It’s that magical time again folks! Time for us to join the hallowed bands of happy fans, praying, dreaming, hoping for a better day in the sun thanks to the lottery Gods. And just as we have in the past, we’ve got a drinking game ready for you. Add your suggestions in the comments, and remember to keep the cacao in the cupboard. This ain’t no Manhattan martini game.

• Note: Pour one out in advance for Elgin. (via @j_d_hastings)
• Every time Adam Silver takes more than 7 seconds, from first syllable to last, announcing which team is next on the lottery list, take 1 drink per second over.
• Jay-Z sighting: one drink
• Prohkorov mention: 1 drink
• Evan Turner mention: 1 drink
• Every time David Kahn fidgets: 1 drink
• Every time someone mentions the T-wolves 3-PG draft, take a drink.
• Every Lebron/Cal package deal mention (even though it is completely irrelevant tonight’s proceedings): 1 drink
• Every time Stuart Scott attempts the John Wall dance: 3 drinks
• 1 drink every time Don Nelson takes a drink (you know they have got a hidden cam on him tonight): Drink 1 with Don
• When Minny wins the lottery: Pop open the champagne!
• Jazz get a top 3 pick: Pop open the sparkling mineral water
• Everytime Tyreke is asked a question or had something said about him and the camera cuts to him nervously staring at the floor, waiting for a subject change.
• Every time a white guy is mentioned as a possible Pacer pick, huff some glue.
• Each time Blake Griffin is mentioned, tap your right knee for luck, then drink
• Each time Irene Pollin sighting? Take a shot. You know. A Shot.
• Each time Jrue Holiday shifts from one leg to the other, have your drink slip out of your hand, then drink to the person replacing you.
• Every Danny Granger appearance, sing the Batman theme, then drink.
• Every shot of the “secret” actual lottery distribution: 1 drink
• Every time Mike Prada or Kyle Wedie’s soul dies: 1 drink
• Every time Isiah Thomas is mentioned, give all your liquor to a friend for Steve Francis. (via @noamschiller)
• Take a shot every time they mention that the knicks traded away their pick (via@NickNoHeartTPFS)

After event, immediately seek medical attention for alcohol poisoning.

Tonight you can join in on the fun with the official hashtag for paroxysm’s coverage which we’ll be compiling into a post: #lottoxysm.

JOIN US!

• I miss the regular season. I understand I’m one of only a few, on account of these games “mattering” and what not. But it’s the journey I like, not the ending.
• And the Celtics and Lakers have crapped all over that journey.
• I mean, really, these were two very average teams throughout the course of the last half of the season. And when the Celtics struggled and said they were just bored, how could you believe them? They looked unbelievably mortal. It’s not that I thought they were dead in the water. But I thought they’d have to realize you can’t just breeze your way through life, you have to step up and work hard if you want to win a championship.
• And it’s true. You just only have to do it for about six weeks of the year.
• Is it possible to undervalue the job the Celtics have done on defense? Because I still feel like that’s what people are doing. Pointing out the Magic’s effort as some sort of epic failure is a little deceptive. A great example was when late in the second with the Celtics up 15, the Celtics forced four perimeter passes, resulting a cross-court heave to Pietrus that would have been wide open last year, only to find Pierce sprinting full force and lunging in the air to run off the three. It’s that kind of effort that has to be given to knock the Magic offense off course. And the Celtics gave it, and have been giving it since the playoffs began.
• And just as impressive as Boston’s defense is LA’s offense. Somehow, this is being translated into “the Suns still suck at defense.” Which is akin to saying “Damn, that tugboat was weakass. Look at it! It didn’t even stop that Navy Destroyer from plowing through it! God, same ol’ tugboat. Pansies.”
• The Lakers had the following points per possession on play types last night: Isolation 28 plays for 1.21 per play, P&R Ball Handler 7 plays for 1.43(!!!) per play, Post-up 13 plays for 1.31 per play, Spot-up 17 plays for 1.29 per play, Cut 11 plays for 1.18 per play, Offensive Rebound 7 actual shots off rebound for 1.43 (!!!) per play. And another 10 transition plays for 1.3 per play. They scored 71% of the time they ran pick and roll with a play for the ball handler and 71% of the time the shot off an offensive rebound. I understand that a better defense would have held them to lower numbers. The Suns did not play good defense. But those number… they’re ridiculous. If you’re not a numbers person, please recognize that if you hit 1.00 ppp you’re doing pretty well. This was like getting bombed by a fleet and you’ve got an umbrella. Sure, if you had yourself a metal containment unit it might take more time for you to die, but you’re still getting bombed by a fleet.
• Want a comparison for the Celtics’ work on defense? How about the Magic’s 1.13 in Isolation being their bright spot outside of their offensive rebounding numbers (which you’d expect with Dwight). .67 PPP on P’n'R Ball Handler. .5 on the cut. The Magic were able to get 6 plays run for a shot off the cut. Two of them lead to turnovers and they only scored on 2 of the other possessions. That decimates your offense. Spot up? 12 plays for a 1.0. So your wide open shot attempts you work for only netted you a 38.5% scoring percentage. Again, those are Herculean numbers. Those are the team wide numbers equivalent of LeBron dropping 49-10-9.
• The Magic are still in this thing, the comeback showed that. They’ve got to, you know, do the things that won them the series last year (creating extra rotations, spreading the floor, forcing the issue, not sucking), but they’ve got a shot at it. Phoenix? Yes, there was a part of me that held out hope yesterday afternoon. That maybe the size and talent and experience and ability and karmic, for whatever reason, tidal wave the Lakers have on their side wouldn’t bum rush the Suns. It’s only one game. Sure they can come back and win Game 2. But last night was a statement. The Lakers had their moment of weakness, and like I argued it would, it came in the first round. Once the Lakers wake up and realize they only have to try for just a little bit more, they’ll do it.
• You realize this is what we all expected two years ago. The Celtics made the move for KG and Ray, and we expected them to contend for a few years. The injuries made us question, along with their piss poor regular season performance. But it’s still them. Same guys behind the mask. And LA made that trade for Pau. We all knew it would come to this. Lakers and Celtics. And the rest of the season is just a bunch of minor details no one will remember.

There are plenty of things to talk about in Game One of a Lakers blowing out of the Phoenix Suns.

Kobe Bryant went off in a very scary way for Suns fans.

David Arquette somehow became the post-game story.

Andrew Bynum’s knee was tested and rested.

Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown not only looked like NBA players throughout most of their time on the court but they actually looked like they were ready to help this Lakers team hoist up a 16^th banner.

And Pau Gasol proved that he’s most likely the deadliest post player in the NBA.

However, none of that was as important as the playoff sighting of Lamar Odom. We all know the enigmatic tale of Lamar Odom. More so than most NBA players, Lamar Odom was a child prodigy the likes of which we’ve rarely seen. He was a power forward with the skills of a point guard. He wasn’t Magic Johnson by any means but he certainly was capable of shattering any proverbial mold set before him so that he could make a new one in his likeness.

After bouncing around high schools and colleges, Odom found his way into the NBA by being selected fourth in the 1999 NBA Draft. Unfortunately for him, he was picked by the Clippers and destined to be one constant conundrum wrapped in an enigma trapped in one of those super hard Sudokus. He showed flashes of brilliance in which he’d dominate guys like Kevin Garnett even though he had a far inferior team, while trying to balance the delicate building of a team of lottery picks and hope.

Fast-forward 10 years and he’s still as confusing as ever. Any time you start analyzing the Lakers roster and what they’re capable of with any NBA fan, you’re bound to come across the “what if” question concerning Lamar Odom. What if he maximized his talent and potential? What if he was motivated every time on the floor? What if he actually tried to Power Bar his way to the moon?

Lamar Odom has always been the NBA equivalent of The Riddler. He might as well be wearing an ambiguous green jump suit with question marks all over. Or should the jumpsuit be forum blue and gold?

Even though Lamar has been lauded as a shoulda-woulda-coulda over the past decade, the Lakers success has never been truly contingent on him showing up to play. Yes, the Lakers are a better team when he’s playing well but they’re also a better team when Kobe is taking smart shots, Pau Gasol is obliterating the concept of post defense and Andrew Bynum is being a big lug of a man that is impossible to keep away from the rim.

Against the Suns in Game One, Lamar Odom continued his career-long eradication of the Phoenix Suns. He’s played 827 games in the NBA (including playoffs) and racked up averages of 14.6 points, 8.9 rebounds and 35.8 minutes per game while shooting 46.5% from the field. But when he’s faced the Suns as a member of the Lakers, he’s taken his game to a whole other level.

In 32 career games against the Suns while playing in a Lakers uniform, Lamar Odom has upped his averages to 16.4 points, 11.7 rebounds and 38.3 minutes per game while shooting 48.3% from the field. Monday night, he posed the exact same problem for the Suns that everyone hoped would be a constant threat during his entire NBA career.

Lamar Odom finished with a spectacular line of 19 points and 19 rebounds off the bench in just 31 minutes of play. But it wasn’t the line he posted as much as it was the way he posted it. Seven of those rebounds came on the offensive boards. He feasted inside with 7/10 on his shots around the rim (Hoopdata). Simply put, the Phoenix Suns see a perfect weapon in Odom for what they do and have to watch while he has his way with them.

When Lamar Odom is on the court against the Suns, he’s able to slip into any spot on the floor that he needs. He can stay back and take long jumpers, even if they are a horrific shot for him to be taking. But most of all, he’s going to dive into the lane and create havoc against a Suns defense that still can’t defend the paint. I know we all like to think this Suns team is improved defensively in some way but regardless of what stats you want to use, when Amare and Frye are on the floor together you’re just not going to be able to match the length of a guy like Odom.

The Suns are designed to one thing and one thing only – that’s score a ton of points. When the tempo was high at the beginning of the game, it looked like the Lakers were going to have a real contest in front of them. Maybe it wasn’t going to be the same heart-pounding threat that the Thunder were in the first round but it wasn’t going to be far from it either. With Odom on the court, the tempo is no longer an option. He controls the boards and if he controls the boards then he controls the tempo of the game. He can get back on defense, end the Suns possession if they miss and get the momentum going the Lakers way.

We’re not necessarily sure that he’s going to show up and do this again in Game Two because that’s just not what he guarantees on a basketball court. He leaves us guessing, which adds to the drama of the NBA playoffs.

The confusion adds to not only his mystique but the Lakers mystique as well.

LeBron James and the Cavs’ early elimination from the playoffs has inspired an endless amount of criticism, blame, confusion, and speculation, but somehow lost in it at all was giving Game 6 its proper due. The allure of looking forward rather than looking around had everyone pondering over James’ free agent future rather than giving the Celtics the credit they deserve for taking down the #1 seed in completely dominating fashion. Game 3 aside, Boston looked like a team capable of making a serious run at the title, and their initial contest of the Eastern Conference Finals doesn’t do much to discourage that theory.

So, in video form, I offer tribute to the Celtics’ fine Game 6 win over the Cavaliers. It wasn’t the spectacle that Game 5 was, and it’s not the media bonanza that LeBron’s summer will be, but it was still an interesting game on a number of levels and too valuable to gloss over.

I can’t decide whether I prefer this or Tony’s evisceration of Antawn Jamison the other night. But I’ll take em both. In related news, Tony Allen is now a major contributor in the NBA playoffs.

Be sure to stock up on potable water and canned goods. (video via @jose3030)

Much like the New York Times keeps pre-written obituaries of certain famous people on hand so the editors can meet their deadlines with a poignant, informed and accurate piece for the next day’s paper, it feels like a many people were immediately ready to go with their “Where Will/Should LeBron Go?” articles today.

The most talented scribes (who also tend to be those who sleep the least) probably just wrote them last night or early this morning, but within hours of LeBron’s season ending, the prognostications proliferated throughout the tubes of net — and many were very good. Brian Windhorst of Cleveland’s Plain Dealer wrote a great piece on the game and the series that touched on LeBron’s future, Kelly Dwyer delivered the goods with some free agency and Cavs speculation, and The Sports Guy himself even threw back the clock to drop a pretty damn good breakdown of where The Chosen One should go.

Of course, the best Summer 2010-related item today came from the Cleveland celebrity community, as they banded together to serenade The King with a plea to remain in Ohio.

As for me … don’t worry. I’m not really ready to write anything about the topic yet. Perhaps I never will.

But, I figured we could kick off this Hardwood Paroxysm Free Agency Extravaganza 2010 coverage with the first official words on the topic from the key figure himself. Spoiler Alert: He doesn’t make any major announcements or reveal anything at all really, but here is everything LeBron had to say on the topic last night after his Finals hopes were officially deaded for 2009-10.

It was unexpected, especially the way it happened, in six games, with Boston winning twice at the Q, with the Celtics defense suffocating the life out of the Cleveland attack. But it wasn’t altogether inconceivable.

Going into these playoffs, it seemed to me as though there were three possible outcomes in regards to which squad would end the year raising the Larry O’Brien trophy. In scenario number one, the Lakers would do it because they have more talent than any other team. In scenario number two, the Magic would do it because they ended the regular season playing better than any other team. And in scenario number three, the Cavs would do it because LeBron James would rain fire from the clouds for two straight months on every other team, while his adequate-enough teammates followed him in neat order to the podium.

You can throw scenario three in the trash.

But as you do that, be sure to reach down and pick up that crumpled piece of paper outlining a fourth scenario that we threw away months ago: the Celtics do it because their defense is Oh-Eightesque, Rajon Rondo is a Sistine Chapel-level work of art, KG is again confident/homicidal, Truth is looking Truthier by the day, and Ray Allen is Ray Allen.

We could have seen all of this coming. But few, including myself, did.

But prescience, no matter how much all these sportswriters try to tell you over and over and over again, does not matter. Not one bit.

What matters is that this Boston team just dressed down the best regular season squad in the NBA this season — and did so maliciously and without flinching. They walked into the Cavs building in Game 5 and ripped the heart out of team that was in a dazed stupor while watching its leader — the best basketball player most of them have ever shared a court with — play with the intensity and aggressive of Wally Szczerbiak — the name of a random soft player that seems appropriate to use here since he is a contender for best Cav player LeBron ever played with prior to the guys on the current roster arriving. (With Z, the lone holdover from early Jamesian Cleveland era of futility, being the only other real candidate.)

Then, back on friendly turf for Game 6, the Celtics did what their leader asked and treated their first chance at closing out a wounded, confused, disorganized team like it was a Game 7. Garnett, impassioned and ready to execute, scored 6 of his team’s first 12 points as Shaq loafed around the perimeter, chasing him like Andre the Giant trying to fight the Dread Pirate Roberts in The Princess Bride. (Two Nets-related notes here: (1) Russ Bengston has proposed that we call CDR “Tbe Dread Pirate Roberts” and I think you should begin complying, and (2) Sebastian Pruiti of Nets Are Scorching did a great video breakdown of KG’s early game jumpers over on his other blog NBA Playbook.)

Rajon did his I-might-be-better-than-Deron-Williams thing. Ray got involved, most notably with some Big State-era hops to throw down a vicious dunk over Mo Williams. And Tony Allen stepped up off the bench to change the game in ways that no Cav reserve, aside from perhaps Varejao in his 26 minutes of action, would.

Really, that’s all it took.

The Cs kept things rolling, LeBron was never able to go next-level and remained a (perhaps over-)willing passer whenever confronted by two Celtics defenders (which occurred on almost every play) or stymied by the open space around him collapsing (which, again, occurred almost constantly). LeBron did not dynamically open up a space/time continuum-altering wormhole as we have previously seen at times in his career. He did not become a rabid bull donning rose-tinted glasses of destruction. He was not a streetcar named mayhem. But he played pretty damned good basketball, particularly for a man who continually appeared to lack any dexterity in his right arm given the way he was unable to dribble precisely even while open, let alone once he became enveloped by Celtics defenders.

Was it a heroic offensive performance by an individual? No. But it was an adequate attempt to execute on a night when he had trouble executing. If anything, he “played the right way” too much, consistently choosing a skip pass to an open man in position to shoot or a clever interior pass to players who, had they not been named Anderson Varejao or Shaq, were in position to finish at the rim. Was it an approach to the sport that Cleveland fans, and even just curious onlookers wondering what the best player on the planet was capable of doing, truly wanted to see out of a man we have so often seen bomb atomically? Probably not. But it was not an unengaged, laissez-faire approach that we saw from LeBron in Game 5. He was active, he was cutting to spots, he was trying to get position in the post. He was not brazenly dribbling to the hoop with no regard for human life — or double teams or open teammates. Perhaps he couldn’t and was sick of mishandling the ball every other time he dribbled hard into the lane. Perhaps he thought working the offense could work. Perhaps he thought Anthony Parker, Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison and others had a better chance to make open jumpers than he had to finish left-handed over three guys.

Regardless, he was out there, playing hard and actively trying to help his team put points on the board. (Until the last minute that is, which Joe Posnanski breaks down amazingly in this must-read piece.) It’s weird that I even feel the need to type that. But he forced me to with his Game 5 performance. And so many members of the media and blogosphere forced me to with their over-reactions and hyperbole-filled character assaults following LeBron’s terrible, inexplicable no-show the last time out. The fact is that James was engaged, helpful on offense and active (19 rebounds people … doesn’t happen by accident) even if he wasn’t ungodly.

Really, however, this isn’t about him as much as yall want it to be. Not for me it isn’t. See, I’m a basketball fan, not a soap opera fan or someone interesting in reading your armchair psychoanalysis of a man you’ve never met. So this is about the basketball that will (in case you forgot) continue to be played for the next month.

This is about the Boston Celtics doing the damn thing.

Well, they just did. And if you think they have no shot of doing it again — versus the Magic, versus the Lakers or even versus the Suns — you were too caught up in LeBrongate to pay enough attention to the stellar defense and revitalization of confidence that has been occurring in Boston so far during these Playoffs.

(For more on this, go read Bob Ryan’s fantastics piece on the Celtics victory.)

I have a feeling you’ll see more Game 6 Cavs/Celtics coverage around here in the minutes, hours, days, weeks and years to come, but let’s start with the best highlight of the contest. And a highlight that very fittingly sums up Antawn Jamison’s Game 6. (And most of his series, really.)

2 for 10 shooting? Plus terrible defense? Thanks for coming out.

Also, that 3/16 shooting from three this series for a stretch four probably wasn’t ideal. (video via @jose3030)

Height is one of the most sought after commodities in the game.  Being taller than your opponents helps grab a live ball, get a shot off cleanly, and block shots.  But there’s more to length than being tall head to toe.  A player’s wingspan, vertical leap, and reaction time can make a “shorter” athlete play several inches taller than his height.

More and more teams are employing “small ball” lineups that try to gain an edge by emphasizing speed and quickness over height.  On the other hand, you have teams like the Lakers who can throw three 7-footers at the opponent without missing a step.  So how important is height for a team?

In today’s post, I wanted to look at the relationship between team height and rebounding.  To do this, I gathered the heights of every player that played in the NBA this season and grouped them by their respective team.  Instead of calculating the average height for each team, I weighted the team heights by minutes played.  This adjustment eliminates the bench bias for teams that employed guys like 7-2 Primoz Brezec who rode the pine all year (Philly and Milwaukee).  I’m not calling you a tall team if the players on the court aren’t tall.

After calculating the minutes-weighted height (or effective height), I compared the team length to their rebounding rates.  So, who’s the tallest team in the NBA?

The Sacramento Kings ran the tallest team in the NBA this year with an effective height of about six-foot eight.  Much of their lofty ranking comes from Donte Green who stands 6-11 at the small forward position. In fact, the most common lineup in the Kings system this year was Beno Udrih( 6-3) – Tyreke Evans (6-6) – Donte Green (6-11) – Carl Landry (6-9) – Spencer Hawes (7-0) [have to give an assist finger point to Aaron Barzilai of basketballvalue.com fame].  The third most common lineup could touch the sky with Donte Green playing at the two and Tyreke Evans running the show.  To round out their rotation, the Kings also have 6-9 Omri Casspi to play the three and 6-11 Jason Thompson to play the four.  That’s a tall team.

Despite being really long, the Kings didn’t rebound any better overall than the average team (50.4 TRB%).  That’s largely because Donte Green has arguably been the weakest 6-11 rebounder to get big minutes in the NBA of all time.  A premature superlative?  Possibly. But just remember that his 7.8 percent career total rebound rate is the lowest among any 6-11 or taller player to play at least 100 games in the NBA.   Moreover, Spencer Hawes fits the mold of a shooter who just happens to be extremely tall and doesn’t rebound nearly as well as his center contemporaries.  His teammate Jon Brockman grabs twice as many offensive boards as he does despite boasting the height of a typical shooting guard.  Actually, the team’s above-average offensive rebounding rate could be attributed solely to Brockman’s knack for collecting his team’s missed shots.

You’ll notice that three of the five tallest teams in effective height have pedestrian rebounding rates.  Not coincidentally, each of them (Kings, Suns, and Raptors) like to have a stretch 5 on the floor at the expense of collecting boards.

And the shortest teams? Well, the Warriors employ Nellie-ball which takes small-ball to the extreme.  Several of their most used lineups included Corey Maggette at the four spot which would get any normal coach fired.  But Don Nelson isn’t just any coach– he has over 1,000 losses on his resume.  Contrast the rebounding rates of Golden State to Houston who lost their resident redwood Yao Ming in the offseason.  Despite having the second smallest team in the NBA, they rank very nicely amongst their NBA competitors and about the same as the Toronto Raptors.

To draw a better picture, I’ve included three graphs that chart effective height against their rebounding rates.  Each chart includes a trend-line in red.

As you can see, I broke up the plot area into quadrants to help interpret the orientation a bit better. You can see how well the Spurs rebounded this year despite having one of the shortest effective heights in the league.  That, my friends, is the power of DeJuan Blair.  Blair has vertically-challenged rebounding abilities unseen since Danny Fortson.

If you haven’t figured out already, you don’t want to be in the top-left quadrant.  That area’s reserved for the teams who try to stretch the floor with their height but often lose the battle for live balls.  It’s no surprise that each of these teams (NJN, IND, NYK, WAS, MIN, and TOR) lost more games than they won.

This year, the correlation between eHt and TRB% was .33 which means that there’s a decent relationship between the two entities.  30 teams isn’t a big sample size, to be sure.  Aside from the numbers, there’s much  more to rebounding than height.  As I mentioned earlier, physical attributes like wingspan and vertical have an effect in addition to more mental qualities like positioning and reaction time.

But let’s go further and separate rebounding into two parts: offense and defense.

Here’s offensive rebounding rate and how it relates to effective height.

Offensive rebounding and effective height have a much stronger relationship than overall rebounding– the correlation in this (small) sample was .42.  A one inch increase in effective height translates to about a two percent uptick in offensive rebound percentage (say 24 percent to 26 percent).  Perhaps with more defenders in the lane to rebound the ball, height gives you that extra edge needed to steal a board.

Of course, as the Pacers can attest, sometimes height matters nothing.  I mean, 7-2 Roy Hibbert grabs fewer offensive boards than Chuck Hayes who is eight inches shorter.  To reiterate, a big vertical can close the gap underneath and Hibbert’s ineptitude demonstrates this quite nicely.  Moreover, their power forward Troy Murphy slings it from the perimeter and therefore, rarely gets in position to grab offensive boards.  The Pacers can trot out a tall team but it doesn’t mean they’ll play tall.

However, this seems to be the exception more than the rule.  It’s very hard to get offensive rebounds with a short team.  As much as it is a height issue, it’s probably also a product of strategy.  If I’m coaching a short team, I’m more often than not sending my players back to defense on the shot release since it’s a longshot that they’d collect an offensive board anyway.  Houston and Philly do this better than anyone but they still aren’t quite elite.

Here’s where it gets interesting. On the defensive end, it doesn’t seem to make a difference whether you’re a tall team or not.  The relationship is essentially random with a correlation of -0.03.  Check it out.

I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the negative trend-line as the relationship is about nil and the sample size isn’t enormous.  Phoenix and Cleveland have about the same effective height this season but 27 teams separate them in defensive rebounding rate.   Sacramento has the tallest team but they rebound no better than average and Houston, as small as they are, actual rebounds better on the defensive end.  Golden State still rebounds worse than a lightweight suffering from a Franzia hangover.

Why is it random? An extra rebounder matters more than an extra inch.  On defense, it’s common to have all five defenders waiting for the ball so the individual height advantage tends to vanish.  Of course, there will always be matchups where this isn’t the case but on the whole, defensive rebounding isn’t sensitive to height differences with a full five eyeing the rebound.

With lineup data available, a logical next step might be to see how much height matters in the play-by-plays.  Not just for one team but on a matchup level too.  How much does a couple inches of height matter against a tiny squad like the Warriors? How about versus the Kings?  Also, going back further years would give this study a huge boost (if someone hasn’t done that already).   For now, the main takeaway is that tall teams benefited from their height advantage most on the offensive boards and not on the defensive end.

Okay, so everybody is talking about LeBron James … so much to the point where the mounting dead horses are going to be hell to deal with come game six. But LeBron probably wouldn’t have it any other way, him being talked about, good or bad, that is.

Over on TrueHoop, Kevin Arnovitz has a great video breakdown of James’ poor game five and instances of him watching the action, among other very un-King-like activities. Arnovitz also highlights a fast-break play (at the 43 second mark of the video) where Mo Williams might have failed to recognize LeBron’s presence in transition.

While, in my opinion, it’s questionable whether Williams should have found LeBron in that specific instance, there was another missed fast-break opportunity for LeBron and the Cavaliers which raises some questions.

What have LeBron’s teammates been told about his injury and how to treat him on the court? Have they been asked not to throw alley oops only attainable by LeBron so he can go attacking the rim with reckless abandon on the house, the defense and his elbow?

Let’s watch …

Note: At the first pause in the .GIF, LeBron seems to have all the step he needs on Tony Allen. However, also note that he doesn’t seem to be calling for the lob — maybe he’s nominating himself as a decoy, maybe he wants Mo to take Rasheed Wallace, and maybe something is off.

At the second pause … sure, Rasheed is hanging back. But c’mon, he’s not falling that far off Williams … and it’s LeBron f-ing James. Who’s really doing to stop a lob to him?

But alas, Williams pulls up for a shot just as LeBron is slowing down his train … like it was some preordained and coordinated act between the two. It just makes you wonder … not only is LeBron treating the game different, but his teammates seem to be treating him differently as well. LeBron is where the energy wasn’t.

It’s a head-scratcher, huh LeBron?

What say you Mike Brown?

Oh, still chomping.

Note: As a Wizards fan who blogs about the team at Truth About It.net, I’m fairly confident that the Cavaliers will win both games six and seven. Here’s to hoping they prove me wrong.