Overview: The Cleveland Cavaliers ended the longest losing streak in NBA history with an overtime win over the Los Angeles Clippers.
OH MY GOD THE CAVS WON BULLETS:
It feels very, very strange that this team is worse than its record indicates. This is this team’s second win since November. Both of those wins have come in overtime, and both were tied by Mo Williams on the last Cavs play of regulation. Four of the team’s nine wins have been in overtime games or games decided by three points or less, and the team has won zero games by double-digits.
In a lot of ways, this game was a referendum on the Clippers. This is a 4-19 team on the road, and despite all the hype around Blake Griffin, the team has some serious issues. And Blake Griffin, as great as he is, has some serious issues.
The good news for Cavs is that J.J. Hickson was a beast. The mitigating factor there is that Blake isn’t much of a help defender — he has all the physical tools to be a monster on the weak side, but he’s been allowed to coast defensively in Del Negro’s system. Still, J.J. has looked great for the last couple games, and he continued to look great tonight.
27 points and 14 rebounds is great news — what makes it even better is that only two of J.J.’s points came from outside of the paint. Hickson’s finally getting back to attacking. He still made some big mistakes (how big did that ridiculous travel with .5 left in the first half almost end up being?), but he’s showing why Cavs fans were so excited about him before the season. And his defense on Blake in the post late was great. (Blake’s other major weakness — he has no moves over his right shoulder in the post. He should spend all summer working on that left hand.) And that block? WOW. WOW WOW WOW. Hickson’s 22, and he outplayed Blake on Friday. That’s good stuff.
Oh, and that last block looked like a goaltend in real time. It was pretty close on the replay, but 9 times out of 10 you get called for a goaltend if you try to get a block from that far out of position. Cavs caught a break there.
Mo Williams looked hobbled and forced some shots, but his playmaking definitely helped, and he was there to make the big shot to tie the game. It’ll be interesting to see how the team works him back in.
Ah, Jamison. Of course he would be responsible for breaking the streak. He was great offensively, making his shots from outside and drawing fouls inside. And that late three-pointer may have been the defense. He was still Jamisonian defensively, and if the Cavs had lost I’d have a lot of thoughts about how this team cannot get a defensive stop to save its life, but he was feeling it tonight.
Daniel Gibson. What a clutch shooter. The guy is a machine.
That’s honestly all I have for tonight. Crazy to think the streak is actually over. Crazier to think that a home win against the Wizards would give the Cavs two wins in a row. I’ll see you on Sunday.
Clips major issue is Eric Gordon being hurt. Also, DeAndre Jordan was a defensive no-show. Whatever, Clips have issues, Cavs have a win.
YAY! Happy Krolik is back!!!
How cruel would it have been to lose a game on a goaltending call? That’s got to be about the worst possible way to lose, no?
CAVS WIN!! CAVS WIN!!
Finally, we’re playing teams that have issues again…
I was just saying, about Antawn, that I have the eerie feeling that his success tonight from long-range has roughly the same effect as Hickson making any jump shot – we’ve got some 7-22 games ahead from ‘Tawn.
Amazing fan support… Mo’s return… fueled by emotion and Scott’s ripping of them after loss #26… whatever the reason, it’s a win! Savor the taste, fans. I think it’s all the sweeter because it took so long to get.
Next job: win a game in regulation, which they haven’t done since November!
Maybe I’m the only one, but I didn’t think JJ’s block was a goaltend. It looked like he got it at the top, and the replay confirmed it. Anyone else agree?
It was close enough, Colin. Personally, if I had to make the call, I’d say goal tend, but I’m ok with either decision there.
It took 3 monster games from Jamison, Hickson, and Mo Williams + no Eric Gordon + a bad Clips team + a 50/50 goal tend call + overtime + homecourt to get a win, but let’s go with it!!
I’ll say this, I haven’t been on the RAmon Session bandwagon at all, and this is why. I always thought Mo Williams made this team slightly better than Sessions has, yet none of us believe we can move forward with Mo Williams as the starter. If that’s the case, then I can’t see how we can move forward with a lesser player in Sessions. Williams consistently pushed the ball HARD nearly every time. When he got in the lane, he was looking to pass instead of shoot. He’s just a better PG.
I am going to agree with Colin and disagree, respectfully, with Rich.
@Colin, it was about as 50/50 as you could get, but I think J.J. pulled out a monster block in the end. Some things are too close to call, and there is nothing worse than an official stealing the show in a “big” game. The officials are crap enough in this league I’m happy this one kept his whistle to himself.
@Rich About the Ramon Sessions bandwagon. I couldn’t agree more that we need Mo Williams. In a leaky bucket of talent, veterans go a long way to plug the holes, but I do believe Sessions is a better option going forward. He absolutely has found himself in the past few weeks, and is starting to play really really well. I like the idea of Mo at the 2 (assuming his stroke returns from vacation soon) and Sessions pushing away. His average for the 5 games up until last night was 19 and 10. Not to mention he did it on almost 60% FG shooting. Thats a PG.
As for the Ramon bandwagon. anyone notice that Mo wasn’t on the floor after the shot to tie in regulation? It was Ramon playing defense for him. Mo still can’t D. A win is a win though.
Man did the Cavs dodge some bullets:
Horrible finishes to the 1st and 2nd quarters. That lob to Griffin with .5 was a massive defensive brain fart. Also, how many WIDE OPEN threes did they give up where no one went around the screen or they just didn’t close out at all? How many ridiculous turnovers or horrible defensive plays let the Clips back in the game? (That turnover off Antawn’s back was insanely bad).
Still the Cavs did some stuff well:
Hickson played one of the best games of his career: only one idiotic jump shot (4th quarter, 20 footer from the right baseline with 20 seconds on the clock), and he’s finally boarding like he should have been for years. The way he played tonight, he could be a homeless man’s Josh Smith. Mo was a dynamo on offense. You could tell he spent the whole month practicing jumpers. Antawn, Boobie, and Ramon played very well.
And yet we still barely won. The refs swallowed the whistle for the last 2 minutes and overtime. There were about three times that Davis should’ve been T-ed up a second time, and the refs waited till the game was over to do it (Clips probably would have been better with Bledsoe and Foy). And the goal tend call was really borderline. It’s probably a goal tend in the 2nd quarter, but not the 4th. I’m glad the Refs didn’t decide the game. Still, I was on SUCH a huge high!
Best part of broadcast was the clip from the last win in Dec with Andy’s hair bouncing around, I miss that guy
“but he’s been allowed to coast defensively in Del Negro’s system”
so what you’re saying is, VDN isn’t a good coach? Then why would the Clippers hire him? Oh, cause they’re the Clippers. It definitely took the NBA’s historic embarrassing franchise to bail out the embarrassing flavor of the month
GO CAVS!!
After this game who do u guys think will starting as season goes on? I personally prefer Mo over Ramon but we need one or two options of the bench and Mo&Boobie gave us that tonight.
So, are you calling Antawn the next coming of Sasha Pavlovic?
Sasha was an lock-down defensive player for a while there. I’m not sure Tawn has ever been that.
“that late three-pointer may have been the defense.” -Krolik
“My defense is my offense” – Sasha Pavlovic
that was the comparison I saw
The so called goal tending is thought to be so b/c rarely do we see big guys jump. I’ve seen other shots then the ESPN cam and the ball hadn’t started to come down yet, the ball wasn’t over the bucket and he blocked the ball before he hit the backboard. However, if you’re a clipper fan or a heatle fan it’s goaltending. If you are a believer of actual facts, it was an extremely athletic effort that blocked that shot. J.J. gave it his all and came up with an outstanding block.
I don’t know if it’s possible to temper expectations this low, but the Cavs are trying hard to do it tonight.
..and then Wiz come into the Q and beat the hell out of the Cavs.