jmard5
05-04-2006, 10:39 AM
Be afraid. Be very afraid...
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CLEVELAND -- LeBron James got all the way to the basket for the game-winner for two reasons: Because he's LeBron James, and because his opponents were scared.
The Wizards were not scared of James, mind you. At least not any more scared than they should have been.
But they were afraid of the referees.
"I tried to get there," said Antawn Jamison, whose failure to completely cut off the baseline allowed James to tiptoe around him and get to the hoop for the layup with 0.9 seconds left that gave Cleveland a 121-120 victory over the Wizards for a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven series. "I didn't expect him to catch and then go like he did, and if I would have moved any more closer [to the baseline], it would have been a foul."
Jamison wasn't the only Washington defender afraid of running afoul of an officiating crew that whistled 61 fouls, sent the Cavs to the line 43 times (Washington shot 29) and sent starters Caron Butler and Jared Jeffries to the bench with their sixth personal fouls.
"We set it up that we didn't want the ball go to the baseline, period," Jamison said. "We wanted it to go to the top of the key. It went to the baseline and kind of caught me off guard, and he took advantage of that. But the plan was for the ball to not even get into the corner, and unfortunately we had one of the biggest breakdowns at a crucial point in the game."
A savvier player would have known that no official in his right mind was going to call a technical foul for overcrowding the inbounder with 3.6 seconds left in overtime of a critical postseason game. (OK, Joey Crawford might have the guts to make that call, but no one else would).
But that small seed of doubt in Haywood's mind, along with Jamison's caution-fueled decision to set up his defensive position a half-foot from where he should have, gave James both the ball and the opening he needed.
"I had enough time to visualize the best way to get to the hoop. I saw Antawn closing out hard, but I had enough room on that baseline. If I had a size 18 or 19 shoe, I wouldn't have made it. But I wear a 16, and I was able to tightrope and get it in," James said.
James finished with 45 points, going 17-for-18 from the line, to overcome 44 points from Gilbert Arenas, 32 from Jamison and 20 from Butler. The Cavs frittered away a seven-point lead in the final 1:18 of regulation ("We got soft," James said) to give the Wizards an extra chance they never should have had, but Washington responded in kind with the kind of mental softness -- fearing the referees -- that helped give James the two tiny slivers of daylight he needed.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime
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CLEVELAND -- LeBron James got all the way to the basket for the game-winner for two reasons: Because he's LeBron James, and because his opponents were scared.
The Wizards were not scared of James, mind you. At least not any more scared than they should have been.
But they were afraid of the referees.
"I tried to get there," said Antawn Jamison, whose failure to completely cut off the baseline allowed James to tiptoe around him and get to the hoop for the layup with 0.9 seconds left that gave Cleveland a 121-120 victory over the Wizards for a 3-2 lead in their best-of-seven series. "I didn't expect him to catch and then go like he did, and if I would have moved any more closer [to the baseline], it would have been a foul."
Jamison wasn't the only Washington defender afraid of running afoul of an officiating crew that whistled 61 fouls, sent the Cavs to the line 43 times (Washington shot 29) and sent starters Caron Butler and Jared Jeffries to the bench with their sixth personal fouls.
"We set it up that we didn't want the ball go to the baseline, period," Jamison said. "We wanted it to go to the top of the key. It went to the baseline and kind of caught me off guard, and he took advantage of that. But the plan was for the ball to not even get into the corner, and unfortunately we had one of the biggest breakdowns at a crucial point in the game."
A savvier player would have known that no official in his right mind was going to call a technical foul for overcrowding the inbounder with 3.6 seconds left in overtime of a critical postseason game. (OK, Joey Crawford might have the guts to make that call, but no one else would).
But that small seed of doubt in Haywood's mind, along with Jamison's caution-fueled decision to set up his defensive position a half-foot from where he should have, gave James both the ball and the opening he needed.
"I had enough time to visualize the best way to get to the hoop. I saw Antawn closing out hard, but I had enough room on that baseline. If I had a size 18 or 19 shoe, I wouldn't have made it. But I wear a 16, and I was able to tightrope and get it in," James said.
James finished with 45 points, going 17-for-18 from the line, to overcome 44 points from Gilbert Arenas, 32 from Jamison and 20 from Butler. The Cavs frittered away a seven-point lead in the final 1:18 of regulation ("We got soft," James said) to give the Wizards an extra chance they never should have had, but Washington responded in kind with the kind of mental softness -- fearing the referees -- that helped give James the two tiny slivers of daylight he needed.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/dailydime?page=dailydime