Gonna try this live blog thing at least thru the first half … night games produce bad deadlines. The atmosphere at the Q is pretty charged, which is no surprise. Final thoughts will come after the game … so bear with us.
First quarter: The Cavs start fast and shoot the lights out
The Cavs started Friday night’s game against Boston with Ben Wallace making a runner. An omen? … Ben has the ‘fro going tonight, which I always prefer to the corn rows. Cleveland made its first six shots – the first miss when LeBron went one-on-one and took a long jumper – and took an early 17-10 lead. … I’ve noticed that the LeBron-Paul Pierce matchup seems to be key. … LeBron is passing very well in the first quarter. He drove and his Wally Szczerbiak for a three, then set up J.J. Hickson for a slam. … Boston’s defense does not seem close to what it was late last season. … James ends with a how’d-he-do-that reverse layup and block at the buzzer. … Nine points, four assists, one rebound, one block for 23 in the first quarter. … Not too shabby. … Cavs shoot 13-of-18 in the first quarter, 73 percent. … Strong start is no surprise, given the significance of the game. … See if Cleveland can maintain the pace. Cleveland 33, Boston 23.
Second quarter: The pace slows
Looked to me like Leon Powe took a crab-dribble walk, but no call. … The reserves produce a sloppy start to the second quarter. … And the Celtics cut the 10-point lead in half. … Mo Williams hits the floor for a loose ball and Daniel Gibson makes a three and the lead is back to 10. … The bench is up now, and the crowd is playoff loud. … My colleague George Thomas smashed the fingernail of his little finger while moving a chair. … After wailing for a bit he’s back typing. … Gotta type thru that stuff. … Me, I’d be down in the infirmary. … LeBron James has to be the league’s most underrated rebounder. … When he goes for the ball he’s an Oreck vacuum cleaner. … Pierce doesn’t like a block call as he guards LeBron. … LeBron misses a four-foot shot he could have dunked, but comes up with a steal on the other end and makes a three. … The Cavs have scored just 13 points this quarter but still lead by 13. Make it 11 after a Kevin Garnett dunk. … Sloppy finish to half lets Celtics cut lead to nine. Cleveland 49, Boston 40.
After shooting 72 percent the first quarter, the Cavs are shooting 54 percent for the game. Cleveland shot six-for-17 the second quarter. That was to be expected. The game itself dictated a fast start, and when that energy dissipated things returned to a more normal pace. The second half should be more "normal."
LeBron had an outstanding half — 15 points, four assists.
Boston is shooting 45 percent. The Big Three are 8-for-20.
More after the game …
Final score: Cleveland 98, Boston 83
–Good night for the Cavs. Great night for LeBron James. Outstanding night for the home crowd, which got to enjoy Ben Wallace’s free throw shooting in the fourth quarter (of all things) and a 15-point win over the defending champions. It’s just one game, but it’s important. Especially in the all-important playoff seedings. All told, a very, very good night for a very, very good Cavs team.
–At 29-6, the Cavs have the best record in the league. The last time the Cavs at least shared the best record was March 21, 1989.
–James finished with 38 points, seven rebounds, six assists, four steals and three blocks. Nobody has had those kind of numbers since David Robinson had 48, 16, six, four and three in a March, 1994 game for San Antonio.
–James’ defense against Paul Pierce was masterful. Pierce scored 11 points, four against Wally Szczerbiak in the fourth quarter. Pierce shot 4-for-15. This won’t happen every night, of course, but it was a defensive lockdown of the highest order.
–The entire Cavs team was energized all night long — except for an ugly start to the third quarter. They dove for loose balls, made defensive switches and hustled for rebounds. This was an effort game, with the Cavs getting 14 steals.
–The Celtics resorted to Hack-A-Ben in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t work. Ben made 5-of-10 free throws in that stretch, which got the crowd going, and the Cavs barely let the Celtics score. Boston shot 41.3 percent, Cleveland 50.8 percent. Those numbers were reflective of the defensive effort.
–Boston will be back. The Celtics have lost seven-of-nine, but they’re too good and too professional to slip away. They will be back and the Cavs undoubtedly will face them in the playoffs, which will make for another hard-fought, intense series (good grief, could I throw another tired cliché in here???). But the Cavs now have three fewer losses than Boston, which is big in the vital chase for home-court advantage in the playoffs. A year ago neither team won a road game in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Cavs have not beat Boston in Boston since January 3, 2007, which is more than two years. They have lost eight in a row there – counting last season’s playoffs. But … Cleveland has defeated the Celtics 10 in a row in Cleveland – by an average of 11 points. Think home court does not matter? That’s why these regular season games will be so important. Every last one of them.
Mike Brown:
“I know offensively (James) did a whale of a job carrying us, especially when we were stagnant and stalled out. Defensively, Paul Pierce is a tough cover and the last few ballgames he had our number. I thought LeBron did a nice job of continuing to pursue Paul even when he got screen after screen after screen. I thought he just kept pursuing and trying to make (Pierce) work for his shots.”
“I thought there was a stretch where we were a little flat offensively. When the ball came to a standstill, we didn’t move bodies and we didn’t move the ball that well. We hung in there defensively, and then LeBron carried us for a stretch there, just making play after play offensively. I thought he did it the right way. He was very aggressive in the second half attacking the rim, especially when we kind of stalled out a little bit.”
I believe the preferred nomenclature is "Whack-a-Wallace".