Relevant Statistics:
Pace: Cavs 93.5 (27th) vs. Clippers 94.2 (20th)
Offensive Efficiency: Cavs 107.9 (7th) vs. Clippers 102.4 (22nd)
Defensive Efficiency: Cavs 100.0 (4th) vs. Clippers 103.7 (15th)
Notes:
Bummed I’m missing both of the Cavs’ trips to LA this year, especially because LeBron might drop 70 out of rage tonight, but alas, sometimes you just can’t get out of spending your birthday weekend in Vegas. (I’m actually writing this on Friday, before heading out the door.)
A reminder that Ryan Braun is your guest recapper tonight, so be nice.
Recommended Reading:
The highest of possible recommendations for ClipperBlog, since it’s one of the best team blogs ever done, it’s run by our network’s editor, D.J. Foster has come on strong, and 3rd man Pedro Moura is a fellow USC student. Read Clipperblog.
Well that was incredibly aggravating. Missed the last two minutes cause my dish went out.
Either way, not a bad win at the end of a long road trip. The offense was a problem, the defense wasn’t as terrible as the numbers show. Rasul Butler just couldn’t miss, and as anyone associated with athletic sports will tell you, good offense always beats good defense. Second, Anderson kept fighting even though he didn’t have a good game, especially defensively against Smith in the first half.
Delonte had a fine game all around, and Mo is starting to snap out of it. Mike Brown is finally figuring out that just like the twin tower look has it uses against certain teams, mainly the best teams…the small line-up has its place too and he is using more it crunch time. They also took care of the ball this game and that was good to see for the first time on this trip.
The bad. Z. Guys, I’m trying to be positive but Z’s jumper just isn’t there this year. And when you look at Z w/o his jumper at this age you are looking at guy that shouldn’t be getting a lot of minutes. I understand he has been there forever and done a lot of things for the team, but his time is nearly here. Jawad Williams and even Hickson need to start stealing his time and Varejao needs more minutes at center for the small line-up. Just to take out the arguement that the Cavs owe Z…no they don’t. I know that’s cruel, but that is what the paycheck is for. The 100 million + Dan Gilbert has paid Z is what is owed Z, nothing more. Either way, 3-2 on a tough roady with a whole lot of home games coming up. I like it, and that is my Krolik impression of the night (I can dream :} ).
One other thing. AP has been getting killed on the net recently. The guy is doing just fine. He is shooting lights out from 3 and is solid defensively. Can he handle, no. Will he score other ways than spot up..no. But tonight he had 3 steals and his length is really gonna be needed in the playoffs. He isn’t spectacular, but he does his job well.
But…im still really really disappointed by the vanishing act of Boobie. We can use his shooting off the bench. I understand Mike Brown is wanting to go bigger and bigger to get ready for the teams we see in the playoffs, but Boobie needs some time because he had been playing so well and can be an asset in the playoffs.
Hickson…….I’m giving up on him for this season. He is either traded or just a dead spot in the rotation for the rest of the season.
In defense of Z…he has two things working against him. First, his November sucked. Take out that month, and he’s shooting 51% from the floor, 81% from the line, which are actually an improvement from last season. Second, he has a significantly lower usage rate (16.8 compared to 21.3 last year) than he had last year or any other year in his career. Thus, while we see typical drops in rebound rate (16.5-15.6%) and assist rate (6.7-6.5%), his scoring has dropped considerably. This drop in usage comes as a surprise because he moved to the bench. It is worth noting that while Shaq has widely been seen as accepting a smaller role this year, his usage rate has actually gone up.
Also, Z has been second on the Cavs in PER since James arrived (he actually edged out James in James’ rookie year). Last year, while Mo was selected an all star, Z was actually having a better season, at least by that metric. This makes it difficult to fathom why he has seen such a drop in minutes and usage. If he is playing like he was last year, it is not a stretch to say the offense should run through him when James is on the bench, especially when Mo is struggling.
Finally, even including Z’s “No game November”, here are the Cleveland players with a PER worse than Ilgauskas right now:
Daniel Gibson
JJ Hickson
Darnell Jackson
Jamario Moon
Anthony Parker
Jawad Williams
This puts him as Cleveland’s 5th best rotation player after James, Shaq, Mo, and Andy. I truly believe the Cavs just need to run some plays to get Z open jumpers or give him the ball in the post to get him involved in the offense as something other than a last resort. He can still contribute, he just needs the ball more.