I’m not going to try to reinvent the wheel with this post. The reality is that the Cavs continue to roll, and it’s increasingly difficult to find defining elements in any of their beat-downs of sub-.500 teams.
However, one number I’ll point to is this: +3.
No, I’m not trying to ignite a debate about +/-…raw, adjusted, regularized-adjusted, or otherwise. Tonight, +3 was the differential between the Cavs’ lead at the end of the 3rd quarter (22 points) versus the end of the game (25 points).
As those of us who watched the Cavs religiously last year know, the 2008-9 season involved a lot of blow-out wins. But many of those blow-out wins diminished dramatically in scale during the final quarter with LeBron and the other starters off the floor. 30+ point leads at the beginning of the 4th became 13 point victories fairly regularly. There were even a few games where Bron had to be pulled off the bench with less than 5 minutes left in the game to try to make sure the team didn’t, in the parlance of Matt Barnes, shit on the money and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. (If I remember correctly, one of these was against the Pistons at about this same time in the season).
By no means have the Cavs completely done away with this phenomenon this season. But as a fan, my comfort level with big leads is much greater this year than last. It’s arguably one of the areas in which the team’s new depth becomes most apparent. Most of the 4th quarter today was played by a line-up of Andy, Powe, Moon, Delonte, and Boobie—all of whom now qualify as reserves. From a productivity standpoint, it should be no surprise that those players are able to not only maintain a lead, but increase it. (Andy, Powe, and Delonte’s involvement in the early 2nd quarter is one of the reasons the Cavs are often able to handily outplay the opponents’ reserves in that stretch of the game, too.)
Compare that line-up to last season, when Coldstone would often throw out a squad comprised of JJ, Darnell, Boobie, Delonte, and Wally. My heart rate spiked just looking at that combination of names.
Beyond just kudos to Danny Ferry, Coldstone himself deserves some credit for the improvements. While we all have issues with his rotations some times, he’s certainly learned how to make garbage time less dramatic. Granted, that sounds like the world’s most back-handed compliment, but I mean it with no disrespect. Knowing your personnel and how to combine them in a way that won’t make the wheels completely fall off is a legitimate improvement.
Cavs are off until Wednesday, at which point they take on the Hornets in NOLA. It’s the first potentially challenging game on the schedule in what seems like a month. We’ll see how they respond, especially since—barring some freak occurrence—they’ll also be dealing with the re-integration of Z into the roster. (Welcome back, big guy.)
-T
(view comments)
