Ever since being eliminated in last year's ECF, the Cavs seemed tranquilly focused this year, not getting themselves worked up over meaningless regular season games, and keeping just one goal in mind: Win in the playoffs, when it matters.
Sure, there were regular season games when their intensity and focused were kicked up a notch—both games against the Lakers, the home game against Orlando in February, and an early home matchup against the Mavericks come to mind. In those games, the Cavs were disciplined, focused, and played at the same level for 48 minutes (or as close to it as they could).
When the playoffs rolled around, that was the Cavs team you expected to see.
And it was...for the first 27 minutes of the first-round series. They came out and set the tone.
They ran when they wanted to.
They got the ball into Shaq when they wanted to.
They took the Bulls' bigs out of the game.
They kept Derrick Rose out of the paint.
And when they led by 22, all seemed right in the world. Eerily similar to when they had a 15-point halftime lead in Game One of last year's conference finals aga ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NBA
Article written by Eric Felkey
2010 NBA Playoffs: Cavaliers Need To Start Upping Their Intensity
April 23rd, 2010 by Eric Felkey Leave a reply »
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