The culture of failure

I figure we might as well start a new thread for last night's game, which was really one of the hardest heartbreaks I can remember for this team, even if it isn't a huge deal from the perspective of the season as a whole. A beautiful game for Lebron (and again, encouraging in its way - being able to play to the final moments on the road, against an elite team, on the second night of a back-to-back has to say something), but my god what a failure on that last play. Deron Williams is strong and quick but there's no excuse for not having defended him at halfcourt. One he's in the paint, you have to be a bit reluctant because you don't want to foul, but fucking get in front of him when he's fifty feet from the basket. Make him throw a risky pass. Don't let him coast in for a layup. Is this not obvious? Lebron's instinct was correct to get all the way back on D, but someone has to press, if not two guys. It's a shame that they wasted a good game and a solid comeback effort on one stupid lapse.

Not that the game was perfect. The free throw problem is eating me alive. The Cavs were a pathetic 19 of 29 from the stripe. Lebron missed two early in the game and I thought to myself, this is exactly the kind of thing that haunts you in the final minutes, when a couple of free baskets in an early, low-pressure situation could have put you in control right now. In fact, Lebron was the only one to blame tonight - 7 of 15! When you shoot 40-45% percent from the floor, taking a fair number of outside shots, that just does not make sense. The turnovers were also an issue, but that concerns me less since I think it was just the texture of the game. The Jazz had almost as many.

Maybe girls are right that you need to drink organtic milk. (Clearly the perfect conclusion to any blasketblog post.)