Cavs at Bobcats
Posted December 8th, 2007 by bwindhorst
Pregame
Starting linueps
Cavs: Daniel Gibson, Shannon Brown, Sasha Pavlovic, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Bobcats: Raymond Felton, Jason Richardson, Gerald Wallace, Primoz Brezec, Emeka Okafor
Officials
Jim Clark, Courtney Kirkland, Eric Lewis
–Larry Hughes will be back tonight after missing 11 games with a deep bone bruise in his leg. And he’s promised big things now that he’s no longer going to be playing point guard. More on that story in tomorrow’s paper/online edition.
–Anderson Varejao is not with the team, he’s in Canada getting his visa. LeBron James is also out again.
–This has the makings of a classic, folks. Bobcats and their seven-game losing streak vs. the Cavs and their five-game skid. Boy, and when you look at the starting lineups you have to give the edge to Charlotte.
–The Bobcats average just 91 points a game, they are not good foul shooters, and they are not a good rebounders. Considering the Cavs can’t score right now, this would seem to be an opponent they’d have a chance against, we’ll see.
–The Cavs had their first full-scale practice in two weeks on Friday, we’ll see if Mike Brown was able to fix the offense that ignores Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
–Gerald Wallace is, in my opinion, one of the most underrated players in the league. He’s a good defender who gets steals and bodies up guys like LeBron well. He also can get to the hoop, even though he settles for the jumper, which he’s not good at, too often.
–By the way, nobody here in Charlotte can figure out what the Bobcats got out of giving Anderson Varejao that offer sheet, either.
Halftime — Cavs 51, Bobcats 51
–Cavs have survived the Bobcats shooting 54 percent — mostly from drives and easy post scoring — and giving up 15 points off 11 turnovers. If they clean up either of these areas, they have an excellent chance in the second half.
–Larry Hughes has shown excellent energy and good legs on his way to 12 points. He’s playing off the ball and attacking when he can. Look, it’s not All-Star production but it is better than taking spot-up jumpers…so far.
–Cavs found some success on offense late in the half running a side pick-and-roll with Daniel Gibson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas. The Bobcats are really camping down on Z, using double teams and fronting him. Still, getting him involved makes a major difference. He’s 3-of-3 for seven points.
–Once again, the Cavs are not rebounding all that well. I can understand without LeBron that it changes offensive rebound chances, but the Bobcats have eight second-chance points.
–If you missed the highlight of Shannon Brown’s dunk with a minute left in the half, find it somewhere.
–The Bobcats are about the fifth team that I’ve seen that uses that Kanye West Stronger song during their intros. That includes the Cavs. C’mon NBA, how about some original thinking. In general, NBA intros have become very, very lame and that includes the Q, where this year’s version is below their previous standard. Here’s what happens in every arena: There’s a bunch of highlights where the crowd just watches and doesn’t cheer spliced in with players in boring setup shots clowning around or looking mean, then there’s some smoke or fireworks and they announce the names with piped in crowd noise. Not that I could do it better, I’m just saying all of them have gotten boring.
Postgame — Bobcats 96, Cavs 93
Stars
Gerald Wallace, 22 points, seven rebounds, four steals, five blocks
Raymond Felton, 15 points, 11-of-12 at the line in the fourth
Larry Hughes, 22 points
Ira Newble, 14 points, five rebounds
–LeBron was the first guy out of the locker room going to the bus, within minutes after the game ended and I don’t blame him. Not having him was not an excuse tonight. Personnel was not an excuse tonight. The Cavs just plain kicked it away.
–Daniel Gibson missing a free throw with 6.6 seconds left that could’ve tied it obviously was big. You’d like the team’s best free-throw shooter to make clutch shots. But that did not decide the game, the Cavs turning the ball over 27 times including three straight times inside two minutes decided it. Sometimes it was Wallace or Jason Richardson making a play, but so many of them were unforced or the product of a terrible decision.
–I know he made some offensive plays, but I just don’t agree with having Shannon Brown on the floor in the stretch run. He just can’t take care of the ball and tonight, neither could Gibson. You have to have a safer ballhandler in there, a guy like Eric Snow or even Damon Jones. Those two combined to play 22 minutes with no turnovers, by the way.
–Also, I don’t understand why Mike Brown took Newble, Devin Brown and Snow off the court in the fourth. They were playing great defense. Things turned around three minutes into the second half when he pulled Sasha Pavlovic for Snow, who changed the defensive tone. The Cavs got the lead back.
–The Bobcats were the second worst free-throw shooting team in the league and they go 14-of-14 in the final minute. So I guess they deserved it, but they turned the ball over 12 times in the second half, shot 31 percent in the second half, and made some really mindless foul mistakes down the stretch. Both of these teams looked very bad in my opinion.
–Drew Gooden and Zydrunas Ilgauskas combined for 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting. They have cooled off and not having LeBron is really hurting them. The open shots just aren’t there.
–Hughes was just 6-of-17 shooting and took some bad jumpers, but he attacked the basket and got to the foul line nine times. He made mistakes, but this was his best game of the season and he hasn’t played in three and a half weeks. There’s something to be said for that. He will be playing the off-guard from now on, we’ll see if this becomes normal.
–Wallace had six turnovers and made a stupid foul on Gibson with six seconds left, but otherwise he had a great game. His block of Z with 1:54 left when the Cavs were ahead by a point was a massive play. He is an underrated player, folks, he’s really good.
Quotes:
Sam Vincent: “When you lose seven in a row, sometimes you make decisions that put you in a position to lose. I thought we did a great job of fighting through that and still coming out with a win.”…Translation: We didn’t really deserve to win but we did.
Raymond Felton: “It was a big win for us.”…I guess when you’ve lost seven straight, any win is big.
Mike Brown: “The guys were a little nervous and skittish, but I’ve got Daniel Gibson, who is a second-year guy and Shannon Brown, who is a second-year guy on the floor.”…Excellent point, coach. So why were they both on the floor at the end?
December 8th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
it do not matter what position larry plays, he just sucks!!!!!. he could play those word games if he want, he cannot shoot as a pg and he cannot shoot as a sg, by the way i would still try to pick up earl boykin because he is better then any guard that we have right now, at the point that is. I still think that they will not make any significant move until they are able to lose some of the dead wgt contract that they have. we do not have anyone that another team want. so we are just need to be patient and watch the team that danny boy(hotdog head) dealt to us. enjoy the game tonight ladies, it ought to be fun, “funny” that is. ha, ha, ha, ha,!!!!!
December 8th, 2007 at 8:37 pm
Charlotte did it as a favor to Fegan, and everybody knows it. Why this the NBA allows this to go on without any repercussions is beyond me.
BTW Brian, do you think other NBA front offices believe Charlotte let Fegan off the hook with that? You had written that many executives were watching the holdout closely because of its future effects on holdouts, and it would seem they would have an opinion on Charlotte’s perplexing signing of Varejao
December 8th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
Charlotte won’t get in trouble because they didn’t do anything wrong. They signed a restricted free agent for as much money as they could. And the Cavs matched it. In the free agency system we use, it is not against the rules. Maybe they did it as a favor, but that is pretty irrelevant. they are allowed to offer a free agent a contract if they want to.
And why people keep clamoring for Earl Boykins makes no sense to me. He is a ball hog. He is a bad defender. He is short. Sure he can shoot, but big deal. He doesn’t fit into our system. Just because it would work in a video game doesnt mean it works in real like;you cant just sign a bunch of players with “talent” and throw them all together. Ask the Knicks how that is working out for them.
December 8th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
I liked the intro the Cavs had last year when they all get out of their cars. I’ll bet anything the Cavaliers’ scoreboard video guy ran out of ideas for the video and asked the players what they wanted to do.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:02 pm
This is pathetic. Even a LeBron-less Cavs should beat the Bobcats. LeBron better get back soon or else the Cavs could fall too far behind to get a decend playoff seed.
And why the heck was Shannon getting so much playing time? I absolutely hate his game. He turns over the ball way too much and he cannot hit the outside shot. Where was Sasha the second half? Come on Mike Brown.
December 8th, 2007 at 11:19 pm
27 turnovers … yuck.
A game like this shows you what a band-aid LeBron can be. If LeBron is healthy, the Cavs probably overcome 27 turnovers and still win. But it still wouldn’t have covered up the fact that the Cavs’ offensive execution in the fourth quarter was miserable, and if you play like that against a team that’s not the Charlotte Bobcats, you’ll get blown out of the arena.
Why does this team seem to regress so easily, particularly when it comes to offense? What is Mike Brown teaching/not teaching these guys?
December 8th, 2007 at 11:59 pm
Tucker, how much of a moron are you? I’m cutting and pasting because that’s one of the functions of word processing on a computer. Why the hell do you cut and paste links or stories from that dumbass Simmons or your hero Marbury? Why do you litter this blog with inane comments about Z not putting up enough assists? Why do you simply ridicule the cavs all season until they get to the finals when your imaginary friend has a hallucinatory coma? Please tell me you are paying your psychiatrist double, because he deserves it.
December 9th, 2007 at 12:36 am
Uh…whoever it is who thinks it’s been really, really clever, in a 12-year-old kind of way, to be posting with a screen name of TuckTuckSuckSucks, why are you posting your Beno cut and paste response here?
By the way, I like Jeff McInnis’ new flowing hairdo. Very stylish. And I noticed LeBron has a new weird two-lined part carved into the right side of his head. What’s that all about?
December 9th, 2007 at 3:16 am
Dear Brian Windhorst, (if you answer blogs)
You mention how yourself does not understand why brown and gibson are on the floor with the last 3 minutes the game aswhile as Mike Brown questioned it.
Simply, maybe gm Ferry is insisting it. Are we playing brown and gibson more for trade value.
Also, I think everyone on our team is tradeable for a PG. That includes Gibson. We have depth everywhere. SG ( Gibson, Hughes, Pavlovic, Brown, Damon) F (Lebron, Gooden, Varajeo, Marshall)
YOUR THOUGHTS BRIAN!!!
December 9th, 2007 at 3:17 am
Dear Brian Windhorst,
(if you answer blogs)
You mention how yourself does not understand why brown and gibson are on the floor with the last 3 minutes the game aswhile as Mike Brown questioned it.
Simply, maybe gm Ferry is insisting it. Are we playing brown and gibson more for trade value.
Also, I think everyone on our team is tradeable for a PG. That includes Gibson. We have depth everywhere. SG ( Gibson, Hughes, Pavlovic, Brown, Damon) F (Lebron, Gooden, Varajeo, Marshall)
YOUR THOUGHTS BRIAN AND OTHERS!
-Craig Waikem
December 9th, 2007 at 5:27 am
I like all the point guard debates lately. I’m no Early Boykins fan, but has anyone noticed his stats from last year (14 ppg, 4.5 assists) are very similar to Andre Miller’s from this year (15 ppg, 5.5 assists)?
Granted, Miller would be averaging a lot more assists playing alongside Lebron than he is right now in Philly. But then again, so would Earl Boykins. So would I, for that matter.
So is it really worth trading Drew Gooden and/or Daniel Gibson and/or a 1st round DP and/or whatever the hell else for 1 extra point per game and 1 extra assist per game, (rather than signing Boykins)?
Food for thought.
By the way, Alan, you classified Rajon Rondo as a “real” point guard while mocking Beno Udrih. I’d like to point out that Rondo is averaging only about 1 more assist per game (5.2) than Udrih (3.9).
When you consider that Rondo can’t pass the ball to a teammate without hitting an All-Star, it makes his assist total even less impressive. You would think a guy running the floor with the likes of Garnett, Allen, and Pierce would be racking up 10 assists a night.
PS: Put me down for “she-male” in the Mrs. Shapiro debate. There’s something very Crying Game going on there.
December 9th, 2007 at 8:55 am
According to a recent article by our blog host, Ferry “clearly stated” he wasn’t dictating lineups or playing time.
A weird comment from the front office, and I’m not sure why it was included in the article without some kind of context.
I doubt Brown wants to play Shannon Brown this much and it has me pondering the relationship between Ferry and Brown. Brown has often been depicted as a developing coach, and I sometimes wonder where that comes from.
I also didn’t like how Ferry showed up Brown in the playoffs last year, coming down from the stands to allegedly stop Brown from complaining about bad calls–the ‘no excuses’ thing. Considering Brown’s personality, it was a silly grandstanding move.
Brown has proven himself in the regular season and playoffs, and he should handle whatever happens on the court, whether it’s playing time or blasting officials.
December 9th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Yo Alan, don’t worry about the Cavs haircuts. You should focus on getting your hair back. Try Propesha!
Anyways, breaking news from Cleveland…. Taco Bell has decided to lower the “Free Chalupa” mark to 90 points. They don’t think the Cavs will ever get to 100 again.
December 9th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Terry Pluto’s Hair, the Celtics are filled with passers, they’re an actual team and play team basketball. Rondo IS a true point guard. Stats don’t exist in a vacuum, he doesn’t need to get 10 assists a game for them to be successful. He’s on the perfect team for him. Beno Cook isn’t a point guard, Ferry couldn’t sign him after he pissed off the guy’s agent in the Pavlovic fiasco, anyway. Besides, if stats existed in a vacuum, then both and Shannon Brown would already be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame.
If the Cavs really want a point guard who is good, plays both inside and outside, and want to excite all the lilly-white folks who buy the tickets, then maybe they should try to exhume this guy’s body, inject him with Bonds-like age-reducers and teach Dwayne Jones how to pass back out to him, because the passes aren’t going to come from Ilgauskas. Without James now running the point, it’s obscene to watch.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYoCe1z_YTQ&eurl=http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/nba_experts/post/YouTube-of-the-day-Mark-Price-mix?urn=nba,56730&cp=2
December 9th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
Boykins would be good as a spark plug off the bench when the Cavs stop being agressive offensively. Other than that, he is a completely useless player. He can’t guard anyone. It’s bad enough watching teams abuse Gibson, but in a half court set, Boykins would be an absolute disaster for our team, since we get picked apart when our bigs try to help on defense. THAT’S why Andre Miller is an infinitely better player than Boykins, not because of a point or assist here or there, and that’s why the Cavs aren’t remotely interested in signing him. There is no roster spot available, anyway.
By the way, I think the idea that Mike Brown is simply “showcasing” Shannon Brown for a trade is wrong. The Cavs are stagnant on offense without Lebron, and for his faults, Shannon is one player who is always aggressive on offense, and he can create his own shot and get to the rim almost at will - not a single player on the team with Lebron out can do this consistently. Mike Brown willing to accept the turnovers and mistake Shannon makes in hopes he makes plays with Z and Drew in a funk. It hasn’t worked, but I think it was worth a shot.
What I can’t understand is why, with all of the rebounding problems the Cavs have had duing this stretch, Mike Brown continues to have Drew and Z off the floor at the same time. It is no wonder to me that we have been killed on the boards with Dwayne Jones at center and Ira Newble at the 4.
December 9th, 2007 at 4:08 pm
Has anyone else noticed that, beginning with the playoffs last season and ever since, Sasha cannot hit the broad side of a barn? We missed his 3-for-16 shooting nights? How so? This will be yet another of Ferry’s overrated signings simply to appease LeBron.
December 9th, 2007 at 5:18 pm
Sasha needs to drive to the hoop more. He’s good at that. And he dunks like a mutha.
I’m really liking Shannon Browns play so far. I bet even the might Alan T. stood up and cheered when Brown threw that dunk down in the Bobcats face. The guy has potential.
December 9th, 2007 at 5:19 pm
Oh, come on, Chuck, get real. The guy had been blindfolded, Super-Glued, chained and bolted to a plastic chair, and suddenly Mike Brown orders Shannon Brown to get off his ass and play 36 minutes against the Nets? That’s not Brown’s style. I smell Ferry’s cologne all over this one. Brut, I believe.
December 9th, 2007 at 6:25 pm
JoeHoops, Shannon Brown has potential? Potential for what, being a poor man’s right-handed Harold Miner? He’s not going to be getting minutes in front of Hughes, he’s not going to be getting minutes in front of Gibson, he’s not going to be on the Cavaliers roster next year. All he’s doing is preparing a short YouTube highlight reel for his grandkids, because nobody else is going to want to see it. Maybe after the season is over, he’ll enter a beauty pageant and compete against Donyell Marshall and Mark Shapiro’s husband. I mean wife.
December 9th, 2007 at 6:26 pm
Like that Brut cologne do ya now, comaguy?
I see what your story is now - harp, harp, harp against a guy as long and as much as possible. Scream out loud to anyone who can hear and will pay attention that you hate this Ferry. Yet, all the while, harboring a secret mancrush on him that you don’t want anyone to know about. Haha, you can come out of the closet now comaguy. Hopefully you can get close enough to him one day to smell him, run home and scream “I am a beast” in the dark from your bathroom as you’re concentrating on the Ferry scent. Good luck with that chief!
December 9th, 2007 at 7:33 pm
HEY A.T. it was really awesome to watch the mark price video, the only thing that was wrong with price, was that it was other great pt guards playing during his era, other then that he was awesome, had to be one of the top ten.
December 9th, 2007 at 7:36 pm
HEY JOEHOOPS, that was wicked.
December 9th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
I like what I see from Brown and Gibson. It is time for
no offense Snow to go. He is a liability. And Dwayne Jones
and WIld Thing should play in front of Iluseless. How many
times did Wallace and Okafur beat him yesterday. He is pain
fully slow. Hooray the Browns beat the Jets. Order your Super Bowl tickets.
December 9th, 2007 at 10:40 pm
larry d., speaking of that grandstanding:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yxshaal1taw
December 10th, 2007 at 8:22 am
Thanks, alan t. I heard he straightened out Varejao’s mother in a similar way.
December 10th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Yo Alan T, you are just jealous of Shannons corn rows and braids. Its not his fault your comb-over mullet prevents you from rockin’ the corn rows!!!
December 10th, 2007 at 1:10 pm
Tank hevvens I am bakkk. Deees teeemmates of mein, dey are reeeely, reeeely badd. Butt don’t werry. Flop Man es here! I vill mezermize de udder teeems wif my wilde ting hair, den “fall down go boo-boo” when dey tries to score on meee. Es my seeecret plan! Will de stinkypoo Lerry Whose? passs mee de ball, or shud I stepped on hiz toe and make him be ingered for two munths? He es so badd.
December 10th, 2007 at 1:57 pm
Maybe if we dangle a #1 pick, Shannon Brown, and Ira Newble for Andre Miller, they’ll throw in the ever-useless Kyle Korver (at least he can shoot?) and we can dump Larry Hughes back on them?
I know it’s mostly crap for crap, but at least we’d get an all-star PG out of the deal. God, I’m desperate.
December 10th, 2007 at 9:41 pm
I have never thought having this name is a matter of being clever, no, that would have been pointing out the neurologic statistics of people in a coma at any given time and pointing out how preposterously absurd it was that your “friend” simply went comatose exactly when the cavs made the finals (you’ll remember this brought about your machismo-inspired threat/rant, that still always makes me laugh). Rather, this name is simply an homage to the hatred you inspire in me, for being so utterly annoying and irritating that there are legions of posters who can’t stand you. By the way, besides criticizing Ferry, BW, and everyone not named LeBron associated with the Cavs, what do you do? Your inability to comprehend very simple concepts leads me to believe you can’t be anything more than some office clerk 40 years into your career.
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