While We’re Waiting… A Portly Donyell, LeBron for MVP, and Adam Miller Updates
March 16, 2009NFL Trade Rumors: Derek Anderson Got Paid, Jay Cutler Wants Out
March 16, 2009Cavs 98, Knicks 93 (box)
It is a busy time of year to follow your favorite team. On Sunday the banner for Division Champ went up in the rafters for the Cavaliers. At the same time, with a Celtics loss and a Lakers win on Sunday the Cavs had a lot of reason to keep plugging away. The Cavs went into the game with a 3 game lead in the East and a half game deficit to the Lakers for the overall league record. With the Cavs’ victory, they were able to extend their lead over the Celtics, while keeping pace with the Lakers who rallied in the 4th quarter to beat Dallas in Los Angeles. Get all that? It gets confusing sometimes. As for the Cavs’ victory over the Knicks, it wasn’t pretty, but it will do.
The Cavs played better defense than what we have seen since their most recent road trip, but it still wasn’t good. They held Larry Hughes to 15 points on an ugly 6-17 shooting which was a defensive highlight. On the other hand they gave up 26 to Harrington and 20 to Nate Robinson. Lebron paced the Cavaliers defensively with four steals and three blocked shots to go along with seven rebounds on the defensive end.
Mo Williams paced the Cavaliers offensively with 23 points on 8-13 shooting. Mo’s contributions were exemplified in the box score with his +11 rating for the game. A large reason for that was probably his 5-5 shooting night from three point land. Mo’s night was well rounded with his eight rebounds and five assists as well. Other scoring contributions were provided by Delonte West’s 13 points, Zydrunas’ 12 points and Joe Smith’s 10 points off the bench.
The Cavs sweep the season series against the New York Knicks which is a lot of fun. After the game, Mike Brown was happy with the defensive effort and was happy that he kept Lebron’s minutes under 40 minutes, although not by much. He was much less satisfied with the nine turnovers in the first half, but he was happy that they only had five in the second half. It is nice to know that Mike Brown will never be satisfied with just winning games. To think that he was getting after his team for their defensive intensity even when they were winning games on a West coast road trip.
Next up the Cavs have the Orlando Magic on Tuesday. The Magic have been playing pretty well of late winning four of their last five including a win against Boston in Boston last Sunday.
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6 Comments
Huge win to pick up another game on the Celtics. A 13-3 record the rest of the way would clinch the East #1 now.
Craig, for what it’s worth, the Knicks scored 100+ in their last 26 games (going into yesterday’s game). So even though it didn’t appear to be much of a defensive effort, it’s hard to hold a team under 100 who consistently shoots with 20 seconds left on the shot clock.
The back-to-back plays in the fourth where LBJ found Andy V underneith were so big.
Big week here.
Big game coming up against the Magic.
Our magic number to clinch the #1 seed in the Easr is 12.
*East