As we all know, Wally has been stepping up during the playoffs.
2009 Playoffs Statistics
- PPG 4.5
- RPG 2.50
- APG 0.5
- EFF + 5.88
Although he is only averaging 4.5 points, he has made some big plays and had 17 points in the Game 2 win against Atlanta. And how could I not mention the sweet dunks! Here's to hoping he continues playing well. Oh, and as usual his "High fives per game" stat is off the charts. Keep it up!
Wally has also been keeping a "Playoff Journal" for The Plain Dealer and here are some of his entries:
April 20th
Cavs forward Wally Szczerbiak has agreed to do a diary for The Plain Dealer during the Cavs' playoff run. This is Wally's sixth trip to the playoffs in his 10 seasons, and his second with the Cavs:
INDEPENDENCE -- It was good first win obviously and we played great as a team. LeBron came out and established himself and the home crowd was really into it.
We know the Pistons are going to bounce back and make some adjustments because they are a good team and they have a lot of solid veteran players. We have to be ready to go out there and worry about ourselves and just get ready to compete hard. We've had a couple good days of preparation here. [Monday] we watched film and got a lot of shots up.
We've been playing this fun little game in practice with the guards [where all shooters combine to make as many consecutive shots as possible]. The first guy to get 15 [the number of consecutive shots made before you miss to break the streak] is out. The last guy standing wins. Gib [Daniel Gibson] won today because he was shooting the ball really well. I won a couple days ago. But we also had a really good practice as we did the day before the last game.
We went over their plays and what they like to do and went over our defensive coverages. Everyone knows each other's plays come playoff time. So it is really about going out there and executing and playing hard. We're looking forward to getting the job done.
April 24th
Cavs forward Wally Szczerbiak has agreed to do a diary for The Plain Dealer during the Cavs' playoff run. This is Wally's sixth trip to the playoffs in his 10 seasons, and his second with the Cavs:
We're just getting ready to head up to Detroit.
We had another good practice [Thursday], went over the game plan. We're going to get our shots and get ready.
I think everyone's really focused on trying to get a win on the road. It's going to be a lot harder to win in Detroit, obviously. They're a very good home team and winning on the road in the playoffs is always tough. So we've got to bring our 'A' game, do a lot of the same things we did in the first couple games and be ready for them to come at us hard."
April 26th
Cavs forward Wally Szczerbiak has agreed to do a diary for The Plain Dealer during the Cavs' playoff run. This is Wally's sixth trip to the playoffs in his 10 seasons, and his second with the Cavs.)
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. -- Coming here to Detroit has been fun. We've been hanging out in the hotel and having some bonding activities. We've been getting all the guys together to watch a lot of the other playoff games and scouting a little bit.
We watched the Boston-Chicago game and some of the Dallas-San Antonio game. We're all fans of the game and we're paying attention. Though we're part of the playoffs, we are soaking in all the other games and are enjoying the atmosphere.
We just had a good meeting [on Saturday] and no practice. We went over the some film, there are some things that we can do better. We are up 3-0, but there are ways we can improve and get better. The key to us is to stay aggressive and continue to attacking. Plus our defense, we thought it was great in the fourth quarter.
We're focused on carrying that over to the next game and if we can do that, we'll be very successful.
May 4th
Cavaliers guard/forward Wally Szczerbiak has agreed to give fans an inside look at the playoffs. This is his latest installment, just before Monday's celebration of LeBron James' MVP award.)
CLEVELAND -- Finally! It was a fun week of practice but the whole team got stir crazy waiting for the Hawks. I think I've had enough of [guarding] LeBron to last a long time. I was going up against him in practice trying to keep him sharp. But we all have been trying to keep each other sharp. I think that is going to be key in going out there and competing.
We can't lose our edge and we had that in the first series. We've been playing very, very well and we owe it to ourselves to keep it up. So that is what we tried to do all week in getting each other ready.
So the wait is over and we have to go back to war. Atlanta is a tough team and they have some really good players and they are going to be ready for us coming off that big Game 7 win. We're looking forward to it.
May 7th
Cavs forward Wally Szczerbiak has agreed to write a diary for The Plain Dealer during the Cavs' playoff run. This is Wally's sixth trip to the playoffs in his 10 seasons, and his second with the Cavs:
The wait was finally over. We were excited to get back on the court. It was an emotional day the day before with LeBron winning the MVP.
I think he came out [in Game 1] and really set the tone and showed that he's proud of the accomplishment of the MVP, but he still has a job to do and we still have a job to do -- and that's winning a championship. His game [Tuesday] was very impressive because there are a lot of emotions that go into receiving an award like that in front of the fans. To go out there and play the way he did says a lot about how focused he was and how focused he's gotten our team. I think that was a good start and a good win.
[Wednesday] we just got in a little rest and practice, watched some film and did some individual work on our own, got our shots up and stuff like that. We're just trying to stay mentally and physically fresh for [tonight] and get ready for [tonight's] game. We did our "Rainman" game, of course. We've been doing that all season long, and we're not going to switch that up.
It's still just one win. We beat [the Hawks] on our home floor. That was obviously something we were supposed to do, we held serve. We feel like they can play better, but we can also play better. So we're going to come out and be ready for them to come at us in Game 2, make adjustments and figure out a way to make it a closer game. We've just got to come out with the same intensity. Hopefully, our crowd comes out with the same excitement that they have all season long, and we can continue to play well on our home court.
