Hey Blatt! Go Deep!

(June, 10th 2015) By: Efraim Graber

If you take a  look back at the Cleveland Cavalier players in the middle of the 4th quarter of game 1 of the Finals, something seemed to be different about them. Fast forward to the end of the 3rd Quarter of game 2. Something is up with these players. Now we're in the first 2 minutes of the second half of game 3. These Cavs players are absolutely exhausted.

LeBron is averaging over 45 minutes a game, granted there were two overtime games. There is no excuse for that. Shawn Marion is a more than capable player who actually has finals experience himself. The same can be said about the two big men for Cleveland. Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov are huffing and puffing down the court in the first three games in the 4th quarter. It's just going to get worse as each game goes on. An alternative for them is Kendrick Perkins, throw him in for at least 8-10 minutes as a viable rim protector. Then again, there might be something we don't know about these players that Coach Blatt is not telling us.

To further this case, we saw Mathew Dellavedova put up 20 points last night in Cleveland's second win in the finals. He was then immediately shipped to the hospital and put on I.V. with severe cramping and dehydration. These Cavs players are being overworked. Golden State has been throwing out some very weak lineups, giving Blatt the perfect opportunity to leave in a scorer like J. R. Smith and bring in some bench players to give the starters a rest. If the series goes to 6 or even 7 games, this team is going to be in trouble.

For your information LeBron cramped up in the 4th quarter of last night's game. Imagine it was like last year where he couldn't get back up. This is from playing 48-50 minutes a night (overtime). 

Rhetorical question time! Is Joe Harris that much worse off than James Jones? Can you leave Shumpert out there to guard Curry a little bit longer? Can Perkins come in and make a difference defensively for this squad? Nobody knows, but David Blatt better try it out soon before they ship the whole Cavs bus to the hospital for I.V. fluids.