As Minnesota’s own Prince once sang: “Sometimes it snows in April”
Posted April 3rd, 2007 by Brian Windhorst
Minneapolis — The weather is terrible here in Minnie, but because the city planners have connected the entire downtown with skywalks, I haven’t been outside in two days. After what only can be described as a disappointing loss in Boston, the Cavs beat up the Timberwolves 101-88 tonight. I guess LeBron James makes a difference after all.
Some thoughts…
–I don’t think I’ve got it down to a science as yet, but I can almost tell when LeBron is going to have a big game. He’s usually got so much extra energy and is in a jovial mood before the game. Not just joking or whatever, but actually like more bounce in his step and emotion on his face. You’d think it would be when he’s steady and grim and showing focus. Maybe it is, but this morning I was 100 percent sure he would play and before the game, pretty sure he was going to play well. He did. I’m not saying it’s flipping a switch or whatever, I’m saying it is often perceptible.
–It sounds as if Jerry Colangelo is trying to make an example of LeBron’s comments about his interest in playing for Team USA this summer. Here’s the brief synopsis if you don’t want to read it: Colangelo heard LeBron say he was "50/50" in playing this summer so he came out and said he expects everyone on the roster to honor their three-summer commitment. Then Kevin Garnett told me today that he thinks LeBron should basically tell USA Basketball he needs to rest, hell or high water. Here’s the deal, LeBron is the only guy who is getting asked about this right now. I’m sure there are others who are wondering about there commitments especially with a host of other players on the roster who could fill in. Colangelo’s message is to everyone, although it seems to be directed at LeBron. USA Basketball knows LeBron needs to play in the Beijing Olympics for business reasons and so do players like Kobe Bryant and Dwyane Wade. But at the end of the day, it will be LeBron’s decision and no matter what it is there will be measures to save face either way. Right now it is all posturing.
–Larry Hughes played his best game since the winning streak tonight. The Cavs played at high speed but under control and most of it was Hughes’ doing. He had 10 assists, which was a season high.
–I learned today that Sasha Pavlovic gets his shot blocked 20 percent of the time in the paint. Tonight he got swatted twice. He’s getting fed up with it and starting to chirp at officials, but it is going to be a side effect of the way he plays and drives.
–The entire team played with more controlled vision tonight than in Boston. Their offensive execution was extreme good and defensively they worked together well. This includes Mike Brown. In Boston, I was puzzled by him starting Shannon Brown, who had played a grand total of seven seconds the previous five games. Then he played Eric Snow 27 straight minutes, then benched him for the rest of the game. There were other oddies He was searching, I understand, but it just showed how much out of the flow the entire team was. They still haven’t outgrown those nights.
–They play more 80s music at the Target Center than at all other NBA arenas combined.
–Mike James and Dirk Nowitzki shoot the highest balls in the league.
–When he was with the Celtics, Ricky Davis used to buckle down and really try to play hard against the Cavs and he loved to body up LeBron and hassle him on defense. I guess those days are done now.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:33 pm
GOOD MORNING LADIES!!!!!! NEWS FLASH!!!!!THE CAVS STILL SUCK, AND THE ICON OR THE SPAWN OF NIKE, IS STILL JUST THAT.
April 3rd, 2007 at 11:40 pm
Hey BW, what was the statement about the 80s music for? what purpose did it serve to make that statement? were you trying to write a 500 word blog and needed 16 more words so you added that statement. what do mke james and dirk nowitzki hight balls have to do with anything, bw, your blogs are becoming everso vague. tighten up the screws big fella, you got the playoffs to think about.
April 4th, 2007 at 1:35 am
Brian, I think your blog rocks.
I like it all, even the tangential points and whatever assorted impressions you have from your up-close view of the league.
Keep up the good work, I read it as soon as I see it’s updated. Thanks!
April 4th, 2007 at 5:50 am
Uh Mr. Windhorst is now our resident Swami.
Thats good because I miss the Swami that
used to call Pete Franklin. It was especially funny when Pete used to tell him
to go gargle on razor blades. Please new
Mr. Swami can you tell us before game 7
of the EC semi-finals this year if the
GI is jovial or grim faced before the game
so we know what the outcome will be. I don’t
like sweating through playoff games.
April 4th, 2007 at 5:51 am
Dude, did “billy” have a glass of vinegar mixed with urine for breakfast today or what?
80’s music at NBA games if fine with me. It reminds me of Cedar Point during summertime as I gaze at all the mullets.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Brian, I like your blog just the way it is. It should be for stuff that doesn’t fit into your columns.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:51 am
So here’s what I don’t get…how come when people call up The General for car insurance on the commercial, and they ask for insurance quickly, he lets out this stupid little laugh before he says no problem or whatever? why’s he laughing? he knows people are going to be calling for insurance.
April 4th, 2007 at 6:53 am
What may I ask is a mullet?
April 4th, 2007 at 7:15 am
http://www.mulletsgalore.com/
“Business in front, party in the back.”
April 4th, 2007 at 7:30 am
Good thing ouchy knee flu is only a 24 hour syndrome. Otherwise the King surely wouldn’t have been able to throw down all those highlight reel windmill dunks. I think he had three or four on espn’s top ten list. Im not saying that’s not suspicious or anything…. or am i? Im not sure.
And BW is a closet Disco Stu; that’s why he has no love for duran duran.
April 4th, 2007 at 8:26 am
Shoot, I hurried here this morning in hopes that our resident nut job Alan Tucker would already be complaining about our 13 point victory last night. You know he has something negative to say.
Come on Alan, you are slacking.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:17 am
Ben Gordon shoots a high ball too.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:38 am
JoeHoops, people should start calling you Celery Stalker. Plain old Stalker just doesn’t do you justice.
With respect to that purported ouchy knee, I’ve seen four-year-olds fake it better. Gotta love those off-court grimaces for public consumption, then three seconds later, soaring like a bald eagle. Is Ernest Angley now a Cavs assistant coach? Because that’s the only rational explanation for such amazing healing power.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:02 am
Willis Reed must have been faking too. And Emmitt Smith, Jack Youngblood, Curt Schilling, etc., etc.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:28 am
I was at the game last night, surprised to see Ricky Davis doesn’t have his “paid” cheering section anymore in Minnesota. I know he had this in Boston and Cleveland, where he would buy a bunch of teenagers season tickets and they’d cheer really loud for him (I forget the name). Anyone know the story?
April 4th, 2007 at 11:47 am
Oh, come on, Larry. You’re comparing blood and guts to everyday athletic boo-boos? Everybody on every team has their little hurts. Somebody who supposedly has a knee problem is certainly not going to have hops like a kangaroo on a pogo stick before he flies wearing a cape, jams a basketball, and then lands on that very knee.
When James starts sitting some games against teams that don’t make people want to wretch, then I’ll start to buy whatever it is that James, the Cavs’ marketing department and the local media are trying to sell me. He’s a great player, but all of this catering to his every whim really grates.
And Tyson, it was called Ricky’s Renegades. Who knows what Larry Hughes at half the contract price is doing with his charitable gesture for kids. Perhaps he simply decided to buy them drugs instead.
April 4th, 2007 at 11:59 am
and larry’s wife has been faking it….etc
April 4th, 2007 at 12:22 pm
jmoe, you’re kidding, right? Please tell me you’re kidding. You don’t know what a mullet is? Without the awesome existential unholy satanic power of the mullet, the National Hockey League would have died 30 years ago. The mullet is to the NHL what David Stern is to the NBA. Long live the mullet!
April 4th, 2007 at 12:55 pm
5. Loved this story from Little Swen in Newton, Mass.:
“The LeBron era was summarized on Sunday night in Boston (I went to the game): LeBron, who had inexplicably taken the night off, was suspiciously absent from the Cavs bench for the first five minutes of the third quarter. After arguing with my friends as to whether or not he realized he was wearing a purple suit in the first half and decided to change, LBJ finally strolled in from the locker room, only there were no seats left on the bench. He wandered to where David Wesley was sitting, and stared at him for about seven seconds, before Wesley got up and more or less sat on Damon Jones’ lap. Wesley and Jones remained in the same seat, looking extremely awkward, for about five minutes until the next timeout on the floor occurred. Priceless.”
April 4th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
I BET ALAN IS ROCKING A MULLET. BUSINESS IN THE FRONT, PARTY IN THE BACK, BABY.
PS - LEBRON WAS NBA PLAYER OF THE MONTH FOR MARCH. SO ALL YOU HATERS CAN SUK IT.
April 4th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
“easy on bw and his diction. this isn’t the New Yorker we’re reading here. Let me remind you all; it’s the freaking Akron Beacon Journal. And it’s brian windhorst, not adam gopnik.” –doc
First of all, let me say I do enjoy this blog, primarily for Brian’s insights. For example, I like his item above about how he can tell when Lebron is up for the game and when he’s not. That’s an observation I won’t get from ESPN or in a Terry Pluto column. (Pluto’s too busy writing about the Indians’ bullpen every other day. See today’s column his latest installment.)
However, I don’t think criticizing BW’s sometimes bizarre writing is at all out of line. As a contributor to a major newspaper, there’s a certain standard of writing you’d expect him to live up to. Yes, it’s the Beacon Journal. But that doesn’t make it The Record Courier.
I think anyone getting paid to write for a living should at least take the time to figure out the difference between “there” and “their.”
April 4th, 2007 at 3:30 pm
ESPN’s Chris Sheridan reported that Lebron James is currently studying Mandarin to increase his marketability in China.
Makes me wonder how much Mandarin Damon Jones has studied since he signed his endorsement deal with Li-Ning. Did he learn how to say, “Three on a platter?” What about “greatest shooter in the world?” Or, perhaps more usefully, “DNP-CD?”
April 4th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
Uh Brain I mean Brian I think Sahsha I mean
Sasha gets blocked 20% of the time in the
paint because he doesn’t quite have the
finishing barley I mean hops of a GI I mean
Lebron. Did you see his pathetic attempt over Tyrus Thomas who was 2 feet over the
rim at the finish of reg on Saturday. Whilst
the GI makes the ENTIRE backboard and stanchion (sp?) shake MR. PAVS daintily lays
it in the hole. Now I am not racist but I do
think his pasty complexion has something to
do with his vertical leap which is better
than MR. “I am stuck to the floor” Ilgauskas
but cannot compare to the booster rockets
of the GI. The GI gets hacked twice as much
as Pavs with no call simply because he is
so quick and so high their old imbicile eyes
cannot follow it. With Pavs they can clearly
see him getting stuffed by the other rockets
in the league. He can complain all he wants
but until he gets hops it’s useless. He however is usefull in a myriad of other
ways including his court sense, passing, and shooting much like MR. Z. Do not do
like Potato Head and take these guys out
of their roles.
April 4th, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I’m almost ready for Brian to shut the comment section off of the blog. All this has become is a place for incessant bickering, personal grudges, and complaints about whatever Brian writes about.
Just in this blog comment section, we’ve had personal insults, a broad completely unbased insult against Larry Hughes, a discussion on the mullet, and people complaining about where LeBron sat on the bench. And you are the people complaining about Brian’s writing? That’s chutzpah there, folks…
April 4th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
I agree Roger. I spout off on here quite a bit, but its only because of the other absurd comments I read from people who are CLEARLY not Cavs fans. All they do is complain about the Cavs, complain about Lebron, and complain about Brians writing. The worst offender is my good budy Alan Tucker. Please show me JUST ONE comment he has made on this blog that was POSITIVE about the Cavs. All he does is complain and talk about mullets. The guy is a creep.
April 4th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Uh Roger Ram Jet and Joe Homer I mean Hoops
I happen to be a season ticket holder since
about oh 1975. I have paid and sat through
some of the worst basketball imaginable. I
have also paid and sat through some pretty damn good basketball especially lately. We are one or two good players away from the
unimaginable. I also think Tucker and Doc
and Larry D. also buy tickets and spend
their money on this team. We have forgotten
and seen more NBA than we would care to
admit. Age brings upon cynicism because we
KNOW what it takes to win it all. We watched
Jo Jo White and ML Carr and the injury to
Chones ruin our first chance. Then we saw
MJ and Co ruin our second chance. Right now
the Dallas Mavericks, San Antonio Spurs,
Phoenix Suns, and Detroit Pistons stand in
the way of our best chance to win it all.
Since you fancy yourselves junior GMs tell
us what they should do to reach the next
hurdle not how great they are. If they
bring home the trophy you can brag all you
want. Im getting to old for promises and all
the rah rah stuff. Go ahead and shut off the
blog. It’s America I can always shop elsewhere.
April 4th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
Are you guys seriously complaining about what other people complain about?
That’s awesome.
April 4th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
PS: Roger, why would suggest Brian should “shut the comment section off of the blog” just because you don’t like what people post here?
A little egocentric, no?
April 4th, 2007 at 6:11 pm
Now that I have learned the meaning of
mullet which is a lot tamer than I thought,
what the hell is chutzpah?
April 4th, 2007 at 7:14 pm
what kind of name is roger? you either have to be 60 years old or a senior on the lacrosse team at Groton.
Bulls just waxed the pistons in the palace.
Hopefully the king is icing his knee, He won’t be able to skip, i mean miss because of injury, another game until april 14th against atlanta.
April 4th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
jmoe…Chutzpah is Yiddish. Unmitigated gall. Come on, even an average everyday goy should know a little bit of Yiddish.
Personally, I find it hilarious that some yutz out there (more Yiddish) is personally offended by a cerebral discussion involving the mullet, Spawn of Nike’s grand sense of entitlement, and Larry Hughes’ big fat unearned contract.
And if Damon Jones can say anything Mandarin other than “mandarin orange,” I’d be absolutely shocked.