Rock, Chalk, Playoffs

Two games into the Eastern Conference finals and there's been much more talked about than just two games with identical scores (which, ironically is probably the most interesting thing to happen). Let's break it down:

LeBron James, heavily criticized for passing up the final shot in game
1 to a WIDE OPEN Donyell Marshall, obviously had the ball in hands in
the same situation in game two. Clearly thinking about the press
reaction to his game 1 decision, James predictably forced up a
horrible shot while being swarmed by defenders and missed. Points of
interest on the play:

• James was more or less completely hammered by Richard "Dickie" Hamilton on the play, and while he and coach Mike Brown vented frustrations on the court neither complained after the game, instead saying they're a "no excuses" team. While they would have been right to complain, I actually find this admirable. The NBA has wayyyyyyy too much complaining, and it reflects poorly on everyone, not to mention it accomplishes nothing. I can only imagine if this had happened to Dallas, it probably would have consisted of something along the lines of Dirk Nowitzki's head exploding, Mark Cuban running onto the court and physically assaulting an official, and the Dallas Mavericks secession from the NBA.

• Know why it's so easy to blame LeBron for his clutch decisionmaking? Because the rest of the Cavs are terrible! They're second best player is Larry Hughes. Again, Donyell Marshall missed a WIDE OPEN 3 that he should have made.

• Detroit is one of the smartest teams in the league, they're starting 5 have been together forever and are closer than Greg Oden and Mike Conley on a weekend getaway to the Poconos. In short, they can coach themselves. So put them with semi-competent Flip Saunders and they're going to figure out that to stop the Cavs you quintuple-team LeBron and watch the rest of the players miss jump shots. So stop bringing up how few shots LeBron has in each game.

• After LeBron's miss, Cavs #2 Larry Hughes missed a wide-open 9-footer, followed by Rasheed Wallace nearly tipping the ball into his own basket to lose the game. The game recap says it was Anderson Varejao who touched it, but if you watch the video that ball was tipped by 'Sheed. We were inches away from the craziest finish in NBA history.

• Game 2 fun facts: Cleveland had a 34 point second quarter, but combined for 42 in the other 3.