Running out of time
March 10, 2008The Signings Keep On Coming
March 10, 2008Portland Trail Blazers (32-30) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (36-27)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Monday, March 10, 2008
7:00 PM EST
FSN OH/WTAM
The Cavaliers welcome the impressive young Trail Blazers into town this week as the Cavaliers look to win their fifth out of their last six games. The Cavaliers won the match in Portland in what was one of the most exciting games of the season. Now the Cavaliers will look to continue their good fortunes against Portland in the Q. For Portland, this has been a bit of an up and down year, but overall they have to be happy with their success this year despite the absence of #1 pick Greg Oden. Fortunately for them, Zydrunas Ilgauskas is still out and so they will get to take on the Cavaliers’ offensively challenged lineup. It should be another good one.
Probable Starters
*NOTE: Due to errors at John Hollinger’s website, I don’t have the PER numbers for the starting lineups tonight. Sorry.
Portland Trail Blazers:
-G Steve Blake (8.3 ppg, 4.7 apg, 0.8 spg)
-G Brandon Roy (19.7 ppg, 5.8 apg, .328 3-pt%)
-F Martell Webster (10.3 ppg, 4.0 rpg, .12 apg)
-F LaMarcus Aldridge (9.0 ppg, 5.0 rpg, 1.2 bpg)
-C Joel Przybilla (4.8 ppg, 7.7 rpg, 1.2 bpg)
Key Injuries: Darius Miles (Out), Greg Oden (Out)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Delonte West (7.4 ppg, 3.5 apg, .338 3-pt%)
-G Devin Brown (6.8 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.1 apg)
-F LeBron James (30.9 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 7.4 apg)
-F Ben Wallace (5.3 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.6 bpg)
-C Anderson Varejao (7.1 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 0.6 bpg)
Key Injuries: Sasha Pavlovic (Out), Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Out), Daniel Gibson (Out)
Team Efficiency Stats
Portland Trail Blazers:
-Off (95.3 ppg, 40.3 rpg, .450 FG%, .766 FT%, 21.0 apg, Efficiency-104.0, Rank-15)
-Def (96.2 ppg, 42.5 rpg, .443 FG%, Efficiency-105.0, Rank-19)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Off (97.5 ppg, 44.2 rpg, .441 FG%, .720 FT%, 19.8 apg, Efficiency-103.4, Rank-17)
-Def (97.9 ppg, 40.9 rpg, .458 FG%, Efficiency-104.0, Rank-14)
Game Notes
It’s tough to know what to really make of this new look Cavaliers team so far. While it seems at times like this experiment is not working out all that well, you have to also remember that no matter what anyone says, it takes time to get used to playing with all new teammates, especially when you consider that this Cavaliers roster had been pretty stagnant for the past 2+ seasons. For all of that roster’s downfalls, the one thing you could say is that they all had a pretty good on court rapport and LeBron knew each one of them well and he always seemed to know how to take advantage of their strengths while compensating for their weaknesses. Well now everything is different and it’s not really clicking yet, particularly on offense. That being said, prior to the arrival of the 4 new guys, the Cavaliers were averaging 97.05 ppg while giving up 98.24 ppg. Now, they are at 97.48 ppg and are giving up 97.87 ppg. Granted, the competition hasn’t been the greatest since the new guys arrived, but none the less, things are working better than they sometimes seem when watching the games. Portland is a very good team who has a good record despite playing in the West, and they are fighting to get back into playoff contention despite being 3 games above .500.
Like always, for the Cavaliers, everything runs through LeBron, and lately LeBron has been on an unreal tear. He has topped 37 points in 4 straight games. Over those 4 games he is averaging 41.0 ppg, 7.0 rpg, and 5.3 apg. He has scored 25 or more in 21 straight games and 20 or more in 39 straight games. Cleveland has won 4 out of their last 5, are 16-12 against the Western Conference this season, and have won 6 of their last 8 against Portland. The Blazers are a team who run an offense somewhat similar to the Cavaliers. They don’t run a whole lot and they like to setup their half court offense. Normally these are the kind of teams that Cleveland excels against, as they rely on their tough inside defense and rebounding to really limit their opponent’s second chance opportunities. However, the loss of Z inside is still a factor as the Cavaliers give up some size and rebounding without him. A big key for this game will be AV. Varejao must revert back to the kind of game he had against Indiana (15 points, 16 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals) rather than the guy who got abused by Noah against the Bulls last week. I’m not saying he needs to match those all around numbers he had against the Pacers, but the Cavs are 12-1 in games in which AV has a double-double, so that goes to show how important it is for the Cavaliers to have him play well.
For Portland, this just seems to be a tough matchup for them. They have lost 4 straight in the Q by an average of 16 points per game. That being said, though, this is a different Portland team, too. They are playing really solid basketball this season and they should have won the game in Portland, as it took a 14-2 run by the Cavs including a game winning layup by LeBron with 0.3 seconds left to secure the win. The Blazers are a young, athletic, and somewhat physical team that can try to match some of the Cavaliers strengths. For the Blazers to win this game, they must pick up their pace a bit and force the Cavaliers into uncomfortable defensive situations. Furthermore, they must take advantage of the lack of Z in the middle to pick up some key rebounds. Brandon Roy is a great player having an outstanding year. It’s important that the Cavaliers defense doesn’t allow him to get loose because he will definitely make you pay if you don’t pressure him with your defense.
All in all, I was excited to watch the first Cavalier-Trail Blazers tilt and I’m just as excited for this one. I am still watching all these games to see what kind of steps are made toward improvement with the new Cavs. In the 8 games since the trade, the Cavs are winning at a .625 clip, scoring 100.4 ppg while allowing 95.4 ppg. Rebounds are holding steady while assists are up from 19.4 apg before the trade to 22.1 apg since the trade. Shooting is up from 43.9% to 45.2% while opponents’ FG% is down from 46.0% to 44.9%. So progress is being made, slowly but surely. It’s just up to the Cavaliers players to keep working hard on both ends to keep getting better.
Vegas Line
Cleveland -5.5
Over/Under 188
From The Outside Looking In
Blazer’s Edge
Blazer’s Blog by OregonLive.com
Deceptively Quick
The Inferno
Greg Oden’s Blog
[print_link]