Overview: The San Antonio Spurs became the first team to win 50 games when they outscored the Cavaliers by 12 points in the 3rd quarter of a 109-99 victory. Samardo Samuels recorded a double-double, and led all scorers with 23 points.
Samardo Samuels owns all of your hope bullets:
- Cavs came out and competed in this one, but the Spurs were simply too much for them. Too much balance, too much execution, too many players that can score. Over time, the cream rises, and that’s what happened on Wednesday.
- Ramon and Hickson both had games to forget. Neither guy looked comfortable on offense, and Ramon got torched by George Hill. Hopefully they can turn it back around soon.
- Samardo Samuels had his best game of the year. I don’t want to get too excited about Samardo, but he showed some good footwork, a lot of strength, some nice touch, and he even worked to get in proper position on pick-and-rolls. He definitely earned another start.
- Alonzo Gee looked like he had something to prove. He forced a few shots, but he was also everywhere on the court, and even hit a few threes.
- Another 1-7 game for AP. I really hope not getting traded didn’t break his spirit.
- Eyenga making all three of his threes isn’t something that will happen again soon, but it was still a promising sign.
Apologies for the short recap, but that’s really all I have for this one. The Cavs can succeed without Jamison, but the Spurs are the Spurs. Hopefully we’ll see the Cavs really compete with teams when they aren’t facing the team with the best record in the league. Until next time.
A loss by 10 to San Antonio. Respectable. Hickson had been playing well, but the Spurs have a deep frontcourt with excellent defenders and rebounders, and the Cavs were just overmatched.
Still, you have to like the fact the team hasn’t quit. I don’t even care if they win another game this year, I just want to continue to see effort. If all 12 guys play with the same intensity Alonzo Gee was bringing for the rest of the year, the Cavs will at least be fun to watch.
Hickson either has to learn to play the PF or either he gets moved or the entire roster of big men get moved, because he won’t be able to play with any of them (not counting Jamison).
How did Harangody do? The next Matt Bonner (but with inside game)? Or more proof that chubby white guys don’t belong in the NBA?
@Brian B, Luke was rather invisible. He hit an 18 footer, and battled Bonner. Didn’t do anything horrible or great in limited time.
Oh, Hickson. Why must you be so darn predictable? Long step back 20 footers, missed wide-open 15 footers and like one decent post move. I understand that Samardo took a lot of touches away in the area where Hick has been doing good work lately, but this was just a depressing regression. His body is out of position at center, but his brain is much better there. I don’t see how this gets fixed.
How many offensive fouls did JJ have, 3 or 4? How can he not understand, that you can’t run full force towards the basket without considering somebody stepping in front of you? Same thing with Hollins, god damn does he not have any idea?
Great first half. Great effort by Samuels, Gee and Eyenga at the end. Everyone else was mediocre at best…
I don’t know why you don’t just leave Hickson at center, and play Samuels at PF. Samuels has a better jumper. If you’re worried about it, switch them on defense. Byron Scott baffles me sometimes.
Wow. An impressive -27 in +/- for AP.
Couldn’t have put it better myself. I was at the game and it was not as close as the final score made it look. The Spurs are just too talented and we might have just marched out the worst starting lineup in NBA history.
http://sportstheblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/worst-starting-line-up-evernot-winning.html
I didn’t think Ramon had that bad of a game, he was 14 pts 7 rebs. Not as stellar as he’s been playing, but not terrible either. Some of the driving lay-ups are going to be harder for him as Samardo doesn’t spread the floor and draw quite as much attention as Jamison does.
Samardo looked better this game than any other game I’ve seen him play. Not like he was playing against slouches the whole time either. His footwork and patience were being praised by BScott. Hopefully this is a sign of things to come and he starts developing into the player that we think he can be.
That’t the thing about all this youth on the team, Samardo, Manny, Gee, JJ, Eyenga, the two lottery picks we get in the draft. All have a ton of promise, hope and potential. Sometimes you’ll see glimpses of it and think, ‘wow they can be a star’ and then the next 5 games they just disappear and look like a project again. This team is full of youth and potential with even more coming next season. I just really hope they take the time to develop and work on thier games. Including our lottery picks we’ll have 7 guys (not including Ramon, Luke or Erden) that are so young that we still don’t really know how good they can be, any of them can become consistent all stars or be out of the L in 3 years.
@hoopsdogg How does one do that? Just calling a guy a PF and another guy a C doesn’t change how the opposing team is going to match-up with them. Samuels can’t spread the floor nor could he force the Spurs to guard him with their PF and let Hickson work against the C. Put Samuels on the peremiter and watch as Blair and Duncan crowd the paint against Hickson.
As a matter of fact, I’m pretty sure they DID try to play Samuels at the 4 for much of the game, but he either reverted back to playing in the paint, which is what he knows, or the SPurs simply didn’t care and still guarded Hickson with Blair a lot.
In order for Hickson to be effective at the C the Cavs actually need a 4 who stretches the floor and ALSO forces the opposing team to guard Hickson with their C because they can’t play that C on the stretch 4. See, it wasn’t just that Jamison stretched the floor and allowed Hickson to work in space, it was the fact that Jamison can really play from the peremiter that meant the opponent had no choice but to use their 4 to guard him and allowed Hickson to work against the Center. For w/e reason, Hickson seems more comfortable being guarded by the bigger, stronger, slower players (the centers). Not sure why that is, but it just is.
Hoopsdogg: Keeping Hickson at center is better for his stats and the Cavs on the short term. However, He really has no future at Center. I think this gave Scott an opportunity to start to move JJ back to PF. I just hope he can make an adjustment.
Harangody will never, at any point. shoot near 50% from three in a season. Bonner stays in the league because he’s a great spot-up shooter from 3. That’s his niche. Harangody is never going to be able to do that.
As a transplanted north coaster and lifelong Cavs fan living in Louisville, I can say a few qualified things about Samuels.
This kid is an athlete. No doubt about it. Probably was a top 3 athlete in last years class.
If he can ever right his character and day to day motivation, this kid will be a force and real steal for us.
Was still very happy that the Cavs took a shot with him. We have nothing to lose.
When (if) Scott can get through to him we could see a player putting up double-doubles every other night.