I Told You So

By Trey Cosby

If you read my post about the NBA trades that was written about a month ago, then you know how much I have been enjoying the league since I started following it again back in December.  In that article, I spoke about how the trades that were made in the NBA at midseason would generate great participation from fans, and how they would make teams better as the season moved on into the playoffs.  Every team that made a blockbuster trade to elevate their team’s play is in the playoffs today.

The playoff season began with a knock-down-drag-out fight between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Washington Wizards on Saturday.  The trash-talking Wizards came into the Cleveland Coliseum with a chip on their shoulders, while trying to intimidate the Cleveland players and make Lebron James work like a slave for every point he was going to get.  The style worked for about one quarter of basketball, then Lebron did what Lebron does and Cleveland won the game going away.

James started out the day going 0 for 4, and he was bounced around the lane almost every time he took the ball to the hole.  He spent more time on the floor than anything else, so it looked like it was going to be a long day for Cleveland.  The Cavs fell behind early, but managed to come back and tie the game at halftime.  It was a first half of basketball where the Cavs looked like they were getting a feel for each other.  The new players looked like they were a little bit shell-shocked.  Wallace and Szczerbiak both seemed timid.  The team was not hitting shots, and they let the trash-talking style of the Wizards get to them for a short time.

Once the Cavaliers came out onto the floor after halftime, they looked like a brand new team.  As a defense they pressured the basketball and forced Washington to shoot low percentage shots, which the Wizards generally did not make.  Washington closed out the game shooting a dismal three for 18 from the field.  Cleveland relied on Lebron to do most of the scoring, and the superstar ended up making 12 out of his last 15 shots to finish with 32 for the game.  I stated before how I thought Lebron would elevate his game.  He spent most of the game trying to get his teammates involved.  Then when it mattered the most, King James stepped up his game to a level that Washington had no answer for.  His spinning tornado-type runner with less than a minute to go put Cleveland ahead to stay.  The shot was a thing of beauty, one that the fans of Cleveland have come to expect from their larger-than-life basketball hero.  The team from Ohio ended up hitting most of their free-throws at the end of the game and they went on to win the game going away 92-83.  They have now beaten the Wizards seven times in a row in the playoffs, so Washington will have their work cut out for them once again if they are going to try and eliminate the Cavs from this year’s playoff field.

The second game of the day was a monumental double-overtime classic that will be talked about for years, as the San Antonio Spurs came from 16 points down to hand the Phoenix Suns their first loss in the 2008 NBA playoffs, 117-115.  This game featured a plethora of individual and team accomplishments.  Tim Duncan came to play the way he always does when the stakes are this high by scoring a season high 40 points for the Spurs.  The team from San Antonio got some much needed help from their bench, and they were able to hit the shots that were most important as both teams began to wear down after so much intensity from such a long game.  Manu Ginobili’s shot with 1.8 seconds to go in the second overtime put the Spurs ahead to stay, and the city went into a frenzy as this game for the ages came to a close.  Steve Nash’s fade away falling out of bounds three pointer had just tied the game for Phoenix, so the shot by Ginobili ensured the Spurs a win, and crossed out any chance the Suns had of the game going into a third overtime.  Both teams looked about as tired as you can imagine by the time the game ended, but it truly was a game that will never be forgotten.

There were outstanding hustle plays, amazing athletic baskets, strong physical inside play and timely shooting for each side.  Every player on both teams left his heart out on the floor.  This was one of those games where you wish that no team had to lose because they played so hard.  The NBA has changed –that is obvious.  You can tell how much the players care now.  When the new millennium began, you had a league full of “me-me” type players.  That is why so many fans left the game, and attendance levels started to fall.  Now the game has changed, the players have changed and the league has changed.  There is a passion that resonates throughout all NBA arenas, and I am telling you that you are going to want to be a part of it in the future.  The 2008 playoffs are something special…  DON’T BE LEFT BEHIND!