Cavs 108, Sixers 101: Modest Win Streak Reaches Four
Written By: Rick | Category: Cleveland Cavaliers | Comments: 22
Give the Cavaliers credit, they earned a road win on the second night of a back-to-back. They came out with enough energy to match the Sixers and found enough in the tank to put the clamps on defensively in the fourth. They were led by LeBron’s 36-point performance, and a dagger by Mo Williams. Williams had a tough shooting night before draining a three pointer late in the game which put the Cavs up for good. Mo finished with 12 points on a 2-for-8 shooting night.
A few quick things about this one before I tackle a concern.
- Delonte West was active in this one, but didn’t play particularly well. He attacked the defense which we love, but wasn’t very effective. Defensively he pestered Philly’s shooters like we expect.
- J.J. Hickson played a very good first half. He had eight points, four rebounds and a blocked shot and then completely disappeared. He started the 3rd quarter, played about six minutes scoring two points on free throws and then wasn’t heard from again. Mike Brown sat him the rest of the game. He finished with 18 minutes. The Cavs went small to match the Sixers for much of the second half, but it seemed like Hickson could have been effective in that line-up.
- Brian Windhorst tweeted last night that Mo Williams was ‘benched’ during the stretch run. Not sure what was said, but I noticed a pretty distinct cold shoulder from Mo to Mike Brown after Mo’s big shot and a subsequent Sixer timeout.
- Shaq was effective enough to get Dalembert and Brand in foul trouble, which was good because Dalembert seemed to be blocking everything in sight for a stretch.
Now here’s my issue: It’s hard to complain about the greatest player in your franchise’s history. LeBron does so many things right for this organization that he almost earns a pass on everything else. But I would really like to see Lebron’s points in the fourth quarter come within the flow of the offense. The insistence to play isolation basketball for the last four minutes of a game is not a smart move in my opinion.
We are seeing more teams recognize that LeBron is quite willing to settle for the outside jumper and moving help to guard James with four seconds or so left on the shot clock. Will LeBron counter this? Sure. But wouldn’t it be best if everyone on the floor was still an option? Isn’t it easier to defend that isolation play if you don’t have to worry about Shaq getting the ball? I know. We won. But if the Cavs ever find themselves in a position to win a championship everyone in the world knows what play they’ll be running to try and seal it. Are you ok with that play?
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(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Author: Rick
Rick is a co-founder and editor of WFNY. His love of Cleveland sports is surpassed only by his faith and love of his family. Follow him on Twitter- @rickwfny.Rick has written 887 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I just liked it a lot more when they were winning games with their defense. I’m not sure how much I can attribute some of the lax play due to the back-to-back on the road, as that obviously hurts a team, but at no real point this year (maybe aside from MIA/ORL) did this team look near ideal.
Last night was frustrating once again – at no point in the last two weeks has this Cavs team looked like a 19-win squad.
I guess we’ll find out some things next few weeks with games against Dallas, Phoenix, LA, Houston and Atlanta (twice). The Cavs could just be playing well enough right now because they know they have a tough stretch coming up and they’re going to need to bring it.
The day-to-day status of Delonte is really starting to hurt the team (not Delonte’s fault). Not knowing what to do with him game-to-game is hurting Mike Brown ability to create a consistent rotation (Windhorst touched on this today). It may be time for Brown to just play Delonte his minutes every night no matter what his mood just to bring some consistency to the situation.
I kind of like that we are not the team to beat right now. Just get a top 3 seed is all I ask and be rolling when playoff time comes around.
I hope Powe can come back sooner than later. Really curious to see him in this lineup.
The Cavs at times get the ball movement, Globetrotter thing going and it is normally good basketball. However, the myriad lineups make it hard to know upon which one they can depend when there is tension (4th quarter and a close game). The core group is not honed, because there is no core group. Thus, when the tension hits, they look for hot hands with the tacit assumption that Lebron should get the first heat check. It is not Lebron’s doing (he’s just the best player). It is the coaches’ doing. They hope that defense and a hot hand will do it. Sometimes it does. And that’s the fairy dust that gets the into the playoffs without a realistic shot to win a championship.
The brutal LeBron karate kid leg kick 3 after dribbling for 23 seconds has to stop. Potato Head(he no longer deserve’s the Mr.) wasn’t happy last night, but it’s his own fault.
@Matt#2, so you’re saying that Mike Brown is on the sideline yelling at LeBron to wave off Mo while he’s dribbling off time at the top of the key?
Re 4
“that gets THEM into the playoffs”
Rick,
I agree with your concern about the “Lebron versus 5″ offense. The Cavs play like a team for 3 quarters and then King James either sits (if the Cavs have a big lead) or takes over. The body language of his teammates is so negative at that point, as they’re supposed to run up and down the court and play defense knowing they probably won’t touch the ball.
I think it’s time for a new approach.
That Lebron holding on to the ball is the reason we lost to Orlando last year…it must stop b4 the playoffs or the Cavs are screwed. Though, it would be the one reason I wouldn’t mind seeing Lebron go (and the Cavs getting Bosh and someone else).
Swig:
You may be saying that Mo should be the one pounding the ball and not Lebron. You may be right, I hadn’t considered it.
I didn’t notice a wave-off, thoguh. (I do notice, generally, that during times of tension there is minimal movement by all players, it looks like a chess board. Granted, they were trying to run time off the clock, and maybe if someone is going to stand there pounding the ball it might as well be Lebron (hot hand).)
I am saying that the Cavs haven’t developed, for the purposes of team offense, a core group upon which they can depend when the nut is on, so they don’t do it. I blamed that on the coaches. Clearly I erred there, as I don’t know whether it’s the coaches’ fault or not.
@Matt #2- there is certainly a wave off at times when LeBron decides it’s time for the isolation.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Delonte back in the starting line up. That might help spark him a little bit. He might be able to get the team’s defensive intensity up. Like Scott said, I want to see them feed off their defense and shut some teams down.
I was at the game last night, suite seats from the boss-man ;0)
The one good thing I saw (although I agree with most of what was said here) was in the middle of the fourth– Mo was struggling with his shot, look frustrated. Lebron tried his damnedest to get Mo the ball but he keeps missing, and then finally Lebron visibly set up a play at the top of the key to get Mo an open look.. and thus Mo hits a three. And then another (*or was it a 3 and 2? I forget). It was like Lebron told Mo “You are finding your shot NOW. I insist.”
Kind of liked that, that’s an MVP. Made his teammate better, showed some faith in him. At least, that’s how I saw it from where I was.
But yes. We have MO for a reason, and Bron needs to stop with the top-of-the-key-dribbling-for-23-seconds BS. Trust in your PG. If he’s not hitting his shots, which happens, trust that he’ll set up a play and/or find an open man.
To me this is an indictment of Mike Brown over anyone else. Superstars like LeBron are going to always want to take over to finish games. Strong coaches are able to get through to those superstars that isn’t usually the best way to win. Brown just doesn’t have the credibility to make such a stance, which is why he basically just hangs his hat on the defense.
I’d like to think that the LeBron on 5 offense will let up when they play the better teams next week, but I fear it won’t.
I do agree with the mass majority of people that say LBJ needs to distribute the ball more, but at the same time, when it *does* come down to crunch time, I think most would agree that letting LBJ take the shot is a better option than Andy tossing up a brick and having people say “why didnt he take the shot?”
I do agree as well that the rest of the game basically is run as a team, but it seems like the confidence (for whatever reason) level for everyone else to run things at end game seems to be rather low. I don’t know that I think this team has the killer instinct for the “big shot” like Kobe (but then again Kobe is a ballhog anyways), and it appears that the team does sort of look to LBJ for the close. Not that it’s not a bad idea as his skill set dictates that he is probably better than 99% of everyone else, but that he wants it. I think others may feel like they don’t want to be the cause of “why did he shoot that?” This could be alleviated by better ball movement, and more motion, but then again, when teams clamp down on D in the final minutes, do you really want to risk someone breaking on the ball, getting a steal, and changing momentum? If you try to be too perfect, too precise, that’s what can happen. Typically teams will go man to man down the stretch, and again, LBJ > most.
That’s just my opinion though. I do agree that something needs done as everyone and their brother knows what LBJ is gonna do at the end of the game/quarter. But how often have we said “wow, can’t believe he just did that” or “I’m so glad we have that guy on our team” when he DOES close out a quarter with a floating left hander that bounces 5 times before going in?
“Modest Win Streak Reaches Four”
It seems like all the writers are looking to dog on the cavs now. I don’t like it.
The cavs are not blowing people out like last year, but 19-7 is good basketball; I don’t care how you guys want to paint it.
@DK
The worst part of this, though, is the method Lebron is choosing. Of course you want the ball in his hands when the clock is winding down, but in the 4th Lebron sets up on the wing OUTSIDE of the three point line, dribbles the ball until there’s 5 seconds left and drives. If he sees an opening he goes for the rim but if the other team collapses (which they’ve just spend 20 seconds getting ready to do) he chucks a horrible 20-foot jumper with a hand in his face. He’s good enough to make that shot now and again but the goal should be getting high percentage shots in a position makes it hard for the other team to defense.
What happened to setting Lebron up in the high post? That was working pretty well last season. Or we could let Mo hold the ball for ten seconds, institute some motion to create seams in the defense and get it to Lebron on the move so it’s harder for the defense to stop him.
@EZ – again, I completely agree with the argument to not have LBJ do what he does. Was just playing devil’s advocate and trying to rationalize to myself why it happens. I didn’t mean it was a good idea.
I would like to think that Mo is a good enough PG to not fork the ball over at the end of the game, but he’s still playing Robin, and sidekicks rarely upstage the hero. LBJ is the hero, I don’t think it’s necessarily right, it’s just how it is currently. I would like to think that if you got AP out there that he could nail a big 3 down the stretch, and Boobie is good from long range…but again, it goes back to sorta like how the NFL teams usually want the ball in their best player’s hands at the end of the game, whether it be their QB, their RB, etc. or MLB goes to their big gun in game 7 to start the game. LBJ is that guy for us, and I can’t fault them for feeling that way too. I just would hope that they would be a bit more aggressive, but if LBJ takes a pass with 18 seconds left and drives to the hoop and does score, that leaves the other team with a better opportunity to win as opposed to waiting til the end and putting your money on LBJ making the shot, and leaving the opponent with less time to get off a quality shot to tie, or win the game. I suppose it *is* strategy, but it is a head scratcher. Why would a team with numerous good to great players (Mo, Shaq, etc) have to slow the game down and such. Are we overthinking this? Would we want it to be a run and gun like the Suns? Probably not.
@whipjacka, I personally read that as tongue in cheek. Maybe it should be in all caps?
That was really unclear. I think its implying that while we’re sitting here complaining about play, they do keep winning games, even though it’s ugly. Some teams would be ecstatic with a 4 game winning streak and we take it for granted and expect 10+ game streaks or else wonder what’s wrong.
If a team could go 4-1 over and over again they would have 65 wins.
Swig:
The championship ultimatum has taken the fun out of it. After last year, I think it’s the wrong kind of pressure.
@DK
I went back to this on a thread yesterday, I believe, but one of my favorite things about Delonte West is the fact that he’s not afraid to wave Lebron off when Lebron calls for the ball on the wing if he has a better idea.
And like I was saying, I don’t necessarily want Lebron taking a quick shot, and I don’t necessarily want to take the ball out of his hands. I just want to give the defense different looks, and I don’t want to give them time to set.
Though we’re not even talking about the final shot of the game. Oftentimes Lebron will do this for like the last 4-5 minutes of the fourth quarter. I say score and rely on the defense for a stop.