You know what is a timeless art among Cleveland Sports fans? Freaking out after one bad loss. That is exactly what I hear this morning amongst talk show callers and online commenters. Our own RockKing, Cavaliers expert extraordinaire, said in an email this morning that despite the injuries to Delonte West and Zydrunas Ilgauskas “these dismantling losses on the road to elite teams is not helping my confidence.”
Calm down, Cavs fans. They are coming back from an extremely successful West Coast Trip where they took three of four. After last weekend’s back to back wins in Golden State and Utah, wasn’t everyone thrilled with how well the team was adjusting to being short-handed? Wasn’t it amazing how the Wine and Gold was getting contributions from seemingly everyone from Lebron James to Tarence Kinsey? How about the expansion of Sasha Pavlovic’s game in his newly found extended minutes? Wally Szczerbiak’s sudden versatility? What about the giant step forward the All-Star Snubbed Mo Williams has taken without Delonte West next to him sharing the point guard load? Did you forget about J.J. Hickson’s on the job training which will only help him and his team come May and June?
It’s one loss to a hot shooting opponent. Late in the second quarter the Cavs had a 53-43 lead, then were hit by a barrage of Jameer Nelson threes and Dwight Howard post moves. The defense did not have its best night, especially during the late third and early fourth quarter 22-2 Magic run. But can anyone really stop Dwight Howard right now? Even with double and triple teams, he was killing it in the post. This is what makes the Magic so dangerous – Howard draws so much attention in the paint that Nelson, Rashard Lewis, and Hedo Turkoglu get a ton of great looks from deep.
But again folks, lets not freak out here. Not having the extra body in Z (not that he could hang with Howard either) definitely put the Cavs at a disadvantage in the post. Ben Wallace can only do so much in his limited minutes, which he must play to stay fresh. The word is that Z is starting to practice and will be back very soon. Obviously, that will help. But you cannot get too worried about losing to one of the four best teams on their home floor while the Cavaliers are short-handed. This is not the finished product you will see in the playoffs.
Speaking of which, last night illustrated once again why it is of the utmost importance to get the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. Whoever gets that top seed, whether it be the Cavs, Celtics, or Magic, will get a borderline walkover into the conference finals, while the teams in the two and three spots would have to battle for seven tough games just to get there. Imagine having a draw that could be Milwaukee in the first round, the Hawks or Pistons in the semis, before a big matchup with the Magic/Celtics winner in the conference finals. In case you don’t remember the 2006 Playoffs, having the right draw means EVERYTHING.
Another thing that will invariably pop-up after last nights loss is the “Danny Ferry needs to make a move for an extra big man” conversation. We have covered this ad nauseum in the past, but a new monkey wrench has been thrown in. You saw Wally Szczerbiak’s importance to the team during his first half shooting exhibition (4-4 from the floor) and we all know he is the bait. With Kinsey’s recent stellar contributions, a trade of Wally seemed more likely as Kinsey could have filled those minutes (I know they are completely different players offensively, but Kinsey’s defense scratches Mike Brown where he itches). Unfortunately for the Cavs, the 6-7 swing-man went down in a heap with what looked like a serious ankle injury in the last two minutes of the game. If Tarence is indeed lost for a significant amount of time, its another major blow to the team’s depth.
The good news is that the pathetic Clippers arrive in town tonight and will no doubt get an angry Cavaliers team. If they come out smokin and win by 25, is everything right in the world again? Just keep calm, and stay focused, Cavs fans. Z and Delonte will be back soon, with plenty of time to get back on the same page for the playoffs. One loss in Orlando is nothing to worry about.
Author: TD
TD is a born and bred Clevelander who agrees with ESPN's Scott Van Pelt when he says ""Ranch Dressing makes everything better except for cereal and ice cream."TD has written 253 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I get what you’re saying (and this is a great piece, by the way), but just as you can give excuses for losing these games, so too can you give excuses for the games the Cavs won. Buzzer beater to win a game (1st time ever), Mo scoring 43 (1st time ever), etc, etc, etc.
To say this team is playing good defense and is playing at a Championship caliber is to ignore the obvious, though.
And “I’m perfectly calm. Calmer than you are.”
Love a good Lebowski quote.
The Cavs have done a very good job without Z and Delonte. Their defense will pick back up once they get both of them back
I think confidence in the long run is warranted, but with the Cavs, Celtics, and Magic within a loss of one another, any loss to either is that much more important, when you think about that #1 seed vs. being #2 or #3. Also, the consistent frustration with calls letting the Cavs lose their heads/give up runs does not bode well, though they typically don’t do it the second time around against a team, and the watching LeBron chuck J’s stuff is always worrying.
The concern people have is not that they’ll suddenly fall apart, but that they’ll make things very difficult for themselves come the spring by being forced to possibly play on the road in Orlando AND Boston because of a couple of dumb losses now.
(Oh, and let’s not forget at Los Angeles, too. Think about that – the #3 seed in the East would have to beat #2, #1, and the Lakers on the road to win a championship. Good luck.)
C’mon…They’re the CLEVELAND Cavaliers. They’ll get bounced sometime during the playoffs.
The next champion from your city will be in the AHL. Your team had the smarts to use LAKE ERIE as the identifier, avoiding the dreaded “C” word.
I think the Cavs will be fine. The only problem is that the Magic and Celtics are so friggin’ good this year. It just is so Cleveland for the Cavs to be on track to have their best regular season ever and have not one, but two juggarnauts in the Eastern Conference. When was the last time there were three teams this good in the East?
@AMC: Well, we’ll see where all these teams end up, but I know in the 97-98 season, the Bulls, Pacers, and Heat all won 55+ games. But you’re right, rarely does the East look this top heavy.
I’m not panicking after this loss. But, I will say that I was particularly disturbed by the way the team lost its composure. Yes, the refereeing was atrocious even by NBA standards, as the Magic were given license to maul LeBron at will, but even so, the Cavs can’t let that get to them against a good team on the road. NBA referees are homers, and LeBron’s pouting and complaining just makes it less likely that he will get calls.
I think the referees got in LeBron’s head and he stopped playing his game in that third quarter, settling for jump shots instead of driving, which made everyone else settle for jump shots as well and when they kept missing then the rout was on.
What I find discouraging is after watching the Celtics dismantle Orlando last week, we get rocked this week.
Yes we have Z and D West out, but the approaches were totally different. Boston barely double teamed Dwight Howard at all, even letting the (not so) Big Baby Davis take him one on one, and then they smothered Orlando’s shooters on the perimeter with man to man coverage. The result was one of Orlando’s worst 3 point shooting nights of the year (is it a coincidence that both Duke and Orlando live by the 3, share common colors, and JJ Reddick? I smell conspiracy)
Cleveland chose to swarm Dwight Howard all night with double and triple teams which left shooters open and us caught like a deer in the headlights with poor rotation. Alot of those 3 pointers that killed us were wide open looks. Our transition D was pretty bad too, which was something else Boston did nicely against Orlando.
Boston also repeatedly attacked the paint, even with Dwight Howard in it and IRC he fouled out in that game. Some whistles didn’t go our way and all of a sudden we treated the paint like it was toxic for us to be near, this gave Dwight supreme command of the glass as well, hell Orlando didn’t eve have to worry about putting a body on anyone we were so void of the paint.
I’m excited for Z to return tonight, I’ll be even happier when Delonte makes a return (time table?). But we played like crap last night, and did not look like a championship team, we need to play big against the big teams and that didn’t happen.
Also nothing personal against him, but if Kinsey were hit by a bus today I don’t think it would hurt our stature as a team at all. He barely touched the court when we were destroying teams during the first half of the year, sure he gave a few quality minutes, but I’ll take Wally (or whoever we can get in trade for him) over Kinsey any day of the week. TK’s time is done when Delonte returns, maybe he’ll get dealt to a team with a guard shortage in the off season and he’ll get a chance to earn substantial minutes.
Hoy
Losing to a top 4 team league wide on the road is not that bad. Remember we beat Boston just as bad at home a few weeks ago. The bigger picture is that the Cavs will not get into double digit losses until Feb. (Assuming they win tonight) Just limit the bad losses(i.e. Wash and Chi earlier this year.) Losses to elite teams will happen.
not freaking out because the refs were letting both teams hack like crazy with no calls, which favors the team that doesn’t rely on LeBron…it happens.
However, we are now 11-7 vs. teams .500 or better. The Cavs have been great at not losing to bad teams (Chicago and Washington really being the only letdown games we lost). However, this team has not yet risen to the occasion against the better teams.
I’m not worried about it at this point, we’ll get Z and Delonte back.
And, Boston and Orlando have been ridiculously lucky without any injuries of note this year. It is inevitable that they will miss some starters for a stretch in the 2nd half and I doubt they will handle it as well as we did (especially Orlando…their bench is atrocious).
Some well thought out posts here – and a nice piece. Here is my take.
I’ve been the most bi-polar Cavs fan my entire life – they win a game, euphoria, they lose a game, drown myself in lake erie. Then I started realizing that I was taking losses more seriously that the players and coaches – not good.
A few weeks ago, the Celtics lost 7 of 9. Not a single significant player on their team was injured, and Windy brought up the point that the Celtics had played more games than any team and had no time to practice. Sounds like the biggest excuse I’ve ever heard…and then the Celtics got some rest, and now they’ve won 10 straight and none of them have even been close. They have clearly playing the best ball out of anyone right now.
To start the season, the Cavs laid two 2nd half eggs against the Celtics and Hornets – other than that, they were gangbusters – DESTROYING everyone – and as we should all realize – they were doing it the right way, not relying on super-human performances, just getitng contributions from everyone, spacing the floor, playing championship defense, and having enough dynamic offensive players to lead the NBA in offensive efficiency. I know Celtics fans thought that at that time they were the best team in the league because of their record, but the Cavs were CLEARLY the best team in the NBA from mid november to mid December. And then Z got hurt, we lost AT Atlanta who played a hell of game, and then we struggled a bit the next few games, and then Z came back and we beat Denver IN DENVER by 20 and they had been killing teams up until then. And then Z played like ass the next 4 games, and we realized he was hurt and he was out for good – and then Delonte too.
This is the NBA, any team can beat any team on any given night. It might sound like making excuses to some, but if you look at the way the Cavs offense flourishes, it does so with Z and Delonte. In 2008-2009 when our starting lineup is healthy, we are the best offensive team in basketball.
So everyone needs to calm down. All this talk about LeBron shooting jumpers is moot when Z and Delonte are playing. Why? Because when Z pops, he forces the defense to make a decision. Are you going to chase me out here or stay in the paint to stop LeBron? And if the team decides to load up the strong side, Delonte heads for the weakside corner, Ben sets a back pick, and the Cavs add 3 points to their score. Early in the season, when we played Ben and Andy together, it was fairly obvious that it was a terrible lineup. Defenses pretty much didn’t cover those guys, and we paid for it. We’ve had to live with that for a while now.
The expectations sure have been set high that everyone flips out when we lose on the road to one of the best 4 teams in the NBA. Remember a 45 win Cavs team was 2 Rajon Rondo Airballs to an out of position PJ Brown away from probably going to the Finals and possibly winning it.
There are no “statement games” in the regular season – you beat the teams you are supposed to, you protect home court, and you work on executing in hostile environments. The Cavs did that and more on that west coast trip. Some times, you run into a buzz saw and lose. But in the playoffs when that happens in games 1 and 2, you make adjustments, and punch back. Cavs have done it every year for the last 3 seasons, no reason to believe they can’t make adjustments against Orlando in the post-season.
Also – the best fit I think for the Cavs is Jamison. I know he’s not a good defender (at all) but I have to be honest, I think there are 2 elite defenders on the Cavs, and 3 decent defenders, and a bunch of HORRIBLE defenders plugged into the best defensive scheme in the NBA. Elite = Ben and LeBron, decent = andy, Delonte, and Sasha, and everyone else blows in my opinion. There’s a reason we have terrible transition defense – because we don’t have terrible individual defenders. But in half court sets…these guys give 110% and Mike Brown is the best defensive coach in decades. So, plug Jamison, you get Mo Williams-like defensive effort at the 3,4,5 spots, and an elite-offensive player that doesn’t need the ball to be effective on offense. Ferry needs to make it happen.
“But can anyone really stop Dwight Howard right now?”
Yes, it is called the offensive 3 second rule. Someone shold look into calling that once or twice a year on him.
no trade with the cavs..all talk and rumors..but, if they do make a trade it won’t be anything spectacular or exciting