurate elbow flail, and noone is talking about it despite the fact that Howard is averaging at least one maliciously thrown elbow per game this series.

Does the league have to wait until someone else gets a face full of 12’s forearm before they react again? Is the clear and obvious intent somehow not good enough for Stu Jackson and company? This boggles my mind.

It’s a cheap, cheap way to go through the playoffs and noone is calling him out for it. Well I am. The league needs to do something about this and the media needs to start holding their newest darling accountable before he crushes someone’s noggin again.

Either way, though, I get the feeling that karma is gonna find Howard soon enough and throw him a couple bows of its own.

Like many Cleveland fans today, Paul Lassiter's smile belies the fact that he's dying inside

I don’t really know what to say right now. My thoughts aren’t very organized so I suppose I’ll have to just structure them through–surprise–the magic of bullet points to try and get my entire stream of consciousness recorded for all five of you who read this blog to see.

• It’s official: Orlando can no longer claim that they don’t get any calls. Ignoring all of the touch fouls the Cavs were whistled for, and even ignoring the muggings the Magic got away with on defense, when Dwight Howard tackled Delonte West before that ball went out of bounds with six seconds left it should’ve been game over with Delonte on the line. Period. Instead the refs decide to eat the whistle and the rest is history. Brutal.
• I hate this team for making me believe. I really do. After the watershed Cleveland heartbreak year of 2007–OSU football twice, OSU basketball, the Cavs, Browns and Indians all crushing us in a 366 day span–I had promised myself to never get so attached to these teams. Even last year I felt that the Cavs were playing with house money after the Washington series. But this year seemed different; doesn’t seem so different now.
• If the Cavs can’t do the impossible over the next six days, it will mark the fourth time in twelve years that the bandwagoning, know-nothing fans of Florida will be rewarded over the fans of Cleveland. This proves, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the sports gods do not factor in the fans. What is it about Boston and Florida? Jeez.
• Two things are absolutely torching the Cavs’ defense right now: doubling ANYONE and going under screens. Every time the D collapses to double in the paint, SOMETHING BAD HAPPENS. At some point the defense has to admit that it’s better to let Dwight Howard get 39 than to let his teammates hit 17 freaking threes.  Doubling Howard in the paint is bad enough, but when the help comes over against the Turkish Edward James Almos or Rafer freaking Alston–especially Alston, who is borderline petrified of finishing at the rim–nothing good can come of it. I’m ready to say stop double-teaming Orlando, period. As far as going under screens, just watch: every time one of our guards goes under a high screen, it ends in a made three. Both of these things need to flat-out stop happening.
• Talking last night with Amar from Cavalier Attitude, we both agreed that Danny Ferry’s non-move at the trade deadline–passing on Shaq in the name of team chemistry–is looking absolutely putrid today. You don’t think Shaq would be a perfect answer for Howard right now? And for what? JJ Hickson and what’s left of Wally Szczerbiak? At some point you need to have, ugh, the Yankees mentality: do what you need to do to win THIS YEAR and screw everything else.
• I may try and be a bit less scatterbrained and assemble a real recap later, but don’t bet the farm on it.
• One last thing: woe is us.

This picture of Mike Brown is from 2005. Care to guess why I included it?

After I’ve made some previous profanity-laced blog posts on old blog projects coming off enfuriating Cleveland playoff losses, I’ve pledged since the 2007 ALCS to never again write while angry. And I won’t. I am writing this sentence at 11:31 PM EDT, and walking away. I’ll let you know when I come back.

11:51 PM. It’s been 20 minutes and–shock!–the sting hasn’t even begun to wear off. As anyone who knows me will attest, I take losses harder than most other Cleveland fans.

Let’s take that a step farther: I am a terrible loser.

You could say that I am in the 98th percentile for being an absolute piece of crap when one of my teams loses in the playoffs. ‘96 ALDS? Blind rage. ‘97 World Series? Inconsolable. ‘03 Wild Card weekend? Get the hell away from me. ‘07 BCS Title Game? Seething. The aforementioned ‘07 ALCS? Dead to the world for days.

Yet… somehow… this feels worse. Off the charts worse. I am absolutely miserable to be around right now. Let’s talk about it. If we can.I don’t even know where to start. I don’t… I can’t… I just… AUGH. Everything that was right with the world in the first half went bizarro in the second half. The offense was stagnant. The three-point defense disintegrated. Orlando was able to get out on the break. I swear to God, I think I saw the 2006 Cavaliers out there over the last 24 minutes.

Dare I say that Mo Williams’ half court shot was the worst possible thing that could’ve happened heading into halftime? I view it as entirely possible that the dunk by that Polish guy who’s name is absolutely not worth remembering could’ve ignited the Cavs’ defense in the second half, but instead everyone spent recess falling over from slapping eachother on the back after Mo drained the heave. Just throwing it out there.

The Cavs offense in the second half, though, was dreadful; absolutely without redeeming value. Players badly missing wide-open looks, heaving up god-awful jump shots with over 16 seconds left on the shot clock, infinite LeBron/ball-watching. I’ll say it again: it looked like 2006 all over again out there.

And the offense wasn’t the only thing the Cavs had in ‘06 mode Wednesday… Mike Brown was up to his old tricks in Game One, too. I’m sorry, but just because you’ve rested LeBron to start the fourth quarter in every game all year long doesn’t give you the license to do it in THE MOST IMPORTANT GAME OF THE YEAR. Not in a four-point game. Not with the only real obstacle to James’ scoring spree chained to the Orlando bench with four fouls. But he of the Milk Dud noggin did just that anyway, and what results did that rest yield? Why, a 5-0 Orlando run to open the fourth quarter in what turned out to be a one-point loss, thankyouverymuch.

What are you saving him for, Mike? Next year? Because if you pull crap like that again on Friday if it’s close after three, that is precisely what your next concern will be: next year.

Now the other side of that argument was that LeBron was gassed at the end of the game, but I honestly don’t think it comes to that if LeBron is running the offense to start the fourth instead of… whatever you want to call that disaster of a lineup Brown sent out there to open the fourth. If the Cavs had staved off that third-into-the-fourth quarter charge by Orlando and kept the lead I think Cleveland cruises through the fourth. I really do.

So instead of what looked like a laughably easy Game One win, we as Cavs fans have to take an honest look in the mirror and wonder: where do we go from here?

Personally, I don’t know. Tonight’s game was an absolute worst-case scenario, in my mind. I am hitting the freaking panic button with a sledgehammer. A game that the Cavs had complete control of slipped away at home and the single most important thing the Cavs had earned in the regular season–home court advantage–evaporated over the course of 24 mortifyingly bad minutes of basketball.

Where do we go from here? I can’t say, but the Cavaliers now have 44 hours to figure it out or this dream season will turn into yet another chapter of Cleveland playoff heartbreak.

I don’t know if I can take this anymore.

"Well, it's ****in' Monday afternoon! You should get out of bed earlier!"

It was a busy weekend in Cleveland and I spent almost all of it out of town and away from a computer, so let’s take just about my favorite thing in the history of blogs–BULLET POINTS!–and wheel our way around the weekend that was along America’s North Coast.

• Ohh… the Indians. People often look for turning points in seasons when a team figures it out and goes from mediocre to contending. Friday’s game was pretty much the opposite of that, I’m willing to wager; an anti-turning point, if you will, that took a team that was starting to get it together and kicked it right in the mommy & daddy button. The bullpen is not getting better and there is seemingly no end in sight.
• When I was still at (the infamous) SportsTalkCleveland.com, I had a lengthy discussion with Bruce Drennan on how Major League Baseball umpires were, of the big four sports, the best in-game officials. I am officially ready to retract that opinion after watching the men in blue absolutely butcher calls with and without the aid of instant replay. The call on Garko’s would-be double yesterday was an absolute farce. And don’t even get me started on Troy “Jim Thome’s Bitch” Percival not getting tossed in the ninth. Here’s my 2009 order of competence among major professional in-game officials, from best to worst: NHL > NFL > MLB > NBA — that’s right, MLB umpires are now behind the crew that once upon a time botched a coin toss. Think about that.
• About that almost-double by Ryan Garko. Here’s my reason why I think Wedge was ultimately not thrown out of that game: the umpires said to him, “Um, even if that was a double, your next batter is David Dellucci. Do you REALLY think that runner will get to the plate with rally kryptonite on deck? The point is moot, sir.”
• Eric Wedge should have been immediately fired, with prejudice, when Kerry Wood didn’t put a fastball in Carl Crawford’s earhole Sunday. While I will admit that it may have been nearly as good to watch Crawford stand on the back edge of the batter’s box and submit one of the most cowardly strikeouts in league history, it should’ve never gotten to that point. Wood should’ve dotted Crawford before he even stepped onto the back line of the box. Say what you want about Jagmaster General Ozzie Guillen but, if he was managing the Indians, Wood would’ve either drilled Crawford or been handed a bus ticket to Columbus. Period.
• The Cavs have an actual opponent for the Eastern Conference Finals! That’s super! Obviously the Cavs matched up poorly a couple times against Orlando during the regular season, but the rest of the extra week off will ultimately be the difference. Plus, you know, that whole “the regular season means absolutely nothing” stuff. I just wish Game One was tomorrow instead of Wednesday.
• I know many Cavs fans who were screaming “We want Boston!” all through the conference semis, but I’m telling you right now that I got exactly what I wanted from the other series: seven games. Sure, Orlando didn’t exactly have to press too hard to win Game Seven, but they’ve now played five more playoff games than the Cavs in the same time span; arguably a whole extra series. That will matter if this series is extended.
• I wish Channel 3 had set up a way to view the Red Wings-Blackhawks game yesterday afternoon somehow, some way. Not only was I getting increasingly frustrated with the Indians during the middle portions of yesterday’s game, but because of how the system works, there is no channel on the NHL Center Ice package for a conf. finals game when it’s being aired nationally by NBC, even if your particular market is airing another event in its stead. Fairly frustrating, and I’m not even a Wings or Hawks fan. I imagine my uncle in Brecksville, who is a die-hard Wings fanatic, was losing his freaking mind waiting to be able to view Game One.
• Seriously… how lame did Crawford look during his at bat in the 8th? He couldn’t have been any deeper in the far corner of the batter’s box when he watched the first two strikes sail by and that wimpy little defensive swing for strike three was downright comical. I can’t get over how unimaginably weak Crawford came off in that AB despite being one of the main instigators (along with Joe Maddon) of that phantom fracas.

At least now we can start getting amped up again about the Cavs, since the Indians did not exactly provide a pleasant diversion this past weekend. Look for lots of Cavs stuff this week, including my attempt to get some Orlando hatred built up. We’ll see how it goes.

Well… this is an interesting twist to what we discussed yesterday: this morning the Youngstown Vindicator reported that co-manager Mike Pavlik, Sr., has denied the Friday report of a staph infection in Kelly’s hand, going so far as to say the Ghost has maintained a clean bill of health.

That could certainly put a spin on yesterday’s discussion. IF dear old dad’s comments are accurate, it makes you wonder why Top Rank really delayed the June 27th bout against Mora. We’ll be keeping an eye on this.

As you may have heard by now, Kelly Pavlik’s impending title bout against Sergio Mora in Atlantic City has been postponed for… some reason or another. According to ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael, it’s a staph infection; according to Team Pavlik it’s… something.

Whatever the actual reason may be, if Pavlik is ailing–whether the opponent is a preferred matchup like Arthur Abraham (rumored to be the next matchup for the Ghost after Mora) or a scheduled opponent like Mora (or Rubio before him)–it is absolutely the right call to delay the fight.

Now I think we can all agree that Pavlik was probably at about 85% or so during his systematic dismantling of Rubio in February, so it’s not to say that he can’t fight when he’s not at his best. No, more to the point is that there’s no need to risk his not being ready.

Why not, you may ask? That’s easy: October.

Pavlik supporters all remember October when a bronchitis-and-bursitis-ridden Kelly Pavlik was absolutely routed in a timeless performance by Bernard Hopkins in A.C. The beating he took was so thorough that some experts wondered out loud if Pavlik would’ve been beaten at 100% by Hopkins (personally, I think he would’ve; Hopkins was flat-out ridiculous that night, but you’re not exactly talking to Bert Sugar, here).

Now, in fairness, Pavlik never used his injury or illness as an excuse for his only professional loss. Trainer Jack Loew maybe, kinda did… but not Pavlik. Obviously the conditions played a factor, though noone will ever know the extent to which that was the case.

Is Sergio Mora the same as Bernard Hopkins? Hell no. He’s a stepping stone fight for Bob Arum and Top Rank to set up the Pavlik-Abraham bout people have been drooling over.

But why risk it? Jack Loew and company are right on to call Arum and delay the Mora match until Pavlik can fight at full health and preparedness.

Trying to rush the fight–especially if it is the dreaded staph infection–would be a mistake that could rob boxing fans of a highly desired and anticipated fight this fall. So hats off to Team Pavlik.

So last night was my first trip to Progressive Field.

No, no, I’ve been to Indians home games since the start of the 1994 season–many, many home games, including Game Four of the ‘95 ALCS–but this was my first trip to the corner of Carnegie & Ontario since it changed names because, as you may remember, I lived in scenic eastern Kentucky for the vast majority of the 2008 season.

Now, as you might imagine, there was no earth-shaking paradigm shift from my experience of games at Jacobs Field in 2007 to my experience last night at The Pro; it was new and familiar all at once. So let’s rap about it via the magic of bullet points and random observations!

• As we got to our seats, I was immediately struck by the fact that, despite the extremely light MLB schedule on Monday, there was no scoreboard anywhere in the park keeping fans updated on what was going on with the Cavs game. This may come as news to the Indians… but they are not the only team in Cleveland. I would say a good third of the people at the game last night were wearing Cavs gear, yet they had to whip out their cell phones to keep updated on the game. There wasn’t even an announcement of the score until they flashed it up on the jumbotron at the end of the third quarter. After that Ryan Pritt did a little run through the highlights mid-way through the fourth and then announced when the game as an 84-74 final. Still disappointing that we had to wait to be told. It wouldn’t be the end of the world for the Tribe to be a little more supportive of their considerably more successful neighbor.
• You’ve got to give it up for Carl Pavano so far. The much-maligned Pav may have an unsightly 6.45 ERA and a Wickman-esque 1.45 WHIP, but damnit he’s winning. His ability to get the first strike last night was critical in keeping the Chicago hitters (mostly) at bay and he let his fielders do the job on a night where the offense (thankfully) showed up.
• I was also pleased to read the AP recap when I got back to Youngstown to see this quote from Pavano: “Personally I’m disappointed: I needed to go deeper. This is a game that I should have kept the bullpen out of it.” Darn tootin’ you need to keep the bully out of it. Even though Laffey was decent and Betancourt was… err… not atrocious, it’s probably a good idea this season to not give the bullpen a chance to screw up an eminently winnable game.
• Small ball! Even with a four-run lead, I love to see the small ball. Cabrera’s stealing second in the sixth sparked another rally that hung a crooked number on the scoreboard. There’s a lesson in there somewhere, Mr. Wedge.
• Chris Getz is pretty good. His glove single-handedly killed the Tribe’s rally in the first inning and he made a number of very impressive plays ranging to his right at second base for Chicago last night.
• I believe another local blog has this angle covered, but I’ll give it a whack anyway: David Dellucci is a one-man rally-killing machine and needs to be permanently removed from the lineup. Runners on second and third in the first? No problem, he’ll ground out to first! Two on with Gavin Floyd on the ropes after giving up a pair of two-run singles sandwiched around an HBP? Fugheddaboutit, he’ll hit the softest little baby liner you’ve ever seen to Getz to end the inning. Finally, Dellucci was lifted for Ryan Garko in the sixth and, LO AND BEHOLD, Garko hits a ball out of the infield and the Indians score a run. There’s a lesson in there, Mr. Wedge.
• Mark DeRosa’s defense will prove an unimaginable asset at third base by the end of the season. I am positive of this, and not just because of the parade of bums at the hot corner that we’ve seen since Travis Fryman left town.
• Fun and random aside #1: Ryan Pritt is everywhere. Emcee and in-game producer for the Monsters, emcee for the Indians and even the in-game producer for the junior hockey team here in Youngstown, he is arguably the hardest working man in show business along America’s North Coast. Big ups.
• Fun and random aside #2: At the end of the 8th inning The Most Hated Man in Major League Baseball, A.J. Pierzynski, grabbed the ball after Jhonny struck out and lofted it to a crowd of White Sox fans sitting along the first base line (one section to the right of where I was sitting). The ball was placed perfectly, but one of the girls completely botched catching it, and it rolled all the way down to a cloud of Indians fans sitting three rows in front of them. The Chicago fans begged, pleaded and even cried to the eventual recipients of Pierzynski’s charity, but could not pry the ball loose from the Tribe fans. Good for the Tribe fans, I say, and not out of any particular enmity toward the White Sox. Look, the rules are simple for foul balls–and by all rights, the catcher throwing you a ball is treated the same way: catch it, and it’s yours; miss it, and it’s fair game. Cry all you want, but your stone hands cost you a souvenir, period. You’ll also get no pity from me; I’ve been going to Indians games since age five and have never gotten a foul ball. So boo-freakin’-hoo.

All in all, a pretty solid trip to the Pro, and apparently I didn’t even miss a very attractive Cavs game. I’ll take it. Now if the Tribe could just get nights like this more consistently.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Atlanta fans are just terrible. I realize that this concept pre-dates my high school career (See: Justice, David circa 1995) but from time to time, there needs to be a sort of reminder, or reboot. I’m sure Celtics fans were all over this notion last year when Mike Bibby called them “fair-weather” during the Hawks’ seven-game first-round epic with the C’s in ‘08 (prompting one Atlanta blogger to remind Bibby that Hawks fans were best described as “no-weather”) and now it’s our turn.

Let’s take a look at some of the silliest things we saw last night in the ATL…

Ludicrous (Ludacris?) PA Prompting

Table and I were incredulous watching last night and hearing Philips Arena Public Address Man Ryan Cameron and some of the prompts he was giving the fans in the arena.

Before I elaborate, I want to remind you that three of the last four playoff years we’ve lived through the absolutely insufferable Mason in Detroit, so you really have to be absurd to catch our attention as a PA guy.

Anyway, I was particularly struck when the Hawks made their big charge to start the second quarter and Flip Murray canned his second free-throw to make it 25-24, this is the precise sequence of events:

• Murray FT makes it 25-24
• Cameron: “HAWKS LEAD!”
• Crowd: *cheers*

Really, Atlanta? Really? You need your PA guy to tell you that you’re ahead to react? I know we here in Cleveland take it a bit for “The Diff” on the scoreboard at the Q (see below), and Boston fans get it all the time for being horribly, horribly obnoxious, but could you find another NBA market where the concept would even be necessary for the fans to be incited via public address following a lead change? Anywhere? Of course not.

I wondered out loud to Table at this point if Cameron would need to point out if/when the Hawks crossed the 80-point barrier in Game Three. Turned out to be a moot point courtesy of the mass exodus at Philips with 3+ minutes left in the fourth.

Booing LeBron

So let me get this straight, Atlanta… your chosen method of trying to rattle the runaway league MVP is to boo him every time he touches the ball. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page, here.

This may have been a good idea for the first, maybe, five minutes of the game. Once LeBron–serenaded by the chorus of boos–took a foul on the floor from Mo Evans with no prayer of continuation and still took the ball to the hoop, threw down a thunderous one-hander and glared at the crowd just 5:40 into the first… maybe you should have reconsidered.

Because as has been proven time and time again, YOU DO NOT WANT TO PISS OFF LEBRON JAMES. Don’t believe me? Ask Chris Bosh’s girlfriend. Ask Spike Lee. (But please don’t tell Jack Nicholson)

And yet the boos persisted. I’m fairly positive I heard a nat-sound mic pick up LeBron say “They done pissed me off,” coming out of a TV timeout in the third quarter. And so… 47-12-8 happened.

On second thought, keep booing; inspire LeBron to wrap this up while I glare angrily at Carl Willis at tomorrow’s Indians game.

Pick Your Battles

So you were unhappy about the officiating last night? Really? WELCOME TO THE NBA; all Association referees are flat-out abysmal. Get used to it.

But if you choose to voice your displeasure over bad calls… make sure they’re bad calls, first. The foul that precipitated Lady Zaza getting the ol’ heave-ho was an obvious blocking foul (hello, protected area!) and even the T’s that ensued were borderline automatic technicals with the way Lady Zaza was carrying on and growling at the refs. The only real crime committed was Mike Tirico not commenting how we couldn’t see Lady Zaza’s poker face for the rest of the night. Le sigh.

Look… we get it, the Cavs get a lot of calls. It’s become such an annoying theme that ESPN contracted one of its TrueHoop bloggers to write a 100% pointless story on Bron-Bron’s so-called “star calls.”

That said, the calls to which the crowd reacted the most strongly were straightfoward calls. The blocking foul on Al Horford early in the fourth? The one that the crowd so virulently reacted to? His feet weren’t even close to set, nearly 19 feet from the hoop; easiest call ever!

If you want to boo uncalled hand-checks or overly physical defense by LeBron or Delonte West… be my guest! I encourage ALL NBA fans to boo bad refereeing; it’s become an epidemic in the league. It really has.

But you’re really discrediting yourselves by booing these black-and-white calls like this.

I don’t really know what I’m expecting out of Atlanta fans, though. At no point in the history of time have sports fans in the ATL ever shown the propensity for being passionate, knowledgeable or even interested.

I think the most I can hope for is self-respect… but then again, it’s not like the team on the floor at Philips is exactly leading by example in that department.

They’ll have a few months to work on all of this after Monday.

Well, friends, it certainly has been awhile… and after months of discussions, negotiations, brow beatings and the occasional street fight, Table and I have finally decided that now is the time and here is the place to revive your old friend on the Cleveland sports blogging scene, the Sons of Nev.

We realize our previous disappearance was slightly shameful but, as previously stated, when you’re living the dream–as we both are–and it comes down to your (freaking sweet) real job and writing a blog that pays you bubkes… well, I think everyone can agree what an easy decision it was for the both of us to let our side project collect dust for, what, a year?

That stops now, as we both plan on cranking up the writing machine–starting tonight–and giving you, on average, two articles a day. Obviously that’s not a hard-and-fast promise, but we want to give it to you, the long-suffering Cleveland sports fans as we write about the Cavs, the Browns and… oh, hell, I’m sure there’s another professional team on America’s North Coast. What was their name again? The Indians? No, that can’t be right, that seems more like a AAA franchise right now. I’ll try and remember later tonight.

Nevertheless, welcome back, old friends. We’ve missed you, even though you probably don’t remember us too much anymore. We’ll be in touch real soon-like.

I know, I know… we haven’t written here in months. It’s sad, I agree, but when you go from a job where you work 2 hours a day to one where you actually work all day plus weekends, sacrifices sometimes need be made. That said, Table and I continually discuss ways that we can get the ol’ blogging machine cranked back up again. Maybe last night’s Browns win over the Giants will spur a resurgence, but I would be more inclined to wager on the start of the Cavs’ season, since they remain the most fun Cleveland team to write about.

What I’m here to write about, however, is to say congratulations to our friends at Waiting For Next Year for being named the best Cleveland sports blog by Scene Magazine. I’d love to say that we’re going to challenge them in 2009… but I’m lazy and do enough writing at work as it is. I’s just likes to writes when I’s can. Which (obviously) is not a lot these days.

So, anyway, congrats to Rick, Scott, King, Mike and DP for the honors! As for us, we’ll try and be back soon…