Why Cleveland went so badly this season.

Coming into the season Cleveland’s best player on the roster could have been one of these three: Mo Williams, Anderson Varejao or Antawn Jamison. Not looking too good on paper, but I don’t think anybody would have guessed it would as bad as a 26 game losing streak and becoming the laughing stock of the NBA. But it did and here are 3 reasons why.

Inconsistency

All Cavs fan will agree with me on this, Cleveland couldn’t sting together at least 5 solid outings this season. If we won it was great but if we lost it was a disaster (in most cases.) A perfect example of the Cavs inconsistency this season was the team’s final west-coast road trip of the season. After a great win in Sacramento, the Cavs came out a couple of nights later and let Portland run out to a 24-2 lead in the first quarter, eventually turning into a 111-70 loss. The team never showed us that they were capable of going on a winning streak. Cleveland only had one winning streak this season, 3 wins in a row in early November 2010.

Injuries

As I stated before, coming into the season the Cavs three best players were Mo Mo, Andy V and ‘Tawn. What do you know; all three of these guys got injured at some stage this season, missing long periods of time. Cleveland eventually parted ways with Mo sending him to Blake and Co in LA for Baron Davis and the Clippers 2011 1^st round pick...which shouldn’t turn out so bad. Anderson Varejao is no all star in this league, but is Cleveland’s energiser bunny. He rebounds, plays defence and is a never give-up hustle guy. Losing him early in the season was a huge blow as many of the Cavs loses came on the defensive end this season. Antawn is the Cavs leading scorer this season (18ppg) and losing your leading scorer really shakes up a team. When he went down, someone had to step up....no one did and you can see the results....at least he got injured late in the season.

No Heart

Many times thought-out the season, Coach Bryon Scott questioned this teams heart, for good reason. So many lost games this season came down to players not diving on the floor for free balls, rebounding, hustle plays and just simply not looking like they care. The lost to the Heat (LeBron’s return) on Dec 2 was our biggest match of the home and away season.....we lost by 28 points and LBJ played one of his better games of the season. A 55 point loss to the Lakers is some more evidence, just if you need any. No heart=bad basketball. Cleveland learnt the hard way. 

 

Is Derrick Rose the Real MVP, and Who Can Catch Him?

The Chicago Bulls have only had one MVP ever since they entered the NBA, his name? Michael Jordan, he only won 6 of them as well. This year though could be a little bit different...a lot different actually.
  Coming in the the 2010/11 season, no one expected Derrick Rose to win MVP, and some say he didn't even stand a chance against people like LeBron, Dwight, Kobe, Wade, Durant and the list goes on. This looked to be true as Dwight Howard played amazing ball early in the season. Same can be said about Amare Stoudemire, who has turned around the New York Knicks this season.

 Then a guy named Derrick Rose came along. Don't get my wrong, Derrick Rose is a great player and one of the more funnier players to watch in the league, but no one, me included, was expecting him to be the stand out MVP as this season comes to a close. Rose has gotten the Bulls (with help from every player on that roster) into first placed in the eastern conference, mostly with out Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah. Did I mention the east has the Miami Heat, Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic?
 This season Rose is averaging 24.7ppg and 8apg, the only player in the NBA right now to be in the top 10 of points a game and assists a game. He put up 34 points in a 94-76 win over the Hawks on Saturday. Rose has risen his talents to new levels this season, as he carries the Bulls in the load of scoring each night, while getting his teammates involved. D-Rose is the Bulls leader this season and will be for many more years to come. D-Rose is getting the Bulls wins over the likes of 2-time defending champion, Los Angeles Lakers, Boston Celtics and he put up a winning performance with 42 points to lead the Bulls past the team with the NBA's best win-lose record this season, the San Antonio Spurs.
  Now just because Rose has done all of the above and much more, there are over players in the NBA, who do just about the same thing every night. Here's a quick list:
 LeBron James- 26ppg, 7apg, 7rpg
 Dwight Howard- 22ppg, 13rpg, 2bpg
 Kevin Durant- 28ppg, 7rpg
 Dirk Nowitzki- 22ppg, 6rpg
 Amare Stoudemire- 26ppg, 8rpg
 Kevin Love- 21ppg, 15rpg
 So as you can see this is one of the most packed MVP race in recent history, and even though Derrick Rose is the MVP right now, watch right because a lot of other players are in the running.