<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">CLEVELAND, Jan. 28 (Ticker) -- Dajuan Wagner and the Cleveland Cavaliers are rounding into shape. Wagner floated home the go-ahead basket with 7.4 seconds to go and Ira Newble had a block at the buzzer as the Cavaliers ran their winning streak to three games with a 94-93 triumph over the Miami Heat. Trailing, 93-92, with 35 seconds to go, the Cavaliers tried to work a pick-and-roll with Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who scored 30 points. When rookie LeBron James could not work free, the ball ended up in the hands of Wagner, who missed a 3-pointer. Kevin Ollie ran down the rebound and got the ball back to Wagner, who sliced through the lane and lofted the go-ahead basket. After a timeout, a bad pass by Miami's Lamar Odom resulted in rookie Dwyane Wade rushing a last-second shot under the hoop that Newble blocked from behind just before time expired.</div> More: http://www.nba.com/games/20040128/MIACLE/recap.html Box Score: http://www.nba.com/games/20040128/MIACLE/boxscore.html
there goes that streak i was hoping for. we should have won the game. i think they should play wang more, stick him to ilgauskas, is the only guy who can match in size, and he could make ilgauskas come away from the basket in defense. he just took advantage of the difference in size the whole night. and now new orleans -of course mashburn had to come back and plays great, no sign of rust. typical (although hypocrite that i am, i have him on my fantasy team and couldn't be happier). good news is that wade is back and he looked good. anyway, was a tight game. i'd take one of these over a blowout anytime.
Even though Miami lost this time, I still think they can make the playoffs as long as they get more than 35 wins at the end of the season.
You can't put Wang on Ilgauskas, Z would eat him alive on the post. It is not worth having a big guy jack 3's up and make 35% of them while he is getting owned down low.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">You can't put Wang on Ilgauskas, Z would eat him alive on the post. It is not worth having a big guy jack 3's up and make 35% of them while he is getting owned down low.</div> Yeah I was never a fan of him either. However, who do the Heat have to put on Z? Brian Grant an't play all game and Udonis Haslem is still a rookie.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting franchise3:</div><div class="quote_post">Yeah I was never a fan of him either. However, who do the Heat have to put on Z? Brian Grant an't play all game and Udonis Haslem is still a rookie.</div> Grant would have been the man. Though Z is much bigger than him, he can still hold his ground, even if he is nothing but a paycheck player. Thes eguys are acting like Wang is this new thing going on, but he has been in the league for a while and can't stick on a team because he can't play a lick of defense and all and is scared of the paint.
I unfortunately was not able to watch the game due to stupid blackout restrictions, but from looking at the box score it seems as though what really killed us was our free throw shooting and our performance in the paint, which was a result from not having Brian Grant. We shot just about equal from the field, but destroyed them from behind the arc shooting 7-10 as opposed to their 1-7, we shot only 60% from the free throw line as opposed to their 76%. If we had Grant playing, we would have easily killed or at least came out even with the Cavs on the boards, Malik Allen started in his place and played 28 and in that time only had 2 boards. If Brian Grant can dominate Yao Ming and Dikembe Mutombo inside the paint and on the boards, then he surely could have done the same against Z, especially after that huge win against the Rockets. He really played his heart out against the Rockets and it was probably his roughest game of the season, which in return flared up his leg problems .
This is sad for the Heat. Only one game behind the Knicks. Sixers are tied with Heat, but ahead of them, so Heat have to win fast.
We're playing the Clippers at home tomorrow night, and in our last meeting we beat them, despite not having Wade. If Brian Grant is playing I think it's pretty safe to say that we will walk out of this one with a win. Although, when we played them last time, Q was injured, so I think it can really go both ways.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">You can't put Wang on Ilgauskas, Z would eat him alive on the post. It is not worth having a big guy jack 3's up and make 35% of them while he is getting owned down low.</div> Z dominated anyway in Grant's absence. By the way, I don't think Grant is as effective against him as he is against Yao, mainly because Ilgauskas is not afraid of contact. The advantage of Zhizhi would be on the other end, where he could keep Ilgauskas out of the post and free the lanes. As it was, he was just camping there blocking the paths and grabbing rebounds. The verb "owned" and Ilgauskas should not be on the same sentence anyway. Never. <div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">Grant ... he is nothing but a paycheck player.</div> You may know a lot, but understand very little <div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">Thes eguys are acting like Wang is this new thing going on, but he has been in the league for a while and can't stick on a team because he can't play a lick of defense and all and is scared of the paint.</div> I do know Zhi Zhi, I follow the Mavs almost as much as I follow the Heat. I've also read many opinions of ppl (including Yao) who think he hasn't shown everything he's capable of. He's in better shape this year and so far has been stteping up. So excuse me if I think he was a better option than Malik Allen for substitute center. Cleveland fans: Just put the refs in your Christmas lists for not calling a foul of Wade's shot. Heat fans: Don't be too hard on him, but Eddie Jones just pulled a Mashburn. Accord, if the game is blacked out, an alternative is to listen to it on nba.com, on the inside ticket. It costs 15 bucks a month, but it's worth it. I use it on hotels, since I travel so much.
