Could Fausto Carmona be Back?
March 29, 2010NBA Season Awards Probably An Empty Affair For Cavaliers Organization
March 29, 2010
It was all bout Z on Sunday. From the fans, to the vendors, to the message on the scoreboard- it was a Z fest. The most important thing for the Cavs however was getting by a scrappy Sacramento team and moving that magic number down.
Once again the Cavaliers seemed to play down to the competition. There were serious lapses on defense, particularly off of long rebounds that led to breakaways for the Kings. In the end, the Cavs clamped down and held the Kings to 4 field goals and only 14 points total in the fourth quarter. Yes, this is a trend that ideally the Cavaliers would reverse before the playoffs started, but then again the Cavs aren’t going to be facing many bad teams in the playoffs. It was their 28th win in a row against teams with records under .5oo.
LeBron James turned his game up in the second half, scoring the bulk of his 34 points after intermission. He did it with the jumper, the fade away and by driving the lane. Basically any way LeBron wanted to score he did. He was helped by Jamison’s 26 points and solid assist totals from both Mo Williams (7) and Delonte West (5).
There was no question that Cleveland was missing Andy Varejao. He was held out of the game as a precaution because of the hamstring tightness he suffered against San Antonio. Without Andy the Cavs looked a bit sluggish, and were out-rebounded (!) by Sacramento. The Cavs were one shot and done nearly the whole game. A measly 6 offensive rebounds were grabbed by Cavaliers. Andy is the master of keeping possessions alive, and without him they weren’t able to do that.
Zydrunas came off the bench to a standing ovation and scored 4 points and grabbed 6 boards. He still looked like he was trying to get his legs back to me, but didn’t play poorly.
The Cavalier that is still desperately trying to find his game is Mo Williams. Mo attempted only 6 shots in the game. He was more effective distributing the ball in this one, but still not finding his shots with Jamison on the floor. Seems like he isn’t even the third scoring option right now. He has taken a backseat to Jamison and even Hickson at times. A more aggressive approach would be a welcome change from Mo.
The Cavs reduced their magic number in the East to two games and their number to clinch the #1 seed overall to 5. For those curious, the Cavs would have to win the remaining regular season games to tie last year’s 66 win season.
(photo by Scott Shaw / The Plain Dealer)
13 Comments
I missed the game yesterday for family stuff. Anyone have video of Z’s entrance followed by the standing O, etc.?
It definately looked like the Cavs weren’t interested in playing yesterday. It’s hard to blame them just wanting the regular season to be over with and the playoffs to start. Still, they played hard when it mattered and got the W for Z’s big homecoming.
Count me among the curious, but I think the one factor that will prevent the Cavs from winning the rest of their games, if it is not a sub-par performance in the next 4 contests, is the strong likelihood that they will have wrapped up both No. 1 seeds with several games remaining in the regular season. As we saw last year, Mike Brown will simply rest players in such a situation rather than try to press for meaningless wins or abstract “momentum.”
Anything worth nothing happen at the Q in appreciation for Z? YOu said scoreboard messages and what not. But for anyone that wasn’t there what else did the organization do to show appreciation for the big man? Thanks
the Cavs would have to win the remaining regular season games to tie last year’s 66 win season.
Looks like everyone was right that the Cavs would fall off this year…
Anyone have the Z tribute video or a link to it? I had to watch it on my Iphone, so the quality was pretty amazing.
I was having a bad monday, but seeing that photo of fans welcoming Z back has definitely picked me up. I am glad Z is back home!
It was pretty cool. The pregame video was Z dominant, during the player introductions everyone was introduced with a Z somewhere in their name (Lebron Zames, Antwan Zamison…)and after the intros for the starters were complete Z got his own intro. That probably got the loudest response. My near-tear moment came during the first timeout in the 1st quarter when they showed a highlight film set to a U2 (Where the Streets Have No Name) song. It was pretty cool. They did some other stuff but those were the highlights.
Not great quality, but it is all I’m seeing from yesterday right now…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTvaOrRjJSY
Love Z but kinda overboard on all of the festivities if you ask me. Gonna be kind of strange next season when he resigns somewhere else I wonder if you’ll see a “Z” day then.
As for the game like others have said it wasn’t very good. Thank goodness for the frontcourt depth because the Cavaliers backcourt has just been horrible. When Anthony Parker is your leading scorer in the backcourt you know something is wrong. It’s time for them to wake up I don’t buy this “their just playing out the games” stuff. Everyone thought a year ago the Cavaliers could just turn it on when they needed it and they got a rude awakening, lets not repeat that mistake.
On a positive note San Antonio dismembered Boston on their home court last night led by SuperManu! Is it to late to trade Mo Notti and maybe Parker for Manu? 😉
I kept rewinding the highlight of Manu taking out KG on that dunk attempt, that gave me jollies. Nothing quite puts you in your place like a going up for a dunk attempt and getting taken out and ending up on your back by a 6’6″ Argentinean. Just serves as a reminder that you’re not quite the player you use to be because no way that happens to KG a few years ago.
@11 I’ll do my Barkley imitation of SuperManu: GINOBLI!!! Did it play?
Orlando still worries me. I might even be more worried about them than the Lakers. Should be a great postseason again.