LeBron Recieves Criticism for Role in 2010 Hype
November 28, 2008Open Thread: Browns vs. Colts
November 30, 2008Sorry to be so LeBron heavy the last couple of days, but I promise this isn’t another one of those stories.
I watched the Cavaliers treat Golden State like annoying siblings last night. Hopefully you did too. These really are fun games to watch. The Warriors charged out of the gate slashing and shooting the lights out of the building. It was quite an impressive start, especially against a Cavs team that has been dominating from the opening tip lately. But as I watched the Warriors run up an early lead, I saw something I’ve never seen out of a LeBron James led Cavalier team- restraint. I could be wrong, but in the middle of the Golden State run I swear I saw LeBron look at Mike Brown and ask him not to take a time out. LeBron wanted to play through. He didn’t want Golden State to get the mental edge of thinking they forced a time out. He didn’t want his coach to have to tell them what they weren’t doing right. He also knew that Golden State wouldn’t keep making every shot.
But there is more. LeBron didn’t think that he had to make up the 15 point difference himself. In fact, LeBron attempted only 13 shots in the game. Read that again. He only attempted 13 shots in 31 minutes of playing time. As Brian Windhorst points out, there was a stretch during the third quarter where the Cavs put the Warriors away, stretching the lead from 6 to 18 points without LeBron James making a basket. LeBron is feeling so comfortable with this team that he even compared them to team USA-
“The way we’re getting into our offense and picking teams apart, you can relate to [Team USA],” James said. “It was good to be a part of it in the summer and it has been great so far.”
Now, I’m certainly not going to compare the talent on the Cavs to that of the collection of superstars that brought home the Gold medal. One thing should be clear however, LeBron might have learned to trust his teammates during that experience. It helps that the surrounding cast is finally playing up to their potential. The addition of Mo Williams has been phenomenal. Delonte West is playing his best ball as a pro, and Daniel Gibson is starting to play aggressively going to the hoop instead of simply being a perimeter player. Ben Wallace is back defensively, and Z is rolling along as consistent as ever. Throw in a healthy Andy Varejao, and a focused Wally Szczerbiak, and you have yourself a deep team.
So is it the chicken or the egg? Is LeBron trusting his cast because they are producing, or is the cast producing because LeBron is setting the offense up for success? You know what? I don’t even care. The pieces are falling into place for the Cavaliers to seriously challenge for the whole thing this year. But make no mistake, I also saw part of the Lakers game last night. They are for real this year too. Boston, LA, and Cleveland. I believe the NBA champ will be one of those three. Man I hope it’s us for once.
14 Comments
Best regualr season Cavs team I’ve ever seen in my lifetime by far. You can just see the way they play, the cohesion, maturity of all the players, pretty much everything is going well this year. I can’t wait for the year to pan out and see how it goes.
Lets first all take a step back, breathe and remember we’re only heading into December. Now that that’s done…I LOVE this Cavs team. The cohesion, the shot making, the defense, the wild hair of Delonte, Andy, and Big Ben. Its great! Now, how bout that dance LeBron did on the bench between the 3rd and 4th quarter! Just goes to show how much fun this team is having.
Nothing of real substance to add. Great article and comments. I also love how they are playing and love how Lebron is granting his teammates additional leash.
Big Ben is for real this year.
Please don’t apologize for writing about LeBron and the Cavs. They’re the best team (of any sport) we’ve seen in a long time in Cleveland and deserve the attention. And they certainly deserve much more attention than the Browns or Tribe. Keep up the good work.
Please don’t apologize for writing about LeBron and the Cavs. They’re the best team (of any sport) we’ve seen in a long time in Cleveland and deserve the attention. And they certainly deserve much more attention than the Browns or Tribe. Keep up the good work.
I think both the Cavs and the Lakers have looked amazing lately. But both teams still have weaknesses. The Cavs have no been exposed as thin on the front line because they have been healthy, and they have been playing teams with no post presence.
The Lakers play this insane ball-hawking defense where they just send 2 or 3 guys at the ball. They are forcing teams to make them pay, and teams are just crapping their pants. Dallas looked like a high school team last night in the 3rd quarter.
Maybe they will just roll over everyone, but I feel like this kind of defense will not work well against teams that swing the ball well and have solid PGs – Utah, San Anotonio, and New Orleans comes to mind.
We’ll see. But good teams should be able to exploit that overplaying defense, just as good teams with big men should be able to exploit the Cavs – Boston/Orlando/Detroit.
I still think the Cavs are going to the finals, I’m not sure about the Lakers though.
Nice insight Tsunami. I have only seen the Lakers twice, and both times they were dominating another western conference “power”.
great point about LeBron and the timeout. I absolutely LOVED that!! I wa just thinking as they were coming up the court how i would love to see mike brown let them play through it – a la Phil Jackson and the Bulls/Lakers – showing a trust in his team that they know how to get through it. When i saw LeBron make that motion I knew that’s what he was saying.
I can’t wait for the media to come up with some ridiculous point about why LeBron didn’t win the MVP. about how if LeBron was a better free-throw shooter, or if the Cavs had won 57 games instead of only 55 games he would have won – not Kobe – despite having superior stats in assists, points, rebounds, steals, FG%, and blocks.
I think this is gonna be “next year”. But hang on, if we do win it all, what will this blog be called??
Okay, I’ll be the pessimist here. I will quote what some smart guy said last year when this team wasn’t doing well with LeBron. “This team is one rolled ankle away from a losing season.” If LeBron gets injured, the team will be lost. Its great he gets alot of rest time. I do think this team has a better chance of filling in the void if LeBron is out, but how well is the question?
saggydan – maybe it’ll be called “never as good as last year”
Is anyone else watching the game tonight? They’re getting homered on the calls worse than I’ve ever seen and they’re still up by 11 in the third. They called Mo Williams for a travel when he missed a shot and got his own rebound, and they claimed it never touched the rim… I had to rewind the DVR to check it again, it clanged off the rim so loud you could hear it outside the arena.
I don’t care who you play against (and these last four have been against *ahem* weak teams), but any time you win four games in five nights–two of them on the road–that is impressive.
Wiggles – they made up for it with Z’s “fast break” where he easily took four steps to get to the rim. 🙂
Atleat the Cavs are beating the “weak” teams that we are suppose to instead of dropping 2-3 of those games here and there.
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