Thoughts before Game 2

I purposely waited until this morning to post my thoughts in the wake of Game 1's complete and utter disappointment. I was seriously bummed walking out of the Q after that heartbreaker. It felt like I just watched my dog get hit by a car. I had the immediate sky-is-falling Cleveland fan reaction on the car ride home too. So I'm glad I didn't come on here yesterday, and instead allowed myself some time to cool off.

Heading into tonight's must-win Game 2, the Cavs are at a crossroads. And they are facing postseason adversity for the first time. They can either shrink and die under the pressure (not likely), or they can use Game 1 as a motivating factor for the remainder of the playoffs. I knew that facing Orlando would be a challenge, but Game 1 brought out fears previously pointed out by others that I chose to ignore. Now I'm just pinning my hopes on Mike Brown's defensive wizardry to come up with a better plan to stop the Magic's 3-point onslaught. I truly believe the winner of this series will be crowned NBA champs, and I'll be damned if that team is the Orlando freaking Magic.

So what changes will we see tonight? I doubt we'll see LeBron on Rafer Alston for the entire game. Ditto for Andy on Rashard Lewis. There may even be a Sasha Pavlovic sighting in place of Wally off the bench. I just hope he's ready to play if he's called upon - and I'll admit the prospect of Sasha playing in a big spot tonight completely terrifies me. But somehow, some way I think the Cavs will get it done tonight. At least that's what I hope. And hope is a good thing. Maybe the best of things. (It never hurts to throw in a Shawshank quote in desperate times). Go Cavs. Please even this thing up tonight. We've come too far to throw it all away now.