Cavaliers Preview Game #25: Nets at Cavs
Written By: Andrew | Category: Cleveland Cavaliers | Comments: 31
New Jersey Nets (2-22) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (17-7)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
7:00 PM EST
NBATV, FSOH/WTAM
Remember when LeBron James said he wasn’t going to talk about free agency anymore? So far he’s stuck to it like a champ and we haven’t heard a peep out of him about it. Tonight could be a temptation, though. The Cleveland Cavaliers take on the New Jersey Nets in the Q tonight. You know the story by now. LeBron is friends with Jay-Z, Jay-Z is a minority owner of the Nets, the Nets are moving to Brooklyn in 2009 in 2010 someday, Brooklyn is a NY borough, LeBron loves New York, LeBron loves the New York Yankees, CC Sabathia pitches for the Yankees, Sabathia used to pitch in Cleveland, therefore LeBron will play for the Nets next year. So it’s only reasonable to expect the NJ media who travels to Cleveland tonight to want to ask LeBron what it’s going to be like when he’s playing for them next year. We’ll see if LeBron bites.
As for on the court, the Cavaliers are going to be playing one of the worst basketball teams ever assembled. I mean, this team is historically bad. I think we all knew they would be bad, but I don’t know as if anyone knew they were going to be quite this awful. You might be tempted to think this is a trap game, with the Cavs playing a 2-22 team at home before having to travel to Philly tomorrow, but if the Cavaliers allow this game to be even interesting, let alone if they lose this game, then they have no business considering themselves contenders. After a couple solid wins in a row making up for a couple tough losses, it would be an awful shame for the Cavaliers to have another letdown so soon.
Projected Starting Lineup
New Jersey Nets:
-G Devin Harris (16.9 ppg, 5.5 apg, 1.9 spg, 16.38 PER)
-G Courtney Lee (11.2 ppg, 1.9 apg, .250 3P%, 13.82 PER)
-F Trenton Hassell (7.2 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 0.8 apg, 8.05 PER)
-F Josh Boone (4.9 ppg, 6.1 rpg, 0.9 bpg, 13.34 PER)
-C Brook Lopez (19.5 ppg, 9.4 rpg, 2.2 bpg, 20.76 PER)
Key Reserves: Rafer Alston, Terrence Williams, Bobby Simmons, Eduardo Najera, Keyon Dooling, Sean Williams
Injuries: Chris Douglas-Roberts (out), Yi Jianlian (out), Jarvis Hayes (out), Keyon Dooling (questionable), Tony Battie (questionable)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Mo Williams (16.9 ppg, 4.9 apg, 1.4 apg, 16.22 PER)
-G Anthony Parker (7.6 ppg, 1.6 apg, .500 3P%, 9.06 PER)
-F LeBron James (28.8 ppg, 6.9 rpg, 8.0 apg, 30.64 PER)
-F JJ Hickson (7.6 ppg, 3.9 rpg, 0.4 bpg, 13.53 PER)
-C Shaquille O’Neal (10.8 ppg, 7.0 rpg, 1.3 bpg, 14.66 PER)
Key Reserves: Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Delonte West, Daniel Gibson, Jamario Moon
Injuries: Daniel Gibson (probable), Leon Powe (out)
Team Efficiency Stats
New Jersey Nets:
-Off (89.3 ppg, 40.4 rpg, .415 FG%, 16.3 apg, 16.0 TOpg, Eff-92.9, Rank-30)
-Def (100.1 ppg, 45.3 rpg, .470 FG%, Eff-105.0, Rank-19)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Off (99.7 ppg, 41.5 rpg, .477 FG%, 21.1 apg, 14.8 TOpg, Eff-106.4, Rank-10)
-Def (94.4 pp, 39.1 rpg, .436 FG%, Eff-99.6, Rank-5)
Previous Matchups
None
Future Matchups
-
Sat, Jan 2 at New Jersey
-
Tue, Feb 9 at Cleveland
-
Wed, Mar 3 at New Jersey
Game Notes
Lets keep this one short and simple. I mean, I hope the Cavaliers aren’t overlooking the Nets as much as I am, but in all honesty, I’ve watched this team play 2 or 3 times this year and every time they have looked beyond atrocious. It’s not even about the talent. They have good basketball players. But for whatever reason, this mix just doesn’t work together and they have very little identity. They are dead last in FG%, dead last in 3P%, 20th in fast break points, 26th in assists, dead last in turnovers, 26th in rebounding, dead last in points per game, and on and on and on.
If there’s one thing the Nets want to do, it’s score inside. They take 30.2 of their shots per game are “at the rim”, which is 3rd most in the NBA. They average an impressive 42.8 points in the paint per game, which is 9th in the NBA. This makes sense. If you can’t shoot, and you don’t move the ball around well, you had at least better try to score inside. So that’s what they do. Fortunately for the Cavaliers, Cleveland gives up the fewest points in the paint per game in the NBA, so the Cavaliers should be perfectly suited to shut down New Jersey’s offense.
When the Cavaliers are on offense, they are facing a defense that, while not great, doesn’t that bad in comparison to their offense. They do a respectable job defending the interior and they have some size and athleticism to alter shots and make life in the paint moderately difficult. What they don’t do well, though, is defend against the 3pt shot. If the Cavaliers just try to dump the ball inside to Shaq and then let LeBron take over by himself, they will be playing right into New Jersey’s hands. The key to this game will be getting the ball moving from side to side early and often. They must create open looks for their shooters. It sounds obvious, yes, but that hasn’t been the case all year for the Cavaliers.
Which brings me to my final point, focus. The Cavaliers seem to be a team content to play to the level of their opponents this year, which has been pretty frustrating. We’ve seen time and time again this year that when they want to put the effort and focus into it, they are still a really tough defensive team. The problem is, they just don’t do it enough. And on offense, far too often they allow themselves to get lazy and fall into old, bad habits of standing around and not operating the offense. The Cavaliers are playing a team that there is no excuse for them letting hang around at the Q. There’s no need for the Cavaliers to make tonight’s game any more difficult on themselves than they have to.
Vegas Line
Cleveland –14.5
Over/Under 196.5
From The Outside Looking In
Nets Are Scorching
Nets Blast
NetsDaily
Next Game For The Cavaliers
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
7:00 PM EST
Cleveland Cavaliers at Philadelphia 76ers
FSOH/WTAM
Author: AndrewSchnitkey
Andrew Schnitkey is a founding editor of WaitingForNextYear. Though he has written about every Cleveland franchise over the years, his primary focus is the Cavaliers and NBA basketball in general.Andrew Schnitkey has written 533 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I would have thought that a team with Lopez and Harris would have to have a better record than this.
Maybe Lopez and Harris shine because every team must have its leading scorers/playmakers. For the Nets, its those two.
Harris has missed the majority of the season – the guys we will see against Cleveland tonight isn’t a 2-22 team. The only thing that will help on that front is that CDR is out, dude has been Maggette like with his lines this year.
Thankfully, Harris isn’t exactly the defensive player of the year which should allow Mo to keep rolling along.
I’m praying that my League Pass mobile has the Cavs broadcast and not that of New Jersey so I don’t have to listen to the NJ announcers talk about all supposed reasons why Lebron is leaving Cleveland for NJ. Didn’t realize how much I’d miss AC and Fred after being forced to listen to opposing announcers for part of the season.
Nice work tying everything together Andrew, well played. The sad part is that there are “credible” media sources out there that attempt to use that same logic seriously.
Harris has been injured, but Lopez is the best player on this team right now and he’s played in all 24 games. Scott’s right that this isn’t the same team as the one that lost 18 straight to start the season, but this is still a very, very bad basketball team. Just wait until you guys see how they attempt to play offense tonight. It is not pretty.
Hmmm, I’m really doing a lot to jinx this thing. I’ll stop now. The Nets are a sweet team!!
what? nothing about the chinese investors finalizing the purchase/sponsorship deals? i can see espn not covering this, but WFNY?
WFNY says drink more Tsingtao!!
Oppie, you might not be able to watch on NBALP given that the game is on NBA TV tonight.
If you DO get it, you’ll get the Cavs broadcast because they try to avoid using the YES Network.
I’m going to the game tonight, look for me in the cheap seats. I’ll be wearing nothing to distinguish me from anyone else.
As a U. of Memphis fan, I was hoping to see Chris Douglas Roberts play, but unfortunately he is out injured.
oh, I didn’t even know it was Shaq bobble-head night http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/shaq_bobblehead_091209.html
@sam
The cheap seats are pricey to me, but they give a nice bird’s-eye view of the game.
Oppie / Jack.
If you have Comcast with the league pass you get every game on the NON HD NBATV channel in the 400′s. Usually that game is in the home broadcast, but I must say, the last 15 games I’ve watched have been all away team talk.
I hate the guys that “commentate” on breaks for that channel. Its like nails on a chalkboard, can they just not have the commentary between timeouts and quarters, and just charge less for the package?
Nets score majority of their points in the paint, so, if they score over 80 tonight with Shaq playing, he needs to be gone, and isn’t serving his purpose.
You guys see Anthony Randolph is on the block at Golden State? Would love to bring him in. Pretty much the whole Warriors roster is open for discussion now.
Still love Rudy Gay
west inactive
Shaq IS GARBAGE!!!! Brook Lopez with 20 in the half??????? Shaq should have 30 right now.
He is not the answer my fellow fans….. if Brook puts up 20 in a half….how bad is Howard going to make Shaq look.
Sorry Jack………TRADE SHAQ NOW
Tsingtao!!!!
WTF is up with delonte’s playing schedule? the constant back and forth from active to inactive got old about 3 weeks ago.
suspend him indefinitely or just let him play, I don’t feel like the back and forth is doing anyone any good
And steve wins the “I don’t understand bipolar disorder in the least bit” award of the day.
Denny,
I agree we don’t all understand the disease that Delonte has, but the Cavs are playing with a bench player at start SG because of it. Ideally Delonte is a bench player and we have an All Star SG in that spot, but apparently Ferry isn’t concerned with winning.
WFNY now means Waiting for New York
Why don’t the Nets have an actual net in their logo? That circle is supposed to be a rim right? So no net? That’s kind of dumb isn’t it?
The New Jersey Rims.
I understand he has a bipolar disorder but I don’t see how letting him play sometimes and then benching him sometimes helps that at all.
He was bipolar before and he played most of the last couple seasons when he wasn’t hurt.
if he needs help the team should make him take a leave of absence.
and denny wins the I-don’t-understand-how-quotation-marks-work award of the day.
This thread wins the clevelanddotcom comments of the day
@Rick,
I hear that the nets will be changing their logo to Lebron’s picture.
The Nets announcers are Mike Fratello and Ian Eagle. Fratello is way too classy to talk about the Lebron to NYC stuff. He and eagle didn’t even bring it up.
I love watching brook lopez play, and he is the only reason I ever turn on Nets games, but fratello and eagle have a great chemistry, and it is a joy to hear them call a game. If you got to listen to the YES feed last night, you were treated to a pair of guys who, if I didnt know what channel I was watching, seemed to be Cleveland’s hometown announcers. They seemed to be more knowledgeable aboutte Cavaliers than the Nets.
wait – mike fratello is the nets announcer? how many games does he do? how does he balance doing the nets games AND picking up coeds in tremont??? this man is my idol!
@steve – Pretty sure Denny used the marks correctly in his antagonistic post.
Now for one of my own:
@Natty – This is becoming fun. No, really, I look forward to this every morning. So I’m starting my own Daily Dime every time you make an annoying comment about Shaq. If Shaq gets us 16 points on 7-9 shooting, with 5 boards, 3 blocks and 3 assists in only 25 minutes of play. I’m gonna be pretty happy. Don’t be a stats-turd and watch the games astutely…
1) Brook Lopez had a great first half, with 20 points, as you pointed out.
2) He only shot 6 of 17 from the field. Which means he scored that many points taking a lot of shots. And he didn’t take a lot of shots in the second half. Which means he didn’t shoot a great percentage with Shaq in there.
3) He DID, however, shoot 9 first half FTs. A couple on lame calls. Only four of these free throws came from Shaq. One call was so bad even Fratello said something about it (watching from Manhattan last night).
4) Summary: sure, Shaq looked a little slow. But Lopez did not dominate him the way you think he did.
5) Shaq gets up for Dwight. Dwight’s post game is not as smooth as Brook’s. There was that whole high school/college difference. And a guy like Lopez can hurt Shaq a little more than a guy who scores 82% of his FGs dunking the ball. You will not be dunking on Shaq if you have to do it by fighting for position. You just won’t.
6) Dwight only scores in this manner, so Shaq is a great ASSet to have in the painted area.
7) Please relax. Danny Ferry is NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER trading Shaq. Ever. He will trade West, Gibson, Z, Wally, Hix or D-Jax. But not Shaq.
8 ) “I agree we don’t all understand the disease that Delonte has, but the Cavs are playing with a bench player at start SG because of it. Ideally Delonte is a bench player and we have an All Star SG in that spot, but apparently Ferry isn’t concerned with winning.”
Notice my effective use of quotation marks above highlighting a really ignorant sounding statement. A) You’re a burro the way you handle talking about this disease. What is he supposed to do? Tell the chemicals in his brain to stop lighting up his neural pathways in the way they are abnormally designed to do? B) Ferry has done a pretty solid job, and I think waiting for teams to move money near February is probably the right move (though I still would’ve loved Jax). C) Ideally every Cleveland team would have all-stars every position. Again, basketball must be viewed in a realistic context as both a competitive enterprise and a heavily regulated business operation.
9) Your claim that a 15 time all-star who has 4 championship rings is GARBAGE is probably fanbole but still makes you sound stupid.
10) WFNY = “Waiting for New York” was actually kinda funny.
WFNY = Waiting for Natty’s Yelping?; Whining Fan, Natty, Yaps?,
Jack
jack…you know I only post now to get you going. Good points though. Although 4 ring 15 time all star shaq is a man of the past, I do agree he is solid to defend one or two guys in this league. Its all about investing Jack.
1. You are paying a guy 20 mil to be effective in a few specific situations AND only for 1 year. While at the same time, come Feb, teams will be drooling over expiring contracts. With that situation, we could get players who could be effective every game for the next 3-4 years. What happens after this year? Please answer that to me. the 3 million or so that we will have under cap (barring we let Z expire as well) will not get this team any better. I then see the starting 5 as Mo, Bron, Moon, Powe, Varejaeo. Though not a bad “starting” line up, there is nobody to back them up.
2. I agree Delonte needs a support system and can’t control the effects of bi-polar disease, but at the same time. Its a competitive enterprise and a business, like you said, if trading Delonte with Z or Wally brings in a better more consistent SG then that has to be done. I don’t understand your criticism on how I commented on Delonte’s issue. I stated we don’t understand it, BUT looking at it from an investment stand point, you have to cut your losses because its negatively effecting the flow of the team.
3. Ferry has done a hell of a job, but after all this time, is yet to put another all star player next to Lebron. SJax would have been nice, but I didn’t like his age compared to his contract. Someone needs to be brought in that will be playing at their current level for several years.
4. I owe you a beer when I am back in Cleveland.