Good morning everyone. BW here, Jewbacca to most in Columbus. I went to The Ohio State with Cox and was his great friend and roommate for 4 years. I hope you all enjoy reading this blog as much as I do while I'm at the office. I will be guest blogging for Ben while he is away in AZ. Feel free to criticize, ridicule, and lay into me like Bill Burr on a Philly crowd if you deem necessary.
Enough with the foreplay; how about them Cavaliers this weekend? Not only do they win 4 in 5 days, they do so rather convincingly. I cant really say much about the Milwaukee game except 31/16 and 12. That was Drew's line and points we gave up in the 4th quarter. If someone told me LeBron went 3-13 with 8 points, I would ask them how much we lost by; 15? 20? That was not to be, however. Not on Drew's watch. Drew's game was on Friday night and Coach Brown rewarded him with post feed after post feed. With Lebron's shot off on Friday, we needed someone to step up and Gooden did just that. He owned Skinner/Bogut on the block and his jump hook was simply impossible to stop. When Gooden is on, his post game is 1st tier, even better than Zs. Ben and I have discussed this since college and wished Drew could play with that much intensity and focus night in and night out. He would be the best power forward in the East if this were the case. Anyways, he stepped up when needed and I couldn't be happier. I just wish we would get that every night.
How about that defense??
12. I'm going to repeat that because it bears repeating. 12, in the 4th quarter, on the road. Coach Brown finally blows up, shatters a clipboard, apparently cuts himself in the process, and all the while he gets his point across by having his team hold the opposition to 12 points on 3-11 shooting. Redd shot well the whole game but Snow just bogged him down in the 4th. Snow also had a couple key shots down the stretch that kept the lead safe. We did get lucky in that the Bucks only shot 18-29 from the line but I will take it. The harder you work, the luckier you get I guess. I was just thrilled that our inside game was there and we just kept hammering away on them. A very good performance on the road.
Cavs - 96, Nets - 91
Lets go with the negatives first:
#1) 17-26 from the line for a horribysmal 65%. Come on guys; you gotta do better than this. Simple as that.
#2) Interior defense. Or the lackthereof. While Z had 16 and Gooden got 21, they looked helpless against the Nets offense. They were not communicating out there. If a guy drives someone has has to stay at home and protect the weak side. Gooden did not do this and we gave up a lot of backdoor cuts. Z and Andy were guilty of this but not nearly as much. We let the Nets dictate the flow of the game and it was definitely to their advantage. This in turn led to Austin Carr sounding absolutely disgusted especially after that Williams to Hassan Adams alley-oop.
Ok now for the good:
#1)Hughes played really well and Damon nailed both threes he shot (one of them in the last 2 minutes) While Hughes still isn't in form, hes going to the hoop more which is a GREAT sign. We do not need him jacking up 20 foot jumpers, but I don't mind him shooting the 3 ball if it is there and its not off the dribble(he shot 3-6 from behind the arc against the Nets and also played 44 minutes...daaaaaamn) Damon has had his minutes reduced with the return of Hughes which is expected, but hes been making the most of it. His shot is looking the best it has during his tenure and he seems to be running the point well when he is in and Lebron is out (I'm guessing Brown is doing this because the attention to Bron gives Damon open looks). If Lebron is out, they are running a lot of screen and roll with Damon who is doing a GREAT job of getting the ball back inside. His defense has also been extremely impressive compared to where he was at last year. Nothing but good things to say about him.
#2)The team did well again on a night were LeBron was below average (scoring-wise) He did come up with a manster-like 13 boards to supplement his 9-21 shooting and team high 5 turnovers. As mentioned, all the other starters stepped up and it paid off. NJ shot better from the field, 47% to 44%, but we kept them from making another run after we coughed up a 16 point lead. I guess that's a good sign....kind of.
#3) We won the 4 in 5. A very good sign going on a 1.5 week road trip. I'm not saying we will do great out west, but 4 wins in a row is a decent buffer in case we go below .500 on the trip. Here is the rundown: Sac, Phoenix, Clips, Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Golden State with the Seattle/Portland and Denver/GS games played back to back in another 4 in 5 nights. Personally, I think we will go 5-2 with victories against Sac, Clips, Seattle, Portland, Denver. I don't think we should lose to Golden State, but the last game of a trip is usually tough because everyone is looking to just get back home. That and Golden State has a shoot first point guard who runs a fast paced offense. The Phoenix game? Who knows. The last 2 times we played Phoenix I A) went upstairs in disgust only to be awakened by Nick screaming then running downstairs to see that Z hit a 3 to TIE the game after being down (19?) then winning in overtime, on the road. Most recently, we played them at home, went down big in the first half and LeBron took over the 2nd half. Who knows how this game is going to go but 2 things can be certain: 1) I will be watching, 2) I will most definitely NOT be sober not only because we will be playing Phoenix, who I love watching, but also because I will be basking in the glory of another Ohio State football National Championship in the Tressel era.
I hope everyone has enjoyed this first post and I will be giving another update before the game (after work, around 6 when I'm beginning to get liquored up) and after the game (again, very drunk in elation, or at the hospital if the unthinkable happens). LETS GO BUCKS!!!!!!
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