Pregame
Starting lineups:
Cavs: Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Kings: Francisco Garcia, Kevin Martin, Brad Miller, John Salmons, Mikki Moore
Refs
Mike Callahan, Tony Brothers, Brian Forte. Forte is a fresh-faced rookie, never seen him before.
–Larry Hughes is sitting out his third straight game with his bruised knee.
–Sad to see a non-sellout and little energy in this building. When it is filled and hoping like it has been for years, is it one of the best in league. Now, it just seems old.
–You know all that dust LeBron throws up has to come down and it just did all over me and my keyboard.
–The Kings are hurt (Mike Bibby) and suspended (Ron Artest). Kevin Martin and John Salmons will shoot a bunch, if the Cavs play good defense they have an excellent chance of winning.
Halftime — Kings 48, Cavs 48
–The Cavs are having energy issues, which is one of reasons this is a trap game. Always happens in the middle of a trip. Both teams are shooting poorly, one of them figures to heat up in the second half.
–LeBron is not showing much aggression on offense and the Cavs are generally being a little lazy at that end. They are still scoring but not being efficient. They have only 10 points in the paint yet have 14 3-point attempts, that’s a direct sign lazy offense.
–Kevin Martin is shooting anytime he gets more than a foot of space, which he seems to be allowed quite a bit. He’ll get 35 if the Cavs don’t start paying more attention, he’s very talented.
–Devin Brown played great minutes in the first half. He had 11 points, but he was very active at both ends. He was playing with more energy than any Cav on the court. Damon Jones has also done pretty well off the bench.
–Daniel Gibson is starting to have chronic foul problems. He does not have great lateral quickness and it is showing as he tries to guard quicker opponents. He’s going to need to play a little smarter or it is going to keep happening because he often gets out of position.
–The Kings are 14-of-14 at the foul line. Wednesday the Jazz made their first 17 tries at the line. The Cavs have missed six of them.
–Cavs.com’s Joe Gabriele: “Brad Miller has a Johnnycakes mustache.” If you are a Sopranos fan, you get it.
–Cedric Simmons got his first action, nine minutes worth. Didn’t look good but not too bad either. He’s playing tenative, which is to be expected.
Postgame — Cavs 93, Kings 91
Stars:
LeBron James, 26 points…the last seven were huge.
Devin Brown, 20 points, 11 rebounds…My guess is Larry Hughes will play the next game.
Kevin Martin, 32 points…Seven baskets, 32 points. That’s free-throw shooting, Tex.
–The NBA season is a grand balance. The Cavs lost one they could’ve won in Utah and won one tonight they probably should’ve lost.
–LeBron did not do anything special until the game’s final two minutes. Then he made like four plays in a row in a little over a minute and the Cavs won. That 3-point play that pretty much won the game looked like what he did to the Pistons last season. In case you didn’t think he had low energy, he didn’t get his first rebound until there was nine minutes left in the game.
–Still not exactly sure how Damon Jones missed that layup with 12 seconds left, but I’ll bet he’s glad no one will remember it.
–Guess Kevin Martin isn’t yet a star because the refs swallowed their whistles when Drew Gooden obviously fouled him with about seven seconds to go. The Kings have a serious case to complain about there. But you all know my philosophy, breaks and calls even out and officials very rarely decide games.
–Devin Brown was at his best tonight. He may not play a better game this season. He had 20 points and a career-high 11 rebounds, which was key of course. But deeper, he played four different positions including point guard and power forward for a stretch. Also, he threw down that dunk in transition. That right there was a sign that’s he’s back in shape after coming to training camp about 10-15 pounds heavy.
–Expect the Cavs to see loads of zone in the near future once teams break down this game film. The Jazz messed them up a little with it Wednesday and the Kings played it all night tonight. All the Cavs did was toss up 3-pointers. They were 7-of-25, which is why they shot 38 percent, which is why they should’ve lost. Mike Brown said he liked the ball movement, but there certainly wasn’t a whole lot of driving and kicking. By the way, in their first four games the Kings had given up an average of 105 points and 51 percent shooting.
–Forget about the Kings trading Mike Bibby and not getting a point guard in return. Umm, Sac had seven assists tonight. Their offense was mostly just guys dribbling toward the rim and getting fouled (maybe the Cavs could watch). Which they were very good at to say the least, going 33-of-35 at the line. Martin was 17-of-18, so you figure he would’ve tied the game if the foul had been called on Gooden. But then probably LeBron would’ve taken the last shot on a iso play, driven and gotten a return foul from the refs. Then it would’ve gotten interesting, eh?
–Where did the Cavs actually win it? Look at Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The Cavs had 18 offensive rebounds, Z had 8, and they won the second-chance points 16-2. That and LeBron James carrying at the end, normal Cavs script. By the way, Z had 15 boards which for him is just average these days.
Quotes:
LeBron James: “I had to seize the moment…I saw it open up a bit in the fourth and I just started feeling good.”
Devin Brown: “I surprised Mike Brown when I threw down that dunk. I don’t think he thought I’d be able to dunk again when I showed up to camp at 240 pounds.”
Reggie Theus: “Obviously I there wasn’t a person in the building that didn’t think (Martin) got fouled.”
{ 1 trackback }
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Watching all these other teams nail their free throws is so disheartening. This is another frustrating game. This could be a long season, watching a bunch of sloppy games like these last couple.
1. Why is Sasha being played so much. He clearly still isn’t yet in game shape.
2. Lebron and Z getting into each other. Brian can you tell what that was about. Is this new ‘vocal’ lebron going to affect team chemistry.
We take the W, but what a game it was. Shooting an atrocious 38% from the field, taking more 3pt shots than free throws (25 – 22) and still getting a win is amazing. The Cavs got lucky with this one.
Again, we see a FT disparity against the Cavs (22 – 35) but this time the Cavs clearly where not aggressive enough to earn more trips to the line.
Notable are the offensive rebounds, 18 total , Z pulling down 8 of them. That helps if you miss shots a lot.
Also, for the first time this season the Cavs took care of the ball better, only 11 turn overs – that’s what we want to see.
Sasha needs to shape up! 1 for 10 shooting, 0 for 3 from 3pt range for a total of 2 points in 30 minutes and he is getting how many millions for THAT?
Both teams sorely lack a point guard – Cleveland does not have one and Sacramento’s is out for another 2 months which shows in a total lack of assists – 21 total for the game; 14 for the Cavs and 7 for the Kings.
Well, the W is what counts in the end.
Good night for now.
Sometimes you have to win ugly, this game was ugly but a nice win for an injury plagued squad. Nice game by Devin Brown. Cavs looked tired, as one would expect. They really need Varajao, as the stiffs they are bringing behind Gooden and Z are pathetic.
Yea great everyone knew Martin was fouled at the end and everyone knew Z DIDN’T commit that bs foul he got called for at the end either. Evens out. Refs are just terrible anyways.. Boobie hit the side of the backboard on a 3 try earlier in the game and ended up lying on the floor and no foul was called. Since Boobie, a 60% 3 point shooter, normally hits the side of the backboard on his 3’s i guess there was no foul…..
It’s easy to forget how athletic LeBron is. He blocked a layup from behind, with both hands, without fouling. I haven’t seen that very often.
That Martin play with seven seconds left looked to me like he got Drew up in the air and just jumped into him looking for the foul. It seems like I’ve already seen a few no-calls in that situation this year. I don’t know if it’s a concentrated effort on the part of the refs, but I like not calling the foul there.
a concerted effort, that is… doh!
The Cavs new offense shows promise……except…..they better add some offensive schemes to deal with a zone defense.
On Martin’s shot: Gooden turned his back on Martin and stood straight up, so how could he have moved into Martin to foul him. Something has to be done about the foul calls when a shooter initiates contact with a defensive player standing still. Also something should be done about calling timeout as you are stepping out of bounds and like kind of plays.
Thoughts from the win against the Kings:
- That’s two straight Friday night wins for the Cavaliers, which is great, but leaves me hungry for basketball discussion that isn’t coming, thanks to college football on Saturday and the NFL on Sunday. Just thought I would whine.
- No matter what anyone says, the Cavaliers are good at closing out close games. They don’t often blow the opposition out, but the combination of LeBron James, good rebounding, and a dedication to defense puts the Cavaliers in a great position to win any close game. You could see how comfortable they were down the stretch last night. It reminded me of games in the mid-80s against Detroit, or in the 90’s against Chicago, when an upstart Cavs team would keep the game close, only to watch the battle-tested veteran team finish them off by executing down the stretch.
- Is Kevin Martin an elite player? I still can’t tell. Yes, he’s scoring 28 points a game, and his PER is 23.6 right now (better than Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, and Michael Redd so far), but after watching him last night I’m still not sure. Maybe it’s the fact that he doesn’t ever consider passing. The fact that his shot is ugly probably doesn’t help either. But he typically takes less than 20 shots a game, and he gets to the line with remarkable consistency. He’s like a poor man’s Dwyane Wade. But he might also be a rich man’s Ricky Davis.
- Lots of love for Devin Brown last night, and rightly so. Brown’s quick trigger means that he’ll take a lot of ill-advised shots, but it also means that he’ll be able to take advantage of defenses that are preoccupied with stopping LeBron. If only he could teach that to Sasha.
- The Cavaliers offense has one immutable law: If the Cavs are taking jump shots, the offense looks terrible. That was certainly the case last night. But it has also been the case for 3 years, and teams are still slow to go into zone.
- The Cavs play in LA on Sunday night, then make the trip to Denver for another back-to-back game. That’s twice in this 6-game trip that the NBA has made the Cavaliers head to a different time zone on a back-to-back. The players are professionals, and they should be able to handle it, but there’s no need for the scheduling to put them (or any team) at a disadvantage twice in a 7-day, 5-game span.
Go Cavs.
Mike C.
Good thing K-Whistle didn’t get another gift call at the end. Theus can whine all he wants about not getting the call at the end but K-Whistle had been getting D-Whistle treatment the whole game.
Good win for the Cavs
Reggie Theus needs to quit this coaching nonsense and go back to his glory days–acting on Saturday morning tv shows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHnajecQPuY
The Cavs may have won it ugly to some people, but they won it and that’s what counts -especially after losing one they could have had on Wednesday to the Jazz. 2-2 so far on the west coast trip with 2 to go. Again not too bad no matter how they’re doing it. Can they get better? Sure. And I think they actually will barring any serious injuries to the guys we have left. I say this for a number of reasons which I’ll try to detail now.
First, the thing I really like so far this season is how most of the team, and especially LeBron, are dealing with the adversity of the injury and holdout situations that have beset the team. Z has stepped up with his rebounding. Drew has been more consistent overall game to game. Devin Brown is proving to be a real nice pick up and is playing better with each game on this trip. Boobie’s shot is just beautifiul and he appears to have a serious clutch mentality that enables him to make the big shot when its needed (I know he’s not got any rings yet, but he’s almost Robert Horry-like so far in the way he seems to like to step up and take -and hit- the big shot). Heck, even Damon Jones is earning his paycheck and doing what he was brought in to do -stetching the defense and hitting the three. With the exception of the season opener the attitude of this team has been very business like and professional. Coach Brown seems to be holding his team together under adverse circumstances, and the presence of the new assistant Kuester may be having a positive effect on the offensive side of things as they are scoring a lot more than I remember them doing last season. Whether the scoring is ugly or sloppy as some people have suggested, I don’t really know. It hasn’t seemed too unsightly to me, especially when they’re scoring more points that the other team and never letting themselves get behind by too much like they did a lot of times last season. It appears they transition better this season as compared to last, and they seem to be running and fast breaking more effectivley this season too.
Of course it all starts with Lebron. LeBron definitely looks like he is taking a much more serious approach to the games this season. I thought the quotes by Lebron in BW’s article the other day were particularly telling in a positive way into Lebron’s present mindset. Also the numbers he’s putting up since the opener speak for themselves. Most importantly is when he is choosing to assert himself during the course of the games. He seems to be maturing before our eyes -generally trying to get his teammates involved in the flow of the game and then taking control when he has to and not dissappearing for long stretches at a time like he regularly used to in seasons past. He seems to be following the old saw that when you are the road you gotta just keep it close, and then try to close it out at the end of the game to get the W. Unlike last year when the squad would routinely get down by 15-20 points or generally play down to their competition, this years Cavs so far are keeping the scores close, never letting the opposition get too far ahead of them. This season Lebron has been routinely stepping up to stop the bleeding when the other team has been threatening to go on an extended run. Again, this assessment applies to every game except the opener.
Perhaps that opening game was the wakeup call, or maybe working with Coach K and the US team again over the summer is paying dividends, because it sure seems that Lebron is developing a higher feel and basketball IQ for the game that goes beyond his sheer athleticism. He’s becoming a more well rounded player overall. His defensive effort and intensity is much, much better this season as his outside shot, and he’s picking and choosing when to take his three point shots rather than hoisting them up willy nilly like he did a lot last season. Overall his free throw percentage has been an ongoing problem, but I think his free throw shooting will even out also as the season goes along if he keeps working at it. If he keeps the attitude going he’s had since he dropped 45 on the Knicks and that he’s had the first four games of this road trip, I think the Cavs are going to prove a lot of the haters wrong again this season just like they have been doing the last couple of years.
On a related topic, I must say, I generally enjoy BW’s pre, in, and post game blogs. The one thing that frightened me though was when I read it this morning and saw his speculation that Larry Hughes might decide to come back now from his injury since Devin Brown had the strong game in Sacramento.
That observation just struck me as embodying what the whole Larry Hughes experience has been about for the Cleveland Cavaliers and their fans. Aside from Varajaeo’s holdout and the injuries, the one exception in my estimation to all the positive mojo I’ve written about up until now is indeed Larry Hughes.
It is my sincere hope that the coaching staff ORDERS Larry to take the next 3 months or so off until he is “completely” healed. I know he’s athletic and brings defensive ability to the table even if his offensive game isn’t going, and of course I’m on the outside just looking in so I’m not privy to the dynamics between Larry and the coaches and the other players, but there is just something that really bothers me about Larry’s attitude and the way he plays and its like the big elephant in the room that no one wants to talk about.
Really it comes across as just selfishness to me. I mean when he’s out there on the court so insistent at hoisting up his quota of shots -whether he’s making them or not- its just so aggravating. Couple this with the fact that he is so damn brittle that he’s always having to sit and miss games for one injury or another despite the fact he’s getting paid 12-13 million a year to suck it up and play hard, smart team ball, and its like us fans and season ticket holders are just getting ripped off. He also doesn’t seem like he’s a very smart or instinctive player either, making a lot of bonehead plays like inopportune turnovers, ticky tack fouls and of course the poorly timed jumpers that just destroy the flow of our offense. I think he severely adversely affects the chemistry of the team, and that we often win in spite of him, not because of him.
If I’m Coach Brown, I sit him until he’s “completely” healthy -which would probably be never given his track record, or dispense with the notion that he’s starter and bring him in with the second unit, despite his huge salary. The thing about putting Larry on the second unit is that he might actually do better in that situation offensively because he can become the focal point of the scoring in that situation. The problem is I just don’t think his ego will let him play on the second unit without causing major headaches in the locker room with a bad attitude and such.
Second unit or not, if I’m Ferry, I try to trade him for what I can get. Who knows, package him in a sign and trade with Varajaeo and some of our expiring contracts (Newble, Brown) for that other point guard and/or superstar we need, and if he gives management an attitude about being put in on the second unit, then just bench him completely and maybe buy him out. Its not like buyouts haven’t been done before with other NBA players. I may be wrong about it, and I would love to see Larry light it up for us on a regular basis, but I just think the squad might very well be better off without him on the roster. Again, in my mind he is definitely the elephant in the room that no one is talking about in terms of his play and his attitude and how it affects the team.
I guess we’ll see how everything plays out as the season progresses. That’s why they play the games after all. Otherwise to sum up my take on things so far:
.500 ball through 6 games. 1-1 at home. 2-2 on the road.
Could be worse. Could be better. But all things considered, not too bad overall given the injury and holdout circumstances and the toughness of the early schedule.
Lebron is definitely bringing it this season, which bodes well for the Cavs as the season progresses.
Need to bench, trade or buy out Larry Hughes as this will help the team perform and function better over the long haul from a chemistry and record standpoint.
Hopefully they can split the next two on the road and get back home and be ready to play against an improved Orlando team this Wednesday.
Go Cavs!
varajaeo brings energy thats is both lacking and badly needed. everyone feeds off his energy. got to have him so sign him for a year and lets get goin! who knows what tommorrow will bring let alone what a year form now will bring. play for this year or next year may be lebrons last!
I haven’t been able to follow the Cavs as closely as I would have liked thus far, so I apologize if you’ve already covered this ground.
An additional element of the Varejao holdout is that the money you spend on him is money you can’t spend on Gibson when DG becomes an unrestricted free agent (I think I have that right) at the end of the year. It’s still early, but Gibson looks like a player who can put up 15 points a game, and he’s been outrageously efficient as a shooter to this point in the season. He really can’t continue this level of shooting efficiency, but if he shoots 50% from the field and 40% from three-point range for the year, he’ll probably command at least Varejao money, and probably more. (He’ll only be 21 or 22 at season’s end.)
I’m stealing this from TrueHoop, but there’s a great Kevin Martin story over at the Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com/kings/story/480726.html, (yes, you have to register, so if you don’t want to, don’t bother). It talks about Martin being from Zainesville, and how his family still works for a living, and how the only thing they’ve ever taken from him are a couple of Nissans.
This doesn’t totally change my mind about his game, but it does mean I’ll be rooting for him to get better. A high-class guy from Ohio is worth cheering for.
Go Cavs. Don’t overlook the Clippers.
Mike
Brian, I was listening to 1100 AM on a drive for the pre-game and first half. When Joe Tait said that you look great covered in talc, I laughed a bit. Do you sit next to Joe Tait for all of the games? His rant about not having a half time stat sheet was nice too.
Kevin, pretty sure Gibson will be a restricted free agent next year (see here). But your larger point about Varejao stands…