Overview: The Cavaliers were able to win their season opener against the defending Eastern Conference champions, outscoring Boston 27-14 in the fourth quarter en route to a 95-87 victory. J.J. Hickson had 21 points to lead all scorers, and Ramon Sessions filled in for Mo Williams by combining for 30 points on 29 shots.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
-First of all, that was awesome.
- First bullet goes to Hickson, who exploded to the basket, stayed patient and let the game come to him, kept the defense honest from outside without falling in love with the jumper, and catch-and-dunked his way to 21 points on 11 shots. I’m not sure that anything would have been a better omen for this team’s future than a huge game from Hickson tonight. Huge success on every level, and don’t forget that Hickson fed Parker for the biggest three of the game.
Of course, this is going to make everybody wonder why Hickson didn’t get more playing time against the Celtics in last year’s playoffs. Nobody ever wins.
- Sessions was aggressive as hell, as was Boobie. Their low shooting percentages are a product of what happens when you attack that Boston defense with impunity, but both of them set the tone. Too many teams get whistled for one charge or commit one turnover against Boston and immediately start settling for jumpers and letting Boston dictate the tone. If you push a team hard enough, they’ll eventually slip, and that’s what happened to the (old and on the tail end of a back-to-back) Boston team in the fourth quarter.
- Hollins definitely showed me something tonight. I continue to worry about Antawn, although KG might just be in his head at this point.
- Cavs only got 10 fast-break points to Boston’s 17, but won anyways. Running will be a big part of the plan for this team, but it’s good that they know they can win a half-court game against a good team.
- Bullets of Randomness:
The thing that makes the Celtics so unpredictable at times is that Pierce, Garnett, and Allen are all jump shooters at this point in their career. On Tuesday, they were at home, they had their shots going, and calmly dispatched the Heat. On Wednesday, they combined to go 12-33, and made a grand total of four shots at the rim combined. Rondo got his, because he’s a freak, but Boston becomes very beatable when their three veteran leaders can’t get their shots to fall. Also, the Cavs wanted this game tonight. Great win. Until tomorrow.
My gosh, I made the decision to scalp tickets to this game. Incredible. The atmosphere is like people were there to spite LeBron, and the fact that the Cavs managed to pull out a win without Mo makes it even sweeter. Can’t wait to see him and Sessions on the floor together. It’s crazy to see just how much good coaching means to a team. Every timeout taken by Byron was effective. And Hollins?! I couldn’t believe that guy, driving to the hoop, making jumpers, drawing so many fouls, and just keeping the ball alive. At least one game into the season, he looked like a 2nd Andy Varejao out there.
i really thought that scott could turn hollins inot a chandlr-clone and by god, he just might!
face it, our front court played GREAT tonight. how kroilk doesn’t mention andy’s play tonight is beyond me but moon, andy, jj and hollins were all top-notch tonight…
i am begining to hate jawad. he does nothing particularly well including defensively.
btw, i thought sessions did a pretty damn decent job defensively on rondo. if sessions can just figure out how to dish a little more when he penetrates, this offense will really click…
6 guys in double figures and another with 8! the promise of the byorn scott regime already realized! LOL!
@kj
yah jawad didnt look all that great…we couldve done without him and not signed him to an extra yr and another million or so…i remember him shooting a wide open 3 and it clanked so bad there was a hush in the crowd like everyone saying ‘wtf’ hahaha
if parker plays solid each night which is never a given, but if he does then the Cavs are definitely capable of winning each game or at least being competitive. with this team trying hard i cant see them getting blown out but then again theres those late january and february games where players are in a tired funk and shit could happen…but still i see this team winning close games and giving a good fight and those two things together could equal great success
the wizards are next i think then its the kings…if we can beat those two with solid games then Cavs may be legit to the national media…maybe…maybe not hahaha
I like Jawad, he’s got a mean streak in him and delivers some pretty punishing drag-down fouls. Cut the dude some slack. First game, new system. It was entertaining and I loved every minute of it. (Except for the moments that sucked.)
Sure it was Boston on the second half of a back-to-back, on the road and they didn’t shoot well, but Hickson’s work against KG can’t be taken away and was impressive.
As far as Jamison, he just looks depressed because he has to come off the bench at this point in his career. Last year he was thinking about finally winning a ring, now he’s on a rebuilding team. He’s usually a solemn guy out there, but he looked even more so before the game. I’m thinking the Cavs will definitely try to move him before the deadline, a playoff team would be able to use him in limited minutes.
Can’t wait to see Mo and Sessions together. AP works hard, but he doesn’t fit as much as those guys would. Two starting ballhandlers like that would be awesome.
Great to see that this team has enough talent to win when they want it more. With Mo out, the lack of a team leader was pretty obvious, but they hung in against a good defensive team and kept coming back when the game threatened to get out of hand.
I really like John’s comments about the aggressive ball handling by the guards. For much of the game I was marveling at it thinking, “gosh I love that they’re trying this, but I sure wish they really had the star talent to pull it off”, but you’re right that they wore the defense down, and some of the missed shots turned into offensive boards.
The Celtics made a priority of getting back on D, making no attempt at crashing the offensive boards for most of the game, so the Cavs rarely had numbers on the break, even though they were pushing the ball.
This was a great solid team game on both ends of the court. And, we did it without Mo. We have the Raptors and Kings next and we should be able to beat both. It would be nice to take a 3-0 record into the Hawks. I don’t want to get too excited just yet, but we did beat a quality team – with no ‘flukes’. So maybe 40 wins is possible (I think 30-35 more likely).
It’s interesting what a coaching change can do. We looked like a real TEAM with a real OFFENSE. That’s something we never had with Mike Brown. Maybe it’s because we don’t have any choice but to play this way with LBJ gone? It’s hard to fault MB for wanting the ball in LBJ’s hands as much as possible, but seeing the balanced attack was just nice. Clearly JJ shuold have been used more last year against the Celts in the playoffs. I hate to point fingers and say that the former coach of the year was just a bad coach, but it would be great to hear him ‘defend’ some of his decisions and lack of offense.
Great win for the cavs, big boost of confidence for the start of the season.
Couple of things to watch out for are these;
AP and Jamison need to get better for the team to be a competitor. You cold see Jameson was not comfortable and Parker was slowing down the offense imo.
Fix those and get Harris and Powe involved and it will be a fun season to watch!
It was nice to see a TEAM out there! The Q was electric….reminded me of playoff basketball. Can’t wait for Saturday night. Maybe I’ll keep those season tix after all?
you know this is my problem i hate espn and they little commentators first they think they know everything and dont know sqat i come some of the stuff they post and it piss me off like one said and you are(the cavs are a group of good role players but you need talent and they have no talent) you should be fired if the cavs have no so called talent then why every team is tryin to steal our players j.j hickson and ryan hollins scored 30 pts on KG in shaq.KG and shaq together dont come close to 30 pts morrons. how many times lebron lames forces bad shots, how many turnovers lames made per game tryin to run point and we all know he cant.so basicly im hearing cant no one on the cavs score boy was yell wrong as always. all im sayin is this is a blessin he gone let him give up on miami were fighters up here in cleveland the league want us to crumble because of one man think again cavs 6th seed playing the bucks