Well, well, well…
It’s been almost 2 and a half months since we’ve been able to do something like we’re about to do in this here post, and yes – we’re gonna do it.
The Cavaliers looked completely watchable in their victory over the Heat last night. Even more than watchable, they actually looked capable. Nay…that’s an understatement.
They looked like a good team – like the team everyone was projecting them to be in the preseason. Coach Mike speaks:
“I wasn’t looking for us to make a statement,” [Coach Mike] said. “I was just looking for us to come out and play the right way, and we did.”
Now, let’s run down everything they did last night – the things that led to this performance.
1) LeBron was aggressive.
2) Moved the ball on offense (30 assists).
3) Aggressive defense.
4) Sasha Pavlovic and Daniel Gibson played.
5) Pushed the ball.
6) No jump shot love.
Coincidentally, those are all the things we’ve been screaming for since day one of the season. (Outside of number 4, those are actually the basics of good basketball, so it’s not like we’re a genius or something – at least not for this reason.)
Now, after half a season of apathetic play, we’re hardly ready to be all, “They’re BACK.” No, not at all.
In fact, while we’d love the Cavs to switch it on and be this team all the time, this game’s actually a little frustrating. Why couldn’t they have been like this all season? They’d be up like six or seven games if they’d brought it like this in all those losses to the Sonics/Blazers/Bobcats, etc.
We go back to Coach Mike’s quote above about statement games. Coach Mike – why can’t every game be a statement game? Shouldn’t they all be?
Shouldn’t the goal every night be to send the statement, “We are excited and will score more points than you”, as opposed to “We have correctly tied our shoes and are able to run around on the court without falling down”?
While the latter is certainly admirable, the former is really more condusive to retaining an enthusiastic fanbase.
(It did feel great to be “into” a game again. It really, really did, even with the distraction of wondering what Damon Jones is going to call his book when he gets his Amaechi on. An entire article in USA Today about your fashion sense, Damon? Really?)
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I will reserve judgment until the Lakers game (on the team that is, the suit is awful) … doesn’t it seem Damon Jones gets a disproportionate amount of ink relative to his, ya know, “actual contributions”?
Also, I like what Henry at TrueHoop wrote about Wade, he said he’d prefer to see the preferential calls stopped because it makes it hard to appreciate the fact that Wade actually is a great player. Also, the dunk on Mourning (which should have been a three-point play) was sick. That’s the kind of fire I like to see from LeBron. That and the blue kind that elves use.
I don’t sweat elves.
That dunk was great – I was like “yeah!”
The Cavs are an abusive husband. We are currently in the honeymoon period. They brought me chocolates after the game. But, I cowher, will they beat me down with an embarrassing loss against the Lakers on Sunday?
Although, I’ve learned NEVER to think the Cavs have made a permanent improvement this might be the first time they were running around/passing WITH LeBron in the game.
Yeah and how many times have we thought, “Cool – they’ve finally learned their lesson about playing hard all the time”?
I thought they “got it” after the playoff run last year.
they win one game after they get embarrassed two consecutive sundays at home on national TV and you’re all like yeah!…
they should be able to beat the Lakers on Sunday.. but we’ll see
Is there an echo in here?
That book cover is hilarious. Damon Jones just pre-ordered 1,000 copies.
?ereh ni ohce na ereht sI
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