The Cavaliers Quit At The End, Making This Loss Even Worse

Leave it to the brilliant Joe Posnanski to sum up the most bewildering part of the Cavaliers’ Game 6 loss: the fact that they just quit in the last minute of the game. Sure, they were down nine, and a comeback was unlikely, but they didn’t even fight until the end. They refused to foul Boston, then walked the ball up the court as if this was a regular-season game in mid-February. LeBron James didn’t even touch the ball, and Cleveland’s last possession of the season (and possbily LeBron’s Cavs career) ended with Anderson Varejao of all people shooting a three.

It was truly a powerful, sad moment, and Posnanski summed it up so beautifully. This whole thing is a must read, but here’s the best part.

I hope LeBron James looks back at the sad, even pathetic, way that this season ended and wants to make it right. In the end, though, LeBron’s decision is for another time, and whatever he does you can’t blame a man for following his heart. What’s left of the wreckage of this night is another Cleveland heartache, though not quite like any of the previous Cleveland heartaches. This heartache has no catchy name like The Drive or Red Right 88. This heartache is just about a team getting outworked and outplayed by an old team of Boston champions. This heartache is about a Cleveland team that quit the first chance they had. This heartache is about the last minute of the season, when the Cleveland Cavaliers decided there was no point in trying anymore.

And in its own strange way, this heartache was the bitterest one of them all.