Cavs down Spurs 90-88

The Cavs may have gained some confidence by winning in San Antonio.

The Cavs beat San Antonio at their own game Thursday night. They shot better from the perimeter, created turnovers, didn’t allow easy baskets, and played physical basketball. In keeping with Cavalier basketball, they out-rebounded the Spurs, built a decent lead, then nearly blew it.

LeBron was merely ‘average’ on Thursday, actually slightly below his average. He finished with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. He also had 2 great blocked shots, and a 3rd that was called goal tending. It probably was, but it was another great hustle play as LeBron swatted a lay-up from behind. That is becoming LeBron’s signature defensive move.

Zydrunas Ilgauskas was a force, scoring 17 on only 11 shots. He took over for the Cavs offensively when LeBron went to the bench in the 2nd. That group of Z, Daniel Gibson, Devin Brown, Andy Varejao and Damon Jones actually turned a 7 point deficit into an 8 point lead. They did it with great defense and team offense. Devin Brown had an outstanding behind the back pass to Damon Jones on a 2 on 1 fast break. That was set up by a steal from Andy Varejao. It was as if the Cavs knew they had to do more with LeBron on the bench, only this time instead of jacking up jump shots, they played as a team. They made the extra pass and fed Z on the low post. It was the best effort I’ve seen from the bench this year.

See LeBron Score

Memphis forward Mike Miller was not even a speed bump for LeBron James.

Last night the FedEx Forum reminded me of the James A. Rhodes Arena in Akron. Just like in high school, LeBron James was driving to the basket at will, defenses helpless to stop him. It was a good thing too, because the Grizzles were shooting the lights out of the place.

First the numbers, the Cavs won 132-124 in OT. His highness scored 51 points, (a season high and the 4th 50+ point game in his career) had 9 assists and 8 boards. Once again LeBron came up huge down the stretch, scoring 25 in the 4th and OT. He finished 18 for 28 including 6 of 12 from triple territory. His help came from Gibson who had 18, Varejao (11), Gooden (12), and Z (14).

James leads Cavs over Bobcats

LeBron James waited…almost too long…to take over this one.

LeBron James led the Cavs in scoring, rebounding, assists, steals, and blocked shots. Yet, without a few of his teammates, the Cavs wouldn’t have pulled this one out. Andy Varejao came up big tonight, despite playing with a bruised knee and an Achilles sprain. Varejao grabbed 18 boards and scored 16 points in his 41 minutes. It was Andy that willed the Cavs back into the game in the second quarter when LeBron took a seat.

The Bobcats, and specifically Jason Richardson opened the game scorching hot. The Cavs managed to hang with Charlotte, and eventually opened up an 8 point lead in the second, as Richardson went cold. The Cavs finished the first half up 58-51. But, as has been the trend for the Cavs, they started the third quarter cold, and relinquished the lead. James, who had 13 points at the half, didn’t score at all in the 3rd frame.

Cavs Run Past Sonics

For maybe the first time this season, the Cavs dominated an opponent from start to finish.

 

The Cavs turned up the defensive intensity and the result was an easy win against Seattle 95-79. The Cavs outscored the Sonics in each of the first 3 quarters and built a 20 point lead in the early part of the 4th quarter. This allowed LeBron and the starting group to get a little more rest than usual, as they have to play in Atlanta tonight.

Daniel Gibson shot the lights out, connecting on 5 of 8 three pointers, and all the Cavs seemed to get in on the defensive lock down. Larry Hughes made a nice steal leading to a thunderous LeBron dunk late in the third quarter. Andy was his usual hustling self, and even made a few baskets just outside the paint (if I hadn’t seen it myself I might not believe it.) Z never really got going, but with the pace was quicker with the steals and defensive pressure. The Cavs finished with 15 steals. Now honestly, the Sonics are to blame for a good portion of those. They did not handle the ball well. (There’s an understatement.)

Kevin Durant started slow, but showed promise, scoring 24 before leaving the game with a ankle sprain. He came down on Sasha’s foot I believe and that ended his night. He didn’t do anything extraordinary to impress me during the game, just played solid and knocked down some shots.

Cavs Overcome Terrible Start

Hopefully that will be the headline on the season as well.

The Cavs made Jamario Moon and his Raptor teammates look like the Eastern Conference All-Star team for the first 32 minutes of Sunday’s game. Then LeBron and company decided they wanted to win the game. They did, 93-90. They won despite waiting until 4 minutes left in the game to grab their first lead. (Much to the delight of Cavs color man Austin Carr, who had been insisting for 5 minutes that Cavs couldn’t win on the road unless they managed to get the lead. Seriously, do we not have any former players that sound half intelligent?)

LeBron brought out the Superman cape apparently because he was frustrated with some female hecklers in the front row. He proceeded to score 24 points in the fourth quarter alone. Not surprisingly the Raptors focused their full attention on James, and LeBron was happy to dish to wide open teammates who actually knocked down jumpers to seal the win.

2 of those big shots came from Damon Jones, who played with intensity today. He drained consecutive 3 pointers to draw the Cavs to within 2 when James and Daniel Gibson sealed the win. Devin Brown and Andy Varejao helped with hustle and defense. The NBA is funny though, what passes as good defense when shots don’t fall, gets ridiculed when they do.

Whatever you want to call it; luck, defense, hustle, desire…the Cavs got it done Sunday. They must continue to improve, and find the right pieces to the puzzle night in and night out. What is clear is this- don’t tick LeBron off.

Cavs top Hawks, LeBron goes off

LeBron busts through the line of scrimmage…Touchdown! Well, what do you see in this picture?

Someone might want to remind the Hawks what sport they play. I can’t say that I blame them however. At about the 9 minute mark in the 3rd quarter LeBron decided he’d had enough and the wasn’t going to lose this game. And he didn’t. To that point LeBron had only 5 points in the game, he would add 31 more, including 19 of the Cavs last 22 points. Said Daniel Gibson, “He got into one of those zones we all love, It was fun to watch.” Yeah, I’d buy that. Sort of reminded me of another such stretch, back in the playoffs against Detroit.

The Cavs as a team shot much better against Atlanta, including 6 of 10 from Larry Hughes. Zydrunas had a rough night, grabbing 5 boards and scoring only 3 points. His shot just wasn’t there, and they defended the pick-and-pop well, which is Z’s bread and butter. Drew Gooden had himself a good ballgame, and Varejao added 11 boards and 8 points from the bench. I was impressed with the balance of playing time the three big men got last night, and since Drew had the hot hand of the three, he was rewarded with more minutes. What a concept!

LeBron gets win, Kobe gets accolades

I’m sure you read the ESPN articles leading up to last night’s game comparing Kobe with LeBron. Last night when the chalk cleared, LeBron was standing on top.

The Cavs, lead by LeBron James, rebounded from a terrible game against the Knicks on Wednesday with a gritty effort against the Lakers. It was a excellent defensive fourth quarter effort that earned the Cavs a 94-90 win. The Lakers scored a mere 12 points in the final period, and Bryant had only 2 of those. In contrast, LeBron scored 6 of his 33 points in the 4th, and grabbed 3 boards in the final frame.

If you ask LeBron who the best player in the league is, there is little question what his response would be-

“Kobe Bryant is definitely the most explosive player we have in this league,” James said. “There’s no one like him.”

High praise, but if it’s all the same to you LeBron, we’ll take you in this debate. Let’s go to the video…

Yeah, that makes sense…

Cavs end losing streak, worst team in the league gets called out by their coach…should have seen this coming.

Full disclosure- I didn’t see a second of this game. Had something else scheduled tonight, but figured this one should be over halfway through the fourth. Silly me. After Isaiah Thomas questioned the heart and character of his team in the media I should have seen this coming. This would be the game that the Knicks play out of their mind, and then go on a 4 or 5 game losing streak costing the coach his job. Could have put money on this really. The Cavs were coming off a double OT game, in which Zydrunas played waaaayyy too many minutes, and surprise, Hughes and Pavlovic combined for a 6 for 20 shooting night. LeBron had his usual numbers, but managed 6 steals in this one. All for nothing I guess.

Cavs scramble for 2OT win

It took him 50 minutes of playing time, but Lebron James finally put the game out of reach when his second free throw found the bottom of the net with :14 seconds to go. James finished with 31 points, but had a rough shooting night, hitting only 10 of 25 shots, and none of his 5 three point attempts. Fortunately for the Cavs, he was money from the free throw line, hitting 11 of 13. Zydrunas Illgauskas had another big game for the Cavs, scoring 24 points and grabbing 11 boards, but perhaps his biggest play of the game was a block of Andrew Bogut that would have tied the game with :15 seconds to go. After the jump, the worst thing I’ve written all year-

James, Varejao return, Hughes stars

When we signed Larry Hughes back in ’05, this was the kind of performance we hoped to see.

This one was over before it started. Actually, it wasn’t over until the Cavs’ trio of LeBron James, Larry Hughes and Andy Varejao took the court with 6 minutes to go in the first quarter. Then the rout was on. The Cavs slashed, dished and shot their way to a 118-105 victory, that really wasn’t that close. Larry Hughes led the way with 36 points on 13 of 17 shooting, including 5 of 8 from deep. He played only 26 minutes, but was very effective in his time on the floor. Hughes was free to roam the court playing a true shooting guard in his minutes tonight. According to coach Mike Brown, that is the role Hughes will play from now on. In fact, Brown said he intends to bring Hughes off the bench. Certainly he has the ability to energize the team and provide a boost coming off the bench. Now, let’s not get crazy and think that he will shoot 76% and score 30+ every night, but if he can provide that 15-20 point lift, especially when LeBron is resting this team is dangerous.

This just in…

Today while fishing around the interwebs, I came across this Cavs story by Brian Windhorst. I came across the story because ESPN’s rumor mill had a link today reporting that the Cavs have a better shot at trading for Andre Miller than Jason Kidd. So to recap, ESPN reported today (Monday the 10th) what Windhorst (who is paid handsomely to follow the Cavs) reported on Friday the 7th, which is what we reported on Thursday the 6th.

As I was looking into the numbers and rumors, it seems that Andre Miller’s name has surfaced a few times. To acquire Miller the Cavs could give Shannon Brown and Eric Snow. That trade works on the ESPN trade machine. It would give the Sixers a vet point guard, and a young player in return for Miller. Who knows, that trade probably has a better chance of being made than the Kidd one. Not that Andre Miller is close to Jason Kidd’s talent, but still better than what we have running the point.

Seriously, I’ll write for the Beacon Journal for $50 grand and a press pass.

Kidd out with migraine (wink, wink, nudge, nudge)

Pat saw this report today and passed it along to me. Very interesting.

The original report comes from Yahoo Sports. The article insinuates that Jason Kidd, who didn’t play in New Jersey’s game yesterday against the Knicks, sat out not because of a headache as is being reported, but because he is angry with management for not building a championship caliber team. Apparently Jason would like to be traded, more specifically, to be traded in order to play with LeBron.

There was no migraine headache holding Jason Kidd out of the New Jersey Nets’ loss to the New York Knicks Wednesday night, but a superstar sending a message to a floundering franchise that he’s irate with management and teammates, several league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

As the Nets flew back to New Jersey late Tuesday from a victory over Cleveland, sources said Kidd already had decided he would be sitting out against the Knicks in the Meadowlands. Kidd didn’t tell Nets officials until Wednesday afternoon, but several people inside and outside the organization were made aware of the meaning behind his sick day.

Kidd’s agent, Jeff Schwartz, isn’t believed to have formally demanded a trade, but Wednesday’s bold act could be the precursor to starting that process. Two sources said Kidd has been a constant text messaging partner with LeBron James since playing with him this summer on Team USA and that the Cavaliers are his preferred destination.

That didn’t take long…

ESPN reports that the Cavs have indeed matched the offer sheet given to Anderson Varejao by the Bobcats. It is not known at this time when the Cavs can expect their high-energy big man back in the line-up.

Wake me up when LeBron is back…

I got to watch the Cavs last night for the first time since LeBron’s injury. It will be my last until he returns.

Do you have any friends that don’t believe LeBron should be the MVP, or perhaps think for some reason he is over-rated? I have the solution. Make them watch this game a few times. That was horrible. Terrible. I wish I could do Frank Caliendo’s Barkley impersonation here. The Cavs deserve it after that shooting demonstration. The Cavs shot 21 for 88! 34 percent for the game. To be honest, I was surprised it wasn’t worse. I had to stop watching after the third quarter. I couldn’t stand it.

Drew Gooden and Zydrunas couldn’t make a play because nobody knew how to get them the ball in a position to score. Drew had an off night shooting, but again he tried to do too much and play outside of his game. I can’t say that I blame him.

Varejao signs contract with Bobcats

Anderson Varejao has inked a deal with the Charlotte Bobcats. The Cavs now have one week to match, or the wild-haired one is free to leave.

Credit Cleveland Sports Authority with the first scoop on this one. It seems the Bobcats have tendered a three year, $17.4 million dollar deal. The contract reportedly has an opt-out clause after 2 seasons. So the big question now, is whether or not the Cavaliers will match. $5.8 million per season is much higher than the Cavaliers have been offering their 6th man, but it also well short of the $8 million per that Anderson’s agent had offered the Cavs, and for half the years.

Do the Cavs have that much room left on the books? If they do, (and I imagine that would mean the mid-level exemption) it would be hard to imagine that they wouldn’t match. The Cavs can desperately use Varejao’s energy and defense. It is hard to imagine them as a Championship caliber team without him. He is a valuable piece, but not if he ties the Cavaliers’ hands for years to come. This deal seems to be the right amount. Let’s get it done and move on with the season.

Seems like the Charlotte Observer has an additional take on this story. Rick Bonnell seems to think this could be a favor for agent Dan Fegan to move the process along. Not that the Bobcats wouldn’t like to have Anderson, but it seems they are figuring the Cavs will indeed match.