Cavs @ Blazers Preview Cleveland (0-2) @ Portland (0-1) Saturday, 10:00 pm ET Rose Garden, Portland Oregon TV: NBATV Previous Game Cavs 86 @ Suns 95 Blazers 92 @ Jazz 99 Head Coaches Paul Silas/Maurice Cheeks Probable Starters Zydrunas Ilgauskas/Dale Davis Carlos Boozer/Zach Randolph Darius Miles/Rasheed Wallace Ricky Davis/Bonzi Wells LeBron James/Damon Stoudamire Injury Lists Cleveland Cavaliers Dajuan Wagner Ira Newble Bruno Sundov Portland Blazers Travis Outlaw Keys To The Game Cleveland - Cleveland needs to drive to the basket and draw more fouls, they are getting out shot at the freethrow line by a ridiculous margin. Cleveland needs to make all of the hussle plays tonight as Portland is one of the more lazy teams in the league. Double team young beast Zach Randolph and force him to get the ball out of his hands and make the correct pass. The defense and shooting has been steady the first 2 games, but when LeBron is not in the lineup the team seems to lose pace of the game, steady play can help the Cavs earn their first win of the season. Portland - Maybe after that embarrassing loss to the Utah Jazz, the Blazers will show a little more heart and hussle. They must get the ball out of LeBron's hands with a double team at half court. Cleveland is showing that they are a very good rebounding team, the Blazers do have size, so boxing out will be important for the Blazers.
This is gonna be a tough game for both teams. If Cleveland wants to win, they're gonna have to do something with Randolf, and prevent him from taking control. I think the Cavs should take advantage of Dale Davis and give the ball to Big Z to get some points on the board... For some reason I can't chose a winner. ps, I hope LeBron does really well, I took a risk in putting him in my lineup for Virtual GM.
Poor little Damon Stoudamire...matching up with a 6'8 PG..Be good to see how Lebron does...and how Cheeks will rotate his players to guard Lebron..It will be pretty difficult considering the size of their point guards. With Cavs being on the road and Blazers looking to bounce back from their embarassing opening day defeat...I say Blazers by 7.
Cavs lose 104-85, the same problems that haunted Cleveland in the first 2 games did so once again today. Not attacking the basket what so ever. LeBron James had 8 points, 6 assists, and 4 rebounds while shooting 3-12 from the field. The Cavaliers make their home debut Wednesday against Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets. Box score coming soon.
New great player, same old team. Hopefully the Cavs can turn this around but it looks like they will be 0-4 after Mello and the Nuggets get through with them.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LeBron James doesn't expect to have too many nights like this. The Cleveland Cavaliers can only hope he's right. The celebrated rookie shot just 3-for-12 and scored eight points with six assists in Cleveland's 104-85 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. "Tonight was just one of those nights when nothing was really falling for me," said James, who had scored more than 20 points in each of his first two starts. "So you've just got to tough it out." Zach Randolph had 21 points and 13 rebounds and Jeff McInnis came off the bench to score 15 points in the home opener for the Blazers, who got off to a slow start but eventually led by as many as 25. At the start of the game, the Blazers put 5-foot-10 point guard Damon Stoudamire on the 6-8, 240-pound James, the NBA's top draft pick. Stoudamire pestered James, who had just two points and three assists in the first half. In the season-opener Wednesday against Sacramento, James scored 12 points in the first quarter and finished with 25. The following night in Phoenix, he had 21 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists. "LeBron just wasn't LeBron tonight. It just wasn't there," Cleveland coach Paul Silas said. "He was a little fatigued. I think three games in four nights is a little tough on anybody." Confident even after his first tough outing in the NBA, LeBron was asked whether he anticipated some off-nights: "I don't expect it," he said. James remains the team's top scorer, averaging 18 points and 7.3 rebounds. "He probably didn't have his greatest game against us, which is very fortunate, but you can see he has an overall knowledge of the game," Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks said.</div> Full Story Box Score
I have to give a lot of credit to the Blazers here, they played a zone with that huge aggressive lineup, that gave the Cavs no options inside at all. The Cavs did not drive to the basket, got outshot at the foul line heavily again, and turned the ball over way too much. The Cavs know their problems, it is time to start working on them. I will give some pub to DMiles as these last 2 games he has picked up his hussle (Thanks to Paul Silas)
