Ty Lue Coached a Terrible Game 4, Hopefully Didn't Ruin LeBron's Legs for the Series
By Jason McIntyre
Ty Lue held out one of his max deal stars, Kevin Love, out of the 4th quarter of Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Despite stepping on a referee’s foot in the 3rd quarter and limping off, Love was not injured.
He just didn’t play. It almost sounded like Lue was calling him mentally weak, so hopefully Lue clears that up today.
Also, Lue, a rookie head coach, rolled with ancient Richard Jefferson in the 4th quarter for long stretches, and even plucky point guard Matthew Dellavedova. Jefferson made all four of his layups, in 15 minutes; Delly was 0-for-3 on 3-pointers, and also had a clutch air ball in the final three minutes.
What was up with Lue’s rotation? Lue seemed to be coaching desperately, especially from this angle: LeBron didn’t sit out in the 2nd half. The oldest starter on the team played a game-high 46 minutes. You could see disaster coming, even as Cleveland rallied in the 3rd quarter to trim the 18-point deficit to single-digits.
After Cleveland took the lead in the 4th quarter behind a flurry of 3-pointers from Kyrie Irving and Channing Frye, it wilted in the final three minutes: LeBron missed a layup, got his pocket picket by Kyle Lowry, and then had Lowry on the block posted up twice and didn’t attempt a shot.
LeBron ran the offense with Kyrie out; LeBron chased around DeMar DeRozan for most of the night (32 points). Forty-six minutes of playing time was a disaster, even for a cyborg like LeBron.
Here’s the really bad news: Riding LeBron so hard in Game 4 could have ramifications in Games 5 (Wednesday) and 6 (Friday).
Where’s Iman Shumpert, who historically has been a great defender against DeRozan? It’s clear that the Cavs want Biyombo out of the paint, which is what they have done with Frye/Love, but at some point, why not give Mozgov some of Thompson’s minutes just to see how effective he can be? The Cavs probably won’t have many problems in Game 5 (favored by 10.5) but given how well the Raptors have played at home, Game 6 Friday will certainly be interesting.