Written by Brian McPeek

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Tribe gets swept in Cinci-tucky.  Cavs go down in seven games to the Boston Celtics.  Nothing else to say folks, this was a very tough weekend to be a Cleveland sports fan.  Peeks took a break from decompressing over a little "The Devil Wears Prada" and had to dig deep to fight through this column this week for all you masochists out there that actually want to relive the horror a second time.  We're Clevelanders.  We move on.  Just two months 'till training camp ...

I’m not going to lie. I’m really not up for this right now. Between the Cavs Game 7 loss to Boston and the Indians being swept this weekend in Cincinnati there’s not a lot of joy in doing the Wrap.

And if you’re like me, after meaningful games that end in losses, you go into full-blown media lockdown anyway so I’m right there with you if you’re ignoring anything sports related.

In fact, right now, I’m watching ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ and forsaking anything sports related. And no, I’m not even gay. I actually just prefer Ann Hathaway to Stuart Scott right now and likely for the next two days. Actually, I’d prefer Ann Hathaway to Stuart Scott everyday but I meant….. Oh never mind.

I do understand there are folks who want to get right into the post-mortem and see what other fans like them thought about the weekend sports scene.

This is dedicated to you three.

Simply Not Enough

I can take only so much solace in coming close and in pinning the 66-win Celtic team to the wall before falling 97-92 in Game 7. I care only a little bit that Boston has been decimated by this Cavs series and will likely lose to the Pistons in 6 games.

The bottom line is the bottom line: the Cavs didn’t get it done.

Not only did they fail to take a game from the Celtics in the Garden when they had three opportunities to do so and not only did their superstar come up just short on the ‘hero scale’ but they had neither enough points to win Game 7 nor enough talent to be reasonably expected to.

Paul Pierce and LeBron James went mano-a-mano in a classic duel in Boston and the difference was simply that James had nowhere near the back-up that Pierce did. James scored 45 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and handed out 6 assists. He could have had 12 assists if any of his mates could routinely knock down wide open shots. For his part, Pierce was magnificent as well. He scored 41 points and carried the Celtics for long stretches in the series finale.

Pierce got 13 points of help from Kevin Garnett and 10 more from a clutch PJ Brown, including a huge 15 footer from Brown that was the proverbial dagger in the heart of the Cavs with a minute left.

Meanwhile, at the half, James had received exactly nothing in the way of points from 3 of his 4 fellow starters. Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Ben Wallace and Wally Szczerbiak didn’t score in the first half and the Cavs were getting killed on the boards. The fact they were down just 10 points was, in a word, miraculous.

Szczerbiak was at least consistent. He also didn’t score a point in the second half either when open shots were in abundance given the Celtics preoccupation with James. His complete bed-wetting in Game 7 paved the way for us to have the pleasure of watching Sasha Pavlovic do pretty much nothing for 37 minutes. That’s okay on most nights because he’s doing it on the bench. But Sunday in Boston he brought his 37 minutes of nearly nothing to the floor during actual game action.

Look, the Cavs again went deeper into the playoffs than a look at their roster would indicate they should. That’s almost entirely due to one man. If this series wasn’t a clear indication that LBJ needs some help then eyes are tightly shut in the offices at Cavaliers headquarters. They’re just not good enough to consistently beat the better teams in the Eastern Conference as a one-trick pony.

No matter how good the pony is.

They have an off season to correct that issue and use some expiring contracts to get some reinforcements into Wine & Gold uniforms.

Unfortunately that starts tomorrow.

Simply Not Enough Part II

Anyone see a pattern here? From The Weekend Wrap, August 27, 2007:

Working Without A Net- Tribe pitchers continue to throw up impressive performances but all too often are walking away at the end of their outing with nothing to show for their efforts. The club’s offensive struggles threaten to short-circuit what has been a banner year for the Indians pitching staff. This past week saw the Big 3 of C.C Sabathia, Fausto Carmona and Jake Westbrook all pitch ridiculously well without earning a victory. The Indians still maintain a lead over the Tigers in the AL Central race and that has salved some of the hurt. But the time is fast approaching when the pressure of having to be nearly perfect each time out is going to cause an eruption in the clubhouse.

Indians manager Eric Wedge, despite suffering the slings and arrows of criticism that he doesn’t always deserve in regard to the offensive woes, has done a very good job of keeping peace in the clubhouse. There have been few public outbursts from the pitchers in regard to the anemic support they have received. But with each and every game that the offense continues to struggle, that job will get more difficult to do.

Sabathia and Carmona each had the audacity to allow a couple runs against the Royals this weekend. Sabathia took a 2-1 loss while Carmona ended up with a no-decision on Sunday when he completely fell apart and allowed a grand total of three runs. In fact, Sabathia has allowed two earned runs in each of his last five starts. For his efforts he is 1-4 over those five starts. It may be just a matter of time before Mt. Sabathia erupts and takes out a couple of hitters in the process.

The Indians played 3 games in Cincinnati this weekend, two of which were very well pitched by the Tribe starters, and then finished the series Sunday with what amounts to a slugfest for this team ( a 6-4 loss). Three games, three losses. All the goodwill from winning of 8 of their last 10 prior to the Cincy trip gone in a blaze of Jensen Lewis walks Friday night, a Masa Kobayashi melt-down on Saturday afternoon and Cliff Lee’s first clunker on Sunday afternoon.

You can’t complain about Lee. This was the first game he’s pitched this season that he hasn’t dominated. The starting pitching has been, in a word, unreal. But much like LeBron James the pitchers need help. We’ve eclipsed the mystical 40 game evaluation period and my evaluation is this: get a damn bat.

This team is threatening to waste what’s easily the best pitching in the league by sheer virtue of their offensive inadequacies. Their best hitter right now is clearly a rookie (Ben Francisco) who hasn’t yet gotten 50 at bats. Their leading RBI guy is their 9^th hitter who’s hitting .226. Their cleanup hitter’s next home run this season will be his first. Don’t get me started on Jhonny Peralta, David Dellucci, Asdrubal Cabrera, Travis Hafner and Ryan Garko.

This team needs an infusion of life and offensive production. I’ll take my chances with production and hope that life is infused by proxy.

If getting a bat means giving up a couple young pitchers, given the impending free agency status of CC Sabathia and Paul Byrd, well then maybe they just should wait and see and……GO GET A DAMN BAT right now!

The Good News

The Browns Ryan Tucker underwent surgery for a broken hip he apparently sustained in OTAs last week.

How’s that good news? Well, there’s nothing yet to indicate he’s come down with a staph infection.

It’s thin, I know. But, except for Ann Hathaway, it’s been a bad weekend.

Two months until training camp.