Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="champs99and04, post: 2719607, member: 488"] Boston broke Cleveland. Granted, Cleveland has been teetering on the edge of self-destruction all season, but this game lived up to all the stereotypes at once. Cleveland either flat out quit or yielded to fatigue. Granted, it wouldn't surprise me to see the series return 2-2, and I'm not blind to the limitations that have made it impressive for Cleveland to even be here. But having watched this Celtics team against Milwaukee, Philly, and now Cleveland, I can't tell you that this is about anything other than toughness. Their mental stamina and will to win is unlike anything I've seen in this league at this age. Yeah, they have talent, more than Cleveland top to bottom, but the three aforementioned teams haven't been able to take a game from them in that building simply because they don't have the balls to do it. I don't want to sit here and regurgitate cliches about adversity revealing character, but there comes a time when you can't fake it any longer. Either you put in the time to get in shape or you didn't. Either you trust your teammates or you don't. Mark Jackson did a good job of spilling it out for all of us - Cleveland had a game plan but not one with enough conviction to stop the pouting and the shrugging and the eyerolls. I can't blame LeBron for his teammates sucking, but this is a trend with his teams. [/QUOTE]