Overview: Monta Ellis and Baron Davis combined to score 47 points in a 95-85 defeat of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Baron Davis was the high scorer for the Cavaliers with 19 points off the bench.
And now there’s point guard controversy bullets:
So, Razor Ramon is completely unraveling before our eyes. In the three games Baron’s played in, Sessions has shot 13-42 from the field and hasn’t been passing the ball terribly well either. He seems to have completely regressed to the Ramon we saw at the beginning of the year. He’s forcing drives, he’s not looking to pass, and he’s killing the spacing. Having Samardo in the starting lineup instead of Jamison makes it easier for teams to collapse on Ramon, so that isn’t helping. Or maybe having Baron outplaying him and looming over his shoulder is throwing him off. Either way, I want this to end. I love Razor Ramon.
That said, Baron has looked pretty darn good. He’s making RYAN HOLLINS look like a legit big. And he’s making his shots. Watching Baron drain threes is like watching The Godfather again and seeing Sonny get through the toll booth safely, but I’ll take it. Baron’s swagger is at maximum velocity right now. Cavs were -15 in the 17 minutes Baron sat on the bench.
Samardo: chill out, dude. I think some of Scott’s comments may have gotten to his head. I like Samardo, but he should be thinking Jason Maxiell, not Paul Millsap. He was horrendous tonight — bricked jumpers, holding it way too long down low, turnovers, nightmare.
I am sure there are reasons for playing Alonzo Gee over Manny Harris. I am not sure what they are. Gee can rebound, but he’s not much of a defender and he can’t shoot. Manny should be getting those minutes.
Hickson: rough game. He’s not catching the ball, he’s not moving well without it. I wonder if the lack of spacing is having an effect on him.
AP: Too many one-dribble pull-ups. Eyenga: waaaaaaaay too many jumpers. I still have Eyenga as a part of the young “core,” but let’s just say his name is written in pencil instead of pen right now. He’s still very, very raw both in his skills and his approach to the game.
RYAN HOLLINS. GOSH DARN. If this was your first time seeing Ryan Hollins, you’d think he was a top-10 center in this league. He’s big, he can jump, he’s alive, and he can move. That’s often enough. The alley-oops you expect to happen when the right guy is throwing them. Some of the strong moves inside were a pleasant surprise. But the hard shows on pick-and-rolls? Where did that come from? If he can keep doing that, he’s more valuable than Eyenga is to this team.
Speaking of pick-and-roll defense, neither Samuels or Hickson were particularly good at it tonight.
As for the Warriors, they took the game when Monta started raining in threes in the third. With Ramon in the Twilight Zone, there wasn’t much the Cavs could do when the Dubs made their run.
Steph Curry is just flat-out good at basketball. He absolutely looks like a guy who had a ball in his crib and never really let it out of his sight. The ball-handling, the shooting, the way he understands angles, the confidence. What a special, special offensive talent. Although I LOVED seeing Baron post him up for a layup. How many guards do that anymore?
That’s all for tonight. Until later.
Ramon can’t handle the pressure of competing for minutes. He’s been that way his whole career.
As for Hollins… it was nice to see him actually not suck for once, but it should be pointed out that he only had 2 rebounds tonight. That’s a disgrace.
Yeah… Hollins played 24 minutes and had 2 boards. Sad to say that as a 7′ center, that just isn’t going to cut it. His rebounding alone makes him pretty darn close to useless most nights.
You “think” the lack of spacing is hurting Hickson and Ramon? Let me help you out, it definately is. All of the reasons people like me were not singing the praises of Ramon and Hickson are being shown. The guy who everyone wanted gone (including me) is the guy who was the biggest reason both of these players were looking so good.
Also of note, Gibson is playing terrible. With that + no Jamison, Mo, or Moon this team has all of 1 reliable jump-shooter. Anthony Parker. There is no one else who can space the floor. Forget Harangody. He has to seriously prove himself to the entire NBA that he can shoot the ball before he actually causes them to guard and therefore space the floor. The lack of Ramon and Hickson even having a half-way decent 18 foot jumper is really, really easy to see.
Ramon, as usual, has shown himself to be king of garbage time. Whether it is garbabe time in a specific game, or garbage time in a season, he has shown throughout his entire career to be a guy who thrives when things are generally meaningless. Early in the season, when we thought that maybe we could compete, he was horrible. We start losing every game and the pressure relaxes and he plays better. We put some wins together and add a clearly superior player and he just becomes beyond awful. The turnovers he had in this game were astounding, even by his standards.
I am refusing to think about what “could be” in regard to Baron and focusing only on what he is. Otherwise, I, like every fan of his previous teams, would spend too much time staring at his gut during games and wondering what if…..
Yeah, Samardo could chill a bit, but it wasn’t as bad as it could be. If Ramon understood how to cut off of a post player, Samardo might not be forced to play against a defacto double team every time.
Hickson can’t seem to understand that the first jumper he gets upon receiving the ball is much better than any jumper he will get off a dribble. Same thing every game.
Recently Parker, Gibson, Hick, Sessions, and to a lesser extent, Eyenga have been slumping. I don’t have a worry about Boobie, Parker or Eyenga getting out of it for obviously different reasons. With Hick, Samardo is like Darnell Jackson all over again. A guy that is not as athletic, but with a better basketball IQ is taking his thunder and his position. You can see it especially when the two of them fight for the same easy rebound. Though I will say they made a couple nice interior passes to each other. As for Sessions, I don’t need to repeat myself. (at least in this post. haha.)
I, too, would like to see some more Manny Harris, but not at the 3, and that is where Gee is getting his minutes right now. Baron is effectively taking Manny’s minutes and I am obviously fine with that. Manny over Parker, Boobie, or Sessions? Right now, I would take Manny over Sessions and that is it. And even then, that would be basically killing Sessions’s confidence completely.
Quick note to Rich. Gibson’s offensive game has been terrible, I agree, but he is still playing the most solid defense we have in the backcourt.
We had another watchable game, with is pleasant. What is not pleasant is having about 10 dunks and still losing by 10 points. That is hard to do.
The first quarter was fun, and when Baron tried to take over the game from Monta in the second half, it was interesting. Other than that, flush this turd down the toilet.
No one on this team rebounds…its unreal….and how many missed layups were there? Sessions is just a complete mess he has no outside shot and just drives to the hoop constantly, I mean thats what we see at junior high level or lower…maybe high school but its so ridiculous….this was a game we couldve easily won….also Gee can’t make any shot whatsoever…that starting lineup we had is absolutely brutal…we need to start Baron, Eyenga, Parker, Samuels, and maybe Hollins or Hickson, cant decide among last two…Hickson is mentally retarded…has to be…how many passes did he fumble away and they werent tough passes, just traditional basketball.
“Monta Ellis and Baron Davis combined to score 47 points”
No, Monta Ellis and Steph Curry.
The problem with Baron is he’s too out of shape to finish games. You could see it at the end when the layups weren’t getting to the rim. 24 minutes a night has to be the limit. Secondly, and no one is talking about this, the Cavs have to start hitting some jump shots because everyone is just packing it in on them and daring them to shoot, or covering the one guy they have on the floor who can hit threes. I think that is Ramon’s biggest problem.
I have to agree with the take on Gee. He just doesn’t strike me as a guy with a lot of long term upside. I’d much rather see Eyenga get minutes there. I think he could really be something special, and I don’t mind the jump shots because the form looks good, and the makes will come. As for Parker, UGH. 7 points from your starting 2 guard will not get it done in the NBA. Time to go back to Manny and Eyenga.
Not much talk on boobie’s incredible D last night. He made steph curry look like a fool at times and the only time curry scored on him was off screens where he is so quick that honestly boobie didnt have a chance. He forced him to 2 travels, had some nice pokes and visably frustrated him. That is excellent Defense…too bad when Ramon was in things were different….
The effect of Jamison not being on the floor is being felt. As much of a defensive liability he is/was, what he provided on offense by either scoring diretly himself or just stretching the floor to help Ramon and JJ etc be more effective. I guess I’m still pleased that Samardo and Gee are getting more burn time, I wish we had Harris in there more too though.
Once Andy comes back next year, we could have a PF controversey between Samardo and JJ. Samardo makes some mistakes – but the expected kind for a kid with his experience. But he’s still been playing quite well and doesn’t seem to have the mental breakdowns like JJ. Also if Ernden proves to be as good as we think he can be – I could see him starting at Center with either Andy coming off the bench or playing PF. Our ‘best’ line-up next year will very likely have Andy at the PF positon and Ernden at the center. Limiting JJ to even fewer minutes and possibly making him decent trade material.
On other blogs there has been talk about should we pick Irving (assuming he’s available) for our #1 pick in the draft. Many arguments against have recently been that we already have Ramon and so we didn’t need him as our PG of the future. I think right now we are seeing the ‘real’ Ramon and this shows exactly why it makes sense that the Cavs reportidly have Irving at the top of the draft board.
We still need to find someone who can effectively stretch the floor, and it looks like we’ll either get that person via the draft (with our second pick), or still possibly with some kine of trade. It certainly doesn’t seem like we have anyone that really does that now – certainly not JJ, Samardo, Andy. They all need to be in or close to the paint to have any effectiveness. AP and Boobie are spot up shooters that are effective when a defense collapses inside and they get a kick-out pass, but they can’t be considered ‘stretch’ players who are a threat to either drive or take the outside shot like Jamison.
We need Irving so badly. It has never been clearer than now that Ramon Sessions is almost certainly not the point guard of the future.
His court vision, which is not something that one can really learn, is terrible, and he has no outside shot.
While Baron is far better, at the age of almost-32, he definitely isnt our future either.
This 2011 draft, as bad as it is, hopefully can net us a good wing played and a point.
Never saw that video, but got a kick out of it because it was filmed in my neighborhood. Wish I went for a jamba juice that day.