- Another solid road victory against another team from the worst state in the contintental U.S. Encourage anyone you know to leave Florida, or cut off contact with them. I promise you this advice won’t steer you wrong.
- I expect this to be the first in a long stretch of games that will make the rest of the world realize that the Heat’s 6-1 start is largely a mirage. With Wade off the floor, they showed a fairly consistent inability to generate any kind of offense, highlighted by one stretch during which the Heat went without a field goal for about 6 1/2 minutes of game time
- This was especially grievous in the face of the Cavs’ general lack of defensive prowess. Not to take a dump in the punch bowl, but for a team that hangs its hat on D, there weren’t a ton of stops. 104 points given up on 46.1% shooting for the Heat is not a performance you want to prototype. That said, it was the second night of a back-to-back, so I don’t want to put too much emphasis here.
- Jamario Moon played significant minutes tonight (~30). 4/5 shooting and led the team with 6 rebounds, which is great for him but not such an encouraging stat for the team. (The old dubious honor of “leading the minor leagues in home runs.”) He got torched by Wade several times on the perimeter but had some good defensive positions toward the end of the game. Hopefully he’s trending upward permanently.
- Career game for JJ. He certaintly still had some blown coverages and mental errors (Mike and I are debating a nickname for him based on this, with Mike pitching “Mental Lapse” and me advocating for just “Glitch”), but also a lot of positives to tip the scales in the right direction. 18 points on 7/9 from the floor, 4/6 from the line, with 1 ast, 1 block, 1 steal.
- That said, he’s gotta get more than 4 rebounds when he plays 31 minutes.
- JJ also gets stuffed on dunks more than any other player of his size and athleticism that I can remember seeing. JJ getting blocked on a slam is starting to look like as much of a given as Anthony Parker missing a 2 pointer.
- Speaking of Parker, another ugly line: 1/7 overall, 2 boards, 2 TO is not going to get it done. Especially not when he barely seemed able to slow Wade down, let alone stop him.
- For anyone not paying attention, Mo has been BALLING the past two games. Tonigh he was 10/15 FG, 5/7 3pt. Season-long, he’s 23/42 for 54.8% 3FG — better than anyone on the Cavs is shooting from 2. Boom goes the dynamite.
- Beyond just the high shooting percentage, Mo seems to be playing with more authority of late — taking a more commanding role in running the offense, forcing people to move around on the floor, looking for the best play rather than just the first play. To me, this makes a huge difference in the way the Cavs can play offensively.
- Cavs were shooting 46.6% from 3 this season going into tonight. This goes a long way toward explaining how they’ve been able to win 6 of the last 7 games without really locking down defensively for an entire game. I don’t trust we’ll be able to ride 3s to wins the rest of the season. The percentages just don’t favor it. But apparently this was what it felt like to be an Orlando Magic fan for a while last season.
- The general offensive surge lately becomes a “chicken or the egg” argument. People like friend, reader, and WoW junkie Holland will argue that it’s just progression toward the mean from a shared slump by several players. Mike and I both tend to view it as a consequence of the rotation seeming to stabilize to a much greater degree. Unfortunately, this is happening because of Delonte’s continued absence.
- Shaq has been a strange asset the past two games. His biggest effect in Orlando was helping to get Da-Wight into early foul trouble. Arguably his biggest effect tonight was injuring Quentin Richardson barreling down the lane for a layup attempt. Not what you’d expect from a guy making over $20M this year.
- As much as all the usual national analysts want to blame Mike Brown and the other Cavs for “putting LeBron in a position where he has to go 1-on-5,” I maintain that Bron is the one putting himself in that position a lot of the time. You could see it again tonight, where with LeBron on the bench in the 4th, the offense was running pretty fluidly — lots of ball movement and player movement, working through to the second or third option on offensive sets, generally good shot selection. And then as soon as he came back into the game, Bron either started taking the ball up the court himself or demanding it just over the timeline, dribbling down the clock, and either taking a perimeter jumper or going in looking for contact. He made enough plays tonight to keep the Cavs ahead down the stretch (largely thanks to an abnormally good free-throw shooting night), but this strategy (or lack thereof) continues to get under my skin.
- All of this said, the big story that will come out of tonight’s game is Bron’s announcement that he’s strongly considering changing his jersey number to 6 next year, “out of respect” for MJ. As Brian Windhorst writes, this puts the cap on “one of the most bizarre 48 hour periods in [Windhorst’s] 10 years of covering [James].” For more details, check Windy’s blog. Strange and hilarious.
- Final note: the Hornets fired Byron Scott today — without consulting Chris Paul beforehand, leaving him shocked and upset by the whole thing and allowing us to entertain our insane “CP3 demands trade at the deadline” fantasy alive another day.
-T
