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October 30, 2008Laying It On The Line
October 31, 2008
Charlotte Bobcats (0-0) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (0-1)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Thursday, October 30, 2008
7:00 PM EST
FSNOH/WTAM
After dropping a tough game in the first game of the season against the Champs (seriously, how sweet will it be when for one year we can refer to one of our teams simply as “the Champs”???), the Cavaliers will look to bounce back against what is on paper a far inferior opponent in our home opener. The Bobcats always seem to play tough against the Cavaliers, though, and I still have nightmares about Gerald Wallace hitting shot after shot after shot against the Cavs as he always seems to do. The guy is an absolute Cavalier-killer. Last year, the Cavs struggled against almost everyone, hardly ever winning with ease and almost always letting worse teams hang with them. This will be a good test tonight to see how far the Cavaliers have really come. This should be a game the Cavaliers put away early and never look back from, but whether it actual will happen that way is yet to be seen.
Projected Starting Lineups
Charlotte Bobcats (with 2007-08 stats):
-G Raymond Felton (14.4 ppg, 7.4 apg, 1.2 spg, 13.98 PER)
-G Jason Richardson (21.8 ppg, 3.1 apg, .406 3P%, 18.60 PER)
-F Gerald Wallace (19.4 ppg, 6.0 rpg, 3.5 apg, 17.66 PER)
-F Sean May (DNP)
-C Emeka Okafor (13.8 ppg, 10.7 rpg, 1.7 bpg, 17.46 PER)
Key Injuries:None
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Mo Williams (12.0 ppg, 2.0 apg, 1.0 spg)
-G Delonte West (6.0 ppg, 2.0 apg, .000 3P%)
-F LeBron James (22.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 6.0 apg)
-F Ben Wallace (2.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.0 bpg)
-C Zydrunas Ilgauskas (15.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 0.0 bpg)
Key Injuries: Eric Snow (out), Darnell Jackson (out)
Team Efficiency Stats (2007-08 Season Stats)
Charlotte Bobcats:
-Off (97.1 ppg, 40.6 rpg, .452 FG%, .714 FT%, 21.3 apg)
-Def (101.4 ppg, 43.7 rpg, .466 FG%)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Off (96.4 ppg, 44.6 rpg, .439 FG%, .717 FT%, 20.0 apg)
-Def (96.7 ppg, 40.4 rpg, .455 FG%)
Game Notes
Ah, the Bobcats. In my division previews I said that I felt like this was a team that could surprise some people. I still kind of feel that way, but did these guys ever have a rough preseason. Now, they open their 2008-09 season on the road in Cleveland to take on an irritated and focused Cavaliers team. No small task for the young Bobcats. What’s unclear about the Bobcats is what kind of team they will be this year. In the past, they liked to run a lot and played very little defense. They never had much interest in rebounding or really any of the other intangibles. This was just a team that liked to use their youthful exuberance to wear-out and out-score their opponents. But now that Larry Brown has taken over, you would assume a lot of that is about to change. Larry Brown will most certainly not stand for a team that refuses to play defense or rebound, so I would expect the Bobcats to be better at both this year, even though the results in the preseason have not been pretty.
When the Cavaliers are on defense, keep an eye on the 2 wing scorers the Bobcats feature, Jason Richardson and Gerald Wallace. These guys are dynamic scorers and they can beat you in a multitude of ways…..and they both tend to play well against the Cavaliers. In 4 games against Cleveland last year, Richardson averaged 25.25 points per game (including two 30+ point games) and Gerald Wallace averaged 20.0 points per game (despite being held to just 10 points in one of the matchups). This will be a huge test defensively for Delonte West as Richardson, at 6’6″ and 220 lbs, is significantly bigger and stronger than West. The Cavaliers key defensively will be for LeBron to contain Wallace and hold him under 25 points and for West to keep Richardson under 30 points. If those 2 things happen the Cavaliers should be in good shape in this one.
When the Cavaliers have the basketball, I’m just looking for progress. The offense is still nowhere near where it needs to be, but it did look better at times in Game 1 than it did for most of last season and in the playoffs. This should be a breakout game for Mo Williams. Whereas Rajon Rondo is known as an excellent on-ball defender, Felton has not proven himself yet to be a great defender. Williams needs to improve his point total, assists, and turnover ratio in this game. If ever there was a time and a team to do it against, it’s this one. It will be interesting to see if LeBron is a little more assertive in this game. He was very patient in the last game and kept waiting for the game to come to him as he so often loves to do, but you know LeBron cannot be happy with the way that game turned out. LeBron very rarely has 2 mediocre games in a row, as he tends to follow up his mediocre games with some of his best games. In fact, last season LeBron failed to score 25 points in a game in which he played the whole game 16 times. In the game following up those 16 games, only 6 times did LeBron fail to score at least 30 points and overall he averaged 31.2 points in games that followed a less-than25-point performance. Coming off a 22 point performance Tuesday night, LeBron is going to be ready to go in front of a pumped up home crowd.
Overall, this may not be one of the marquee matchups on the Cavaliers schedule, but while the Cavs did go 3-1 against the Bobcats last year, all 4 games were extremely close. The Bobcats are 3-12 against Cleveland all-time, but this is always an entertaining team to watch and they will not go away without a fight. If the Cavaliers want to come out and make a statement and prove they are better than last year, they have to come and do it themselves because the Bobcats won’t do it for them.
Vegas Line
Cleveland -10
Over/Under 183
From The Outside Looking In
Queen City Hoops
BobcatsPlanet
Rufus On Fire
Bobcat Bonfire
Next Game For The Cavaliers
Saturday, November 1, 2008
8:00 PM EST
Cleveland Cavaliers at New Orleans Hornets
FSNOH/WTAM
17 Comments
Um we better win i don’t care if its by a halfcourt heave as time expires. I’ma be there and the crowd gonna be extra hype. Lets go cavaliers!
have started off pretty good so far. especially boobie with 2 wuick 3s
Looks like Morrison might actually become a real NBA player this year. Must be the hair cut
Man I dread when Sasha gets on the floor. He can’t shoot, doesn’t drive to the hole hard enough (he gets blocked at least twice a game) and his defense is not worth giving him all those minutes. Otherwise Mo Williams looks good and I like that I am seeing positive points when lebron is on the bench
Gibson is going off. The dunk by hickson on okafor had the place buzzing for bout 20 seconds
I’m at the game. Gibsons lighting it up. Wallace’s four blocks are nice as well… I could use another four dimes out of Mo. All around great stuff so far.
Ugh. Third quarter.
If Daniel Gibson plays like that fairly often and can stay healthy, this team just got a whole lot deeper in the backcourt, and a whole lot better. I still can’t figure out how, after shooting like that all night, he missed three straight FTs at one point, though.
So I looked at the stat line – 25 from Boobie, and 5 blocks from William Wallace. If that happens often, the team will fare well.
Third quarter was terrible as usual. I was there too. Hickson’s dunk was the highlight to me. Mo had a great game. 17 7 5
IRB, agreed. Another guy in our loge mentioned that it pains him to watch Wallace play at this point in his career. I think that a healthy, motivated Wallace can do some damage like last night. Now, do I expect four blocks per night? Not at all, given that Charlotte continues to play a power forward (Okafor) at the center slot, making things a lot easier for the opposition. However, if that back stays in tact, our defense is that much better…
scott – i agree with you on wallace. i think people that say things like “it pains me to watch wallace at this point in his career” don’t really understand the game. (david wesley was painful to watch). however, wallace is still quite useful so long as he is used in the right way. i think the cavs seem to do that well. they limit his minutes. he plays particular matchups. he still rebounds fairly well – definitely better than the average. he can still block shots since he seems to still anticipate well; he just doesnt have the same hops he used to. he seems to still set screens and picks well. plus, and this shouldnt be underestimated, wallace is an intimidating guy. any pro athlete is a “tough guy,” but there’s a mental aspect in all sports which plays at least a small role.
Ben Wallace played like the old Ben Wallace last night. Far beyond the blocks, far beyond any rebounds, far beyond anything that shows up in the boxscores……his defense was out of this world!!! Did you notice how many times guys would try to drive to the lane and have to throw up just these awful layups attempts that often times barely even hit the backboards? That was all Wallace flying over into the lane to help, getting up, and altering the release point of the Bobcats’ would-be scorers. He was unbelievable last night, and if he can stay healthy and play like that……my win total guess for this team might have been low. THAT Ben Wallace that played last night was what he have all been waiting for. That was his best game in Cavalier uniform ever.
Went to the game and saw what very good teams do – humiliate bad opponents and get your stud players resting for the bulk of the 4th quarter. We used to play to the level of our bad opponents and LBJ would log 42 minutes – hopefully not anymore.
During that 3Q stretch they missed some wide open J’s so the offense was still working, per se. Gibson’s missed FT’s were a result of very tired legs, – looks like the CAVS in general still building stamina.
@ Lyon – Don’t think Morrison will be a solid pro – forget about it. He can’t play defense and he can’t create his own shot vs. NBA defenders (not named Pavlovic). He’s a MJ draft pick and stiff. Sad but true.
@ Rock King – I think the Bobcats will surprise some people – with how stinking terrible they are.
It amazes me how a team that is full of solid fantasy players (Richardson, Okafor, Wallace, and even the ghost of Matt Carroll to a point) can just be a really, really bad team…
Wallace played good D on Garnett, too. Give the man some credit. The defense has been good the first two games, not that the Cats are any great shakes but they have some nice scorers, i.e. Wallace and RIchardson, plus Felton gives us fits. Loved seeing Mo taking an offensively foul–great game from him, those numbers are about his average and if he can hit that every night (especially as a secondary scorer while Bron rests), along with getting coached up a little on defense, this team’s going to be very tough.
Yea wally made morrison look like a good draft pick…. and after coach took him out morrison came back to his old self lol. Mo can run the offense good. I saw him grab delonte and gibson and talk to them and after that it was game over again lol. Mo is so quick its good to see somebody jet down the court besides lebron. Ahhh the good times coming