Cleveland Cavaliers blow out the Atlanta Hawks in Game 2

With the NBA playoffs being a huge deal especially in Cleveland  and since LeBron won the MVP and the Cavs only lost two home games all year I couldn’t turn down the  opportunity that was offered to me to covering the game.

The game was on ESPN at 8pm so I got to the Quicken Loans Arena around 5:30 to ensure it would be smooth sailing with getting my credentials and finding my spot on the floor.

So I then headed outside to shoot some exterior photos of Quicken Loans Arena and while I was walking I saw the car that some fans made for LeBron.

Here is a little video showing the inside and outside of the car.

Then I shot some shots of the front of the Q.

Then as the Witness car was turning the car I tried to get the huge WE ARE ALL WITNESES banner in the background with the car in the foreground but the damn light pole got in the way and kind of ruined the shot.

Then I headed around the corner to see if I could get some people walking around either looking for tickets or taking pictures so I used a really slow shutter speed and show some movement in the photo.

Then I headed inside to transmit some photos and start shooting some feature photos. I set up to shoot the players entering the court with the fans all lined up cheering and screaming.

Here is LeBron as he runs onto the court.

Shortly after that LeBron does something else that is kind of crazy. He heads to just about half court were a full rack of basketball waits for him. He takes then and throws them under hand to see how many he can make in a row. He usually makes 8 or so.

After his last ball he drove to the basket and did a monster dunk!

Here is another little video illustrating it.

Then for player introduction they shoot flames out of the scoreboard.

So the last time I shot the Cavs back in December I got a really nice shot of LeBron doing his pregame ritual of throwing rosin into the air with lead to a spread in Sporting News Magazine along with some other publications.

So for this game I thought it would be cool to try and put a flash right in front of him so it would make the whole arena dark and only him and the rosin would be lit up but my plan backfired. I had asked around to see where LeBron had been doing the pregame ritual so I took a guess where to

put the flash but I guessed wrong. I had the flash about 2 feet to the left of him, so as I realized it was off I threw together some half assed setting on my camera to at least make something out of nothing.

Here is the half assed exposure

Then I kind of got luck and caught part of my flash some now to make a decent shot.

After that I had to hustle to get back to my shooting position on the floor to focus on the action. Since this was a playoff game I had to focus more on sending my photos as fast as I could because I didn’t have an editor on site then I was actually shooting.

The game started off with the LeBron bringing the ball up the court that he passed to Delonte West to get the Cavs onto the board.

I hurried back to the media room during a TV time out to transmit some photos as I was walking back to the court Delonte West was fouled and hit the court pretty hard.

After the ball was in bounded LeBron didn’t waste any time driving to the basket to do a monster dunk.

By that point the Cavs already had a huge lead so he take a seat on the bench just enjoying the comfortable lead.

I am not exactly sure what happened but Mo Williams either hit a huge 3 pointer or do some crazy drive to the basket but LeBron went crazy on the bench.

Then Mo Williams was did a little gesture to the coward.

LeBron re entered the game and as soon as he did he knocked down a pass by the Atlanta Cavs and tried to stop it from going out of bounds so he had to jump over the bench.

Then as Mo Williams was brining the ball up the court and driving to the basket he slipped and fell and got the ball knocked away and he still tried to get up and drive for the ball from keeping it from going out of bounds.

The first quarter was coming to an end quickly and who better to have the ball? Guess who? LeBron!

He hit this amazing 40 foot shot and after he made it he kind of reacted at first like he didn’t think he was going to make it but he then showed a little excitement!

Here is the shot

Here is the video for those who missed it

After he made that shot his mother Gloria stood up and yelled at him that was all luck! All he could do was smile.

I headed back to the media room to transmit as many photos as I could before the start of the third quarter.

LeBron started the third quarter on the bench so there wasn’t that much to shoot so I saw some fans holding a sign that said Sweep the Hawks which I hope happens and by the looks of game 4 it will happen and I should make some sales off the photo.

About half way into the third quarter LeBron reentered the game and being the non selfish guy he is he made sure all of the players on the court got an opportunity to score. He sure made Anderson Varejao happy!

I then fired off some side profile and backs shots of LeBron just showing his name and number for future stock use.

LeBron didn’t play the whole fourth quarter so I pretty much just sat back and enjoyed the game.

Then after the game LeBron took his shoes off and signed them and gave them to Chicago Bears linebacker start Brian Urlacher. Not sure why he needs an autographed pair shoes from LeBron what ever!

I got some shots of the players leaving the court with the confetti flying and LeBron was all smiles and he left the court!

Z didn’t look to happy

I guess Ben Wallace was trying to keep it cool

Then LeBron all smiles!

After I finished up in the media room I headed back outside to shoot more of the arena.

After an awesome game two and some good photos I made the two hour drive home. I will be covering the Cavs at home in the next round so be sure to check back!

Here are some of my photos that were published around the web.

Then I also got a pic in USA Today Newspaper

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 10th, 2009 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Basketball, Me, NBA, Sports and tagged with 23, 40 foot, Andrew Weber, Atlanta, Basketball, Ben Wallce, Cavaliers, Cavs, Chalk, Cleveland, Delonte West, Dive, dunk, Eastern Conference Semi Finals, Gloria James, half time, Hawks, Lebron, LeBron James, lebron mom, Mo Williams, NBA, Ohio, Pass, Playoffs, Quicken Loans Arena, rosin, shot, Sporting News, Sports, sweep the hawks, throwing, Wallace, witness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.