Overview: The Cavs overcame an extremely sloppy first half and weak defensive outing against a hungry Bucks team behind 23 points from Mo Williams and an absolute deluge from LeBron James, who scored 55, one shy of his career high, while setting his career high for three-pointers with eight.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
Holy freaking crap. LeBron. First and foremost, that was absolutely insane. If anyone can remember the last time that many shots with that degree of difficulty were hit in a similar time-frame, please let me know. I’d say maybe Pistol Pete might’ve done it back when he was with the Jazz or the Hawks. That would honestly be my best guess. There is no shot LeBron James cannot make. Period. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen in my life. Absolutely phenominal. And on a night where every one of the 55 and 9 assists was needed.
I have been saying in the last few recaps on this blog how LeBron’s stroke looks worlds improved in recent games, and he could be close to having a major breakthrough as far as how well he starts shooting from the outside.
This has absolutely nothing to do with that. None. He was showing great balance, a controlled jump, and assured finish on all of his shots, his form much closer to textbook than it’s looked to me in a while.
Tonight had nothing to do with textbook. These were 30-foot fadeaway bankers. Pull-up 27-footers still going forward. All off the dribble, none set up with the drive. Just pure, unadalterated impossible shots that he continued to make. I really don’t want to take away from that.
Is this what LeBron James with a perimeter game looks like? Is this the blueprint for LeBron finally turning the corner and adding an outside game to his unparallelled ability to take the ball to the hole? Because I don’t think that LeBron taking contested, off-the-bounce 27-footers is something defenses are going to give up the lane to defend. Ever. And if you’re going to follow up hitting tough outside shots by taking tougher outside shots, how is that opening anything in your game up?
Two other quick contrarian points:
-Part of this stems from the fact that any other player taking one of those shots would be immediately benched. I’d love to say LeBron’s the only one capable of making those shots, but NBA players can do insane things with a basketball. Given the chance, who knows who else could do it?
-It’s not like this was a spontaneous event-LeBron hitting a three, hitting a tough three, and trying an absolutely absurd three is a fairly commonplace occurance, and usually what happens is he bricks a 32-footer catistrophically. This was something that was very much attempted before.
Great as this was, it is a one-time event. This is not a blueprint. It is something to be amazed at, wonder. You may not see anything like this ever again.
I feel bad saying anything bad about this performance. From the bottom of my heart, I really do. I was holding my head in disbelief along with everybody else and jumping around the room. But what I ultimately watch for with LeBron is steps that point him towards the greatest player of all time. The missing piece is an elite perimeter game. When you drive as well as LeBron does, that means easy shots-post-up layups and turnarounds, pull-up jumpers in between the first and second man, flare cuts out for open catch-and-shoot threes on balance, stutter-step set up jumpers with created space. Watching Mo pour in his carefully orchestrated and repeatable beautiful on-balance perimeter jumpers that he’s worked on and implemented in his dual scoring explosions this year was far more enjoyable to me than this outside barrage, and I like LeBron a lot more than I like Mo as a player.
Spectacular plays on the drive to get to the hoop are my favorite thing in basketball and what makes LeBron LeBron, my favorite player to watch. But their form follows their function-they create a higher-percentage attempt for LeBron, and ultimately make him better than other players because he can make that extra split or explosion or hang in the air for longer to get a layup or dunk. With these shots, form came first. There were, without question, better attempts he passed up in order to take these shots, and doing that leaves a creeping feeling in the back of my stomach even as I go insane. Please, don’t think I’m trying to get comments or come up with a different angle on this. This stuff keeps me up at night.
And I’d be remiss to go this entire recap without talking about the sky-hook. That is just such a typically LeBron solution it’s amazing. He’s had trouble finding a move that works for him after he drives past the first defender but can’t get all the way to the hole. Does he post up or go to a pull-up? Nah. That’s the easy way out. I think I’ll use an unblockable, gorgeous shot with an off-the-charts degree of difficulty that I somehow make look easy. Much better than an 8-foot banker or floater.
Going 8-11 from deep, 6-15 from midrange, and 15-22 from the line is just LeBron. He had 60 if he was hitting the free throws. Hitting a 27-footer, hitting a 26-footer, missing two free throws, and immediately hitting two more 26-footers is the most hilarious thing ever.
Mo Williams will have absolutely nothing written about him for this game, but I absolutely loved the way he played-he was attacking the whole way through and looking to get layups or make plays and was only looking for the deep jumper when LeBron was off the court or he was set up with a catch-and-shoot opportunity.
Other than that, Z had 11 and those are your double-digit scorers. He played fantastic, but wasn’t all that involved offensively.
Andy’s energy is absolutely back-he looks revitalized out there and is all over every board. 5 fouls kept him off the floor and is an unfortunate byproduct.
Hickson: 4 points (on a beautiful turnaround J and finish off a LeBron drive), 3 rebounds, 11 minutes. His time to daydreams ratio is ridiculously high.
Boobie: 30 minutes, 0-3 from the field, 0 points. At this point, I would cut off my own wrist and give it to Delonte if it would get him back a day sooner.
Similar note: Wally -12 in 20 minutes and 3-7 from the field. Saddle up for a finals run, Wally.
Kinsey the starter: somewhat less of a man-crush than I have on Kinsey the energy reserve, but he’s still awesome, getting out there and playing defense beautifully and making a gorgeous cut for a hoop when LeBron was posting at the top of the key, and he even banged a three! Good times! However, maybe my favorite things about him is how much of a full-court dynamo he is, and that doesn’t shine through when he’s with Z on the first unit.
Defense really not a strength tonight, with Skiles’ offense working really nicely as cutter after cutter flew into the lane and got gritty buckets inside. Charlie V being hot only made matters worse.
Bullets of Randomness:
Fight stuff-nothing really to add. I don’t think Charlie V. will be suspended, and don’t really think he should be, seeing as Andy was up and grinning like 30 seconds later. Love Z stepping in, very much an earned techical. You go to war with Big Z.
Mbah a Moute really is that good defensively-LeBron, hot as he was, tried to punk him a few times and the rook was having exactly none of it. He’ll be in this league a long time.
LBJ’s defense seriously rattled Richard Jefferson.
That’s it. I’m at 1250 words. It’s 3:15 in the morning. I’m drained, guys. Have a good weekend.
… It’s written how the Cavs didn’t do a good job defensively in this game, but when did they have a chance? 32 fouls were called in the first half alone, despite the game not being particularly physical. They Bucks didn’t have much of a chance to miss shots because there were fouls called on every possession so a high FG% is completely understandable. I thought for sure the refs would talk it over at halftime and calm the f down, but just as many fouls were called in the 2nd half. (62 fouls were called in the game, BTW. The NBA record is 78; there were so many fouls called that I actually checked to see what it was.)
I thought that, defensively, the Cavs were doing what they normally do and making the other team feel them, it’s just that tonight, that was a foul. And anything they did to adjust to try to stop Milwaukee’s dribble penetration, which was killing them in the 1st quarter, was a foul too. (The same goes for Milwaukee, who had just as many fouls as us.)
… I have never seen anything more amazing than what LeBron did in 2:50 tonight, nor have I ever seen him so jacked up about his play, nor have I ever seen tour bench so out of their mind, nor have I ever jumped up and down screaming OH MY GOD so much. Simply unbelievable.
Also, I think you’re on to something. It would be interesting if we could know how LeBron’s 3pt % for shots taken in transition, because he definitely struggles the lower the degree of difficulty.
I hope the sky hook becomes a part of his arsenal. If he can hit that consistently (the two shots at the beginning looked good) then forget it. Game over.
.. I agree with you about Andy being back. A good way to tell that Andy’s back is by asking the question, “Are opposing power forwards throwing him to the ground by his face?” This has to be the 2nd or 3rd PF that Andy has annoyed to the point of ejection-worthy violence this season. I know Kenyon Martin got ejected for reacting to him earlier in the season and I’m trying to think if there were any others. There have definitely been some T’s. He always annoys the hell out of Garnett.
… Daniel Gibson blames his off-season surgery and his toe injury for the fact that he’s missing so many 3s. That doesn’t explain why he’s missed dozens and dozens of layup attempts this season. (I’m a season ticket holder and have watched almost every away game, and he has made two layups that I remember all season; I remember them because it’s such a rare occurrence.) To add insult to injury, after coming nowhere close on his layups and drawing fouls, Gibson has been awful from the charity stripe this year.
Remember last season where Gibson was arguably the 3rd best player on the Cavs? He is the 11th best player on the Cavs this year. Do you understand what I’m saying??? I can actually name you 10 players on our team who are better than him. Insane.
After he signed that 5 year, $24-million deal over the summer, rival agents and executives were all remarking how he was underpaid… but I don’t think there’s any way you can argue that now. If Damon Jones was over paid when he was making $4-million a year on the Cavs, Daniel Gibson is EXTREMELY overpaid. At least DJ was hitting his 3s.
I can honestly say that there is no Cav in recent memory that I have enjoyed watching less than Daniel Gibson. I did not see this one coming.
Ryan – I couldn’t agree with you more about watching Gibson play. If his toe is so badly hurt why does he continue to drive recklessly into the lane, which 9 times out of 10, results in a turnover or a missed shot? It doesn’t help that he openly sulks around the court after every bone-head play he makes. I’d like to see him stop sulking, & in turn stop over-celebrating ever three he makes with that stupid gun holster thing he does. As Delonte gets back into rhythm I think the Cavs should seriously look at resting him or flat out benching him until either his toe, his head, or both get right.
And this just in – LeBron getting hotter than the sun was Damon Jones fault! It’s the storyline I haven’t heard or read anywhere else about last night’s game, but while watching it seemed as plain as day… I first noticed it during the second quarter when the Cavs were at the line. LeBron wasn’t shooting but kept turning around & jawing with the Bucks bench. I thought at first he was just goofing around with Redd, but then Jones – Good Ol’ Mr. Doesn’t Know When To Shut The Hell Up – stood up off the bench & cocked something off to LeBron – even to the point where an assistant coach told Jones to sit down. Long story short, as the rest of the first half ticked down LeBron repeatedly turned & jawed at Jones who was hard to mistake in his brown suit (no leopard print this time). I think the whole situation came to a head when LeBron tripped in front of the Bucks bench on an inbounds pass & turned over the ball… I think LeBron was embarrassed & pissed off & wanted to shut Damon Jones up for good. Not too long after that was his long three to end the half, and then his insane start of the third quarter when making shot after shot… he stared down Damon Jones.
At least that’s how I saw it.
Not the recipe for a title, but it made for a very enjoyable game.
Great recap — I was feeling similar emotions while I watched LeBron’s god-like barrage in the third quarter. I’m not even sure video-game LeBron can hit that many ridiculous long-range shots.
Meanwhile, I similarly can’t wait for Delonte’s return. It’s clear to me that he’s an invaluable piece of a championship team. Ferry get’s a lot of criticism from Cavs fans and a lot of basketball know-nothings, but that trade last year landed us some pieces that really fit. Delonte is a great example — we have him in a reasonable contract and he fits incredibly well with LBJ, Mo, etc.
A great player makes his teammates better. A great team is one in which the sum of the whole is greater than its parts. To a man, almost every member of the Cavs is better in his current role than he would be on another team. That’s why I get annoyed when ignorant fools diss the Cavs as a one-man show. Great as he is, LeBron benefits from having a slew of players around him with clear roles that can execute and fulfill their roles. That’s why the chemistry is so good. The Cavs players accept and excel in their roles. Guys who haven’t are either gone or buried on the bench.
Lastly, I don’t know what’s up with Boobie, but he’s just been off all year. He’s regressed into Sasha territory (though, without the pouting). I feel bad for Pavs. He has the talent to get some minutes, but he just seems to struggle with consistent effort and focus.
Dude, Sasha is so much better than Gibson.
He can defend, he’s like 5th in the entire NBA in 3s this year, and was playing quite well before his injury.
I think at the beginning of the year Sasha was sulking too much because he wasn’t happy with his limited role, but he’s since bought in, and he started making his shots and (this is something I never thought would happen) started FINISHING AROUND THE BASKET.
Boobie isn’t a confidence player like Sasha, because he has all the confidence in the world. He just misses, and then sulks. In that regard he’s more of a Larry Hughes.
Forgot to mention… This is the funniest image to accompany a game post I’ve seen. If only Damon Jones were Godzilla-sized & stomping around in the background…
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I didn’t watch the game last night (regrettably), but when Damon was with the Cavs I thought he and Lebron were tight. I mean, a lot of that stuff is just lookin good for the cameras, but commentators and stuff always talked about how they were good friends. Maybe hes pissed he got traded, or pissed at how much better mo williams is than him, but wow. I just find that weird. Not to say you’re wrong about it; i didnt even watch the game so you prolly are right, i’m just surprised by it
It seemed like LeBron & Damon were tight during their Cavs days, but they were going at each other last night… It would be interesting to know what LeBron said that got Damon to get up off the bench & jaw at him, & if that, in turn, is what sparked LeBron. I think it was. He definitely seemed to have something to prove last night.
1. I’ve decided to excuse Lebron’s behavior. When he pulls this nonsense at the beginning of the game or when it’s close at the end then it just pisses me off. In this case, other than Mo, absolutely nothing else was working, so hell I’d be that desperate too. And it was fun to watch in retrospect, but I did want to see a little more of 2005 Lebron: Lebron coming down, everyone on the Pistons knowing he’s going to the rim, LBJ still blows by 4 guys and throws it down. That gets me dancing across the room.
2. I’m firmly of the belief that AV, sasha, and broken toe Boobie should not ever dribble-drive the ball. I understand Boobie is trying to get something going, and that layup looked just fine early in the season. It’s readily apparent that he’s so concerned about his feet that he doesn’t know where the rim is when he goes up. I’ve had that injury before and I couldn’t cut to the basket either, it was spot up or nothing.
I agree completely about LeBron. His shot was completely off-balance and was not the oft-strived for “same shot every time.” Fortunately, he made it work. I would definitely have been happier to see him jumping straight up with a consistent stroke for each, but Jesus, he’s amazing when he’s on. That said, I hope he calms down and gets back to shooting more fundamentally sound. I don’t want to complain about him, but I do think his biggest weak point is that he does fall in love with jumpshots at a high degree of difficulty. It kills any offensive flow and often ends in a brick. Again, fortunately he was on fire in this game.
As for Delonte, I want to start by saying that I now live in Seattle and had Sonics tickets for their final season. I don’t feel like talking about how this city got royally screwed, but I will say that my buddies and I could not believe that he was coming off the bench for such a terrible team. It was part of a concerted losing effort by the ownership, not to mention absolutely terrible coaching. Earl Watson and Luke Ridnour were starting ahead of him–just reprehensible. When Delonte got traded to the Cavs last year I texted my friend, “Delonte will be HUGE in Cleveland.” I’m glad that the rest of the basketball world is starting to notice what was plainly apparent to a couple of dejected Sonics season ticket holders years ago.
BTdub, I’m from Ohio and have been a Cavs fan for life. Sonics tickets were just super-cheap and they enabled me to see every great player in the game. I would do it again in a heartbeat if Seattle ever got another team.
Props for the David Foster Wallace reference in the title
Re: ItWasDamonJonesFault — I hadn’t read or seen anything about this angle. Can anybody link a video clip?
LeBron was definitely jawing with someone on the Bucks bench. I thought Austin and McLeod would mention it, because we’ve seen LeBron get hot after jawing with someone off court several times. But Damon Jones would be a logical choice. Though I don’t get the feeling LeBron likes Jefferson (just a guess after watching them play each other for years).
Boobie is a disaster currently. Agreed. But Wally did fine. Hit a couple shots and did what he could. He’s better in certain matchups (older, slow, post guys), and we all know that Villanueva or Jefferson are not those guys. It didn’t help that the refs called him for every nudge. Ticky tack crap. Hate games refereed like that.
And Delonte’s back today. So get ready to see that margin of victory start to inch back up. I’ll see you at the Cavs/Clips game.
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