Thursday, November 11, 2010

Missed opportunity

Cavs had a chance to sweep the home-and-home but just ran out of gas.  I liked a lot of what I saw (mostly in the first half) but they have to take better care of the ball.  Part of it is focus (paying attention, making quality passes, knowing where you are on the court) and part of it is just trying to do too much.  They can't really afford making a lot of unforced errors (or have the biggest shot of the game be an Anthony Parker running, turnaround, fade-away trey).

Antawn Jamison played well (14 points, 9 boards) but Hickson only gave 'em 15 (good) and 6 (not good) and Mo struggled (shooting 4-11 while getting torched defensively) before leaving with an injury.  Ryan Hollin is like a taller, rawer version of Hickson.  I like a lot of what Hollins does offensively but he played 13 minutes and grabbed just 2 boards (he did 11 points).  The playing time is there for him, he just has to produce.

It wasn't a terrible loss (it's not like they slept walked or went through the motions), but after beating a team in their home building, it would've been nice to do it in Cleveland.  Also, I feel like Fred McLeod could call a game with an Austin Carr soundboard and there'd be no noticeable difference.