Andy Varejao: Can We Afford To Let Him Go?
March 17, 2009While We’re Waiting… Anderson Varejao’s Impact, Cliff Lee’s ERA and Big Ten vs. SEC
March 18, 2009
Orlando Magic (49-17) vs
Cleveland Cavaliers (53-13)
Quicken Loans Arena, Cleveland, OH
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
7:00 PM EST
NBATV/FSNOH/WTAM
The Cleveland Cavaliers can feel it. Home court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference Playoffs is right at the tip of their fingers, there for the taking. With only 5 games left on the road, the vast majority of the rest of the season will be spent in the soothing comfort of The Q, where the Cavaliers are 29-1 on the season. Overall, the Cavs are experience a winning season unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the history of this franchise. The Cavs have won 22 of their last 27 games. Since the All-Star Break the Cavs are 8-2 on the road and 13-2 overall. Most of that has been done through various injuries to starters (Z, Wallace, West) and reserves (Szczerbiak, Kinsey, Pavlovic) alike. Whereas past versions of the Cavaliers would have sulked and let their play on the court suffer while nursing injuries, this year’s team has shown an uncanny ability to stay focused and pick up their game where they are lacking due to injury. It hasn’t always been pretty, it hasn’t always been easy, but home court is theirs to have if they would just reach out and take it. The Cavs are 3.5 games clear of Boston (4 in the loss column), and all they really have to do is win out at home. If the Cavs can do that, they will be the top seed in the East. It begins tonight with Orlando in town.
Projected Starting Lineups
Orlando Magic:
-G Rafer Alston (11.5 ppg, 5.5 apg, 1.3 spg, 13.36 PER)
-G Courtney Lee (7.7 ppg, 1.1 apg, .413 3P%, 10.56 PER)
-F Hedo Turkoglu (16.9 ppg, 5.2 rpg, 4.8 apg, 17.66 PER)
-F Rashard Lewis (18.0 ppg, 5.9 rpg, 0.6 bpg, 16.54 PER)
-C Dwight Howard (21.0 ppg, 14.0 rpg, 2.9 bpg, 25.84 PER)
Key Reserves: Mickael Pietrus, Anthony Johnson, JJ Redick, Tony Battie, Marcin Gortat
Injuries: Jameer Nelson (out)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Mo Williams (18.1 ppg, 4.0 apg, 0.9 spg, 17.53 PER)
-G Delonte West (12.0 ppg, 3.6 apg, .403 3P%, 14.98 PER)
-F LeBron James (28.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 7.2 apg, 31.65 PER)
-F Anderson Varejao (8.4 ppg, 7.1 rpg, 0.8 bpg, 14.25 PER)
-C Zydrunas Ilgauskas (13.2 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.2 bpg, 18.59 PER)
Key Reserves: Daniel Gibson, Wally Szczerbiak, Joe Smith, Sasha Pavlovic, JJ Hickson, Darnell Jackson
Injuries: Ben Wallace (out), Eric Snow (out)
Team Efficiency Stats
Orlando Magic:
-Off (102.2 ppg, 43.3 rpg, .461 FG%, .723 FT%, 19.3 apg, Eff-108.1, Rank-5)
-Def (94.9 ppg, 41.6 rpg, .434 FG%, Eff-99.1, Rank-3)
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Off (100.3 ppg, 41.7 rpg, .469 FG%, .754 FT%, 19.9 apg, Eff-109.4, Rank-4)
-Def (91.3 ppg, 38.9 rpg, .431 FG%, Eff-99.0, Rank-2)
Previous Matchups
- Cleveland 88 at Orlando 99 – 01/29/09 [box]
Game Notes
The Cavaliers have unfinished business with the Magic. It was on a nationally televised Thursday night game in Orlando back in January when the Magic dealt the Cavaliers a crushing blow. The score of 99-88 doesn’t even begin to tell the story of what happened that night. The Magic were able to control the paint at will, scoring 44 points in the paint and outrebounding the Cavaliers by a 48-39 margin. Mo Williams had one of his worst shooting nights of the season, going 4-15 from the field (1-4 from three). LeBron’s 23-8-8 looked decent enough, but he was only 10-27 from the field himself. In fact, the only player on the Cavaliers to really elevate his game that night was rookie JJ Hickson, who had arguably his best game of the season going 6-9 from the field for 13 points and 7 rebounds.
Meanwhile, for the Magic, Jameer Nelson used clutch shooting to go 4-6 from 3pt range to keep putting daggers in the Cavs’ hearts. Dwight Howard had 22 points, 18 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. It was a complete domination of the Cavaliers and one of the more humbling losses for the Cavs this season.
Tonight, Big Z and Delonte will both be making their first appearances against the Magic, and having the two of them back will be a huge uplift for the Cavaliers. Having Joe Smith around will be a bonus as well. More than anything, though, perhaps motivation really could be the deciding factor of this game. For the Cavs, they will surely want to prove something tonight, that January’s matchup was an aberration. Plus, as noted earlier, the Cavaliers are playing for a top seed in the playoffs.
For Orlando’s part, with a win tonight, they will move just 3 games behind the Cavaliers in the loss column and they will have a chance to leap frog over Boston into 2nd place in the East. You think the chance to play Boston at home in the playoffs isn’t just as motivating to Orlando as it is to Cleveland? Tonight’s game is huge for setting up playoff matchups.
Generally when playing Orlando it feels like controlling their perimeter game is the key. You know Dwight Howard is going to get his double-double and there’s nothing you can do about it. But if you can keep Orlando from catching fire from the outside, you have a good chance of beating them. However, that’s not how Orlando beat the Cavaliers last time. The Magic used interior dominance to pound the Cavaliers. The Cavs must show more toughness and resilience on defense to win this game. If the Cavaliers lose the rebounding margin by 10 again, it’s going to be extremely tough.
On offense, the Cavaliers will need to not be so dependent on the outside shot. Against the NBA’s elite the Cavaliers always fall into the same trap of standing around outside and hoisting up long range shot after shot. Ball movement and distribution is always key for the Cavaliers, and that is never more the case than when playing the 3rd most efficient defense in the NBA.
Vegas Line
Cleveland –6
Over/Under 192.5
From The Outside Looking In
Third Quarter Collapse
The Puns Are Starting to Bore Me
Orlando Magic Blog
Next Game For The Cavaliers
Thursday, March 19, 2009
8:00 PM EST
Portland Trail Blazers at Cleveland Cavaliers
TNT/WTAM
16 Comments
Having Delonte back is going to be HUGE when playing shooting team like this. The cavs are shooting 75% from the free throw line? If I had to guess I would have said 60%. Viva la Mo!
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don’t try to out-shoot them from three-point land.
/please
And that line calls for a total emotion hedge.
Personally, I think Orlando could still grab that #1 spot. They still get two more shots at Cleveland, and their schedule down the stretch is softer than Cleveland’s. Now granted, 4 games is a LOT to make up. But we really miss Ben Wallace in games like this one.
I’m not turning into an Orlando fan, promise, but I think they are being criminally overlooked. Alston has been grafted into that team much more quickly and skillfully than I expected. He’s already scoring more ppg in Orlando than he did in Houston.
After seeing the Magic in person on Friday, we need to avoid getting in a three point contest with them. JJ Redick is everything we wish Gibson could be.
Dwight Howard had half the Wizards’ points in the 4th because he goaltended so much. Hope he gets overzealous with the goaltending tonight. Wish Wallace was healthy to try and negate his offense a bit.
Also, Slainte!!!!
time to show them what we’re made of tonight boys… huge 3 game stretch at home begins in t-minus 2 hours!
you guys need to come around on the fact that the Cavaliers are a jump shooting team. you want to pound it inside to Z? i would like it but i dont think the big man can handle it consistently. He is a jump shooter. You want Mo to drive the lane tonite on Dwight Howard? What about Delonte? They are two of the best shooters in the league, it is what they do. Maybe you guys want to run our offense through Varejao down low? Or maybe its time that LeBron fulfills his promise and turns into Karl Malone?
He can drive on Dwight Howard, and i am sure he will. but no one else can. Our perimeter defense will have to be good and we will have to make the open jump shots that Lebron will undoubtedly provide.
its the same thing with complaining about LeBron standing around and dribbling at the top of the key. have you ever noticed that he is usually able to pass off to a wide open three point shooter at the end of it? It takes awhile for Lebron to see where the help defense is going to come. when he takes a step to drive he needs to know who is going to come off of their man, who he can dish it off to. This takes time.
the thing that happens that we should complain about, and we do, is when he settles for the jumpers. but he is usually pretty open (they arent contested most of the time) he just struggles with his shot sometimes. He is 6 foot 8, 260 pounds- this is to be expected.
sorry for the rant, this was a long time coming
WHAT A WIN!!! LBJ just cemented us as the #1 seed in the East and maybe the league, also cemented himself as the MVP of the NBA.
Best things of the game:
1. LeBron’s 43 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists tonight. Amazing, and had a huge block on the defensive end. Turnovers were a problem though
2. Andy Varejao was huge. He blocked Dwight Howard on one play, had 12 points in a variety of ways, some off 15 foot jump shots and some off dunks from LBJ. I don’t care what the +/- says, he was huge
3. Mo Williams played relatively good defense tonight, which was huge.
4. Delonte West helped shut down Rashard Lewis, making him go 0-8 from 3 Points range, although Courtney Lee was on fire this game, we did a good job of containing there 3 point shooters, making them shoot 35.7% from 3.
One bad thing. Ilgauskas is not playing relatively good basketball as of late on the post, and it showed bright against Howard tonight. He was slow to the ball, lost control of it sometimes, and could not go up on Howard at all. Although he did have good defensive plays, including a great tie up underneath the basket in the 4th quarter
Overall, amazing game, we played this one till the end and I am very proud of the play of this team as of late. Go Cavs!!
Did you watch the first 25 games of the season David? The Cavs don’t HAVE to be a jump shooting team. They played great offense through the first quarter of the season. Since then, their ppg and FG% have been declining lower and lower and lower. You may be happy with that, but I refuse to be content with them playing inferior basketball when I know what they are capable of when they actually run an offense.
Z is dealing with a jammed finger and a broken nose. Hardly a recipe of aggressive play against one of the 2 strongest big men in the league.
In other awesome and related news, Iguodala just hit a monster three in LA to drop the Lakers to a last second loss. That and Donyell “Moneyball” Marshall was 3-3 from long distance in the 4th to help seal the deal for the 76ers. Unbelievable win.
Oh, and go Cavs. You’re now tops in the league.
\cavalier in P-town
Donyell was a beast for the Sixers in the fourth with the three bombs, a couple steals and three assists in only 10 minutes. He had more big plays to help the Cavs in that one quarter than he did his entire Cavalier career. Better late than never, I suppose.
i did watch those games, and they were a lot of fun. but then we lost Z and Delonte for long stretches, and the schedule got a little bit tougher.
You have to look at our personnel. other than Z, who is a solid option to go to in the post? so if we arent taking jump shots, there are two options: one, we can feed Z in the post, which we do often at the beginnings of games but seem to move away from it. dude gets beat up pretty good out there, and he would much rather get his looks from 16 feet than 6 and have to deal with the physical contact. again i dont blame him, he is one of the best shooters in the league and Lebron can get him open looks off the pick and roll at will.
the other option is to drive to the basket. well, the team we played tonite had a guy named Dwight Howard and he is a little bit of a gamechanger. If i look at our line-up i see that we essentially run a system where we have two scoring point guards in delonte and mo and that niether has a whole lot of size when it comes to the 2 guard position. this does not bother me at all. I love having essentially three point guards on the floor when you factor in LeBron. But the problem is, LeBron is the only guy who can consistently get to the basket and not get stuffed with Howard down there.
So what is a better option?
Mo- great shooter
Delonte- great shooter
Z- great shooter
Wally- great shooter
Boobie, Pavlovic- who ever really knows?
LeBron- the most gifted passer in the league, the dude who can get in the lane against whoever he wants, whenever he wants, the man who can find an open teammate from anywhere on the court (see: finding varejao as he fell out of bounds tonite)
my money is on having LeBron draw defenders to him and kick it out to the open man if he sees help defense coming on his man. We have the shooters to do it. i think one of the reasons why they still dont look great right now is that Z and Delonte still just arent quite right. When Delonte gets comfortable again i think our offense will get clicking.
for the record, i love all your articles here, and really respect what you guys do. my main concern with the cavs going forward is defense inside. we were having problems in there way before Ben got hurt, now its just worse.
Our interior issues really will hinge on what state Ben returns in. I agree with David about our interior issues, I think they started when Z got hurt because when Andy starts it makes our bench really thin for front court. However if Ben is able to get into playing shape for the play offs (this is a large if in my opinion) then we should have a great set up with Ben and Z starting and Joe and Andy off the bench.
I’ll agree that Z is more of a jump shooter right now with his injuries, however injuries or not when the playoffs come around I expect we’ll see Z banging hard inside regardless of who is in the lane. Z is extremely competitive and at times seems to be angry at life itself while playing, this definitely moves him to another level of play that he just doesn’t have on a regular basis during the season but post season he seems to bring it every night.
My biggest concern at the moment is our guard play from the bench. Gibson hasn’t been on the floor much at all (nursing the injury or Mike Brown finally had enough of the young brick layer that is a non factor on D). Another guy that generally reaches another level of play in the post season, but you have to be able to get on the court first.
Wally has declined since the trade deadline, you would think he would have found new motivation since he wasn’t moved and is now in a position for a ring, he just looks tired at times and I think the season might be wearing him down, we logged big minutes on him when Delonte was injured.
Pavlovic returned and is playing D fairly well (which is why I think we’re seeing him at the 2 over Gibson) but his offense that was there before the injury is gone and he seems to be making some mental errors early in games, but redeems himself with clutch 3 pointers in the 4th quarter on the road, essentially its the inconsistency that has defined him so far.
And you guys gave me flak when I said that Donyell’s ponch is sexy…