Cavs Win Game Four: Hands Down Mans Down

So sayeth Delonte the Rattlesnake. Cold blooded Delonte. He’s not perfect, but he’s deadly. How many times tonight did Delonte make a mistake with a bad dribble or missed pass just to come back down and throwing another dagger? How many times all night did he hesitate before dropping a bomb?

I’ll tell you how many. 7 and 0. 5 of them were 3s, including the game winner. And the 0 hesitations meant their were still 5.4 seconds left when he won it - just enough time to get in Gil’s grill and seal the win.

Two years ago it was Damon Jones, last year it was Sasha Pavlovic. This year Delonte West is finishing off the Wizards embarrassingly earlier, like a hooker with the bar mitzvah boy. The series is scarcely more over than it was after game 2, which is once again to say: at this point we’re just need to finish dotting the "i"s and crossing the "t"s.

The Wizards brought absolutely everything they had. They played their perfect game. Antawn had his double double (23 and 11). Caron took over late (11 in the 4th). Arenas felt up to 32 minutes. The guy with the infected hand had 13, 5 and 5 (he’s out celebrating tonight - that’s a career game!). They shot pretty well from the field (46%) and from 3 (37%). They got to the line (33 times). They kept their turnovers down (12). They even kept up appearances by roughing up Lebron.

And they were great on the other end. 18 turnovers for the Cavs is dooming. They kept Lebron in check (44% shooting, 5 turnovers). The Cavs only shot 41% and barely exceeded that from the line (70%).

We just did what we do. Give it to Lebron, take the open shots, and get every - EVERY! - rebound. Our leading rebounder all season had 7 tonight. But Joe Smith outrebounded the entire Wizards bench by himself. And he was third on the team! Of 43 rebounds at our end, we pulled in nearly half (18). At the other end, we pulled in 85%. In a playoff game, against a team with an all-star caliber PF and a center the TV crew couldn’t put verbally fellate all night, on the road, the Cavs flat out dominated the boards, 51-31. Everything else falls into place when we just do our thing.

So is it over? Can the Wizards come back from 3-1 down?

"Do I think they can do it?" Lebron asks.

"No."

Go Cavs!





[top image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/abardwell/]