Game 1, Season 2 Recap

The Pistons, Magic and Celtics, like the Cavs, all cracked triple digits in wins over western conference teams today.

The Bulls, with the help of Larry Hughes and Drew Gooden, will not be following suit.

Lebron James, Cavalier. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the players. We have the capability to build the world’s first bionic man. Lebron James will be that man. Better than he was before. Better (11 assists), stronger (7 boards), faster (25 points on 17 shots).

Of his 17 shots, Lebron was outside the paint 5 times, hitting a 3 and a long 2. Starting with a fast break lob from his brand new point guard, Lebron was around the hoop all game long. But he wasn’t alone.

Ben Wallace missed a tip-in, but had 5 dunks to make up for it, notching a double double in his Cavs debut. Plus he ignited the crowd in the first quarter hitting his first 2 free throws.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas completed the dream front line, with a casual 22 and 13. Seriously, he dominated and you didn’t even notice him. Just another Wilt-style game for the big man: basketball and volleyball. He was only 2 of 7 on the pick and pop, but thanks to 7 offensive boards, he was 6-10 around the rim.

Joe Smith also warrants mention in discussing the greatest front line in the NBA. If he’s the key to this trade, it’s because he can do exactly what he did today, hitting his open jumpers and pulling in a few timely rebounds. I’ll taken 15 and 15 from the Wallace/Smith tandem, and tonight we got 26 and 16.

But wait, let’s not neglect this team’s new strength, the backcourt:
Delonte West came in and provided a boost in every way over Larry Hughes. He went 2-12 (as opposed to 2-13) and his 6 assists to 2 turnovers were a huge help in keeping the ball moving to create easy offense.

Starting backcourt mate Devin Brown came in with the same, mentality, looking to set up his teammates on a few nice screen and rolls. He contributed 6 assists of his own, sans turnover, plus 9 points on 5 shots. If he keeps playing well, he’ll keep his spot in the rotation – possibly even in the starting lineup once Sasha returns because he’s the only other guy who can take the task of defending big, athletic guards away from Lebron. If he can keep up the solid play like this each game, then turn in a yeoman’s performance on Paul Pierce in Boston Wednesday, he’ll continue to carve out his spot in the playoff rotation.

Meanwhile, the other odd man out continues to space the floor and make everything. Damon Jones chipped in 11 points on 6 shots, plus 3 assists and 2 boards (plus a ferocious block!) to make the argument that his stroke and spacing should stay right where they are for 20 minutes per game.

The slowest starting player today was the one still stuck in his Sonics green and yellow sneakers: Wally Szczerbiak. He missed a few 3s early on in the 2nd before forcing the issue with a layup and then putting the smaller Juan Carlos Navarro on his back in the post. He came out and hit a few 3s in the second half to get to double digits, with 10 points on 10 shots. Not his best game, but far and away his best with the Cavs so far. Tuesday night, once he has his new shoes broken in, I’m sure the shots will gall in greater supply.

The tone of the night was fluid offense and easy, open shots. It was a perfect recipe for a big win, playing on adrenaline, at home, against a terrible team. The real test will start Tuesday as we head up to frigid Milwaukee, hoping to keep our shooting hot, before turning around for a game in Boston the following night.

The Cavs now have a roster filled with savvy, smart players, so the rotations will be dictated as much by defensive matchups as offensive cohesion. If I’m Mike Brown, I do my best to gauge how we look defensively against the so-called Big 3 in order to figure out who is left by the wayside once we’re back at full strength.

Go Cavs!

(PS – As I write this, Hughes and Gooden have combined for 19, 9 and 2 on 8-17 at the end of the 3rd.)

Delonte West wants to give you a hug

Word out of the Q is that the Cavs are starting half the newbies tonight against Memphis: Delonte at the point and Big Ben at the 4.

Devin gets his second straight start at the 2 and, of course, Z and Lebron fill out the lineup.

With Memphis offering no interior threats, the Cavs can get away without using Dwayne Jones, letting Wally fill in at the 2 and 3 while Lebron slides to the 4 next to Z or Wallace. Joe Smith will get plenty of minutes at PF, and DJ will back it up at the guard spots.

Maybe we see Billy Thomas, but I’d hardly bet on that anymore than I’d bet on burn for Kaniel Dickens or the Snowman.

For the hell of it, let’s fill out 48 minutes at each spot:
PG: West (25), DJ (23)
SG: Brown (25), Wally (20), DJ (3)
SF: Lebron (35), Wally (13)
PF: Wallace (17), Smith (23), Lebron (8)
C: Z (35), Wallace (13)

So by my calculation, we’re looking at 25 minutes for Delonte, a PG just learning the system, 25 for DJ, coming off his hot night, 25 for Devin, filling in as the Ira Newble glue guy at as many as 4 positions, 30+ for Wally, who I think needs as much floor time with Lebron as anybody, 30 for Big Ben, 25 for Joe Smith, 35 for Z and 40+ for Lebron.

We’ll see who plays well. Memphis gives Delonte a chance to show he can stay in front of quick point guards and Wally a chance to chase Rudy Gay as soon as it becomes clear that he can’t chase Juan Carlos Navarro. Lebron can definitely handle Hakim Warrick at the 4, and Ben will get to excite the crowd by ignoring the twin towers or Kwame and Darko for some help side blocks on penetrators.

It’s great for the Cavs to start this new era in front of their fans and against a team like the Grizzlies, where there should be ample opportunity to excite and impress. Tune in at 6 to see it all begin.

Go Cavs!

(Blatently stolen from Cavs.com)

Cavs/Lakers! It’s the NBA Finals on ABC!

Big trade, huh? Anybody see that coming? The Lakers, with Derek Fisher and Jordan Farmar holding down the 1, didn’t part with much of value to acquire one of the better big men in the game in Pau Gasol.

Crittendon was unnecessary with Farmer playing so well already. Kwame was good for little more than cap room. The 1st round picks probably wouldn’t have been much higher than 20.

The Grizzlies get a heap of flexibility to throw money at whomever they think will fit into their point guard heavy system come the off-season (Conley, Lowry, Crittendon, plus kinda Juan Carlos Navarro), plus some extra picks never hurt a team looking to add talent.

I think this makes the Lakers terrifyingly good. Perhaps not this year, with Bynum potentially out the remainder of the season and Pau needing to learn the triangle, but as soon as next year, the Lakers are back to being title contenders.

Lamar Odom is now their 4th option. Think about that starting lineup:
C – Bynum
PF – Pau
SF – Odom
SG – Kobe
PG – Fisher

Yikes! And they back that up with Farmar, Walton, Turiaf and a couple foreigners. I think we’ll see a rotation where only 2 of the 3 bigs are on the floor together, but that just means their 2nd unit is almost as potent as their first.

Pau will excel in an offensive system where he has capable cutters and shooters and ball movement, and he’s not relied on in a stagnant system from the low block.

Defensively, Bynum will be a beast, handling any bigs and protecting the rim, Turiaf will almost literally play his heart out banging, and Odom can handle any quicker 4s, in the Marion mold.

I love watching the triangle. Players just keep moving, passing and cutting until a shot presents itself. Now it’s going to get even better.

Kobe heard the news and proceeded to drop 46 on 28 shots, 7 and 5. Odom smiled as a burden was lifted from his shoulders, leading to a 12, 10 and 8. I see no reason they can’t put up those same numbers with Bynum and Pau’s 18 and 8.

I’m looking forward to beating them in the Finals.

Also, I noticed somebody found their way to LeCavs by searching for “Lebron Roy feud”. Wouldn’t it be exciting if the Cavs needed to beat the Caron-led Wizards to reach a finals against the winners of the Lakers/Blazers showdown in each of the next 10 years? I could see it happening.

Go Cavs!

~edit~
We couldn’t give the Grizzlies anyone with as much potential as Crittendon nor as big an expiring contract as Kwame. And while we could give up picks, we could use some young talent instead, preferably in a form that fits our system better than Gasol. So no, I’m not disappointed that we let one “get away”.

Snap Recap

Since we’ve had aplenty of back and forth in the game thread, there isn’t a whole lot more to say.

I feel like I was spot on saying we’d need to score and get something from our bigs. Well, we scored 132, Gooden came with a double double, and 4 of our 5 double digit scorers were 6′8″ or taller.

Lebron was GREAT. 51, 9 and 8. 50% from deep, which as we all know is effectively 75%. That would be a remarkable evening if it wasn’t still clear he’s better going inside, where he went 12-16 tonight. Then again, since his FT% was lowest of all (9-16), maybe he is best off avoiding contact and hoisting away when he can maintain good form.

Boobie and DJ were solid offensively, trying to keep up with their counterparts, Conley and Navarro, to little avail.

Pavlovic is most invisible. Hughes hardly hurt us – making up for 2-8 with 7 boards in 23 minutes. Plus, in defense of his poor shot selection, he did hit 2 jumpers, but miss his only layup.

48 field goals, but only 20 assists also worries me a bit, but we know we don’t move the ball much. Our guards are out there to be shooters (5 assists total from 5 guards) and any assist from a big is a bonus (6 from 3, non-Lebron), so basically we’re looking for Lebron’s 7 assists plus or minus a handful.

I’ll take just about any win on the road, but it felt like this one would’ve been a lot easier with just a little more defensive effort. To beat good teams, we need to learn to assert ourselves. We fell into Memphis basketball and outplayed them, but it hasn’t worked for us against any elite teams like Phoenix.

Go Cavs!

That’s so gay…

Game Preview!

Really, this is just so there’s a thread relevant to the game during the game.

This is the first of a bunch of road games to finish out January (6 of 8). We only need to go 4-4 to reach my January goal of 9-5, but with roadies in San Antonio, Lakerland and Portland, and home dates with Phoenix and Washington, we don’t have much margin for error.

That means tonight the Cavs needs to come out and dominate an underperforming Memphis team. Maybe we can get Pau Gasol in a cops uniform and convince Lebron to blow off some steam.

The Grizz have the size to keep 2 bigs on the floor alongside Lebron, so a return to form for Z and some energy and focus from Drew will be key.

I’m worried we won’t see much Gibson, since Memphis seems to have wave after wave of quick point guards in JC Navarro, Kyle Lowry, Mike Conley and Damon Stoudamire. None of those guys combine the strength with quickness to give us the same trouble as a Deron Williams or Baron Davis, but the Cavs are devoid of any players with comparable footspeed. We’ll be counting on length and help defense to protect the middle and limit easy shots.

Because of their talent, Memphis is a high scoring team, capable of big quarters, especially in front of the home crowd. Even with solid defensive intensity, the Cavs will need to look to be aggressive and execute to get some easy shots. I doubt this game will turn into an 85-82 slugfest.

As is the case with most teams, the Grizzlies have little hope of matching up with Lebron. He could destroy Mike Miller with a glare and run rings around Hakim Warrick and Stromile Swift. He’ll probably see a healhty does of Rudy Gay, meaning his offense could serve as the best defense, a way to wear down our foul out Memphis’s most athletic player and best scorer.

Go Cavs!