Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Not a time to panic

So the Cavs have lost three in a row on the heels of their franchise record-tying 13-game winning streak. Now the sky is falling, Mo can't hit a shot, and the annual call for Mike Brown's head has begun. We are certainly spoiled by this team's winning ways. Were the last three losses fun to watch? Of course not. The team has drifted from its defensive principles and just coasted for long stretches. But closer look at each loss might leave us all feeling a little better...

Last Thursday: 118-116 OT loss to Denver. Your classic "giveaway" game by the Cavaliers. They've been skating on thin ice for a while now at the free throw line and this time it finally bit them. 23-for-40 from the stripe just isn't gonna win many games, regardless of the competition. The fact that they still had a chance to win this one until LeBron's shot at the buzzer rimmed out is actually quite baffling. Denver is a solid team, the Cavs were coming off a long All-Star break, Z was just traded, Antawn was still unavailable, and the Nuggets were surely rallying around George Karl's announcement that he's once again battling cancer. Not surprisingly, the 118 points is the most the Cavs have surrendered so far this season. What makes this loss doubly frustrating is the fact that the Cavs also gave one away earlier in the season to the Camelo-less Nuggets in Denver.

Last Friday: 110-93 loss in Charlotte. This was a scheduling nightmare. A long, late national TV game at home the previous night followed by the 7:00pm start against the much-improved Bobcats. The Cavs had a bad shooting night (39%), played bad defense (55% shooting for Chalotte), and really were embarrassed by a hungrier Bobcats team. Now the chatter is that this would be a horrific matchup should these teams meet in the first round of the playoffs. I'm not ready to think that far ahead just yet, but let's try to not blow this loss out of proportion. It was Antawn Jamison's first game in a Cavs uniform and he clearly was nervous, as his 0-for-12 shooting night should illustrate. The Bobcats are truly a perplexing team... they follow this one up with a loss to the Bucks, then a loss to the Clippers. Go figure.

Sunday: 101-95 loss in Orlando. We knew this one would be tough going into it. The Cavs had beaten Orlando twice already this season. The Shaq/Dwight Howard war-of-words was escalating. Orlando would be ready for this national TV matchup. Their hot-shooting 4th quarter is what did the Cavs in as they outscored Cleveland 27-20 in the final 12 minutes. Encouraging things to take away from this one were Antawn's first solid performance as a Cavalier - 19 points and 8 rebounds, before fouling out on some terrible calls - and Shaq's nice offensive performance (20 points on 9-for-10 shooting). Foul trouble ultimately killed the Cavs as Shaq was also strapped with 5 fouls. It still kills me that Howard seems to get away with most everything, yet Shaq is whistled for any sort of contact. This will likely be the matchup again in the Eastern Conference Finals, so it was nice to get a preview of how things now look with the new line-up for the Cavs. We play this guys one more time in April at the Q and I'll be looking forward to that one as things should be more stable by then.

Also, keep in mind the Cavs had not had a practice with a healthy Mo in a month. And Z is gone from the locker room and the rotation (at least for the next 25 days or so, wink, wink). And the Cavs are now trying to shuffle their lineup with Mo and Antawn in the mix and Leon Powe soon to follow. My point is that Mike Brown is juggling a lot of moving parts right now. And the goal is not to be peaking in February, but in April and beyond. The Cavs have 25 games left to get things running smoothly and soon this 3-game skid will be forgotten. Enjoy the rest of this season and try to keep the big picture in mind. The team will look to get things back on track tonight at the Q vs. the Hornets. I don't expect to be writing about a 4th consecutive loss here tomorrow. But even if I have to, remember to take a deep breath and relax fellow Cavs fans. It's a long season, and titles aren't won in February.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Cavs vs. Magic

So the streak has reached 12 after a couple of not-so-pretty wins over the lowly Knicks and Nets on Saturday and Tuesday. I'd like to attribute the sloppy play to boredom (we were up by 24 over NY and 17 over NJ) in the midst of a long winning streak, but the defensive lapses are a cause for concern. The Cavs pride themselves in owning the best defensive field goal percentage in the league and had held the opposition to sub-50% shooting in all but 3 of their 51 games prior to these last two. And oddly enough, all 5 of those +50% shooting nights for the opponent have led to wins for the Cavs. I guess when you're good enough, you can even overcome a hot shooting night from the other guys. And I've said all along that this Cavaliers team can win in a variety of ways.

Which leads us to tonight's game - a showdown against the team that caused all kinds of matchup fits for the Cavs in last year's Eastern Conference Finals. The Magic have played much better of late, winning 10 of their last 12 and surging into the 2nd spot in the East. They are currently six games behind the Cavs for the top spot in the conference and would like nothing more than to come into the Q in the last game before the All-Star break and avenge their November loss to the wine and gold.

Of course the Cavs are still shorthanded without Mo, but will possibly have Delonte back in uniform for tonight's matchup. Personally, I'd rather see Redz just sit out one more game and then enjoy the 7 days off before next Tuesday's game against Denver. But if he does return to the court tonight it will be nice to have his defense out there against Orlando's perimeter guys. I will be at the Q for this one and will be looking forward to scouting the Magic with Vince Carter. I've maintained all-along that going VC instead of Turkoglu was a huge mistake for them and I'm looking forward to watching Carter off the ball... something you just can't do when watching on TV.

Hopefully we can run this streak to 13, slip into the All-Star break and grab some much-needed rest, and most importantly - get healthy. And with the trade deadline now just a week away, we should have some more interesting things to talk about besides water fountains at the Q. Sometimes I shake my head at what actually becomes a newsworthy story. Go Cavs.

Friday, February 5, 2010

We're going streaking!




Unofficial rule here on ClevelandChamps... when one of our teams' winning streaks hits double-digits, the Will Ferrell streaking scene must be invoked. The Cavs accomplished that feat with their first 10-game streak of the season last night. They trounced the Heat 102-86 at the Q, in the process grabbing their 21st win in their last 22 games at home. And yes, we are now on the same 40-11 pace to start the season as last year's team.

Another stellar night for LeBron with 36 points, 8 assists, and 7 rebounds. Mind you, he did this on just 16 shots from the field. And he was 17-for-21 from the line. I'd say "efficient" is an understatement there. And he truly did fill in as point guard-de-facto last night with Boobie Gibson missing the entire first half due to his fiancee's "false labor." It was nice to see Gibson show up and play the second half and notch 12 points for himself after that scare. Shaq also recorded his 10th consecutive double-digit scoring effort (coincidence that the Cavs have won all 10 even without Mo and Delonte?). And I haven't even mentioned JJ Hickson's facial served up on Dwyane Wade, or his subsequent rejection, also at Wade's expense.

The Cavs truly are hitting on all cylinders now. They have won their last five games by an average 18.4 points. And the streak could continue with their next two against the Knicks and Nets before another TNT showdown next Thursday against the Magic. Enjoy these days Cavalier fans... especially if, like me, you took those 90's Indians teams for granted. This team is that special.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

50 games in... time for a breather

Unbelievably, the Cavaliers have already hit the 50-game checkpoint in their schedule. It's almost time for the All-Star break and now is as good a time as any to take a look at their body of work thus far. After last night's 105-89 drubbing of the Grizzlies at the Q (ho-hum, just their 9th consecutive win) the Cavs now stand at 39-11 - just one game off their torrid 66 win pace of last season. That means after their sky-is-falling 0-2 start, the team has rallied to play .812 basketball over its last 48 games. Not too shabby. And the general consensus is that there is still room for improvement.

My two main gripes are still free-throw shooting and turnovers. As a team the Cavs shoot just 72.9%, which ranks 27th in the NBA. And they average 14.8 turnovers a game, which puts them just about right in the middle of the pack compared to the rest of the league. But I can live with missed free throws (of course a lot of them come from Shaq) because this team gets to the line a lot (8th in the league at 26.8 attempts per game), which means the fouls are piling up for the opposition. And the turnovers mostly come from a lack of focus. There has been some horrendous passing into the post at certain points this season. It seems to have improved lately, but it's still something to keep an eye on. It also should be easily corrected. Now on to the good numbers:

  • The Cavs are 20-3 at home. They have outscored their opponents by an average of 9.4 points in those games. And all 23 home games have been sellouts.
  • The Cavs are 19-8 on the road. They have outscored their opponents by an average of 5.3 points in those games.
  • They are 19-5 against teams from the West and 20-6 against teams from the East. Consistency.
  • They are 22-3 when the game is decided by 10 points or more... just 5-5 when it's 3 points or less. And 20-10 vs. teams currently above .500... 19-1 vs. teams that are not. By contrast, against plus-.500 teams the Celtics are 17-11, the Magic 16-13, and the Lakers 19-11.
  • The Cavs own the league's best point differential (+7.3), best opponent FG% (.430), and best rebounding differential (+4.5).
In short, the Cavs are beating teams anywhere they play them, whomever they play, and they usually do it with relative ease. There is still a lot of basketball left to be played but we've seen this team battle through a rough start, a tough schedule, and injuries to key players. All the while they have done this while incorporating new guys into the rotation (Shaq, Moon, Parker, Jawad) and putting old guys in unfamiliar places (Z & Delonte off the bench, Boobie with a diminished role then forced to start). And I haven't even mentioned LeBron's nightly brilliance yet.

The King is well on his way to a second consecutive MVP trophy. But more importantly, the team seems to be on a mission. They are winning in all different styles this year against both the elite teams and the bottom-feeders. And there's still plenty left to be seen with the trade deadline approaching and 32 games remaining on the schedule. Stay tuned, this should be a fun ride.

Monday, February 1, 2010

Another easy one

The Cavs must certainly be enjoying the fact that they can rest Mo Williams and Delonte West and get both players back to 100% health. The current soft spot in the schedule affords them that luxury and still allows them to pound on their weaker opponents. Such was the case again in weekend victories over the Pacers and Clippers. First came a 94-73 thrashing of Indiana. And then last night at the Q the Cavs scored 46 points in the first quarter on 11-of-13 shooting from 3-point range. They built a 31-point lead early in the second quarter on their way to a 114-89 pounding of the Clippers.

I've never seen a shooting display quite like what was going on inside the Q in the first quarter. The Clippers were double-teaming Shaq from the opening tip and that freed up our shooters on the perimeter. And it doesn't hurt when LeBron has one of his sizzling stretches from beyond the arc. It was reminiscent of last February's game in Milwaukee when he went off for 55, including a stretch of 17 points in less than three minutes. When the dust settled after the first twelve minutes last night, LBJ was 8-for-9 (including 5-for-6 from 3) for 23 points and the game was all but over. You just knew it was going to be one of those nights when his patented "heat checks" (you know the ones that make you go no, no, no... YES!) are going in.

Things certainly got a little sloppy in the 2nd half as the Clippers actually cut the huge lead down to 11 points early in the 4th quarter. But such can be expected in a game like this, which was never really in doubt. And the Cavs responded nicely down the stretch and finished things off the right way. The team still has 6 more in a row at home... their longest such streak in 16 years. Hopefully we see a few more of these easy blowout wins along the way. The Cavs are currently still a half-game up on the Lakers for best record in the NBA (although they do hold the all-important tiebreaker there). And they are 5.5 up on Orlando, 6.5 up on Atlanta, and a whopping 7 up on Boston. Fun times.

Fun facts: LeBron has tallied at least 11 assists in 6 of the last 10 games. And Shaq continues to pick up the scoring slack in Mo's absence. Last night was his 8th straight game in double-digits. Over those 8 games he is averaging 16.5 points, 6 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in just 26 minutes of action. And finally, for the season the Cavs bench is outscoring their opponents by a 29.2 to 25.6 average. That may not sound like much, but that wasn't the case last year. Don't look now but the Cavs are only one win behind their 66-win pace a season ago. I still think they can match or beat it if they remain relatively healthy.