Why Cleveland lost to Orlando

As good as LeBron James is (and all the comparisons to Michael Jordan can stop until he wins a championship), the Cleveland Cavaliers just didn't have the horses to finish the race. Primarily, they didn't have a big men to support James. Mo Williams and Delonte West did an admirable job, but Varajao was nothing but a big distraction with his flopping, whining, complaining way of playing and Ilgauskas with his feet of stone (nice outside shot for a big man but that was because other's weren't doing their job - Varajao) kept James from having real options for scoring and didn't play good team defense. Read the word TEAM in the last sentence. The bench was also of little help to the best player in the league as well. And where did they get off giving Mike Brown the coach of the year? Van Gundy completely out-coached him in this series!

So I don't blame James for being upset. His team was not capable of playing with him. While they are better than they were last year, they will continue to come up short when you have to rely on the likes of Ben Wallace and Wally Szerbiak to provide a jolt of energy and experience. Again, I don't understand why Brown gets coach of the year. His biggest play was give it to James and see what happens. And I have never seen a team that whines to the refs more than the Cavs (the Lakers are right up there). That all starts with the tone set by the coach.

All that said, James should have congratulated his opponents at the end of the series. His behavior showed bad sportsmanship, bad example for younger kids and a bad taste in my mouth for him as a person going forward. This is just another reason why the NBA changed the rules on taking kids right out of high school. While James proved to be a great guy in his 60 Minutes interview, all I have to say is "grow up". Quit acting like someone took your ball away. Orlando beat you fair and square. Man up and shake their hands no matter what you think.

Here's my advice for next year: dump Varajao for a real shooter in the #3 slot, put James at #4 (with his size - that's where he belongs), learn how to play real team defense (see Boston from last year) and develop some men with the rest of the group (never, never, never guarantee a win in public - how immature was that?). With that, good luck to Orlando - you guys are a better matchup for the Lakers anyway.