Scribbles in my mind
Posted November 5th, 2005 by bwindhorst
San Antonio — I either wrote or said sometime last week that all the Cavs’ weaknesses would be exposed here against the Spurs. Boy, was I right. I know it is early and still very much a work in progress, but here’s what I’ve noticed:
- The point guards lack lateral quickness. It won’t show up every night like it did last season with Jeff McInnis, who didn’t guard anybody. But Damon Jones and Eric Snow have a problem keeping quick guys like Tony Parker, T.J. Ford, Speedy Claxton, and Allen Iverson in front of them. I’ve seen them take on all four and all four have torched them. This really might turn into an issue.
- Damon Jones can be a chucker. This I already knew, but because he’s such a good shooter you figure it’s OK when he shoots. But I thought that he would take bad shots in the half court and you’d live with it. When he hoists them on the fastbreak or in transition, it isn’t pretty. He seems to do it when he’s frustrated defensively.
- The Cavs show potential for great ball movement. But simply not often enough. Three times Friday they made four passes to set up a shot and it was always open, but they simply aren’t comfortable enough with the system yet.
- LeBron is posting up more. Forget about those 3s, the new wrinkle in his game is that the Cavs are getting him in position to get the ball on the post. If he gets the ball with position in the post there IS NO STOPPING HIM. He will score or be fouled. This needs to be developed.
- I saw one of the Spurs championship rings up close. I can see why everyone covets them.
On Bob Finnan…
- As blog loyalists know, I’m a huge Bob Finnan fan. He is the Cavs beat writer for the Lake County News-Herald and Lorain Morning Journal. This is his 11th year on the beat, so he’s a wily veteran. We often travel together, in fact he’s sitting across from me right now. And simply, he absolutely cracks me up non-stop. Here’s a sampling of his work this season so far.
- He has spied not one, but two obscure singers in public that he’s a apparently a fan of and I’d never heard of. Paul Williams and Aaron Neville. Finnan told me Williams wrote the theme to the "Love Boat." When we walked by him at a restaurant in Boston, we hummed the tune to see if he’d look up. He did.
I wasn’t with him when he saw Neville, so I’ll take his word on it, I guess.
The other night at "The Q" he watched the Cavs’ dance team perform their "show," which drew the ire of numerous fans for its R-rated nature. Then he turned to me and said "All they’re missing is a pole."
Then, this morning as we’re about to catch a flight to Memphis, a very, very early flight, Finnan is waiting in line to board the plane and starts smiling and waving to a little child being carried by his mother in front of him.
The child first stares, then begins to cry. Said Finnan:
"Oh my God, I’m the ugliest person this baby has ever seen."
November 5th, 2005 at 7:24 am
Last year LBJ forced a lot of bad shots to try and carry the offense because no one around him could make a basket. This year he has shooters all around him and he is still forcing bad shots. Early on the Cavs took the lead because they played like a team. LeBron started taking over and stopped including the other players. I think he forgot how to pass. I honestly think King James was the reason they lost the game. He killed the first half momentum with several bad possessions and set the tone for everyone else around him to be selfish. It was like his ego couldn’t let anyone else on the team score more points than him. Big Egos are killing the game. No egos on that CHAMPIONSHIP Spurs team…
November 5th, 2005 at 11:06 am
Brian, is a “scibble” anything like an animal cracker? I don’t think I’m going out on a limb when I say the hippo and the zebra RULE.
November 6th, 2005 at 8:02 am
Hey, you corrected your “scibble” title. No fair. There are rules. Rules are meant to be followed. Once a blog is posted, it’s posted. It’s in the blog manual. What you did is like going back and correcting your SAT answers. You can’t do that. Unless you play for Ohio State. Do you play for Ohio State? I don’t think so.
November 7th, 2005 at 10:14 am
Don’t condemn all the point guards for lack of lateral quickness. Snow does a much better job staying in front of his man, even though Damon Jones may be quicker. I was at the Bobcat game, and saw that Rookie of the Year favorite Chris Paul never got to the rim when Snow was on him. When Jones came in, Paul got to the rim and drew fouls. I thought this was interesting and have been trying to notice every game. Tony Parker burned everyone, but more on Jones than Snow. That’s why I’m glad Snow is the starter.