Running Thoughts - Cavs v. Heat Redux
Posted December 30th, 2008 by Michael Curry
…and We’re Back, second verse same as the first. The Cavs are down in Miami to celebrate LeBron’s birthday and to take on the Miami Heat.
- With three minutes left in the first quarter, the Cavs have again started with a half-hearted effort, while the Heat see this as a game they can steal from Cavaliers. Dwyane Wade is still having trouble finding his shot (1-for-5, 4 points), but the rest of the Heat are doing a good job of getting to the ball, as the Heat already have 4 offensive rebounds. Cavs trail 22-13.
- You would think that the good player would be the ones most suspectible to letdowns, but it seems that guys like Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson were the ones who thought things were coming too easily. Over the last 5 games, Pavlovic is shooting just 30% from the field, and over the last 4 games, Gibson is shooting 33% from the field. Without Wally Szczerbiak to pick up a little of the perimeter scoring, one of those guys has to step up.
- The problems with the pick and roll continue tonight, as the Heat are getting their big men with the ball mere inches from the basket.
- The Cavs play better in the last few possessions of the first quarter, with LeBron James getting to the line and Hickson creating a loose ball that ends with an Anderson Varejao reverse layup. At the end of the first, the Cavs trail by seven, 26-19.
- Speaking of Hickson, these are the first non-garbage minutes he has gotten in a month. So far, he looks about the same as he did a month ago, athletic but out of control. WIth the Cavs struggling to find consistency and focus, Hickson is an odd choice for early minutes. Still, the Cavaliers need to find some energy from someone, and Hickson is as good an option as anyone, with the rest of the bench doing precious little of late.
- Gibson misses another 3-point attempt with what can only be called a brick. His shot, his rhythm, are completely missing at this point.
- Mo Williams brings the ball down, dribbles a hole in the floor, and then launches an off-balanced jumper. I’m not sure I blame him, because Mike Brown has him out there with the offensive firepower of Daniel Gibson, Anderson Varejao, J.J. Hickson and Tarence Kinsey. Gibson isn’t close right now, he needs to be off the floor. I don’t know why Kinsey is out there, but I could understand it more if he was out there in place of Gibson. As it is, the Cavaliers have no way to score effectively with this lineup.
- Timeout on the floor with less than 9 minutes left in the 2nd quarter, and the Cavs trail by ten, 32-22. Heat are outhustling the Cavaliers, and the role players are melting under the increased pressure. There is no room for excuses on a championship-caliber team, but without any effective outside shooting off the bench, the Cavaliers have a tougher time maintaining consistent offense.
- People talk about NBA players traveling all the time, but when you see a bad travel like the one Michael Beasley just committed, it is striking. Which means it’s pretty rare.
- LeBron is back in the game, and draws a foul on his first possession. Unfortuantely, he misses the second free throw. Including tonight, LeBron is shooting just 61% from the free throw line over the last five games. If LeBron was knocking down a few more of late, these tight games wouldn’t be quite so tight. To me, it looks like he’s setting up faster than he was earlier in the season, the rhythm is much quicker.
- The one thing the Cavs have been able to do against the aggressive Heat defense is draw fouls. LeBron picks up another one on the perimeter, but the Heat are already over the limit with over six minutes left in the half. This time he hits both.
- Ben Wallace is rebounding well tonight (6 rebounds), which is absolutely necessary with Z not being effective on the boards since the injury. Wallace has only been averaging 5 rebounds per game over the last week, despite the fact that he’s been playing closer to thirty minutes a night. The other person shirking his rebounding duties? LeBron, who has not been nearly as aggressive picking the ball off the glass as he needs to be, given the minutes he’s playing at power forward.
- The Cavs cut the deficit to 10 with a couple of LeBron James free throws (LeBron is now 8-for-11 on the night from the stripe), but Miami gets two Daequan Cook three-pointers at the end of the quarter to stretch the lead to 50-34 at the half.
- Yes, that score is right, meaning that your Cavaliers followed up a miserable 19-point first quarter with a more miserable 15-point second quarter. The Cavs are being out-rebounded 28-20, and they are shooting just 1-for-12 (8.3%) from beyond the arc. All that talk of the offense being more dangerous sure has gone out the window over the last week. With Gibson and Ilgauskas struggling as the come off of injuries, the offense is stagnating. While I have been hard on LeBron of late, wanting to see him put more pressure on the defense, the flip side of that is that the shooters aren’t making the shots when he actually does create for them.
- With all that being said, this game is not over. The Cavs offense can actually score at times, and the defense will give them a chance to go on a run. At the same time, this could definitely be a night when the wheels come off in the third quarter, and Miami runs away with the game. That’s great analysis right there, huh? ”The game could go either way.” Thank you, I’ll be here all week. If you want to see something good, flip over to the Illinois-Purdue game on ESPN2, which just went into overtime.
- The Cavs start the third quarter hot, knocking down their first four shots, including two threes, and the Cavs are back to within 10. There’s still a long way to go, and the Heat have been very good at making runs themselves in these two games, but at least the Cavs came out of the locker room with some sense of purpose. Cavs trail 54-44.
- Mo Williams dribbles a hole into the floor because Delonte West refused to leave his shooting position in the corner. Offensive foul on Mo, and the ball goes back to the Heat. More bad offensive IQ being demonstrated by West of late. I like Delonte West, but he is the definition of an inconsistent player, with great plays followed by questionable plays. As he proves by following up a great layup with a terrible one.
- Though Mo’s not much better of late, as he has two stupid turnovers in the first 4:30 of the third quarter, and opts for the fast break jumper instead of going to the hoop.
- The Cavs have been fighting, but the Heat are knocking down threes, shooting 7-for-10 for the game right now, neutralizing the fact that the Cavs are 3-for-5 from beyond the arc in the second half. With under 3 minutes left in the third quarter, the Cavs trail 70-57, and the Cavs have already scored more points (23) in the third than they did in either of the first two quarters. But this is exactly why they couldn’t come out of the gate as lackidasical as they did.
- LeBron, proving that he’s had enough of his teammates’ ineffectiveness, starts scoring and playing defense like no other player in the league can, and wills the Cavaliers back into the game. LeBron has 14 of the Cavs’ 33 points in the quarter, and the Cavs are back to within seven points, trailing 74-67. On Sunday, the Cavs trailed by 10 after three, but that was in Cleveland. It’s going to take a Herculean effort for the Cavs to steal this game, but fortunately, the Cavs have LeBron James playing like Hercules. That dunk was amazing.
- Daniel Gibson = slowest 6′2″ player in the league. But the non-break leads to a Mo Williams 3-pointer, and a LeBron jumper on the next possession has the Cavaliers back to within two! 74-72!
- Just like on Sunday, I want Michael Beasley and Mario Chalmers taking as many fourth quarter shots as possible. They might make them, but I’ll take my chances.
- LeBron hits a three and pumps his fist right in front of the Heat bench. Cavs within one, 78-77. He’s loving this tonight, but was I the only one worried he might get hit up with a T for that? He already has one, so another puts him on the bench for the night. It would have been a cheap one, but it made me nervous.
- LeBron’s teammates let him down on two consecutive possession, with Mo Williams and Delonte West missing wide-open threes, while Wade’s teammates Shawn Marion (big dunk) and Mario Chalmers (open three) do their job and put the Heat back up by 8 with just over 7 minutes remaining.
- There’s still plenty of time for him to make an impact, but Mo Williams has not been good tonight, just 2-for-8 for 10 points, while Mario Chalmers is now 5-for-7 for 16 points. Then he commits a dumb foul which sends Cook to the line with 3 seconds left on the shot clock. I said it earlier, and I reiterate it now, the difference in this game was that Dwyane Wade’s supporting cast played better than LeBron James’ help. LeBron deferred too much in the fourth quarter because the other players were open. As much as it pains me to say it, what he should have done is kept attacking, because he proved in the third quarter that he was the first, last and best option for the Cavalier offense. Instead, he put the ball in the hands of Williams and West, and while they made some plays, they didn’t make enough. As a result the Cavs come up short, 104-89.
- Mario Chalmers makes me look like a chump, knocking down threes left and right, six out of seven on the night.
- The Heat are a quality team. That being said, they are not better than the Cavaliers, and the Cavs should have won this game. For the third straight game the Cavs started the game without a sense of purpose, and finally it came back and bit them. LeBron was fantastic when he wanted to be, that was playoff LeBron you saw in the third quarter. But his teammates came up short, and Miami made the shots they needed to make. While LeBron needs to be more aggressive than he has been lately, I really think it was the other guys who got a little soft with all the winning. Those other guys aren’t All-Stars, and if they get complacent (and they absolutely have been this week), the Cavs are much more vulnerable.
Go Cavs.
