While We’re Waiting… LeBron’s New York Treatment, Joe Haden’s 40-Time, and NBA Jersey Sales
March 4, 2010NFL Free Agency: Browns Cut Hank Fraley Loose
March 4, 2010
That was quite a show LeBron James put on in the first half. He had 18 points and 10 assists, but the numbers themselves don’t really do it justice. James was dominant in all phases. He commanded New Jersey’s defense to collapse on him with drives to the rack, and then found open teammates with amazing passes. His bounce pass to Andy Varejao in the lane was beautiful.
This one one of those games that Craig talked about a while back. It was one of those games to sit back and enjoy the fact that the greatest basketball player on the planet is wearing Cleveland across his chest.
So you forgive the slight dip in focus in the second half. It’s a long season. Yeah, they let the lead slip from 20 to 9 in the fourth, forcing LeBron to play 40 minutes in a game that he should have played 33.
We were all interested to see how well J.J. Hickson would do against Brook Lopez, who is one of the better centers in the East. If you look at the numbers, it would appear that Hickson held his own with Lopez. JJ finished with 20 points and 13 rebounds. Lopez ended with 21 and 14, but certainly that production didn’t come solely against Hickson. Lopez played a full 10 minutes more than JJ.
Hickson actually knocked Brook off his game early on. Lopez wasn’t sure what to do with JJ’s activity. It caused him to rush shots and take funny shooting angles that he really didn’t have to take. He figured that out by the end of the game and became much more effective in the second half. Now, it didn’t help the Cavs shorter front court that the refs were letting the guys play a physical game. I kept waiting for an over the back call on either Yi or Lopez, because several times Hickson, Varejao and Jamison had the proper position but found themselves bent over and unable to get the rebound. There were only 33 fouls called between the two teams all game. Many nights Cleveland’s opponent alone has that many, especially when the Cavs were attacking the basket.
One other thing about this game- the Cavs really pushed the tempo again, and it paid off big time. I like that they are making an effort to get early offense. It will pay off in the playoffs when you have to score anyway possible. I have felt like the Cavs pass up too many opportunities to get good shots off early in the clock, and they seem to be correcting that. Even when LeBron was running the offense with Mo on the bench, the team didn’t stop moving and LeBron didn’t settle for the pull up jumper. He found the right man with a pass. Good signs.
The bottom line is a very workman like win for the Cavs. Another night of getting used to playing with Jamison and trying some early offense. The plan was executed well. Next up- Detroit on Friday night.
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(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
15 Comments
Something unusual occurred last night. The ball was in play and the score was 1-1. I’ll bet that doesn’t happen very often. Look for it. I’ll bet you won’t see that again for a year.
/Thank you, Mr. Trivial
I was there! It was such a kick to see my boys live and in person, that I didn’t even mind that the game sucked after the first quarter. Tried to chat with Joe Tait after the game, but they ushered me out before he finished the postgame. Windy, another target, had the night off.
Other thoughts: The Nets have a decent lineup. There is NO excuse for them to have six wins. Brook Lopez is a poor man’s Duncan. Terence Williams is a good looking rookie, and Devin Harris was an all-star last year. They must REALLY be desperate to get John Wall.
Every game I watch I’m more pleased we didn’t trade JJ. I was a bit concerned about his match-up with Lopez last night but he exceeded my expectations. He’s another one of those energy guys like Andy and it doesn’t hurt he can jump out of the gym. Given the rest of that nets team is pretty horrible but JJ played really well.
/Man crush’d
Speaking of Windhorst, does anyone know why he takes a game off every week or two and MSB covers it instead? Wonder if it’s due to his health probs last year. Don’t ever remember the PD not having its beat writer cover all the games.
I’m with stin4u, I’m man crushing on JJ a little bit. I was all for trading him early on, but I’m so pleased with the wisdom that is Danny Ferry. He played a solid game against a future all-star in Lopez. Speaking of, I really like Lopez’s game. It needs polished, no doubt, but I wouldn’t mind having him in the Wine & Gold after next season, when I believe his contract is up. The offense has looked crisp the last two games. And I know it’s only NY & NJ, but still, the ofeense is definitely clicking, regardless of who’s on the floor (except in garbage time when D-Block & Danny Green are in). Let’s keep it rolling Friday on Snuggie Night!
@2
If the Nets hire a legit coach in the offseason and don’t trade away their young core (OK, they can trade Lee or Harris if they pick up Wall or Turner in the draft) they’ll be challenging for the playoffs in two years.
Vanderweigh has no idea what he’s doing right now.
was also at the game, and for all the news outlets who are all like “new jersey fans were fawning all over lebron trying to woo him” or whatever, id say over 50% (i would even dare say 60%) of the crowd was sporting cavs/lebron gear. so unless nets fans are taking it to the next level by outright supporting another team (which they kind of did when they recently had a promo where they gave out jerseys that were reversible to reveal…another NBA team’s jersey), this was more lebron/cavs fans fawning over the cavs.
I was watching SporesCenter today and they were showing highlights of the game. They, obviously, showed the highlights from the YES! network. The announcers were openly rooting for LBJ to dunk. When LBJ would get a steal, the announcers would be like… Here we go… And LBJ would do a rimgrazer dunk and the announcers were like.. well, that’s only a 5.5 out of 10 or something…
IDK, It bothers me that these other fans/teams/ESPN/announcers all think NJN,NYK,LAC?/MIA all have a chance at signing LBJ.
He’s not leaving and I am glad all of these freaks have set up their franchises for failure, by putting all of their eggs in the LBJ basket
The only downside towards the end of the season is that LeBron’s #’s will drop off, inevitably giving the scoring award to Kevin Durant.
Nets or Knicks hire John Calipari, draft John Wall = LeBron new K.O.N.Y. (King of New York)
Imagine the pic of JJ dunking on Lopez as one of those classic Russell/Chamberlain shots 30 years from now.
Now throw cold water on your face.
@MattyFos – I watched the game on the old computer with the Yes Networks announcers. I thought they did a pretty good job. They seemed quite enamored about the show the Cavs put on. Its got to be a rough job announcing Nets games.
I was at the game last night at the Meadowlands, and I must say, that was the worst arena experience I have had, we were told to leave twice within 7 minutes of the game ending, the second time we were told to ‘get the hell out’ even though there was a youth game immediately following the NBA game. I agree with Roosevelt, Lopez is an amazing player and has a very bright future. It was also interesting seeing a 7 footer go 1 for 2 from 3 point range (Xi) . I’m still not sure how that team has lost so many games. I guess it COULD be because of the fans, late in the third quarter, the Nets pulled within 12 or 13, but it didn’t stop the Nets ‘fans’ from filtering out slowly. JERSEY SUCKS!!!!!!!
@10
No coach could make that reg-tag Knicks team be good enough to lure Lebron, and the Knicks don’t have their first round draft pick this year.
@10
No coach could make that rag-tag Knicks team be good enough to lure Lebron, and the Knicks don’t have their first round draft pick this year.