Recap: Bobcats 110, Cavs 93 (Or, That Could Have Gone Better)
2010-02-19
Overview: The Bobcats handed the Cavaliers their second loss in a row on Friday night. They played stifling defense throughout, holding the Cavs to 39% shooting on the way to a 110-93 victory. It was also one of the worst defensive performances of the year for the Cavaliers, with the Bobcats shooting 55% from the floor. Antawn Jamison went 0-12 from the floor in his debut with the Cavaliers.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
-I actually kind of like losses like this. What did the Cavs need to do better to win this game? Everything. They lost in every area. This was not a winnable game. Better to pack all the failure you can into one loss than to spread it out and lose multiple winnable games.
-The good news: this is exactly the kind of game Antawn Jamison was brought in to avoid. The Cavs got stagnant offensively, and they got frustrated. This is exactly where they want Jamison to spread the floor and create some offense of his own.
The bad news: Jamison was a smoldering pile of fail on Friday night. He almost literally could not have been worse. How bad was he? Historically bad.
Basketball-reference’s database for individual games goes back to the 1986-87 NBA season.
Since 86-87, 14 players have shot the ball 12 or more times without making a field goal. The last time it happened was in December 2008, when Vince Carter went 0-13 against the Raptors. It has happened five times since LeBron came into the league.
Jamison also only had two free throws, and they came in garbage time. A player going 0-12 or worse from the field and making two or less free throws has only happened seven other times since 86-87. Zach Randolph is the only one to accomplish the feat since LeBron entered the league.
Jamison also only had one assist. When you add that to the previous criteria, only four games qualify. The only players to go 0-12 or worse, make two free throws or less, and record zero assists in a game are Zach Randolph and Dino Radja. And Jamison’s assist set JJ Hickson up with a mid-range jumper.
So I’d say that Jamison had a bit of an off night.
Jamison started out the game aggressively going to the rim, but missed a three and had his shot blocked by Theo Ratliff. After that, Antawn had a nasty case of the yips. He forced drives, and got blocked five times. His shot was way, way off, and he had some ugly air-balls. The only shots I didn’t like from Jamison were those pick-and-pop jumpers from mid-range, which I think he’s a bit trigger-happy with.
Jamison had the howling fantods tonight. He will get better. Hopefully, much better. Not much else to say.
-Jamison’s defense was also bad. In his defense, everyone’s defense was bad. The Bobcats outscored the Cavs 48-24 in the paint, which is a huge problem. Raymond Felton absolutely loves playing against Shaq. Against most guards, the smart play is to sag back and concede that 15-20 foot jumper, but Felton loves to operate from that area.
-AP had no answer for Jackson. He made his bad shots and his good ones, and finished with 29 points on 17 shots. Wallace and Diaw were slashing into the paint at will. Only Tyrus Thomas had a poor shooting night for the Bobcats, but he contributed 12 boards and 6 blocks. One of the worst outings for the Cavs on both ends of the court on Friday.
-The Bobcats like to pack the lane on defense. In the first quarter, the Cavs countered that by pushing the ball and shooting threes. They hit six threes in the first quarter, and Lebron set five of them up. As the game went on, they got away from that. LeBron finished with 9 assists, and the Cavs made six more threes over the next three quarters. Since the Cavs were 20-53 inside the arc, getting away from the threes hurt.
Shaq and Varejao both looked out of sorts. They combined to go 6-18 from the floor, and had four of their shots blocked. This Bobcat frontline can play some defense. Adjusting to Antawn probably didn’t help them either.
-I put this on NBC earlier, but now I’ll put it here. Regardless of what happened at the deadline, the Cavs were going to play worse after the All-Star break. 10 of the 13 games during the streak were at home, the Cavs had no back-to-backs, played a bunch of teams who were on back-to-backs, and won three very losable games. So be careful with causation/correlation after the Cavs lose a road back-to-back game against a tough team. The Cavs had to be patient with Shaq. Now it’s time to be patient with ‘Tawn.
-None of that means I’m not scared of the Curse of Z, which may have killed all the Cavs’ Sundiata karma. I don’t believe in that stuff. I don’t think I do.
-Alright, time to turn the page on this one. I’m a worrier, so I’ll lose sleep on this one. But everything will more than likely turn out just fine. It was a dream month. Now it’s time to wake up.
Never like to see the Cavs lose, but what Shaq and Jamison showed gives me a lot of hope for the playoffs. A center AND a PF who can hold their own in the post? Cavs haven’t had that since … well, it’s been a while. Speaking of Jamison, coming off the bench is supposed to be “less pressure” but a lot of times there’s more pressure to do more in less time, and with a weaker supporting cast. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jamison’s in the starting lineup before long. Still 5 up in the East with a number… Read more »
That call was so bad, you didn’t need replays. Jamison was already standing his ground when Dwight was still several steps away. And he was easily three feet outside the restricted area. That might’ve been the game right there. Anyway, I feel much better after seeing Jamison get going in the 2nd half. MB should go ahead and start him from now on. And clearly, Mo will need time to get his legs – and shot — back after being out for over a month. That’s understandable.
According to the replays too, Kevin. He was stationary for atleast two of Dwights steps and easily out of the area. Like Van Gundy said during the game, those are the type of calls that can have a game changing effect, and it did. Instead of Dwight going to the bench, Jamison (who was hot) went to the bench AND the Magic scored on that possession. Was a huge bad call. Let’s not forget about the phantom shot clock violation. LeBron scored on that btw, but somehow the clock went off before anyone had touched the ball. Sorry, but the… Read more »
Jamison looked amazing out there. Too bad the officials took him straight out of the game. I understand the refs can’t be perfect and make mistakes, but this one seemed odd considering the ref actually tried reasoning that Jamison was in the restricted area when he clearly wasn’t (according to Windhorst’s tweets).
I was big on getting Amar’e once the rumors started coming out, but that is no more. Antawn Jamison is a revelation. He scores in the post. He scores from the perimeter. He can shoot the three. I love it. A legit second option. Man, this team is going to be scary once they start clicking again….
chill out jamison haters. our guards shot 4 for 23 today. jamison shot 9 for 14. if somehow you can make a case that jamison makes it harder for our guards to shoot the ball, go ahead. but he played some good ball today
Seriously, the Amare trade was never meant to be, because of Phoenix. The same thing happened last year, if I’m not mistaken, where Ferry gets beat up for “standing pat” when all signs are that PHX flinched at the deadline and wouldn’t give up Shaq at the time. Ferry clearly isn’t gunshy, and he’s shown he’s willing to trade, and the management will back him with money. How people don’t notice the trend of “Phoenix doesn’t pull the trigger at the trade deadline” and instead interpret it as “Ferry stands pat,” I just don’t understand. But anyway, this is just… Read more »
Mahesh: Look up the term “cap hold,” and then you’ll see why your hypothetical can’t work (even if trading for Amare had been an option).
Mahesh clearly doesn’t understand the way the salary cap works.
First of all, why are we still talking about “trading for” Amare? According to the reports I saw, it was Phoenix that wouldn’t commit to the deal. So in the end, regardless what you think of Ferry’s trading for Jamison (I like the move), Amare wasn’t an available alternative.
What? that puts them at 50 million + the other ugys on the pay roll. not even close to under the cap.
i was jst thinking… if the cavs traded for amare… this offseason they would have lebron, amare, shaq, and about 2 mil of ilgauskas coming of the books and that should leave them at about 9-10 mil of cap space. the cavs can then sign a guy like ray allen- perfect fit, great shooter nxt to lebron and comes from a great team defense- then resigns everyone- lebron about 20 mil, amare 18mil, Z and shaq about 12mil combined and the cavs are still under luxury tax… Mo, Ray Allen, Lebron, Amare, Shaq and an offseason together with a 12… Read more »
Rofl, was Jamison the problem today guy? Watch the game plz.
Yea, Jamison played TERRIBLE today. The loss was totally on him. *rolls eyes*
Rich still thinks Jamison is a better fir after another loss!!! He will never admit that he was wrong.
‘Cats present matchup problems. Charlotte is the one team I’ve been worried about this entire season, perhaps irrationally, but I’m just glad that the likelihood of them falling into our side of the East bracket is slim at best. This section of the schedule was always going to be problematic even if the team were the same, looking at the schedule – considering that on the 2nd night of a back-to-back in February, the team suffered what’s only the second loss of more than ten points this entire season to a team that matches up well against us, on the… Read more »
Small sample size is small.
After one game Sam? Yea, still think Murphy is a worse fit. Especially considering Hickson was wanted for him.
And if you are going to use statistics, then stick to the rules of statistics and give it more time than one game before passing judgement.
I know it’s an impossible small sample size, but last night was indicative of why the Jamison trade DOESN’T work. Usage too high, True Shooting too low. You don’t “tweak” a team with a guy who gets 22 touches a game and doesn’t play D well. Still think Murphy is a worse fit?
Is there some really low word limit on comments? I’ve had a hard time getting comments to post lately …
Yeah, Im not worried about Jamison… Like Charlie said, Id be scarier if he looked comfortable and still played horribly. He clearly looked out of place right from the start. He was hesitant, didn’t know where to be, and looked downright nervous. These next 10 games or so are going to be very ugly looking for several reasons. First, they are trying to work Jamison in on the fly. Second, Mo is still being limited. And third, Andy is going to be getting most of the backup center minutes. It will be fine though, because the team has just enough… Read more »
I’m not too worried about Jamison. As John points out, he had a historically bad night. No reason to suspect it will continue. He did, however, get some good open looks. You can see how much space he will have to operate out on the floor with Shaq and Lebron. If Jamison had been merely average from the field (say 5-12), this is an entirely different ball game. Unfortunately, not alot of time to gel before tomorrow in Orlando.
Haha, there goes Bradley right on cue.
I’d be more worried if Jamison looked comfortable and still went 0-12. Instead, he was clearly pressing and not sure where to be on the court. It might take a few games, but he’ll get there.
Meanwhile, how is Charlotte only 1 game above .500? Seriously?
I think it’s possible that we could lose to Charlotte if we run into them in the first round. They have a very athletic lineup, 1-5, especially now that they have Tyrus Thomas, and many of their forwards can score off the drive. They are a relatively young, athletic team that can absolutely smother anybody on defense. In a series, we’d have to find someone to stop Jax, or else we’d be in some trouble.
Ive been saying since the Jackson trade that the one team to avoid in the first round is Charlotte, and tonight probably reinforced that. Of all the teams we could face in the first round (Chicago, Miami, Charlotte, Milwaukee), Charlotte is the one team I DO NOT want to see.
Does anyone else get the feeling that they stopped playing after the first quarter? I think they had Sunday on their minds. Along with fatigue–both mental and physical. Should be a damn good game against the Magic.
^ What Rich said.
Dude, if you don’t want people to kill for the Jamison comments, stop making them every time you post. We get it, Bradleyh doesn’t like Jamison. We don’t need you to type out 3 and 4 paragraphs every single day on why that is. I don’t know if the team will be better (I suspect they will), but who knows. Either way, can you save your hatred for Jamison after a larger sample size with the team? I mean, if I recall they weren’t beating the Cats with Z were they? They didn’t beat the nuggets with Z did they?… Read more »
Antawn Jamison is my least very player in the league. Even before the trade I was ready to consider him one of my Antoine Walker All-Stars, for guys with big numbers but minimal production. I fully expect him to continue to this frustration, even when he makes a couple of shots. If the Cavs were great before the trade, they’ll still be great and he won’t make them worse. I just don’t think he’ll make them better. Throw in that Powe is the probably the odd man out (I love Powe), that’s pretty depressing. Jamison is supposed to be one… Read more »
Practice time please. Pretty please.
These types of games with untested lineups do not play to Mike Brown’s strengths.
Luckily I am out of town and didn’t have to watch that game on television.
But on the brightside, we still have the best record in the league and some cushion in the East to get it together.
Viva La Cavs!!!
Thank you Krolik.
Orlando loses by 10 at home. The Nuggets lose to the Wiz by 10 on the road (back-to-back after an OT game, anyone?). The Spurs get crushed by Philly. I dunno what is going to happen with Boston, but all I’m saying is good teams have bad losses, and all of this happened tonight. Let’s not overreact.