Cavs v. Nets: A recap and thoughts

I hate writing game recaps. Most people who come to this site have already either seen the game, or pulled down a box score on their own. So for me to tell you exactly what happened seems a bit repetitive. So what I’ll do is this: I’ll give a brief recap and throw in my own thoughts and opinions, without looking at the box score.

First I’ll start off with this, If I was a Nets fan…I would stop being a Nets fan. They gave that game away and quite possibly made some of the dumbest rotation decisions ever. When is Bostjan Nachbar a free agent? I ask because we should sign him. He is the best player on the Nets. I’m being serious. If you offer me Richard Jefferson for 3 years at 8 million a year or Bostan Nachbar at the same terms, I’m taking Nachbar. Again I’m not looking at the box score but I believe he scored about 15 points in the 6 minutes he was in the game. He should start and play all game.

Now the Cavs-
Boobie- was great. He was attacking the basket, pulling down huge rebounds in crunch time, making smart decisions with the ball. I like him coming off the bench, but would it be horrible to have a backcourt of him and Delonte?

Delonte- was great. He was the only Cav playing in the first half of the game. Shows a pretty good shot from the outside too.

Sasha- was nothing special. He seemed afraid to shoot the ball, as he passed on alot of open shots. I like him in the rotation though. Skills alone, he is the 2nd best player on the team.

Lebron- played very nicely and took a few hard fouls, including one where Desagna Diop rode on Lebron’s injured back like a cowboy (called for a flagrant). Lebron is, in my opinion, the best player in the NBA. I still don’t understand how MVP works, But I would not trade Lebron for anybody straight up in the league right now. I would have to think that the 3 MVP front-runners: Chris Paul, Kobe Bryant and Bostjan Nachbar, would be traded away in a second if the Cavs were offering ‘Bron.

Wally- is a nice player. I like his intensity and his shot is starting to fall. Why not start him at the SG position? He plays decent enough defense and would help spread the floor for Lebron. He also gives us a shooter in the starting 5 which we currently don’t have.

Damon Jones- I assume he doesn’t play because of his mouth. While Matt loves him like a brother, I hate him like a terrorist. He’s been cancer to this team for most of the year.Starting with his trade demands in the summer and early on in the season. He’s hit a few shots for us, but otherwise is a complete liability to the team. I also heard (this is just a rumor I was told) that he stormed off the floor yesterday and headed back to lockeroom before the game ended so that he wouldn’t be inserted with the garbage time players (which is what he is).

Cavs played like crap yesterday, but the Nets were somehow even worse. We’ll have to see how we do against some better competition, Like the Bulls (Friday) and Heat (Sunday)!

Still a win is a win is a win…and I liked it.

Worst Clincher Ever

The Cavs claimed a spot in the NBA Playoffs tonight.

David Stern, watching tonight’s game, denounced the Cavaliers’ effort as a mockery of the game, and insisted that New Jersey’s loss not count in the Cavs’ favor, but he was told it was out of his hands – the Cavs are in.

Now they have 9 games to figure out how to prevent that atrocity from happening again. I’ve seen the Cavs blown out worse, but never with so little hope or opportunity.

Lebron was clearly not on, but even if he was, what could be done? The Pistons packed it in and watched the Cavs inept offense act as offensively as it’s ever been. I heard that after the game, Mike Brown offered an apology to all the mothers who allowed their children to watch the game.

The Cavs were punched in the mouth and simply didn’t have the repetoire to respond. Last year, in a situation like this we could fall back and rely on defense and spacing. But now we have neither. Lebron was swarmed and was never able to convert that into an open shot for a teammate. On the other end, the Cavs were on the heels while the Pistons showed us how an offense with numerous weapons and some chemistry could operate.

It was the worst case in every situation.

We’ll see how we bounce back against a far less physical team tomorrow in Philadelphia. At this point, we need to stave off the Wizards, Raptors, and even those Sixers for home court. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to see the Cavs slide down to 7th (and a quick rematch with the Pistons) if we continue to execute on this level.

The next 3 weeks really are an extended practice session. I’d rather lose all 9 and have a system on both ends, as the 7th seed, than stumble along leaning on Lebron against inferior teams.

Yuck. Nothing more to say.

but … Go Cavs!

NBA.com reads LeCavs

Just days after LeCavs tells you that the real heavyweight battle is not Celtics/Suns but rather Cavs/Hornets, which turned out to be an epic duel to the buzzer, NBA.com has swooped in to crown the regular season champs as the Hornets foe in “A Heavyweight Battle”. Hm…

Holy son of a cracker!

Lot’s of basketball going on outside the walls of my basement – and a little bit inside, when I nailed that jumper from the stairwell on the way into the can.

First, the Cavs:
Playoffs here we come! Defense, rebounding, free throws, Lebron, Z, Ben Wallace. Wally World riding the pine, Lance Allred holding his hand. It was a beautiful day in Cavs-land. We didn’t even shoot well, and we were in complete control. It was just the Bobcats, but if we can develop some habits from today’s game – really if our increasing health is more than a mirage – this is a step up from any team – pre-trade, post-trade, Boston, Detroit – that we’ve seen all year.

Now what the heck else was going on out there?

• The Rockets 21 game win streak was supposed to come to an end with the Lakers coming to town. Even without Pau Gasol, after holding the Rockets to 12 3rd quarter points, the Lakers – Mamba – was poised to strike. But it wasn’t to be. Kobe spent the 4th quarter putting on an MVP performance. Only his performance would win Lebron the MVP, as the Lakers offense lost any semblance of “triangle” or “movement” or “success” as Kobe forced brick after brick and the Rafer Alston-led Rockets pulled away.
• Over in Denver crazy things were falling from the sky. Shot after shot after shot. Actually, the Sonics only shot 43%, but still managed to score 116 behind Kevin Durant’s 23 on 12 shots. And they lost by 52. No Nugget scored more than 26, but combined they scored 168 points. Marcus Camby one-upped Lebron’s 33, 10 and 7 with a triple double of his own in only 26 minutes. And it was the usual type – only 4 blocks. How does Marcus Camby get 10 assists? I guess it helps when the other 4 starters combine to go 31-47.
• The Raptors slipped back further behind the Cavs for home court in the first round. We might actually clinch the 4th seed before we clinch a playoff spot. Jason Kapono was lighting it up, but the Kings protected their homecourt, leaving the Cavs 3.5 games ahead in the quest for theirs.
• The Pistons looked damned good, shutting down Chris Paul and the Hornets. They say Paul’s ankle was still bothering him, but it sure didn’t looked like it after 8 first quarter assists. Still, the Pistons contested the recipient of each pass and the Hornets offense wilted, while Detroit “executed” by finding Jarvis Hayes on the perimeter each time somebody got into the lane. Rip, Tayshaun, Chauncey… they all fed Hayes’s need for three.
• Some other teams played, but really, who cares about Atlanta, New York, Miami, or even Dallas? Not me! (But God do the Heat suck in tank mode. If Daequan had stayed in school, he’d be leading a team with a lot more than 11 wins into a certain tournament right now. Jackass.)

Go Cavs!

Blazers non-preview

Just a game thread, in case you have something to add in the comments.

Stolen from NBA.com:

With a flare for late-game heroics and having led the Cleveland Cavaliers to one of the best records in the Eastern Conference, LeBron James is a favorite to win the MVP award this season. He may already have the Portland Trail Blazers’ vote.

James looks to continue his dominant play this month and remain perfect against the Trail Blazers in Cleveland when the teams meet Monday.

The Cavaliers (36-27) are coming off a 103-95 victory over Indiana on Saturday, their seventh in 10 games. Cleveland led by 14 points at halftime, and James was not about to let another lead slip away.

On Thursday in Chicago, the Cavs were up 51-47 at the break, but were outscored by 18 points in the third quarter en route to a 107-96 loss.

On Saturday, James scored 18 points in the third quarter as Cleveland extended its lead to 21. The 2008 All-Star game MVP finished with 38 points and 11 rebounds, and went 5-of-8 from 3-point range.

“The first five minutes in the third quarter is key, so I wanted to try to make sure we came out aggressive,” James said. “I came out aggressive and started knocking down shots. Once I get into a zone like that, it’s tough to try to stop me from what I want to do.”

The 23-year-old superstar has been in that zone throughout his team’s four March games. James is averaging 41.0 points – 10.1 better than his league-best scoring average – and has gone 14-of-34 (41.2 percent) from beyond the arc this month.

“He’s been making them lately from all angles and all ranges,” said forward Joe Smith, acquired by Cleveland just before the trade deadline. “I’m still getting used to it because you just don’t see it. I just stand there and say, ‘Wow.”’

Smith was not with the Cavs for James’ last performance against Portland (33-30), but he almost certainly would have had a similar reaction.

In Cleveland’s 84-83 win over the Trail Blazers on Jan. 30, James scored 17 points in the fourth quarter – two more than the entire Portland team – and his reverse layup with 0.9 seconds left gave the Cavs the win. He finished with 37 points and 14 rebounds.

In four career home games against Portland, James is averaging 29.0 points, 9.3 rebounds and 7.0 assists, helping Cleveland win those contests by an average of 16.0 points. The Cavs have not lost to the Blazers at home since Feb. 2, 2003 – five months before they selected James with the top overall pick in the draft.

Cleveland has won its last five games at Quicken Loans Arena since a season-high three-game home losing streak. The Cavs are one win shy of matching their season-best home win streak, set from Dec. 25-Jan.23.

Portland has opened its five-game road trip with back-to-back victories after winning just one of its previous nine road games.

The Blazers defeated New York 120-114 in overtime Saturday, and has won two straight and four of six to bolster their faint playoff hopes in the loaded Western Conference. Portland is 6 1/2 games out of the final postseason spot.

“We don’t feel like we’re out of the playoffs yet,” said LaMarcus Aldridge, who had 22 points and 10 rebounds against the Knicks. “Also, I think we’re trying to finish this season off good. We know if we don’t make the playoffs we still want to finish strong.”

Brandon Roy scored eight of his 27 points in overtime Saturday, and is averaging 23.6 points in his last five games after missing the previous two with a right ankle sprain.

Roy finished with 16 points, eight assists and seven rebounds against the Cavs earlier this season, while Aldridge had 16 points and nine boards in that contest.

The Blazers have not won three straight since a four-game run from Jan. 2-9.

Lebron could win Pamplona

Everybody else would be running from the Bulls, Lebron would just be slamming and staring them down. Seriously, how sick was that dunk? Lebron started to sprint back on defense, then realized he had effectively ended the game, so he stopped to make his something-smells-funny/I-own-you staredown face.

Some notes, since the game ended hours ago (thank you DVR!), I watched the Lakers game before the Cavs and the Rockets/Nuggets just can’t hold attention.

• With Gooden gone (and especially with Z out), Lebron attacks early. I love the way he sets the tone, because that let’s him switch to set-up mode once the Cavs have an early lead and all eyes are affixed on him.
• Unfortunately, when Lebron isn’t attacking, he’s not a part of the offense. On one possession early, Lebron was 10 feet past the 3 point line. Deng sagged down to double on Brown, handling at the top of the paint. Yes, we were going 4 on 5. Our 4 were of Devin Brown, Delonte West, Ben Wallace and Anderson Varejao. Any basket should’ve counted for 4 points.
• Lebron and Mike Brown seem to be on the same page – that’s why nobody internally seems to criticize Coach Mike – so I don’t know who to blame. Does the offense not included any screens off the ball or does Lebron just not feel the need to move for easy baskets? Can’t he at least stand on the 3 point line to act as a decoy?
• That possession wasn’t any worse than many throughout the game. Nobody looked comfortable offensively. Good thing the Bulls suck.
• Lebron aside, the most comfortable player on the floor was Larry Hughes. Does Delonte have more license to push or is he just more assertive? It’s like Larry didn’t want easy baskets, now he can dominate the ball and get them in the flow of the game. No regrets for trading him. That wasn’t going to happen regularly in a Cavs uniform. We play for the best shot, the Bulls play for a shot. And again, the Bulls suck. All you need to know.

In the past, this would’ve sideline Hughes for 2 weeks. Not the contact, Lebron yelling at him.

• Combining those last few thoughts, wasn’t bringing in Delonte supposed to be the key to getting Lebron easy shots? Of course, they’re easy on the breaks, and that monster dunk in the 4th came off a hand-off screen from Delonte with a follow-up screen from Andy, but with Delonte’s skill on the drive and kick, should Lebron just linger on the wing and fly the rim as the defense collapses on West? Isn’t that what happened on his monster put back dunk? Why only in transition?
• I think it was early in the 4th, maybe late 3rd, sometime during the Bulls run. Andy got the ball in the post, 4 or 5 feet out of the paint along the baseline. He faced up and bricked a jumper, prompting Hubie Brown to say “Any time Varejao or Ben Gordon face up, give them the jumper.” It’s so true! Ben Gordon sucks! But I think he meant Wallace.
• Speaking of Ben Gordon, he had one little hot spell in the late 3rd and ended up 5-13. I think his spot is off the bench because he’s a poor man’s Ginobili. On a bench with 3 other role players, he can dominate the ball and get his points, but he’s just not versatile or efficient enough to get a lot of touches over the course of the game.
• Meanwhile, Sczcerbiak (spelled it right without checking! w00t!) went 6-13. One more FG than Gordon and yet he seemed far, far better. Good reason to track eFG% or true FG% or points per shot. Each of Wally’s 17 seemed to count for a lot.
  
• It worries me a little that we were outrebounded. We had a couple big offensive boards – Lebron’s huge put back, Joe Smith’s backbreaking 2nd offensive board leading to free throws – but 9 out of 40 chances are less than 2/3rd of our normal rate. I know we were without Z, but shouldn’t Wallace have stepped up big time? He only had 2. And where were all Andy’s tap outs? Maybe those will pile up with chemistry and better knowledge of our floor space from all parties.
• Wtih 6:20 left in the 4th, ABC showed a graphic saying Lebron was 11-23 for 29 and Hughes was 8-16 for 23. At that point, Lebron switched onto Hughes. Who would win this grudge match? Lebron finished 4-6 for 8 points (and a couple boards) while Hughes went 0-4 and the Bulls 2 point lead became Cavs by 8.
• And that, Larry, is why you’re happier to shoot, shoot, shoot than win, win, win. You’re a shooter, not a winner.

Go Cavs!

(PS – Stephen A. Smith just called Lebron a “mercurial talent” in saying that Kobe is a better clutch player. Does he know what mercurial means? In what way does Lebron every vary? He goes from amazing to holy-shit-the-wwf-couldn’t-script-something-that-ridiculous? Stephen A. Smith should be a Bull, because he, too, sucks.)

The New Cavs!

Bibby traded to Hawks

http://msn.foxsports.com/nba/story/7805074/Report:-Kings-set-to-trade-Bibby-to-Hawks

No Bibby for us either. Hmmm…

I’m not that upset about this actually. I’d prefer Artest over Bibby.

All we can hope for now is:

1. Mike Miller
2. Larry Hughes to be awesome.
3. Another trade that we haven’t even considered.

I don’t have much faith in any of these options anymore.

Go Boobie!

It was the best of times….

And now it’s the worst of times.

Everybody is hurt. It’s no secret. It’s to the point that my boy Boobie might miss his coming out party at All Star weekend where he was destined to win Rookie-Sophomore MVP and the 3 Point Shooting Championship. He probably can win the dunk contest too, but he doesn’t want to be greedy.

I’m having a hard time figuring out if all these injuries are good or bad for us in the long run.

Pros:
1. Keeps our bench guys game ready and gets the younger guys extended minutes.
2. Shows our front office how un-deep (is that a word?) this team is. By my count we have only 3 guys on this team who are capable of being a somewhat consistent go to scorer if needed (Lebron, Z and Gooden). That’s horrific. I’m not even talking about great players, I’m just talking about guys who can create a little bit and have a somewhat decent jumper. If you look at the worst teams in the league, most of them have at least 5 or so guys who are scorers.
3. Shows our front office how badly we need to make a trade. Even when completely healthy (and I know we were playing well), I never had faith that we have what it takes to get back to the finals.

Cons:
1. Can we still make a trade? Do teams want our hobbled, old, crap-asses (I’m pretty sure that’s a word)?
2. We are losing games.
3. Lebron is beginning to outwardly show his frustration with the crap-asses.

A quick note and a trade suggestion:
- I love Eric Snow, I really do. He always plays hard, he takes on every challenge, he never complains and he’s pretty much coaching the team some nights. But wasn’t it a bit much to ask him to guard Carmelo? Not only is Eric Snow a 6′2 PG, while Caramellow is a 6′8 SF, but Eric just celebrated his 94th birthday. How sad were his layup attempts yesterday?
- I proposed this in the Cavs forum and I want to see what you guys think about this trade:

Cavaliers trade:
2008 1st Round Pick
Drew Gooden
Larry Hughes

Knicks trade:
Jamal Crawford
Zach Randolph

I obviously like it because I suggested it, I just think it makes us better immediately and in the future. I think the Knicks do it too. What do you think?

Cavs Rule…Girls Drool

We beat the Celtics yesterday. Neither team had thier starting PF for the game and we were also missing our starting SG and 6th man off the bench and energy guy. You have to feel good about how things are going for the Cavs right now.

A few thoughts on the game:
1. Ira Newble is an awesome player.
2. Boobie Gibson is a better defensive player than anybody gives him credit for (just needs to cut down on dumb fouls)
3. Damon Jones is proving to be serviceable (although I was practically screaming at the TV when he got destroyed by Tony Allen four times in a row…at what point was coach brown going to realize that it wasn’t a good match-up!?)
4. Lebron James is so good it’s sick.
5. Larry Hughes has proven that when he doesn’t play like the 5th grade geeky kid in gym class basketball (ie scared of the ball, and just throwing up shots as soon as he gets it), that he can be a contributor to our team.

Now let’s talk trades. First of all, do the Cavs still have to make one? We’re playing so well, do we chance it?

Other trades:

Lakers get: Gasol
Memphis gets: 6 Buttons and a Cheerio.
Winner: Lakers

Miami gets: Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks
Phoenix gets: Shaquille O’Neal
Winner: Phoenix. Not even close. You heard it here first. I’m still convinced that Shawn Marion is way overrated and the product of a great offensive system that allwos for alot of points and alot of rebounds. I honestly believe that Drew Gooden would average 20 and 12 if he was the starting PF for the Suns. O’Neal is still a great player, even if he isn’t what he once was. He gets other teams in fould trouble, he draws double teams, he’s impossible to move in the post. This move gets the Suns to the Championship. You heard it here first I said!
Cavs v. Suns in the 2008 Finals

But will it be Lebron’s and Hughes Cleveland Cavaliers? Or Lebron and Kidd’s Cleveland Cavaliers?

(PS- It’s getting nearly impossible to post on here at work…I think they are getting hip to my blogger postings… I can’t get on at all on Firefox, IE lets me look but not post, and Opera lets me look and post but not spell-check, edit or add pictures…so sorry for the lack of color and any spelling mistakes)