Quirky, odd game Friday night between the Cavs and New Orleans. For a good portion of the fourth quarter and two minutes of the third quarter, the Cavs used a lineup that featured LeBron James as the tallest player.
James wound up at center, with Wally Szczerbiak and Sasha Pavlovic at forward and various guards on the court, including Terance Kinsey. It was a very odd lineup against a team that features some tall players like David West and Tyson Chandler.
At points in the game, Daniel Gibson was guarding those guys.
With that group in the game, the Cavs actually pulled away, and by the end of the game the Hornets looked like a frustrated team when Chris Paul and James Posey were ejected (Paul was ejected for something he said to some folks he knew near the Hornets bench). One would think that West and Chandler would post up the smaller players with ease, and they went inside at times. But it didn't work as James would come to double-team and the shot would go awry or the taller guys would pass.
West shot 6-for-16, Chandler 1-for-3 and Paul 5-for-14. The Cavs held New Orleans to 37.3 percent shooting.
Much was made of the Cavs being without Delonte West, but the absence of Zydrunas Ilgauskas and the flu that has sidelined Ben Wallace and foul trouble for Anderson Varejao led Mike Brown to basically play five guards.
As they say, whatever it takes — especially with West and Z on the sidelines.
New Orleans coach Byron Scott said this: "The true difference between the teams, I think, is the fact that they seemed like they were playing with a real purpose as far as winning the championship and I don't know if we are playing with that same purpose."
Chris Paul: "We were trying to get the ball out of LeBron's hands. His teammates did what they had to do tonight. They made shots."
Some other game tidbits:
This was a gutty game by the Cavs. James was not feeling well. The Cavs were on the second half of a back-to-back after losing in Chicago last night. New Orleans was rested and should have been ready. And the Cavs were without West, a player James seriously lamented losing when he spoke prior to the game. No matter, the Cavs took a nine-point lead after the first quarter and won for the 20th time in 20 home games, this time by 14 points.
Sasha Pavlovic started for West and had a very good game, scoring 19 points and making all four of his threes. Wally Szczerbiak made four-of-five threes as well. Be nice to think that will continue every game with West out, but it won't. Still … the play of Pavlovic and Szczerbiak in the absence of West was encouraging in this game.
Z visited a place called The Institute for Foot and Ankle Reconstruction at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore. There, he visited Dr. Mark Myerson, the guy who performed his successful foot reconstruction years ago. Usually Z and this kind of place in the same paragraph is bad news, but it turns out it wasn't. Ilgauskas was cleared to return to on-court work next week, which means his return is in sight.
A lot of folks at the game were talking about Jon Gruden getting fired in Tampa Bay. Yes, I'd have favored the hiring of Gruden. But nobody expected his firing, so it's not realistic to think the Browns could have planned for that to happen. That being said, you offer me Gruden or Eric Mangini and I'll take Gruden.
Trivia question: Who has the most Super Bowl rings — Gruden, Mike Holmgren, Bill Cowher or Brian Billick? Answer: All have one.
Trivia question: Which head coach working in the AFC and NFC Championship games had NFL head coaching experience when he was hired by his team? Answer: None. Mike Tomlin, Ken Whisenhunt, Andy Reid and John Harbaugh were all assistants when promoted. What does that prove? Nothing, except that what matters is getting the right guy, whether he's been a "quality control" coach, or whether he's been a head coach for 20 years. The right guy is what matters.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
i would have been happy to see gruden with the browns too. i'm not sure what the rush was to hire mangini. does the team that hires it's coach the quickest make the super bowl faster than the other teams getting a new coach?
i think the g.m. was to blame for tampa's problems. they never had a qb, cadillac was in the shop all the time and the return of warrick dunn was a bust, the expiration date on brooks and barber passed during the season and a guy who was out of football in '07 was their best receiver. not to slag on what antonio bryant did but the g.m. wasn't getting enough good players.
The GM, John Allen was hand picked by Gruden after Rich Mckay, whom Gruden didn't get along with was forced after after the 2003 season. Allen got Gruden the types of players he wanted, the Bucs became a very old team, patching things up with an assortment of veterans, not trying to build for the future with the draft as Mckay had done under Dungy. That formula laid the groundwork for the Bucs' turnaround of the mid to late 90's.
I know; I lived in the TampaBay area for years during that time.
Terje, in case you missed it the Browns wanted to hire an HC quickly so he would get first pick of assistants. Would it have been advantageous to wait? Presently it looks like the same pool of hot candidates are making the rounds and I'm sure Mangini would have been among them.
Like Pat says, the real and only proof as to whether Lerner was correct in his approach and strategy will be if Mangini and company are the right guys. Given the dysfunction on display, we'll have to give it 2-3 years.
thanks for the info cursedfan. i knew about the mckay stuff but not the new g.m.
"Like Pat says, the real and only proof as to whether Lerner was correct in his approach and strategy will be if Mangini and company are the right guys. Given the dysfunction on display, we'll have to give it 2-3 years."
pretty much. sad isn't it?
Cursedfan could live in Timbuktu and he'd still be wrong about the Bucs, who are actually a young team outside the quarterback position, Barber and Brooks.
And the best players on Dungy's teams were drafted by Sam Wyche.
The question is really who's team was it that won the Super Bowl for Tampa??