Recap: Cavs 99, Pistons 92 (Or, The Time Everyone Realized It’s Just a Game)
2010-03-06
Overview: The Cavaliers came back from their biggest home deficit of the year to pull out a 99-92 win over the Detroit Pistons. However, the game was overshadowed by Rodney Stuckey mysteriously collapsing in the third quarter.
Special Note:
First of all, what happened to Rodney Stuckey was frightening and certainly made everybody realize that there are things more important than basketball. Best wishes for him and his family, and hopefully he has a full and speedy recovery. I will talk about basketball now, but Stuckey’s health is easily the most important story of the night. I trust sources better qualified than I to keep you updated on that situation.
Cavs-Related Bullets:
The Pistons got out to a big lead in the first half, but it was honestly more a product of the Pistons making shot after shot after shot than it was about anything the Cavs were doing wrong. Rip Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince were making every jumper they looked at, and there’s no real answer for that. In the NBA, you have to dare teams to beat you with deep two-point jumpers. In the first half, the Pistons did just that, but that doesn’t mean the Cavs were playing bad basketball. Kwame Brown even hit a 17-footer, for crying out loud.
Meanwhile, the Cavs were running a layup line, but couldn’t buy a jumper. In the second half, the jumpers starting missing for the Pistons and going in for the Cavs, and they took the game.
LeBron James. Wow. Completely unstoppable when he drove, changed the flow of the game with some absolutely huge three-pointers at the end of the third and beginning of the fourth, made some great passes in the first half, and had a beautiful spinning jumper for the dageer. I’d like to single out LeBron’s rebounding. In the past, I’ve called LeBron’s rebounding the most overrated part of his game, as he often collects far more easy rebounds than easy points or assists. In this game, LeBron made a real impact on the boards. It’s not just that LeBron finished with 13 rebounds; it’s that without a center, LeBron really had to fight for a lot of those boards, and the Cavs often needed them.
The less said about Hickson, Williams, and Parker, the better. Parker at least played good defense and didn’t hurt the offensive flow. Hickson had a setback game, which is explainable; Hickson’s a player who thrives on comfort, and the Cavs were uncomfortable for much of the game thanks to the Pistons’ early scoring. Mo still doesn’t look like himself. The sooner he gets back to playing the way he can, the better. Man, that shot of his has looked flat since he’s returned.
Varejao and West were at their absolute best. Great cuts, scrappy defense, always attacking, after every loose ball. They were the difference-makers off the bench.
This is why the Cavs got Jamison. With LeBron sitting, Jamison hit some outside shots and a tough floater to put the Cavs on top, and they held that lead throughout the fourth quarter. Not many other Cavs in the LeBron era capable of doing that.
Bullets of Randomness:
I don’t think I’ve ever been as impressed by an 0-5 performance as I was by Jonas Jerebko’s effort tonight. That guy was everywhere. He’s a keeper.
@Isaac what is it exactly that makes Kobe a top 10 player ever? He has never led the league in anything that did not involve chucking tons of ill-advised shots. He never shot even 47% from the field. He is a guard who never had a 2:1 assist:TO ratio. He was never in the top 2 in the NBA in advanced stats like win shares or PER – and PER does reward chucking, the only thing Kobe does better than anyone else. Then everybody brings up his clutch shooting and defense. Too bad that in stats from 2003-2008 he was… Read more »
I think the perceived difference between Lebron’s shooting on tough fadeaway 3’s versus spot up 3’s has a lot to do with expectations. When its wide open, anything less than a make is a serious dissapointment. This is unrealistic…the best shooters in the NBA probably dont shoot better than 50-55% on wide open 3’s. When Lebron misses a crazy 3 at the end of the shot clock or under tight coverage, we shrug it off as long as he comes close to making it because it was probably a broken play to begin with and it’s amazing that he even… Read more »
Isaac–I think its his fans’ irrationality that really gets to people, not so much their defensiveness. That’s where the irritation comes in.
@Tom Pestak: I love the Lebron and the cavs as much as the next fan, but I don’t get the general disdain for Kobe, except as a reaction to his weirdly defensive fans.. By any metric he’s one of the, what, top 10? 15? players ever. Just not as good as Lebron. But I don’t think people thinking he is incredible is by any means unreasonable. And I dont think calling him a superstar requires the little ” “. I dont know. I’m just always a little taken aback by how much dislike an otherwise well informed and reasonable commenter… Read more »
“This is a classic example of why everyone think’s Kobe is so incredible. Because he CAN make insane shots you remember those and block out of memory all the shots he misses.”
Once again Tom comes through with a clear, astute observation. Thank you for articulating exactly what I was thinking when reading these comments.
“I kind of think that the times Lebron misses wide open easy shots, you wince a lot more than when he misses a high degree of difficulty shot. Meanwhile, hitting those crazy “how the hell did he do that” shots sticks out in my mind more than just hitting a rhythm jumper.” This is a classic example of why everyone think’s Kobe is so incredible. Because he CAN make insane shots you remember those and block out of memory all the shots he misses. As far as LeBron’s shooting is concerned, it seems to me that there are times when… Read more »
@ Rich: I totally know what you mean, but I think this is one of those classic examples of where statistics could help confirm if it’s accurate. I kind of think that the times Lebron misses wide open easy shots, you wince a lot more than when he misses a high degree of difficulty shot. Meanwhile, hitting those crazy “how the hell did he do that” shots sticks out in my mind more than just hitting a rhythm jumper. So, it would be interesting to see if someone could compile data on this (maybe someone already does) and get a… Read more »
One of LeBron’s threes at the end of the third quarter was a catch and shoot three.
I don’t think LeBron is a very poor shooter on catch and shoots. The way the Cavs run the offense, he hardly ever has the opportunity. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw Lebron come off a screen, catch, and shoot in rhythm. Maybe it’s just perception, but I seem to recall him getting a lot more catch-and-shoot opportunities with the national team–both in the Olympics and in the FIBA Americas tourney. Either way, I think that, in rhythm, and LeBron is a heck of a shooter. Less likely to fade has a lot to do with… Read more »
Ok, tell me if anyone else can think of a player who shoots like this. LeBron James, when left wide open in a catch and shoot instance, seems to be a very poor shooter. HOwever, where he has improved, is his ability to hit crazy tough shots. The catch and shoot while falling out of bounds 3, that spin and fadeaway, the shots he hit against Orlando to seal the game…I mean all of them were extremely tough. I was thinking about it, and I can’t think of another player who I feel more confident (maybe other than Kobe) in… Read more »
I thought it was interesting and worth noting that on the “dagger” jumper that LeBron hit, Rip Hamilton was absolutely sitting on it. He barely moved on the fake towards the foul line and seemed to know that LeBron was absolutely spinning back. It’s certainly a move we’ve seen from LeBron before, and a nearly unstoppable one at that, but if that’s someone like Artest instead of Hamilton you have to feel like he’d bother that shot. It’d be nice to see LeBron actually take that initial shot (which surely would’ve been uncontested in this case) once in a while… Read more »
I was definitely impressed by Jerebko’s activity as well.
Ditto on Jerebko. The guy’s just a solid player.
It was really nice to see both teams huddle up together and pray. Sometimes bad things have to happen to show the great things about the NBA.