When the Los Angeles Clippers did their pregame intros for their home opener, they had to know Mo Williams was in uniform and Chauncey Billups wasn’t.
They had to know Williams wears a headband and Billups doesn’t.
They had to know Williams has hair and Billups shaves his.
So how in the world did they get the two mixed up?
Here’s what LeBron James had to say before tonight’s game between the Miami Heat and Cleveland Cavaliers at Quicken Loans Arena.
This is the second time James has played in Cleveland for the Heat since he decided to leave the Cavaliers last summer to play in Miami. The Heat beat the Cavaliers, 118-90, Dec. 2 and James had 38 points, eight assists and five rebounds.
Former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown was in Erie on Friday night checking out his son, Elijah, who plays for St. Edward./Photo by Robert Frank
Interstate 90 East was clear Friday night, but Mike Brown would have made the trek from Cleveland to Erie to see his son play regardless of whether the road was or wasn’t.
“The roads were clear, but even if the roads were not clear, I would be here,” he proudly said.
The former Cleveland Cavaliers coach watched his son Elijah, a 6-2 lefty sophomore, score nine points, but St. Edward fell to Penn Wood, 57-55, in the Burger King Basketball Classic semifinals at Gannon University’s Hammermill Center.
At halftime of the game, I talked to Coach Brown about his son, not coaching, what happened with the Cavs, the current state of the Cavs and the two-time NBA MVP he coached – LeBron James.
Brown came to the game right before it began wearing a green St. Edwards fleece jacket. Once he went to the upper deck, Brown got comfortable, took off the jacket and was sporting a green St. Edward polo shirt.
Once the game began, he got into it. Started clapping right away and then pulled the video camcorder to film the action. From afar, I couldn’t see how anxious it is for him to watch his son play.
At halftime, I found out.
Life without two-time NBA MVP LeBron James begins today for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers media day ending at Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence, Ohio a few hours ago, I’m sitting her wondering what to make of it all.
As Mo Williams said, there are no TNT trailers or ESPN trailers here, but George Smith of ESPN was there. Got to recognize George. He does work.
Anyway, the buzz was about the obvious. Life without LeBron James.
“There is no LeBron in this building,” Williams said. “Whether we believe it or not, he’s not coming back, you know. This is what we got.”
Cleveland coach Byron Scott said he’s moving on and is excited about running the players into the ground in training camp. He said he’s putting trash cans around the court for those who need to lose their lunch.
He also said the players should be “pissed” about people saying they’re not going to win without James, the two-time NBA MVP from Akron who left Cleveland this summer to join forces with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami.
Heard the Heat had a press conference at 2 p.m., which was the same time the Cavs got started. The thing the players and Scott are asking the fans is to be patient.
Hard for fans to do that when the owner, Dan Gilbert, got them all stirred up by saying the Cavaliers will win a title without James before Miami does with James and the Heat are favored to win it all this season, but that’s another story to tell later.
But let’s get back to Mo Williams. It was classic Mo today.
Mike Brown went from being the 2009 NBA Coach of the Year to getting fired by the Cavaliers.
Saw it coming.
Think most people did.
The Cleveland Cavaliers announced the firing of Mike Brown today. I’ve known coach for several years and he’s a good guy.
Heck, he’s a great guy to work with, but he had to go. Here’s five reasons why.
Center Dwight Howard and point guard Jameer Nelson will have the same look they did after losing to the Los Angeles Lakers in last year's NBA Finals if the Orlando Magic are unable to figure out the Boston Celtics in this year's playoffs.
The Boston Celtics are the runaway locomotive no one in the Eastern Conference has been able to handle in this year’s playoffs.
After beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in six games, the Celtics take a 2-0 series lead heading into Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals Saturday at home.
Orlando is in big trouble.
The Magic got a big scoring night from Dwight Howard (30 points on 9 of 13 shooting), but he only got eight rebounds in Tuesday’s Game 2 loss, 95-92, at home.
So Boston has proven it can beat the Orlando even if Howard goes nuts offensively.
Here’s the laundry list of problems for Orlando.
LeBron James may have played his final game for the Cleveland Cavaliers in Thursday's Game 6 loss in Boston.
It’s over.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are done for this season and if LeBron James decides to bounce and join another game, they will be done for much longer.
Just for the record, as much as I thought Cleveland had the team to win it all this season, I predicted before the season began it wouldn’t even make it to the NBA Finals.
Who did I pick: The Los Angeles Lakers to win back-to-back and beat the Orlando Magic again. They’re both still alive. Who would have thunk it?
As for the Cavaliers, they won 60-plus games in consecutive regular seasons, James won back-to-back NBA MVPs and didn’t make to the finals last season or this season.
Something is wrong with that picture?
Who is to blame?
Well, let’s start at the top. Or near the top.
Was this LeBron James' last game Tuesday night in Cleveland's Quicken Loans Arena wearing a Cavalier uniform?
The two-time MVP’s body language wasn’t good.
And since LeBron James is their leader, the rest of the Cleveland Cavaliers were just as lifeless.
Now they’re a loss away from seeing championship aspirations expire after losing Game 5 of the Eastern Conference semifinals, 120-88, to the Boston Celtics at Quicken Loans Arena.
If the Celtics close out the Cavaliers in Thursday’s Game 6 in Boston, the sellout crowd of 20,562 may have watched James play his last game for Cleveland in Quicken Loans Arena on Tuesday night.
They didn’t see his best effort.
In fact, it may have been the worst playoff performance of his splendid 7-year NBA career.
James had just 15 points, shooting a woeful 3-of-14 from the field. He only attempted four shots in the first half, missed them all and the electric energy that typically radiates off him was barely pulsating.
By the fourth quarter when James missed a free throw with 10:31 in the game, sprinkle of boos came from the stands.
James wasn’t the only who didn’t bring it Tuesday night.
Cleveland was rolling. Up 29-21.
Boston called a timeout with 9:44 left in the half.
Came back out and started slicing the Cavaliers up like pizza.
The Celtics went on a 16-0 run to take a 37-29 lead. Cleveland didn’t score until 3:41 left in the half when LeBron James made a free throw. That’s a drought of six minutes and three seconds.
Speaking of LeBron, he has taken just four shots in the half and made none.
As good as the run was for Boston, LeBron scored five straight points on free throws, then had two assists withthe later leading to a Mo Williams 3-pointer to get within 3 points.
Cleveland got it down to 2, but the Celtics closed out the quarter on an 8-4 run to take a 50-44 lead at the half.
Had Zydrunas Ilgauskas not got that 3-point play, it would have been worse, but then again, little-used Sheldon Williams scoring three points at the end of the half made the play a wash.
Second half should be very interesting.
His elbow may be hurting, but it didn’t stop LeBron James from scoring 35 points Saturday night in leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 101-93 win past the Boston Celtics in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals at Quicken Loans Arena.
That’s a nice way to go into receiving the MVP award later today at the University of Akron. James won’t need help hoisting the trophy, but he got some much needed help Saturday night.
Mo Williams dropped in 20 points that included a one-handed flush on Paul Pierce to turn the game around. The Cavaliers were down 11 before Williams dunked on Pierce and they wound up taking a 79-78 lead at the end of third quarter.
