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“Look how they massacred my boy.”

The Don himself uttered those words to Bonasera the mortician when he glanced down at the mangled face of his slain son. Dead was the  arrogant Sonny, who had run roughshod over his enemies while embarrassing them along the way, only to ultimately succumb to a rival he never saw coming.

Your 2008-2009 Cavaliers. See the Corleone correlation?

Hey, like the young, good looking Santino, they had swagger. And with good reason. They amassed a franchise record 66 wins and the best record in basketball to go along with the best point differential in the league. By almost every statistical measure, they had the best defense in league. By almost every statistical measure, they had the best player in the league. Technically, they had the best coach and executive in the league (we’ll get to this later).  They had just about everything going for them, not to mention the best home court advantage in the NBA.

But in the Eastern Conference Finals,  this great looking, unstoppable force of a team and its never-ending swagger ran into an ambush. Only their toll booth was the Amway Center.  And just like that, our boy has been reduced to just another pretty face under a blanket in the basement of a funeral parlor (and even the life-saving super nurse Hawthorne can’t make this pain go away).

So what happened?

Sometimes it’s all about the matchups. Cursedcleveland was the first to tell you in our Atlanta podcast what a nightmare Rashard and Hedo would create for our defense.  We were also the first to tell you that this was the first series that LeBron would have to defend throughout, and not just play the role of the roaming super athlete. No surprise that he looked exhausted at the end of these games. Also no surprise that he wasn’t making nearly the amount of defensive plays he was making in the first two rounds of the playoffs or the regular season.

LeBron certainly held up his end of the bargain. He put up historic playoff numbers in this series (38-8-8), not to mention his you’ll remember where you were moment, with his Game 2 buzzer-beating three-pointer. But much like an Al Jefferson regular season, much will be forgotten. And just like 2007, there will be the inevitable finger pointing towards LeBron’s teammates, Mike Brown and yet another opposing Frenchman.  The teammates for their missed shots, and Mike Brown for the failure to defend the Magic offensive gimmick. The Frenchman because it fit my 2007 theme.

Oh and you can bet Danny Ferry will be hearing it. Wally and Sasha for Shaq: the deal that Ferry wouldn’t make.  Although tough to kill him when he was responsible for Mo Williams and the messianic figure known as Joe Smith. But we have all off-season to get to this. Windy said on WKNR after the game that it would be a busy summer for the Cavs. So Ferry will have every opportunity to improve the team – and maybe even more money than expected if Big Ben really calls it quits.

So no more taking pictures and other overly-choreographed pregame rituals.  No more rickrolling at the Q during 20 point fourth quarter blowouts. No more staring at Nicole Cuglewski’s stomach and wondering why the Cavs health plan didn’t include planned parenthood services. The 2008-09 season has come to a premature end.

But like  “Godfather Part II”  maybe the sequel can actually top the original.  We can only hope.