Running thoughts from tonight’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves:

First Half:

-  Before we begin, the entire first half of the Celtics-Hawks games in already in the books before the Cavaliers tip.  The Hawks are up by one, and are proving that they are a tough team to beat in Atlanta.  The Cavaliers were in a rough spot, playing the fourth game in five nights, and were still almost able to steal one.  While I won’t take anything away from Boston if they win tonight, it doesn’t mean much when it comes to comparing the Cavaliers and Celtics against each other at this point.  

-  Interesting dark finish on the Timberwolves court.  Not sure if the cameras have something to do with it, but that has to be the darkest court in the league.

-  Delonte West apparently took that missed shot at the end of the game in Atlanta pretty hard.  With all due respect, I don’t care.  LeBron James got both West and Mo Williams very good looks to tie the game, and they came up short.  Delonte’s miss was worse, as the look was better and he didn’t get the ball to the basket.  The ability of role players to make shots like that is often the difference between a championship season and coming up short.  Just think where the Jordan Bulls would have been if John Paxon or Steve Kerr would have short-armed those big, series-winning shots.

-  I don’t like this matchup with the T-Wolves.  Minnesota has terrible defensive big men, but without Z the Cavaliers can’t take advantage like they should.  I’m not saying that I expect the Cavaliers to lose, but I don’t think we’re going to be getting the 20-point victory we should expect.  The Cavs have not been the same team since Z and Gibson went down last week.

-  The HD feed from Minnesota might be the best road feed we’ve seen this year.  It’s almost a shame that the T’Wolves fans can see this team so clearly, but still have to watch a crummy team.  And those new Minnesota jerseys certainly aren’t helping.

-  Anderson Varejao splits a pair of free throws, putting the Cavs up 4.  The Cavs are only 4-of-7 from the free throw line so far.

-  Sasha Pavlovic comes into the game, sporting a freshly-shaved dome.  Then knocks down a nice little fall away.  Then drives to the lane, gets in the air, and finds Varejao for the finish and the foul.  The chemistry between Sasha and Andy is very good right now. 

-  Really, Kevin Ollie is still in the league?  I guess so, because he has 4 points in the first quarter.

-  Kevin Love is Wally Szczerbiak’s size.  And Wally is doing a good job keeping a body on him and keeping him off the offensive glass.

-  Varejao with another layup.  Andy is showing much better offensive instincts than expected.  I’ve said it a lot lately, but he’s proving he’s more than just a nice role player; he can be a solid starter in the league.  Keep that in mind when you think about how hard it is to build a champion in the NBA.  Even if the Cavaliers win a title this year, there is a strong likelihood that they are going to lose Anderson Varejao.

-  Z is shooting and should be back for Friday’s game against Denver, a very tough matchup.  

-  Great, great job by Szczerbiak drawing the offensive foul on the break.  Excellent footwork moving backwards.  That kind of work defensively could keep him in this league for a few more years.

-  Kevin Love with a very good block on Darnell Jackson, a nifty bit of athleticism from the rather earth-bound forward.  Love is shooting only 40% from the field in his rookie season, not a great sign for a guy who came into the league surrounded by questions of whether or not he could play in the league.  He hasn’t shot many three pointers this season (just 1-for-10), and I have to think that he will have to extend his range if he wants to succeed.  He’d do well to try to fit into the Shane Battier mold.

-  Wally with a block, working hard on defense.  Then he backs in on the post, spins and makes a nice little jump shot.  There’s no other way to put it, Wally looks great tonight.

-  Aborted alley-oop off the glass from West to LeBron…which was just bad.  Fortunately, Sasha cleans it up with a nice two-handed dunk of his own.  

(AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

-  LeBron goes to the hoop for another easy layup.  The TWolves can’t stop him, and there’s no reason for LeBron not to be more aggressive.  Then again, the Minnesota defense is so porous that anyone can get to the cylinder, as Delonte West proves one possession later.

-  And after another Szczerbiak 3, the Cavs are up by 13 after a 14-2 run.  These kinds of runs have been a common occurance this season, as the suffocating Cavalier defense is neatly balanced by a much more explosive Cavalier offense.

-  The Wolves are having some success isolating against the Cavs defense over the last few possessions, as Minnesota runs off six straight points.  Just something to keep an eye on as teams continue to look for the few weaknesses in the Cavalier defense.  

-  Raise your hand if you’ve ever heard of Craig Smith.  Yeah, me neither.  But he has 9 first half points after finding some weak spots around the basket.  Exactly the type of player Darnell Jackson needs to shut down.

-  Still, at the end of the first half the Cavs are up 44-38, holding the Timberwolves to just 17 second quarter points.  The defense has been good, at least it had been before the Cavs gave up an 11-4 run to end the second quarter.  At the very least, the Cavaliers have not demonstrated the kind of focus and intensity they were bringing in the winning streak, when they were taking down tomato cans like the T’Wolves by 20 points a night.

Second Half:

-  A quick look back to the Celtics-Hawks game, where the Hawks have a 3-point lead with 9 minutes left.  Flip Murray has made some noise in the time I’ve been watching, which is, admittedly, a surprise.  Flip is actually playing a little point, letting Mike Bibby work off the ball for a few plays.

-  Back to Minnesota, where the Cavaliers are looking lackidasical and slow.  They aren’t playing terrible, they just aren’t in that world-beater mode they were over the last month.  So far they’re playing down to the T’Wolves, who still look like a mess of a team who want to play one-on-one basketball instead of working a team concept.  Mo Williams and Delonte West have been very sloppy with the ball.

-  Meanwhile, Anderson Varejao does not stop working.  Andy has helped this team avoid getting into real trouble on the road, because he does not take a night off.  …then dammit, he tries to dribble down the lane, loses it completely, and it turns into an and-one siutation the other way.  These little mental mistakes are killing the Cavs tonight. 

-  Quick flip over to the Hawks game, which is now a 1-point Celtics lead.  And JOSH SMITH WITH A MAAAAASIVE SLAM!  I mean, there are only two players in the league who could do that, Josh Smith and LeBron James.  Video to come soon I hope.  It’s here.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2VbAj2w5uI

-  Minnesota keeps hanging around, cutting the lead to 3 points on two Kevin Ollie free thows.  This is starting to look like one of those dangerous games.  Instead of up and hollering, the bench is quiet.  And while the Cavs are shooting 51%, they are taking way too many jump shots right now, Lebron included.

-  Al Jefferson with a hook and the Wolves finish a 10-2 run.  59-58 Cavs for a moment…

(Marlin Levison/Minneapolis Star Tribune/MCT)

-  LEBRON JAMES showing why he’s in that elite dunker category with Josh Smith with another free throw line slam.  Cavs on a 6-0 run of their own, opening up a little breathing room and causing a Wolves timeout.

-  Back to the Hawks, where Joe Johnson answers a Garnett alley-oops with a beautiful jumper over Ray Allen.  Johnson is LeBron James size people, you cannot guard him with a small guard.    

-  9.1 seconds left, Hawks trail by 2 points.  And lose thanks to a Joe Johnson missed free throw.

-  J.J. Hickson with a great block on Al Jefferson after knocking down a nice 15-footer.  Hickson is getting these minutes because Darnell Jackson just isn’t being productive enough when he is on the floor.  Hopefully he can bring a little energy on a low-energy night for the Cavs, who have an 8-point lead 70-62.

-  Delonte West with a steal, hustling like crazy to get to the ball, then a layup and a foul.  That is exactly the type of play that role players need to make on championship-caliber teams.  The type of play that the (hated) Celtics are getting every night.

-  Just as I’m about the write that the offense isn’t really going through LeBron tonight, he finds Hickson under the hoop for an easy dunk.  LeBron was (a little too) willing to let the team spin its wheels for the first three quarters, but he has picked it up in the fourth as the Cavaliers have pulled away.  The turnaround is deadly tonight.  And that gets him a standing ovation as the Cavs go up by 21 with 3:20 left.

-  I didn’t know that they made such short shorts in Minnesota…

-  Lorezen Wright finds his way onto the court for the first time in a while, but it’s Hickson that is looking good down the stretch.  And as Austin Carr pointed out, he did a good job of not bringing the ball down to his shoetops on the catch, something that has been driving me crazy with Hickson.

-  Delonte West had a new Cavalier high of 21 points.  Except, y’know, the three times he scored 21 points in the playoffs last season.  Ah, the wonders of the NBA stat book.  

-  And before it’s all over, the Cavs win 93-70, outscoring the Wolves by 16 points in the fourth quarter.  Admittedly, the earlier hand-wringing was premature, but it was just a 1-point lead at one point in the third quarter.

The Good:

-  LeBron has a great night, scoring 32 points on just 20 shots, going 14-for-20 while gathering 6 rebounds and dishing off 3 assists.  When he was aggressive, as he was in the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers were by far the better team.  Shooting 70% from the field is pretty impressive.

-  Delonte West begins making up for that miss on Saturday with 21 points and 5 assists.

-  Anderson Varejao had 13 points and 11 rebounds, and provided vital energy on a low-key night for the good guys.  And has really showed me a lot since he’s been forced into a more important role with the injury to Z.

The Bad:

-  Sloppy play by Mo Williams, who finished with just one more point (6) than personal fouls (5).  While LeBron bears a lot of the tone-setting duties on this team, the point guard also establishes the tone, and Williams didn’t do that tonight.  

-  Not enough killer intinct tonight, as the Cavs played around with the Wolves on a night that the starters should have been resting for the entire fourth quarter.

The Questions:

(AP Photo/Paul Battaglia)

-  Will J.J. Hickson build on his performance tonight?  Hickson has put up some big numbers before, but he played his best game as a Cavalier tonight, with 7 points and 5 boards in 12 minutes.  There are little things that Hickson did tonight that he wasn’t doing a few weeks ago.  It was good to see that, especially the way he played in control, rather than pulling a Shannon Brown and trying to prove he deserves minutes by shooting every time he touches the ball.

-  With the exception of maybe Al Jefferson, do the Timberwolves have a single above-average NBA player?  Looking at this roster, I don’t see any of these young players developing into anything more than a bit player on a good team.  As for Jefferson, he has some skill, but he seems destined for an Antoine Walker career, a guy with plenty of talent but who lacks the work ethic to get much better, especially since he’s already the best player on his bad team.

Go Cavs.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 8:56 pm and is filed under Running Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.