Cavs bounce back over Philly
Posted March 30th, 2008 by Brian Windhorst
Cavs 91, 76ers 88
–Strong second half performance by the Cavs in this one. Philly played well in this one and it was a fair playoff-type game. The Cavs defense in the second half was much improved. The Cavs went to a smaller and quicker lineup at times and it seemed to slow down the break. They held Philly to 38 percent shooting in the second half, mostly because they made them play halfcourt basketball.
–LeBron woke up big time in the second half. More than his late-game heroics — and his layup at the end was ill-advised and yet incredible all at once — was the way he changed his strategy. He went down into the post and made the Sixers defend him down there, which threw off their defensive floor balance. He also penetrated looking to pass, which is different than what he did in Detroit. As a result, the ball moved much, much better. This is growth from a previous game and credit is due for that.
–This was a good game for Delonte West, we’ll see if it lasts. He made four 3-pointers which made the Sixers pay for their help on James. He’s not going to do that every night. He also was pretty strong on defense. Andre Miller is very skilled, but he is not a super-quick guard like Mo Williams and that is such a better matchup for the Cavs. Yes, Miller had a good game, but he didn’t change the game. Delonte had three blocks and two steals, his activity on the defensive end helped start breaks.
–West’s 3s were important because the Cavs had no shooters in there late. Damon Jones is on the outs again, which I think is a mistake. The man has defensive issues but he is a really good shooter. And Daniel Gibson was in the back after tweaking his left ankle again. Devin Brown, who did a Sasha impression by going 3-of-12 shooting in the start, and Delonte are not exactly floor-stretchers.
–I spoke with Daniel after the game. He tweaked it his left ankle in the third quarter, but there is no new injury. He is just going to continue to fight soreness in there over the next couple weeks. That is a serious injury.
–I thought Andre Iguodala’s shot was in at the buzzer, it looked good from my vantage point. Had it gone, it would’ve been the sixth time the Cavs have given up a buzzer-beater to win or force overtime this season. Remember Raymond Felton and Rudy Gay nailing shots to force OT back in January.
–While I am sure everyone would like to see Washington in the playoffs for rivalry purposes, I think the Cavs actually match up better with the 76ers. Unlike Washington and also Toronto, Philly doesn’t have reliable outside shooters or an ultra-quick guard. Philly will give the Cavs problems with their tempo at times, but when slowed down in a playoff setting I think they Cavs would have a great edge. Plus Philly is untested in the postseason. I am not sure they have anyone on their roster who has won a playoff series, at least nobody in the rotation. Oh wait, Reggie Evans when he was with Seattle. Even still, you get my point.
Recap:
Pregame
Starting lineups
76ers: Andre Miller, Willie Green, Andre Iguodala, Reggie Evans, Sam Dalembert
Cavs: Delonte West, Devin Brown, LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas
Officials
Ken Mauer, John Goble, Luis Grillo
–Ben Wallace has been cleared to play but Mike Brown has decided to sit him until further notice. This has to be the right decision. How many times can the man come up lame before he just has to shut it down.
–Devin Brown has replaced Sasha Pavlovic in the starting lineup. I would not be surprised if Sasha doesn’t play very much at all tonight. He gave Sasha a very long leash and he has not played well at all except for a game or two. He has been lazy on defense at times and he hasn’t been able to make an outside shot. It has been a long time coming. Devin has played very well for the last six weeks and he deserves it even though he is not a great shooter.
–The 76ers are a run and gun team, they are great on the fast break and overall are a hustle team. To beat them you must be careful on taking too many jumpers that cause long rebounds and punish them on the offensive boards because they take off. If the Cavs don’t respect this, they will get beat.
Halftime — 76ers 48, Cavs 43
–After going 4-of-17 last night, LeBron is 3-of-7 this half. He is facing a smaller defender and settling and playing without much energy. It is possible that he is just tired and no one would blame him. But in a game like this, the Cavs of course need his activity to have a chance.
–The 76ers have 14 fastbreak points and 26 points in the paint. That means they are getting all the easy shots they want. I know this is not a good matchup for the Cavs, but they are not the Memphis Grizzlies, they have to start controlling the game better.
–Sasha and Damon Jones have not played in the game. It seems Mike Brown is starting to narrow his rotation. Damon has value and should be playing some, West played 20 minutes and that is probably too much. Though he does have eight assists, he has been good in transition. As for Sasha, he hasn’t earned time right now.
–Joe Smith has three shots and he is keeping the Cavs in the game, he needs to get more chances on offense. I have been pushing for this for quite some time now.
Postgame
Stars
LeBron, 26 points, nine rebounds, nine assists
West, 18 points, 11 assists
Miller, 16 points, nine assists
Andre Iguodala, 19 points
Quotes
West: “I think three days off definitely got my legs back under me. I found myself back to pushing the ball.”
Mike Brown on Iguodala’s near miss at the end: “We’ve been snakebitten a little bit. Part of me thought it could’ve gone in.”
March 30th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
well at least bron isn’t playing lethargic again or anything
March 30th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
The first Sixers game was the quintessential example of LeBron not asserting himself. We’ll see if that happens again tonight. LeBron just hasn’t been the same for the about three weeks. Combine that with the fact that the Cavs can’t seem to score at all lately, and it could be a very frustrating night.
March 30th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
philly has a nice young, athletic team .cavs don’t seem to be quick enough on transition D
March 30th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Nine games left in the year and the Cavs are struggling against the Philadelphia 76′ers. This game is vital in keeping the Wizards out of the 4th spot.
I thought after winning the Eastern Conference last year the Cavs were done with playing poorly against mediocre teams. Trying to hold off the Washington Freaking Wizards. What a joke. This season has been a major disappointment. I hope the playoffs prove otherwise. . .
March 30th, 2008 at 6:30 pm
BRING the Wizards… bring em on. I’d take anyone but this Philly team, simply because they give us such fits on the perimeter. They’re very quick and they have the PG we’ve been missing in Cleveland in Andre Miller, the one that got away. Philly has serious talent, and they could shock Orlando if that’s who they get in round 1.
Washington or Toronto would be just fine with me. I’d definitely prefer Toronto, with their awful D, but Washington is almost as bad and the Cavs own them, too.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Yeah, well I still hope Washington beats the fakers tonight. I’d like to see those clowns finish like 6-8 in the West, and oh - it could happen.
Wasn’t it just last year we finished fourth, and the pundits said we were lucky to get an easy path to the Finals? It may happen again, it may not, but I for one wouldn’t be too surprised if we don’t have to go through both Boston and Detroit. I’d rather play the Wiz in round 1 then Toronto, or probably even Philly the way they’ve been coming. And Atlanta, well you never know. GS beat Dallas last year, and I doubt you can discount Joe Johnson, Mike Bibby, et al come series time.
Don’t panic yo
I’m real happy with Delonte
March 30th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Struggling? What, should we be up be thirty at halftime? Philly is a playoff team, and our guys are still figuring each other out. What matters is - can we beat these guys in a series? Yep. I think the Cavs are happy at #4 playing the Wizards.
I’m on top of the world right now? Why? Because Delonte West is putting on one of the best performances by a Cleveland PG in years (that I remember). That Davidson game was a bummer at the end, but I am glad to see that we have a PG better than Eric Snow ever was.
March 30th, 2008 at 6:42 pm
Go back to Montreal LeCavalier. Fair-weather fan
March 30th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
YES! It’s great to have a PG that can come in a shoot 3’s like Boobie, but it’s even better to have a guy who can pass on this team. Sooner or later, this is going to vastly improve us. LBJ is an awesome passer, but I’m not sure he should be leading the team every year by like 5-6-7 assists. Good pickup with West
March 30th, 2008 at 7:10 pm
I think Pat Riley has lost it. They should fire him, hire another coach with an eye for talent who is actually able to develop young players (like Stan Van), then once they are really good again Riley can fire the poor sap, come in win a championship and take all the credit.
All of you who like to dish on Mike Brown should count yourselves lucky we didn’t get Riley or Larry Brown. Boobie would still be sitting on the bench. Hell, Lebron might still be on the bench with Larry Brown, he’s not old enough and didn’t play college hoops at Duke or Kansas… Riley would probably play him every minute of every game like Wade.
I think Brown does pretty well and he is still learning, still young. He took my boys to the Finals for the first time ever, so give him some credit. He may end up spending his whole career here. If he gets these new guys to buy in to the system, get comfortable and know their roles, and we make the run I think we’re capable of in the playoffs, you whining frenchies still probably won’t let up.
March 30th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
Important win for the Cavs. They stopped the bleeding (at least temporarily). It was nice to see Delonte and LeBron playing well together in that 4th quarter. If Delonte can develop some consistancy in his outside shot he can do what he did tonight on a regular basis. A few thoughts:
LeBron is tired: His free throw attempts have been down of late and he just doesn’t look as explosive. Tonight he did a great job of picking his spots and shooting high percentage shots. It was nice to see him on the block looking to score, not pass.
Anderson Varejao has a 2 inch vertical right now - seriously. He can’t score, he can’t rebound - he looks like a shell of his former self right now.
Joe Smith is a very soft player, but he is the team’s best midrange jump shooter. It’s up to Mike Brown to put him in position to contribute positively.
Damon Jones has such a short leash, I cannot figure out why.
Over the losing streak, the Cavs have never imposed their will on a team. Other teams have had a swagger against them that irritates the hell out of me. It feels like the Cavs think they are underdogs while other teams think they are underdogs going in for the kill. The Cavs are the Eastern Conference Champions and have only spanked a team once or twice this year. It’s time for LeBron to start getting his team pumped up. Just like the fan above, who says this season has been a major dissappointment, it’s time for the Cavs to stop buying into that mentality. It’s not a dissappointment unless you fail in the playoffs. They need to get their energy up now and start imposing their will on teams. They need the right mindset in order to do that. That mindset has to be: “We have beaten the best teams in the NBA this year in spite of our bad luck - the playoffs are a fresh start - let’s go out and dominate”
March 30th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Where are all the haters? Cmon guys, you’d be here if the Sixers had pulled out the upset! Where are the naysayers, saying LeBron should have had a quadruple double?
Unless the Cavs lose, people are indifferent in Cleveland, which I think is sad. This is why I post.
Really nice win, in a playoff atmosphere, with the crowd into it tonight. Rumors of Delonte West’s demise have been greatly exaggerated… the kid outplayed Andre Miller tonight, one of the best PG’s in the league. Z and Joe Smith played well underneath.
Who neutered Andy V? His effort is worse than his ball skills. Can someone put a hit on his agent or something? Whoever is telling him to shoot so much, for that matter? He looks like Drew Gooden out there…
March 30th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Amayda,
If I gave you any thought I might hate you…
Good win tonight but still a lot of work to do before the playoffs. Oh, no I was critical again. A fair weather fan wouldn’t give the time of day to care about how the team is performing.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
Nice win. Andy, right now, blows chunks. Oh well…I agree with the poster that said that James seems tired. His shot attempts are down. He is playing very passively for him…But, I really do think that he is saving up some energy for the playoffs. The fourth spot is all but ours and we aren’t getting the 3rd spot. James is so freaking bright, so I think he knows the situation better than any of us, so he’s playing conservatively. It sucks as a fan to see him play like this, but it will help in the end, I think.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
Thankfully they were able to pull this one out. This is a game they really had to win…..
Still inexcusable the way they started though. After getting destroyed by their biggest rival the night before, you’d think they’d have come out ticked off and with lots of energy.
I’m still worried, but I’m glad they gutted it out and found a way to win. Nice to see West play well too.
March 30th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Best we’ve looked in a long time.
Rather than mixing and matching, let’s go 7 deep and add to that when we need it.
Lebron + Boobie + Delonte + Devin + Andy + Z + Joe
Then Wally, Wallace, DJ, Sasha as needed.
Plenty of rest in the playoffs, anyway.
March 30th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Jeff McInnis had some pretty good games, too.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
I agree with Windy that I’d most want to see Philly in the first round. Toronto doesn’t scare me that much either, but experience counts in the playoffs, and Philly has none.
The team I’d least like to face is Washington. I know we’ve beaten them the last two years, but they seem to really be gunning for us ….much like us against the Pistons a couple years ago. Let Orlando deal with them.
March 30th, 2008 at 11:59 pm
i hate to say it, but andy has to lose minutes to smith at this point, the injury has truly, as someone mentioned previously, made him a shell of his former self. in fact, injuries have really been the story of his season. it’s not an excuse, ill-informed haters, merely a fact.
the one thing that continues to give me hope is that, like i said here about 3 weeks ago, we play defense and rebound like hell. which means we’re in the game 90% of the time. the problem to anyone with eyes is, of course, that because of that style, our offensive possessions are fewer, thus the importance of each possession gets magnified and if this team doesn’t make shots, it can look ugly, as we saw in the first quarter tonight. BUT the D and rebounding allows us to stick around like we also did tonight and when you’ve got the best closer in the game, that’s all you really want. oh, one stat i heard tonight that also is part of the road map to success for this team is that they’re like 12-1 or 16-1, i can’t quite recall which, when they record 27 or more assists. now, that obviously points to ball movement and not LBJ-watching, which is something that they seemingly will always struggle with, esp. in 4th quarters. but at least now with west rather than hughes, they’ve got somebody who can help them reach that magic number of 27 with more regularity.
and tucker, you keep getting dumber and dumber (i know, i didn’t think it was possible either). please point out the stat line that mcinnis had, WITH THE CAVS, that was comparable to the one west had tonight? i doubt *highly* that one exists. but yet again, i’ll, most likely futilely, ask you to put your money where your stupid mouth is…
March 31st, 2008 at 8:13 am
Thoughts on the Cavs win over Philly:
- I don’t know about anyone else, but wins lately are less about elation and more about breathing a sigh of relief that the team hasn’t taken another step backwards. I guess I need work getting ready for the playoffs as much as the Cavs do.
- We saw another glimmer of the super-human LeBron in the second half last night, and it was enough to get the Cavs over the hump. This time it was Andre Iguodala who was trying to one-up LeBron, but he came up (just barely) short.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:41 am
The hardest part of being a player with talent like LeBron’s is making that talent fit within a team concept and learning how to best use your teammates.
Every year, the Cavs go through spells when LeBron looks like he isn’t aggressive, or looks tired or apathetic, etc., etc., then you see real improvement as LeBron finds the right mix of scoring/passing and the other players figure out how to feed off him.
It usually happens in February but injuries and the trade have pushed it further into the season this year, but I believe that’s what is going on at this time. I’m beginning to doubt it will come together before the playoffs, but there’s hope.
March 31st, 2008 at 8:45 am
Thoughts on the Cavs win over the Sixers:
- LeBron, Z, and Smith: 62%; Andy, Devin Brown and Wally: 18%. Quiet but effective night for Z.
- West had a good game last night, and those 3s at the end were huge. But let’s not go overboard. West still managed to shoot under 50% (7-16), didn’t go to the free throw line once, and had 4 turnovers. Better than what he’s been lately, but not quite All-Star numbers. He had his best game as a Cavalier, and he basically played Andre Miller even.
- In Jeff McInnis’ first half-season with the Cavaliers, he averaged 11.7 ppg, 7.5 apg, and 2.6 rpg in 35 minutes. West has been averaging 8.9 ppg, 4.2 apg, and 3.6 rpg in 30 minutes. McInnis had games of 21-5-2, 17-10-2, 16-10-2, 10-12-3, 16-10-2, and 16-10-3.
- Where have you gone Anderson Varejao? If you asked me who has been more consistent between Varejao and Smith, my answer would be Drew Gooden.
- I like a lot of what Andre Iguodala brings to the table, but I think signing him to a max deal is the kind of thing that dooms your team to the 7th seed and early playoff exits for 5 years.
- I’d rather see the Sixers in the first round than Wizards or Raptors. The only thing that worries me about the Sixers is that their crowd will be much more energetic than the Washington or Toronto crowds.
- It’s interesting to see what a difference a market makes. A few years ago, when the Baby Bulls were doing what the Sixers are doing now, they were dubbed an up-and-coming dynasty. Meanwhile, this Sixers team is getting no love.
Go Cavs.
Mike C.
March 31st, 2008 at 9:33 am
As a side note, because I feel credit should be given where it’s due, Rudy Gay didn’t make the buzzer beating shot back in January. Juan Carlos Navarro did. I think you, Mr. Windhorst, are a brilliant writer, but that was just a tiny mistake you made.
March 31st, 2008 at 10:05 am
I think Mike C. is just a tad too rah-rah, but in response to your bile-spewing, he was kind enough to offer up some examples for you, kj. I’m sure there are others besides the ones he listed, but he listed a few. Good to know you think that goofy-looking guy masquerading as a starter on a championship roster is next in line to have his number hanging from the rafters. Maybe they can staple it to Z’s shorts at the 2013 ceremony.
Speaking of jerseys and that stiff McInnis, when is Damon Jones going to start wearing his shirt backwards in a sign of protest? It’s only a matter of time. As opposed to the regular season’s Fan Appreciation Night, which is when Jones normally shows his true self-centered colors with his stupid backwards shirt thing, I predict Jones will refrain until they’re cleaning out their lockers, whenever that is, and then proudly show-off his jerkdom to the media.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:11 am
I don’t know why everybody is jumping on Varejao … he’s doing Wallace’s job almost identical to Wallace, same rebounding, same lousy offense, same above-average defense. The only difference is Wallace is a better shot-blocker and the South American guy can’t jump.
If they really need continuity instead of excuses, then they should pretend Joe Smith is Gooden and start him.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:29 am
sorry, mike (and really, doin’ tucker’s work for him? it’s beneath you) but those lines on mcinnis’ were still not comparable to what west did last night. i mean, you, like tucker, fail to include or recognize that west had 2 steals and THREE blocks, including the sensational, almost game-saving, in retrospect, block of miller’s lay-up attempt. i’m sorry, that’s as good a game as cavs PG has had since the LBJ era. and as for your statement that west “played miller about even” well, considering miller DESTROYED hughes and the cavs the last time we played the sixers, i’m more than happy with a PG that plays him “even.”
and mike you write, “If you asked me who has been more consistent between Varejao and Smith, my answer would be Drew Gooden.” really? REALLY? you put forth the paragon of inconsistency as an example of consistency? jeebus, mike, you’re better than that. for example, last week gooden had 31 and 12 against the hawks in a bulls win. the next game, against the sixers, he had a grand total of…TWO FREAKIN’ POINTS in a 22-point loss to the sixers. looks like the same ol’ drew to me. plus, whatever he’s doing, he’s doing it on a crappy, nothing-to-play-for-but-stats team.
now, tucker, since you are a moron, you ridiculously take my defense of west’s very good game last night as proof that i think he’s “next in line to have his number hanging from the rafters.” are you truly that stupid? do you really suffer from such horrible reading comprehension? i suppose the obvious answer is “yes” but it is still striking how idiotic you can be.
larry d., good points, all.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:46 am
Alan t - don’t let be said I never agree with you. Joe Smith is a better player than Varejao. Varejao gets a few extra possessions a game through hustle and energy, but the guy just can’t score and if he moves with the ball is a turnover machine. I’d like to see Anderson coming off the bench, where he belongs, especially if he’s going to keep going with a defensive player at the two. It’s no wonder we’ve been starting games with an inability to score. I also think that if he’s going to start Wallace, he’s got to go with a shooter at the two - either Damon Jones, Gibson, or Szczerbiak. Lebron needs a three point shooter and a pick and roll big man on the court at all times to keep the defense from collapsing on him. Delonte West doesn’t quite fill those needs consistently.
Regarding Delonte, I think it’s kind of silly to compare him to McInnis. McInnis had a decent stetch offensively while he was here, but was a cancerous head case who could stop no one on defense. Even with the trouble he has keeping quicker point guards in front of him, West is a much better defender, and has pretty good hops for a point guard too - he is a very good rebounder and shot blocker at his position.
It should be no surprise Damon Jones got benched - Billups embarassed him Saturday, and lets face it, this team has to be ready to play the Pistons if they are going anywhere. Couple that with Mike Brown’s constant overreaction to defensive issues and you get no minutes for DJ.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:47 am
Andy had 8 rebounds last night and his numbers are slightly better than last year. I do however agree with Joe Smith needing more time he was consistantly putting up double figures in Shytown.
The execution was much better today than in Detroit they figured out that they too could run off Phillies misses.
Boobie looked good in his 2nd game back he is clutch, he hustles, and is one of the best shooters in the league so I reiterate his importance. Mike Brown is fickle with anybody but LeBron if he decides they aren’t doing enough defensively. Sasha, Big DJ, and Damon are still valuable to me…
March 31st, 2008 at 12:05 pm
Sasha had a bad game in Detroit. We lost. The whole team did. The game before that he was 5 of 10 from the field when Coach like Chuck said overreacted and put him on the bench. I also loved Delonte’s dunk against the Sixers. It was pretty sick to me.
March 31st, 2008 at 12:09 pm
kj, are you nominating yourself as West’s new agent, or what? Why the maniacal vocal support for the guy? On the Cavs, as point guard pretenders go, the guy is the best of the worst. OK, duly acknowledged. But will his satellite dish ears also get me some free bootleg DirecTV? If not, then I’d rather see him back with the Oklahoma City Cowboys next season, or whatever the Sonics are going to be called.
March 31st, 2008 at 2:23 pm
I see the Indians are already losing. Sabathia gave up a 2-run homer to Jim “Traitor” Thome.
Go Browns.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:21 pm
God, why don’t we crown Jeff MacGuinest the best PG in Cavs history. Forget Mark Price, MacGuinass, Damon ‘Elton John’ Jones and Eric Snow are now the best points not only for the Cavs, but maybe the entire league.
I like West too, as I said. After watching Damon, Eric, and Boobie average 2 assists per game for how long (!?!) it’s nice to see a guy on Cleveland who can pass and just doesn’t hang out waiting to shoot a 3 because they think they are the best ever or whatever (Damon) or is praised for his defense (Eric) while he goes 0-6 and guys like Tony Parker destroy him. If you can’t get more than 2 assists per game next to LBJ something is bunk, probably your PG skills.
Are those OK jokers really called the cowboys? Sheez! They should have gone for ‘Oilers’ or ‘Steelers’. I’d like to see Eric Snow join them next year, and have West stick around here and mesh more. Make fun of his appearence or whatever, but the guy has nice upside and he and Devin Brown are carving nice niches here.
March 31st, 2008 at 6:01 pm
I still cant believe all this hand-wringing over Drew Gooden. KJ, your basketball knowledge impresses me. Drew is busy in Chicago growing a beard, showing up for 1 out of every 5 games with good numbers, and spending the other four figuring out which shoe to tie first. And for the record, Drew torches teams with poor PF’s, like the Atlanta Hawks, who play 4 SF’s in their starting lineup. Put him against Rasheed Wallace or Chris Bosh, and you get 2 points and an extra fan in the 4th Quarter. Enough about Drew Gooden, he’s gone (possibly by order of LeBron), and that’s the way it is.
I know it would be easy to talk yourself into Philly as a good matchup with the inexperience thing, but why get away from what has worked for the Cavs? They beat Washington and Toronto consistently, and LeBron goes off on both teams. Philly has Igoudala to match up with LeBron all night long, they have a very good PG, and their pace is a bad matchup for our post players, all of whom run like elephants.
Even with all their guns healthy, Washington has a mental block against the Cavs, and our style and personnel give them fits. Toronto is soft. Philly is the only team that really scares me.
As much as it pains me, Joe Smith starting may not be the worst idea, especially with Ben hurting. God, that was painful.
April 1st, 2008 at 7:41 am
The Cavaliers will lose in the first round. The inability to improve the team, and running James into the ground will be Cleveland’s downfall against the Wizards this year in the playoffs. Why lebron doesn’t demand a trade is beyond me.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am
The reason James doesn’t demand a trade is fairly obvious. For now he’s got much bigger fish to fry. And much bigger General Tso’s chicken to fry.
http://www.sportsbusinessradio.com/node/1547
April 1st, 2008 at 12:48 pm
It’s funny how the blogger didn’t mention how Windy snubbed Nike during that trip when he had the gall to wear adidas to their corporate gym.
Knight and his posse must have put the muzzle on any talk concerning that little episode.
April 1st, 2008 at 2:37 pm
NOTE TO MIKE C:
This is an official warning from the Wine & Gold Police. In your post dated 3/31/08 @ 8:45 AM, you may have inadvertently suggested the Cavaliers would be better off with former PF Drew Gooden on the team.
This violates W&GP Code 26(a), which states, in part:
“No Cavs fan shall publicly laud, campaign for the acquisition of, or pine for a former player, coach, general manager, or owner. To do so would imply that the Cavaliers made a mistake in losing the aforementioned player, coach, general manager, or owner.”
As you know, to suggest the current Cavaliers organization has made a mistake is complete heresy and will not be tolerated by the extremists on this message board.
This is your first warning. Should you violate any more statutes, your Cavaliers fanship may be revoked by the almighty Wine & Gold Commission on High and you will be forced to root for the Indiana Pacers until such time as you are reinstated.
All hail the Wine & Gold.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I love Chicago. I love beard. I love Deshawn Stevenson. I love lamp… I LOVE LAMP!!!
April 2nd, 2008 at 8:49 am
Some more random thoughts:
- Here I thought I was being clever in asserting that Drew Gooden might be a more consistent option than the 3-headed power foward we currently have in Varejao, Smith and Wallace. While Gooden was frustrating in his inconsistency, at least he was a legitmate starting power forward. Right now the Cavs have three guys who look like they are bench players.
- Chicago Drew has averaged 14.0 ppg, 9.3 rpg and 1.7 apg in 31 mpg. Ben Wallace and Joe Smith are combining to average 13.0 ppg, 13.3 rpg, and 1.3 apg in 50 mpg with the Cavaliers. And if Drew is only showing up in 1 game out of 5, then his numbers are even more impressive.
- If you want to talk inconsistency, how about Anderson Varejao shooting 37% for the month of March? That’s completely unacceptable from a frontcourt player. Even Balky Ben Wallace is shooting 42%. Drew is shooting 46% in Chicago, and was shooting 44% in Cleveland.
- No one ever said that Jeff McInnis was great. Just pointing out that Delonte West’s best game in a Cavalier uniform was just a good, not great, game. Which means that most of the time he’s mediocre. And even then I would be okay with it, but he turns the ball over at a tremendous rate. Only 5 guards in the entire league turn the ball over at a higher rate than West. It completely kills his Player Efficiency Rating, which is currently 110th among all guards in the league.
- Don’t get me started on Wally. His shooting percentage is down 13 points since he came to Cleveland. How is he better than Donyell Marshall again?
- Look, I’m not saying that the trade was a bust. It’s still too early to tell. But the early returns aren’t looking so great. It’s amazing to me that all four of the new guys were playing on terrible teams that were going nowhere, and all of them (with the exception of West, who couldn’t earn minutes on a god-awful Sonics team) have seen their numbers tail-off significantly. During an easy part of the schedule.
- That being said, the Cavs aren’t losing in the first round of the playoffs. Stupid people have been saying that for two years now, and it’s just as ridiculous today as it was then.
- Though I may change my mind about that if the Cavs can’t get off their road-game schnide in Charlotte tonight.
Go Cavs.
Mike C.
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:49 am
He started nominally but Gooden never nailed down the ‘legitimate starting power forward’ spot.
It’s been a four-man rotation of limited bigs ever since Mike Brown became coach. Now, it’s Wallace and Smith instead of Gooden and Donyell with Varejao and Z pretty much playing the same roles.
If everyone was healthy and playing to their abilities, I think the rotation would be better than it was before, but we haven’t seen that yet.
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
Bingo, Larry. Tell him what he’s won.
Again, Drew Gooden does well when he plays against mediocre forwards. Against anyone with talent, he does his best David Copperfield. Chris Webber with no knee cartilage tore him up.
Besides, it would have been some REAL bad PR for the Cavs having to answer to the media about why LeBron punched Gooden in the face in the middle of a game. I dont think “another missed assignment” would cut it.