Cavaliers Show Promise At Wine and Gold Scrimmage

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't the run-and-gun style that Byron Scott is looking for.  What it was, however, was basketball in Cleveland, something many thought would simply vanish is the dust trails left by LeBron James' departure.  Oh no, ESPN, NBA basketball remains in Cleveland.  There are even pictures to prove it.

Ramon Sesssions showed why he could be a huge addition to a team that will be searching for scoring.  Looking the most comfortable of everyone in Scott's 'Princeton offense', Session scored a game-high 13 points to go along with 4 assists as the Wine squad beat the Gold team 47-41.

"I like to get up and down (the floor), but as a team, we need to learn to keep pushing," said Sessions. "We're not doing all this conditioning for nothing. We're in great shape; we're going to be in great shape. We just need to get up and down the court as best we can."

With the Cavaliers playing their annual scrimmage without three of their best players - Mo Williams(groin), Antawn Jamison(knee) and Anderson Varejao(personal), the Cavaliers were a bit raw and rough around the edges.  What was great to see was the crowd - nearly 4000 packed into the JAR - proving that the region still cares about a Cavaliers team that did all it could to keep it's star.

The starting lineups - Sessions started at guard for the Wine team, joined by Ryan Hollins, Leon Powe, Ryan Hollins, Joey Graham and Danny Green while the Gold squad started Jawad Williams, Boobie Gibson, Anthony Parker, J.J. Hickson and Loren Woods - were pretty evenly matched.

Some other highlights:

• Daniel Gibson - 7 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists
• J.J. Hickson - 8 points, 6 rebounds
• Jawad Williams - 8 points

Our biggest problem on the offensive end is we're still thinking too much, we're not reacting," Byron Scott said. "But you expect that when you're putting in a whole new system. It's going to take us some time. Right now guys are a little hesitant. You have eight or nine guys who have a good feel for what we're doing and the other half of the guys are really not there yet."

It wasn't perfect, but it was NBA Bastketball.  And that's Fan-tastic!