As he came back onto the floor with 5:50 remaining the seats were half emptied, as they'd been seven long years ago and as they could be as soon as next season. The missing half of the audience had not waited to attend the final minutes of what may be LeBron James's final game in Cleveland.
The night began with the same kind of promise that greeted James's 2003 arrival to Cleveland, and it ended with the crescendo of frustrations that has grown with each of his seven springtimes here. But this was entirely different than the others. In past years, the Cavs lost in spite of James. On Tuesday they lost because of him.
The reigning two-time MVP missed 11 of 14 shots Tuesday while settling for jumpers at an alarmingly ineffective rate. His Cavs lost 120-88 in Game 5, which trends historically as the crucial game of any tight series. James was 0 for 4 at the half and did not score his initial field goal until the 30th minute when he leaked away for a soft two-handed dunk that nicked at Boston's ascendant 65-52 advantage. As he ran back to his teammates he heard cheers tinged with about-time sarcasm.
"We played awful," said James. "They got every right to boo us if they want to."
Was this his farewell to Cleveland? Was this how it ends? The Cavs were leading 29-21 early in the second when Boston coach Doc Rivers decided to rest point guard Rajon Rondo, who has been a mini-me version of LeBron for the Celtics. The Cavs should have cashed in but instead were instantly outscored 16-0 as Rondo's energy was replenished for the explosive third quarter. The first mutterings and groans could be heard when Kevin Garnett (18 points and 2 blocks) turned a pivoting jumper over Antawn Jamison to make it 32-29 for Boston. Then Tony Allen ran the baseline for an unmolested dunk, and that's when the booing started. Over long, excruciating stretches of the second half, they booed louder as Rondo (16 points and 4 assists in the second half) systematically robbed them of all their defensive dignity and Ray Allen (with six threes among his game-high 25 points) sniped from the edges and Garnett passed and scored as he pleased from the block amid 21 resurgent points from Paul Pierce, who essentially took on the early playmaking role to successfully become the finishing piece in this looming upset of the league's No. 1 seed. All this went on around LeBron while his witnesses booed and booed and booed.
"I'm not worried about it," said James when asked about needing a victory Thursday in Boston to avoid elimination. "It's a really good team we're going up against, and you'd hope you could be up 3-2. But we're not." He reminded everyone that Cleveland won Game 3 in Boston and could win there again, and then he appeared to hint at something. "We've got to play hard, we've got to execute," he went on. "The game is more mentally challenging than just going out there and playing the game. You've got to also think the game and know what's best -- and in that particular game it wasn't working. If we have that type of mindset then we have a good chance of winning."
A loss like this will raise all kinds of questions about the respect James and his teammates feel for coach Mike Brown. This is not to insinuate any kind of mutiny or a wanton attempt to get Brown fired. But times of pressure will expose and deepen divisions, and this Cavs team has been consistently inconsistent for two postseasons now.
This is, in fact, a highly difficult team to coach. Management desperately needs to re-sign James when he becomes a free agent this summer because the value of the franchise will plummet by well over $100 million if he leaves, according to league sources. They have so many options -- play big, play small, play fast or pound it inside -- that when they fail you can guess who will be blamed for pulling the wrong levers. Brown tried everything to salvage this evening and change the growing trend of Boston's superiority over the last two games -- he went to Shaquille O'Neal for 21 points (and 4 blocks) in 27 minutes, he went with Zydrunas Ilgauskas (for 14 minutes) at the expense of J.J. Hickson (who played 4), he even tried to bring in the forgotten Daniel Gibson to try to arrest Rondo.
"The tough thing about this league is you can never predict the outcome of a game," said James. "You hope the gameplan is right and that you have it that night."
The one thing Brown was unable to do was to convince his best player to stop settling for jump shots. After trailing by a manageable 50-44 at the half, James would go 3 for 10 from the field and an inexplicable 1 for 2 from the line. Did Michael Jordan ever fail so passively in such crucial circumstances?
James's strained and bruised right elbow clearly is bothering him, which is all the more reason why it was so hard to understand his refusal to drive the ball inside for free throws. "I'm not an excuses guy," he said when asked about the effects of his elbow. "The fact that I spoil a lot of people with my play, when you have a bad game here or there -- you have three bad games in a seven-year career -- it's easy to point that out.
"I put a lot of pressure on myself to try to be great, to try to be the best player on the court. And when I'm not, I feel bad for myself because I'm not going out there and doing the things that I know I can do. I'm not going to hang my head low or make excuses about anything that may be going on. That's just not the type of player and the type of person that I am."
Brown offered an upbeat challenge: "We'll learn about ourselves in Game 6 in Boston." It could very well be that James plays and leads at a high level Thursday, that Cleveland wins again on the road and then returns to protect its homecourt in Game 7. Over the next day, James is going to hear criticism of a kind he's never heard before -- that he isn't a leader, that he is much too friendly and not demanding enough of his teammates, that he lacks the ruthless finishing punch.
This was supposed to be his summer of triumph -- a championship parade followed by a tour of New York, Miami, Chicago and any other NBA city he wished to visit on their dime. But now there is something fundamentally wrong with his team's blasé response to the biggest games of the season, and with his own misguided belief that settling for jump shots will turn them rightside up again.
Now at 25, he is on the verge of being defined negatively for the first time in basketball. What he may not realize now, but will learn to appreciate at the far end of his career, is that he needs this criticism. Each of the biggest winners before him failed in his own way -- Michael, Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird -- and each was driven by that failure to succeed. The question for James is whether this failure is put to an end with victories in the next two games, or whether it is carried forth throughout the long summer ahead, carrying him like a flooding tide away from Cleveland and to a new home entirely.software homework
where is my home
followme
fly away
my code
http://www.kuwaitchat.net/msgs
http://forum.morrisville.edu
http://www.fiction-carabinieri.tv/forumcc
http://www.106rallyeforum.com/forum2008
http://forum.minicooper.org
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
'American Idol': Top 4 fail to make movie magic
On a night when the final four "American Idol" contestants were required to sing songs from the cinema, our mentor, Jamie Fox, handed out lots of advice and a few T-shirts. But even his energetic cheerleading failed to bring much fire to a season that is sure to go down as "Idol"'s most lackluster ever. If this was a movie, we'd be stuffing popcorn in our ears.
Fortunately, the contestants teamed up for a couple of duets that got the attention of Simon Cowell and company. As for our Readers Panel, well they were a disparate bunch once again. Check out what they had to say and, by all means, join the discussion at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/tv.
MITCH GREEN: I didn't expect Jaime Foxx to bring out anything special in the cast this week and he didn't. It's not his fault they chose the wrong songs and have little idea of who they are as artists, with the exception of Crystal Bowersox. He tried, and they resisted.
The best vocal sounds of the season came from both duets as each pair sounded better than any of the solos. The sum is greater than the parts, especially with Crystal and Lee Dewyze. Their duet was one of the better performances of the season, but still lacked as a concert piece and would be more effective if used as originally intended as background music for a movie. I kept waiting for the song to take off and realized I needed the visual stimulation of a movie for the Advertisement
song to reach a higher level.
Crystal also gave the best solo performance. Even with her brittle sounding top voice, she added some excitement to the evening. She is far superior to the other three, but would be fighting for her life if this were even an average "Idol" cast. She deserves to win.
Perhaps Casey James wants to make sure he gets the full support of, "Vote For The Worst," a website that encourages voters to vote for the worst contestant. They've been showcasing Casey as their "Worst" singer the last few weeks and bragged that he didn't get in the Bottom 2 last week in spite of his horrible performance. His song choice makes no sense. How can he expect to impress an audience with that rendition of, "Mrs. Robinson?" Slow tempo and lazy vocal make for a sleepy performance. His duet with Michael Lynche was his best performance of the season.
Michael made the same mistake he's made most of the season. He chooses songs that are too big for his medium-sized voice and then pushes the emotion, creating a performance that does not ring true. He tries hard and gives a lot, but it's just not enough to fill out the songs that require full-blown star voices like Michael Jackson or Michael Bolton. He needs to stay
mellow and not go for the big dramatic songs. He's a singles and doubles hitter, not a home run hitter.
Lee's performance was basically an inferior copycat version of the original with a few flat notes in his bottom range. As Simon said, "Karaoke."
Casey and Lee deserve to be in the Bottom 2.
TAMI OLSEN: Half the battle of making a good impression on an audience can be won in the choosing of a song. Pick something too overdone and you better blow the top off of it. Choose something only vaguely familiar and you will lose them. It's a fine line to successfully walk, and one that Casey succeeded in traveling tonight. Casey gave us a different take on "Mrs. Robinson," with a mandolin accompaniment that let it hover ever so close to country, and laced it with a poignancy that brought back the angst of the movie, "The Graduate." He was my favorite performance, singing the only song I will seek out to listen to again.
You have to admire Crystal's chutzpah, but as high energy as her performance was, I was relatively unmoved. The word "screeching" came to mind a few times. With her incredible voice, and all the great movie songs out there, I felt this was a missed opportunity.
Lee's interpretation of "Kiss from a Rose" sounded like it never planned on giving us anything more or different than the original recording, and in that way, he succeeded. Michael gave it his all on "Will You Be There," but I wasn't feeling his song choice, or his rendition. To answer your question Mike, no, unfortunately you probably won't be there next week.
I'm calling it for Mrs. Robinson and the man who knew exactly how to play her tonight.
TIMOTHY STELLY: I wondered beforehand if Michael would get the Tamyra Gray treatment. This is the week where A.I.'s second-most famous also-ran (behind Clay Aiken) was eliminated in 2002, despite a string of solid performances. Of course it was the one bad one she had that cost her. But it's Casey who should consider himself lucky after his third consecutive lackluster performance. He performed well on his duet with Michael, which was the best duet of the night, but I was stunned when Simon and Garfunkel weren't waiting for him offstage with baseball bats for the hatchet job he did on "Mrs. Robinson." It was one of the worst performances of the past couple months.
Kara DioGuardi was right about Big Mike: What he did he could have done in his sleep, and the reason I know this is because he nearly put me into the land of nod. Why would he sing a song by a legend, knowing that a comparison to the original is inevitable?
Miss Bowersox made the perfect song choice ("It's All Right") and delivered another "Wow!" performance, which was most needed on such an uninteresting night. You can now pencil her into the finals.
Casey's string of mediocre showings is all that saved Lee from getting TG'd (Tamyra Gray'd). Lee's performance of "Kiss From A Rose" was dreadful. "Kiss" is a complicated, stylish song that listeners can't help but compare to the original. Lee failed to deliver, but Casey served as his insurance policy. With apologies to George Burns, say goodnight, Casey.
MEGHAN MCGOVERN: I really like the idea that Jamie Foxx brought up with the T-Shirts: "Contestant" or "Artist". This really can sum up the whole season with our lackluster Idols and tonight, yet again, we didn't see a rouse of the crowd with the performances we heard. The only thing that saved the show were the duets. Opening the show with Lee singing "Kiss From a Rose" was a really dumb idea. I feel like if Lee doesn't have an outside source to help him make a smart song choice, he ends up singing something that he "likes" rather than what showcases his talent. I'd prefer to see him go (rather than Mike or Casey) this week, but I know that won't happen after his duet with Crystal, which was fantastic, but only because Crystal was there holding his hand all the way through. I don't really see Lee going anywhere because he's kind of what I would call a "dead-pan" performer. No action going on in his eyes or body movement. Very boring to watch and not all that interesting to listen to either.
As much as I love Mike's voice and I've said repeatedly that he's the best vocalist on the show, I really think he's reached his lowest point with "Will You Be There." Every week he's been told that he needs to stop doing other genres of music and "auto-pilot" karaoke renditions and I suppose he hasn't gotten the message yet. Let's hope he can stick around and try it again next week. I think he deserves another chance, but America might be over him. His duet, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" with Casey proved to be very good and I think Mike saved it from certain pitch death that Casey was heading towards.
Since Crystal's performance a few weeks ago, I've really looked at her in a different way from everyone else. She has won this competition already, to me, and she is leagues ahead of everyone. Her performance of "I'm Alright" tonight wasn't a song that proved her ability and certainly wasn't her best. However, she's come out every week and just put herself out there with no hocus-pocus and no razzle-dazzle. Crystal by far is not the best singer that "Idol" will produce, but she certainly is different and will definitely go far with her own style.
LAUREN VALLA: Did we not see both Jamie Foxx and movie night last year? None of the contestants stepped it up tonight, and they all made poor song choices. Basically all of the songs were slow ballads about women. I'm just glad Crystal didn't follow suit, that would have been awkward.
Lee started the night very poorly, but I don't think he's going home. I will indeed use the dreaded "Idol" word, and shall claim he was pitchy. Some of those notes he hit were just so odd and unlike him I didn't know what to think.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think Casey is definitely going home. What a lousy song, it was just way too boring. A song like "Mrs. Robinson" is just not a winning song.
As for the duets, I disagree with all the judges and think they were all bad. Lee and Crystal didn't harmonize well, and once again, a love song was sung by Mike and Casey. If any of these contestants want to win, they have to change it up and blow us out of the water. If not, it might come down to who is the cutest (Oh please, Lee for sure), who needs it most (Mike), the last girl standing (Crystal), and well, Casey is just sort of just there.
KATY PERRY: Jamie Foxx did a forgettable job as a mentor, except for the shirt thing, which, quite frankly was just odd. He needs to give himself a contestant shirt.
Michael sounded like he started on the lowest end of what he is capable of singing, which is interesting for such a big guy. His performance had me snapping my fingers, but was quite reminiscent of something you might hear from a church choir. Michael is consistently good, but I question if he is good enough to make it to next week.
Crystal did her typical great performance; at the end of the song it sounded like she got in the 'Janis Joplin' zone. If she doesn't make it to the Top 2, I will be shocked. Casey James was annoying and hokey as always. I certainly hope that Casey's young fans don't ask their parents' permission to watch "The Graduate."
Lee's performance was a little weak at the beginning, but when he hit the first chorus, it felt like he got into his zone. His confidence has improved enormously from the first time we saw him onstage at the Kodak. No, Lee didn't do some crazy arrangement, but I liked it.my asp
Are you happy???
friend? brother
enjoy yourself
learn codehttp://www.thienvanvietnam.org/forum
http://www.vbdrupal.org/forum
http://r-mbd3.com/vb
http://forum.g-sat.net
http://www.robot-italy.net/roboforum
Fortunately, the contestants teamed up for a couple of duets that got the attention of Simon Cowell and company. As for our Readers Panel, well they were a disparate bunch once again. Check out what they had to say and, by all means, join the discussion at http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/category/tv.
MITCH GREEN: I didn't expect Jaime Foxx to bring out anything special in the cast this week and he didn't. It's not his fault they chose the wrong songs and have little idea of who they are as artists, with the exception of Crystal Bowersox. He tried, and they resisted.
The best vocal sounds of the season came from both duets as each pair sounded better than any of the solos. The sum is greater than the parts, especially with Crystal and Lee Dewyze. Their duet was one of the better performances of the season, but still lacked as a concert piece and would be more effective if used as originally intended as background music for a movie. I kept waiting for the song to take off and realized I needed the visual stimulation of a movie for the Advertisement
song to reach a higher level.
Crystal also gave the best solo performance. Even with her brittle sounding top voice, she added some excitement to the evening. She is far superior to the other three, but would be fighting for her life if this were even an average "Idol" cast. She deserves to win.
Perhaps Casey James wants to make sure he gets the full support of, "Vote For The Worst," a website that encourages voters to vote for the worst contestant. They've been showcasing Casey as their "Worst" singer the last few weeks and bragged that he didn't get in the Bottom 2 last week in spite of his horrible performance. His song choice makes no sense. How can he expect to impress an audience with that rendition of, "Mrs. Robinson?" Slow tempo and lazy vocal make for a sleepy performance. His duet with Michael Lynche was his best performance of the season.
Michael made the same mistake he's made most of the season. He chooses songs that are too big for his medium-sized voice and then pushes the emotion, creating a performance that does not ring true. He tries hard and gives a lot, but it's just not enough to fill out the songs that require full-blown star voices like Michael Jackson or Michael Bolton. He needs to stay
mellow and not go for the big dramatic songs. He's a singles and doubles hitter, not a home run hitter.
Lee's performance was basically an inferior copycat version of the original with a few flat notes in his bottom range. As Simon said, "Karaoke."
Casey and Lee deserve to be in the Bottom 2.
TAMI OLSEN: Half the battle of making a good impression on an audience can be won in the choosing of a song. Pick something too overdone and you better blow the top off of it. Choose something only vaguely familiar and you will lose them. It's a fine line to successfully walk, and one that Casey succeeded in traveling tonight. Casey gave us a different take on "Mrs. Robinson," with a mandolin accompaniment that let it hover ever so close to country, and laced it with a poignancy that brought back the angst of the movie, "The Graduate." He was my favorite performance, singing the only song I will seek out to listen to again.
You have to admire Crystal's chutzpah, but as high energy as her performance was, I was relatively unmoved. The word "screeching" came to mind a few times. With her incredible voice, and all the great movie songs out there, I felt this was a missed opportunity.
Lee's interpretation of "Kiss from a Rose" sounded like it never planned on giving us anything more or different than the original recording, and in that way, he succeeded. Michael gave it his all on "Will You Be There," but I wasn't feeling his song choice, or his rendition. To answer your question Mike, no, unfortunately you probably won't be there next week.
I'm calling it for Mrs. Robinson and the man who knew exactly how to play her tonight.
TIMOTHY STELLY: I wondered beforehand if Michael would get the Tamyra Gray treatment. This is the week where A.I.'s second-most famous also-ran (behind Clay Aiken) was eliminated in 2002, despite a string of solid performances. Of course it was the one bad one she had that cost her. But it's Casey who should consider himself lucky after his third consecutive lackluster performance. He performed well on his duet with Michael, which was the best duet of the night, but I was stunned when Simon and Garfunkel weren't waiting for him offstage with baseball bats for the hatchet job he did on "Mrs. Robinson." It was one of the worst performances of the past couple months.
Kara DioGuardi was right about Big Mike: What he did he could have done in his sleep, and the reason I know this is because he nearly put me into the land of nod. Why would he sing a song by a legend, knowing that a comparison to the original is inevitable?
Miss Bowersox made the perfect song choice ("It's All Right") and delivered another "Wow!" performance, which was most needed on such an uninteresting night. You can now pencil her into the finals.
Casey's string of mediocre showings is all that saved Lee from getting TG'd (Tamyra Gray'd). Lee's performance of "Kiss From A Rose" was dreadful. "Kiss" is a complicated, stylish song that listeners can't help but compare to the original. Lee failed to deliver, but Casey served as his insurance policy. With apologies to George Burns, say goodnight, Casey.
MEGHAN MCGOVERN: I really like the idea that Jamie Foxx brought up with the T-Shirts: "Contestant" or "Artist". This really can sum up the whole season with our lackluster Idols and tonight, yet again, we didn't see a rouse of the crowd with the performances we heard. The only thing that saved the show were the duets. Opening the show with Lee singing "Kiss From a Rose" was a really dumb idea. I feel like if Lee doesn't have an outside source to help him make a smart song choice, he ends up singing something that he "likes" rather than what showcases his talent. I'd prefer to see him go (rather than Mike or Casey) this week, but I know that won't happen after his duet with Crystal, which was fantastic, but only because Crystal was there holding his hand all the way through. I don't really see Lee going anywhere because he's kind of what I would call a "dead-pan" performer. No action going on in his eyes or body movement. Very boring to watch and not all that interesting to listen to either.
As much as I love Mike's voice and I've said repeatedly that he's the best vocalist on the show, I really think he's reached his lowest point with "Will You Be There." Every week he's been told that he needs to stop doing other genres of music and "auto-pilot" karaoke renditions and I suppose he hasn't gotten the message yet. Let's hope he can stick around and try it again next week. I think he deserves another chance, but America might be over him. His duet, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman" with Casey proved to be very good and I think Mike saved it from certain pitch death that Casey was heading towards.
Since Crystal's performance a few weeks ago, I've really looked at her in a different way from everyone else. She has won this competition already, to me, and she is leagues ahead of everyone. Her performance of "I'm Alright" tonight wasn't a song that proved her ability and certainly wasn't her best. However, she's come out every week and just put herself out there with no hocus-pocus and no razzle-dazzle. Crystal by far is not the best singer that "Idol" will produce, but she certainly is different and will definitely go far with her own style.
LAUREN VALLA: Did we not see both Jamie Foxx and movie night last year? None of the contestants stepped it up tonight, and they all made poor song choices. Basically all of the songs were slow ballads about women. I'm just glad Crystal didn't follow suit, that would have been awkward.
Lee started the night very poorly, but I don't think he's going home. I will indeed use the dreaded "Idol" word, and shall claim he was pitchy. Some of those notes he hit were just so odd and unlike him I didn't know what to think.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I think Casey is definitely going home. What a lousy song, it was just way too boring. A song like "Mrs. Robinson" is just not a winning song.
As for the duets, I disagree with all the judges and think they were all bad. Lee and Crystal didn't harmonize well, and once again, a love song was sung by Mike and Casey. If any of these contestants want to win, they have to change it up and blow us out of the water. If not, it might come down to who is the cutest (Oh please, Lee for sure), who needs it most (Mike), the last girl standing (Crystal), and well, Casey is just sort of just there.
KATY PERRY: Jamie Foxx did a forgettable job as a mentor, except for the shirt thing, which, quite frankly was just odd. He needs to give himself a contestant shirt.
Michael sounded like he started on the lowest end of what he is capable of singing, which is interesting for such a big guy. His performance had me snapping my fingers, but was quite reminiscent of something you might hear from a church choir. Michael is consistently good, but I question if he is good enough to make it to next week.
Crystal did her typical great performance; at the end of the song it sounded like she got in the 'Janis Joplin' zone. If she doesn't make it to the Top 2, I will be shocked. Casey James was annoying and hokey as always. I certainly hope that Casey's young fans don't ask their parents' permission to watch "The Graduate."
Lee's performance was a little weak at the beginning, but when he hit the first chorus, it felt like he got into his zone. His confidence has improved enormously from the first time we saw him onstage at the Kodak. No, Lee didn't do some crazy arrangement, but I liked it.my asp
Are you happy???
friend? brother
enjoy yourself
learn codehttp://www.thienvanvietnam.org/forum
http://www.vbdrupal.org/forum
http://r-mbd3.com/vb
http://forum.g-sat.net
http://www.robot-italy.net/roboforum
Net development
4 years technical constancy experience, cheap polo shirts
along with 2 years people management experience in Dow Chemical and 1 year project management experience in BearingPoint. Expertise in run global IT service for multi-international company, cheap polo shirts
translate business architecture to technical architecture, discount wedding prom dresses lead J2EE integration projects for financial service companies, collaborate between clients and tech lead and familiar with J2EE, best clothes blogNet development.best clothes blog discount wedding prom dressesCertified Six Sigma Project Leader.
http://forums.lylemcdonald.com
http://forums.mformature.net
http://www.eastcoastdsm.org/forum
http://www.catalystalliance.org/catalystforums
http://forums.tf2maps.net
along with 2 years people management experience in Dow Chemical and 1 year project management experience in BearingPoint. Expertise in run global IT service for multi-international company, cheap polo shirts
translate business architecture to technical architecture, discount wedding prom dresses lead J2EE integration projects for financial service companies, collaborate between clients and tech lead and familiar with J2EE, best clothes blogNet development.best clothes blog discount wedding prom dressesCertified Six Sigma Project Leader.
http://forums.lylemcdonald.com
http://forums.mformature.net
http://www.eastcoastdsm.org/forum
http://www.catalystalliance.org/catalystforums
http://forums.tf2maps.net
project management skills
About 10 years working experience in Multinational company as process manager，Regional supplier quality manager.ugg boots 2010 Excellent communication ,project management skills. Good technical background for SMT process and equipment,polo shirts shopugg boots 2010Mechanical assembly,polo shirts shopdie casting ,plastic injection,plaiting,stamping process.ICT test,PPAP,FAI process. Green belt certificated.cheap jeans shopcheap jeans shopEver award y Lucent SCN president for my good performance on quality driving and process improvement
http://www.mariokartwii.com
http://www.thescuderia.net/forums
http://www.fishyforum.com/gallery
http://www.ultraviolet-u2.com/foruns
http://www.htcspain.com
http://www.mariokartwii.com
http://www.thescuderia.net/forums
http://www.fishyforum.com/gallery
http://www.ultraviolet-u2.com/foruns
http://www.htcspain.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)