The 5-Hole, CBJ News and Notes – 11/18/08
November 18, 2008Eight In A Row
November 18, 2008
Cleveland Cavaliers (8-2) vs
New Jersey Nets (4-5)
IZOD Center, East Rutherford, NJ
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
7:30 PM EST
FSNOH/WTAM
Tonight LeBron James squares off again his good buddy Jay-Z’s team, the Brooklyn New Jersey Nets, his future employers. Hilarious, I know. Ok, now that we got our obligatory mention of LeBron’s certain defection to the Nets out of the way, lets actually talk about the basketball game. The Cavaliers come into this game on a 7 game winning streak and are off to a great start this season. The Nets record isn’t great, but they do have some quality wins this year, including a win over the Pistons and then back-to-back wins over the Hawks. The Nets aren’t a great team, but if they get hot and your team gets cold, they can sneak up and bite you.
Projected Starting Lineups
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Mo Williams (15.9 ppg, 4.9 apg, 1.0 spg, 14.24 PER)
-G Delonte West (10.2 ppg, 2.7 apg, .465 3P%, 12.42 PER)
-F LeBron James (29.8 ppg, 8.0 rpg, 7.3 apg, 34.35 PER)
-F Ben Wallace (2.7 ppg, 7.3 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 14.03 PER)
-C Zydrunas Ilgauskas (15.0 ppg, 6.7 rpg, 1.4 bpg, 23.44 PER)
Key Injuries: Eric Snow (out), Darnell Jackson (out)
New Jersey Nets:
-G Devin Harris (23.0 ppg, 6.2 apg, 1.0 spg, 28.81 PER)
-G Vince Carter (23.8 ppg, 5.3 apg, .386 3P%, 23.52 PER)
-F Bobby Simmons (6.1 ppg, 3.0 rpg, 0.9 apg, 5.91 PER)
-F Yi Jianlian (9.8 ppg, 7.4 rpg, 0.8 bpg, 11.55 PER)
-C Brook Lopez (6.8 ppg, 5.7 rpg, 1.6 bpg, 14.04 PER)
Key Injuries: Jarvis Hayes (questionable), Josh Boone (out), Chris Douglas-Roberts (out), Eduardo Najera (out), Stromile Swift (out)
Team Efficiency Stats
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Off (101.1 ppg, 39.7 rpg, .479 FG%, .783 FT%, 20.7 apg, Efficiency-109.9, Rank-1)
-Def (93.6 ppg, 37.3 rpg, .428 FG%, Efficiency-101.3, Rank-12)
New Jersey Nets:
-Off (97.3 ppg, 40.4 rpg, .438 FG%, .795 FT%, 18.7 apg, Efficiency-105.0, Rank-8)
-Def (101.1 ppg, 38.9 rpg, .452 FG%, Efficiency-108.3, Rank-28)
Game Notes
Last year, the Nets took the season series from the Cavaliers by a 3-1 margin. That was a different Nets team, though, and this is a different Cavaliers team. This is one of the absolute worst defensive teams in the NBA, so it will be a good test for the this suddenly successful Cavaliers offense. The Nets give up a very high FG% to their opponents (10th highest in the NBA, 5th highest in the East), and they are giving up the highest 3P% against in the entire NBA. The Nets do not defend the perimeter very well, and they haven’t been great inside defensively, either, giving up 37.2 ppg in the paint over their last 5 games.
If the perimeter is going to be open for the Cavaliers, though, the big guys need to be ready down low to rebound. A great way to beat the Nets is by beating them on second chance points. The Nets rebounding is very suspect and very similar to the Cavaliers, but the Nets DRB% is dramatically higher than the Cavaliers is. The Nets are 5th best in the NBA at keeping their opponents off the offensive boards, so if you can get the edge there and get some second chance points, you make your life a lot easier.
With so much room to breathe on the perimeter, keep an eye on Mo, Delonte, and Boobie early on. If they’re not hitting their shots, it will be that much more important for the Cavaliers to crash the offensive boards, because if you’re not hitting your open shots outside and aren’t getting any second chance opportunities, and the Nets become very difficult to beat.
When the Nets are on offense, they have one of the absolute best backcourts in the NBA. Devin Harris has been sensational this year and ranks 3rd in the NBA among PGs in PER. And then you have Vince Carter who’s quietly doing his thing and putting together another very nice offensive season. Yi Jianlian has been heating up lately, and when he’s on, the Nets offense is that much better.
The Nets do have a fair amount of injuries to worry about at the moment, though, so they will be somewhat shorthanded. The Cavaliers haven’t played a road game November 8th in Chicago, so that will take some getting used to, but the Cavaliers should be well rested having been off since Saturday. LeBron James is 13 points shy of 11,000 for his career (insane, isn’t it?), so he’ll be gunning for that, but more importantly, he’ll be looking to set up his perimeter guys who should have a lot of wide open shots in this game. We’ll see if the Cavaliers follow their usual formula of hanging around for 3 quarters and then slamming the door in the 4th quarter when LeBron takes off. We know LeBron loves playing in front of his good buddy Jay-Z as he averaged 34.67 ppg in 3 games against the Nets last year, so we’ll see if he can carry that success over to this season.
Vegas Line
New Jersey +6
Over/Under 195
From The Outside Looking In
NetsDaily Blog
Hooplah Nation
NJ.com: Nets Blast
Next Game For The Cavaliers
Cleveland Cavaliers at Detroit Pistons
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
7:30 PM EST
FSNOH/WTAM
4 Comments
This may be a different Nets team, but this Nets team still has two ingredients that KILL the Cavs. One goes by the name of Vince Carter, the other is an under control, FAST point guard that can score (for the Nets he goes by the name of Devin Harris). For examples of this second ingredient look up stat lines of Tony Parker, TJ Ford, Devin Harris (prolly his Mav days), shall i continue? If the Cavs can contain two guys i have no fear of a loss, but if they both go off for 20+…uh oh!!…One good thing is that like the post mentioned, the Nets have played zero defense this year. Part of being the Josh Boone just doesn’t appear to have the hops to get up and reject anymore in the interior (plus he’s hurt now) and you can’t forget that the artist formerly known as Air Canada can’t play a lick of defense himself. I smell a classic LeBron statline of 25 points, 8 dimes, 8 boards, and 2 steals. Now we shall see if Boobie, West, and Mo can hit from beyond the arc. I also wouldn’t mind seeing Z go off for 15-20 points.
One more thing, this is a trap game if i ever did see one in the NBA. Cavs might look ahead to the date in detroit they’ve got tomorrow at 730 EST (why this game is not on National TV boggles the mind).
Another solid 4th quarter. Williams is a stud.
And a solid third quarter (sorry, didn’t get to watch much).
Also, LBJ is the youngest to 11K points, and each one of these milestones he gets to is another that will never be broken (since HSers can’t enter the draft anymore). He’s 2 years ahead of Kobe for all of his scoring/pace records, and he’s done it with lesser talent overall. Simply amazing.