The Cavs are the Central Division Champs! - Postgame Quick Hits - Cavs v. Kings
Posted March 14th, 2009 by Michael Curry
Postgame Quick Hits from tonight’s crazy game against the Kings:
The Good:
- With the win tonight, the Cavs secured the Central Division Championship for only the second time in team history. Obviously the Cavs have bigger fish to fry, but this is a very nice first step on the road to what could very well be an NBA Championship in June. Winning the Central Division is the silver lining on what might have been the most unsettling win of the season. And you can already get your t-shirt here.
- Just like in Los Angeles against the Clippers, LeBron was brilliant enough in the first three quarters to keep the team close while the rest of the team stunk out loud. LeBron had 51(!) points, 4 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals, and the defensive play of the game when he locked down Kevin Martin at the end of regulation, sending the game to overtime. Another fantastic performance by LeBron. He is the difference between this team being a 40 win team and being a 65 win team.
- Anderson Varejao was not quite as luminous as LeBron, but he was close, scoring 18 points on 8-for-8 shooting while grabbing 12 rebounds and coming up with a huge steal that allowed the Cavs to make the final push back into the game. Great performance by Andy tonight, he was all over the place on a night where most of the team looked spent and uninterested.
The Bad:
- If you watched, do I need to go into it? I know the Cavs played last night. I know that the Kings have some decent players. But the Cavs spent most of this game down double digits to the worst team in basketball.
- The Cavs have stopped defending except for the short stretches in the fourth quarter that they need to win these close games. The Cavs allowed 123 points to the worst team in basketball tonight, and allowed the Kings to shoot 48% on the night. This has to stop, but Mike Brown is having a tough time keeping his guys focused defensively during this very rough stretch of games. The guys are tired, and they’re winning despite their faults. Mike Brown had to get himself ejected tonight just to get any attention, and even that didn’t last into the second half.
- As Mike Brown said right after the game (first thing actually), LeBron is playing too many minutes. Over the last four games, LeBron is averaging 44.3 minutes per game, because the team needs him out there scoring and defending to win these games. He has been a one-man show of late, despite signs that he is tiring, and it’s time for the rest of the team to man up and start giving LeBron some help.
The Questions:
- How can you tell LeBron’s really tired? Sure, the missed dunks are a good indicator, but his rhetoric after the game was dog tired. LeBron is great at reciting standard sports platitudes, but he seemed too tired to even come up with a nice little quote for the beat guys. The man is beat.
- Did you notice that the Knicks, whom the Cavs play on Sunday, have climbed into the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference? That would mean a Cavs-Knicks first round playoff matchup if the Playoffs began today.
- With no Cavs game tonight, are you headed to the MAC Championship tonight, where Akron takes on Buffalo for a ticket to the NCAA Tournament? It’s the best deal in basketball, with 10 boxes of Kraft Mac and Cheese getting you into the game. Help Harvest for Hunger and go watch the Zips punch their ticket for the NCAA Tournament.
Go Cavs.
