Serious Recap:

Ohio State Lost (And are no longer #1) – I was visibly upset.

Cleveland Browns Lost (In heartbreaking fashion, to the Steelers no less) – I was beside myself.

If Cleveland Cavaliers Lose - Committing Hara Kiri would have been the only option.

Cavaliers- 103
Clippers- 95

Cavaliers with a big win last night over the Clippers, in a game of spurts and rallies.

This was the second of the two big wins for Cleveland yesterday as Chef Michael Symon of Cleveland, Ohio won the title of “The Next Iron Chef” on the Food Network, joining the ranks of Iron Chef’s Cat Cora, Bobby Flay, Masaharu Mosimoto, Mario Batali and Colonel Sanders.

Game Ball: Drew Gooden

And seriously, Drew Gooden.

Drew Gooden played really well and had a double-double by halftime. Z played well enough to cancel Chris Kaman out which was big for us. Lebron wasn’t forcing anything and drove to the basket the whole game. Devin Brown was solid. Cedric “Don’t call me Ceballos” Simmons did a decent job in his limited minutes. Boobie hit his shots but didn’t play many minuted due to foul trouble.

Brace yourself for this.

Larry Hughes played well. He took good shots under control, brought the ball quickly up the court, made some great passes, and proved that he is the best point guard on the team.

As usual, free throws were our Achilles heal and we missed 4 in a row at the end of the game before Damon Jones came up and hit two big free throws an played well overall. If we are Matt though, we’ll just choose to ignore that a couple plays before that, DJones tripped over himself dribbling the ball, fell to the floor and gave the Clippers an easy dunk.

It seems that we split our free throws almost every time we got to the line. It isn’t just Lebron, and this is going to kill us as the season goes on. It’s not good that I (and every fan) only trust Zydrunas and Boobie to make crucial free throws. And we certainly don’t have anyone who we would consider “Automatic” (88% or above).

But, if the Cavaliers win in Denver tonight, most would agree that this is a pretty good start to the season; especially considering our injuries, holdouts, free throws and other shortcomings.

I hate the Jazz that much more

What a great game. What a horrible ending.

Much in the way the Cavs controlled last night’s game, never quite putting away the Warriors, tonight the Jazz maintained a slight lead throughout. Unlike last night, the contenders (Us) had the firepower (Lebron) to draw even.

It’s too shortsighted to cast blame for the entire loss on that last possession, but Devin Brown was far too aggressive on the inbounds – Deron Williams blew right past him – and Lebron for the 3rd or 4th time tonight displayed one weakness in his game – interior defense in traffic.

All in all, I give the boys credit for a great performance on the back end of the back to back; it’s just that much more gut wrenching that we couldn’t pull it out.

Lebron was clearly the greatest player in the building – though as I said after the 45-7-7, I truly believe he can do this every night. Coach Mike’s small lineup gives Lebron tons of rebounding opportunities, though it takes away one of the Cavs biggest strengths; notice that nearly every one of Lebron’s boards these last few games was defensive. Playing from the post against man and the top of the key against zone will provide him ample assists. And nobody questions his ability to score from anywhere at any time.

Trying to look ahead far enough to look back without the magnified remorse, there were 3 big keys to the loss:
1. Early turnovers: Both teams played sloppy throughout the first half, though the Cavs were the worse of the teams. Frankly, I was continually amazed we kept it as close as we did.
2. Interior defense: The Jazz bigs had too many dunks due to slow interior rotations. I’m willing to attribute that largely to tired big men slow in rotating, but also to our inability to challenge shots in the interior. A lesson in blocking shots without contact would go a long way with our best athletes. Lebron seem hesitant to contest.
3. FREE THROWS! As incredible as Lebron’s line is, 7 of 15 from the line is simply unacceptable. No matter how great he is – and continually exceeds expectations – fairly to take care of the freebies will haunt this team forever. A mediocre 67% from Lebron gives us the win. Beyond the box score, I’m convinced our lack of 2nd half free throws stemmed from Lebron’s lack of aggression – no posting, he either shot from the top of the key or made a (n admittedly great) pass, which developed from his lack of confidence from the line.

I really hate this feeling of uneasy, unresolved adrenaline, and I really hate Carlos Boozer.

See you tomorrow with a look at the King’s court and we’ll see you Friday in Sacramento.