Game #12 - Cleveland Cavaliers at Washington Wizards
by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Nov 18, 2009 5:30 PM CST
in 2009 Game Day Thread
19 comments
Cleveland Cavaliers at Washington Wizards, Nov 18, 2009 6:00 PM CST
2009/2010 NBA Regular Season
VS
6-1 5-3
November 18, 2009
Verizon Center
7:00 PM
Radio - WTAM 1100 / TV - FSOhio HD / ESPN
Probable starters:
Gilbert Arenas
PG
Mo Williams
Mike Miller
SG
Anthony Parker
Caron Butler
SF
LeBron James
Antawn Jamison
PF
J.J. Hickson
Brendan Haywood
C
Shaquille O'Neal
The Cavaliers, minus two very important parts of their front-court, head to Washington D.C. to face the Wizards, a matchup that is always fun to watch. These two teams just don;t like each other very much, and after the Cavaliers erased a 17-point deficit earlier this season at The Q, you can bet the Wizards will be looking, once again, for revenge.
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Some more Game Notes after the Jump -- >
- The Cavaliers have begun a stretch of playing four games in five nights for the second time this season. After ranking 1st in winningthe second game of back-to-backs at 16-3 (.842) last season, Cleveland is now 3-1 (.750) on the season. Cleveland heads to thenation's capital winners of five straight and eight of their last nine games. The Cavaliers are now 4-1 (.800) on the road thisseason, which is tied for third best in the NBA. A win tonight, would mark the first time the team has been 5-1 (.800) on theroad to begin the season since the 1977-78 season. At 8-3 (.727), there have only been two seasons the Cavaliers have faredbetter in their first 11 games. The 1976-77 and 2008-09 Cavaliers began 9-2 (.818) while six other teams (1977-78, 1988-89,1996-97, 2000-01, 2005-06, 2006-07) started off 8-3.
- The Cavaliers defeated the Wizards 102-90 on November 3rd in Cleveland. LeBron James finished with a game-high 27 points, eightrebounds, six assists and three steals while Mo Williams tallied 15 points, six assists and four rebounds.
- The Cavs have scored at least 100 points in each game during the five-game winning streak, outscoring their opponents 106.8-99.8and are now 7-0 when they score at least 100 points.
- Against the Warriors, LeBron James notched his second double-double of the season with 31 points on 11-19 (.579) shooting anda season-high tying 12 assists in 39 minutes. It was the 29th time James has notched at least 30 points and 10 assists in a game,and the Cavs are 22-7 (.759) in those games. James also tallied five rebounds, two blocks and one steal while shooting 8-10 (.800)from the free throw line and is now shooting .767 from the free-throw line on the season. Over his last five games, he is averaging31.0 points on 50-94 (.538) shooting and 48-58 (.828) from the stripe, 6.2 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 1.8 steals. On the season,LeBron James is averaging 27.8 points (5th best), 7.0 rebounds and 8.0 assists (tied for 6th best) in 38.1 minutes.
- Against the Warriors and for the third game in a row, J.J. Hickson set a new career high in scoring with 21 points while shootinga career-high 9-9 from the field to go along with a career-high tying nine rebounds in 34 minutes. In the last three games,Hickson is averaging 19.7 points on 23-31 shooting (.742) and 5.7 rebounds in 34.3 minutes per game.
- Mo Williams had a season-high eight rebounds to go along with 16 points on 7-14 (.500) shooting, six assists and two steals in35 minutes Over the last four games, Williams is averaging 22.5 points on 38-67 (.567) shooting, including 12-21 (.571) frombeyond the arc, 3.5 rebounds and 5.3 assists.
- On Tuesday, the Cavs were 9-20 (.450) on three-pointers and have connected on 44-92 (.478) from beyond the arc during their five-game winning streak. Cleveland leads the league in three-point percentage at .459 and is the most improved team inshooting three-pointers from last season (.393 to .459, +.066). Meanwhile, their opponents have only connected on 61-190(.321) of their three-point attempts for the season and just 31-104 (.298) in their last five games.
- On the year, the Cavaliers have three players in the Top 15 in marksmanship from behind the arc: Anthony Parker is shooting ateam-leading 24-42 (.571) on three-point attempts, which is 3nd in the NBA (C. Paul, M. Miller) while Mo Williams at 26-51(.510) ranks 8th and Daniel Gibson at 23-47 (.479) is 11th. Gibson's 23 three-point field goals is the most off the bench thisseason in the NBA. (STATS, Inc.)
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Unrelated word to the wise...
Don’t go to the Wiz blog on SB Nation and try to defend LeBron/Shaq or fail to praise Gilbert Arenas
I did so and got temporarily booted and “formally warned” without explanation lol.
Apparently people are very sensitive about their dillisions in the nation’s capital (go figure, huh?)
"I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok." ~Shaq
by Max_in_Missouri on Nov 18, 2009 6:55 PM CST reply actions
I popped in over there just to look and after 15 comments of nothing but 5th grade level “humor”, decided it wasn’t worth the effort
by cavslandrocks on Nov 18, 2009 7:24 PM CST up reply actions
I saw your post and didn’t think it was offensive in the least….unfortunate that they don’t have a team to talk about over there
by cavslandrocks on Nov 18, 2009 7:31 PM CST up reply actions
You weren't booted, you got warned
Warnings are usually friendly. They are given for offenses ranging from forgetting to click the “reply” button to making borderline racist comments.
You also called Gilbert Arenas a dipshit. Notice how nobody comes over here and says the same about LeBron.
Please guys, I’m trying to keep things civil, but you have to understand the setting in which you comment. Stuff you say here doesn’t necessarily fly there, and vice versa.
You know you'll get devoured by Cheaney, Wallace, and Juwan Howard.
lol
I feel bad for anybody that knows you! You know nothing! Go back to the Knicks board and talk about how pathetic your team is!
WTH Cleveland
They should have won this, but they deserve to lose giving up a huge lead like that. I don’t know; I think the team knows their record against WAS, so they have a “you can keep the regular season record, we keep the postseason” mentality. Not cool, Cleveland. Not cool.
this game was just one more example of totally undisciplined basketball…they got a big lead by a good mix of taking advantage of Washington misses and being successful in the transition; and by doing the inside out game with Hickson and Jackson….once they got the 17 point lead, they started jacking up bombs with 10+seconds on the shot clock and not getting back on defense against Washington’s transition game
This is starting to become a pattern and needs to stop or they will continue to lose games they should win…Granted Washington took advantage of the Cavs miscues but that’s All the Wizards had to do….. was take what the Cavs gave them
So they really missed Varejao tonight. That and Mike Brown and Lebron James really pissed away the offensive possessions in the third quarter. The defense was weak, but it was because of the injuries (Shaq and Varejao). Its still difficult to see the team being ruled by emotions when things aren’t going their way. Would like to have seen some timeouts taken to refocus and re-adjust the offense and defense.
The injuries are no excuse…and neither is the back to back…the offense and defense both looked fine in the first half…They got away from what got them the lead and paid for it….your point about the time outs is a good one….Brown needs to do what he can to get the bleeding stopped sooner than he did last night
by cavslandrocks on Nov 19, 2009 7:48 AM CST up reply actions
warning - wiz fan - but these are just some observations/questions
having watched the 1st Cavs-Wiz game, and the one last night, I have to say that Shaq seems to be huge difference maker. I was skeptical of the move, but he destroyed the Wiz in the first game, and not having him in last night was a blow for Cleveland. I also wonder if it makes Lebron go into more of a ‘I have to carry the load’ mentality, because he seemed to be forcing things a bit.
Other thing I’m curious about is Delonte West – do you think not knowing when he will/won’t be available messes with the team chemistry at all? Should they just hold him out for a while until things are a bit more settled with him, or is he that valuable to the team that they have to play him no matter what?
"a crab dribble is when you travel" - caron butler
by little stevie colter on Nov 19, 2009 11:11 AM CST reply actions
Well, if you watched the game the answer really should be obvious…..22 min…9 points… 3 blocks…2 steals..from a 6’-3" guard, and his game is a little off right now…..I’d say that was pretty valuable, and the “team chemistry” is actually better with him on the floor
and about Shaq…it looks that way…It’s obvious he didn’t slow the Cavs down (from 25th to 16th in team pace with almost 5 more possessions per game)…
our guards missing too many shots (7-27..2-9) hurt on offense AND defense by creating too many transition opportunities for Washington…almost the entire swing in the second half was due to TOs and by putting up bombs with no one but Wizard players in a position to rebound
by cavslandrocks on Nov 19, 2009 12:14 PM CST up reply actions
yeah seems like they had just gotten into a good groove with shaq
then he sits out. wondering though if he could be playing, and this is more part of a general ‘shaq is 36 and we will give him some time off with the post-season in mind’ strategy. not a bad strategy, mind you, if that’s really what’s going on.
but with west, i wonder more about how it effects players like gibson, parker and williams (although seems like his role is pretty consistent) – those guys are key to what the Cavs do offensively (from the small sample i’ve seen) in that they are really at their best when those guys are nailing 3’s. just curious if they seem less sure of themselves with west being in/out of the lineup.
"a crab dribble is when you travel" - caron butler
by little stevie colter on Nov 19, 2009 12:41 PM CST reply actions
I want you to understand that this is not an excuse, but everyone who bashes Verajao should clearly be able to see what he does for the Cavs defense…
but back to Delonte…the biggest difference I’ve seen is that he seems unsure of his shot….Mo and AP both got a normal number or looks but couldn’t convert…that’s on them not West, and Gibson and Hickson (as much as they’ve helped in the three games before this one)are streaky at best still…
I think that unless the MD prosecutor offers West the “deal of the century” his future won’t be decided until after the season…they should play him as much as they can
by cavslandrocks on Nov 19, 2009 1:06 PM CST up reply actions
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