CAVS.SPACE

Everyone knows Chauncey Billups has struggled to find shots in the series. Until Sunday, his buddy Richard Hamilton had not had the same problem. On Sunday night, the Cavs managed to hold Rip Hamilton to under 10 FG attempts for the first time in the 2007 Playoffs. In fact, Hamilton only attempted fewer than 10 shots in 6 of the 75 regular season games he played in this year. In his career, Rip has averaged 15 FG attempts per game. By keeping Rip away from the foul line, they held him to 7 points . This was only the second time in his playoff career that he was held to single digits , not to mention well below his career playoff mark of 20.5 PPG .

While it was rough watching him destroy our defense in the 2nd quarter, it was nice to see Flip Murray get some playing time Sunday night. If Flip Saunders learned anything, Murray gives him some favorable mismatches against the Cavs. The Cavaliers need to watch out for their former ally, who deserves some exposure and recognition. In my opinion, Flip is one of the most underrated players in the NBA. The one trait the Cavs really need to build upon in becoming a title contender is consistency. While Flip Murray was expendable after season's end last year, his consistency is definitely missed. Best of luck to him.

Mike Brown has received mixed reviews since taking over as Head Coach of the Cavaliers. Overall, people have praised the improved defense while still being disappointed in an underachieving offense. Now, especially after two lost winnable games in Detroit, the following question shall be raised: is Coach Brown too patient? The starting lineup that finished the season as a #2 seed and swept the Wizards remains intact. However, as was seen last round versus the Nets, the lineup that puts ballhandling pressure on Larry Hughes and Sasha Pavlovic has become increasingly ineffective. In the case of Hughes, the amount of sloppy passes and ill-advised jump shots is alarming for one of the team's veteran leaders. Meanwhile, Pavlovic continues to be plagued by inconsistency on both ends of the court. Yet, his playoff minutes rank fifth on the team, exceeding those of Anderson Varejao. Thankfully, towards the end of the Nets series, Coach Brown started showing some energy and emotion.

For the record, LeBron should have taken the shot instead of passing the ball to Marshall. He had a good angle on Prince and the two help defenders were out of position. While a vast majority of basketball analysts and sports reporters continue to put the burden of losing game 1 on James (and some on Marshall), these analysts and reporters are neglecting one major aspect of the play: where was Z? In a situation where the Cavaliers needed only 2 points to tie, Ilgauskas, with 22 points and 13 rebounds (not to mention a 7 foot 3 frame) should have been on the court. Whether or not Z got the ball was irrelevant; even without the ball, he could have been a decoy or served as an offensive rebounder. The puzzling fact is that the Cavs coaching staff took out the only guy hitting shots down the stretch when they absolutely needed to score. In a game that saw several unforced ballhandling errors by the Pistons in the fourth quarter, the Cavs failed to steal the game away. Pass or shoot?