Don't worry, Frinky. When these babies hit the shelves, he'll still be grappling with The Pickle Matrix. H'Flaven.

So, the Cavs couldn't hold off the Pistons last night in game 1. I'm fairly ambivolent about the game at this point 12 hours later, simply because I went into this series opener thinking the Cavs had no real shot to steal a game in Detroit, and that if the series went to 6 games it might be considered a moral victory for the Cavs on some level.

That they almost did steal game 1 was a nice surprise, true, but then to have gone through 46 minutes with the Pistons and to have the lead on their court, and then to lose in the fashion the Cavs did is equally disappointing.

What bothers me is the media's shredding of LeBron James for his decision to pass out of a double-(triple?)team to a wide open Donyell Marshall for a potential game-winning shot. I've always been in the camp that, if you can get a good look for a shooter who can make threes (Marshall was, after all, 6-10 from three in game 6 against NJ) with a chance to win the game on the road, you take it.

Some would argue that James had an easy layup (kind of like the few he had blocked by Rasheed?)...

^{Akron Beacon Journal - To be fair, a block on Eric Snow should only count for a third of an actual blocked shot}

...and others will argue that James has to go strong to the hole and force the refs to call a foul because of who he is. I would counter that with the fact that he had gone to the hole about four times in the second half, had gotten certifiably molested, and had gotten no calls. (This is not sour grapes about the officiating; the Pistons' players got the same treatment. It's more a comment about the fallacy of expecting the refs to bail you out on a last second drive to the basket.)

^{Akron Beacon Journal - Notice the relationship/spacing of ball to Billups-hand compared to the direction LeBron is trying to go with the ball and tell me he's not about to foul our boy.}

And, as Bud Shaw pointed out in the PD this morning: "In reality, James never found a rhythm in the game and didn't seem inclined to test himself at the foul line for the first time all night." Good point also, given James' proclivity for being a streaky foul shooter this year, and for sometimes needing a few attempts to calibrate himself at the line.

Lost in all of the criticism and second guessing is the fact that, had Marshall MADE A WIDE OPEN FUCKING SHOT, the Cavs would likely have had a better than average shot of winning the game... game 1, no less... on the road. Or, if Ilgauskas makes a jumper he had been consistently making all night, the Cavs have a tie, a foul to give, and a time-out on their side with which to go and play defense. And, in both cases, LeBron would have then finished with an even triple-double (that would have been his 10th assist to go along with 10 points and 10 boards).

So, if Marshall/Ilgauskas make their shot(s), is LeBron a hero for being unselfish? A co-worker of mine and I were discussing it this morning, and his take is that the media pretty much always sucks, and that it sucks even more for someone like LeBron who is in the top 3 players in the league.

CAVS WIN HEADLINE:
Unselfish LeBron clinches win & triple double with great pass at buzzer

CAVS LOSE HEADLINE:
Unassertive LeBron can't handle double teams...has career playoff low in points

I tend to agree with his assessment of the media in matters such as these. Obviously, I'm a Cavs fan, and so my opinion is slightly skewed. But, many media folks seem to forget that LeBron is only 22 years old. They forget that it took Jordan 7 years to get to the Finals (at which point he was 28, I believe), and that LeBron has a shot (albeit a slim one, granted) to get there in his fourth season with (largely) a collection of stiffs on his team.

So, do we hold LeBron to a higher standard than even Michael Jordan? Is that fair? I understand that LeBron has been annointed as "next" since his junior year of high school. Who is responsible for that hype? More specifically, is/was there any real way LeBron could have lived up to it? He completed a feat this year in terms of his scoring/rebound/assist averages over three seasons that only Oscar Robertson ever did before him. What more do we want from the guy?

Sure, LeBron had a bad game, but what about the fact that the Cavs defense effectively shut down the Pistons just as much as the Pistons shut down LeBron? Had Richard Hamilton not shot out of his mind in the first half, the Cavs are probably up by 15 at half-time, and the Pistons lose. Shit, if Sasha Pavlovic doesn't shit the bed on defense and completely forget to get anywhere close to Billups (aside: and while I respect his game and the derivation of it, is there a douchier nickname in sports than "Mr. Big Shot"? Seriously!) as he shot a wide-open 3 pointer, the game ends differently.

It was widely reported/known that the Pistons were going to do everything in their power to shut down LeBron and to make the Cavs' other players beat them. And guess what, they almost did.


Hell, at least the Tribe (27-15) won.