Intro, thoughts on Cavs-C's game 5

Hello all,
I assume all of you who will read his already know me so I'll jump right into what I hope to accomplish with this bloggo-sphero-world adventure... thing. I was born and raised about 45 minutes west of Cleveland Ohio, and as such, have been a Cleveland sports fan all my life. I absolutely love watching, talking about, and agonizing over my Browns, Indians and Cavs. I have to admit I'm not a big sports nerd (sorry if I offend any big sports nerds out there). What I mean by this is, I follow my home teams closely, I watch ESPN and visit its website frequently to stay up to date on the most current headlines. But I am not the kind of person that will sit there and watch every minute of every sports game I see, I'm a busy guy you know. I've tried, but unless their is a sensational story brewing, if my team is not playing, I tend to lose interest quickly (that's when I just catch the highlights the next day on Sportscenter).
With that being said, this will be mostly a blog about Cleveland sports. A lot of what you read will be my opinions on current issues; I will do my best to support my arguments with sourced facts, building on them to make my point. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea... that's cool, thanks for stopping by and reading my first installment, and may the schwartz be with you!
Ok, now its time to dive into my first topic, the catalyst for my wanting to start a sports blog, the God-awful performance by the Cleveland Cavaliers in game 5 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals. I am usually a loyal fan and will watch the game until the last whistle, but I had to turn this one off last night. It was that bad (and LOST was on). I have never seen a more terrible performance by a Cleveland team with so much riding on one game. Where was the effort? Where was the intensity? Where in the hell was LeBron James? After getting over my frustration from last night in which I could not bear to listen to or read any reports of the game, I read a few articles, listened to sports talk radio and of course, watched Skip Bayless this morning.
Echoing the sentiment of the hose of the Real Big Show (is it Kenny Rhoda?), I have to put this squarely, on the shoulders of two people, LeBron, and Cavs coach Mike Brown. Lets start with LeBron's disappearing act. This is a guy who, it was reported, was more focused than anyone had ever seen him at the start of the playoffs. After his amazing, Jordan-like performance in game 3 the guy has been a ghost in this series. 15 points on 3 of 15 shooting? You have to play better than that when your season hangs in the balance. But you know what, the guy has had bad games before, that's not what really bothered me. What got under mine, and most Cleveland fans' skin was James's complete disinterest with the game. I have never seen him so detached. This is the guy who is usually joking with teammates while on the bench, dancing, etc. Last night, he looked like a little kid who was pouting because the big kids wouldn't let him play ball with them.
But what bothered me almost as much as his performance was his post-game press conference. James essentially said, and I'm paraphrasing here, that he has spoiled the fans and media with his performances, so of course a game like this won't go unnoticed. Allow me to channel my inner Jim Rome for a moment and say, that is GARBAGE. You'll spoil us when you win one championship, just one LeBron... just one. The people of this city are barely making ends meet and most of them (like me) cannot afford the outrageous ticket prices the Cavs charge to come see your million dollar ass throw up bricks all night in the playoffs. So get out of here with that garbage. You spoil us? We spoil you by being the most loyal fans you will ever have a chance to play in front of. Go ahead LeBron, leave for New York or Chicago and go 3 for 15 in a playoff game in one of those cities. The fans and media there will eat you alive.
But for as much frustration as I feel towards LeBron today, I must give equal blame to Mike Brown. I have heard people say for years that Brown is a bad coach. I have tried to stay away from saying this because the truth is, I am far from being a basketball expert. I don't know enough about rotations and substitution patterns and such to make comments like that. But I am starting to lean towards the people that want to throw Brown off the (sinking) ship. He has been thoroughly out coached by Van Gundy and Rivers in the last two years while having (at least in my opinion) superior teams in both years (well, in hindsight, the Magic were probably better last year but I think the Cavs are better than the C's when they are at their best). Still, the bottom line is that the guy simply cannot make in-game adjustments when he needs to. Or, he makes terrible substitutions such as last night when, after swatting a ball into about the 3rd row, and sending the Cleveland crowd into a frenzy, Z was suddenly (along with LeBron) sent to the bench. It seems to me that Brown sticks to his substitution patterns too closely, unwilling to deviate from his pregame strategy and just run with something when it works. I also don't understand this idea that you can't go deep into your bench in the playoffs. Why not? The Cavs have thrived all year on being one of the deepest teams in the NBA. Yes, a lot of their guys play inconsistent night in and night out, but that was the beauty of this year's team. If one guy was having a bad game you simply went to the bench and got another guy in there. That is how it seemed that someone was always stepping up, event though it tended to never be the same person two nights in a row (discounting LeBron). Maybe there is something I am missing here. If someone could explain that to me I'd appreciate it.
Just a few final notes on last nights game:
1. I thought Shaq was the best Cavs player on the court last night. Say what you want about his playoffs so far this year but when they were up against it this guy came to play. That's what true champions do.
2 Staying on Shaq, I wish he would have gotten into LeBron's year a little bit and said, "Hey man, this is why I came here, to win you a ring. It's time. So sack up and play!"
3. Varejao made some great hustle plays. I would not expect anything less. The guys is a scrapper, and you don't find many of those in the NBA anymore.

Well, there you have it. My first blog ever. This one inspired me to write because the subject upset me, so I promise they won't all be indictments on Cleveland teams and players (God that is going to be hard). In about a week or so I plan to explore the mind of Cleveland sports fans and chronicle my own infatuation with dominant teams and players, including, DUN DUN DUN! Jordan, the Patriots, and Duke basketball. Stay tuned!

Kevin

p.s. Please feel free to leave comments, give suggestions, tell me your opinions, etc. If enough people read this I might keep doing it... or it could be a fleeting thing that I lose interest in, I don't really know. But I promise that the more feedback I get the more inspired I will be to right more... and if your feedback is to tell me to stop writing I'll take that into account to.