Cavaliers lose Game 1 to Magic and the decline of kick returners - Cleveland sports blog network

Cavaliers

Cavalier Attitude: "Point the finger directly at the bench. The Cavs' reserves scored all of five points, all of 'em by Joe Smith. Nothing from Wally Szczerbiak, Ben Wallace or Daniel Gibson's corpse. The pine combined to shoot 2-for-7 and the Cavs were a stunning minus-14 when Wallace was in the game. » Read more

Cavs HQ: "The Cavaliers are not going to win this series if they allow the Magic to shoot 55% from the floor here in Cleveland. The Cavaliers gave up 50 points in the paint, 28 of which came from Dwight Howard, who made more hook shots than I've ever seen him make. While there will be plenty of conversation about how the Cavaliers could have scored the two extra points they needed to win this game (it's coming up in the next paragraph actually), the much more reliable solution would have been to hold the Magic to less than 107 points, and less than 59 points in the second half." » Read more

CursedCleveland: "The end of the game was what makes the NBA - and specifically the NBA playoffs - the best thing in all of sports to witness. Last night, tonight and the Boston/Chicago series display the best when players start answering back and forth in the clutch. LeBron, Rashard Lewis, and Delonte West all made HUUUUGE shots down the stretch, but as far as the Cavs are concerned, Andy Varejao has to contest a 3-ball at the end and make Rashard drive around him, kind of like the way Rashard drove around him all night." » Read more

And One takes a deeper look at Jerry West's comments proclaiming LeBron James better than Kobe Bryant.

Browns

No Logo Needed: "Players tend to flame out after one to two years of solid return production. The human joystick, Dante Hall, is the perfect example. In 2003, Hall was all the rage with four returns for touchdowns. He was fourth in kickoff return average and was first in punt return average. The next season, he dropped to fifth in kickoff average, had only two touchdowns, and dropped to eighth in punt return average. He has not been back in the top 10 in kickoff return average since. After Cribbs' stellar 2007, his production fell off last season as he dropped to 16th in kick off returns with a 25.3 yard average and only scored one touchdown. He dropped to 17th in punt returns with an 8.1-yard average. With his decline in production last season, is Cribbs already past his kick returner prime?"