Cavs-Celtics Bulletpoints

• Delonte was sorely missed tonight on both ends of the floor. Ray Allen, however, did not miss him in the first half because…
• Boobie is a liability. On defense and offense. His only hope is as a spot up shooter. If Delonte is out for an extended period of time, Boobie may be this season’s Sasha Pavlovic for me.
• Rasheed Wallace won’t shoot 50% from three every time the Celtics play the Cavs.
• Parker looked a lot worse to me than he actually played, although three turnovers and 33% from the field won’t get it done.
• I miss Delonte.
• Cavs took 17 threes and made 6. Mo was 0-3. Last season he took over 5 a game. It didn’t look to me like the Cavs were getting open looks from behind the arc - either that was the Celtics defense or the Cavs offense.
• Historically, offensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions) improves over the course of the season. So the Cavs offense will get better.
• Cavs defense improved over the course of the game. That the Celtics shot 44% from the field is a positive - but 9-19 from three was not good for the Cleveland defense.
• There’s the potential that LeBron’s inability to shake going one on five (for lack of a better description) is going to become more and more of a problem as the season progresses. At some point, this is going to have to change - that’s on both Bron and Mike.
• KG bricked a dunk. Since this was game one and KG has a ring, the miss was surely a product of him getting back into shape and not a result of his athleticism having deteriorated due to age and wear.
• Varejao wasn’t getting a lot of action on cuts to the rim. In general, the offense wasn’t getting lanes - the floor looked packed. This is what the Celtics do - shrink the floor - but the Cavs didn’t combat it well by limiting their ball movement.
• LeBron played 44:55. Way too much, but Coldstone couldn’t go to the second unit in the second half with the way they played in the first on both ends. Boobie had a lot to do with this. Moon didn’t help matters. Neither did Hickson.
• A little bit strange to go to Z and Shaq at the end of the game when they haven’t spent much time playing with one another during the pre-season. I suspect this was a match-up thought with KG and Wallace, although I’d have to look at the specific sets to be certain.
• Shaq only had 2 free throws. LeBron only had 4 rebounds.
• Expect everyone to continue to talk about how the Cavs are just LeBron and a bunch of other guys. This is because a) the Cavs sucked tonight and b) Shaq is the only other famous player on the Cavs team.
• This will only change if the Cavs win a title. And even then it might not. You know, because people from and playing in Cleveland are genetically inferior.
• Last year, Anderson Varejao was more productive at PF than Chris Bosh - .168 WP48 versus .162 WP48. Not to mention that I heard a scout say tonight that Varejao is one of the top 5 help defenders in the NBA.
• How Marquis Daniels became the second coming in the minds of analysts is beyond me. Look him up. He had one good season, his second year in the league and has been hurt most of his career. Last year he shot 20% from three but still took two 3’s per 36 minutes. Maybe the injuries are what did it, and maybe he’ll be healthy all year. We’ll see…
• Shaq was ineffective down the stretch on offense. He’ll bury teams that don’t have a post defender, but the teams the Cavs are really competing against (Boston, Orlando, LA, San Antonio) have one. This will be a continuing storyline to watch. 10 points in almost 29 minutes isn’t enough.
• I hope Big Baby comes back soon.
• I hope that Charles Barkley is the next GM of the Celtics.
• After one game, I’d say Orlando is the clear favorite in the East…ha ha ha. Both the Celtics and the Cavs have the most concern regarding age and health, that’s for sure.
• We’ll check back on all of this on February 24th 2010, the next time the Celtics and Cavs play one another. Leon Powe should be back by then.