Cavaliers Go Small to get Big Win, 108-88 over Celtics
by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Feb 25, 2010 11:18 PM CST
in 2009 Post Game Recap
17 comments
via a.espncdn.com
**The following game recap was posted by FTS member WaveOcean**
It could not have started off any worse for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
It could not have ended any better.
The Cleveland Cavaliers came into Boston, having not won since January 3, 2007, overcame a 13-point deficit, and shut down the Boston Celtics 108-88.
This has to be our best win of the season. More than the win at the LA Lakers. In that game, we dominated almost the entire afternoon. Also more than the win in Miami, because we came back immediately at end of the 2nd quarter and stayed with the Heat all game long.
1st quarter notes: A miserable defensive effort all around. I hardly recognized the Cavs as the Celtics were getting multiple fastbreak opportunities andRajon Rondo was in the middle of every possession. Players weren't communicating properly and the Celtics were getting shot after shot in the paint simply by passing to either a wide open KG or a wide open Kendrick Perkins. It didn't help that our offense was poor, with the starting lineup giving very little help to LeBron and missing lots of shots. Boston raced out to a 21-12 lead and finished 31-21.
2nd quarter notes: Things didn't improve much in this quarter. The Celtics handed the ball to Nate Robinson, Rasheed Wallace, or Ray Allen, and no Cavalier could get to them in time to stop them from scoring 3 pointers at will. Boston was shooting 73% and 100% from beyond 3 point range while the Cavs were stuck in the 40s. They stretched the lead to 12 and Cleveland called a timeout. Our only scoring options were Shaq or Varejao, who by themselves kept Cleveland in the game. Although we cut the lead to 7, Shaq was hit in the thumb and had to sit out the rest of the game. Cleveland was on the verge of getting blown out of the building. My only thought in the second quarter was, "Get it to 9. Get it to 9." And they did, with LeBron finally connecting from 3 point range to cut the deficit to 8 at halftime. There was still hope.
3rd quarter notes: I'll admit it, we had some help. The Celtics cooled off and started missing shots they would have made in the first half. But our defense improved significantly, as we started filling the paint with more bodies, grabbing more rebounds, and making things harder for the Celtics. With the Boston lead at 7, Antwan Jamison, who had been a train wreck for most of the night, hit 3 straight shots, catching the Celtics completely off guard and helping to fuel a Cavs run that brought us back all the way to within 1. Heading into the 4th quarter, an unfamiliar feeling came over the Celtics: we had the momentum approaching the homestretch, not them.
4th quarter notes: There's no sugarcoating it: Cleveland exploded and Boston fled in terror. Playing suffocating defense, we forced steals and bad shots, making the Celtics miss 6 of their first 7 shots. They would finish with a meager 14 fourth quarter points. And the Cavs? You want offense? First, the Cavs took the lead for the first time since leading 6-4 and stretched it to a 6-point margin without LeBron, thanks to some timely shots by JJ Hickson andDelonte West. During that stretch, Mo Williams made a shot. He had been struggling all night long, but that 20-point jumper finally awoke him from a deep slump he'd been playing through since he came back from injury. Second, when LeBron checked back in, the Cavs decided to try and help Mo regain his confidence, so they gave the ball to him and let him shoot. And Mo hit three straight 3-pointers to push the lead to 10. Timeout Boston By this point, there weren't many Celtic fans in attendance with any air left in them, and the Garden crowd grew smaller and smaller throughout the 4th quarter. Likewise, the Celtics shrunk to shells of their first half selves, missing every basket and getting outraced to every loose ball. But Cleveland was riding a magic carpet of emotion and never let up, stretching the lead to 20 and going out with a bang.
Am I missing anything?
Oh yeah: To anyone who wants to make the excuse for Boston that they played without Paul Pierce, I don't want to hear about it. We played with no centers for almost 3/4s of the game. You can't win this argument.
I'll just wrap it up with the usual stats:
LeBron James: 11-23, 3-6 3PM-A, 11-15 FTM-A, 36 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists. LeBron was sensational tonight. He would not let anyone contain him, willing himself to the line and the basket. He refused to settle for quick 3s, which is a welcome sight to all Cavs fans. No matter how poor the Cavs offense looked, LeBron never stopped chugging along.
Anderson Varejao: 6-7, 14 points, 10 rebounds, 3 blocks, 36 minutes. It is my opinion that without Varejao, we would not have won that game. His scoring and movement was the one bright spot in what was otherwise a gloomy second quarter and his presence on the boards was so good, he looked like the 2004 version of Ben Wallace.
JJ Hickson: 4-6, 8 points, 4 rebounds, +27 in 23 minutes. In case anyone was wondering, that's why I'm so peeved that Hickson may be getting robbed of his normal minutes in the rotation. He's a dominant forward with amazing amounts of energy and can provide great sparks. This was one of his better road games, too.
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108 to 88
Great game! The Cavs looked good when they went small. Unstopable is the word. The fact that Oneal is really only needed for D. Howard, the Cavs proved that Boston has nothing coming this playoff season if they face Cleveland. Its still in the making, but Coach Brown is doing a good job with the rotation. When Z gets back, we should be ready for anybody! GO CAVS !!!
Damn, I was sleeping on JJ Hickson. This kid looked born-again hard tonight. He brought varejao-like hustle and finished strong at the rim. I love what i saw out of him in this game and I can only hope it continues, if it does we might be saying “Amar’e WHO?”
"My signature is only one line. You're welcome."
John – No offense, but all this analysis that the first quarter D was “miserable” just sounds stupid to me. You can choose to react in a results-oriented fashion, but I’ll take my chances with – for example – Nate Robinson shooting three straight trips (20-footer, corner three, and a tough pull-up three). Guess what? Sometimes teams get hot and they make a flurry of shots. You act like the Celtics shot 72%… on layups alone. Not even close.
Now, certainly the defense at the outset was suspect. But if Robinson hits one of those three shots, as just one example, we give up 26 points instead of 31. Suddenly it’s not such a disaster. Likewise, in the fourth quarter the Celtics missed five straight open looks. Yes, we contested around the rim more often, but they were missing open shots from 14-23 feet. And when they miss open looks, suddenly the D is awesome.
I guess the point is, a nuanced look is warranted. When teams bury long jumpers, you’re going to give up a lot of points. When teams can’t hit sand by falling off a camel, you’re going to look like defensive stalwarts. I’d sum it up this way: Early D was abnormally weak around the rim and in transition, but it was compounded by an absurdly abnormally hot Celtics shooting quarter. Late D was better around the rim and the Celtics helped us out by going cold, which is what old teams do as games wear on.
None taken...
I didn’t write the recap, but I felt much the same way…
I will say that 14-20 shooting in the 1st Q, 17-23 through the first 16 minutes or so, is miserable defense. Were the Celtics hitting some shots? Yes. Many of them, especially early, were wide-open looks. It was the same type of defense that allowed two rookies for the Hornets to go off for a combined 57 points the other night. Sure, they get full credit for hitting those shots, but the Cavaliers weren’t making it hard on them.
Now, I didn’t put it the way Windhorst did at one point last night, saying that J.V. Teams understand defense better than the Cavaliers did, but the Cavaliers had developed some bad habits back during their winning streak – while they were playing sub-par teams, of not forcing their opponents to “feel them”, as Mike Brown says. After, say, the 7 minute mark of the 2nd Q, the Celtics started to feel the Cavs and it continued into the 2nd half.
After starting the game 17-23, the Celtics finished 16-58. Some of that is Boston missing shots – a large part of it is the Cavaliers turing up the defensive pressure.
FTS
SBNation's Cleveland Cavaliers Blogger
by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Feb 26, 2010 4:40 AM CST up reply actions
I think your last point is pretty fair, but I just can’t quite understand why a smart writer like Windhorst is so knee-jerk results-oriented when it comes to D. Also, you say: “It was the same type of defense that allowed two rookies for the Hornets to go off for a combined 57 points the other night.” Well, right. And it was the same type of defense that gave Rafer Alston open looks when he torched us in the Eastern Finals last year. But you know what? I’d give Rafer Alston a wide open jumper every time down the court. Same with these rookies. Yes, they’re NBA professionals. But you pick your poison to some extent, and that means some open looks for sub-par players. And you live with the results. When Alston scored all those points on us, it wasn’t because we didn’t play defense; it’s because we forced the Magic to rely on a lesser player, and they benefited from a streak of absurdly good variance.
i couldnt have said it better tabler
by eye_was_born_ready on Feb 26, 2010 6:43 AM CST up reply actions
Those shots have to be contested though. NBA players – even Rafer Alston – will knock down wide open looks. That said, my bigger concern, and MB has said this as well, is the perimeter defense. Against New Orleans and early last night Mo and Delonte were getting beaten by penetration which puts the bigs in a bad situation – help and risk an easy basket for their man, or try and defend the ball and foul.
There was a reason the Cavs went 20 straight games(or whatever it was) holding teams to below 50% from the field, then went 4 or 5 straight with teams going over 50%. It isn’t merely guys hitting shots. The Cavs got into the habit of trying to outscore teams and that’s not who they are.
Lastly, when they have LeBron, Mo, Parker, Shaq and Jamison on the floor there are going to be some defensive letdowns because 4 of those guys are not great defenders. Sure, Shaq can clog the middle, but if Mo and Parker are getting killed up top by penetration, Shaq is limited. Even worse, the pick and roll game will kill the Cavs if Mo is afraid of contact and doesn’t fight through screens. In the 2nd half last night, he fought.
We’ll see if the intensity remains tonight.
FTS
SBNation's Cleveland Cavaliers Blogger
by John Bena (aka CavsBlogger) on Feb 26, 2010 8:37 AM CST up reply actions
I think you need to watch that first half again.
That was terrible defense by the Cavs. I was so mad with the way they were playing I almost turned off the TV. They had no defensive mind set at all. Boston was getting any shot they wanted. Many were easy lay up baskets at the rim. I think John’s analysis is spot on here.
I'm Polish...what's your excuse?
agreed
How could they “let” Rondo waltz to the basket unchallenged FIVE time in one quarter-those five baskets accounted for 10 of the Celtics first twelve points…and the better part of his five assists that quarter were to big men for easy layups
by cavslandrocks on Feb 26, 2010 10:42 AM CST up reply actions
Oh. Well, whatever, I thought it was results-oriented thinking. I think the early D was bad but I think you were snowed by a run of unusual variance. I found myself hoping the Cs would shoot the same kind of shots all game long, and one of the major differences was that they simply missed a bunch of open looks after that.
And by the way, you write about Hickson, “He’s a dominant forward.”
You know who disagrees with this? J.J. Hickson, Mike Brown, and everyone who has watched him play this year.
I’m not sure if it was simply a case of lacking artful language – perhaps you meant to say that he “can be dominant at times.” But so can anyone. And I’m not even sure I agree that he can be dominant at times. His rebounding has been awful, and has only started to slowly improve. His D has gotten better. His offense is still a bit frightening to watch. He benefits from the fact that no one guards him.
Remember when he torched the Magic in the first half last month? They asked Stan Van Gundy at halftime what they would do about J.J. Hickson in the second half. Stan almost laughed and said, “Uh, we’re not worried about J.J. Hickson.”
A dominant forward can create offense on their own, right? So anyway, not to harp too much, but that’s just silly. Otherwise I dug the recap.
Energy
Watching the first quarter of this game was torture for any Cavs fan. They played as slow and unenthusiastically as I can remember. Varejo made the difference. He put energy into unemotional players. This was not his normal never stop moving style of play. This was him deciding that he can play the center position with quickness and strength. Rarely can anyone playing the center position speed up the game. He did. This was his night. All the players fed off of his energy and determination.
Winning is not everything but it sure feels like it sometimes
Back to defense
I think these games mean something. Last year the Cavs lost to all the better teams and this year we are beating all the better teams. As a Cans fan i fear no team. O.kay maybe Orlando but if we have homecourt we’ll get them in 7.
Your take
Hey, love the site and would love your take on this LeBron piece.
http://sportschump.net/2010/02/25/is-lebron-james-too-nice-for-his-own-good/3061/
by sportschump.net on Feb 26, 2010 2:21 PM CST reply actions
Ok you ask is Lebron too nice?
I was waiting to see if you were going to take it in the direction that he defers to his teammates too much. Some have claimed this a few years back, and the other side of the argument more recently was that he tried too hard and it became Lebron at the perimeter 1 on 5 dribbling around and taking an off-balance shot as the clock wound down.
I would disagree, however at least that has some sort of on the court merit. As much as i can glean from the piece, your main assertions are that
1. The problem is he’s also a really nice guy. He’s always joking, smiling, clowning around.
So you’re saying here his demeanor on the court is possibly a detriment?
I’m sorry but i don’t agree with that one bit. Lebron clowns around sometimes, but you never, ever see him doing that in the heat of battle. The guy is a monstrous competitor, and trust me, there’s no hokey-jokey crap when the sh*t is hitting the proverbial fan. He’s driving the lane, taking hard fouls, throwing elbows, dunking and chasing down blocks relentlessly, reasserting control of the game when he feels it slipping away.
It’s also funny you mentioned that anyways because the prevailing opinion by other teams fans is that he’s a poor sportsman, not a ‘nice guy.’
2. This June, Bron Bron might want to add a little killer instinct to his repertoire.
lol lebron doesn’t have a killer instinct? Have you ever actually watched a Cavs game?
3. He’s too good a player to imagine ending his career without winning a championship, isn’t he? It just wouldn’t seem fair.
Ok so you’re insinuating he might be ‘too nice’ by remaining with the Cavs?
Lebron would conceivably leave for the Knicks or Nets because he wants to be in New York. ‘Competitiveness’ or ‘killer instinct’ would have nothing to do with it. Lebron has the best chance out of all those teams to win a championship right with the team he’s currently on…a team loaded with talent, has the best record in the league, has improved markedly since last year while a couple of rivals have arguably declined…and an organization that has done everything and anything to give him the best chance to win. I suppose he could try and go be with Dwanye Wade, but the likelihood of that occurring is very very, minute all things considered.
So again, your points are:
1. He’s too nice on the court. Too much joking around. (?)
2. He’s too nice by staying with the Cavs and he should consider going elsewhere, maybe, if he wants to get his rings. (?)
by johnnyphoenix on Feb 27, 2010 12:58 AM CST up reply actions
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