Down 3-2, with their backs against the wall in the Eastern Conference Semi-finals against a the newest green monster in Boston , the Cavaliers are without a doubt in panic mode.
After a much more productive Game 5 Lebron James seems to have figured out a way to increase his shooting percentage which for the first four games was a historic low. Though his three-point percentage remained in the can last night, King James managed to go 12-25 from the field, just under fifty percent.
The James Gang did walk out of the TD Bank North Boston Garden with one thing that he and his teammates did not walk in with, confidence. The 89-96 loss to Boston was without a doubt Cleveland 's best road performance of the series. The Cav's got up and down the floor and ran on the much older Celtics and more importantly they gave Boston 's "big three" a fight they would never forget.
Delonte West had his best road game of the series, but Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace, Daniel Gibson, Joe Smith, Sasha Pavlovic and Anderson Verejao were all non-existent to say the least. The Cleveland bench only combined to pitch in 13 points on Wednesday night. Hell, the Cavs' only lost by seven points, if each one the bench players pitches in one more basket a piece Cleveland would have won 89-88.
Ilgauskas, who dominated the Celtics interior in games three and four, only attempted five shots, knocking down two. Z's performance in the paint in the Cavs' two home games this series dictated the flow of the game and helped the productivity of spot-up shooters Daniel "Boobie" Gibson and Wally Szczerbiak, both of whom struggled to get anything going on last night in Boston.
The King's court have always been Cleveland 's Achilles heel. Last year in the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron had to surge the stumbling Cavaliers past the Pistons in Game 7 all by himself. The finals were another story, as the Spurs swarmed James for all 48 minutes of every game of what became a four-game sweep, turning LeBron into a distributor.
Boston's bench didn't fare much better only combining for nine points, but Doc Rivers doesn't need a bench when Paul Pierce, KG and Ray Allen can throw in 75 points between the three of them.
LeBron will need a performance in this game-six, comparable to the game-five he had last year in Detroit for Cleveland to win Friday night. And that same performance plus some assistance from his teammates if the Celtics drop the soap tomorrow and allow a game-seven on Sunday.
