OSU Hoops: The Team To Watch?
March 12, 2008Stubborn To A Fault
March 13, 2008In the end the Cavaliers ran out of gas. They ran out of gas because they had to run full throttle to catch up. The Cavaliers came out flat against the Nets in the first half, falling behind by as many as 17. The lead was cut to 5 in the second quarter, but pushed back to 11 points at the break. Cleveland was giving up lay-up after lay-up on back door plays and bad defensive rotations. Yes, the Cavs were without Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Ben Wallace (at least he couldn’t be paired with Varejao!) but good defensive teams, which the Cavaliers are supposed to be, find ways to stop opposing teams.
First, it’s not like New Jersey has an awesome inside presence. They don’t employ Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard or Chris Bosch. Stopping Josh Boone, Nenad Krstic and DeSagana Diop isn’t that intimidating. The Nets were beating them with their athleticism and hustle. It seemed the Cavs didn’t even care about playing defense until the second quarter, when they were already down 38-23. Two games in a row the Cavs have had to call a time-out within the first four minutes because of a fast start by their opponents. In both games the Cavaliers were down by 10 already.
In his post-game interview Mike Brown had this to say-
Lately at the beginning of ballgames, defensively we don’t play with a sense of urgency. It shows up in spurts, and as the game goes along we have to come back from double digits in the fourth quarter in order to win ballgames.
If you have to do that as much as we’ve done it, it’s not good.
Thanks coach. It’s not good. When asked a question about the team’s defense, specifically how they could allow 6 New Jersey players to be in double digits, Mike fired back-
What defense? For us it’s been this way the whole year, which is a scary thing, we just kind of go through the motions, go through the motions, go through the motions- oh, fourth quarter time and we’re down double digits. Now there’s a sense of urgency, now we try to get stops. Well we have to figure out how to do that for 48 minutes.
I agree coach, and I’m pretty sure you have had the team playing good defense in previous years, so what’s different now? Why doesn’t this team care about playing fundamental defense all the time?
To me, this is a leadership issue. (Hmmm, who is Cleveland’s on floor leader?) LeBron at least took some responsibility in his post-game comments saying that the team, himself included, allowed New Jersey to have their way in the first quarter. He did play the injury card a little, which you never want to hear from your team leader, especially in Mike Brown’s no excuse locker room. But I have to say that the tone for the game, both offensively and defensively is always set by LeBron. If he is flying to the ball early, then his teammates will follow suit. He needs to step up his defense early in ballgames. Maybe if you led the team defensively in the first half, you wouldn’t have to score 42 points a night? Had LeBron scored 48 points and the Cavs found a way to win in the end, would I have been so harsh? Yes. In fact, you won’t find a post-game piece from me after the Portland game because I was disgusted in the way in which the team won.
Adding to the Cavaliers’ problems tonight were Delonte West and Sasha Pavlovic. Sasha made his return, and was put into the starting line-up right away for some reason, despite Devin Brown’s positive influence in the starting line-up. Now I’m all for bringing Devin off the bench if Sasha is healthy, and playing more like last season, but to bench Devin and thrust Sasha into the starting role when he hasn’t ever played with Joe Smith or Delonte West might have been a mistake.
Delonte West is not working out right now. He isn’t confident in his shot, and doesn’t seem to be running the team out there. It may be by design, but all he does is bring the ball up the floor and cover the opposing team’s point guard. Delonte and Sasha combined for a negative 44 rating. That’s terrible.
LeBron continued his scoring streak, with 42 points tonight. He moved into second place in Cleveland history with his 10,267th point. Brad Daugherty is next on the list, 122 points away. He should take care of that in the next 4 games.
Much has been made of the Cavaliers being a team that nobody wants to play in the post-season because LeBron can dominate a series. Truth is, they may be a team that can knock off one team that is seeded higher than them, but in order to win it all, they have to be better. They have to be a team that limits the opponents chances. They went to the finals last year because they played tough defense and kept the game close enough that LeBron could be the difference down the stretch. They appear to have forgotten that part of they equation. You have to be close to the other team at the end in order to pull out a win.
7 Comments
I actually completely disagree about LeBron’s defense. I think he’s played pretty solid defense all year long, and he wasn’t the problem in the 1st quarter last night. The problem is the 4 and 5’s on this team. The bigs are playing awful defense right now. They are consistently out of place, allowing back door cuts, out of position for rebounds, slow to react to pick and rolls, etc, etc, etc. LeBron’s not winning DPOY awards any time soon, but I put a lot more blame for this loss on AV and Joe Smith than I do LeBron.
first thing sfirst, let’s all give a big “welcome to the team” to wally. I think that this is what cleveland thought they were getting when they made the 11 player trade. so that was nice to see.
that was by far the ugliest first quarter i’ve seen. now to the cavs credit, when the other team shoots 117% from the floor in a quarter, it’s hard to compete. but when u turn the ball over, miss layups, and just miss open shots, you’re not gonna compete with anyone. i agree with rock, andy needs to focus on being an average player and then maybe i’ll be ok with the fact that he is on his back more than a 2 cent…well u get my point. stand up, score about 8-10 a game, gather me about 12-15 boards a night, and then maybe, MAYBE 1 flop will be acceptable…i can’t even deal with watching him anymore.
i take back the wally welcome. i heard different stats than what he actually had. i must fallen asleep during the game…SHOCKER!
my patience is running thin with the post-“BLOCKBUSTER TRADE” cavs, and time is not on their side. even when everyone’s back, they then need to bring z, gibson, and snow all back up to speed, and by then its already the playoffs, and the pistons and celtics wont be forgiving.
i believe in lebron, especially since hes been playing in beast mode all season, but its like you said, their defense just isnt what it was last year, and thats got my confidence shakey.
snow’s out for the rest of the year…he won’t be back at all, which i think hurts a little.
So when I heard Snow was out for the year my first thought was- how could he get hurt, he hasn’t played in a month?
Turns out the 34 year old has developed arthritis in the knee. Figures. Good thing he’s under contract for another two years. Here’s hoping Eric hangs ’em up after this year and becomes an assistant coach for us.
Not to mention the fact that, if they needed to, they could always un-retire him and trade him a la Van Horn.