Game #13 Recap: Cavaliers 95, Warriors 105

by Conrad Kaczmarek on Jan 18, 2012 4:27 PM CST in 2011-12 Game Recaps

Sorry this is so late, I was super busy with classes and other stuff today. It's gonna be a short recap but I have some other links and news bits at the end.

Cavs Leaders: Points: Jamison, 19; Rebounds: Varejao, 13; Assists: Irving, 5

Quick Thoughts:

The Cavaliers came home after a 7-game road trip to play the Golden State Warriors on the second night of a back-to-back by a score of 105-95. Bleh. It was an incredibly sloppy game and the Cavs committed a season high 25 turnovers. In comparison, Cleveland had just 16 assists. I'm not a math major, but that is a not a good ratio.

It doesn't take advanced analysis to determine that the Cavaliers were simply dead tired. They got out-hustled all night by the Warriors and were basically short on every single shot. Rotations were sluggish and ball-handling suffered. Cleveland hung around for a long time but ultimately fell apart after constantly giving the ball away. Kyrie Irving and Antawn Jamison were relatively effective scoring the ball, putting up 18 and 19 points respectively. Unfortunately, Irving broke his 5-game streak of at least 20 points, but the bigger concern is that he had 6 turnovers. Turnovers are something you expect from rookie point guards, but it's something to keep an eye on.

Notable Performances:

Like I said, Jamison continued his solid play, scoring 19 points on just 14 shots. He's put together some pretty solid box scores as of late and might possibly get some team to trade for him. Unfortunately, David Lee torched him on defense to the tune of 29 points on 20 shots.

Tristan Thompson grabbed a career high 9 rebounds. That's all I really have to say about that.

Fear The Sword's Player Of The Game:

Semih Erden??!?!?!?

Semih Erden had an offensive EXPLOSION. The Big Turk played 15 minutes and scored a career-high 14 points on 6 of 8 shooting! It was spectacular. He looked like Hakeem Olajuwon out there. (Okay, that might be an overreaction.) It was phenomenal, kind of.

Bonus Stuff:

The Cavaliers are bringing Zydrunas Ilgauskas back to be a special assistant to GM Chris Grant. LINK

Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers acquired the Cleveland Gladiators Arena Football team.

As far as SOPA goes, SBNation has announced that they officially oppose it.

It has never really been a problem around here, but you guys need to do your part by not posting links to illegal streams of games. If you do, I have to delete the comment/Fanpost/etc right away and probably warn you. If you really need to watch a game and don't have the means, you have to discuss those things elsewhere. Like I said, it's not really been an issue here, but we just need to cover all of our bases.

Poll

Who deserves POTG honors?

Kyrie Irving

7 votes

Antawn Jamison

2 votes

Semih Erden

17 votes

Zydrunas Ilgauskas

7 votes

33 votes | Poll has closed

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Comments

ERDEN!!

With or Without the H

by johnf34 on Jan 18, 2012 4:51 PM CST reply actions

Is it just me or does it seem like whenever a player has something that he needs to improve, its fixed within a few games?

by macdowellm03 on Jan 18, 2012 7:24 PM CST reply actions

good coaching?

FearTheSword, SBNation's Cleveland Cavaliers blog

by Conrad Kaczmarek on Jan 18, 2012 7:51 PM CST up reply actions

Went to the game and wasn’t too down on what I saw. It was as you stated, a sluggish and mistake filled effort likely fueled by the teams lack of fuel due to the back-to-back. Erden was okay, he looked aggressive at times, but then he also looked sluggish and moved very slowly in recovery on the defensive end, particularly when he “showed” on the point guard/ball handler and had to get back to his man who had been setting the pick then rolling. His height was and is a much needed asset, and really, the back-up center job is his to lose if nothing else but because of his height and relatively younger age. It will be good for him to get this season under his belt. I don’t have high hopes for the guy, but a third string center with height is certainly obtainable with this guy.

Sessions and Irving got some more playing time together, and the en vogue thing is to say that it hasn’t looked good so far, but I see a mixed result from it. We’ll probably see more of it if Anthony Parker misses significant time (I haven’t followed how long he’ll be out), and it has its pros and cons. One pro is that it allows basically two point guards to run each respective side of the front court, with swing passes quickly shifting from one to the other and potentially taking advantage of matchup issues and allowing for easier penetration lanes and either shots or kick-outs. The con is, it doesn’t work if they run the offense from the top of the 3 pt line, and basically regulates the other PG to spot up 3 in the corner duties (better suited for Daniel Gibson than either Sessions or Irving). So it’ll take some discipline and probably some spot use here and there to work.

by hans on Jan 18, 2012 9:58 PM CST reply actions