There is no doubt that during the NBA regular season the Cleveland Cavaliers were  by far the best team in the league and headed into the playoffs with the best overall record and high hopes of becoming NBA champions for the first time in the LeBron James era.

Over the past two seasons, no other team in the league has really been able to compete with the Cleveland Cavaliers in the regular season, but despite being so dominant throughout the regular season, the Cavs have been nothing more than mediocre in the playoffs.

Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers have arguably the best player in the league in LeBron James and were finally able to add key pieces to the puzzle this season with the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and versatile forward Antawn Jamison, the team really couldn’t get it together in the second round of the playoffs against a defensive minded, championship tested team in the Boston Celtics.

Despite not playing all that well throughout the regular season, clinching the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and limping into the playoffs, the Boston Celtics have really come on strong in the postseason and are playing with the same kind of defensive intensity that they played with in their 2008 championship campaign.

The one glaring problem the Cavs had in the elimination game against the Celtics was the fact that they basically just gave up in fourth quarter and let Boston cruised to victory and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.

There was no sense of urgency or desire to advance or get back in the game and as a result, the Cavs just walked the basketball up the court and pretty much conceded. The Boston Celtics and the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers on the other hand would never give up in that situation and I believe that is the big difference between a championship team and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Not only did the Cavs show no effort in game six of the second round against the Celtics, but head coach Mike Brown did absolutely nothing to change it and that may have been the deciding factor in his firing on Monday.

In five seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Mike Brown was able to help this team turn into a title contender, but was never able to actually lead them to an NBA title as every time the team got close, they fell flat on their face and failed to live up to expectations.

Now Brown will be one of the many NBA head coaches out of work and hoping for another opportunity with another NBA franchise.