November 1, 2006 – This game sees the Washington Wizards take on the Cleveland Cavaliers at the Quicken Loans Arena in Downtown Cleveland. This matchup sees the two teams who battled out a thrilling playoff series in the first Round of last year’s postseason. No doubt we will see a thriller again in this game, as the Cavaliers look to build upon last year’s achievments. [div=50%] <font color="#B94056"> <u>PG</u> – Eric Snow Eric Snow is a highly undervalued member of the Cleveland Cavaliers team. His career stats of 7.3ppg, 2.6rpg, 5.2apg to go along with 1.2spg are not what you’d expect from a starting guard in the League. Snow’s ability, however, comes in his ability to thwart the threat of the opposing team’s guards and usually manages to contain his defensive assignment. Expect him to do the same again in this game. <u>SG</u> – Larry Hughes He is the biggest question mark amongst the Cavaliers and with potentially the second greatest impact upon any given game. Larry Hughes, when healthy, is an excellent basketball player on both sides of the ball. Hopefully this season will be the start of a new era for the guard, one in which he stays healthy and provides good support for King James. Hopefully. As this is the first game of the season, he should be healthy, thus we should expect to see decent production from him. <u>SF</u> – LeBron James Simply put, LeBron James is amongst the premier basketball players in the world today, if not the best. There is very little that he can’t do, and night in night out he carries not only his Cavalier team-mates on his back, but the entire hopes of the city itself. Expect him to be back with a bang this season, and he should have improved on aspect of his game during the offseason. His career stats against the Wizards, including last season’s playoffs, are 29.5ppg, 7.2rpg and 6.1apg. Look for him to improve upon that this season. <u>PF</u> – Drew Gooden A long drawn out contract saga finally saw the return of Drew Gooden to Cleveland this past offseason. He is a player who practically lives on the glass, who will grab rebounds no matter who he is matched up with. He is not particularly known for his offensive production, though he averaged 10.7ppg last season and was 22nd in the League for double-doubles, with 23, one shy of Shaquille O’Neal. Expect a double-double, or near enough, in this game. . <u>C</u> – Zydrunas Ilgauskas Ilguaskas is the sole survivor of the squad (other than Ira Newble who was on the IR) that played in Cleveland when LeBron James rolled in, and it’s no surprise why this is. He is an all-star Center, who can help his team in multiple ways, whether it be grabbing boards, sinking free throws, hitting mid range jumpers or even swatting shots. He averaged 15.6ppgg last season and was 34th in the League with 18 double-doubles. <u>Cavaliers’ Keys to winning the game</u> <ul> [*]Contain Gilbert Arenas. He is the most important player for the Wizards, and if he is contained, it will be difficult for the Wizards to find another way to get the required points. [*]Use Anderson Varejao for multiple bursts of around 8 minutes. The Cavaliers usually win when Varejao plays more than 20 minutes, and it will be important for ‘Wild Thing’ to play as much as possible in his contract year. His hustle will allow him to hurt the Wizards anywhere on the court and, in sharp bursts, should be very effective. [*]Make simple shots for the first part of the game. On problem with the Cavaliers is that they often take shots too quickly early in the game. They should try to get easy basketbs early on, in order to establish an early lead and get into their rhythm. [/list] </font> [/div] <font color="#006A8F"> <u>PG</u> – Gilbert Arenas Arenas is an immensely talented player, who was supposed to receive ‘0’ minutes in college, hence his number in the NBA. His talents carried the Wizards to a 6 game series loss with the Cavaliers in the playoffs, and no doubt will lead to a close game this time around as well. As a scoring guard, who can sink clutch shots from virtually anywhere on the game, expect him to come up big if it’s a close game, but watch to see how he fares with Eric Snow on his case. <u>SG</u> – DeShawn Stevenson People have often talked about Stevenson, saying that he is due a breakout season that would see him average considerably more points, but Washington is not going to be the place for this to happen. Whilst he will be able to contribute, he will be too far down the pecking order for scoring to average too many points. He is an athletic scorer, but his defense is weak. Stevenson played all his games, and started, for the Magic last season, whilst averaging 11 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists per game. Expect for his numbers to be less than this if Larry Hughes is on form. <u>SF</u> – Caron Butler Butler is a very gifted player who could become an All-Star during his career. In the 2002/03 season, he led all rookies in scoring, and averaged 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 steals to go along with this. He has skills on both sides of the court, and could come up with a key steal on one end, followed by a stylish dunk or a key offensive manoeuvre. Despite these skills, he should have problems in this game, as he could be matched up with LeBron James. <u>PF</u> – Antawn Jamison Jamison is a talented low-post scorer, and has a variety of quick and skilful moves that allow him to get the upper hand on many of his opponents. He is yet to prove himself as a big game player, though his shooting range, defense, strength and work rate ensure that it will not be too long before he begins to compete in key games and situations. It will be an interesting matchup with Drew Gooden, but look for Jamison, who averaged 20.5ppg last season, to come out on top. <u>C</u> –Etan Thomas Thomas was narrowly chosen by Coach Jordan to start over Brendan Haywood. Thomas has a lot of energy that should see him be tough for Ilgauskas to handle. Being 6’10, he is a decent shot blocker and his energy allows him to grab lots of rebounds, on offense and on defense. When Brendan Haywood gets on the court, expect to see him swat a few shots and grab some rebounds, creating momentum for the Wizards. Nevertheless, I don’t expect Thomas will be as productive as Ilgauskas. <u>Wizards’ Keys to winning the game</u> <ul> [*]Contain LeBron James. If LeBron scores a lot of points then, invariably, the Cavaliers will win. If he is shut down, the Cavaliers have to look to other players to come up big, which might not be possible. [*]Force the Cavaliers to hit jumpshots from beyond. Recently this has been a major flaw in the Cavaliers’ offense but, if Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones are on form, they can be lethal. [*]Ensure that Gilbert Arenas can get into his rhythm. They need to somehow allow Arenas to get into his rhythm, unimpeded by Eric Snow. If Arenas gets momentum going, he build up points quickly, possibly into an unassailable lead. [/list] </font> <u>Prediction</u> The Cavaliers are 7-9 against the Wizards since LeBron James entered the League with a combined score of 1709-1725. However, they won their playoff series 4-2 and, with essentially the same team, they know each other’s game well and should get off to a flying start. Whilst Gilbert Arenas and co will do all they can to win and take the game to the wire, I see the Cavs taking the game in a similar way to how they took many games in the playoff series – only just. <font color="#006A8F">94</font>-<font color="#B94056">98</font>
Good preview, I'm not sure who's gonna be starting at the center spot for the Wizards though. Eddie Jordan said he would make his decision soon enough and was leaning towards Etan because of his performance on Tuesday.
Lol, I was just about to post mine with Brendan Haywood as the starting C, because I just guessed (50/50 chance). Then I saw yours and thought that you, as a Wizards fan, may actually know who is going to start, so I just replaced Haywood with Thomas. Thanks for the feedback.
I'll be really lookin forward to this matchup...both Arenas and James are exciting to watch...nice preview.
Stevenson's defense is not weak, as you stated. If anything it's the biggest strength to his game. Good preview non the less...
by weak I meant a spot for improvement, as opposed to it being awful. Re-reading it, I see that I gave completely the wrong impression, so I apologise for giving the wrong impression. I was using the scouting reports from sportsnet.ca to help me with the players that I was not too familiar with. I'll keep my eye out and try to use multiple sources in future. If anyone knows of any good sites where they give some pros and cons of each player, I'd be very grateful for a link.
<div class="quote_poster">chingy0007 Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">by weak I meant a spot for improvement, as opposed to it being awful. </div> Actually, it is what he has been known for the last several seasons he has played in the league. If anything his strength is defense and his weakness is his shooting from the arc.
A very good result for the Cavs, as they managed to grab rebounds, outrebounding the Wizards 50-33 and getting Larry Hughes into form: 27 points off 11-15 shooting (3-4 downtown), 9 rebounds and 5 assists combined with LeBron's 25-10-5 creates a hughe impact on any game, and if they can keep this up whilst improving some of the other aspects of the game; the sky is the limit. San Antonio Spurs on the road next.
This was the best that I've seen Larry Hughes since his breakout season a year ago. Is he back for good, or is he pulling the wool over our eyes? I guess only time will tell, but it seems like his real problems last season were all in his head, and now his head is clear. It's too bad that the Cavalier's backcourt is so deep that Shannon Brown will struggle to get playing time though. I understand that tonight's game was close throughout, but they need to have more confidence in Brown. The Lakers, for example, threw Jordan Farmar right into the fire in their game against the Suns, and Farmar's nowhere near Brown's talent level. Brown can be an instant contributer, but first you've got to give him minutes.
Yeah i heard shannon bronw is not even supposed to be in mike brown's rotation. Although knowing hughes he'll likely miss a few game and brown will get some time.
I was dissapointed that Scott Pollard didn't get any time either. Is it true that Areans spent the whole night in the hotel room dribbling a ball and only got 1 hour of sleep, recieving numerous complaints from his team mates throughout the night?
