The trail of tears that has paved about 90 percent of the existence of the Cleveland Cavaliers franchise got a little bit longer tonight.
The Cavs took care of things on their end, beating Toronto 104-95, but the Celtics, despite holding a 19-point first half lead, couldn't close out the Nets. New Jersey won, 102-93, and will play the role of Shaquille O'Neal's personal play thing in the first round of the playoffs. For the second straight year, LeBron James and his motley crew have missed the playoffs by mere days.
I could go on about second-half collapses, about Paul Silas' temper-driven meltdown, Jeff McInnis' matador defense, Dan Gilbert's fantasy-league meddling, Jim Paxson's poor decision-making in putting the roster together in the first place, Eric Snow's pitiful offense, Drew Gooden's inconsistency, Zydrunas Ilgauskas' slow feet and dislocated finger, DeSagana Diop, Lucious Harris, Dajuan Wagner, Luke Jackson, Jiri Welsch, Scott Williams, Brendan Malone and vultures from New York trying to pry LeBron away from Cleveland. But I'm not going to. The Cavs missed the playoffs. That's the only real story tonight. This season is a failure no matter how you slice it. And the fans of Cleveland, who haven't seen a local team win a playoff game since 2001, are the biggest losers of all. Not that I'm expecting a heartfelt apology from anybody in the Cavs' camp.
Have a nice summer, boys. Not that you earned it.
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