Cavaliers vs Celtics: Game One Open Thread
October 27, 2009While We’re Waiting…Shaq Interview, Delonte, Browns’ Media Member Ashamed
October 28, 2009The Cavs started out hot, but good defense won the night as Boston was able to keep Cleveland’s new offense in check.
You knew there would be struggles trying to incorporate all the new pieces. So let’s not lose our heads thinking the sky is falling. I was a little disappointed to see Boston get the majority of loose balls. Those are usually a good indicator of who is playing harder. The Cavs seemed just out of position or a hair slow to the ball, especially our bigs. Way too many rebounds hit the floor. Andy Varejao grabbed 5 offensive boards, and Zydrunas 1. That was it for Cleveland in the category. Cleveland also struggled to get the ball near the basket unless it was a Shaq back-down, until LeBron starting driving strong to the basket, probably a few minutes too late.
I thought it would be interesting to track the line-ups and substitutions. The least effective line-up by far was in the second quarter with Daniel Gibson, Mo Williams, Jamario Moon, Andy Varejao and Zydrunas Ilgauskas on the floor. Aside from the lack of scoring, Daniel Gibson was brutal trying to cover Ray Allen. Allen has struggled against the Cavs, but that was with Delonte West chasing him. Daniel Gibson and Anthony Parker had a miserable time in comparison. Coach Brown played Shaq and Z at the same time for a considerable stretch in the fourth quarter. With Varejao in slight foul trouble and Hickson’s disappointing second quarter, you have to imagine Brown felt he had little choice.
Shaq’s debut was less than spectacular. I’m sure much will be written about that. He certainly has things to pick up in Mike Brown’s system. Or perhaps Brown will have to alter the system in order to accommodate what Shaq can do.
JJ Hickson will not be earning any more minutes with performances like that. He was out of control and thus out of position. He wasn’t a part of the offense and contributed nothing aside from 2 fouls.
Brian Windhorst mentioned something in his weekly chat yesterday that I watched for during the game, and he was dead on. The Cavs under Kuester looked to establish ‘early offense’, and under Mike Brown they rarely do. That was on large display last night. The Cavs had very few fast break opportunities, and didn’t seem that interested in pushing the tempo at all.
The Cavs certainly could have benefited from playing a lesser team to open, but you play who is on the schedule. In the end, the Cavs were still only a few plays from winning. LeBron was spectacular as usual. I couldn’t help but think that it would sure be nice to still have John Kuester to work with the team on the offensive side of the ball.
(Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)
22 Comments
Good game considering. Gunna be a great season.
Shaq was going against one of the best and strongest low post defenders in the game in Perkins. Ask Dwight Howard about using your muscle against him, it doesn’t work out well, its very hard to get good positioning against him.
Mo Williams was beyond awful tonight. Not being able to stay in front of Rondo, let alone box him out, killed our defense at times. And if he isn’t shooting well, then he brings very little to the table. I’d like to see us start 2nd quarters with Shaq and Mo on the court at the same time, that would greatly help the 2nd unit
Boston is really good with KG and Sheed of the bench. If they stay healthy that will be tough to stop, although getting Delonte back would have solved a lot of our problems tonight. Who knows if KG can stay healthy and Sheed can stay not pissed though
Good shot selection would have helped take pressure off our defense also, and that didn’t happen
a looooot of issues, but it’s game 1 of a looooong season. Man, that first quarter was fun, tho. Even Andy was hitting shots. Glad that they fought their way back in the 4th, but kept screwing themselves when opportunity struck. Frustrating.
I literally can’t remember the last time I saw a Cleveland pro sports team win a game. Missed the Bills game (thank goodness), stopped watching the Indians in like July. It’s been months since I saw a team I cared about win a game. This is just brutal.
Another note – our bench got slaughtered. Doesn’t help when ‘Sheed has 3/6 on three’s or something…
In my eyes, the biggest problem tonight was Anthony Parker. He looked confused and rusty as he forced shots, passed to out of position teammates, played subpar defense, and failed to go after rebounds. I was a big fan of his signing and know one game is just one game, but as someone who was confident that he could step into Delonte’s starting spot with success, I must now say that he doesn’t have the amount of hot sauce in his bag that I thought he did!
I’m hopeful he’ll have something ready for his old buddies in Toronto, though…
Let the Mike Brown hating begin. Cavs will never win a title with Brown at the helm. He is the weakest personality on the team. Did you hear Doc Rivers in the locker room at halftime? Brown is not dialed in like that, saying motivational things like, “Guys be patient. We WILL win the world championship this year.” He has no clue how to work the refs either, he is way too meek. Brown, start acting like an NBA head coach, rather than a hanger-on in LeBron’s entourage. Mike Brown is not a championship coach. Period.
Mo didn’t look so well, but it’s game 1 and that’s not a big deal.
Thing that bothered me more than anything was, as often mentioned already, poor shot selection. I don’t know what kind of plays they were running, but man whoever ended up with the ball typically had very little chance of hitting the shot.
Also the 3 by LBJ in the 1st or 2nd Qtr (from like the parking lot) was my highlight.
Windhorst’s point about the fast break was well evidenced last night. The offense looked slow, especially with both Shaq and Z on the floor. The Cavs will get there, but I hope they don’t revert back to the plodding half court offense.
While Parker had problems guarding Allen, I think Delonte’s absence had its greatest effect with the amount of minutes given to Boobie Gibson. He was AWFUL last night and is tiptoeing the dreaded “bust” line with each missed three and terrible defensive performance.
To quote the incomparable Charlie Brown:
“AAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”
(My random thoughts from the game, FWIW:)
Great first quarter…..that’s about it. Not much effort from the bench. Boobie is in fact a bust, as Andrew S implied. Anoher game where Lebron scores 35+ and no one else helps. Shot selection was horrible. Delonte was/is sorley missed. Sheed’s still a tool. Lebron looked pissed everytime Parker ole’d one of his passes. The chemistry issue needs to resolve itself quickly. Z dosen’t look comfortable/happy coming off the bench. It’s only the first game, but I’m not impressed by anyone not wearing #23 right now. (That even goes for you too Andy!)
I think the biggest thing we are going to miss is Kuester as Rick mentions. Brown still has no clue how to run an offense. You know at halftime we were getting absolutely no love from Barkley and the gang, but the bad thing is they are right. No atheleticism on our front line. I hope we can gel soon. We miss you D West get well soon
I think last night showed how big Delonte West is to this team. Without him out there, we don’t have anyone on the 2nd team who can create their own shots. As many have said, Boobie looks awful and it just shows how he was a 1 year wonder because he can’t even hit shots, which is his only job. They need to bring Antonio Daniels in ASAP, so that Boobie won’t even get a sniff at PG.
I didn’t mind having the towers of Shaq and Z out there at the same time, but it will definitely pose as a big liability on D. Like it’s already been said, Z look uncomfortably, especially in the 2nd quarter. Z just seems stiff coming off the bench and I’m sure sitting to start the game doesn’t help that. I hate to say this, but I don’t know how valuable Z will be for this team. I know it’s only 1 game, but I can definitely see a trade sometime during the season to bring in a PF b/c that looks to be a major weakness.
I’m trying really hard to keep things in perspective, because it was the first game. The fact that we had to open with the Celtics and couldn’t hold serve on our home court hurts, but the whole team was saying coming into this game that it might take awhile for them to gel. Defense definitely picked up in the second half, but the offense was stagnant and crappy for most of the game. Almost no movement whatsoever without the ball. I expected Varajao to be very active in the half court offense cutting to the hoop, but it appears that they haven’t drawn up any of those types of plays yet. I think for the first month or so the Cavs are just going to kind of wing it because they didn’t get a lot of practice or game time together during the preseason due to injuries and illness. Against most teams in the league, the Cavs’ talent level will be enough to overcome their lack of practice and cohesiveness, but Boston is not one of those teams. I’ll be interested to see how the Cavs come out tonight – Toronto should be a fairly good team this year and the Cavs started played a lot of minutes last night. The bench is going to have to step up in a big way.
I might be alone on this, but this game reminded me a lot of the first 2 games of the Orlando series… the cavs jump out to a big lead, go on cruise control, then panic when they fall behind and lose all composure. This leads to bad passes, poor shot selection, and high risk defensive strategy trying to force turnovers… but also leading to causing more fouls. Then it becomes Lebron vs 5 and we can’t win too many games this way.
While I doubt Mike Brown draws it up this way, I feel like he needs to find a way to maintain a sense of motivation and/or urgency for the entire 48 minutes.
@ Jason – I thought the same thing, except you forgot the other team gets ridiculously hot from 3 point range.
I’m worried that Mo has a hangover from his playoff flop.
Shaq looked 37 years old when he got swatted in the 4th quarter on a “power move”.
Thanks Boom. I did forget that part… my mistake 🙂
glad to hear I’m not alone on the other stuff.
-I don’t think Shaq was that bad…he was dominating Perk (one of the best low post defenders in the East) initially, but we stopped giving him the ball
-From the first possession, you could tell something was wrong with the offense…if a Varejao 17 foot fadeaway is the first shot of the game, (regardless of the fact it went in), that’s not a good thing
-Parker and Moon both looked shaky at times, but they both appear to be struggling with timing (Parker’s drops, the missed alley-oop from Mo to Moon) moreso than just simply being bad players
-Even though Boobie wasn’t good at all, Antonio Daniels was pretty awful last year on both sides of the floor…he’s not the answer…delonte is
-we HAVE to get lebron the ball in post up situations closer to the basket…he shot way too many long jumpers…part of it was laziness, part of it was poor spacing
-we will be OK, but our offense needs to run more and give LBJ and Shaq more touches in the paint when we are in half court sets
In general I’m not too worried. I expected worse, though. There’s work to be done, but the starters looked strong when they were in together. Delonte will only make that better.
While I may not have tons of faith in Brown’s gameplans generality, he’s shown he eventually comes up w/ line-ups that promote on floor chemistry. I think he’ll figure the bench out w/o too much issue.
when do we get delonte back?
I watched the game last night with my wife. During the first quarter, we were both really excited and thinking “wow, this combination of players WORKS.” Then the second team came on and layed an egg… they need more time together. My wife fell asleep before halftime. It’s going to be harder for Z to get wide open looks on the pick and roll with no LeBron in the 2nd unit. Hickson looked overly anxious and tried to do too much. He was just jumping as high as he could on every rebound, whether he actually had a chance to get it or not, which let the guy he was guarding slip free. The first quarter made me extremely excited to have Shaq because we finally had a low-post player the other teams will have to respect who can finish down low. They have to respect Z, but not in the post. But later in the game the Celtics went small and pulled Shaq away from the basket where he was extremely ineffective. He did a nice job on KG when the C’s went small, for the most part, but I’m worried about him guarding other small 5’s who have better knees. I have to hand it to Rondo… that guy is an incredible defensive player. He shut down Mo Williams, and you really can’t blame Mo for that. Mo was juking, crossing over, using screens, and trying to outrun Rondo, but he just couldn’t shake him. Part of the problem is that Shaq leaves the screen on the pick n’ roll before making contact on the screened player, but Mo is terribly fast and Rondo was all over him regardless.
I remember some other player(s), and I’m not sure who, saying that it takes some time to adjust to LeBron because he’ll whip a pass to you that you just don’t expect to get because no other players can do it. I think Parker will adjust to that over the course of the season. I saw some things in his game that I really liked, namely his ability to guard Ray Allen (and other “big” guards), and the fact that he can hit an open 3 (unlike other SG’s on the team… I’m looking right at you, Boobie). Moon was fun to watch, but I need to see more from him the defensive end. He looked a step slow.
Tip of the hat to Boston, but they played MUCH closer to their potential than we did..
celts look good this year