Recap: Cavs 113, Raptors 101 (Or, how to succeed against a horrible defensive team without really trying)
2010-04-06
Overview:
The Cavaliers ran a layup against the Toronto Raptors, who lost Chris Bosh due to injury early in the first quarter. Seven Cavaliers scored in double figures, and 38 of the Cavs’ 47 field goals were assisted.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
-Defense. The Raptors don’t play it. The Cavs know that, and made the extra pass time and time again to get easy layup after easy layup. The only way to lose to the Raptors is to get caught up in one-on-one play. The Cavs didn’t do that. Because of this, they won easily.
-Mo Williams! 6-9 from the field. He was constantly attacking the basket, and looked feisty on defense. He knocked down shots and finished with 12 assists. If Mo is this aggressive and confident in the playoffs, life will be good for the Cavs.
-The formula to figure out if LeBron is trying hard = Half-court drives/(Deep jumpers+hot-dog assists.) LeBron was not trying hard tonight, but he was certainly effective. He converted transition opportunities when they were there, and put together an absolute highlight reel of passes. I’m a little sad he’s conceding the scoring race to Durant, but he played very well for a guy with nothing to play for.
The good news: LeBron went 9-10 from the line, and broke out some nice post moves. The spin move from the mid-post on DeRozan was particularly nasty. If he gets that move down, forget about guarding him.
-Jamison and Varejao both burned the Raptors. The Raptors don’t rotate, and Jamison and Anderson live off weak-side cuts for baskets. The result? They combined to go 15-26 from the field.
-Anthony Parker was fired up. It looked like he was back in Israel. He drained contested threes, took the ball to the hole, and finished with 18/8/6. Maybe AP’s most assertive game of the year.
-Ultimate Jawad returns! 28 minutes, 5-8 from the field, no overdribbling, and 3-5 from beyond the arc. Great stuff. The sad part: 0 minutes for Boobie in a game Delonte wasn’t active for.
Bullets of Randomness:
-The Raptor bench easily outscored their starters on Tuesday. Easily.
-Who did Hedo hurt more with his huge series against the Cavs: Cleveland, because he beat their team, or Toronto, because he parlayed that series into a disastrous contract?
-“Fractured face” does not sound good. Hopefully Bosh has a speedy recovery.
-Seriously, there is no excuse for an NBA team to be this bad at defense.
-The “LBJ for unanimous MVP campaign” is the only thing keeping me interested in the regular season. If the Thunder had pulled it off tonight, I think Durant would’ve gotten a vote. Now I’m just hoping the fan vote doesn’t muck things up. I’m very Hobbesian when it comes to these things.
-Three offensive rebounds. 62 points in the paint. Seriously, the Raptors don’t play defense.
-Alright, sorry for the short recap, but that’s all I have for tonight. Until later, Campers.
I think Lebron will be fine Rich. It really would take a huge hit to injure him. Although they should limit his minutes. I like watching him play and this is the last regular season game on national television for the Cavs. I guess I’m just being selfish
What we don’t need is LeBron playing against a desperate Bulls team with guys like Noah on it. Not that NOah is a dirty, just that he plays very hard and bodies will fly. Sit LeBron against Chicago.
Is it too soon/unclassy/bad form for a “if it bleeds we can kill it” Preditor joke?
At any rate … I hope Bosh is okay and recovers soon!
I must be the only person who doesn’t care now that we lost to Orlando last year. Why? Because we would have lost to LA, and the last thing I want to happen is hear how Kobe beat down LeBron to win it all. That would make me puke in my soup.
I am going to the Cavs-Bulls game in Chicago on Thursday night. My first time seeing the Cavs in person since opening night….Here’s hoping Lebron gives it the ol’ college try for at least 20 minutes in this one….
I am not convinced “rust” is a real thing, rather than just something people use to explain why a team loses a series when they have extra rest. Some people have suggested that this contributed to the loss in the Orlando series, but as I remember the Cavs came out on fire in Game 1 of that series. There were a lot of reasons Orlando won that series, but I didn’t see “rust” being a particularly important one, nor did I see any evidence of it in that series (though not entirely sure what rust is supposed to look like… Read more »
well, if you throw an inadvertent elbow on purpose, it wouldn’t be inadvertent, would it?
At any rate, Jamison has been a class guy as far back as you can trace him. He obviously didn’t / wouldn’t do it on purpose. Also, it looks more like Bosh ran into the elbow than Jamison planted it on him.
If Anthony Parker plays like this in the playoffs the Cavs will be unbeatable….it may have been attributed to the Raptors playing no defense but Parker needs to be more assertive and creat his own shots. I think he’s talented enough to do it…he just doesnt…and it annoys me we have a starter that doesnt do much on the offensive side. This would also take pressure off Lebron and provide the Cavs with more arsenal…
Hows about we be dealing LBJ an inadvertent elbow that takes their franchise player out for the rest … if somehow the raptors do play them in the first round .. LBJ is not going to witness the second .. somebody’s going down ..call up big nasty off the bench , elbows be swinging.
raptor ‘fan’ here, just wanted to wish you guys well on the inevitible beat-down we’re in store for in a couple weeks. raptor nation is split at this point between back-dooring our way into the playoffs for the privelege of being embarrassed by cavs (which will also mean we lose our 1st rounder to miami), or missing the playoffs. either way, the franchise is screwed – bosh is gonzo, that much seems clear (and isn’t something i thought as recently as 8 weeks ago), they have a team full of softm, crappy players with long-term contracts that are basically untradeable.… Read more »
ESPN needs a symbol to put next to the Cavs to indicate that they have clinched the league. I submit an “!”, since they’ve obviously run out of letters.
I wonder if AP had all this energy because he a) gets up for Raptors games or b) Passover just ended and he’s all full of carbs after getting to eat leavened bread again.
Oh and FWIW, Scott at WFNY said Boobie was injured last night (via twitter).
Bron’s jumper IS off right now. I was gonna say something worried sounding about the playoffs but rich had just mentioned rampant paranoia so I thought better of it….
LeBron is the last person I am worried about in the playoffs.
My number 1 concern is Shaq, it used to be Mo. But Mo has looked like a completely different player the last 3 games. 180 degree difference. he is being so aggressive and assertive on offense it is amazing.
If AP can snap out of his shooting slump and hit those 3s, Cavs will be unbeatable as long as everyone else is healthy and playing at a high level.
john, do you see a difference in lebron’s jumper over this game and the celts game? hes fading away, and kind of splaying his legs wide apart. when he hits his jumpers you can just see the difference in his mechanics. it looks like the lebron of a few years ago who couldn’t hit a jumper to save his life.
i’m worried about this come playoffs. i hope he cleans it up.
i think having too much rest is one of the most overlooked reason why Cavs didn’t win it all last year. As long as LeBron is taking the distributing role, I believe that these last few regular season games can be a great warm up for the rest of the team. The chances of LeBron getting a serious injury in the first game of playoff is probably the same as, if not greater than, him getting injured in these last few games. I dont have the data but I do believe that the correlation between injury and # of games… Read more »
There’s a great calvin and hobbes cartoon about how consitently getting C’s lowers expectations and makes life more comfortable. Thats all we are doing : )
Rich, he could fall down the stairs at home and break his leg, too. ( See Ron Artest). Worrying about the improbable to the point where it screws with the probable (rust from not playing) is a bad thing. And it was clear that Lebron was doing his best to not get hurt. Yes, a freak accident could happen, but he minimized risk while not over reacting to it. Oh, and Toronto is not good at basketball. Somehow, they still manage to be lucky enough to stay ahead of the Bulls. I don’t understand how, but so far Chicago hasn’t… Read more »
Aren’t all of us who root for cleveland teams a little paranoid? AND RIGHTFULLY SO!
I fully accept the fact that I am way, way over-paranoid. That is all.
Put LeBron on the bench. The Chris Bosh injury is the type of injury that can happen to anyone on the cour.t Do we want LeBron catching that elbow and breaking his face? What do we have left to prove…except to the way over paranoid fans (sorry Krolik, this is you) who get caught up in every single game here and there, instead of taking the season as a whole. So LeBron gets 13 assists, and you’d rather have him going for the scoring title in a game that means nothing. Awesome. Go all out LeBron, tear something in a… Read more »