Overview:
In a fairly unexciting game, the Cavs kept the 76ers from ever seriously threatening by utilizing clean ball movement and a barrage of three-pointers, keeping a hungry and athletic young team from finding a foothold.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
Really exciting first quarter of basketball; even though the Cavs couldn’t get anything to fall, they were getting out and running, moving the ball, working backdoor cuts and fly-throughs, and getting all the looks they wanted. Philly’s bigs did an absolutely amazing job making weak-side recoveries to stop layups and Andy missed some wide, wide, open shots, or else the Cavs would have made this a blowout from the very beginning. Even when the Cavs were behind, you could tell from the way they were running on offense that they were going to be too much for the 76ers tonight.
The other big thing was the threes; when the more talented team goes 12-23 from beyond the arc, they just aren’t going to lose. Seeing Delonte go 3-4 from beyond the arc is absolutely huge, although of course he goes 0-3 on twos. Delonte has so many facets to his game, but on a given night he’ll only have one or two going, even though the effort is always there. It’s awesome and weird. And Delonte must pick off his own man’s passes as much as any player in the NBA.
Gotta love Wally going for 18 points on 112.5% True Shooting. I’ll take that, please.
Andy and Z didn’t have good games from the field, but they were doing their work on doing their jobs and controlling their areas, and Andy actually wasn’t forcing all that much-Philly’s bigs are really, really, really good defensively, and Andy’s shot can be off. And it’s not pretty when that happens. Yipes.
This team was on it defensively, but the Cavs responded by playing some extremely disciplined ball on the offensive end, with LeBron and Mo combining for only one turnover. LeBron was challenged by Iggy all night and the rotating man, so he got gritty and put in more energy, moving off-the-ball like a madman and making determined drives to put himself on the line. He never bailed out the defense by trying to get easy scores by going over the top, and was passing the ball absolutely brilliantly to hot shooters when the defense overloaded.
The best pass of the night was the hockey assist of the year, with LeBron getting his man to follow him out to right about half-court and somehow whipping a 38-foot pass to Wally coming on a backdoor cut, who made the handoff for an easy layup. Absolutely amazing.
Ben came in and gave good minutes; he looks pretty comfortable out there, which you’d expect. We’re not going to risk injury to a starter to try for best record in the league.
LeBron got whistled for four fouls in this game. Intriguing. (I’ve got a rebuttal on that article coming when the internets start up again next week-discuss in the comments currently, but before I get my thoughts up I just want to remind everyone that this blog has standards of criticism and discourse and does not make caricatures, personal attacks, sweeping dismissals, or knee-jerk homer reactions against anyone, including members of the media.)
Bullets of Randomness:
There’s a lot to like about this team, but they just desperately need shooters-can someone remind me why dumping Kyle Korver’s salary was a good idea when Willie Green is starting for this team?
Speights was my guy in the draft. I really, really wanted him to float to us, and I feel like it was close. There’s always that little twinge of regret when someone drafted near your team’s slot that you liked becomes a stud, and I think he’s well on his way. Attack mode, offensive boards, midrange game that’s developing, athletically gifted with touch and a tough mentality. He’s got a bit less star potential than JJ, but he’s got less “downside.” He’ll be a very good power forward for a very long time in this league-I see him as an upgraded Andy-type in the future, which is a lot of value.
In fact, if I’m talking about guys I want for the next 2 years (2!) I say:
1. Thad Young
2. Speights
3. Brand
I mean, not only has Brand been a bust, but he’s a bust on a team with most of its blossoming talent at his position. Absolute nightmare.
Speaking of guys who went in your area, the player picked one slot ahead of Luke Jackson looked pretty good tonight.
I’m not sure what to make of Iggy at this point; he was amazing tonight. He’s an absolute bulldog and a beast going to the basket and gets his points efficiently; you’re not going to do much better than 26 points on 16 attempts agaist the Cavs’ defense. That’s just a really good scorer, one who can shoot but isn’t taking bad shots. Oh, and he was harassing LeBron for 40 minutes.
At the same time, this game kind of showed his celing. His court vision isn’t good enough to be the centerpiece of a great offense, and he can’t freestyle with the ball enough to quite take over with his scoring. This is his best game, but he really wasn’t imposing his will on the game at any point. But again, I am really impressed by his drive game and ability to get to the hole and finish-he BAPTIZED LeBron at the end of the first half. I’m not sure LeBron has ever been posterized like that. Does anyone else remember a similar punking of LeBron on that end of the floor?
Last note: when I think of Iggy, I think absolute physical marvel, a crazy athlete in the top 2 or 3 percentile in terms of gifted athletes in the NBA. The broadcasters brought up that the size difference between him and LeBron is two inches and 50 pounds. And those are listed differences; it could well be three inches and 60 pounds. Holy Christ, LeBron is a monster.
Lakers just lost. We go two out of the next three, we clinch the best record in the NBA. Wow. Wow. Wow. Just bask in that.
Two quick notes: Mr. Killer instinct, the guy whose “last-shot prowess” is the one reason why you HAVE to throw out all evidence when comparing him to LeBron, bricked three straight jumpers and threw the ball away on the four biggest possessions of the game down the stretch. LeBron hasn’t laid a crunch-time egg like that ONCE this season. The Cavs have lost two games by three or less; the Crab Dribble game and the double-foul game with Danny Granger. In both, LeBron had been the one who led the team to the tie with runs of baskets that immediately preceded his “chokes” (both of which were actually refree calls against him that, while probably right, could have easily gone the other way.) I know that the playoffs are where this ultimately has to be decided, but it drives me crazy how many people have their heads in the sand when it comes to nights like tonight and just spout platitudes instead of doing their homework. And of course, this happens on a Friday before everything shuts down.
I realize I’m making too much out of this, but I’ve been seeing “Crab Dribble” used in one way or another by Kobe trolls all freaking year and seeing that get blown into ridiculous proportions. You can’t do that and pretend games like Kobe’s tonight didn’t happen. Okay, rant over. I try not to rant.
Other note: The guy who made two consecutive threes to get the Lakers in the game in the fourth? Shannon freaking Brown. I’ve always thought it couldn’t get worse as a Cavs fan than losing to Kobe in the finals, but if Shannon plays the Kenard/PJ Brown role in that loss, that would be the absolute worst. I wanted him to pan out so badly.
(Going here more out of a love for irony than actual analysis: What if our scouts actually were right and Shannon’s better than Boobie after all? It’s a possibility, right?)
I love that I write a 1,400 word recap on a Friday. I actively am trying to sabatoge my “career.”
I know I’ve put some unsettling pictures up as my leads (they all have varying degrees of reasons to be up there, I assure you. This was the first picture to not make the cut on account of extreme creepyness. Not inappropriate in any way, just really creepy. Instead, I went with an adorable cat picture. I think clinching the East just broke my brain.
Shamless plug: Go check out the recap, when it’s up, at our new Philly TrueHoop blog, whose maiden post echoes some of my questions about Iggy from this one.
Great win by the Cavs. The second unit with Mo, Lonts, Wally, Joe, & Ben shows real promise, and I guess I can live with Boobie closing out the first and third quarters as long as LeBron does the majority of the ball handling.
But John, the reason I’m here is to implore you to bury this bum Sam Smith & his ridiculously circulated “theory” that LeBron gets away with fouling more than anyone in the history of the NBA (seriously – you barely have to read between the lines to see that’s what he’s saying). Let’s all keep in mind that this is the same Sam Smith who made his journalistic name off of Jordan however many years ago, & can’t get his name back in the news unless he proselytizes his reputation and makes absurdists claims like “Now, I’m not saying there’s some sort of conspiracy. But James may well be the most protected star we’ve ever seen.” Wow. Really Sam? More protected than Jordan when he got away with pushing off against Russel to win his last championship? Really Sam? Really. Sam’s got all sorts of stats & a league executive claiming that LeBron’s 1.72 fouls per game are “impossible”. So I guess good ol’ Sam has used his gritty journalistic gumption to uncover the latest deep dark secret of the NBA. Or maybe, he’s just a hack who’s priming the officials’ pump for a potential playoff meeting against the Cavaliers. Maybe Sam has become nothing more than a homer who should be called out by the blogosphere for making this accusation. Because I’ll tell you this – in reading his article it’s clear he hasn’t watched enough of LeBron’s play to know what he’s talking about. He hasn’t watched how LeBron & the Cavs defend. He’s going off of numbers & heresy, and because he covered Jordan, he’s getting away with throwing mud on a very deserved MVP season by LBJ. And shame on the NBA if this kind of BS affects the way LBJ is officiated in the playoffs. Last night may have been an indication of that, but honestly, that crew last night was so bad on so many levels I don’t think it was a sign of things to come. (How many times did they call jump balls because none of them saw what team the ball went off of? It was great to hear AC chide them for this on the broadcast).
And one other thing that I’m glad you brought up – Shannon freaking Brown! I’m thinking the exact same thing after watching him last night in Portland, & Thursday night against the Nuggets. The kid can play, & OMG is he thriving in the triangle! He’s got a sweet stroke going from behind the arc, & he’s using his athleticism to board like LeBron… I mean, I watch him play & I just dread the thought of Boobie guarding him in the finals. Talk about motivation. But, to be fair, I think Brown had to get kicked around the league a little bit in order to mature & make the most of his opportunities. I also think the triangle is the perfect offense for a player with his skills, as he’s not a true PG (but neither is Boobie). I also think Rambis was an idiot for taking Brown out of the game last night when it was on the line. The Lakers comeback ended when Brown went to the bench & Fisher stepped out onto the floor.
Anyway, c’est la vie… Viva la Cavs!
Viva la Wally World and viva la Cavs! Time for this guy to go pretend to be like LeBron.
More rants please!
Speights is the next Zach Randolph. Dude was a problem at Florida, Donovan couldn’t get him to work or play defense, and he sure doesn’t play much defense now. He will get his though, just like Zach. Hickson will be better
As for the Sam Smith article… I apologize if this qualifies as a personal attack or sweeping dismissal, but I didn’t think he still had much credibility. It wouldn’t surprise me if he just invented that GM quote the way he’s invented so many hilarious trade rumors over the years.
Anyway, this is what I wrote on Detroit Bad Boys about the argument:
It makes sense to me that LeBron doesn’t foul much. First, he’s a good defender, and fouling (especially on the perimeter) is often bad defense. He doesn’t play a toe-the-line physical style like Bruce Bowen, but instead uses his quickness and length to stay in front of guys and contest shots (similar to say, Tayshaun Prince, who fouls even less in similar minutes). And since LeBron essentially is the team’s offense, it makes sense that he would be especially careful to avoid getting into foul trouble. And lastly, you’ll probably never see LeBron commit a “frustration foul” because he’s always very cool-headed. But to me the Tayshaun Prince comparison says it all. Being on the court and active defensively doesn’t necessarily equate to committing a lot of fouls, as Smith seems to assume it should.
Pace probably doesn’t mean quite as much for fouls as other statistics (since in some cases it’s possible to foul more than once per possession), but LeBron is playing a lot fewer possessions per game than MJ or Big O, so those historical comparisons don’t make a lot of sense. If you did adjust for pace I bet the numbers for those three would be pretty similar.
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