Cedric Maxwell claims Cavs players told him they'd retaliate for Love's injury

[sed522002]

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/max-on-sports-final-cavs-players-told-me-they-were-going-to-retaliate-for-love-injury/

“I talked to some of the Cavaliers players, and one of the things they mentioned to me, they said, ‘Look, what happened with Kevin Love, we’re going to retaliate,'” Maxwell said on Sunday night’s Sports Final on WBZ-TV. “That might have happened when [Kendrick Perkins] came in the game and had the hard foul, and it could have happened with [Jae] Crowder, because they banged him around pretty good. They might have been sending a message back.”

[rondohondo]

pretty dumb for a team that was up 3-0 in the series and had title hopes . They just hurt their team more with cheap punk plays .

[Donoghus]

#RetaliateGate?? 

[sed522002]

pretty dumb for a team that was up 3-0 in the series and had title hopes . They just hurt their team more with cheap punk plays .

If this is true, then yeah it's REALLY idiotic..you guys are up 3-0 about to sweep..what message could you possibly send the C's...and oh yeah get ready for even more physical play by the Bulls (who'd be allowed to do way more than the C's).

[wdleehi]

Sounds like a team the coach isn't in charge.

[Fafnir]

Sounds like a team the coach isn't in charge.

LeBron is absolutely in charge.

[sed522002]

Sounds like a team the coach isn't in charge.

LeBron is absolutely in charge.

  Good one..lol.

[hpantazo]

With Max's comments together with Blatt's post game comments, the NBA has enough evidence to punish the Cavs hard for targeting players for retaliation if they want to. Wow, the Cavs are really dumb. You can tell that Blatt has been out of the country and not really following the NBA in the past 10 years before this season. Any NBA coach would know better than to encourage retaliation AND admit to doing so afterwards.

[Celtics4ever]

This is more than plausible, Perk acted like a goon.  Usually, retaliation is targeted at the guy who did it though.   I think they went after Crowder to protect LeBron and because Crowder ran his mouth about being physical.

[jpotter33]

I guess we should have retaliated against the Pacers for spraining Smart's ankle and the Blazers for spraining Olynyk's ankle, too.

There's more than enough evidence to support the launch of an investigation into this matter. However, since it's James' Cavs, I highly doubt that is the case.

[mahonedog88]

I completely believe this.  And I think it's more than reasonable to think that Lebron "ordered the hit" so to speak.  Just watch Lebron during that entire scuffle.  It's like he knew it was going to happen, he had no issue with it, and made no attempt to split it up.

Just for clarification, I think this is specifically about Perk.  The JR Smith smack I think was it's own incident and not technically connected to the Perk hit.  But the screen and stare-down afterwards by Perk?  I thought it initially, but now seeing what Max said?  I think it's totally realistic and more likely than unlikely

[sofutomygaha]

I don't doubt this, given how obvious both Perk and Smith were about doing their business, but why did they target Crowder in order to retaliate against Olynyk?

[rondohondo]

I don't doubt this, given how obvious both Perk and Smith were about doing their business, but why did they target Crowder in order to retaliate against Olynyk?

Crowder was giving the lebron the business . I was behind the baseline and at one point Crowder was literally giving Lebron a wedgie when he was trying to post him up. It happened right in front of the Cavs bench , it was hilarious .

Plus Crowder talking about being physical and not being intimidated . They went about it in a thuggish way though, and way over the top .

The violent way in which they went about it likely cost them a chance at a title...

[LarBrd33]

Checking in perk, who sat on the bench for all but a minute this series, and having him go after crowder immediately was one of the most transparent retaliations I've ever seen. 

Why did they target crowder though?  Why didn't they take out olynyk ?

Edit:  read the post above me.  Good explanation

[Roy H.]

I don't doubt that it was retaliation, but why would they tell Max?