Cavaliers Go Out With A Whimper

LeBron James had a triple-double, Mo Williams answered the bell, but when push came to shove the Cleveland Cavaliers laid down and took what the Celtics gave them. That was that. And now the basketball world....EXPLODES!

LeBron was also one turnover away from a quadruple-double. He dribbled the ball off his foot. He threw lazy, bad passes. When the team needed big baskets, he settled for long jump shots. And in the end, he and teammates simply gave in. Down nine, with just over a minute to go, they couldn't even be bothered to go through the time-honored charade of fouling to extend the game. The effort was lacking, as they say.

Will he be back in Cleveland? Do they even want him back at this point? Maybe if they could keep him and no one else, but either way, basketball in this town will not be fun for awhile. Neither will the next few months of uninformed speculation, but I guess that's why they invented baseball.

And worst of all ... oh, the Celtics. Bill Simmons' "Celtics Chants" stunt may or may not have affected the outcome of the game—I'll go with "not"—but Boston fans were indeed shouting jabs in unison on his command. So guess what annoying trend will take over sports world next fall? Mark it down: By Labor Day, every college football and basketball squad in the country will have a Twitter account, run by some over-caffeinated accounting major who just knows that he loves his team the team the mostest, and it will be ordering student sections around via smartphone. So much more efficient that just, you know, cheering spontaneously. The future is here and it is obnoxious. Thanks a lot.

Gee, maybe they'll get to play the Lakers again, too. Who wouldn't love to see that?