The Sports Guru

After 30 minutes of a care-free attitude towards Saturday Night’s game against the Boston Celtics, the Cavaliers decided that they had seen enough from a bunch of guys that had no business beating them by 25 at the Q. So Seize The Day they did, coming all the way back and holding on for a 94-93 win. There is a definite trend starting for the Cavs, and one I hope guys a lot smarter than me are paying attention to. LeBron James was scoreless through the first 19 minutes Saturday Night, and the Cavs trailed by 20. More troubling than the lack of points was the lack of energy or hustle out of LeBron for the 2nd Saturday in a row. LeBron was less than active in a loss in Charlotte last Saturday, a performance that torqued me alot more than his supposed “quitting” on Tuesday night. It was more of the same as the Cavaliers hoisted jump shot after jump shot, and the Celtics drove to the rack. The result was a 15 point deficit and 10 point first quarter….AT HOME no less. Twice LeBron James has been a bit lethargic in a game, and twice the Cavs were less than effective on the offensive end.

As someone once said, “The best defense is a good offense”, and when the Cavs aren’t playing well offensively, they play with no energy on defense. It was becoming the same old, same old until the Cavs fell down a game high 25, at 70-45 with 5:01 to go in the 3rd quarter. The Cavs were able to shave 9 points off the lead in the final 5 minutes, and trailed by 16 heading into the 4th. Incredibly it wouldn’t be the biggest 4th quarter comeback for the Cavs, who came from 19 behind 2 years ago against the Suns, but the Cavs won that game in OT. The Cavs actually fell behind by 19, as the Celtics scored the first 3 points of the 4th Quarter, and didn’t score a point until a Sasha Pavlovic three with 10:33 to go. That trumps the comeback over the Suns if you ask me…

And that leads me to Sasha, who’s defensive woes have kept him firmly planted on Mike Brown’s bench. Sasha has admitted in the past that his best defense is his offense, meaing he’ll score more than the guy he guards so all is well. That doesn’t sit well with Brown, and Sasha’s playing time has shown that. During the off-season, Pavs re-dedicated himself to his defense, I’m sure an action that had nothing to do with his pending free-agency. “I worked hard this summer on defense; on my legs and I think I’m going to show that to everybody with what I can do on the floor. So if I play good defense, I think I’m going to be on the floor.” Brilliant. And his offense has also gotten better, and the past two games Sasha has been a big part of W’s. Sasha was second to LeBron in scoring last nght, scoring 14 points, 8 in the fourth quarter. LeBron is impressed, “I battle Sasha every day in practice. We guard each other and I’ve always said that Sasha is probably one of the best that I’ve guarded one on one. Once he learns how to completely play the game of basketball from a team aspect, he’s going to be very good and he showcased that early….We’ve got some good one on one players on the team, but he’s by far one of the best”.

The Cavs actually came back a bit too quickly, leading by as many as 4 with 2:24 to go. So do the math, the Cavs went from 19 down to 4 up in just over 8 minutes, outscoring the Celtics 30-7 during that time. The achilles heel of the Cavs that showed it’s ugly head as the team once again failed from the charity stripe, going 2-6 down the stretch.

Things got very interesting after James tried to intentionally miss a free throw with 1.2 seconds to go. He missed the backboard, a free throw violation, and gave the Celtics one last chance that Paul Pierce nearly turned into a miracle win as his 33 foot fall away three rattled in and out to save the Cavs victory. In the end, a Cavs win, but a bit troubling that LeBron looked disinterested in the first half. Let’s hope his 25 point second half is more indicative to the way he is going to play than his 14 point first half.

CAVALIERS NOTES:
• The Cavaliers rallied from 25 points down with 5:02 remaining in the third quarter to post their sixth straight win over Boston. Cleveland trailed by 16 points entering the fourth quarter, making it the second largest comeback after three quarters in team history (19 points down entering the fourth quarter against Phoenix on Nov. 10, 2004). The Cavaliers outscored Boston 34-17 in the fourth quarter and 60-45 in the second half.

• LeBron James scored 25 of his season-high 38 points after halftime including 12 in the fourth quarter.

• LeBron James’ 19 second half free-throw attempts is a team record for free throw attempts in a half. He held the record with 18 attempted at Miami on March 12, 2006 in the second half.

• Sasha Pavlovic posted 14 points, three rebounds and four assists in 28 minutes off the bench. Over his last two games, he is averaging 15.0 points, 4.5 rebounds, 3.0 assists.

• Damon Jones scored six points on 2-2 from three-point range, grabbed two rebounds and dished out four assists in the second half alone.

• Anderson Varejao scored nine points and added 10 rebounds in 30 minutes.

Technorati Tags: Cavs, Celtics, LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Cavaliers