Overview: The Cleveland Cavaliers got their second double-digit win of the season against the Charlotte Bobcats. Seven Cavaliers scored in double figures.
This team is very confusing bullets:
So the Bobcats are supposed to be fighting for a playoff spot, and they went full-on Butler against the Cavs on Tuesday night. The Bobcats completely owned the paint the last time they played the Cavs, and had a good amount of success with interior passing in this one, but the team absolutely could not buy a shot. Gerald Henderson and Dante Cunningham missed approximately 2,437 mid-range jumpers, nobody on the team could hit threes, and Boris Diaw is professionally enigmatic. He makes Hickson look like a paragon of consistency.
Offensively, the Cavs looked pretty darn good. They attacked the rim, pushed the break, and Baron hit a few of those big threes. Ryan Hollins was a monster around the basket, and J.J. almost made up for his questionable shot selection with a few really nice forays to the rim. And Razor Ramon had another nice instant-offense game — poor D.J. Augustin is really not a very good defender.
I mean, the Cavs completely controlled that game the whole way. Go figure. With five games left, maybe this team is finding its stride. Probably not, though.
Well, the Cavs are not a great — or even a good — team, but they haven’t quit on the season. That’s a testament to their professional pride and to the ability of Coach Scott to keep them motivated when they seemingly have nothing to play for.
Well done, everyone. Enjoy it. For the fans, smile — the Cavs won a game and this miserable year, starting with you-know-what last July, is almost over.
And just *maybe* this is the start of something positive. This team has *some* keepers besides Baron. A good draft pick, some of the young guys develop, maybe 25-30 wins is reachable next year… another good draft pick and by April 2013 Cleveland could be fighting for a playoff berth… [if there IS a season next year, but let's not go there.]
Boobie quietly played a great game. 10, 5, 4, 2, and 1. Not a bad box and a team leading plus 17.
Ramon was very Ramonesque in attacking poor defenders off the dribble and killing in the lane, while handing the ball to the other team 4 times in completely inexplicable fashion. Kid’s consistent at least.
Baron had an off game other than knocking down two straight away threes. His handle wasn’t as crisp as it usually is and we got out of rhythm a bit when we tried to post him against Augustine at times, but not so great Baron is still the best playmaker we have had this season.
Didn’t see a lot of bad shots from JJ today. I have no problem with him shooting the J with his feet set. I don’t remember any dribble pullups, so I will take it. He also made the decision early that he wasn’t going to allow any offensive rebounds to the Cats. He pulled down 16 defensive boards himself. Great job.
Hollins had an incredible second half. Didn’t miss a shot or turn the ball over. I will take that from him even though he still only pulled down 2 boards in 31 minutes.
Alonzo continued his really strong play of late. He is shooting the ball well from the outside to add to his drive game. More than anything, I love his strength and hustle. He is also rebounding the ball well. He had some weird turnovers today, but he is usually about even on his steals to tos. Just so you know, he is shooting over 60 percent from the field and over 75% from 3 over the last 5 games. Dude.
Our biggest issue this year on offense was that we didn’t have a primary creator. We do now with Baron. Considering the Eastern conference, I am pretty sure we can make a good playoff push next season with Andy back and Baron for the whole season. We are 4-7 in games that Baron plays for us. That is with our NBDL roster and JJ. .500 is very possible next season if we can get a decent rookie, and we get healthy. Maybe long term that isn’t a great thing, but it is still more fun to think about than another miserable season.
I hear a lot being banked on Andy’s return. Most of the conversation is centered around if he can play with JJ. On offense Hickson is best inside, Andy is always moving and providing energy. On D JJ is hopeless but Andy is elite. If Andy can make a great recovery and get back to his energetic best, I think I would still rather see those two together rather than throwing Jamison in.
Nevertheless the draft will ultimately determine our improvement over the next few years. Who knows, maybe Gilbert will try to buy another decent pick. I would like to see us pick up a PG and a decent SF like barnes or even Derrick Williams. A lot of people say williams has a PF game but may not be big enough. Still the guy shot unreal percentages from deep this year and is the most complete player you can get.
I’m really glad the rookies/new guys are getting these many minutes, that’s the only way we will know for sure who has what.
Even though JJ has done really good these past couple of games, I’m still waiting for him to get his mental together and become what we all hoped he was going to be. I’m hoping he works hard this off season to improve his whole game, specially his jumper and his footwork.
Eyenga needs to attack, attack and attack. Dont fall in love with the jumper. Yes it went in a couple of times and apparently Jamison is helping his footwork/stance but still, he needs to attack.
Now it all becomes a waiting game till the draft. I’m glad we won last nite, but that’s bot helping us any. We need to lose the rest of the games for a better chance at the #1 spot.
Coach Scott’s work ethic and commitment to improving is really reflected with this teams play. Theoretically, with the key injuries we suffered, the Cavs should have probably half the wins they do now. It’s been a great and lousy season all wrapped in one.
Once we get healthy and some more talent (through more trades and the draft!!!), there might actually be a light at the end of this tunnel in a few years. I hope Coach Scott is with this team for the long run and that old Danny Boy keeps his wallet open.
It is really refreshing to come to a site with actual educated posts. The ESPN forums are full of idiots. That being said, we need to capitalize and have no mistakes with our draft. It would be nice to have Shannon Brown still, but with two high picks this year we need to get them right and we will have a good mix of young but experienced players who got plenty of minutes this year along with some vets like davis and jamison (who knows how long he will be with us next year though). If you look at Scott’s track record we are on pace for a .500 season next year which would be great and put us in the playoff race next year.
The Cavs have a legit shot at being a decent team next year. Having Baron makes a huge difference and Jamison (when healthy) is still our best offensive threat. Both of them healthy and on the court together – at least until Jamison get’s traded -plus Andy and 1 (if not 2 quality draft picks) will be a decent team. The downside to this is that this still would not be a team good enough to compete for a championship and could potentially take us out of lottery contention. This doesn’t even take into consideration the likelyhood of getting another quality veteran with our trade exception or improvements made by some of our young players like Eyenga.
Right now the Cavs are just a bad team and they are trying to win, but just too little talent and too many injuries to win on a regular basis. Next years team could have the talent to win but not elite talent to compete with Chicago, Miami or even Orlando (Boston may or may not be a major factor in a year or two). So it could be interesting if the Cavs needed to actually ‘throw’ games to get a better draft pick.