CLEVELAND – The Cavaliers reveal their new look to the hometown fans tonight. After a disappointing – not disastrous – disappointing effort versus the Celtics they open at home against a team they should beat.
A certain awkwardness prevailed over their season opener against the Boston Celtics and with the exception of Zydrunas Ilgauskas almost everyone looked out of sorts to some degree. LeBron got 22, but shot under 45 percent. Mo Williams didn’t distribute the ball that well. If they are going to get into a groove going into a short road trip beginning with New Orleans Saturday.
Game: Cavaliers (1-1) vs. Charlotte Bobcats (0-1)
Broadcast:
TV: FSN Ohio
Radio: WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)
Starters: Cavs: Mo Williams (G); Delonte West (G); Zydrunas Ilgauskas (C); Ben Wallace (F); LeBron James (F). Bobcats: Raymond Felton (G); Jason Richardson (G); Gerald Wallace (F); Sean May (F); Emeka Okafor (C).
Streaking: Cavs have lost one.
Three things to watch:
1) They need to protect the frakkin’ basketball. Against the Celtics they had more than 20 turnovers. Yes, they want to play faster, but they have to play with more court awareness and smarter.
2) Mo Williams – can he get untracked tonight? Only two assists on Tuesday night, although he did score 12 points. For the Cavs to be more successful he has to threaten in the paint.
3) James. Personally, I think that playing in Boston the night of their banner raising and ring ceremony bothered him more than he was willing to admit.
Quotable:
From the coach’s office:
Mike Brown on turnovers: It happened. You don’t want it to happen. A lot of them were unforced. Now, the Celtics play very good physical defense. They’re grabbing you and beating on you the entire game and picking up their intensity can have some effect. Their defense had something to do with it in that regard, but we could have done a better job handling their defense and the ball.
From the locker room:
LeBron James on appearing with Jay-Z at a concert to get out the vote for Barack Obama: It was great. It was great….I hope it went well for everyone in attendance. IT wasn’t just a concert to watch Jay-Z it was a big picture thing.
Post-game analysis:
This one is easy. Heck, you guys could tell me how they won this one. Nevermind that they should have to start. It starts with defense and protecting the ball.
The Cavs held the Bobcats to a meager 34 percent shooting from the field. They blocked 11 shots and dominated the boards 46-34. Their transition defense was also what it needed to be as the Bobcats only got 10 points off fast break opportunities.
Secondly, Cavs fans got a look at what Mo Williams can do when out on the floor. Williams scored 17 points, dished out 7 assists and added four rebounds for good measure.
Add Daniel Boobie Gibson’s 25 points on 10-of-14 shooting and you have the ingredients of a pretty good defense, but this is just the second game of the season.
Trends that always seem to haunt the Cavs reared their heads tonight. For instance, they shot just 66 percent from the free throw line. More importantly, at least in this game: they once against allowed themselves to get out played in the third quarter coming out ice cold and allowing the Bobcats to come within five at 60-55. In the third quarter they shot a pathetic 33 percent from the floor and turned the ball over five times. They can get away with that against a team like the Bobcats – with a team like…oh, I don’t know, Boston, not so much. Sort of like Tuesday night.
From here it’s on to the Big Easy to face the New Orleans Hornets.
Quotable:
LeBron James had to play just 30 minutes tonight. It sounded as if that made him happy:
‘’We had a lot of guys contribute tonight and I got a lot of rest,’’ James said. ‘’I believe in our roster so I don’t have to go out there and average 44 or 42 minutes. We have so much depth, guys that we can go to when I’m out of the ball game.’’
Coach Mike Brown heaped praise on point guard Mo Williams:
‘’I thought Mo Williams did a nice job in getting our team to believe that they had to get stops in order to get the win. He brought our team together. He kept talking about getting stops,’’ Brown said. ‘’ He got the guys to share the ball and try to run the offense at the other end. It resulted for us in a big run.’’
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
Call me a cynic, but I think this is LeBron’s camp’s extremely clever way of guaranteeing LeBron some very public White House appearances while Obama is ruling Washington and the rest of the USA and James is ruling the Big Apple, the Free World, Asia and China.
great great game! i have not seen the cavs play that good for a long long time!! the big story is, of course, Boobie hot shooting night! But the player who really gives me a smile is Big Ben (we all know boobie can shoot) because it looks like his back problems are behind him!
Technically, Wallace’s back problems are behind him.
It’s a 9 1/2 point spread, it’s not like the Bobcats are much of a team. Sean May is a big fat pig, I’d like to eventually see Ferry trade Sideshow and one of the guards in a deal to get Raymond Felton to play backup point.
alan t – why trade andy and someone else for felton at this point? prior to the Mo pickup, there had been a rumor about adding felton, which i was all for. however, at this point, why trade from an area of weakness to add to an area of depth? they dont need felton as a backup PG when they have gibson, Mo, delonte already. they can use andy alot more than they need felton.
Mike, because Varejao is going to be gone after this season, might as well get something for him. Charlotte needs somebody to play power forward, Varejao’s agent has a relationship with Charlotte, and I think Felton is better than any of the other Cleveland combo guards, notwithstanding the crappy shooting night Felton had against Cleveland. Besides, Gibson isn’t a point guard, no matter how many times Brown tries and tries and tries to make him one, and his defense is pretty lousy. If he’s not making shots, he’s fairly worthless. Maybe even make a play for Adam Morrison, from what I read, he’s available and he can shoot long-range. Besides, he’s kinda funny looking, I just like looking at the guy for pure entertainment value.
Yeah when these guys get more comfortable it will be good times.
Gibson just had a better game than Damona ever had. Ever.
Snow, Wally and yes, probably Varejao will be gone come the playoffs. Of course I thought Snow would be gone like 20 years ago so what do I know? But really, what does Varejaos’ agent having a relationship with anybody have to do with anything? The guy is a total joke. Andy should fire him and hire Gibson’s Dad.
Why does a tard like Alan T. continue to show himself to be such an imbecile? Adam Morrison is an absurd stiff, and Raymond Felton is an overpaid underachieving mediocre barely NBA roster talent. Pleeze…….your schtick ain’t even close to humerous.
Give it up. This is a basketball forum, not a ward for psycho’s hitting keys in mom’s basement.
What does Varejao’s agent having a relationship with anybody have to do with anything? Agents shepherd a majority of trades, that’s why.
alan – felton isnt better than Mo. youre out of your mind if you think that. i doubt he is better than gibson and probably not any better than West. felton doesnt really do anything great. he is basically decent across the board. at least gibson does one thing extremely well – he can shoot lights out. we need that on this team. i see your point about trading Andy to get something for him, but get something we can use. felton would just be another combo guard on this team with no place to play. if andy gets traded, its imperative we get a good PF/C in return. theres no alternative.
I didn’t mean get Felton to replace Williams, I meant get Felton to have somebody adequate to backup Williams. As it now stands, there’s nobody, especially since Brown seems inclined to use West as a shooting guard. Why, who knows. So while they’re at it, Ferry might want to think about including West in a deal with that glut of guards who can’t play a position. Come to think of it, they could have used Ronald Murray and signed him this summer, that wouldn’t have been a bad cheap free agent.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to floss and pick up my cape from the dry cleaners. I’m going trick-or-treating dressed up as Sasha Pavlovic.
making a trade that involves getting felton and giving away andy would set this team back. unless felton happens to grow to 6 foot 10 overnight, it makes no sense. a backup is just that – a backup. this team is perfectly fine with a gibson/delonte duo backing up Mo.
I mean what does Andy’s agent knowing anybody have to do with anything. Period. The guy lies through his teeth, obviously gives horrible, horrible advice and I wouldn’t trust him any farther than I could throw him. We should trade Andy, if necessary, to a place his agent won’t want to deal with at all. Better yet, Varejao should fire him and hire Gibsons father, stay here.
It has nothing to do with an agent knowing anybody. Agents drive trades. If he can make a deal with a team to persuade them to sign Varejao to a multiyear contract extension if he’s acquired, then he can make a trade happen. No matter who it’s with. No general manager is going to trade for Varejao and give up a thing of value in return without something in writing that he’ll, at the very least, exercise his player option for 2009-2010.
alan t has a point here. agents drive trades in all pro sports. look what boras did for manny in baseball (not a trade, but that was 100% agent driven.)
hey george, is this only a part-time blog? no blog for the hornets game. that kind of sucks. what’s the deal?
George – amateur fan here….why does the team seem to flounder on court with LeBron? Are they intimidated by him? Also….Andy still seems to pout well. Is he for real a plus to the Cavs?