Mile High Lessons in March

I learned some very important things after that loss to Denver on Wednesday night. I learned both Lebron and Kevin can be right at the same time. I learned it's possible to field a completely healthy team. The Cavs must also be working on some new sets defensively. They keep mentioning they have some things stored up for the playoffs, so maybe that explains what I saw which looked more like what my dad always called o-lay defense. Now, to give them some grace, this set must still need some tweaking and must be scenario dependent because it resulted with all 5 guys playing defense on the same side of the floor (more to come in a bit). Lastly I learned that it is no good to get excited in March, sure you can fill yourself with Madness but in the NBA, March excitement is for losers. Let me explain.

1. Lebron and Kevin can both be right

Lebron says that as a team we need to man up and play better on the ball defense. He is right because they were awful. I mean real bad. You remember those days at recess when you would dribble past everyone because you learned how to dribble hard with just one hand. You'd put your head down and just blow by everyone. There were only two reasons to look up: 1) To chuck some kind of shot towards the backboard claiming the bank was open or 2) To see how many girls noticed how awesome you were. Then that one kid would pick you up on defense. Definitely smelled, wore those puffy starter jackets with all the stains, put both arms straight out like two giants meat clubs, and got within two inches of you. Of course he never fouled you and most the time he was too scary to argue with. So you, just like all the ladies, walked away. That defense right there would have served the Cavs better than what they did on Wednesday in Denver. Secondly, Kevin was also right. There was no help. It was like that same elementary class above went on a boat ride for a class trip one day and that starter jacket kid fell out. You weren't rushing to help him and honestly no one else did either until the teacher noticed and started freaking out. There was no on the ball defense and no help.

2. This image says enough about our new defensive set:

I mean need a say more. I know Lebron doesn't spend more energy then he needs to before the playoffs usually. But as a team I am beginning to worry we have taken this "save some in the tank" approach a little too far. This itself is embarrassing enough for us just to move on. No more words. Except I'm wondering if anyone has that kid from elementary school's number. We might need him.

3. It's good not to get excited.

Let's end on some good news. It's March. In the past I have gotten excited in March. I got excited when the Cavs sucked and they'd finally start gettting it all together around this point in the season. Reason - other teams were either tanking or coasting and we got some low effort games that made us look good. I also would get excited when we were pretty good. By that I mean like what I'd call Atlanta Hawks or Washington Wizard good. Which we know is the equivalent of a team who can make some noise but could never when it all. But recently I fell into the excitement trap. I think it was due to a break in the Madness, these three days off from the NCAA tourney can really mess with a fan! But we were healthy. I thought we might see a few good games where we put it all together and gear up for say, 8-9 games, before we coast into the playoffs. I was wrong. But as I let it simmer today, I'm reminded that it's good to be great which means it's ok to be bad. Sounds dumb. But it's true.

So as we watch these last 12 games, sit back and remind yourself the playoffs are coming. I'm pretty confident we are not going to see much until then. And Round 1 will be when we start looking like a Championship team again. Let's hope.

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