What to Watch For - Cavs v. Pacers
Posted April 13th, 2009 by Michael Curry
What to watch for tonight when the Cavs try to secure homecourt throughout the Playoffs against the Pacers in Indianapolis.
- Ben Wallace will not play tonight with a knee contusion, and is likely to miss Wednesday’s game as well. The Cavs don’t know when Wallace will return, but it’s a shame. The Cavs could really use Wallace’s strength inside defensively off the bench, especially later in the Playoffs. Here’s hoping he can come back quickly and effectively, but there’s always a chance that this turns into a Kevin Garnett-esque lingering injury.
- The last time the Cavs were in Indianapolis, they lost a rough game to the Pacers after the officials called back-to-back fouls on last-second inbounds plays. The first allowed LeBron to tie the game with two free throws, and the second allowed Danny Granger to win it with a free throw for the Pacers. In that game, LeBron did all that he could to win the game (47 points), but his teammates refused to help in the least. If the supporting cast doesn’t sleep through this one, the Cavs should come back home happy.
- Speaking of Granger, he is the most overlooked 25-point scorer I’ve ever seen (or perhaps others are more overlooked, so much so that I continue to overlook them). Granger comes into tonight’s contest tied for fifth in the league in scoring at 25.5 points per game, yet his name is rarely mentioned among the league’s elite scorers. Between Granger, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony, the NBA might be entering a golden age of small forwards.
- You might recall that the Pacers are one of several teams suffering in the tough economy, and are expected to lose $30 Million this season. It’s rough to be a Pacers owner, but it’s a good time to be a Pacers fan, as $10 tickets for tonight’s game are readily available, and the team shop is having a $5 item sale. I’m not saying that watching a losing team on the cheap is a good trade-off, but hey, cheap tickets are cheap tickets. When I was in college I once paid $15 to sit in row 4 of the lower deck, right next to a few guests of former-Cavalier Trajan Shaka Langdon for a game against the Celtics. That’s the lowest I’ve ever sat at a Cavs game, and it would not have been possible if the team hadn’t been particularly awful. It’s a decent silver lining on a lost season.
- As everyone who knows me can attest, I love dance teams. And last season, a couple of well-done photos of the Indiana “Pacemates” were enough to knock my beloved Cavalier Girls out of the annual NBA Dance Team Bracket. Fast-forward to this season, and all I can say is that this website is the perfect example of why teams need to hire me to manage the aesthetics of their dance team marketing. This is a group of talented and attractive female Hoosiers, yet the photography studio that was hired to shoot them has done a terrible job with lighting and digital clean up, actually highlighting the sharp facial lines and slight asymmetries they should be softening. As a result, the same girl can go from looking cute and fresh in one photo looks harsh and severe in another photo. Just a poor effort by the Pacers, and a definite disappointment from a team that at least has the good sense to have a dedicated dance team website.
Go Cavs.
