What to watch for tonight as the Cavs go for their eleventh straight home victory over the Indiana Pacers:

1.  Can the Cavaliers keep up this torrid pace?  The Cavs have won six in a row overall, ten straight at home, and they are winning games by an average of 12.33 points per game.  It’s gotten to the point where even ABJ beat writer George Thomas is calling the excellence downright boring, and it’s hard to disagree with him.  The Cavaliers are bringing multiple weapons to each game right now, and even when one piece has an off night (take Wally Szczerbiak’s 2-for-7 performance on Wednesday), there is more than enough left to push the Cavaliers over the top.  It’s hard to know who the hero will be night in and night out (besides LeBron James of course).  Tonight I’m guessing that Delonte West finds his stroke again after going just 11-for-29 (38%) over the last three games.

2. How have the Pacers been able to come up with wins over elite teams like the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers already  this season?  Despite a 7-11 record, the Pacers are ranked 11th in John Hollinger’s Power Rankings, thanks in large part to the fact that they have played by far the toughest schedule in the league (Pacer opponents have won 61% of their games this season).  For a little insight on all things Pacers, I asked Tom Lewis from IndyCornrows.com the same question.  His response:

This Indiana Pacers team doesn’t always play well but they do play hard for 48 minutes, so when they do play well they have a shot to beat any team in the league. Unfortunately, their margin for error is slim regardless of the opponent. Without a bona fide superstar I think some of the better teams think they can impose their will and beat down the Pacers.

The Lakers put a 17-0 run on the Pacers to end the third quarter on Tuesday night to head to the fourth up 15. The Lakers normally cruise home with that big a lead in the fourth and they appeared stunned when the Pacers hopped up off the mat and scrapped their way back into the game. The Lakers weren’t able to turn the go switch back on.

So effort is a big part of it, not backing down. Then there is the depth of talent the Pacers use. Again, no superstars but Danny Granger averages over 24 points per game and Troy Murphy is averaging a double-double on the year. There are playmakers in T.J. Ford and Marquis Daniels who have had some great games this year. So when the team takes care of the ball (unlike the last Cavs game when they had 24 turnovers) and the shots are falling, a W over any team, even the Lakers and Celtics, shouldn’t be a surprise.

In short, even if the Cavaliers do sprint out to a big lead early, they are going to have to contend with the Pacers all night tonight.  It should be a good test for a team that has been cruising against bad teams of late.

3.   Will Danny Granger continue his string of excellent performances against the Cavaliers?  In his trip to Cleveland, Granger had 33 points and played so well that it caught the attention of LeBron James as the two got into it down the stretch, LeBron jawing at Granger while making some game-sealing free throws.  Granger is really developing into a player, enough that I compared Granger to Carmelo Anthony after the first matchup between Indy and Cleveland.  

Granger has continued his solid play since then, and is averaging 24.4 points, good for seventh in the league, and 5.1 rebounds per game.  Just looking at the numbers, it’s easy to see that he is foul prone (4.06 fouls per game) and turnover prone (3.24 turnovers per game compared to 2.7 assists per game), and if he can limit those mistakes, he could develop into a top-10 overall talent in the league.  That’s no small feat for a player who fell to number 17 in the Draft three years ago.  

Go Cavs.  I’m expecting tonight’s game to be even tougher than the one in Milwaukee last Saturday.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 5th, 2008 at 10:31 am and is filed under What to Watch For. 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.