Things are less exciting without CP3 around
The Cleveland Cavaliers (13-17, 9th in the East) will close out the figurative first half of the season Wednesday night when the New Orleans Hornets (7-25, 15th in the West) pay a visit to the Q.
With All-Star break coming up this weekend, the Cavaliers have an opportunity to head in with a boost of confidence on a 3 game win streak and winning 3 of their last 4. More importantly, with a win they would be at 3 games under .500, despite being hammered with injuries at different points to Anderson Varejao, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Daniel Gibson, and Anthony Parker. Despite playing only 3 home games in the first 3 weeks of the season. Despite having to play Miami three times, Indiana twice, Boston twice, Orlando, Dallas, Philly, Atlanta, both Los Angeles teams, New York, and Portland.
In other words, it wouldn’t have been wrong to expect a rocky start to the season, but the Cavaliers have dealt with a lot of adversity and handled it all in a positive way. They’ve weathered the ups and the downs, and they find themselves situated as spoilers, lurking just outside the playoffs in the Eastern Conference.
From now through the end of March, the Cavaliers only play a total of 4 games against teams currently in the Top 5 of either conference. They are going to play a lot of games against teams they are evenly matched up with, and the outcome of these games will decide an awful lot about the rebuilding path of the Cavaliers. With the trade deadline coming March 15, I would expect that by the end of March we will have a pretty solid understanding of the team’s goals and expectations for themselves.
This all starts with the Hornets tonight. Well, it really started with Sacramento last Sunday evening, but it continues against New Orleans tonight. The Cavaliers are 2-0 on this coming of age stretch of the schedule, and they really don’t want to lose this game and go into the break having this momentum snapped.
The Hornets, for their part, are kind of where the Cavaliers were last season. They are dealing with the pain of losing their franchise superstar, experiencing that hollow feeling of going from contender to bottom feeder. Injuries have also taken their toll as well, with Eric Gordon, Carl Landry, Emeka Okafor, and Jason Smith are all expected to miss the game tonight.
The Hornets’ starting lineup consists of Greivis Vasquez, Marco Belinelli, Trevor Ariza, Gustavo Ayon, and Chris Kaman. You can expect to see a lot of Jarrett Jack, Al-Farouq Aminu, Solomon Jones, and DaJuan Summers off the bench. It’s forgivable if a lot of people look at that lineup with a confused stare. This is a roster lacking in name recognition and, more importantly, in wins. Which doesn’t mean there aren’t some solid players here. But several of them are injured and the rest lack identity and cohesiveness. Again, the Cavaliers will understand where New Orleans is coming from in this game.
The Hornets will try to slow this game down and frustrate the Cavaliers in a half court game. The Hornets are dead last in Pace Factor and 11th in opponents points per game at 93.5 points. The Cavaliers must not fall into the trap and they must force New Orleans instead to play their game. This has been a weakness of the Cavaliers’ this season, far too often being content to play games at their opponents’ pace. The Cavaliers need to dictate the flow of this one from the start.
It’s easy to praise Kyrie Irving for his 4th quarter heroics, and said praise is so well deserved. However, I’m still waiting for Kyrie Irving to really impose his will on the game from the opening tip off. He’s been far too content to let others get going first. And while it might seem strange to criticize a player for his unselfishness, the real problem is that his teammates look up to him. They feed off of what Kyrie does, and when Kyrie is passive and hesitant, it seeps into the mindset of everyone on the floor. Kyrie doesn’t need to be selfish to impose his will. He just needs to come out with energy and aggression, attacking the rim, taking good shots, and yes, using his aggression to set up teammates.
Above all else, the Cavaliers need to get off to a good start because the Hornets are a bad 2nd half team. In fact, the Hornets are dead last in the NBA in 2nd half points per game. The Cavaliers are 5th. So sure, the Cavaliers theoretically should be able to make a run in the 2nd half if needed, but with the break coming up, it would be nice to see the Cavaliers get off to a fast, energetic start and then put the Hornets away in the 2nd half.
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Photo Source: hornets.com
