Wednesday, February 4, 2009, 11:03 PM EST
[General]
Cavaliers 107, Knicks 102
In the wake of Kobe Bryant’s 61 point outburst against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden on Monday, many people were trying to ask the question of if LeBron would top Kobe’s offensive output. Coming into the game tonight, I felt that was a stupid question to ask. I thought LeBron would go for 30-35 and everyone would praise Kobe even more.
Well, I was incorrect in my prediction for LeBron’s point total. How about 52 points from King James tonight! Not good enough? Well, how about adding 10 rebounds and 11 assists to that number. To me, his 52, 10, and 11 is comparable to Kobe’s 61, 0, and 3 from Monday night. LeBron’s style is so different from Kobe’s that it really isn’t fair to compare them. Kobe is the better pure shooter and scorer hands down, but LeBron has such a knack for making his teammates better and playing an all-around game that Kobe just cannot do night after night like 23 can. Okay, that’s my LeBron-Kobe rant for the night.
Once again, the Cavaliers played to an up-tempo team’s style much as they have done previously against the Knicks and Warriors. The Knicks are the type of team that tries to get you to play one-on-one basketball because they have a lot of personnel that thrive in those circumstances.
In the first quarter, it was David Lee cleaning up misses on the offensive glass. It was Nate Robinson who had a scoring run in the third quarter. But, it was Al Harrington who went absolutely ridiculous tonight for the Knicks and was unguardable for certain stretches in the game tonight. Harrington scored 10 points in a span of 2 1/2 minutes in the second quarter as he absolutely abused Varejao on the perimeter and in the post. It wasn’t until the Cavaliers switched LeBron onto Harrington that they cooled him off just a little bit. Harrington finished the game with 39 points on 16-of-24 shooting and added 13 rebounds.
We could talk about LeBron’s offensive display for pages, but there were other players who stepped up tonight for the wine and gold. Wally Szczerbiak, in his second straight start in relief of Delonte and Sasha, chipped in with 12 points and 13 boards in just under 40 minutes. Wally has been called on the last two nights for 84 minutes in all, and he has been very effective. He is making it more and more difficult to think about trades involving him as the NBA’s trade deadline is a mere two weeks away.
Daniel Gibson had another solid game with 11 points on 4-of-8 shooting including three trey balls. It appears that Boobie has definitely turned the corner on his shooting woes with his third solid shooting game in a row. Z added 15 points and 8 rebounds of his own tonight. Ben Wallace had only 1 rebound tonight in 24 minutes, but that is quite misleading because Big Ben had several tapbacks that secured possessions.
With Z back in the middle, it has meant a decline in the playing time of Anderson Varejao and J.J. Hickson. Varejao didn’t even attempt a shot tonight in 26 minutes, finishing with 1 point and 4 boards. Hickson played just under 10 minutes scoring on his two shot attempts. Andy and J.J. came up big in Z’s absence, and it might take a while for Andy to adjust back to coming off the bench and for J.J. to adjust to inconsistent minutes.
Game ball goes to: LeBron James. Yes, 52 points, 10 rebounds, 11 assists, 2 blocks, 16-of-19 from the line, and hard-nosed defense for stretches on the guy who dropped 39 on the other side will get you the lone game ball of the night. LeBron could get a game ball almost every night, but this night was exceptional.
Team Grade: B-
There were serious defensive lapses tonight. Al Harrington is a good player, but he has no business dropping 39 points on the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers lost the battle of the boards to a much smaller team 44-42. The offense bogged down at times, and LeBron settled for his fair share of questionable shots. They did, however, only turn the ball over 7 times as a team.
With the Cavaliers playing virtually a seven man rotation tonight (J.J. Hickson had just under 10 minutes) and LeBron and Wally each logging 40 minutes on back-to-back nights, the Cavaliers get a well-deserved three days off to prepare for the Los Angeles Lakers, who will come into the Q Bynum-less on Sunday afternoon on national television. I don’t think I have to stress the significance of this one. The last time these two played not quite three weeks ago, the Cavaliers were Z-less and abused on the inside. Now, the tables have turned as we’ve got our center back and they do not have theirs. A win on Sunday would help make a statement for the Cavaliers as an elite team, their need for a second All-Star, and enhance LeBron’s MVP chances.
The Cavaliers battled the flu in addition to the big frontline of the Toronto Raptors tonight, and they used a great start and some tough post defense in the fourth to cruise to their 23rd victory at home this season.
The Cavaliers only had 10 healthy bodies tonight even with the signing of 6′6″ D-leaguer Trey Johnson. Sasha Pavlovic and Lorenzen Wright joined Delonte West and Tarence Kinsey in street clothes due to the flu. It seems to be going around the organization as Mike Brown was subdued tonight after missing practice yesterday and Joe Tait missed his first broadcast in over eight years. The Cavaliers went to Wally Szczerbiak at shooting guard, and he gave them a solid performance with 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, just as Pavlovic has in relief of Delonte West.
The Cavaliers came sprinting out of the gate tonight. The Cavaliers hit seven three-pointers in the first and LeBron James added 16 points of his own as the Cavaliers had a 37-14 lead late in the first quarter. The only thing, in fact, keeping the Raptors afloat in the opening quarter was Chris Bosh.
Once again, the Cavaliers, much like the last home game against the Clippers, jumped out to a huge early lead and sat on that lead for most of the second and third quarters. In the NBA, regardless of who you are playing, you just cannot do that. There is just too much talent, and give Toronto credit for hanging around in this one. They got virtually all of their production from their frontcourt as the starting backcourt of Jose Calderon and Anthony Parker combined for 5 points on 2-of-16 shooting. Chris Bosh was phenomenal with 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting, and Jermaine O’Neal, who was inserted back into the starting lineup, had a solid game with 20 points and 8 boards. Andrea Bargnani added 10 points and 10 rebounds of his own.
Things started to look dangerous for the Cavaliers in the late third and early fourth quarter. Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao each picked up their fifth personal fouls in the first two minutes of the fourth quarter. So, the Cavaliers were forced to go small against the incredibly giant frontcourt of Bosh, O’Neal, and Bargnani. The lineup of Gibson, Williams, Szczerbiak, James, and Hickson or Wallace was very effective and stretched the Cavalier lead back out to a comfortable margin with Z and Andy never checking back into the game.
The post defense of LeBron was especially significant tonight. There were several plays late in the contest that really set the tone for the Cavalier victory. Coach Mike Brown mentioned a play where James came over from the weak side to block a sure dunk for Chris Bosh. He also pointed out the play where LeBron did a fantastic job of fronting Jermaine O’Neal and forced a lob under the basket where O’Neal turned it over. Daniel Gibson doubled down successfully several times in the fourth as well because it took a team effort to stop Bosh and O’Neal from getting easy baskets.
Game ball goes to: Daniel “Boobie” Gibson and LeBron James. It looks like Gibson’s fourth quarter in Detroit got him back on track as far as shooting the basketball. Gibson was 6-of-11 shooting, including 4-of-5 from behind the arc, for 18 points. Boobie added 3 rebounds and 2 assists along with solid defense. LeBron’s post defense was key tonight, but he had another brilliant offensive game too. LBJ added 33 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal tonight. Even more impressive was his perfect 13-of-13 from the charity stripe. Let’s hope LeBron can get that free throw percentage back up around 80 percent once again.
Team Grade: B-
The Cavaliers had exceptional first and fourth quarters, but they coasted in the middle two quarters, and they are going to pay one of these nights at home against a lesser team. They’ve escaped with wins against the Wizards, Clippers, and Raptors, but they need to bring it for four quarters to extend this home streak even further. The Cavaliers had only nine turnovers and made 20 of their 22 foul shots.
Today’s battle between the Pistons and Cavaliers closely resembled the battles between the two titans in the 2006 and 2007 playoffs. Defense dominated the contest, but it took a late surge of outside shots from the Cavalier supporting cast to put them on top today.
The Cavaliers really struggled shooting the ball today. The first quarter crawled along as both teams struggled to put points on the board. The first quarter ended with the Pistons shooting 37 percent with the Cavaliers hitting at a frigid 29 percent. Not only were the Cavaliers struggling from the field, but they were missing their free throws as well.
The Cavaliers really failed to exploit mismatches in this game. I do not recall them entering the ball into Z in the post at all today. Z had Rasheed Wallace on him, and the Cavs have had success in the past doing so. Also, they could have further exploited Allen Iverson, who was guarding Sasha Pavlovic, on defense. The Cavaliers instead chose to run a lot of pick and roll and isolation for LeBron. One play I’m not particularly found of is when LeBron has isolation and we have three guys on the opposite side all standing within a few feet of each other on the perimeter. This play causes really poor spacing and LeBron basically has no option to pass, the defenders stay on their shooters and LeBron has to make a move to get to the basket, but he often settles for a jumper with no chance for an offensive rebound for the Cavs.
The real story of the game was the Cavaliers success with LeBron James on the bench. The Cavaliers were +5 with James on the bench for about 5 minutes. In the fourth, Mike Brown trusted his rotation and sat James as usual to start the fourth. Brown went with Boobie Gibson, who had only played 7 minutes in the first three quarters, came up big for the Cavaliers. Boobie scored on three straight possessions to give the stagnant Cavaliers some life early in the quarter. Mo Williams got in on the act as well and the Cavaliers had gained a great deal of momentum far before James had checked into the game with under nine minutes to go.
The two things that the Cavaliers had trouble defending today were Allen Iverson on the move and Amir Johnson in transition. The Pistons had a decent amount of success running Iverson’s off a staggered double picks and pick-and-rolls where Ilgauskas switched onto him. Amir Johnson bothered the Cavaliers in the third quarter when he had 8 points and 7 rebounds as a result of running the floor and picking up some of AI’s misses.
Despite poor shooting for most of the game, especially from Z and Mo, the Cavaliers recovered and Mo and Z each hit some big buckets for the wine and gold. Z helped to stretch the floor and hit two out of three from behind the arc.
The Cavaliers needed to make a statement today by showing who is going to win the Central Division this season. As J.V. very demonstratively pointed out, the Pistons know us about as well as any other team out there. They’ve faced us in the playoffs and know what to expect and how to make LeBron settle for shots. Even though they have some serious identity issues, this team will not be a pushover come April and May.
Game ball goes to: Daniel “Boobie” Gibson and Mo Williams. Boobie and Mo scored on six possessions early in the fourth that really set the tone for the Cavaliers for the rest of the game. When LeBron checked in, they already had an offensive flow going and he did not disrupt it. Instead, James and Ilgauksas put it on their shoulders and out of reach.
Team Grade: B
The Cavaliers overcame another pretty poor shooting night once again. Their defensive effort was solid throughout, but they have to do a better job on keeping Allen Iverson out of the lane. They did win the battle of the boards 42-35. Other than that, a big fourth quarter push on the road after seemingly not having it today was impressive to say the least.
The Cavaliers next face the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night as they look to push their record to 23-0 at the Q.
“Welcome back, your dreams were your ticket out Welcome back, to that same old place we laughed about. Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back.” –”Welcome Back Kotter” theme song
Zydrunas Ilgauskas was welcomed back with open arms tonight as the man in the middle was the stabilizing force for the Cavalier victory that sends Mike Brown to Phoenix to coach the East and gives the Cavaliers a still-flawless 22-0 record at the Q.
The Cavalier offense was much more fluid tonight as they made a conceited effort to get Z involved early. When they get Z involved early, the movement on offense is excellent as the spacing is night and day with Ilgauskas on the floor. More importantly, LeBron and Varejao’s shots were down tonight as Z took a majority of those shots and hit 10 of his 16 shots from the field as he got a couple of easy buckets inside and roamed the perimeter nailing down jumpers like no other Cavaliers big man can. Z’s length was also much appreciated on the glass and the defensive end of the floor. Z grabbed 11 rebounds and help sure up the Cavaliers’ interior defense.
The Cavaliers got out to a tremendous start running up a 20-4 lead at the halfway point of the first quarter. However, LeBron picked up his second personal foul with 4:40 to go in the first and the Cavalier bench could not hold the lead as the Clippers and Cavaliers were tied at the end of the quarter thanks to the shooting of Eric Gordon and Steve Novak. The Clippers poured in eight from beyond the arc in the first half. The Cavaliers really did an awful job of covering the perimeter shooters in the first half as many of those three pointers were on open looks. That is a frightening trend because that is three games in a row now that the Cavaliers have struggled covering outside shooters. They need to buck that trend to stay at the top of the Eastern Conference.
The scoring balance was really impressive tonight. LeBron led the Cavaliers 25 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, but he did so on only 17 shots, hitting 9 of them. Often, when LeBron can keep his number of shots in that range, it means he is getting good contributions from his teammates. And, boy did he ever get help in the scoring column tonight. In addition to Z’s 20, he got 23 from Mo including 5-of-6 from deep and 15 each from Sasha Pavlovic and Wally Szczerbiak. The Cavaliers moved the ball well tonight, and when they do that, they are tough to stop on the offensive end.
Ben Wallace was excellent tonight as well. Ben went scoreless, but he did give the wine and gold 11 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks, and a steal in 24 minutes, and the Cavaliers were +27 with him on the floor tonight, the second highest on the team (James +32).
I’ve been thinking about a way to improve the Cavaliers bench now for a while. With the recent play of Sasha Pavlovic, when Delonte West returns, I would be interested to see if the Cavaliers could try to bring Delonte off the bench and keep Sasha as a starter. It would be “creating a bench” in essence as Delonte would still get his 30-35 minutes, but he would be the primary scorer on the second unit and give the Cavaliers a spark in that aspect. In fact, he already runs the point in that group most of the time anyway. With the recent struggles of Daniel Gibson, I’m just throwing it out there. I’m not saying do it for sure, but it may be worth a look. A lot of teams, including San Antonio (Manu Ginobili) and Dallas (Jason Terry) have had success with “creating a bench” in this format.
Game ball goes to: Zydrunas Ilgauskas. No rust here for the big man. He was spectacular tonight, notching 20 points and 11 rebounds in 29 minutes. The Cavaliers missed Z dearly, and now they are ready to roll with him back in the lineup as the schedule doesn’t get any easier.
Team Grade: B+
The Cavaliers started strong in this ball game, but they assumed that the Clippers were going to roll over and die after trailing 20-4, but they used sharp shooting to get back into the ballgame. The Cavaliers turned it up on the defensive end in the second half because they only surrendered 41 points in the second half after giving up 54 in the first half. The Cavaliers were 14-of-26 from beyond the arc, which is very good for them. The Clippers were held to only 3 three-point makes in the second half. The Cavaliers also won the battle of the boards tonight 45-35.
The physical presence of Dwight Howard and a barrage of fourth quarter three pointers were just too much for the over matched Cavaliers tonight who scored just 32 points in the second half at Amway Arena.
Zydrunas Ilgauskas was listed as doubtful for the game after making the trip to Orlando, but was ruled out earlier today by coach Mike Brown. It is very possible that Z will return tomorrow night at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. There were apparently no setbacks for Ilgauskas during his week of full-go practice, but Brown was concerned about him playing on back-to-back nights immediately and three games in four nights. I think Mike Brown made a mistake on this one. If he was ready to go, but you were concerned about back-to-backs, they should have played him tonight against the now 35-10 Magic and sat him tomorrow night against the 10-35 Clippers who will likely be without Baron Davis, Chris Kaman, and Zach Randolph. The Cavaliers could have used Z’s 15-foot jumpshot to draw Dwight Howard out of the painted area tonight, and his size could have been used against the specimen that is Howard.
Dwight Howard controlled the pace of this game tonight in every way possible. It was Howard who drew two early fouls on both Ben Wallace and Anderson Varejao. Howard had 16 points and 11 rebounds in the first half and had several uncontested put-back dunks. His other shots were basically back-downs of Andy or Ben for an easy bucket. The person who actually did the best job on him defensively was rookie J.J. Hickson, who gave the Cavaliers 24 solid minutes tonight. Howard helped lead the Magic to a 48-39 victory on the glass tonight as the Cavaliers simply had no answer for Superman.
The Magic are probably one of the most lethal three point shooting clubs in the association, but they really did not kill the Cavaliers in that aspect tonight. That is, until the fourth quarter started. The Magic finished with 11 makes in 31 attempts, but four of those makes were in the final quarter. The Cavaliers made sure many of those threes were contested, but that does little to stop a good outside team like the Magic. Jameer Nelson, Hedo Turkoglu, Rashard Lewis, Mickael Pietrus, Courtney Lee, and Anthony Johnson can all hurt you from long distance, and tonight 10 of those 11 threes were from Nelson, Lewis, and Turkoglu.
The Cavaliers shot 42 percent tonight, but they shot much lower than that in the second half. They never really forced Orlando to defend tonight because they once again settled for too many jumpers. When they did drive, LeBron couldn’t get the calls he needed. The offense bogged down as the Cavaliers continued to settle and the Magic sent the lead soaring up to 23 in the early fourth.
The Cavaliers lost their composure tonight in the third quarter. After the refs swallowed their whistle on a foul on LeBron, a foul was called at the other end, and Mike Brown came running down the sideline shouting at the officials. He was T’d up and Mo Williams also received a tech moments later for barking at an official. The Cavaliers were rightly upset because the officials REFUSED to call Dwight Howard for his fourth personal in the third quarter when they had MULTIPLE opportunities to do so. I understand that Howard is a superstar and, like James, he should get his fair share of calls, but he isn’t above the law and he was guilty of crashing into James several times tonight but the whistle was not blown. The Cavaliers then went down six after four free throw makes and from that point, things went south. It was a real turning point in tonight’s game. But, an even bigger turning point, as my partner J.V. points out, was when the Cavaliers had a 10 point lead with 3:10 remaining in the half. The Cavaliers managed to only finish the half with a one point lead.
Wally Szczerbiak and J.J. Hickson really kept the Cavaliers ahead in the first half. Wally was a perfect 5-5 for 14 points in the half, but he only shot once in the second half, missing it. Szczerbiak is capable of spurts like that at times, but I told J.V. when we were watching the game that I predicted he would finish the game with 17 or less, and I was right. His inconsistency at times makes me believe that he is expendable in favor of a scoring big man. The Cavaliers need to have a consistent scoring option coming off the bench to pace the second unit. Either that, or the Cavaliers need to acquire a good shooting guard who is of starting caliber that will put either him or Delonte West on the bench to lead the second unit. The Cavaliers have a strong bench, but no one has shown that they can score at a consistent rate night in and night out other than Varejao possibly.
Tarence Kinsey turned his ankle late in the ballgame, and it didn’t appear to look good. Early reports after the game were that Kinsey’s x-ray on that ankle was negative and he had it in ice. While Kinsey isn’t a regular member of the rotation, he did play eight minutes tonight, most of those when the outcome was still in question. He is a nice guy to have in reserve off the bench and is important now for depth while West recovers from the wrist injury.
After seeing Orlando for the first time against us this season, I truly believe that the Cavaliers can beat any team even on their home court. They beat the Celtics without Z, and they have battled the Lakers and the Magic without Z and Delonte on the road. They were in both of the games until the fourth quarter, and they simply fell victim to outrageous shooting in the final quarter and the size of Bynum/Gasol and Howard respectively. Don’t get me wrong, it doesn’t mean that some matchups don’t scare me, but I think when we are healthy, West helps close out on shooters and Z makes the offense run smoothly and bothers his share of shots inside. My main point is that I think the Cavaliers can win the title as is right now, but I also think they improve their odds if they turn Wally’s contract into either the right big man (in my opinion, Drew Gooden, Charlie Villanueva, Marcus Camby, or Brad Miller) or a high-scoring shooting guard (in my opinion, Mike Miller or Vince Carter). If they go the shooting guard route, they need to make sure they can acquire some type of big man as well, whether it be via buyout or in the same trade. I think the Cavaliers are encouraged by J.J.’s recent play, but they would like to have another vet to rely on in the post that can bother the bigs of L.A. and Orlando.
One final note, Mo Williams was left off of the All-Star team in favor of Jameer Nelson and the Nets’ Devin Harris. Rashard Lewis of the Magic also made the team, making the Magic the only team with three All-Stars. I feel that is way off. The Cavaliers came into the game with the best winning percentage in the NBA and people seem to continue to think it is all because of LeBron. What people don’t realize is Mo Williams has made all the difference this season. His numbers may not have outshone Nelson or Harris, but he is on the best ball club and plays his role the best. I can’t fault Nelson’s selection, but I think Mo deserved it ahead of Harris and the Nets with their sub-.500 record. It’s only yet another instance of the Cavaliers getting no respect league-wide. The Magic do not deserve three players when the Lakers and Celtics get two and the Cavaliers get one.
Game ball goes to: J.J. Hickson, who had 13 points, 7 rebounds, and played the best defense on Dwight Howard tonight.
Team Grade: C-
The Cavaliers competed well until the fourth quarter. Howard was too much down low, and the Magic hit threes at a pivotal time. But, the Cavaliers held them to 35 percent shooting out there, and only turned the ball over 6 times. But, they lost the battle of the boards and didn’t push the pace against an average one-on-one defensive squad.
The Cavaliers have to bounce back tomorrow night to avoid their first back-to-back losses of the season as they host the LA Clippers in the Q.
