NBA Playoffs: Cavaliers must rise in hurry, or fall
Spurs' victory in Game 4 tonight would clinch title
BRIAN MAHONEY
The Associated Press
JUN 13, 2007 10:45 PM
CLEVELAND -- Signs all around Cleveland implore the Cavaliers to "Rise Up!", the team's motto this season.
And if the Cavaliers are going to win their first championship, they will have to rise up further than any NBA team has ever done.
Cleveland is facing a 3-0 deficit against the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals. No NBA club has won a series after dropping the first three games, forcing the Cavaliers to look elsewhere for belief.
"Red Sox-Yankees," center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said yesterday. "I thought about it this morning."
True, but Boston had a powerful offense back in 2004. These Cavaliers have one of the worst that has played on the NBA's biggest stage.
A loss tonight could leave Cleveland as the most inept offensive team in the Finals. Baltimore managed 376 points (94 per game) while getting swept by Milwaukee in 1971, and the Cavaliers have scored 240 (80 ppg) through the first three games.
Those Bullets shot 38.4 percent, also a Finals-low for a four-game series. Cleveland is hovering right at 40 percent, with superstar LeBron James hitting less than 37 percent of his shots.
The Cavaliers were competitive for the first time in the series Tuesday night in a 75-72 loss in Game 3. But even though Cleveland did plenty of things right, Ilgauskas and forward Drew Gooden both pointed out that the Spurs pulled out the victory without even playing their best.
So hopes of winning the first title by a Cleveland pro sports franchise since 1964 seem impossible. For now, the Cavaliers' biggest goal is to avoid becoming the first team to be swept in the Finals since the Los Angeles Lakers beat New Jersey in 2002.
"We're all in right now," Gooden said. "We're playing our last hand right now. Our luck has to change or the season is over."
The Cavaliers are playing for the title for the first time. And they quickly have realized that trying to figure out a team like the Spurs is only part of what goes on once a team gets here.
"From my perspective, I guess the stage is just so much bigger. I was caught off guard maybe by all the media attention," Ilgauskas said. "First time going through it, I think we're learning it as we go."
If the Cavaliers were going to keep their spirits up all the tough breaks at the end of Game 3, it would be up to James, their leader on and off the floor, to show that he was not letting them bother him.
"The biggest thing is understand with body language, not necessarily saying anything, but just with body language, show that, 'Hey, this thing is not over,' " Brown said. "Because it's not over. It's not over until somebody wins the fourth game.
"We -- when I say we, it's myself and the rest of the guys, and especially LeBron included -- have to understand it's one day, one game at a time. Nobody has come back from an 0-3 deficit like this. But like I was saying, there's always a first time for everything."
"We don't want to get swept, of course," James said. "We're not even thinking about that. We're thinking about winning a game and continuing to try to win and win a championship."
First Published June 13, 2007, 10:45pm