Photo: Associated Press

It seems that the Cavaliers never really had a chance in this one, because they were the victims of some of the worst officiating I have witnessed in my entire life. Monty McCutchen and his crew stripped the Cavaliers of an opportunity to knock off the Celtics for a second time on their home floor. Give the Cavaliers credit for not phoning it in down 22 with their head coach ejected and the entire team thoroughly upset. LeBron James never believed the game was out of reach, and his body language and actions showed that. James’s 42-point contribution was in a losing effort, but it is crystal clear that the Cavaliers are no longer afraid of the Boston Celtics and their tired, grumpy, cocky act. Luckily for Cleveland, the San Antonio Spurs helped the wine and gold out by smoking the Lakers and thus wrapping up home court throughout the playoffs for the Cavaliers. Once again, the road to The Larry O’ Brien Trophy runs smack dab through Quicken Loans Arena, and this time, the Cavs are determined to not let that slip away from them.

Without Shaq and Andy today, the Cleveland frontcourt finally succumbed to a team where you cannot get away with a lack of physical play underneath. The Celtics’ gameplan was to get plenty of touches for Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins and it gave Boston the early advantage. Add in the fact that Rajon Rondo continues to own Mo Williams and Boston was flying high in the first quarter with plus 50% shooting. Anthony Parker extended his longest slump as a Cavalier by providing little defensive resistance on sharpshooter Ray Allen. Allen had one of his best games of the season, dropping in 33 points and lifting Boston to a win that they needed much more than the Cavs.

Thankfully for Cleveland, Mo Gotti kept his string of liquid hot firing going in Beantown. Mo hit his first six shots, but the Cavalier offense did not run through him enough with LeBron James struggling to find his way. In fact, Williams took no more shots after those first six in his 31 minutes. His inability to cover Rondo effectively forced the Cavalier coaches to go with Delonte West more often in the second half, plus the fact that the Cavaliers made a run without Mo in the game. With Mo on a roll in the last three games, the Cavs absolutely have to keep him in rhythm with double-digit shot attempts.

Awf-ficiating is a term that I’ve personally coined to verbalize my disgust with NBA officials and their personal agendas at times. If I could select a posterboy for the phrase, it would be none other than one Monty McCutchen. This isn’t the first case in which McCutchen has portrayed a Joe Crawford-esque, "it’s all about me" attitude. In today’s contest, McCutchen basically baited the Cavaliers into immense frustration. The starting point was a series of plays in the first half where the Cavaliers did not get the benefit of the doubt on fouls underneath and the Celtics did. The most obviously incorrect of these was a fastbreak layup where Delonte West backed away from Rondo, did not even touch him, and was still called for a foul as Rondo scored the hoop. From that moment forward, my basketball senses told me this mountain was going to be impossible for the wine and golders to climb. At intermission, Antawn Jamison and Zydrunas Ilgauskas each sported three fouls, while former Celtic Leon Powe had four fouls! It turned out that the Cavs were only called for two more fouls than the Celtics at the break, but it felt like such a wider margin because Cleveland was attacking and coming up empty with foul calls. Then, the big top really opened up on this Easter circus.

Early in the third quarter, the Cavaliers had finally had enough and reached the point of no return. On a play in which Rondo deadened the ball and rolled it below the stanchion, the Cavaliers refused to pick up the basketball at first. It is customary for referees to chase the ball down, but not the elite Monty McCutchen. Instead, Monty started the old five-second count to say that he was not going to be shown up by the Cavs. Parker grabbed the ball and threw it into Williams, who then gestured to McCutchen, expressing his displeasure. What followed was quite possibly the fastest three T-bombs in NBA history. Mike Brown blew a fuse, walking onto the court in Monty’s direction, and before he knew it, he was done for the afternoon. It's relatively rare for MB to get tossed outside of a game that’s not against the Wizards, but Monte made it happen and it left head assistant Mike Malone to coach the team. Malone can put this one on his resume, because he nearly pulled off one of the most thrilling comebacks in franchise history.

I mentioned before that LeBron acted like he was not going to be denied in this one, and that really started to show in the fourth quarter. With the Cavaliers down 17 after three, LBJ and company had a furious surge that briefly gave them the lead late in the fourth. James scored 20 of his 42 points in the final 12 minutes as he relentlessly attacked the rim. The Celtics did their part too, since they only managed five points for nearly ten minutes to start the quarter. Give the Cavalier defense props for leaving it all out there in the fourth quarter after playing very lethargic on that end for most of the game.

Down just two with four seconds left, LeBron James went all-in, pulling up in transition for a wide-open three and misfiring. James was 0-for-7 on the game from deep at that point, but I might be in the minority when I say that I had no problem with the shot. The game would have just been icing on the Cavaliers' cake, and LeBron didn't need to go into overtime and play even more minutes. Win or go home is what LBJ had in mind. The Cavaliers know they can beat these misfits, so why not try to stab them in the heart with a dagger? LeBron's ready for anything the Celtics have to offer, including the trash from Tony Allen and Kevin Garnett, who seemed pretty proud of themselves despite blowing a 22-point second half lead.

Even though the comeback fell short as a result of Boston besting the Cavs at the foul line, it was a statement that the Cavaliers are none too worried about Boston bullying them around anymore. When you blow a 22-point lead at home after losing three straight home games, you don’t have that championship grit anymore. Don’t get me wrong. Rondo could lift these dinosaurs into knocking off the Cavs in a potential playoff series, but they won’t be taking home the trophy. All things considered, a large part of me wants to see the Cavs and Celtics meet up so LeBron can wipe that smug, profanity-spewing scowl off of KG’s face.

goes to: LeBron James. A team takes on the personality of its leader. Today, both teams did that, and LeBron never thought the game was out of reach. So, the Cavs played like it wasn’t and they chipped away little by little until they had the lead. This game shows how incredibly difficult it is going to be to beat the Cavs four out of seven times. James had 42 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists in 45 minutes. He was 14-of-31 from the field after starting just 4-of-13, but he was only 14-of-22 from the line as the Cavs finally got burned by the lack of solid free throw shooting.

Team Grade: B-

Cleveland shot 51% and turned it over just 11 times, but Boston hit 49% of its shots and only turned it over 10 times after having zero turnovers for almost the whole first half. Cleveland also hit only 26-of-40 free throws for 65 percent, while the Celts made 31-of-38 for 82%. Bench scoring was also 23-14 in favor of the Celtics.

The wine and gold will likely look to rest some of their starters or at least significantly reduce their minutes in this weeks' games. The next game is on Tuesday night against a possible first round opponent, the Toronto Raptors.

All for one. One for all.

Kirk

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