The New Jersey Nets are truly bad. Besides Deron Williams, there is roughly nobody playing for the Nets that makes you go "Oh yeah, he's pretty good". The Cavaliers, for some reason, got a bunch of crappy teams to start off the 2011-12 season and it continues with the Nets. It's a pretty winnable game for the Cavs, so we'll see how they do.
Song Of The Day: Walkie Talkie Man - Steriogram
This song has roughly no connection, but I chose it anyway.
Tonight's Overview:
New Jersey Nets (1-3) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (1-2)
The Cleveland Cavaliers ring in 2012 with an early 6 PM EST game against the New Jersey Nets. The Nets are an interesting team. And by interesting, I mean kind of sad. They acquired Deron Williams in a trade with Utah and were probably the favorites to acquire Dwight Howard. Then Brook Lopez got hurt and the rest of their team realized that they were garbage. They probably overpaid Kris Humphries. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the Cavs have more of an idea of what they are doing than the Nets do. Which is impressive, because the Cavs are also pretty terrible.
Kyrie Irving will get his first taste of NBA action against an elite point guard. Deron Williams is definitely one of the top 3 point guards in the league and will reaallllyyy test Irving tonight. He can do so many things offensively. Despite his lack of talent around him, he creates offense as well as anybody in the league. Defensively, he's also pretty solid, when he tries. It's going to be tough for Kyrie Irving, but it's definitely a good experience for him to be challenged by one of the best in the game.
Samardo Samuels and Tristan Thompson got into foul trouble early on against the Pacers and thus, had their minutes significantly cut. Hopefully they can stay on the court tonight. However, even if they do get into foul trouble, it's not like the Nets have anybody big that can really hurt the Cavs. Are you afraid of Johan Petro? No, me neither. I also still want to see Kyrie Irving and TT play at the same time. I'm relatively certain that they haven't been on the floor together yet. That bothers me. Play them, Byron.
Injury Report:
Cleveland: Semih Erden (broken thumb)
New Jersey: Brook Lopez (stress fracture, right foot)
Key Matchup:
MarShon Brooks vs. Anthony Parker
I already talked about Deron and Kyrie, so I won't do it again here. Instead, I will be extremely interested in how the Nets rookie, Brooks, plays against whoever is guarding him at SG. The Anthony Parker portion of this key matchup is not really something that interests me, but he's a solid defender. AP will certainly have his hands full with the explosive young guard out of Providence. Brooks is the Nets second leading scorer with 15.3 points per game. Basically, this is the kind of guy that the Cavs need alongside Irving. Someone who can score and create for himself as well. Right now, Irving is the only one on the team that can create offense effectively. So far I've heard very good things about MarShon and am quite excited to check out his game.
Fear The Sword's Fearless Prediction:
The Cavs are at home. The Nets are possibly worse than the Cavs. Deron Williams will get his points and assists, but the Cavs will win fairly easily, 107-96.