A Record-Breaking Season for Browns Fans
December 19, 2008ESPN’s NBA Research Falls a Little Short
December 20, 2008
Cavaliers 105 – Nuggets 88 [box]
A key part of this road trip was going to be how the Cavaliers could play without their starting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Anderson Varejao had filled in admirably to this point, but the Denver Nuggets had a problem finding an answer for Igauskas in the past so if his ankle was well enough to play on Friday, all the better.
And play he did. The big man went from “out” to “doubtful” yesterday morning. And then decided to go from “doubtful” to “Craig Ehlo” in the evening. When you look down the box score, you expect to see two three-point field goals made by Delonte West. However, Ilgauskas was stroking from all over the court, hitting nine of his 14 shot attempts – two of which were from long range. Big Z finished with 23 points in 27 minutes.
Obviously, a huge part of last night’s win was also the play of LeBron James. After shooting the lights out against Minnesota, James picked up right where he left off by draining his first six shots. On the night, he finished at 13-of-20 (along with 7-of-8 from the line) for 33 points. For good measure, LBJ tallied 10 rebounds and eight boards. All of this work is not going unappreciated or unnoticed as ESPN’s Mark Stein claims James as the first “trimester” MVP. I don’t disagree.
The aformentioned Delonte West took things up another notch after providing his Cavalier career-high 21 points against the Timberwolves by finishing with 22 versus the Nuggets. For what it is worth, he also lead the team in +/- with +26.
Though the Nuggets have 17 wins and are a formidable opponent in the West, I’m sure someone will come up with a reason why the Cavaliers are “not as good as they look.” Taking it on the road and handing it to them by 17 points just won’t be enough for some people. This team is not just beating lesser opponents – they are destroying them. A league-leading differential of +13.3 points per game is pretty astounding. The fact that we raised it against the Nuggets, again, is even better.
The team will have to stay focused as they head to Oklahoma City to finish up the road trip before welcoming the Houston Rockets to the Q.
9 Comments
Awesome game for the Cavs and Big Z. I could not believe how on fire Z was! Dude just couldn’t miss. To start the third quater, they ran their offense through Z!! GET THIS SOME ALL STAR VOTES!!
Z is in your nightmarez
I laugh at all the doubters that just look at box scores and don’t watch the games. I also find it funny that people give teams like the Knicks, Mavs, Nuggets, Hawks, Nets, Jazz, Raptors, and 76ers for being talented and some of them winning more games than they should because of their talents; but we get no respect and are said to have “Beaten No One” Mind you that the list I just provided are ALL teams we have crushed.
I also remember how the 76ers and raptors were supposed to have surpassed this offseason with their trades and signings, and I like how the hawks beat us the other night and then the sky was falling, but it wasn’t mentioned that we beat them earlier in the year in run away fashion, or should i say “Cavalier Fashion”.
So to all the doubters, haters, and nay-sayers….. GO CAVS!!!!!
Watching the game last night, caused me to step back and realize just how important Z is to this team. Just last season it appeared as if Z was a misshapped cog in the offensive machine of Mike Brown. Now he appears to be the Z of old (trending upwards instead of fading towards retirement). There is no doubt in mind that Z deserves to be an All Star this year for how he’s played. I think this season is going to have a very ’95 Indians feel to it, when it’s all said and done (hopefully with better results).
Z leading the team in 3 point percentage… just sayin..
and you guys need to bring back some commercial parody comics.
I stayed up and watched last night. Did anyone else think that was possibly the worst officiated game we have seen all year? I don’t mean one-sided, but really the worst going both ways. The Nuggets got called for things that weren’t fouls. So did the Cavs. The offensive foul calls were very bad on both sides including some serious flops by both teams.
Anyway, good win for the Cavs, but it could have been a lot more enjoyable to watch if the whistles weren’t so confounding.
HORRIBLE officiating. I think that had a lil bit to do with the tension that started to build throughout the game and almost led to a bad situation when K-Mart and Andy got into it.
[…] consider that these numbers also include Ilgauskas’ huge game against the Nuggetson the road, the rest is that much worse. With Z’s skill set, his inability to move around […]
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