- I’ll start by saying this was a quality win for the Cavs. The offense, particularly in the first half, was very fluid and Mo shot the ball out of his mind, going 9-9 from the field.
- In a funny way, this game was a kind of “opposite day” version of the Eastern Conference Finals. The Cavs shot 48.1%, including 71.4% from 3P while the Magic came in at 45.1% and 22.2% from 3P. That’s right - the Cavaliers shot over 70% from behind the arc with ten makes. That is a huge number.
- At the same time, the Cavs also out rebounded Orlando 42 to 37. You won’t lose too many basketball games when you out shoot and out rebound your opponent, unless you get massacred at the free throw line or in turnovers.
- The Cavs lost the TO battle 14 to 10 but also made 3 more FT’s on 2 fewer attempts.
- No Delonte again tonight, although apparently he was not inactive for missing the team’s flight to Orlando - that was excused. Jamario Moon ended up getting less minutes than I thought he did while watching the game (15). His game wasn’t very well rounded tonight, but he did get 7 rebounds, 1 steal, and 1 assist - and had one incredibly impressive miss on a dunk at the end of the third period.
- Anthony Parker did what he’s shown to be the most effective part of his game: knocking down 3P on the catch and shoot (3-3).
- JJ even showed some signs tonight, mostly on hustle type plays - he saved a possession at the end of the first half and got fouled battling for a rebound, helping the team extend the lead when Orlando had just gotten it under 10. He didn’t shoot well (3-8), but he made free throws (3-4) and didn’t turn the ball over! He’d been averaging 3.3 per 36 minutes, so he normally would have had at least 1 tonight and maybe 2 (23 minutes total).
- Having said all of that, a few things were less impressive, one of those being LeBron’s continued love affair with taking 2 point jump shots in one-on-one situations. He’s been shooting the jumper well so far this season, well enough that his FG% is above his career average (51.7% versus 47.1%), but it looks like he’s taking more shots on the perimeter outside of the flow of the offense. Shaq being in the paint may be one of the reasons for this, since Z would pick and pop and Shaq isn’t going to do that. This is especially the case when Bron is playing the 4 and Shaq is at the 5.
- Yet, now that I’ve spun off that diatribe, Bron is actually taking less shots than he did last season (16.3 versus 19.0 per 36 minutes) and is getting to the line as much as he always does (9.1 FTA per 36). So, maybe I’m seeing things and just carrying over what I took away from the Knicks game…
- The Cavs did not have a lot of assists (12 on 37 FG is not an impressive ratio), but they shot the ball well so it’s difficult to complain (assists only matter because they suggest more ball movement and higher percentage shots). Shaq, again, didn’t pass the ball out of the post very much - aside from his beautiful behind the back feed to LeBron - and Mo and Bron ran a lot of pick and roll in the first half, with Mo basically getting whatever shot he wanted…no pass necessary.
- Still, I thought the game bogged down a bit in the second half, where the Cavs shot just 38% from the field - there certainly wasn’t as much movement as in the first half, where they shot 58%. Some of that can probably be attributed to shots simply not falling, some to the Magic’s defense, and some to molasses offense. I looked for assist numbers per half but failed to find them.
- The Zydrunas Ilgauskas situation is becoming somewhat troubling. He was 0-for again tonight (0-6), the second time in 3 games, and also had 3 turnovers. Yes, the Twin Towers lineup was employed, but it made some sense against Da-wight and Gortat. Z also had 6 rebounds in 23.5 minutes, but there’s no arguing that Z is not playing with the same effectiveness he did last season (38% shooting versus 47% for one). Why this could be is difficult to say - the biggest change, obviously, is him coming off the bench. I’ll add that this could be a Brad Lidge/Charlie Manuel situation for Z/Mike Brown.
- Ultimately, very good win for the Cavs. Doom and gloom would be pervasive right now if they had lost against a short-handed Orlando team that played the game tonight totally differently than they did in the EC Finals. Not a lot of ball movement (9 assists on 37 FG), lots of mid-range jump shots, and very few layups. Generally speaking, long two point jump shots are the worst play in basketball, and Orlando took a lot of them tonight. Vince Carter ended up shooting well (11-23), but he jacked up a few very tough shots.
- Not having Ryan Anderson and Rashard Lewis available changed the entire game, more than Da-wight getting into early foul trouble. With neither Gortat nor Brandon Bass a danger from 3P, it was so much easier for the Cavs bigs to double Da-wight - and the Magic’s pick and roll game wasn’t as deadly because only Nelson and Carter could really take the 3 (instead of say, Nelson, Carter, Anderson, and Lewis).
- The fact that Turkoglu is gone will be an interesting thing to watch - yes, VC is a more productive player and a better shooter, but we’ll see how he fits into that offense and affects match-ups in a 7 game series in the playoffs. Parker and Moon did an okay job on Carter tonight, but I like to remember the job Delonte did on Vince last year during the regular season, helping hold him to 37.5% over 3 games (though, ironically, in one of those games Carter shot exactly the same as he did tonight).
- Shit. I’m still going. I’ll leave you with the following Twitter post…
WojYahooNBA Tough words out of Orlando Magic fan with Hickson at freethrow line: “Hey, there’s just one J.J. around here!” Well, I guess….
