Running Thoughts - Cavs v. Wizards
Posted April 8th, 2009 by Michael Curry
Running and Thinking as the Cavs host the Wizards tonight:
First Quarter:
- Cavs have started strong, moving the ball well and keeping the Wizards from running. The crowd seems a little quiet however.
- Ben Wallace is coming in off the bench, and is part of what has already been a nine-man rotation in the first quarter. There goes any notion that Mike Brown might tighten up his rotation before the Playoffs.
- LeBron took one right in the chops from Antawn Jamison while fighting for a rebound. Who says basketball isn’t a contact sport.
- At the end of one, the Cavs lead by 12, 25-13. That’s a pretty impressive defensive performance from the good guys.
Second Quarter:
- I’m going to guess that Wally Szczerbiak will have a tough time guarding Caron Butler.
- Ben Wallace seems to be moving alright in straight lines so far, but he looks a little weaker in the upper body to me. He seems to be having a tougher time muscling up against the Wizards bigs so far; he’s getting pushed around a bit.
- The Wizards made a nice little push back to cut the lead to six, but they’re just not making enough shots to really fight back into the game. It’s also been nice to see the Cavs getting out in transition for the first time in a while, with Delonte West leading the charge.
- At the half, the Cavs lead by 11, 48-37.
Third Quarter:
- The Cavs roll off a big run to start the third, opening with an 11-2 run to stretch the lead out to 20 early in the quarter.
- I’m still on the fence on LeBron’s flexing after And One baskets. It’s a good show for the home crowd I guess, but I’m not sure I like it. I do like the MVP chants.
- I know it’s the Wizards, but this Cavs team looks even better when they actually have a little bit of rest. With Playoff games often being separated by an extra day here and there, I think the Cavs are going to be really good in the postseason.
- And the game has been pretty standare fare since then. At the end of the third quarter, the lead is still 20, with the Cavs ahead 78-58. Looks like LeBron will be able to call it an early night yet again, and maybe catch a couple of innings from the Indians, who again are trailing early 4-0 to the Rangers in the third inning. The Indians do realize that they’re facing Vincente Padillia, right?
Fourth Quarter:
- The Cavs reserves have finally found an opposing bench they can handle, as they’re making plays against the Wizards to start the fourth. First Daniel Gibson pump-faked Nick Young well out of the way, then made a nifty move for a layup. That was followed by Ben Wallace making a nice interior pass to Joe Smith for a dunk, which was then followed by a Ben getting a dunk of his own in transition. Wallace has 7 points in the ballgame, the most points he has scored since January 9th, against the Boston Celtics.
- LeBron has sat out of the fourth quarter 12 times this season. That’s incredible. Though his dancing this quarter has been pretty goofy; all this recent rest must have him punchy.
- 96 points and 2:00 remaining… the chalupa fans are getting a little restless…
- Well, once again the bench has some ugly +/- numbers, as not a single non-starter had a postive +/-, and Wally Szczerbiak (-11) and Darnell Jackons (-10) were just the worst of a bad bunch. I still don’t have a good explanation for why the bench players are consistenly worst than other teams’ bench players.
- Fortunately, none of that matters, as the Cavs still put this one away easily, notching their 38th home win of the season with a 12 point victory, 98-86.
A few final thoughts:
- Last week, Caron Butler and Antawn Jamison torched the Cavs for a combined 44 points. Tonight the Cavalier defense held them to 17 combined points on 4-for-13 shooting, with 7 turnovers. That was the difference in these two games.
- Some say that the Wizards have a solid group of second-tier players like Nick Young, Darius Songaila and Andray Blatche, guys who would thrive if they were allowed to complement the Arenas, Jamison and Butler triumverate, it’s just that those stars are always hurt. Personally, I look at all of those players and see a bunch of guys without enough overall talent to be starters, and without enough specialized skill to be valuable role players. Sure, every team is going to have a bench player or two that falls into that category (Sasha Pavlovic is the Cavs’ example), but I don’t think that Wizards GM Ernie Grunfeld has done a good job of building this team. Especially with the way he overpaid Arenas and Jamison to keep them in Washington last Summer.
Go Cavs.
