Recap: Cavs 117, Warriors 114 (Or, A Post Of Clarity Within The Chaos)
2010-01-12
Overview: In an up-and-down, high-scoring affair, the Cavs were able to hold off the Warriors down the stretch and escape from Oracle with a 117-114 win. LeBron James led the Cavs with 37 points, while Corey Maggette and Monta Ellis combined to score 62 points for the Warriors.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
-Another game, another dominant LeBron James performance. The Warriors had no answers for LeBron, and he was able to get whatever he wanted offensively. LeBron finished with a line of 37/8/11/2/4 with only two turnovers and 64% True Shooting (when his two and-1s are factored in.)
What’s more, he did that without his outside shot, getting only five points on 10 shots from outside of fifteen feet. LeBron was able to get to the rim all night, and get there in a variety of ways. In the fast-paced first quarter, LeBron got out in transition at every opportunity and got baskets that way. He was able to work off of everybody else and bully his way to the rim for free throws.
And then, the best part. With around 8 minutes left to play in the game, LeBron James took Cartier Martin (welcome to the NBA!) into the post. Martin gave the foul, and LeBron still almost made the chippy. The next time down, he went right back to the post and dropped in an easy righty hook. The next time down, they switched Maggette onto James, but he went right back to the post, and drained a baseline 10-footer. The next time down, he went back to the post and got fouled. And with the Cavs up three and a minute to play, LeBron went to the post on Mags and drained an easy righty floater through the lane. (I’m not sure if this is a compliment or a criticism, but it looked Shaq-like; the footwork was questionable, and LBJ may even have walked, but he just bullied Maggette and got an easy shot.)
Was this the lightbulb game for LeBron in the post? Probably not. We’ve been sucked in by this before, and this was the Warriors’ defense. But even still, LeBron took this game over from the post. If you’re not giddy about that, I don’t know what to tell you.
-Definitely a game of run for the Cavs. MB never fully figured out the Warriors’ unorthodox attack, and it was unclear whether the Cavs were more effective punishing the Warriors with their size or adapting to them and playing small-ball.
-The Cavs did get sucked into the Warriors’ game and played a fast-paced game, and did give up 26 points on 22 turnovers. Not good. However, the Warriors did make 10 of their 15 threes, which has to be chalked up more to luck than anything else, especially with Anthony Morrow only hitting one three and 28% 3-point shooter Monta Ellis going 3-4 from deep. The Cavs’ talent advantage was enough for them to take this one, but they definitely didn’t impose their will.
-Ultimate Jawad, game four: Jawad looked good out there. He looks extremely comfortable playing off of LeBron, and was able to drain a jumper from an awkward zone off of LeBron penetration early, along with a nice layup off of an interior feed from Andy and two threes. Overall, the lineups with Jawad in them didn’t fare so well, as Jawad finished with a game-low -11, but given that he had wonderful plus/minus showings in his last two games I’m willing to chalk that up to a small sample size. Something to watch, though.
-Shaq was able to beat the Warriors up inside, shooting 5-8 from the field and even hurting the Warriors in transition, but didn’t get any offensive boards, and the Warriors seemed to be able to get back the points they lost to Shaq on the other end. Yet another strong offensive showing from Shaq, though.
-Great game for Z, who was able to get baskets at the front of the rim, grabbed six offensive boards in 16 minutes, and hit some jumpers, although he’s still hit and miss on “his” shots from midrange. I feel like Jawad’s minutes are going to come at the expense of Z once Moon comes back, so it’ll be interesting to see if he can play well enough to keep himself in the rotation once Moon gets back. Unless, of course, Jawad ends up getting Hickson’s minutes, which doesn’t seem like a bad idea right now.
-Uneven game for Delonte. He made some mid-range jumpers, hit a three, and made some nice dishes down the stretch, but he had some seriously bad offensive possessions and fumbled the ball twice on inbounds passes, which is a major no-no.
-Andy was wonderful, getting weak-side basket after weak-side basket against the Warriors’ rotation-challenged defense, and throwing some moves, getting a bite on an up-fake and burning Biedrins for a nice up-and-under layup. A game-high +16 for Andy, as is his custom.
-On the final sequence: LeBron trying for the hero dagger three instead of going back into the paint and trying for something closer to the basket was definitely not ideal. Fortunately, the Warriors made the worse foul-up, as Monta looked to call time-out but Don Nelson told him to push the ball, which got Steph Curry a contested 30-foot heave at the buzzer. LeBron got away with a mistake there.
-Rough game for Mo Williams, who looked to be pressing, shot 2-8 from the field and turned it over four times, and got ripped apart by Steph Curry. Good to see that the Cavs can win without him on his game.
Bullets of Randomness:
-Steph Curry is truth. He looked like he was at Davidson tonight. Tricky scoop shots around the hoop, jumpers off the dribble, open threes off of assists. And that lefty wraparound pass to find a wide-open Ellis in the corner for three late in the game? Whoa. I hope this guy gets to show his stuff on a contender someday, whether it’s the Warriors or not, because there’s no fear in him.
-Monta Ellis with a very Monta Ellis game. 30 points on 30 attempts, five assists against five turnovers, 45 minutes on the floor.
-Maybe there is a way to keep Corey Maggette off the line, but I sure don’t know what it is. He looked quietly unstoppable.
-Vlad looked like a new man, draining threes and actually going to the basket when the occasion called for it.
-By the way, to those of you that were on the Daily Dime Live Tonight, thank you. You guys were wonderful tonight, and it was tons of fun. Really a great experience for me, in all honesty. Let’s do it again soon.
Thing of the Game:
“Heart Skipped a Beat” by The XX. I know mine did when Monta hit that three. But ultimately, this was a game to feel good about. The Cavs pulled out two straight road wins. Now they have a few days off. LeBron took it to the post. All is well. For now. Listen and relax.
LeBron is the fittest player in the NBA. I don’t understand why Kobe gets all the credit for being a gym junkie, do people think LeBron is just naturally fit, obviously he works as hard as Kobe if not harder.
I get sick of some of the criticism LeBron cops to be honest.
I still can’t believe how much energy Lebron has. He played most of this game as well as the night befor. On top of that he was racing down the court on every fast break and getting rebounds and pushing around the warrior bigs. Impressive is hardly enough to describe his physical abilities. I’m blown away. Plus, I only see Lebron play once a year living in the bay area so I found it amazing as to how hard he really works on every play. The clapping noise he makes with his hands when his palm hits the ball on… Read more »
I would like to make a comment on the “hero dagger three” bit. In that sequence, LeBron posted up, got the ball, and was immeidately doubled and passed out of it to Mo. Mo was not ready to shoot like he should have been, so LeBron popped up to recieve the ball with all of 5 seconds left on the shot clock. The 3 was more out of necessity than trying to be a hero, especially when you look earlier in the possession when he was posting up and recieving the ball and passing out the double team. Nothing about… Read more »
On that same token, I think you can blame Delonte for Jawad’s extremely negative +/- in this game. I saw nothing different defensively out of him in the second half; the team simply stopped scoring.
I’m not surprised at all that someone dominating the ball nearly cost us the lead, but I’m *absolutely* surprised that that person was Delonte West. Horrendous game for him, and some horrendous possessions down the stretch that saw him refuse to pass when he didn’t exactly have it going.
Unreal game by LeBron.
I can’t fault Jawad for Maggette getting to the line so many times. That’s Maggette’s game, and he gets more calls in his favor than anyone in the league because the Warriors are a low-visibility team.
Jawad Williams had a -11 for a reason. Magette abused him on the defensive end.
Dubz fan here!
Curry has very, very quickly become my favorite player on the team. He makes some of the same rookie mistakes as everyone out there, but there are times that he looks like a full-blown veteran. He just has a maturity to his game that most kids his age don’t have. Plus, his passing skills were way underestimated. I just love when the ball is in his hands, because 9 times out of 10 good things happen. He may not have gaudy numbers right now, but he’s always making the right basketball decisions.