It gets to be old hat after awhile, doesn't it??

Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James was named today as the NBA’s Eastern Conference Player of the Week for games played Monday, December 22nd through Sunday, December 28th.

In three games during the week, James averaged 26.0 points on .527 shooting, 6.7 assists, 6.7 rebounds and 2.0 steals in 39.7 minutes per game. James has now won the award 16 times in his career: for the third time this season and already equaling his total for 2007-08, twice in 2006-07, five times in 2005-06 and on three occasions during the 2004-05 campaign.

In receiving the award for the third time this season, James and the Cavaliers are off to their best start in franchise history (26-4). With three wins at home during the week, they extended their undefeated home record to 16-0 and remain the only undefeated team at home this season in the NBA.

James scored 15 of his game-high 27 points in the third quarter against Houston on December 23rd to lead the Cavs to a 99-90 victory. He also added a game-high nine rebounds and five assists.

In the game versus Washington on December 25th, he finished with 18 points, five rebounds and six assists. The Cavaliers were down by seven points with 1:40 remaining in the fourth quarter and closed the game on an 11-0 run against the Wizards to come back and win the game 93-89. James led the rally with nine points, three rebounds and two assists in the final period.

On December 28th, James scored 33 points and tallied six rebounds and nine assists, including 11 points, three rebounds and four assists in the fourth quarter comeback versus Miami. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Cavaliers were down by nine points but Cleveland outscored the Heat 35-19 to win their sixth consecutive game.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. Other nominees for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Charlotte’s Gerald Wallace, Cleveland’s Mo Williams, Detroit’s Rodney Stuckey, Miami’s Dwyane Wade, Orlando’s Rashard Lewis and Toronto’s Jermaine O’Neal.

The guys over at The Dream Shake were nice enough to take some time and answer some question about Cleveland's toughest opponent to visit the Q this season, the Houston Rockets --

FTS -- What is the over-all feeling Rocket's fans on the McGrady-Ming duo. There are a lot of regular season wins, but not a lot of post-season success. Why is that?

DS -- Well, for the first few years we all decided that it was because McGrady didn't have much help on the wing or at the power forward position. Then we got stronger in those areas, but Yao went down for the playoffs last season. I think most fans pin the playoff losses more on McGrady than on Yao, at least the past ones - he was the guy that said "It's on me" if we didn't advance in the playoffs, so everyone made him keep his word, and thus, he took the brunt of the blame. McGrady's supporting cast also played poorly in many of those postseason games, and especially in the finale against Utah last year when T-Mac had at least 40 points and we still lost. As for the overall feeling this season, we still hope for health, but when healthy, we like Yao to be the primary scorer and for McGrady to score when open, but to pass as often as he can - he's a gifted passer and could honestly average a LeBronian 7-8 assists a game if he decided to try to do that.

FTS -- What has the addition of Ron Artest meant to the team? He is controversial to say the least, has he been on his best behavior in Houston?

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Listen to media pundits, former players and fans and you'll hear that the only way LeBron James will ever become the global media icon he so desires to be is to ditch Cleveland and head for a media captial like New York.  Well, today comes further proof that LeBron is much, much bigger than the city he happens to call his basketball home.  From today's Sporting News, Daily Edition -- 

LeBron James is so much more than a basketball star.

He's a movie and television star, too.

More than a Game, a documentary about James-and produced by him-has been purchased by Lions Gate for theatrical distribution and is expected to be released in the fall of 2009.  Now it is being reported that James is working on the development of a 1-hour drama series based on his high scholl expereinces.

James will reportedly partner with O'Shea "Ice Cube" Jackson and ABC on the project, which is described as Friday Night Lights-meets-Entourage.  It will follow an inner-city prep star who is transplanted to a small town as he comes of age while "dealing with media pressure, unscrupulous moneymen and the jealousy of his peers."  If the series' pilot is approved, production could begin in the spring for a fall 2009 debut.

Once again, New York, you need LeBron James alot more than he needs you.

This is fun, isn't it?  Even the most grizzled, bitter Cleveland fan has to smile a little bit, when no one is looking, of course.  The Cavaliers, Cleveland's Cavaliers are the hottest team in basketball, perhaps all of sports, after winning their 9th straight game by 12 or more points last night, an NBA record.  How fitting that the Cavs do it on the same night that two team records fall.

As the Cavs race across the quarter-pole of the season, it is safe to start projecting some things.  Even playoff seedings are in play now, with the Eastern Conference quickly becoming a 2-team race.  Detroit lost again last night, to Washington no less, and appear as though they may never get it together with Allen Iverson in the lineup.  Now 6.5 games behind the Cavs in the Central, the Pistons are also on the verge of being run out of the divisional race as well.

At 18-3, the Cavs are on pace to win 69 games.  They have what might be considered already to be an insurmountable lead in the Central Division.  LeBron James is easily the MVP of the 1st Quarter of the season, more for what he is doing on the defensive end than everything he does on offense.  They are running over everyone, yet questions remain.  Some people just don't believe(Hello, Marc Stein!)  What will it take??

 

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LeBron James' campaign for the 2008/09 NBA MVP award has gotten off to a great start as James was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for November as James helped lead the Cavs to a 14-3 start, their best ever.

James beat out New Jersey’s Devin Harris, Orlando’s Dwight Howard and Toronto’s Chris Bosh.  New Orleans Hornets' Guard Chris Paul won the award in the Western Conference.

In 15 games during the month, James averaged 28.6 points on .497 shooting, 7.1 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game. James has now won the award eight times in his career: for the first time this season; two times during 2007-08, once in 2006-07, twice in 2005-06 and twice during the 2004-05 campaign.

More below --

During November, James ranked second in the NBA in points per game (28.6) and ranked sixth in assists (6.2) and steals (2.1) among Eastern Conference players. James led his team to a 13-2 record during the month, which tied for the most wins in a month in franchise history and was their best November record ever. James also won Eastern Conference Player of the Week twice during the month (for weeks ending November 9th and 16th).

With his second steal at Dallas on November 3rd, he became the youngest player (23 years, 308 days) and fastest (395 games) to reach the following milestones in five statistical categories: 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals and 300 blocks.

During the month of November, James scored 41 points three times and became the first player since Michael Jordan in 1991 to reach the 40-point mark at least three times in his team’s first eight games of a season. James scored 41 points twice against Chicago (November 5th and November 8th), becoming the first player to have consecutive games with 40 or more points versus Chicago since Rick Barry (1974-9175) and he has now scored 30 or more points against the Bulls in seven straight games. He joins Nate Archibald (9 games from 3/10/72-10/10/73), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (8 games from 2/13/71-2/20/72) and Oscar Robertson (7 games from 12/2/67-11/9/68) as the only players to accomplish that feat. In the Cavs’ next game on Nov. 11th, he scored 41 points versus Milwaukee on 16-24 shooting (.667) and added six assists and three steals. With James’ 13th point in the first quarter at New Jersey on November 18th, he became the youngest player in NBA history (23 years, 324 days) to score 11,000 points, surpassing Kobe Bryant who reached the plateau at 25 years, 99 days.

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It had to happen sometime, right?  The Cavaliers had been toog ood, too dynaic on offense, too stout on defense, for too long for it to continue.  Last night many of the same things that have gotten the Cavaliers into trouble in past seasons reared their ugly heads just long enough for the Pistons to overcome a 10-point 3rd quarter deficit and beat the streaking Cavaliers 96-89.

The Cavaliers looked like a tired bunch, on the second half of a road back-to-back.  LeBron couldn't get his jumpshot going and the bench that had been so good during the 8-straight victories was virtually non-existent. 

The Cavaliers had dominated the 4th quarter all season, and in the past three games that domination had extended to the 3rd quarter with the Cavaliers outscoring their opponents by a combined 36 points .  Last night all that went away.  It was the Cavs who got out to the early lead, turning a 7-0 deficit into a 25-16 lead after 1.  They continued to stretch the lead, leading by 11 at the break with a combination of solid defense and consistent offense.

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Get ready Cavs fans.  It is going to happen wvery time LeBron plays a game on the road in any major city that looks to be readying for his pending free agency that could happen, ok - will happen - during the summer of 2010. 

LeBron James "holds court" so to speak with the media an hour before every game.  He enjoys the attention, enjoys being able to speak his mind.  Playing in the New York area for the first time this season meant the first time LeBron had the chance to talk to the media in a city that everyone who thinks they are anyone believes James will run to the second he gets the opportunity.  It doesn't matter that James has consistently said he is happy in Cleveland, it doesn't matter that James has never said he is unhappy.

More importantly, it doesn't seem to matter that James' current team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, are good......real good.

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This was supposed to be it.  The NBA finally had a Bird V. Magic rivalry that turned the NBA from being a tape delay league to a league with a network of its own.  That kind of excitement surrounded NBA Draft night 2003 when the Cavaliers selected LeBron James #1 and Denver picked Carmelo Anthony at #3.  Remember, going into the draft lottery both the Nuggets and Cavs had an equal chance to win the rights to select James and a bit of animosity had been building between the franchises that many thought were tanking the end of the 2002/03 season in hopes of getting the lucky ball.

When it went down the way it did, wit James staying in his hometown and Anthony heading West, pundits proclaimed that these two guys would go back and forth at each other for the next decade.  Never mind that Toronto selected Chris Bosh, or that Miami selected Dwyane Wade, this was the LeBron/Carmelo draft.

via media.collegepublisher.com

Fast forward 5 years, and everyone's dream rivalry has done very little to live up to expectations.  Part of it has to be that Carmelo's Nuggets have won 7 of 9 meetings between the two teams, staggering considering the Cavaliers have won 145 games over the past three years.  The other part is LeBron's Cavs have had much greter Post-Season success, getting to the Easter Conference Finals in 06, the NBA Finals in 07 and the Easter Conference Semi's in 08.  The Nuggets, while having solid seasons, play in the Western Conference which has meant 50 wins, a 7th or 8th seed and a 1st Round exit at the hands of a team like San Antonio.

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This is in today's edition of Sporting News Today, an on-line daily.  I highly recommend it to any sports fan.  Solid content delivered to your inbox every morning. 

Enjoy!

In mid-August, the Cavaliers brought in what they hope is the final piece that can get them back to the NBA Finals, trading for point guard Mo Williams from Milwaukee. Cleveland already is one of the top defensive teams in the league, but the hope was that Williams' ability to score and push the tempo would boost the Cavaliers' often dull offense. So far, Cleveland is off to a 6-2 start and is averaging 99.5 points per game, which would be the most the Cavs have scored since 1993-94. Sporting News Today's Sean Deveney talked with Williams about his new role.

SN: You've gone through training camp, through the first few games of this season. Are you feeling like a Cleveland Cavalier yet?

MW: Definitely. I am past the introduction stage now. I just have to play with these guys a little more, and the more I do, the more comfortable we'll all be.

SN: It seems like you were brought here to give the offense a boost. You're not scoring as much now, but the team is up around 100 points per game.

MW: My scoring is probably going to go down, but in this situation, that is not a bad thing. This team has a lot of weapons. If we can keep scoring and keep playing defense the way we can play it, good things are going to happen.

SN: Helps to have LeBron James on your side, too.

MW: He takes a lot of pressure off you. If someone is not having a good night, he can step in and take over when he needs to. For those of us around him, our job is just to go out and keep playing hard on both ends of the floor.

SN: You've got to be ready to settle down a lot. Seems like you have played for a lot of coaches.

MW: Six years in the league, six coaches. Six different systems. Just about every year, it's been something new.

SN: Yeah, it's six if you count Scott Skiles before the trade. That's a lot of adjustments.

MW: It is hard to explain how tough that is in this league because it means a different playbook every year. Being with a coach who is stable, that would be good for me. I am pretty sure Mike (Brown) will be around here for a while. I am pretty sure the core of this team will be together for a while.

SN: You're an Alabama guy, of course. How excited are you about the football team?

MW: How excited? We're No. 1. Hell yeah, I am excited. This is going to be a national championship team.

Mo Williams has been a huge addition to the Cavaliers. Even though the jump-shot hasn't started to fall the way I am sure it will Mo has brought stability to the offense, especially when LeBron is off the floor.

LeBron James was huge for the Cavaliers last week as the team won 4 games iin 6 days.  LeBron was rewarded for his efforts by being named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, an early move by James in his quest to win his first MVP Award.

In four games during the week, James averaged an NBA-high 34.5 points on .469 shooting and 9.8 rebounds in 37.1 minutes per game. James has now won the award 14 times in his career: for the first time this season, three times during 2007-08, twice in 2006-07, five times in 2005-06 and on three occasions during the 2004-05 campaign.

At Dallas on November 3rd, James scored 29 points and tallied eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. With his second steal, he became the youngest player (23 years, 308 days) and fastest (395 games) to reach the following milestones in five statistical categories: 10,000 points, 2,500 rebounds, 2,500 assists, 700 steals and 300 blocks. On November 7th against Indiana, he scored 20 of his team-high 27 points in the second half, while adding nine rebounds, eight assists and four blocks in the Cavaliers 111-107 victory.

In the two games against Chicago (November 5th and November 8th), James averaged 41.0 points on .500 shooting, including shooting .444 (4-9) from the three-point range and .897 (26-29) from the free throw line, and 11.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists. On November 5th he finished with a game-high 41 points, nine rebounds and six assists, setting the franchise record for most points in a game against the Bulls. At Chicago on November 8, he posted a double-double with 41 points, including 16 points in the fourth quarter, and 13 rebounds. James became the first player to have consecutive games with 40 or more points versus Chicago since Rick Barry (1974-9175) and has now scored 30 or more points against the Bulls in seven straight games. He joins Nate Archibald (9 games from 3/10/72-10/10/73), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (8 games from 2/13/71-2/20/72) and Oscar Robertson (7 games from 12/2/67-11/9/68) as the only players to accomplish that feat.

The Phoenix Suns’ Amar’e Stoudemire was named the Western Conference Player of the Week. Other nominees for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week were Atlanta’s Joe Johnson, Boston’s Ray Allen, Miami’s Dwyane Wade, New York’s Zach Randolph, and Orlando’s Dwight Howard.

The Cavs play 3 huge home games this week as they try to take advantage of the Pistons struggling a bit after adding Allen Iverson.  James is already in mid-season form and the Cavs are playing great.