Running Thoughts - Cavs v. Sixers - Waltzing to the best record in the East
Posted April 11th, 2009 by Michael Curry
Running and thinking with the Cavs rocking it in Philly:
First Quarter:
- I think the Sixers have the worst front-jersey wordmark in the league. And the court design is also pretty bad. This team needs another logo reinvention.
- Anderson Varejao having a tough time early, missing three easy shots and keeping the Cavs scoreless through the first two minutes. The Cavs are getting good looks (LeBron also missed a layup), but so far they can’t finish them.
- It could just be where Joe Tait is sitting (the crowd sounds from FSN are pretty muted tonight), but Delonte West seems to have more than a few fans here in Philly. West was a major contributor to the St. Joe’s team than went undefeated in the regular season a few years ago, when he teamed in the backcourt with Jameer Nelson, now with the Orlando Magic. Nice to see the Philly crowd
- Former Cavalier Andre Miller knocks down two jumpers in the first five minutes. Shooting is not Miller’s specialty (unlike Mo Williams, who answers with his second jumper as I write), but his compact tip-toes jumpers are pretty efficient, and he keeps all his energy going towards the basket on the release.
- Wham with the right hand! LeBron with the monster dunk right over Willie Green, about as hard as he has dunked a ball in two months.
- Finally see Delonte West use his right hand to drive along the baseline. He missed the layup, but it’s good to see that he will use that option as he’s been finding himself alone in that right corner a lot lately. So much that he calmly knocks down a three from that same spot to beat the shot-clock on the very next possession.
- Andre Iguodala slips free for his second transition dunk of the night, this one a LeBron-esque glide-and-crush with the right hand. It’s easy to forget just how athletic some of these players are, maybe a little moreso because the Cavaliers only have one elite-level athlete on the team (in NBA terms). I like Iguodala, but even in this fifth year in the NBA his game still needs significant refinement.
- Quick list of other hyper-athletic players who have become solid players but still need to find better coaching: Iguodala, Atlanta’s Joe Smith, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace (though Larry Brown is currently helping him down there).
- Speaking of Iggy, most times you do not want to see Wally Szczerbiak defending him late in the quarter, but Wally just locked him up and forced a shot-clock violation with some late help from Ben Wallace.
- Boobie! Daniel Gibson tosses in a Mo Williams missed heave at the end of the first quarter, a nifty acrobatic move that helps the Cavs end the quarter on a 6-0 run, and pushes the Cavs out to a 4-point lead at the end of the first quarter, 23-19.
Second Quarter:
- I realize this is the point of advertising, but I have never heard of Romeo’s Pizza before they started advertising during Cavs games.
- Iguodala draws a triple-team, and finds Theo Ratliff rolling unmolested to the rim (like LeBron, Iggy is big enough to pass over defenses with relative ease). But Mo Williams slips from the far side and fouls Ratliff, preventing the layup or dunk. Ratliff hit the free throws, but I’ve been wanting the Cavaliers to take some of those layup-preventing fouls all season, and Mo (who rarely fouls well) did just that.
- Mo follows up that with a long three, and the Cavs are suddenly up by nine, 32-23.
- Szczerbiak is looking a little more active tonight, that knee might finally be feeling better.
- Ben Wallace has been doing a better job of cutting to the hoop since his return, and he’s done a great job of making the extra pass to the second big man cutting into the lane after him. At some point teams will force Ben to take that shot rather than allowing him to pass, but for now Wallace is making himself into a useful offensive weapon.
- Mareese Speights jumps through the roof to crush home a missed shot. I know that Cavalier fans love (or used to love) J.J. Hickson, but if you’re watching Speights tonight, you can see that Hickson’s talents are something less than unique when compared to other big men in this draft class.
- LeBron to Wally to Z for a pretty little possession ending with a layup. It’s only worth two points, but ball movement like that is always a major blow to the confidence of the defense, on par with the shot-clock-beating three-pointer.
- Wow, Iguodala just blew right by LeBron James and dunked all over him, throwing down a two-handed slam with just 3.1 seconds left in the half. Rewound just to take another look at that, and LeBron was tilting hard towards Iggy’s right hand, forcing him left as opposed to playing straight-up defense. Unfortunately, Iguodala just took that left-handed lane and drove right to the rack, slamming it home long before the Cavalier help defense was able to react and cut him off. Still, that’s a dunk reminiscent of LeBron’s dunk on Kevin Garnett last season, an exclamation point of the season regardless of the final outcome of the game/series/season.
- But to make my coaching point - Iguodala has 12 points in the first half, but he only took six shots (5-for-6). Why is the Sixers’ best offensive weapon only taking six shots in the first half? So that Willie Green can take five (1-for-5)?
- At the half, LeBron has a pretty quiet 13 points, and Anderson Varejao can’t hit the broad side of a barn despite getting good looks (2-for-9). But it’s Wally Szczerbiak who is doing the heavy lifting offensively, scoring 10 points on 4-for-4 shooting while adding 2 assists and 2 rebounds. At the break the Cavs lead by six, 52-46, but the Sixers have been within striking range all night.
Third Quarter:
- LeBron makes a beautiful one-handed forty-foot bounce pass to find Andy on the break, leading to a two-handed slam and a nine-point Cavalier lead after a slow start to the third quarter. You wil not see a better display of vision and athleticism tonight.
- Andre MIller remains effective tonight, as he has 14 points already.
- ”The game is being played at a much slower pace than the Sixers want to play,” - Austin Carr. That might be the most useful bit of analysis that AC has dropped in a month. And it’s very true, the Sixers have not been running well tonight, likely the result of the back-to-back this late in the season.
- Maybe the Philly court would be better if it wasn’t quite as shiny. As it is, the reflection of the lights bounce off the slight imperfections in the wood underneath the paint, and the combined whole is just distracting to look at on television.
- Both LeBron and Andy have taken hard falls here in the third quarter. They both appear fine, but hits like that are the reason Mike Brown might rest some guys next week - rather than concerns about the fatigue of the long season.
- Louis Williams and Daniel Gibson are great comparison players. Williams is a better all-around scorer who can create his own shot, while Gibson is a three-point shooting specialist. But both are stuck at that 6′2″ size, too small to play a lot at shooting guard, and neither has the passing ability and court awareness to play the point guard position. Williams is the better player at this point, but I don’t think he’ll ever be a starting-quality player for a contending team, meaning that his usefulness is tapped at being a sparkplug scorer off the bench. And in that regard, Gibson might actually be the more useful player to a contender, a guy with a clearly defined role who can execute it consistently, without always needing the ball in his hands to be effective.
- This analysis of course considers the Daniel Gibson of previous seasons, not the one who has been generally lousy this season.
- At least for the last two minutes, it’s been advantage Williams, who has drawn two straight fouls on Gibson. Gibson just does not have the quickness to say with Williams defensively.
- Though Boobie gets him back with a nice layup off the give-and-go from Joe Smith.
- And Williams answers with a jumper of his own on the next possession. And picks up another foul on the next possession. Yes Daniel, they are picking on you. Yes Mike Brown, they’re picking on Boobie. Might want to consider a different tact.
- Not a great third quarter, but the Cavs have held the Sixers at bay and still lead by six, 76-70. The Cavs are 52-2 when leading after 3 quarters.
Fourth Quarter:
- The Sixers are still in this game despite being 0-for-3 from beyond the arc. But so far it’s working, as not settling for long shots has allowed the Sixers to shoot 52% from the field through the first three quarters. The Sixers are the worst three-point shooting team in the league though, so I guess not taking those shots is a good strategy.
- The Sixers out-work the Cavs to start the fourth quarter, and after a Louis Williams jumper (did I really say that Gibson was in his league?), the Cavs lead is down to two, 76-74.
- Wally Szczerbiak answers right back with a three to create some more breathing room, and before you know it the Cavs are on a 9-2 run, with Joe Smith throwing down an exclamation point slam (from another Ben Wallace interior pass) to cap it off. The Sixers take time out, and the Cavs lead is back out to nine, 85-76.
- The Z-Andy starting combination with the Wallace-Smith bench combination is the best setup for the Cavs right now. Obviously the team will need to adjust to matchups in the Playoffs, but if I was Mike Brown I would plan on just giving 28 minutes to that first pair and 20 minutes to the second pair, and go from there.
- The Sixers are sticking around, but Wally hits another three, pushing the lead back out to eight (88-80) with his 16th point of the night. On a night where Z hasn’t had a great night, Wally has been a great source of extra offense tonight.
- Z for 3 from the corner! Ilguaskas hasn’t been able to hit anything tonight, but he knocked that one down and that will do it tonight. Cavs are now up by 11, 98-87, and the buses are warming up.
- And at the final buzzer, the Cavs are triumphant, securing the number one seed in the Eastern Conference with a 102-92 victory. Very solid game all around from the Cavs, and they are all set for the last big game of the regular season on Sunday against the Boston Celtics.
Postgame Thoughts:
- Wally Szczerbiak was the standout player, giving the Cavaliers quality scoring off the bench with 18 points on 6-for-7 shooting and helping the Cavs keep separation between themselves and the Sixers tonight.
- LeBron with a solid, if not iconic, performance of 27 points, 10 assists and 2 rebounds. Mo Williams added 18 points and 4 assists. Ho-hum quality performances from the top two.
- I still don’t understand how Andre Iguodala only takes 11 shots tonight. He made eight of them, and went 9-for-11 from the line to finish with 26 points. The Cavs were trying to get the ball out of his hands, with some success, but the Sixers gameplan needed to get him more looks.
- Caught the end of the Lakers-Blazers game, a Blazers victory which put the Cavs ahead of Lakers by two games for the best record in the NBA and homecourt advantage throughout the Playoffs. Portland’s Brandon Roy out-clutched Kobe Bryant late in the game, with Roy making a couple of tough-tough jumpers and a nifty little hook shot late in the game, while Kobe bricked a couple of deep three-pointers as he went into hero mode. But I’m sure we’ll hear a lot about Kobe’s failings from the national media today.
- Speaking of great players not getting enough shots, Pau Gasol did not have a shot in the fourth quarter last night. Gasol has been a very good late in games, when opposing defenses direct all their attention towards Kobe. In their best games, Kobe has found Gasol for open looks at the basket. But last night was all Kobe (and Lamar Odom, 1-for-6 in the 4th) all the time, and the result was a Lakers loss.
