The Rumor That Could Change Everything
February 2, 2009Coast To Coast
February 2, 2009Cavaliers 90, Pistons 80 [box]
Somewhere in the midst of a twelve hour Super Bowl pregame, the Cleveland Cavaliers were duking it out on a national stage against their division rivals. A team that has had their only speed bumps of the season when not in the confines of The Q was once again on the road, heading to a place where things did not exactly fair well during their last visit. Still down a key portion of their team in Delonte West, the Cavs appeared to be on their way to another road loss.
Down eight points in the third quarter, the Cavaliers appeared stagnant at best. Diverting from the motion offense that had done them wonders earlier in the season, there were several moments where LeBron James would bring the ball up the floor – with Mo Williams taking a back seat – and then launching a jump shot of some sort. They looked tired, uninspired and simply bored at some points. I commend any fan that was able to watch this game without screaming at the television at some point; but if you did, at least two members of the Cavaliers heard you: Mo Williams and Daniel “Boobie” Gibson.
Starting off the fourth quarter, the Cavs were trailing 66-58. The second half of the Orlando game was one that we would all prefer to sweep under the rug, and this road game was shaping up to be the same. But with LeBron James on the bench, the backcourt of Mo and Boobie sparked what would ultimately be a 15-to-2 run. When James returned later in the quarter, he picked up right where his teammates had left off by sealing the win with a layup, a dish to Zydrunas Ilgauskas for three-points, and then a three-ball of his own. At this point, the Cavaliers were up seven and the Pistons were in a draught that had seen zero field goals in a three-minute period.
That was all the wine and gold needed to finish off their rivals – those that have now lost nine of their last 12 games, playing .500 basketball since trading Chauncey Billups to Denver.
Some Pistons fans are none to thrilled with the lineup that Detroit used to defend the Williams/Gibson lineup.
Why does small ball still exist? We go big in the 3rd and have our biggest lead of the game, at 8 points. Then Curry sits Amir and we go small, resulting in a 15-2 run for the Cavs. Need I say more?
I have to say, I see where she’s coming from. Though I also approve of Detroit doing this every game going forward as well.
To talk a little defense, the Cavs held the Pistons to 42 percent shooting in the game. Occasionally a Cav-killer, Rasheed Wallace was stifled for most of the game, shooting 4-of-11 for nine points in almost 41 minutes of play. Rip Hamilton came off of the bench for 16, but was relegated to only 26 minutes.
The Cavs out-rebounded the Pistons by seven, with four Cavaliers pulling down at least six boards. Ben Wallace went scoreless once again, but recorded seven rebounds with a steal and a block. Anderson Varejao only took one field goal, but finished the game with two points, six boards and about six stitches thanks to an Antonio McDyess bought-out eblow to the lip.
Mo Williams finished the game with 22 points, seven boards, four assists and two steals. The point guard has averaged just under 23 points per night since the Chicago Bulls game that featured the Delonte West injury. Danny Gibson’s seven points could not have come at a better time with a three, a jumper and a layup all within the first minute-twenty of the fourth quarter. James put in his typical 33 points (12-for-25) and eight assists, but also turned the ball over five times. And while I’m not sure exactly how many times this happened, but we were granted with at least one occasion of the LeBron-foul face.
All in all, it was a solid win over a division rival on the road. With the gap widening between the Cavs and Pistons within the division, many may not think of this as a quality win but there is no doubting that the Cavaliers deserve a tip of the hat. Holding the Pistons to 80 is one thing. Coming from behind in the fourth quarter is another. But doing it all with LeBron James on the bench to start things off speaks volumes for the depth of this current team.
The Cavs have today off as they prepare to face the Toronto Raptors tomorrow night at The Q. You may have heard – there are some rumors about those guys. They’ll head to Madison Square Garden the following night and then will take three nights off before facing the Lakers back home. The suddenly Andrew Bynum-less Lakers. At home.
Redemption much? Hopefully.
10 Comments
The first half, first quarter in particular, was like watching a JV game. The Cavs have a bad habit of running the 1006 cavs offense of giving it to LeBron and stand around and watch.And does LBJ know that little foot stab move he uses everytime he has the ball dosen’t work? A win is a win, and we’ll take it, ecspecially over Detroit, but it was ugly. It sounds like we’re getting more respect nationally from the broadcasters as they beamed about the depth of the team in the 4th quarter. Z looked like he’s still trying to get his legs back underneath of him. Hurry back Delonte.
Every time they’re on national TV, LeBron gets in a “I’m going to carry this team” mode, and everyone just has to stand around while he hogs the ball. You’ve gotta love his talent, but the Cavs are deadly when they move the ball, make the extra pass and find an open shooter, not just let LeBron dribble for 22 seconds and heave up a prayer.
Consider this hypothetical situation. Say the Cavaliers inexplicably gave up 110 points in the first quarter. The game was close, though, as Cleveland themselves scored 90. So both teams kept their starters in throughout the game.
Now, Cleveland holds their opponent to just 30 points over the remaining 3 quarters, and wins 145-140. The question is, is this a good defensive performance by the Cavaliers? They obviously played great defense for a longer period of time than the lousy defense. But, the defense in that first quarter was so unbelievably lousy, and at the end of the day, they still gave up 140 points and needed an unreal offensive performance to win.
The reason I ask, is because this is how I feel about the Cavs lately. They play terrible basketball for long stretches of the game, and then require some superhuman performance by someone to win. BUT, they do win. At the end of the day, they keep finding ways to win. Is this a good thing or not? It’s a bit of a grey area for me. I love that they keep winning, and it shows an unbelievable resiliency which I believe is a by-product of the team’s chemistry.
But man do I wish they would break out of their funk and start playing good basketball again.
Jason – I agree with you. LeBron does seem to do that on nationally televised games, and what’s weird is that he is usually so unselfish.
Rock – I’m not sure they would have won a bunch of these ugly wins last year. Every team goes through rough patches, but their managing to win a lot of these. If they start cleaning it all up in the home stretch of the regular season – look out.
@ Rock – It’s an interesting thought, and I’ve had similar ones myself, but at the end of the day I think a win is a win is a win. And you have to account for the fact that the team is not full strength and the different lineups have caused some on-the-fly adjustments. The good news was the down the stretch yesterday, the Cavs were distributing the ball well, playing good team defense, and knocking down shots.
I would tend to agree with a win being a win being a win. However, Sasha is playing well (he’s not a defensive treat, but he has certainly replaced Delonte’s offense). So, I would expect the Cavs to give up a few more points, and perhaps score a few less. But they’ve been flat out chugging lately – having a ton of trouble building any momentum. It seems like they play with the most energy when LeBron is on the bench.
I’ll never say they’d be better off without LeBron – that’s insane to think. But sometimes they play more focused and more of a team game when he’s not on the floor. Its an indictment of all of them – mainly Mike Brown for not keeping them all on the same page.
I was at this game with 15 other cavs fans and we ran that arena. We own our division and the NBA is next!!
I gotta say — as a West Coast Clevelander — it’s great to see them on national TV so often this season; but I can’t imagine network execs are going to be real excited about putting up product like this game’s first quarter to often.
I mean, shoot, 2/3rds of the way through the first quarter, the game was 8-8. I thought I was watching CSU/EMU women’s basketball by accident.
All in all, though, I’ll take the W. And I 100% co-sign Rock’s comment.
@Rock – I know what you mean, man. I almost couldn’t watch the game I was so pissed. They just played LAZY on offense. They’ve been jacking jumpers every since Z went out with injury. They’ve been getting into offensive sets late, they have entire possessions where Z or Ben never even get down into the paint and are utterly useless swinging the ball around the perimeter from the top of the key, and LeBron has just decided that if the refs aren’t going to give him fouls, he’s not going to drive – end of story.
It’s frustrating – it’s like we don’t get easy baskets anymore. Honestly, the reason our record really hasn’t suffered much since the injuries is because we’ve shot the 3-ball so well. In December (the best month in franchise history) we made 7.4 out of 21.1 3s. In January? 9.4 out of 21.1 That’s staggering considering Delonte was our best 3 point shooter at the time he went out with injury.
LeBron has been trying to do too much with the ball. I’ve thought about this scenario for so long now – tell me what you think…
Remember that sequence where LeBron wasn’t on the court, and Boobie and Mo were draining shots? Imagine that SAME SEQUENCE, only LeBron James playing the role of Szczerbiak or whomever was in at SF and just CRASHING THE BOARDS!?! I mean seriously, why does LeBron ALWAYS have to either be THE PLAYMAKER, or stand on the 3 point line waiting to bail out the play in case no one else wants to shoot?! How about, letting your team run the offense, and using your freakish athleticism to grab an O-rebound if necessary?! I see LeBron do this about once a month and it’s really getting to me.
He needs to stop living outside the 3 point line – the Cavs as a team need to stop living there. We need more curls around the elbow, more entry passes into Z, more Lebron post ups, and more alley-oops. And above all, we need LeBron to ATTACK ATTACK ATTACK. The best teams find ways to get easy buckets – and the Cavs aren’t doing it right now.
I think when Delonte gets back it will help, but there will still be an adjustment period, their offense is not playing the way it was in December when the Cavs had the most efficient offense in the NBA.
But, in spite of all this whining, I gotta say, every team DOES go through lulls – and the fact that the Cavs have already gone through THREE lulls and have only lost 9 games in really incredible.
This team is mentally tough.