Cactus League: Indians Lose Big to D-Backs 15-9
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February 27, 2009
Yao Ming blocks LeBron James (Photo by Bill Baptist/NBAE via Getty Images)
Rockets 93, Cavaliers 74 (box)
This is a tough recap to write. Granted, most of the time we get to talk about what the Cavaliers did to win and last night is obviously not the case. But this game was different. On the road, yes. But the Cavs have one of the better road records in the league – despite all of the talk regarding their sole loss at The Q. But unlike the loss against the Lakers at the Staples Center, the Cavaliers were seemingly never really in this one.
Out of the gate, it was ugly. Like long hair, bearded Chris Kaman ugly. Yes, that bad. Jump shots after jump shots, the wine and gold managed to score a measly 11 points in the first quarter. The second quarter was the only period that saw the Cavaliers outscore their opponent; though this was quickly given right back after only putting up 10 points in the third quarter.
This will be a game that the Cavs and their fans alike will want to forget immediately. Though we will have a reminder for about the next two-to-four weeks.
More on that later.
As a team, the Cavaliers shot 34 percent from the floor. Typically, this could be blamed on a vast amount of three-point field goals, but that was not really the case as there were only 17 attempts. Zydruans Ilgauskas and Anderson Varejao combined to go 5-for-16 through just under 60 minutes of play. Delonte West was relatively ineffective on offense, finishing with four points, one assist and three turnovers. And Daniel Gibson quickly cooled down by going 1-of-5 in 31 minutes off of the bench.
LeBron James and Mo Williams each dropped 21 points, but in a rare event, James finished with zero assists. This was the first time in 493 career games that James failed to yield an assist – though it is not far-fetched in this game given that the Cavs only shot 34 percent. The Cavaliers as a team dropped 10 dimes, compared to 25 by the Rockets. On the defensive end, we were abused by the combination of Yao Ming and Luis Scola, who combined for 42 points on 18-of-22 shooting. Von Wafer came off of the Houston bench to drop 19 points of his own including four three-balls that helped them pull away in the second half.
Once again, the Cavs were the weaker team inside as we were obliterated in the global battle between Ming/Scola and Ilgauskas/Varejao. Andy was forced to play nearly 30 minutes as the Cavs lost Ben Wallace to a fractured leg midway through the contest. Early reports had Wallace likely missing the remainder of the regular season, but updates have his return at four-to-six weeks. Though I’m a bit skeptical that he’ll even be back in six weeks, Wallace is hopeful.
“I’ll definitely be back for the playoffs, I’m hoping to come back before then,” Wallace said. “Realistically, I don’t know how much I’d help the team, just coming back for the playoffs. It’d be tough, I’d be out of rhythm. I don’t want to go out there and put my team at a disadvantage. It’s more on me to catch up with them.”
Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace (Photo by Joe Murphy/NBAE via Getty Images
Varejao will continue to fill in for Wallace down the stretch, which is actually an upgrade on offense. However, the big picture issue is that we now have ONLY J.J. Hickson and Darnell Jackson coming off of the bench for BOTH post spots. Consider that Hickson managed to foul someone in his four minutes last night and it could get dicey. On the occasion that either Z or Andy were to get in to early foul trouble, this could be a big problem that would result in some very creative lineups from Mike Brown. Rock passed along a statistic that the Cavs give up nearly 97 points per game and have a .500 record without Wallace in the lineup. The bottom line is that with the Cavs not making a deadline trade, they’re now forced to scamper through the next 48 hours to have someone rostered by March 1.
If you’re wondering what may happen with the rumored Joe Smith buyout, he is still under contract with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The Rocky Mountain News is reporting that the Cavs could see some competition for his services from the Denver Nuggets. Then again, they’re also eying up Mateen Cleaves. You would have to assume that if Smith wants to win, his chances are better in Cleveland. Also something to pay attention to is Smith’s agent Dan Fegan (also representing Anderson Verejao) and the possible nudge of the Thunder to ensure that his client gets as much money as he can. The Cavs have the full MLE at their expense, and given the Wallace injury, may be pressed to spend a bit more than they would have before yesterday evening.
I also would not count out other players entering the mix outside of Smith, though he is the most-discussed by media and fans alike. Danny Ferry has reportedly been on the phones like mad (once again), phoning specific agents as opposed to team general managers. Stay tuned on this one.
It goes without saying that the top seed is of the utmost importance in the East. And it also goes without saying that the Cavs are in a tough stretch of their schedule and will need to bounce back with one heck of a game against the Spurs tonight.
19 Comments
Don’t forget Lo Wright!
I’m curious to see how things play out with Ben hurt. He was getting beat like he stole something last night, by Scola and Yao. He couldn’t guard either of them, and is a liability on offense. Yao just stayed by the hoop all day, not even bothering to look @ Ben.
If Andy and JJ can step up and play big, then this may not be that big a deal. But like Scott mentioned, foul trouble is where our depth will be a concern. Look at it this way, atleast our offense should get better; especially compared to last night.
This was just an ugly, ugly game. Every team has at least one game like this in an 82 game season.
Does anyone find it odd that the Cavs play horribly on Thursday nights when the games are broadcast on TNT? The losses to the Bulls, Magic and now Rockets all happened on Thursday nights. Maybe the players are thinking about “The Office” or “30 Rock” and not focusing on the game.
I can’t wait for loudmouth SAS to come on ESPN today and say how Ferry is panicking to get agents demand guys get released so he can sign them.
Remember, Ferry was panicking to make a big move at the deadline. And he panicked at the deadline because he didn’t make a big move. He’s just a panicky guy.
Anyways…I have a fever and the only cure is MORE HICKSON. I know he’s had his faults this year, but I really want to see him grow into a solid player and the only way that happens is being trusted to more minutes, which he will now get.
Voices in my head … Joe Tait to Jim Chones, during their Cavs broadcast: “If you wouldn’t have broken your leg that year, big guy, I know we would have beaten the Celtics …” [Chones nodding back, sagely] … John Lucas, raspy-voiced: “I need a BIG, get me a BIIIG!” … Official, urgent female voice over intercom: “Dr Ferry, Dr. Ferry, please report to the Intensive Care Unit, stat.”
Funny you say that Wahoo. Down here in Tampa I don’t get to watch the Cavs much and when I do, yeah. Well you see what happens. The whole team looked lazy last night, this is one long road trip, not to mention the tough game tonight in S.A.
Viva la Brerry.
not to pour salt in the wounds, but the more i see scola the more i like him. i am 99% positive that ferry had a trade in place a few years back to get scola from the spurs but for some reason it fell through at the last minute and the spurs sent him to the rockets instead. does anyone remember this? does anyone know why the trade to the cavs fell through?
I guess we pray now for Joe Smith?
Mr. Ferry, you have a “Mr. Horry” on line 1.
Anybody who even suggests playing Lorenzen Wright hasn’t seen any of the games he’s played in this year. That guy is done and will contribute nothing.
We better pray that Joe Smith gets bought out and barring that hope that Robert Horry has got something left in the tank. We couldn’t guard any team with size before and now our “best” interior defender is out for probably the season….
I swear to god, this whole world is against!!!
Can somebody please explain the logic of not making a move at the deadline for some size when we KNEW we couldn’t guard any of the other contender’s elite bigs?!
Just when everyone is back healthy good ol Yao moves his bionic foot and breaks big ben’s leg (first broken bone he’s ever had btw) I think I may actually be believing this Cleveland curse. He wont be the same even when he’s back.. the last thing a player that old needs is a broken bone in his leg… Ha that Shaq trade looks amazing now. Seeing as how Boston gets whoever they want (thanks to the Stern NY conspiracy) they’re poised for a playoff run. All I have to say is that Ferry has done a good job with the roster over the last couple years… now he really needs to get it done we NEED a post presence preferably a defender, it’s asking a lot but with out a presence down low, we’re going to be eating a live in the paint a lot worse than we have been the last couple weeks… Why can’t we just win a ring?!
doczeus – the logic is that there apparently was no deal to be made. im sure ferry could have gotten camby by trading wally, hickson, gibson and multiple draft picks, but whats the point in that? it also made little sense (financially and strategically) to trade wally to get shaq and have shaq and ben wallace on the same team. its not like those guys got traded elsewhere and the cavs missed out. there was nobody else of consequence on the move.
@ # 12 eshaw – I heard Ferry on Reghi right after the trade deadline, and Ferry let everyone know the Shaq deal was never even close. Probably because the Suns knew they had already lost Amare for an extended amount of time, and needed some sort of big man still.
@Joe
I’m not sure I buy that particularly brand of logic. 80% of the league is hemorrhaging money right now and to think with so many of these teams being down and out that there wasn’t a deal to be made for Wally’s valuable expiring contract seems rather hard to believe. I’m guessing the Cavs decision was a financial one and they decided that Wally was still “relatively” useful as player and they would rather just have the thirteen million dollars come off the books at the end of summer than take on anymore salary.
Of course, you can’t believe that Danny Ferry thought to himself after watching us get dismantled throughly by the Lakers (twice), Orlando and now, Houston that he thought to himself Delonte West and our chemistry is going to get us past any one of those squads when the problem is we can’t guard size. I’m really regretting not going after Brad Miller (a player I wasn’t even sure about) or even Tyson Chandler now.
My prediction now is that if we don’t get the 1 seed. We lose to Orlando in Round 2 and if we get the 1 seed, we lose to either San Antonio or the Lakers in the Finals. That’s our teams peak, right now. Anything barring that is wishful thinking.
The Cavaliers will have Sheed by Monday.
We lose every time the Celtics lose.
Every time.
doczeus – there may have been some financial incentive on the cavs’ part to not make a bad trade to bring on an exorbitant amount of excessive new salary. however, ferry has shown over the years his ability to make smart and shrewd trades which help the team talent-wise and which dont hurt the team money-wise long term. (flip murray, mo williams, wallace/wally/delonte trades as examples). i think ferry has earned the benefit of the doubt here. i think its fair to say that a “bad trade” could have been made to bring in a big man, but that trade would have bogged the team’s financial situation down (not to mention long term cap flexibility) and probably would have cost the team long-term talent if we had to give up gibson and/or hickson. its not like a guy like kevin garnett was available. i dont know if its worth taking such risks just to bring in a guy like brad miller, or even marcus camby who hasnt exactly been a pillar of health through his career (including this season).
So this summer we make a move for Bosh involving JJ, Gibs, Wallace’s expiring deal, and a first rounder.
The game last night was painful to watch, while we obviously got beat inside like we owed someone money, our perimeter players weren’t doing a whole lot to get good looks either, we got smothered on the outside.
Is Duncan supposed to be playing tonight? If so he must be drooling at the thought of what he can do to JJ and Jackson.
Heres to hoping Anderson steps up and plays for that big contract hes supposedly looking for this summer.
Hoy