Cavaliers sleepwalk in 102-95 loss to Mavericks in Dallas

by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Dec 20, 2009 9:07 PM CST in 2009 Post Game Recap Comment 4 comments

The NBA is a long season - filled with ups and downs. It's hard for a team to bring the same level of energy and effort every night for 82 games. For the Cavaliers that has been a struggle all season - at home and on the road - consistent effort. It happened again as the Wine and Gold, seemingly in a game-long fog, fell to the Dallas Mavericks 102-95. Perhaps even more perplexing was the Cavaliers inability to take advantage of a Dallas team missing their best player - Dirk Nowitzki - who missed the game with a gash on his elbow.

For the Cavs, it was a bit of the same. In ending their 5-game losing streak, the Cavaliers were out-shot 48%-46%. The Cavaliers did take 6 more free throws(26-20), but shot 77% while the Mavericks shot 95%. Lastly, the Cavaliers wasted a great effort by their bench. Delonte West, Anderson Varejao, Daniel Gibson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas combined to score 41 points, a good night for the Cavaliers most nights, only to see the Mavericks bench score 45 points.

Most disappointing was the complete lack of production from Shaquille O'Neal. In over 17 minutes, O'Neal scored 5 points on 1-7 shooting. LeBron James had an off-night shooting the ball, scoring 25 points on just 9-23. He was held without a rebound in the 1st half and totaled just 3 rebounds in the game.

As for the rest of the starters, J.J. Hickson scored 4 points and Mo Williams added 8. When 4 of your starting 5 scores just 29 points, you are not going to win many games, tonight is no exception.

No time to worry about it, as the Cavs get right back on the court tomorrow night in Phoenix. With a Christmas trip to see Kobe and the Lakers on the horizon, the Wine and Gold needs to get its head right, and fast!

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This effort has been the theme for the Cavs this year. I have been telling my friends for the last 3 years that the Cavs can’t win it all with Mike Brown as the coach. LeBron literally does what he wants when he wants all of the time. It has never been an issue because the Cavs have been winning. But other teams know that LeBron will essentially at some point in time during the game ignore his teammates. LeBron hasn’t been getting the whistles this year like the past so now teams are comfortable defending him.

I am in now way saying the Cavs are better without LeBron, but when he’s not on the floor the ball moves better. The Cavs look like two years ago when LeBron would just pound the basketball for 18 seconds instead of creating ball movement for a better shot. This is where the coach should step in. Mike Brown doesn’t. It was accepted before because at least Brown got them to play defense. Now, they are not even doing that, or only doing that during stretches.

Having Shaq and Z is killing this team. This team needs a athletic center so it can run, or at least defend the pick and roll. The Cavs playbook looks ancient predictable. Even if LeBron resigns, they can’t keep Mike Brown as a coach. He too much of a fan of LeBron and cannot discipline him when necessary.

by DB216 on Dec 20, 2009 10:45 PM CST reply actions

Lebron isn’t the problem, he’s the furthest thing from a problem. The problem is we just don’t have the talent to get ahead of the other elite teams. IMO we have the best player in the league but the dropoff to the rest of the players is huge. The Celtics have 4 players (Garnett, Pierce, Rondo, Allen) that are better than our second best player. The magic have 4 (Howard, Carter, Lewis, Nelson). The Lakers have 5 (Kobe, Gasol, Artest, Bynum, Odom). We just dont have the talent behind Lebron. The other teams are stacked while we are not.

Our second best player, Mo is a PG who can’t pass particularly well, when he’s shooting well that doesnt matter and we do well but on nights like this (which were common in the playoffs last season) occur way too often for a guy whose ment to be the second best player on an elite team. As for Shaq, its clear hes dropped off on the offensive end which dissapoints a lot of cavs fans but not me, i didnt get my hopes up for what hed bring to us, all i want from him is to limit Dwight and keep him from exploding on us, which i still think he can do.

And thats our 2 best starters after Lebron. Our problems at SG and PF are even bigger. Parker and Hickson are not starter quality. Varejao does help us but hes most effective coming off the bench and providing us with energy bursts. As for Delonte, he is talented and at his best he is an asset to the team, but all of his offcourt problems make him unreliable. Isnt his courtdate sometime in early 2010? For all we know he’ll be in jail by the time the playoffs come around.

So in conclusion lebron is the least of our problems. Hes not a problem at all, he has to hold onto the ball so much because we regularly see the other 4 standing still, no getting open, no nothing, As talented as lebron is he cant control the others like puppets. He makes them looker better than they are.

by CavsLebronFan on Dec 21, 2009 12:43 AM CST up reply actions

Didn't the Cavs win 66 games last year?

Once you win 60 plus, you can’t fall on the “poor teammates” reasoning. You’re only allowed to do that if the team has fewer than 50 wins. It’s in the NBA rulebook.

"This is not a game for boys. This is a game for men." - Phil Jackson

by Gils_Keloids on Dec 21, 2009 1:30 AM CST reply actions

Wow

No Dirk!!! Ehh..dont sweat the loss. We lost to them too..on our home floor so it happens. But whats unexcusable is the total lack of effort by the Cavs. One thing i aint trying to hear is how Leron has no supporting cast. Consistent? No!!! But talented non the less. I can see a Lebron/Shaq clash happening real soon. Not only has the Shaq signing hurt your team, hes only good for maybe 50gms a season at 20+million (i believe). So much for your offensively enept coach to sort out…going into this week. Phx..then Lakers on xmas. A potential 3gm skid on the horizons. I was really hoping you guys would win (for reasons not needed to be said) anyhow…goodluck cav faithfulls

by Kobe Won Kenobi on Dec 21, 2009 10:55 AM CST via mobile reply actions