Cavaliers 111, Bobcats 81 (Box)
The Cavaliers were disposing of the Bobcats, meanwhile Boston continued their slide, and Detroit finally had their win streak snapped. Could it be? Could the Cavs (28-6) be the Eastern Conference leader? Are they, at least for the moment, the best team in the league? Could this really be an ESPN reporter saying LeBron to NY makes no sense?
Oh yeah, about the game….
The Cavs came out looking to put the Bobcats away early. Great energy on defense plus ball movement was more than enough to take down a weary Charlotte team, but add some hot shooting and we had ourselves a blowout. The Bobcats never led in this one. The only tie was at 0-0.
How’s this for balance: James led the team with 21 points, but five other Cavaliers had at least 13 points as the retro-look Cavs shot 60 percent for the game. Yes, you read that right. In addition, the Cavs had 24 assists and out-rebounded the Bobcats 41-33. But they were certainly not perfect. And I would hesitate to say they were playing at the same level as their November and December run. Charlotte looked tired and simply doesn’t have the personnel to keep up with the Cavaliers if they are playing close to what they are capable of.
It was good to see Daniel Gibson and Wally Szczerbiak have good shooting nights. This team will need them hitting outside shots to beat Boston on Friday.
