Recap: Cavs 111, Nets 92 (Or, Predictability Can Be Fun)
2010-03-03
Overview: After crushing the Nets in the first quarter thanks to a fast-paced attack, the Cavs cruised to a 111-92 victory on Wednesday night. LeBron James led the way with 26 points and 14 assists. JJ Hickson added 20 points and 13 rebounds.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
Not that this game deserves it, but let’s drop into a little theory:
Cavs Option 1: Give LeBron the ball at the top of the key in transition, have shooters on the perimeter, and have guys cutting on the weak side for layups. LeBron will either drive, pass, or keep the defense honest with a jumper. This is easily the Cavs’ best offensive option, but some teams are able to stop it. This means the Cavs have to mix the offense up.
Cavs Option 2: Have Mo Williams initiate the offense. He can run pick-and-roll, drive, find someone cutting, or pull up for a jumper. Not as effective as LeBron, but a good way to keep the defense guessing.
Cavs Option 3 (2 some nights): Give Shaq the ball in the post, run cutters off of him. If he’s single-covered, let him try to score in the post.
Options 2 and 3 are less effective than option 1, but good defenses are too good to get beaten without any offensive variety. The Nets defense is not a good defense. They have no way to stop LeBron in transition or driving to the rim. Doing anything else would only slow down the Cavalier offense.
Mo picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter. Delonte and Boobie (congratulations to the latter) were both inactive, so LeBron went to the point guard spot. The other players on the floor were Anthony Parker, Antawn Jamison, J.J. Hickson, and Jamario Moon. Over the next 13 minutes, the Cavs scored 35 points. During that time, the Cavs had 12 layups and dunks.
LeBron running the point flanked by athletes in a full-court game was absolutely frightening. LeBron was toying with the Nets, flying for dunks, hitting guys with no-look lasers for their own dunks from everywhere on the floor, and occasionally hitting a jumper just to rub it in. Absolute scorched-earth dominance. This is what the Showtime Lakers must have looked like against real teams.
10 assists in the first half for LeBron. Over 20 fast-break points in the first half. That was the stretch that decided the game; the rest was just gravy. Here are some other notes:
-The best news of the night may have been JJ Hickson. He was cutting everywhere, dunking everything, grabbing offensive boards, and generally lived in the paint. Against bad defensive teams, moving the ball and going at the rim will work. JJ was always moving, and the Cavs made sure to find him over and over. His defense on Brook Lopez was even better, with Brook starting the game off going 3-12 from the field. Hicksomania has come to New Jersey.
-I only have a few pieces of bad news. There weren’t many boneheaded plays during that first half, but almost all of them seemed to be made by JaMario Moon. He looked great finishing on the break, but he made me cringe a few times. I wonder if inconsistent minutes have him back to his anxious ways.
-Mo’s gotta realize that his pull-up from midrange isn’t always the best shot. The Nets were giving up layups like they were getting frequent flyer minutes for it, but Mo still seemed eager to pull up for his jumper. Mo finished 1-6 from midrange, and ended a lot of possessions earlier than they needed to end.
-Jamison was also trigger-happy. I realize there were 36 minutes of garbage time in this game, but he was way too quick to shoot the jumper. Jamison led the team in field goal attempts with 23, but only had 19 points to show for it. He still seems to be too willing to pull the trigger on those pick-and-pops, especially on deep twos. Also, it’s going to take me a while to get used to the way he splays out his legs on his release. It always looks like he’s rushing.
-Seriously, that Andy cut from out of bounds near the end of the first half was an absolute thing of beauty.
That’s all for tonight, campers. Pretty game against a very bad team. We’ll see if small-ball keeps looking so good on Friday. Until tomorrow, everyone.
OK, lets just compare the two in the last 6 games (throwing out that Charlotte game because its obviously an outlier): Jamison: (45-88) 51% FG, 17.3 pts, 8.2 rebs in 35 mpg Hickson: (23-34) 67.6% FG, 7.5 pts, 5 rebs in 16.5 mpg Now, if we take out Jamison’s three point shooting (5-18… something he might need to curtail a bit), then his shooting % is 57%. The thing is, do we attribute JJ’s last two games to a combination of increased PT and terrible opponents? Or are we supposed to believe he really is making progress? Id like to… Read more »
@ Colin and Rich Colin, I did compare the two. Jamison’s TS% is -50 as a Cav, and even if you knock out the 0-12 game, it’s still pretty ugly, compared to J.J.’s over 58%. The jump shot thing is a little flawed, because J.J. doesn’t take many at all. If he was shooting 3 per game at 18%, then I’d be pissed, but he can go games with an attempt from midrange. The important thing is that he’s doing what he’s good at and that’s cutting and finishing. Again, just because Jamison is shooting those outside shots doesn’t make… Read more »
Bradley, I call foul on your statement that JJ is a better rebounder. Jamison has been consistent on the boards night in and night out. When JJ was playing his natural position, the 4, his rebounding numbers were fairly poor. And again, Jamison isn’t a good defender, but we have to keep reminding ourselves of the terrible defensive slumps Hickson can suffer. Reggie. Evans. Let’s remember, we are seeing Hickson w/o Shaq or Z playing the middle..can he look like this on a consistent basis when they are playing again? I say no. And like other people have said, Jamison… Read more »
i wonder if mo pulling up for jumpers was prompted by a desire to avoid contact with the bad shoulder.
That’s what seems to be the problem. You can’t just look at Jamison. You have to look at Jamison IN COMPARISON to JJ. He provides everything that JJ does (outside of the dunks… except for when he plays against David West), as well as a decent outside game.
@Brad:
Jamison’s shooting hasn’t been as good as advertised, but JJ has hit like 3-4 shots outside from 15 ft. and out the entire season. Jamison’s bad is still better than JJ.
I’ve followed Hicksomania for a while now. He’s gone from being called:
The next Jason Maxielle
The next Cedric Ceballas
The next James Worthy
The next Shawn Kemp (my contribution)
Even if we’re getting ahead of ourselves, it’s pretty obvious that we can all see that his ceiling is high.
I predict in 2 years his PER will be higher than Amare Stoudemire’s.
@Bradley – In the beginning of the season I thought he had a worse problem. He would show the ball as he went up for a dunk and just hold it out there for anyone to block. He doesn’t do that anymore. I’ve actually been very impressed with some of his tough finishes in traffic. As far as the hands go, I agree that he has questionable hands. Honestly, to me he seems like a teenager still growing into his body. He runs kinda awkwardly, he jumps EXTREMELY awkwardly (I’ve never seen someone jump off two feet even with a… Read more »
@ Rich, Colin, and Tom Rich, Like Colin pointed out, J.J. gets 80% of his shots assisted. But that’s okay with me when he’s playing with LeBron because he’s great at finishing. Big men cutting is what you need with LeBron more than anything. But Jamison is getting 75% of his shots assisted, which is 5% less than J.J. but still a high number. So, I think Jamison has more tricks than J.J., but ultimately they’re both catching the ball from LeBron or Mo. Jamison’s ability to create his own offense is a little bit overstated. I know nobody considers… Read more »
@Tom:
I don’t think anyone was saying JJ is only valuable if he can create on his own (totally agree with everything you said. I feel the same way). I think the argument is Jamison is a much better option at the 4 than JJ.
Why is JJ only valuable if he has isolation moves? That makes no sense to me, especially on this Cavs team with LeBron, Jamison, Shaq, and Mo who can all score by themselves. The more cutting, crashing the glass, and high percentage shots in the low post the better. And I disagree that anything will change in the playoffs. If JJ is rolling to the hoop hard after setting a screen for LeBron, teams still have to decide if they are going to pay attention to him or not. What facet of his game goes away against a good defense?… Read more »
Why is there all this concern about what will happen in the playoffs? 1. You don’t know who the Cavs will play. 2. You don’t know if all the Cavs will be healthy, and if not, who will not be able to play. Brian Winhurst made a good point about 6 weeks ago – many guys that play well during the season get lost in the playoffs – he noted last years Lakers bench. Additionally, he noted that even teams that win the championship often only have 3 or 4 guy that play well. This year Mike Brown has an… Read more »
@Rich:
http://hoopdata.com/
One of the best sites out there.
Again, JJ has does a TON of good things for this team. It’s fantastic to have a guy who can play off the ball and finish like that at the rim. However, my arguement wasn’t that JJ doesn’t serve his purpose, my arguement was to Bradley who was making a case that JJ had been outplaying Jamison on a nightly basis, and between the two, I’d rather have Jamison.
Thanks for getting the number colin (side note, can someone give me a site where Ic an easily find numbers like that? I have to rely on others currently). Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I don’t like JJ or that he isn’t a good player who has the potential to be great. But, let’s be honest, he simply cannot create his own offense at this current point. Now, does that mean he is useless offensively? Of course not. Moving w/o the ball is one of the very best ways to score and it’s a lost art. JJ does… Read more »
Colin Zvosec ,
Since other people are doing all the work for JJ, isn’t there someone on the bench that we can play instead that can knock down some of those shots over 10 feet?
Just a few numbers on JJ: -69.2% shooting at the rim… 79.2% of those baskets assisted (last year, only 71.8% of his baskets at the rim were assisted) -52.5% shooting <10 feet… 90.5% of those baskets assisted (last year, only 76.9% of his baskets <10 ft. were assisted) -16% shooting from 10-15 feet (yikes!) -27% shooting from 16-23 feet -80.3% of ALL his field goals have been assisted Point of the stats: JJ still relies heavily on others to get him good looks. If he gets the ball at the rim, he is going to finish… but he can't get… Read more »
Didn’t remove anything. I can still see your original comment. Did you post a second? Lots of quirks in the auto-comment remove as well. ___________________ First off, you make better points then any of the NE Ohio newpapers do. What I wrote after reading the comments and seeing comments on other NE Ohio blogs is that the fans do not know much about basketball. everything is treated as a fantasy league type thing where scoring is all that matters. I think that maybe if the Cavs had a history of winning, or there was a major college team in Cleveland,… Read more »
Apparently you weren’t a Cavs fan last year, Rich.
@Raymond. The numbers speak for themselves on JJs outside shot. SOmething like 20% this year from 10 feet and beyond.
Didn’t remove anything. I can still see your original comment. Did you post a second? Lots of quirks in the auto-comment remove as well.
Editor;
Don’t like having my comments removed.
Best of luck.
It’s a pity because I thought you brought up some good points in the article.
Untill JJ can score a bucket on his own, then I really don’t want to hear the comparisons. give me one move, just one. One jumpshot, anything. Something that tells me JJ Hickson can play w/o LeBron james on the court to set him up for dunks the entire game. ______________ Have you been watching the past few games? JJ has created his shots a number of times and hit from 10-12 feet out. No doubt in my mind that the coaches kept a short leash on him earlier in the year and now he’s being allowed to shoot. If… Read more »
I completely agree with Rich.
Isn’t this the only game one can say Hickson has outplayed Jamison, not counting Jamison’s very first game? I mean, this is good JJ Hickson. I saw god awful JJ Hickson in Toronto when he got absolutely abused by the great Reggie Evans for an entire quarter. Jamison, however, played very well in that game. Untill JJ can score a bucket on his own, then I really don’t want to hear the comparisons. give me one move, just one. One jumpshot, anything. Something that tells me JJ Hickson can play w/o LeBron james on the court to set him up… Read more »
This is what the Showtime Lakers must have looked like against real teams. __________________ YES! I saw the entire showtime Lakers living in LA. It took them a while to hit stride, as there were a championship team before they added Byron Scott (for Norm Nixon) and James Worthy in. And for the past 2 years the Cavs are reminding me more and more of the showtime Lakers. If it would not wear him out, it would be wonderful to see LeBron at the point. But the fact is that Earvin didn’t really play defense, and that kept him sharp.… Read more »
Fair enough. Like, I said about the Red Sea. If what you say is right, then the Red Sea Effect is in effect.
Bradley,
I disagree. I think offensively, having J.J. on the court with Jamison or Varejao on the court with Jamison is providing for an awesome “small” lineup that is keep the defenders confused. There is just so much speed going on around that basket when you have Jamison+J.J./Varejao that it’s leading to either layups or putbacks. Check the paint scoring, the Cavs are beasting right now with Jamison.
Hickson, except for the Toronto game, has just been punching people in the face. He’s been great and that’s promising for future J.J. In a few of those games, like this one, J.J. has outplayed Jamison pretty well. Jamison shooting jumpers is giving me an aneurism. Unless Jamison is opening up the offense like the Red Sea, Hickson is outballing him and I’m gonna hate him getting minute-slashed. I at least want to see Jamison consistently outplay Hickson before I can warm up to this trade at all. Sorry to berate you with Hickson/anti-Jamison propaganda, Rich.
It’s hard to get much from a game like this. Only thing is I wish Powe would have played more. I understand getting him involved slowly, but I thought with all the garbage time available he would have gotten more than 10 minutes. Not sure if the knees still sore or what, but with Shaq and Big Z out, I didn’t expect him to start but to get more minutes than this. He can be a real diffrence maker in the playoffs providing some toughness that Andy and JJ don’t exhibit as much. But the only way to get him… Read more »