Overview: With LeBron James resting, the Cavaliers failed to hold onto a first-half lead against the Orlando Magic, losing by a final score of 92-98. Dwight Howard led all scorers with 22 points, and Delonte West led the Cavaliers with 21 points off the bench.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
The key to the offense in the first half was the Cavs finding Antawn Jamison down low and letting him go to work. Jamison had 15 of his 19 points in the first half, and hit only one of his five jumpers over the course of the game. In terms of a potential playoff with matchup with the Magic, it will be key to utilize Jamison’s skills in the post. If he can score posting up opposing fours and threes, it will be a way for the Cavs to get points without having to deal with Dwight Howard’s ability to defend the paint.
-The best news for the Cavs in this game is how aggressive Mo Williams and Delonte West were. Mo had a hard time finishing in the paint against the Magic (which is to be expected), but was aggressive all game, attacking off the dribble and looking confident pulling up for deep jumpers in the half-court.
-Delonte was also on his game. He looked great when he utilized his mid-range game, and was looking to push the ball and find his teammates all night long.
-The Magic had nine players record an assist. The Cavs had three players record an assist. That’s not a winning formula.
-Yes, I think Mike Brown was a bit quick to wave the proverbial white flag in the fourth. I get not giving the Magic the satisfaction of knowing they beat any semblance of a 100% Cavs team, but he could have at least pretended he wanted this game. Beating a full-strength Magic team without Shaq or LeBron could have been a huge confidence boost.
-Still not enough defense. There was no way the Cavs were going to stop Howard, but they were way too lax on the perimeter and allowed the Magic a number of easy looks from deep.
-Seven offensive boards for Z: great. Watching a center go 1-6 on jumpers: not as great.
-Jamario hit jumpers on Sunday. When Jamario hits jumpers, he looks really good. I have my doubts about Jamario’s ability to hit open jumpers in pressure situations, but he certainly seems to have played his way into the playoff rotation over the last few games.
-Hickson and Varejao combined to go 3-9. Turns out putting two big men who can’t create their own offense against the league’s best team at defending the paint didn’t work so well.
-No LeBron or Shaq inside + Dwight Howard defending the rim = six blocks for Howard. He’s a monster. He’s one superstar who his coaches know will stay healthy; I’m not sure artillery fire could harm that man.
Bullets of Randomness:
-Delonte West is more talented, but Matt Barnes and Delonte are spiritually very similar.
-Vince Carter is one of those good players who never, ever, seems to play well against the Cavs. I don’t know why that is, but I’m not complaining.
-Of course Michael Pietrus would end up providing a huge fourth-quarter boost. Trying to figure that guy out is a losing proposition. Anyone else notice Pietrus do the “gooseneck” after hitting a three in the fourth? I don’t think it was malicious, if only because I can’t imagine Pietrus being deliberately malicious. (UPDATE: According to Ben Q. Rock, MP was doing a “salute,” which is a thing he does.)
-Alright, that’s all I have for tonight. Last game of the regular season on Wednesday. Bring on the playoffs already.
There is no WAY LeBron gets away with the same charge that Kobe got away with at the end of Lakers-Blazers. Also, I like the “Sic ‘em Fisher!” *Fisher tackles Kobe’s defender* *Kobe drains open 3* play. That the Lakers lost the game to a foul on Kobe in spite of this pretty much made my day.
Howard is the best big man in the league, hands down. But it doesn’t hurt that not one 3 second violation was called on offense or defense. There was at least one possesion on offense where the man was allowed to camp in the paint for 6 seconds!
At this point don’t we need a 4th referee just looking for 3 second violations?
The Cavs without Bron aren’t as bad as I thought they would be. I hope it’s not something that we have to get use to, but they could be a 40 win team without Bron. I’m not sure how much rest is too much and would make players ‘rusty’ but it still concerns me to see Jamison and Andy going so hard and being bumped/pusehd etc. in these games that don’t really mean anything. An injury to one of these guys could be devestating in the playoffs (may not matter in the first round though). I’d rather let them rest and sit them and have the rust wear-off against the bulls or raptors, than continue to play them and have somebody get hurt.
I’ll be honest I missed seeing a lot of Sebastian Telfair yesterday. Mike Brown is gonna get us used to seeing big production from the second (and third) string and then we won’t see some of them until next year.
As much as I wanted Brown to go for the kill, I think this game still served a vital purpose in doing two major things.
First, Mo Williams was forced to do some serious work against the Magic, which is something he needed to do after the playoffs cold streak he had against them.
Secondly, I think this game, however trivial it was, took away some of the stigma of the Cleveland-Orlando battle. A few days ago, I would’ve said Orlando is the only easter team that scares me. Not so much now.
A few thoughts from watching the game
- JJ Hickson is useless against Howard…I mean at least Z was giving some sort of fight..but Hickson did nothing whatsoever
- Moon looked great hitting some big shots and playing solid D…this guy def gets the nod over Jawad for playoff rotation
- Speaking of Jawad..Im not sure what his deal was but he couldnt handle the ball multiple times and looked lost…not sure if he’s gonna be part of rotation in playoffs
- Delonte did play well but thought at times he did too much one on one
- Im not that worried about Magic that much. We can put them away if we wanted too…but always allowing them to come back into the game in 2nd/3rd quarters is a little disturbing
Can’t wait till playoffs!!
Jawad looked lost because Matt Barnes is really good on defense. We’ll see what he can do against LeBron in the playoffs.
What do you guys think of Jamison’s defense? It’s incredible to see how much better he has become in the short timeframe of being on the team. He’s still late every once in awhile, but he does a great job of staying in front of people and comes up with more steals than I thought he would. And they are good steals, he’s not cheating in the passing lanes. This dude definitely has the heart and the will to win.
I’m not a troll, but I am a magic fan. Just wanted you guys to know that I was impressed with the way your team but also dumbfounded with your coach on not putting mo in.
I’m worried about your cavs, but I’m also worried about the bobcats and the hawks too lol
But just remember when evaluating this game neither team played players for the minutes they will get in playoffs, neither team seemed motivated…cept for mo and jamison, and there wasn’t a shaq battle (which I believe hurts both teams lol…game becomes slow And all about d12 and shaq)
Anywho I wish you luck against everybody but us!
Vince “never ever” plays well against the Cavs? Except for that game earlier this season when he pretty much single-handedly beat us in the 4th quarter? Or that Nets game a couple years ago when he scored in the high 20s and beat us with a lob catch at the end of the game? Except for those games?
Anyway, Moon is vastly superior to Jawad. Here’s hoping the Cavs are going big more with LeBron and Moon at 2, and Jamison at 3 this playoffs, and Moon is buried.
Also to Boobie: MB hates you.
@hoopsdogg, how’d vince do against the cavs in the playoffs a couple years ago?
anyway, hard to see why windy was upset with what the cavs and MB did in this one. almost beat a full-strength magic team who had ostensibly something to play for? what’s not to like? i fail to see how the magic scare us this time around. will there be a game where thye hit like 15 three’s and win? probably but the faer that we had last year about them ( and the lakers too) is gone. and what is funny, continuing on the psychological tip, is that the media seems to be indicating that the magic are the EC favorites, which also plays right into clevleand hands. hell, you saw the hunger on display for most of the first half yesterday. the cavs WANT it. the magic…eh, not dso much. plus, i fully believe that shaq is in howard’s head and i think van jeremy, as evidenced by his comments before and after the game, is scared shitless of the cavs.
i just don’t think the magic are mentally as tough as the lakers and cavs. i think last year that they sneaked into cleveland under the radar and the cavs, who were expecting the celtics, kinda underestimated them, despite how the magic won in the regular season. and after that first game loss, the cavs were never able to get back into a rhythm. well, that and the fact that our wing players that series included kinsey, wally and sasha! think we made an upgrade there???
i think right now, LBJ and shaq are the most mentally prepared players going into the playoffs. i think kobe would normally be on this list but i don’t think he trusts his teammates anymore and we’re looking at kobe from a couple of years ago. i just cannot envision LBJ and shaq allowing this team to lose 4 games to another squad.
“Never, ever” was perhaps too strong. Like kj said, those images of Pavs shutting down VC in the playoffs are still fresh in my mind, I suppose.
Yeah Pavs and Eric Snow.
speaking of eric snow, anyone remember a few years ago when lewis was with seattle and came in averaging HUGE numbers and we put snow on him and the guy tried to post up snow all night and couldn’t and had a miserable game? i confess that is why i didn’t fear him going into last season’s ECF but again he showed yesterday that when it comes to the post, either offensively or defensively, lewis is “weak sauce…”
Jared…. thank you for honestly being one of two non troll Magic fans I’ve seen on the internet. Every single other one always brings up last year, and talks about how Carter is going to outscore Lebron and crap like that.
Also, I cannot stand Pietrus. Easily my least favorite player on that team.
Can someone tell me why Mike Brown does not like Daniel Gibson? Brown is so high on defense but he does not play the team’s best perimeter defender. He is at least 5x better on defense than Mo Williams plus he is the best 3-point shooter, percentage wise, that the Cavs have. When he came in against Nelson, Nelson couldn’t do anything off the dribble. That would be somewhat vindictive if he is in the dog house because he took time off to be with his newborn.
I am somewhat nervous seeing the perimeter defense in the second half. It looked like a replay of the series last year. Why do the Cav guards sag off so much on shooters? They do it with every team, not just the Magic. Even in situations where they are not double teaming the post they are way too far off when their shooter catch the ball to be able to run them off the 3 point line. Again that is what beat them not Howard. I say play Howard 1-on-1 even without Shaq, Howard will not get 40 points, which is what they would need from him to win if they weren’t reigning 3′s.