I guess when a guy goes for 49 against your team and scores nearly half the opposing team’s points, it’s pretty easy to find good things to say about him. And when your team wins like Stan Van Gundy’s did, it also makes praising your opponent less painful. The Magic barely squeaked out a one-point win over the Cavs in Game 1 on Wednesday night 107-106. LeBron James had 49 points on 20-30 shooting, six boards, eight assists, two steals, and three blocks. His only weak point was going 6-10 at the line. Try telling that to Stan Van who has no idea how to stop LBJ:
“LeBron just made it so difficult. The one thing I don’t leave this game with is any idea whatsoever what to do with him. As a coach you’re supposed to have some idea — I don’t have a clue. I don’t. When we double-teamed him, he made the right play every time and they made shots. When we didn’t double-team him, he made every jumpshot he took, it seemed like. He gets the ball to the basket and draws fouls. You would like to come out of Game 1 and say ‘at least we found a gameplan we think will work’ I can’t say I’ve done that. He’s unbelievable and he was incredible tonight.”
I know Stan’s telling the truth because that’s the way he is, so this comment is not exactly a good sign for the Magic. They got lucky to win the game in the sense that Rashard Lewis hit every shot in sight in the fourth quarter. He doesn’t go off like that and they don’t win, then you have Van Gundy down 0-1 and facing major problems. And believe, me, they still do have big problems.
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If LeBron makes 8 out of ten at the charity stripe, the Cavs win the game. He is truly the most gifted player and deserved his regular season MVP award, but he had better work on his free throws.
I was thinking the same thing. Guess we know what he’ll be working on this offseason.
It’s just hard to stop a player like this anymore. The Pistons had the Jordan rules…so the NBA developed their own Jordan rules where so much as breathing on great players is a felony. The NBA is eager to crown James, theMagic will lose.
I agree, Spin. It’s getting tough to watch moments in the series where Dwight gets called for the foul for doing nothing other than standing up to LeBron. They really do give him special rules, going back to the Wizards series in the playoffs. He’s still damn good though, gotta give him that.