Lebron and yor 4 closest friends

Unless you’re friends with some NBA players, that’s what it’s coming to. Our list of injured players could start, and probably contend with the Minnesotas and Seattles of the leagues:

PG: Boobie
SG: Larry
SF: Sasha
PF: Drew
C: Andy

Yikes. I’m curious to see how long Larry is out. On the plus side (maybe?) Drew should be back soon. On the bad side (maybe??) Hughes never heals quickly. I’d like to leave this space open for GMoney to add his thoughts on Hughes being hurt:
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But enough worrying about injuries, let’s talk about how well everybody who was good enough to go played tonight.

Lebron was great tonight. He was a force throughout the game. He played inside the 3 point line all night. Even without the ball, he was moving towards the hoop, picking up easy baskets and put backs. Without checking, I’ll say his 4 offensive rebounds is a season high and, probably, career high.

I checked, and it’s not. He’s had 5 once this year and 2 other times. Nonetheless, I was excited watching him all night because he stayed in a position to be dangerous at all times, putting pressure on the Hawks, creating for everybody and still getting his.

On the other end, Lebron was also a monster. He only managed 1 block (though he had another shared block that was credited to Devin Brown) but was constantly active, guarding 4 positions. The last 5 minutes, we trotted out Lebron, Newble, Devin Brown, DJ and Snow, and still got the big rebounds.

One of those rebounds and a great outlet led to a breakaway for 2 of Ira Newble’s 18. Newble added 8 rebounds, always seeming to be in the right spot at both ends. If he keeps playing like this, “completely healthy” is just code for “trying to find minutes for everybody” because he shouldn’t be going back to the end of the bench.

Eric Snow had the best 0-4 I’ve ever seen, harassing Joe Johnson all night long, managing more steals than missed shots. He added equally as many assists (5) to just 1 turnover. His ability to step in when needed and contribute without hurting the team is what makes our bench so deep. Especially with Hughes down, expect to see him start again Sunday

My boy Damon Jones took over for a minute in the 4th, stepping past a defender for an easy 2, following up with a drive to the hoop, and finishing with a 3 in front of some trash talking fans. After the Hawks had stormed back early in the 4th to take the lead, DJ’s run sparked our rejuvenation.

Why did we have that lead in the first place? Oh yeah, Big Z couldn’t miss early. With a couple of baseline jumpers and putbacks, was something like 6-9 with 8 boards at the half.

Devin Brown also played strong, in his junkyard dog kind of way, hitting a couple big shots to stop mini-runs by Atlanta. He added in 5 assists, 4 boards, and 3 steals, which seems like about his average when he’s out there for 25 minutes.

And then there’s Larry Hughes. He’s definitely not a point guard, except when he chooses to be. There were a few too many times in the 2nd half where would just throw up a shot rather than working the defense for something better. He was solid in the first half and managed to pull down 7 boards before leaving with yet another injury.

Yeah… that’s the MJ pose from Newble.

So Sunday we’re back home for the Nuggets, another strong, big western conference team. It’ll take another great all around effort to impress in that national tv spotlight.

Go Cavs!

Man down

Gibson is listed as doubtful and Gooden is a game time decision. Andy and Sasha remain inactive.

Can we beat the Hawks in Atlanta, on a back to back, with an 8 man rotation?

The starters will be the same again: Hughes, Newble, Lebron, Donyell and Z. We might see Snow, Shannon and Simmons out of necessity, but the rotation is really only filled out with DJ, Devin and Dwayne. Mike Brown has always valued the Ds.

Last time we were here, a month ago, the riff raff shot 29%. That won’t cut it, but if they can give 35%, if Z can stay on the floor and assert himself over Al Horford, if we play some D the first three quarters…

I say yes. I say it’s on 1 man’s back, because I think everything else will fall into place. I just hope Atlanta brings out the hecklers.

Go Cavs!

Was there a game tonight?

19-66.

Less than 29%.

4-10 from deep – we actually shot better beyond the arc than within.

I guess Lebron really does have to do everything, as he accounted for about half our makes and 1/3 of our total rebounds tonight.

Let’s just use the built in “2nd night back to back on the road” excuse and move on. That way we can ignore that Lebron aside, we’re damned near incompetent. The ball didn’t move, the shots didn’t fall. We knew we had the excuse ready, so we flat out didn’t show up.

The offense clearly wasn’t there. It’s so often not, so we fall back on the D. Except tonight. Our legs were weighted down, but our hands were left to roam free. We ended up with plenty of fouls across the board, the Hawks made up for poor free throw shooting with volume.

The Cavs barely outshot the Hawks from the line, coming in at 68%. But that’s one stat we ratchet up without Lebron – 8 of 10 from the also rans.

At the end of the day, the blame falls largely on the usual suspects: Hughes, Sasha, Coach Mike. Z has hit a huge rut. Gibson has shown he won’t keep up the marksmanship every night. Gooden put up the only other decent line, but his late travel might have been the straw that broke Ori’s mom’s back.

Still, looking past the obvious, I can’t help put throw some blame towards Lebron. Yes, he’s superhuman. Yes, he’s amazing despite playing 5 on 1. Yes, he needs some help – he can’t do it all. But that double and triple team doesn’t come until after he catches the ball. The biggest flaw in his game is that first hesitation. Seeing how poorly we were playing going into the half, I commented that this is one of those games where Lebron would decided he’s getting to the line 15 times in the 2nd half. He should catch, anticipate and attack. He is that much better than anybody realizes; this man against the world performance comes on cruise control. We should’ve had enough to get over the hump on this one because it should’ve started early in the 3rd behind a killer Lebron.

Regardless, shitty game all around. Nobody is absolved of blame. Well, maybe Shannon Brown. You could see him on the bench just itching to come light it up.

Back to .500, a swift drop to the 7th seed. Of course we weren’t going to win every game. Even mighty Boston lost tonight. We’re still looking at a good January and a good 2nd half, and come playoff time, there aren’t any back to backs.

Blah Cavs!