Raptors 101, Cavs 91

So who do the Cavs miss most?  Delonte West or former assistant Jon Kuester? Considering they’re having problems on both sides of the ball right now, the short answer might ”both.”

Defensively speakign the Cavs let the Toronto Raptors have their way with them the entire first half, going into the locker room down 57-39.   The shot just 31 percent in the first half and it didn’t get much better in the second.   They finished the game shooting just 35 percent.

Mike Brown was succint in his appraisal of what’s going on the defensive side of the ball:

We go through stretches defensively right now, where the effort isn’t there.  Even if coverage breaks down the effort can be there.

The one key moment when the effort was there, the Cavs enjoyed some success, coming back from that 18 point halftime deficit to tie the game at 69.  For much of the third quarter, they held the Raptors at bay.  It didn’ t last  as Toronto went on a 9-2 run to end the quarter.

Brown says the effort wasn’t there.  Players say it’s a matter of gelling.  Right now, it’s probably a bit of both. But they also have to be missing West right now.  Other than James, he’s the most complete player on the team.

As for the offense: ditto Kuester.  When the team racked up those high scores and long winning streaks last year, they did so courtesy of, yes, their defense but some high-flying offense by Kuester.  Right now, it’s difficult to see which direction they’re headin there.

Game: Cavs vs. Raptors

Broadcast:  TV: FSOhio. Radio; WAKR (1590 AM); WTAM (1100 AM), WHBC (1480 AM)

Starters: Cavs:  LeBron James (F); Anderson Varejao (F); Shaquille O’Neal (C); Anthony Parker (G); Mo Williams (G).  Raptors:  Hedo Turkoglu (F); Chris Bosh (F);  Andrea  Bargnani; DeMar DeRozen; Jose Calderon (G).

Injured and inactive:  Cavs:  Delonte West; Leon Powe, Daniel Green.  Raptors:  Sonny Weems; Reggie Evans; Quincy Douby.

Officials: Greg Willard; Sean Corbin; Tommy Nunez Jr.

Streaking: Cavs have lost one.  This is the season opener for the Raptors.

Things to look for:

The Cavs need to rebound from a weak offensive performance Tuesday night.  Last night’s game was the first of the season, but that doesn’t excuse the fact taht overall it lacked consistency.

Ditto the defense.  They started out gangbusters, but quickly faded.  While they protected the paint, the exterior defense allowed unchallenged, wide-open threes.

You can never accuse the Washington Wizards of having long memories. The team that injuries decimated last season is healthy, has a new coach and, apparently a new life.

Some things never change, however and that’s the fact that the Wizards kinda, sort of, well…detest the Cavs and, it would seem LeBron James in particular.  But the level of vitriol was taken to a new level – I’ll leave it to you to decide whether it’s high or low – the other day during a practice.

Mike Miller, a player the Wizards acquired in the offseason from the Minnesota Timberwolves and a good friend of James, wore some of the Cleveland superstar’s signature shoes in practice.  The reaction was immediate according to the Washington Post.

Miller has been wearing Adidas since he was a sophomore in high school but switched to Nike after signing a contract with them this summer. He’s been urged by Deshawn Stevenson, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison to wear any pair but the ones donned by the could-be King.

Much of this is apparently being driven by Deshawn Stevenson, a second-tier player who has an on-going thing with James.

“We already talked about that,” said Stevenson, a noted James agitator. “He got to get ‘em out of here. We already had a discussion. He said he going to try some new shoes. Me, Caron, Antawn told him about how we feel about them. LeBron shoes — we off that. We already got war against them. He can’t wear that. It’s all beef right there.”

 James has had a short week of feuds and controversy.  You can’t blame him for wanting to put things behind him.

‘’I don’t have feuds with anybody.  Everybody has feuds with me.  I don’t know why,’’ he said.

We’ll get back to the regular game blog format when the regular season rolls around.

In the meantime, here are a couple of highlgiths from the Cavs-Bobcats game at Quicken Loans Arena Tuesday night.

Shaquille O’Neal and LeBron James look very comfortable out on the floor together.  The entire starting lineup looked comfortable, despite the fact that there were two new faces in O’Neal and Anthony Parker. One thing that apparently caught at least Anderson Varejao by surprise – O’Neal’s ability to pass the ball.  He tossed one to Varejao that the power forward didn’t expect and the result was a turnover.  As the month wears on, O’Neal’s teammates will get used to it.

J.J. Hickson, who looked so out of sorts on the court last season played with confidence against the Bobcats.  He, along with James, led all scorers with 15 points a piece.  Hickson hit from the outside with a mid-range jumper.  He drove to the hoop with confidence and showed some creativity getting the ball up and in the hoop on a couple of occasions.

Coach Mike Brown wasn’t ready to praise him effusively just yet, however.  He harped on the fact that Hickson needs to work on his defense, specifically guarding players on the weak side.

And a couple of ugly things came to light.  The Bobcats scored 40 points in the paint and as a team and the Cavs committed 19 turnovers.  Those problems can be corrected given the fact that it’s early in the preseason.

Bad news Cavs fans:  The Cavaliers aren’t the favorite, even with the additions of Shaquille O’Neal and Anthony Parker, to win the NBA’s championship this season.  They’re not even the favorite to win the league’s Eastern Conference – at least not with the league’s general managers.

Just 17.9 percent of league GMs say that the Cavs are good enough to win this year’s championship and they’re tied with the 2007-08 champs, the Boston Celtics.  The reigning champs, the Los Angeles Lakers, are favored to repeat by 60.7 of the NBA’s top execs.

Fifty-percent of GMs expect the Celtics, who will have the Boston Three Party in tact to start the season, to reassert themselves atop the Eastern Conference.  More than 42 percent said the Cavs will find themselves in The Finals.

Individually, there was good news for LeBron James as GMs expect him to repeat as NBA MVP. 

My assessment?  Nothing wrong with a healthy dose of skepticism or a reality check for the Cavs.  Expectations by Cleveland fans desperate for a winning are so high, I suspect that they’d starte following the Cleveland City Stars, the local pro soccer team.  Yes, there is one.

The reality is the Cavs got better in the off season.  The bench has the depth that most NBA teams would scream for with the additions of Anthony Parker and Jamario Moon.  It gets better when Leon Powe is cleared to play.  But so did many teams in the Eastern Conference. 

The Orlando Magic added Vince Carter to their roster. They probably gave up a lot in Courtney Lee, who will be an All-Star in the future, but it’s quite obvious they want to win now.  As for the Celts:  they added Rasheed Wallace, a personality who’s been a handful in the past, but one that Coach Doc Rivers will be able to tame.

In short:  the Cavs won’t be dancing through the season.

During the Cavs Media Day Monday at Cleveland Clinic Cpurts,  Shaquille O’Neal finally met with the media around 4:30 p.m. (the press conference had to be moved into the weight room because of the loss of power) and it was chaos as reporters jockeyed for position to talk to O’Neal.

 But the thing that caught my attention was how adamant Shaq wass about wanting to win his fifth NBA championship ring. And he’s serious about wanting to be in Cleveland.

“Cleveland has always been very hospitable to me and I’m excited to be here,” Shaq told reporters.

Shaq also said he had a message for Cavs fans.

“Hopefully, I add that belief because the first key (to winning an NBA championship) is belief.”

The one thing that amuses me about Shaq is that for a guy so physically imposing, he talks like he’s always in a library.

Yahoo Sports is reporting that pending a medical exam, the Cavaliers will sign power forward Leon Powe.

Powe tore his anterior cruciate ligament and cartilage in his knee during Game 2 of the Boston Celtics’ first-round series against the Chicago Bulls. He had reconstructive surgery on May 5 – his third major knee surgery – and has been rehabilitating in Los Angeles. Powe hopes to be back on the court by this season’s All-Star break, and the Cavaliers are willing to take a low-risk gamble on him pending the results of his physical.

If Powe can come back, this represents a good move for the Cavs.  He’s a banger and loves playing in the low post.  He’s tough, hustles and can be a nice asset coming off the bench. 

According to reports the Celtics promised to “take care of him” after the season ended.  Powe averaged 7.7 points and 4.9 rebounds off the bench for the Celtics last season before being injured in Game 2 of their playoff series with the Chicago Bulls.

Eastern Conference

If Atlanta-Miami series concludes in 6 games:

Cleveland vs. Atlanta

Game 1 – Sun May 3 Atlanta at Cleveland 1:00PM 1:00PM ABC
Game 2 – Tue May 5 Atlanta at Cleveland 8:00PM 8:00PM TNT
Game 3 – Sat May 9 Cleveland at Atlanta 8:00PM 8:00PM ABC
Game 4 – Mon May 11 Cleveland at Atlanta 7:00PM 7:00PM TNT
Game 5 * Wed May 13 Atlanta at Cleveland TBD TBD TNT
Game 6 * Fri May 15 Cleveland at Atlanta TBD TBD ESPN
Game 7 * Mon May 18 Atlanta at Cleveland 8:00PM 8:00PM TNT

If Atlanta-Miami series concludes in 7 games:

Cleveland vs. Atlanta/OR/Miami

Game 1 – Tue May 5 Atl/OR/Miami at Cleveland 8:00PM 8:00PM TNT
Game 2 – Thu May 7 Atl/OR/Miami at Cleveland 7:00PM 7:00PM ESPN
Game 3 – Sat May 9 Cleveland at Atl/OR/Miami 8:00PM 8:00PM ABC
Game 4 – Mon May 11 Cleveland at Atl/OR/Miami 7:00PM 7:00PM TNT
Game 5 * Wed May 13 Atl/OR/Miami at Cleveland TBD TBD TNT
Game 6 * Fri May 15 Cleveland at Atl/OR/Miami TBD TBD ESPN
Game 7 * Mon May 18 Atl/OR/Miami at Cleveland 8:00PM 8:00PM TNT

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. – Loose is the best way to describe the Cavaliers as they prepared to take on the Detroit Pistons in Game 3 of the opening round of the Eastern Conference playoffs. 

Leading the series 2-0, there’s no way they shouldn’t be.   Some might expect that the Pistons are more dangerous at home.  Well, that’s not quite the case.  Earlier this week when Detroit forward Tayshaun Prince said that his team didn’t defend home very well.  Given they own a 21-20, he was right.

It’s quite possible, however, the Pistons would be in a different position had they not traded point guard Chauncey Billups who currently has the Denver Nuggets up 2-0 on the New Orleans Hornets.  Mike Brown, for one, is glad he doesn’t have to see Billups – yet.

Chauncey is a great player; we had our hands full with him every time we played these guys. If I can help it, I’d love to not have to play against Chauncey Billups at any time.

The main guy the Pistons got in that trade – guard Allen Iverson – is done for the season with an apparent back injury.

It hasn’t exactly gone viral – yet – but the Cavs spoof of the now infamous Heineken beer walk-in closet commercial, but it has still racked up over 300,000 hits.

Coach Mike Brown was asked about the obvious glee that the players took in doing the commercial, which began showing at Quicken Loans Arena during playoff games.

Again, that’s our guys being our guys.  They are a group of guys that hang out together, a group of guys that eat together.  A group of guys have fun together and that commercial is just their personality, their being – at least this year. 

You can understand the looseness the Cavs have considering that the Pistons have only offered answers for their second team as opposed to the starters, especially in the case of LeBron James.

The Pistons’ Coach Mike Curry played him straight up and then they sent half the team and Bill Laimbeer and John Salley after him to no avail. When asked what he’d do, Brown said.

You’re going to have to ask Michael Curry.  I can’t help him.  I can’t try to help him.

Injury update:  Rookie forward J.J. Hickson hasn’t been cleared to participate in any activities yet…Expect Ben Wallace to play another 10-15 minutes against the Pistons.

- This quote from Tayshaun Prince says a lot about the Pistons psyche when they go back to Motown and heaven forbid they go down 2-0:

We haven’t played well at home all season. Being down 2-0 against them puts yourself in a tough situation because this season we played better on the road than we did at home.  We’ve had a lot of bad losses at home to teams we definitely should have beat.  To get in the playoffs now and obviously have your home crowd and court is something that’s important, but we’ve definitely shown throughout the season that we haven’t done a good job of taking care of our home court.

Think they’ve already tossed in the towel?

- Mo Williams doesn’t seem worried about the Pistons stifling LeBron:

We’ve seen it all. There won’t be nothing a team throws at us that we haven’t seen at some point in time this season.  We just read and react.  ‘Bron is a good enough player to react and if they double team him, he’s a good enough player to find the open man.  It’s up to us to knock it down.

- Coach Mike Brown may have heard from some of his former coaching mentors, but he’s not sure:

I’m sure I have, but this is on overload (laughing as he points to his Blackberry) right now. I still havent’ gotten back to them.  I haven’t checked.

- Lastly, Brown’s sons got the pleasure of telling their father he’d won Coach of the Year.  G.M. Danny Ferry hearded the entire Brown family, along with the team’s three owners and assistant G.M. Lance Blanks into Brown’s office where the boys delivered the news:

I can’t remember which of my two boys said it, but they kind of make fun of me because I say ‘heckuva’ a lot. They were going ‘Mike is a heckuva…’ And one of them said ‘He’s a heckuva coach of a the year.’ I said ‘Oh’ and we had out little celebration moved on.

- So what took them so long? Mike Brown got the Coach of the Year award in the NBA, formally known as the Red Auerbach Trophy, today in the worst kept secret in post-season awards history. But what took them so long? He’s taken the Cavs to the playoffs in each season he’s been here and they went to The Finals two years ago. There’s paying dues and then there’s ridiculous.

LeBron James came up with a reasonable explanation for that - his presence has handicapped Brown in some respects.   As weird as it sounds, it’s very possible.

I think it was the main reason. But that doesn’t take away from the fact that we still have to go out there and play for him and abide by his system and go out there.  There’s a lot of teams with great talent, but that doesn’t automatically classify you as a good coach or give you wins as a team.

- The Cavs aren’t putting much stock in the Boston Celtics and Orlando Magic losses to the Chicago Bulls and Orlando Magic against the Chicago Bulls and Philadelphia 76ers respectively, a smart move given the pedigree of those teams.  Although, as I type this the Celtics are in a nip-and-tuck battle with the Bulls at TD Garden.

It’s just one game.  A series is never won in one game, LeBRon James said.

Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said it could turn into a lesson for his team:

It just goes to show you every team and play and if you let your guard down, before you know it you won’t have a homecourt advantage. Or it happens very quickly and then you have a fight on your hands. If anything we should learn from it and keep our focus.

You have to appreciate their ability to keep their eyes on the here and now.  Read below for another example.

Other views:

On ABC Sunday Magic Johnson, the former Los Angeles Lakers legend, said that his former team watched the Cavs 102-84 win over the Detroit Pistons and wanted to one-up them by blowing out the Utah Jazz.  The Lakers ultimately beat the Jazz by 13.  LeBron James wasn’t buying into that notion:

We buy into the fact that we’re keeping an eye on Detroit.  Detroit is our only main focus right now.  It’s a long playoffs and we got to approach Game 2 like it’s our last.

And, yes, Tracy McGrady is around for the playoffs, he’s just not playing for the Houston Rockets- and whether he plays hoops again is up in the air.  But he has no limit to when it comes to opinions about who will win the NBA Championship.  It’s not who he picks, but how he dismisses the Cavaliers in an interview:

It’s no knock on Cleveland, I think Cleveland’s gonna get there… Cleveland to me is really not that good.  If you take what the Celtics did last year… You knew, they were either gonna get to the finals, or they were gonna win it.  You can’t really say the same thing about the Cavaliers.  Although, they had the best record in the league this year, a lot of people like, ‘Okay, they havin’ a great year, but we don’t know if they can win the championship.’  They really didn’t do anything on the road with the elite teams in the league, they lost, they had a bad record when they went to face the elite teams in the league.  I think they’re a good team, but I don’t they’re ready to take the next step.

Ultimately he may be proven right, but the lack of respect for what the Cavs have accomplished this season is interesting for someone who’s never sniffed a second-round playoff game.