Cavs 132, Grizzlies 125, OT
–Can’t believe the Grizzlies decided to let Mike Miller basically play LeBron James alone on a island for much of the night. Sometimes they double teamed but most of the time they left those two alone. Thus, LeBron puts in 51. You won’t see that again for awhile unless it’s Bruce Bowen. Miller was just disheartened by the end and the late doubles Memphis did bring only meant fouls and easy passes to open teammates. Meanwhile Marc Iavaroni says: “I thought our defense improved.”
–LeBron had 28 shots tonight to get 51 points. That is just sick. I went over the case for why LeBron is having a career year in the paper yesterday. There’s some crazy stuff in there. Anyway, the guy is averaging 30 points a game and he’s yet to have a 30-shot game. Kobe took 44 shots last night. Just think about that for a second.
–Now consider this: In the fourth quarter the Cavs had total 10 baskets and four free throws. James had six of the baskets, three assists and three free throws. In overtime, the Cavs had four baskets, LeBron had two of them and one assist. Also, don’t forget the steal he made with 39 seconds left in regulation with the game tied. I don’t know if he can win the Most Valuable Player Award but I am going to keep pointing stuff like this out.
–Cavs have 12 fourth quarter come-from-behind wins. Grizzlies are 1-9 in games decided by five points or less. It can be summed up on one play: one second on the shot clock with the ball under the basket and LeBron gets a layup late in the fourth quarter.
–The bench had 45 points on 15-of-28 shooting. LeBron sets most of them up, indeed, but Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, Devin Brown and Damon Jones are combining to play high-quality ball. Over the last 10 games they are averaging almost 35 points a game.
–Funny moment in the third quarter. Zydrunas Ilgauskas got fouled and made the shot, which the officials waved off but still gave Z two shots. Which didn’t make sense. Mike Brown calls LeBron over and LeBron tells him: “They say he doesn’t get the basket because he traveled but they are still giving him the two shots. I’ve never heard that rule before in my life, but we’re going to roll with it, coach.”
–This was not the type of game the Cavs like, giving up 53 percent shooting and 29 fastbreak points and 15 3-pointers. It was played at the Grizzlies pace.
–In addition, I felt there was some really bad execution in the late fourth quarter. First off, ahead by 3, how you do you let Juan Carlos Navarro get any separation. Mike Brown doesn’t believe in fouling in that spot, but I say if there’s a pick coming to free him, tackle him. Second, with Miller just staring at him and 10 seconds left LeBron waits too long and is forced to take a crazy 3. He’s still got to work on that one.
Tonight’s recap:
Pregame
Starting lineups
Cavs: Larry Hughes, Sasha Pavlovic, LeBron James, Drew Gooden, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Grizz: Mike Conley, Mike Miller, Rudy Gay, Pau Gasol, Darko Millcic
–The Grizzlies are one of the worst defensive teams in the NBA, giving up 105 points a game and 47 percent shooting. The Cavs haven’t broken 100 points without the help of overtime in 13 games. We’ll see which streak prevails.
–Grizz PGs Conley and Kyle Lowry are both weak shooters, but they get into the lane very well. Could be a problem for Damon Jones or Daniel Gibson tonight. By the way, some here in Memphis say they have their worst shooting guards in the league. Ha, we’ll see about that.
–Rudy Gay and Mike Miller both have issues handling the ball and the Cavs have been pretty active in stripping of late. We’ll see if that becomes a factor.
–LeBron has had some really big games here in the past. It is a great building but usually not a tough place to play for the visiting team. Last year he had one of those games where he got hot from the outside and scored like 20 points in seven minutes.
Halftime — Cavs 56, Grizzlies 53
–Cavs have outplayed the Grizzlies for the most part, killing them on the boards but Memphis has stayed in the game with 3-pointers. They are 7-of-10 on them, which is why they are shooting 55 percent overall. Perhaps Mike Brown will instruct his players to stay attached to Juan Carlos Navarro in the second half?
–Anderson Varejao hit a few jumpers in the first half. The release and rotation are ugly but he’s been hitting them consistently since coming to the team. A development in his game. Bench is playing very well again, Boobie has 10 and Devin Brown has made some nice plays.
–I believe LeBron can get to the basket on the Grizzlies any time they don’t bring the double team, especially when they have Gasol and Milicic on the back line. Let’s see if he goes to that in the second half. He hit some 3s early, which might cause him to get into a bad habit.
–Drew Gooden has nine points and nine rebounds. Jerry West is gone, but he’s still trying to prove him point I guess.
Postgame
Stars
LeBron, 51 points, eight rebounds, nine assists, three steals
Daniel Gibson, 18 points
Rudy Gay, 30 points, nine rebounds
Juan Carlos Navarro, 26 points
Michael Conley, 20 points
Quotes
LeBron: “They weren’t as aggressive as I thought they’d be. If that happens and I get the opportunity to play one-on-one there may be a few more games like this.”
Mike Brown: “When LeBron gets in a rhythm he makes great decisions for us.”
Marc Iavaroni: “I think LeBron’s got more passing ability than Magic because he can put it on a dime with zip.”
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Note to self: Do not hire Mark Price as my shooting coach. Cavaliers Live had Mark Price on and they talked about how he worked with Larry on shooting during the off-season. Have we ever seen Larry shoot as bad as he has this year?
PS – why do they call them the Memphis “Grizzlies”? Are there Grizzlie Bears in Tennessee?
Does LA have lakes? Does Utah have Jazz? Does New Orleans have Hornets? Nope. All these teams have moved from the cities they were founded in, including the Griz (Vancouver), and kept the mascot. Now if you want to talk about teams that have mascots that don’t have an apparent link with the city, start with Toronto and Washington.
Does Cleveland have Cavaliers?
This is a strange pattern we’ve been seeing. The Cavs start off red hot for like 3 minutes and then go flat cold or give up points to be trailing by the end of the quarter. It’s not a bench thing for sure. It always happens coming out of that first early time out.
More and more I think Mike Brown is not as good as his colleagues at making in game adjustments. That would explain the third quarter too.
Yes, Cleveland has Cavaliers. I just wonder how long Detroit will have Pistons.
–dog
1) Didn’t we have a chance to get Navarro? Does anyone know how he ended up in Memphis?
2) WHO PLANS THOSE LAST CHANCE PLAYS? I know the dude has 40+ pts but how can standing in place until 4 seconds left and then taking an awful shot be the best way to go?
navarro likes playing with Gasol.
Nice game by Mike Connely!
Mike Brown Hater: Didn’t we have a chance to get Navarro?
Yeah. We also had a chance to get Beno Udrih. We couldn’t guarantee him a starting spot. Chalk that up to things that make you want to puke. And don’t diss Lebron. The animal has 49 points and is the only reason we win any basketball games throughout the year. Seriously, is there a worse NBA team that the Cavs without Lebron?
You take away any teams’ best player and they most likely will struggle. What would the Bulls have been without Jordan? The Lakers without Kobe? The Magic without Dwight Howard? The list goes on….
LeBron is the best player in the NBA. End of discussion.
How come it is OK for Lebron to jaw with the opponents fans, but Philip Rivers of the Chargers does it in Indy and all the guys at ESPN say he needs to grow up?
Brian, if you are reading, one more piece for you to throw into any story you write… LeBron scored his 51 points on 28 shots, and had the 9 rebounds 8 assists as well, but steals, blocks, etc. The other night Kobe had 48 points, but on 44 shots while getting only 2 rebounds and 2 assists. Lebron accounts for 67-70 points, over half the teams total, while taking less than a third of the shots. Kobe took nearly half his team’s shots and still accounted for less than half the points. As with the post above, LeBron is the best overall player in the NBA. Why isn’t that more obvious nationally? I mean, he’s known as one of the best… but why isn’t he the clear-cut best. Has anyone ever had 50 points with 8 assists as well before? Plus the rebounds? Is that yet another NBA first for him?
John
Great point, but take it further. Lebron had 51 points and 9 assists tonight. About 3-4 of his assists were on 3 pointers. THEN add in all the passes he made to guys down low who didn’t make the shot but got fouled and went to the line. I figured he contributed to about 80 of the 132 tonight. Just unreal.
LeBron is the best player in the NBA and in my mind its really not even close. Nobody affects the game the way he does. How he hasn’t won an MVP is shocking.
My buddy also brought up a great point tonight.. Look at all the coverage the Bynum injury is getting. Its like the biggest NBA story of the past 48 hours. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if Z (or insert any Cavalier here not named LeBron) were to get injured? If you think it would get anywhere near the coverage Bynum’s is getting you’re nuts. So Kobe, most people’s best player in the NBA, has MORE talent on his team and doesn’t do statistically NEARLY what James does, yet is the best player in the NBA? Its a joke.
Sasha,
Not dissing LeBron. As my moniker suggests I think most of the blame goes to Brown. Lots of times down the stretch I guess it does make sense to let LeBron do his thing. But with 10 seconds left, on an in-bound out of a timeout, on the road, when all we need is 1 pt, you gotta draw something up better than that.
Uhh … the Cavs had zero chance to get Beno Udrih after Ferry pissed off his agent in the Pavlovic fiasco. Besides, he’s lousy, so who cares. And who cares about Navarro? Seriously, don’t the Cavs already have enough point guards that really aren’t point guards?
Mike, what would the Bulls have been without Jordan? Well, to begin with, they would have been, and actually were, 55-27. The Cavs would be an unmitigated disaster without James. James is great, the rest of the team is Woolworth’s. Sorry if I’m dating myself.
And how can anybody blame Mike Brown for anything? He ain’t a genius, but it’s beyond ridiculous. The guy is playing with the jokers that Ferry dealt. I don’t know why Gilbert allows himself to be manipulated and bamboozled by a lamebrain like Ferry. I guess when 20,562 show up no matter what’s on the court, the guy gets major latitude. I suppose Ferry very much enjoys the enormous control he exercises over Brown, as evidenced by that embarrassing Ferry display at the Pistons playoff game last year. There’s no reasonable explanation for the contract extension at such a weird time, other than Ferry is an absolute control freak and Brown is his pet under his thumb.
And JoeHoops, how do you explain the Country Bear Jamboree at Disney World? They have a singing grizzly named “Tennessee.” There’s your irrefutable proof. Show me a singing bear named “Vancouver.”
JoeHoops, Price worked with Hughes for exactly one week. Why Hughes didn’t spend the whole summer with him is anyone’s guess. Also, good shooting coaches say it takes 1.5 years to break bad shooting habits. At least that’s what Tony Parker’s shooting coach once said…
Nice point about the PG’s, Alan T -how true. Navarro is nice and anyone would be an upgrade for us, but why not sign Jason Kapono and JJ Reddick to go along with Damon Jones and Navarro standing there waiting to shoot another 3. Well, at least Navarro seems to score. He’s happy with his old Spanish teammate, Pau Gasol anyways.
Also, what would the Lakers been without Kobe? They still would have Shaq and Robert Horry for starters. How many rings do those two guys have between them since Kobe took the Lakers solo? How many does Kobe have? Right.
Lebron is the real MVP by any measure and has been for three years now, period. If Steve Nash deserved two then LBJ deserves 50. Take Ray Allen away from Boston and watch what happens (actually we probably will see this) – Kevin Garnett loses in the first round again while Paul Pierce whines. Take KG away and they are still OK anyways. Take Kobe away and OK the Lakers would suck but not as much as these Cavs. These guys wouldn’t qualify for March Madness.
Why does the definition of MVP in this league seem to change every other year? Lebron is the best player, makes everyone around him contribute and be better moreso than Steve Nash, let alone Kobe, ever has. Joe Johnson, Amare Stoudamire, Leandro Barbosa, Marion – these guys on Phoenix are all top-notch in their own right. But anyways, now it’s like it’s being the top-scorer on the best team or something? Where’s LBJ’s Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili? Where’s his Shaq and Robert Horry? Where’s Pippen and Grant? They don’t exist but he’ll take whoever is next to him to the Finals by himself, while the Pistons and Celtics watch again simply because he’s Lebron, that’s what he was born to do baby! You can’t stop him in a series, that what he was built for, but the Spurs did because they had enough talent to negate him. Noone else did or does. A point guard would be nice but he’s pretty used to not having one. If we do end up with a nice PG then BONUS!
Starters Minutes…
Lebron: 47
Gooden: 25
Z: 28
Sasha: 17
Hughes: 23
Starters Total: 140
Reserve Minutes:
Braziller Thriller: 40
Boobie: 36
Devin ‘Devin Brown’ Brown: 19
GR8ST Shoot R EVAR:30
Bench Total: 125
Take Lebron out of the “so called starters” bunch, and they totaled 93 minutes. 4 “Starters” played 93 minutes… 4 “Bench” players played 125 minutes…
Perhaps something needs to be done with the regular lineup.
Brown has found a lineup he likes. Notice how little Sasha and Larry played in the 4th quarter. He is relying on what has worked lately…. Booby, DJ, Brown, and Anderson coming off the bench to play critical minutes, especially late in the game.
HEY JIM, that was an excellent post, and you are right, Lebron should had been mvp the last two years. also this team need more then a pt guard, they need a thug pf off the bench and they need a “vinnie johnson” type scorer off the bench rather its sg or sf they need some one to come in a lite it up every night. if they could get these type of players in here watch out,……GRACE AND PEACE, BILLY.
This says it all about Larry Hughes:
http://heylarryhughespleasestoptakingsomanybadshots.com/
A great game by game wrapup of our cancerous, lazy, lethargic, non-athletic steal of the century.
WOW, ivaroni gave Lebron props over magic johnson, man i would love to see that debate. when lebron first came into the nba, his high school coach said that he should play pt. guard and i agreed and that is what he is playing right now, only with out the title. Lebron is the man, its ashame he will be gone in two or three years. enjoy him now fellas….GRACE AND PEACE, BILLY.
Did anybody see Z flip the bird to the camera as he was sitting down after 3 fouls? It looked like he was trying to flip off the camera then caught himself and smiled. But he did flip the bird.
Watching a Cavs game is going to be rated R here shortly, with Lebron using foul language, Z flipping the bird. All we need is that guy back that is now on the Celtics who said “Kids, do drugs” to the camera.
Yeah, I was laughing when I saw Z flip the bird. The best part was LeBron grinning next to him when he did it.
Z can flip his bird all he wants. Did he actually slam at
the end of regulation last night? Was that actually a Z
posterization. Over Gas Attack. WOW.
LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE watching Cavs games these days.
AC getting heckled by the angry woman in black! Camera zooms out – AC points at her and laughs!!!!!!!!!!!
Over/Under on how long it takes before alan t or larry d mention the BW interview over at the Big Lead in which he mentions his favorite player growing up being Danny Ferry?
Well, alan, in case you didn’t see it……bump, set…
My money’s on larry d. commenting right now.
BW’s mentioned his Danny Ferry poster before. It’s odd and I’d be interested to find out what attracted the lad to Danny.
Thoughts on the win over the Grizzlies:
- This is what it used to be like watching Jordan beat bad teams in his heyday. Even if the opponent can stay in the game, (and they often do, because teams get ramped up to play a guy like Jordan or LeBron), it is going to take a near miracle to beat LeBron during crunch time. Even when he makes it easier by shooting ridiculous shots.
- And it was also Jordan-esque (and Wade-esque) in that LeBron added a ton of points at the end of the game on free throws. A great performance, no doubt, but he got to 50 well after the game was in hand.
- I was unimpressed with how Iavaroni has this team playing. The Grizzlies guards can penetrate, their big men are effective if not spectacular, and they have perimeter players who can knock down threes. Which leads to a pretty solid offense. But the defensive strategy was head-scratching, and they don’t rebound. A reminder to all Mike Brown haters: scoring 102 ppg (as Memphis does) doesn’t mean squat if you give up 105 ppg (as Memphis does).
- I’m not disagreeing with those people who are saying that LeBron is amazingly valuable to the Cavs, considering how poorly the supporting cast has been playing (the bench currently excepted). But losing a star doesn’t always send a team into a tailspin. The Rockets have been playing well lately with T-Mac on the shelf, and the Wizards beat the Celtics twice without Arenas.
- The reason you don’t sign a JJ Redick or JC Navarro is the same reason that Damon Jones was nailed to the bench for so long: they don’t play defense. Wanting a guy like Navarro would be like Bucks fans talking about how much they wanted Donyell Marshall after he dropped 29 on them last year. One game does not change the fact that Navarro is an undersized wing player that can score 28 one night and 2 the next.
Go Cavs. Try to stay in tomorrow night’s game at least until I can get home from the CSU game against #12 Butler.
Mike C.
Juan Carlos was previously owned by the Washington Wizards, a team he was drafted by a few years ago and a team he refused to leave Spain for.
MEM and WAS worked out a deal to ship JCN to MEM.
Their would be NO reason why WAS would trade Navarro to a conference rival in the CAVS.
Ahhhh ha ha ha, Z’s flipping of the bird even made it as a topic on ESPN Around The Horn. WOnder if they will talk about it on PTI?
Just what was Z flipping off though. It looked like he reached back and aimed the bird up? What was he aiming for?
I think the point was that other teams are better off without their stars than the Cavs would be without LeBron.
Without Arenas, the Wizards still have two all star types who can carry the offense. Without T-Mac, the Rockets still have Yao.
I doubt they’ll make a big deal about Z. After Z had that dui nobody seemed to care.
Z was flipping off every fan who didnt vote him the backup center in the All-Star Game. After Dwight Howard, who else is there? The big Z is in!
The Cavs are looking at packages such as Chicago’s Heinrich/Ben Wallace combo, Sacramento’s Bibby/Artest, or Philly’s Andre Miller/same old garbage if they make a megadeal. I’d be satisfied to dump three crappy players for a draft pick at this point. There’s a stench on our bench from the dying careers sitting on it.
If anyone will take Larry, send him. We can find a rookie who’s 6′7 and bricks jumpers like a center.
BW, any word on the availability of Gilbert Arenas or Michael Redd?
The Rockets without McGrady? They still have a superstar in Yao. The Wizards without Arenas? They have a better player in Butler and a very good player in Jamison. Make no mistake, that would not be the Cavs’ fortune if James were down for a long time. Plus, the fact that neither McGrady nor Arenas is in James’ class.
Did Damon “Mohawk” Jones lose his shoe deal in China? I noticed he was wearing Nike shoes during the Grizzlies game. Did they terminate their agreement with him when he refused to come in the game the other day? Did they go belly up? Who has the scoop?
Why would the Cavs look at a Wallace/Hinrich package? Wallets has three years left on his deal (including this one) at $15M/year and Hinrich just signed a big $50 million extension.
There’s no way the Cavs trade for those two frauds.
I hate to say it but I’d take those frauds over Z and Hughes. Hinrich will bounce back and he’d be perfect for the Cavs, who don’t need a ‘true point guard’ despite the conventional wisdom. Wallace could save his legs some rotating with Varejao.
Wallace is declining, but he also almost jumped out of the gym in a highlight I saw last night. But there’s no way the Bulls would make that trade.
Anyone see the Chris Sheridan column where he said the Cavs tried to trade Larry Hughes to the Knicks for Jamal Crawford. Come on windhorst what’s the scoop? What were the specifics of the deal? Any chance of this happening?
Obviously Larry’s the most untradeable person in the league, which means he can still probably be traded to the knicks.
danmajerle :
even isiah won’t make that trade . only way any team would accept larry is when he is beneficial for that team when his numbers will come off the books in his final year of his current contract in an exchange for someone who makes as much as him , but with more years . that’s it ! no one wants larry right now