Thunder…something - Cavs v. Thunder Postgame Quick Hits
Posted November 27th, 2008 by Michael Curry
The CavsHQ Postgame Quick Hits for last night’s “thrilling” win over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Good:
(AP Photo/Mark Duncan)
1. The Cavs won. By a lot. Seriously, check it out, it’s a video game box score.
2. This list: LeBron James - 14 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks in 17 minutes. Zydrunas Ilgauskas with 17 points, 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a 3-pointer in just 13 minutes. Daniel Gibson with 15 points (though only 1-of-6 from 3-point range). Wally Szczerbiak looking very comfortable 13 points and 3 rebounds. In short, plenty of quality performances all around.
(Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal)
3. JJ Hickson played 31 minutes, scoring 14 points, grabbing 6 rebounds and coming up with 4 blocks. Hickson is still a long way from being a regular contributor, but he showed last night that he can be effective in the right circumstances.
The Bad (you want to talk about nitpicking):
(Phil Masturzo/Akron Beacon Journal)
1. Sasha Pavlovic looked awful in 18 minutes. He scored only four points, he missed 5 free throws (2-for-7), and showed almost nothing whie he was on the floor. Pavlovic had an opportunity to show the Cavaliers (and other teams) that he can be a solid player if given the opportunity. I like Pavlovic, and I thought he did a good job two seasons ago in adapting his game to become a quality defender. But last night he looked like the same Pavlovic we have seen for that last 13 months, a guy who contributes too little to get minutes on a quality team.
2. 14 turnovers ended the string of games with less than double-digit turnovers.
3. No Kiss Cam at the game last night? Where are we, Russia? Seriously, hard to find too many problems on a night like last night.
The Questions:
1. What do we think of Kevin Durant? I’ll get back to this a little later, but I feel safe saying that he is not the next LeBron James. For all of his college-year hype, he has yet to demonstrate the seemingly transcendent talent he had while at Texas.
2. What do we think of new Thunder head coach Scott Brown? Hard to have any strong opinions after just two games, but his team looked absolutely dejected last night. Part of that was the excellence of the Cavaliers, but it sure seemed like his team quit last night. Yes, they were playing on the second night of a back-to-back, and had just lost a heartbreaker to the Suns the night before. But with a shot to play against the Cavalier second string, the Thunder opted to just heave shots at the basket rather than implementing any kind of cohesive offense, which resulted the Thunder shooting only 35% from the field.
In short, they were the polar opposite of the Atlanta Hawks, a team that also got their doors blown off in the first quarter at The Q, but keep fighting throughout the night. P.J. Carlesimo might not have been the right coach for this team, but by firing him the Oklahoma City front office let the players off the hook. That might not be a good idea with a team full of young, inexperienced players.
3. And predictions on when the Cavaliers might lose again? With the way the team is playing right now, all bets are off.
Go Cavs. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
November 27th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
even though the team had 14 turnovers the game never devolved into a garbage playground game like blowouts often do. the cavs played tough defense and crashed the boards hard all game. ok, all the cavs except sasha. that guy is garbage. completely outclassed and outplayed by the rookies and kinsey. it will be a good day when he is gone.
i didn’t even notice durant. westbrook is the player that caught my eye. if that coach can instill a little discipline in his game they could be onto something.
next loss? they really shouldn’t lose any of the next 5 games but i’ll go with a gut feeling and guess milwaukee is where it ends.