Pregame
Starting lineup
Celtics: Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Kendrick Perkins
Cavs: Daniel Gibson, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Officials:
Bennett Salvatore, Derrick Collins, Mark Lindsay
–So the Celtics are pretty good, but what has been surprising his how well they have played on defense so far. A big part of it has been James Posey, who I expect to guard LeBron a bunch tonight. I also expect him to be physical.
–The Big Three are one thing, but if the Cavs have any chance they have to hold the others down. In the preseason game in Boston, the Cavs let Perkins get wide open dunks and Eddie House came off the bench and nailed a bunch of shots. Also, Rondo just went down the lane whenever he wanted. If that happens again tonight, it will be another blowout.
–The Cavs are running hot on offense right now, especially with the 3-point shot. Let’s see how engaged they get into running plays or whether they start settling. That will be key.
–Celtics will play small at times with Pierce or Brian Scalabrine or even Posey playing the 4. That means Ira Newble will get time tonight.
Halftime — Celtics 49, Cavs 46
–This game is going about how you’d expect, Cavs had a nice start but the Celtics defense has worn them down and broken their flow. The Cavs had seven assists on their first nine baskets and then just two the rest of the half. Boston forced them into contested jumpers by denying drives and pushing out the posts. They also only had three fastbreak points in the half because they messed up like four or five fastbreak chances, they need those easy points.
–Ray Allen is active and the Cavs are paying so much attention to Garnett and Pierce that he’s hurting them. Hence the danger of the Big 3. Bigger issue, Perkins keep getting open on the backside and he’s got nine points. Just better concentration is needed to deal with that. They have done an OK job keeping Rondo out of the lane.
–It appears the Cavs will need a big scoring half from LeBron to win this game. Boston plays good defense and he’s often just going to have to create in the halfcourt.
–Devin Brown’s technical was a little bizarre. He tried to help Ray Allen up and got shoved aside by Rondo and was hit with it because of his reaction. Not normal for a mild mannered guy like Devin.
–Cavs are in a bit of foul trouble, Drew Gooden has 3. Expect Kevin Garnett to force the issue early in the half.
Postgame — Cavs 109, Celtics 104, OT
Stars
LeBron James, 38 points, 13 assists
Drew Gooden, 24 points, 13 rebounds
Zydrunas Ilgauskas, 15 points, 14 rebounds
Ray Allen, 29 points, seven rebounds
–Z, Drew and LeBron: 77 points, 31 rebounds, 18 assists, seven blocks. Garnett, Allen, Pierce: 64 points, 18 rebounds, 15 assists, six blocks. I wrote about this two weeks ago, the production the Cavs are getting out of their frontcourt is off the charts. Who knows if it will last, they are all logging heavy minutes.
–The Cavs winning this game was pivotal and not just because it was the Celtics. This game was played at a slower pace and much of the time was a defense-based game. The Cavs have been winning by running recently. They got beat on the backside paying too much attention to the Big 3 at times, but overall they played excellent defense. Their rotations were very strong and Pierce and Garnett didn’t have much room to operate.
–Gooden’s focus tonight was remarkable, he was locked in for much of the game. Beyond hitting all those jumpers, this was the most noteworthy thing of the night. Drew was even doing some trash talking to Garnett and the Celtics bench.
–The key play in the game was LeBron missing the jumper at the end of regulation. Now, that may not be a great shot, but he was hitting his jumpers all night and he was talking trash with Pierce the entire second half and he wanted to bury one in his face. Remember these guys have a history. Anyway, missing that shot focused him and he immediately went to the basket to start overtime. It later earned him space to hit a big 3-pointer with 1:50 left that turned the tide. He had 11 points in overtime.
–Overall, I thought the Celtics played great defense on the Cavs, who didn’t have great spacing and ball movement tonight. Still, they had 24 assists on 38 baskets, which would’ve been tremendous last season. The offense, indeed, is maturing.
–Interesting that Allen, who had 29 points but needed 25 shots to get there while James had 38 points on 25 shots, missed those free throws late in regulation. I felt rookie ref Mark Lindsay blew that call because Allen dribbled the ball off his leg. As Rasheed Wallace would love to say in that spot…”Ball don’t lie.”
–Sasha Pavlovic is showing some proof that he’s turning the corner. Not just because his shot is falling now, but because he’s got legs after the third quarter. Daniel Gibson was just 3-of-11 tonight and the bench gave just eight points so Sasha’s 16 were needed.
–Between them Z and Drew now have 17 double-doubles on the season after both got them tonight.
Quotes:
LeBron: “We know how to win ballgames, no matter if we are shorthanded or not. No matter what the score is or how much time is on the clock.”
Gooden: “There was a lot of trash talking out there, but it is fun. I like that type of atmosphere.”
Doc Rivers: “Give Cleveland all the credit, they played hard the entire game. But we thought we had our chances before overtime.”
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Brian, first off, nice job with Chad Ford on the daily dish. I think you could have been, how to say it, more subjective during the interview, but you showed very nice restraint.
As for the game, I am dreading the though of Z and Drew getting into foul trouble tonight. Dwayne Jones on Kevin Garnett anybody? Yeesh.
what was up with the devin brown technical foul? He was helping rondo up, and rondo pushed him. Then brown pushed back…but shouldn’t it be a double tech?
Thanks for doing the in-game blogging this season Brian. It’s a joy to read.
I’m out of the country – but I just signed on and….
WE WON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GO CAVS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Nice game by the Cavs, the Easter Conference title still goes through Cleveland!
The Cavs should send the tape of Gooden’s game tonight to Varajao and ask him if he really deserves Gooden-type money. Gooden seems to be elevating to a higher caliber of player this year, could be an all star.
I really, really love LJ, but what was that clunker he put up to end the 4th quarter?
Wow! What a game! To see the Cavs “Rise UP” and beat the self anointed Top Team in the East was awesome.
If they could get Gooden to play this motivated everynight, he’d be unstopable. Kidding Me?
Oh, one more thing. Andy Who?
Go Cavs.
Great win, but we need a backup big in a hurry!!!! Get PJ Brown, Dale Davis, or a reasonable sign and trade for Shannon & Ira. LeBron can’t keep this kind of energy for 82 games…get him help.
We are going to need depth in the middle of the season, because the starters are playing way too much. Great win, but I would have preferred Lebron to drive at the end.
Wow, I had the game on pause so I was about 45 minutes behind and just finished watching. What a game! Gotta love the intensity by both teams. Now if we can beat them in Boston coming up in a week or so that would be shweeeeeeet!
And I agree, I have no idea why Lebron chucked up that 3 at the end of regulation. You know he could have drove to the hoop with a few seconds left and got a foul. And go figure, the first play of OT he drives to the hoop and scores….why didn’t he do that at the end of regulations ?!?!??!?!?!??!
Oh, and one other thing…. I’m getting sick of the national media with some of their headlines. ESPN front page of the NBA site says “One beats three” with a pic of Lebron dunking. Lebron didn’t beat them by himself…we had 4 players in double figures and Gooden had another double-double. Maybe they should start giving more credit to our threesome of Lebron, Gooden, and Z…. probably out playing Bostons big 3 right now!!!
Completely agree with this JoeHoops. Celtics Big 3: 64 pts, 18 rebs, 15 assists. Cavs Big(ger?) 3: 77, 31, 18. Big win early on, though I think the game in Boston will be a better gauge of where we’re at right now. Cavs shoot 5-20 from 3, get 8 points from the bench and only 8 from Boobie, and yet they win. Listening to the radio broadcast from here at school it sounded like they were in control most of the way, and when they started to fall behind they quickly evened it up. Even Sasha hit a clutch shot. Go ahead, ESPN, compare the C’s to the 96 Bulls now. The Magic are a better team, and there is NOT a favorite to come out of the East at this point, it could be any one of the Magic, Celts, Cavs or Pistons (if they get their act together. Don’t sleep on the Bulls yet.
Cavs are close to being a top tier team, but they need a couple extra pieces, nothing all that major though. The truth is that they don’t need another star, they need solid role players and maybe 1 or 2 more guys to come in off the bench. I’m not even sure they need a point guard at this point, it seems to me that that is a problem that has sort of vanished over time, and now the focus is on the front line/bench as a whole. Chris Webber, PJ Brown or any of those other guys would make the Cavs a far more complete and far more dangerous team at this point, as completely ridiculous as that sounds. Anyone agree? Disagree? Brian?
I agree with T.M. that our offense is really clicking and we may not even need a true PG. I was thinking that this may be at least partially due to AV’s exit. Really his only role on offense was garbage man and he messed up the spacing on the floor. Giving his minutes to Drew and Devin Brown (when we go small) might have a lot to do with our recent success. Thoughts?
Yet another back to back tomorrow where the other team had the night off!!!!!! How is this fair? Does anyone know if these actually equal out in the end?
A tremendous win! Congratulations to Brown and the players.
The only poor performance was the time they were losing their 12 point early lead and Boston went ahead.
It seems to me that when the Cavs have a great run, they seem to try to go fancy with their passes and shot attempts. They tend to want to “showboat”. I don’t have a problem with that, if they would be successful……..but…….they usually fall flat on their faces, which they did again tonight. Thank goodness they settled down and came back to win a tough game against a tough opponet.
I could swear I can remember articles stating restricted free agency was changing somehow and that all the league was watching Ferry this summer because it’s a new era, he’s sailing uncharted waters, setting the bar on coming summers, etc, etc.
Now I’m reading that the free agency rules have been in place for years and nothing has changed. I’m confused.
How did that $60 million figure first get promulgated? Did Fegan go around to all the league GMs and say he was making that offer on the eve of training camp, or was it Ferry? Who would be motivated to do that?
Speaking of Ferry, did he okay that third-to-last paragraph? It comes dangerously close to criticizing his work.
Having Snow at point is pretty much like having not having one anyways so they’re used to that by now. It was bad enough watching him go 0-7 on AI all the time, but that was like 10 years ago! We should try for Sam Cassell – oh wait, Boston is probably gunning for him, and I heard tell that Sir Charles is coming out of retirement to play for Boston cause he always wanted to anyways, and he hates Cleveland and well, like he says, they’re just not a good team. He can finally get that ring – is my memory wrong? Anyways Dan Fegan is his agent…
I believe the Big Three will be healthy all year like I believe the Cavs will be undefeated. Uh, wait.
I do like the trash-talking going on tonight though – you wanna make a statement you go after the biggest dog in the yard and the Celts are showing respect by getting fired up against us. Respect is hard to come by these days with all the Celtic and Bulls hype this year(how’s that workin out??) and everyone-but-LBJ is gonna be MVP talk these schlugs throw in your face all the time. And it’s always nice to see the Cavs can do it better.
It’s nice they want a rivalry, but seriously, how old will these guys be when Lebron turns 25? The only sure thing is that Paul Pierce will still be pouting and crying all night, every night. At least they know who rules the East, I guess.
Larry,
While it is certainly reasonable to assume that the Cavs (read Ferry) were putting out that $60 million figure, it is also quite plausible that an agent known for his hard-line negotiating would be putting out those feelers, too. We’re a couple weeks removed from hearing how a certain baseball player was going to command a $350 contract, for instance, and that didn’t come from management.
Likewise, Fegan was in negotiations with several of those other NBA teams when AV hit the free agent market in July, so his asking price for his client would have been fairly well established and from a variety of sources.
I agree, both sides work the media, but I think it’s naive to think that thus far only one side has been doing the spinning.
I love Varejao, and I want him back on this team. I’ve been a supporter of his when a lot more outspoken members of this board were dismissive of his abilities. I believe he should get every dime he can, and he’ll probably end up getting more than Gooden when it’s all said and done. (Doesn’t that speak well of Ferry in that negotiation, by the way?)
The timing of Varejao’s media conversation with Chad Forde, however, is curious. I think it smacks of desperation from the Varejao camp.
I am looking forward to Alan T’s remarks on the game. He hasn’t commented yet, but I just know he is going to find several things wrong with how we won that game. Can you say “Glass Half Empty”?
Hey Kevin Andress, I will personally become Alan T’s butler if AV signs a contract worth more than Goodens. AV is a good player, but he’s not even a starter….and he’s most know for taking flops (led the league I believe). I think he and his agent SERIOUSLY over-estimated his worth.
Kevin:
I’m not sure how that comment appeared here as I made it in a previous post.
I don’t know how much Varejao’s worth or if he’s asking for too much. Big men develop slow and I don’t know how much better he’ll get, but I doubt he’s been asking for $10 million in the last three or four months. Fegan has no motivation to have that number out there, unlike Ferry.
Ferry is developing a poor track record, but mostly I get irritated at the media coverage. They put Ferry’s efforts in the best light possible, then get pissy when the other side chooses to speak to another media outlet.
How much longer can Lebron muster these Herculean efforts? Jesus, it’s only November. Could we please make a deal? Everyone needs to stop sucking Boatshoes’ popsicle because he’s “not giving in”. Big deal. All the negotiating toughness in the world isn’t going to change the fact that we don’t have enough viable big bodies on the squad. Z’s metatarsals are going to self-immolate if his courttime stays this high. Where’s the back-up plan? Where’s the big trade to take some of the pressure off? Where’s our Luis Scola? Why isn’t PJ Brown on the squad?
JoeHoops, you’re Rageaholic Rick without the rage. Why do you even care what I may or may not say?
Bottom line is they beat a very good team, but they keep squeaking wins (and losses) with James being forced to play every single game like he’s the reincarnation of Wilt in Hershey, Pennsylvania in 1962. Combined with the fact that Gooden’s entire career consists of being good one game and absolutely horrible the next, Ilgauskas’ February human growth hormone and anti-aging shipments are being permanently delayed by the FDA, and there are still *67* regular season games remaining before the playoffs even start, what are this team’s realistic prospects?
I mean, there are still six to seven more months remaining this season alone. Are the Cavs a team that was built for the playoffs? Six months from now, will Kevin Garnett give a damn that Ray Allen amazing missed two free throws back in November? Does Ilgauskas have to get shot in the groin like that Redskins guy before Ferry does something?
What were the Cavs realistic prospects last season at this point in the year? Yeah, this roster is horrible, but who knows what will happen with this team come playoff time. With LeBron, anything can happen. Literally anything. No reason to get too up or too down about this team right now.
Incredible win, and a huge confidence-builder for the Cavs. Now let’s see if they can get the Celtics on the road. And I’ll fill you in on a little secret: Nobody can stop LeBron. That means we always have a chance to win any game. Furthermore, a second banana will emerge. People forget that Pippen was widely regarded as horrible until the Bulls won their second championship. That “one-man team” won six championships.
JoeHoops, in Tucker’s case, it’s not the “glass is half empty,” it’s “the glass has broken and spilled all over Tucker’s crotch.” The Cavs win against a quality Celtic’s team, and Tucker has a ready-made reply, “It’s still a long season, who cares.” Had the Cavs lost, the ready-made reply would have been, “The cavs can’t contend with a quality basketball team.” Once again, I feel sorry for Tucker’s psychiatrist. As for the readers of this blog, we can only take solace in the fact that with each Cavs’ win, the inevitable fate of Tucker’s friend lapsing into a coma draws closer.
the Cavs were verrrry fortunate to win this game. The Celts had Ray Allen — a career 89% FT shooter at the line — with 17 seconds left in a tie game. When he missed both, that was it.
Yo Alan T, whats up my man. I think what it all boils down to is I am an optimist and you are a pessimist. To me its much more fun to watch and follow a team while being optimistic about them. I think you are more the type that looks past what good they do, and focus’s on the bad stuff they do. Your comments on this blog over the last months pretty much prove that.
I say “enjoy the ride”.
Fegan does have motivation to let out the $60 million number – he’s saying both that Memphis (or some other team) set the bar that high, and that that’s the number that the Cavs need to work up to, that the Cavs offer is ridiculous, that his client only wants what’s fair. Varejao may have to fire Fegan to get another contract in the NBA at all.
Joe Hoops,
My comment was not a judgment about Varejao’s worth. I personally like the guy, but you don’t have to like him. That said, reports are that the Cavs have offered 6 years, $52-million guaranteed for Varejao, and both the total and the annual average are more than Gooden’s similar totals, I believe. If that truly is the Cavs offer (or the incentive-laden $10 mil annual contract for six years), it’s a lock certainty that he will make more annually than Gooden and for a longer time.
Everyone’s suddenly talking about an Andre Miller for Varejao deal. Can this possibly happen? Personally, I say Ferry can make up for a lot of sins if he can pull that off…..
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