Cleveland @ Seattle Tonight Details: <font size="1">by Sir Dez/KJ</font> Who: (19-16) vs (11-26) Where: Key Arena When: Tues, Jan 13th, 7pm TV: KONG Projected Lineups: PG: Brent Barry/Antonio Daniels/Luke Ridnour SG: Ray Allen/Ronald Murray/Richie Frahm SF: Rashard Lewis/Vladimir Radmanovic PF: Vladimir Radmanovic/Reggie Evans/Vitaly Potapenko C: Calvin Booth/Jerome James/Vitaly Potapenko Coached by Nate McMillan PG: Kevin Ollie/JR Bremer/Dajuan Wagner SG: LeBron James/JR Bremer/Jason Kapono SF: Eric Williams/Darius Miles/ PF: Carlos Boozer/Tony Battie C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas/DeSagana Diop *With Kedrick Brown doubtful, the shooting guard position could be filled by a number of candidates, depending on match-ups. Coached by Paul Silas Injury List: Nick Collison: shoulder, season. Ansu Sesay: left ring finger sprain, on IL. Cavalier Injury List Bruno Sundov: right achilles tendon, on IL. Ira Newble: bruised right quadricep, on IL. Kedrick Brown: Doubtful. Analysis: These two come into this one with contrasting fortunes. The Cavaliers have endured a torrid fortnight of late, and come in on the back of a loss to the Lakers, who were missing Shaquille O'Neal, Karl Malone and lost Kobe Bryant early. The Sonics on the other hand come in after going 7-3 over their last 10 games, putting themselves deep into contention for a playoff spot and having Ray Allen named Western Conference Player of the Week. Cleveland need this one badly, but injuries to Ira Newble and the likely loss of Kedrick Brown leave them short of options to cover Ray Allen and Rashard Lewis, who both come in on the back of good form. On the other hand, rookie phenom LeBron James is due a big game, do the Sonics have the tools to stop him? Long Term Security: Kevin Ollie came to Seattle in the gary Payton/Ray Allen deal, and immediately impressed. A close friend of Ray Allen out of Connecticut, Ollie was a true journeyman who had played on numerous teams but never been offered the security of a multi year deal. Enter Cleveland, who signed him to a 5 year deal after being impressed by his play in Seattle after the trade. Seattle had a 3 year offer turned down. Fast Fact: Seattle have won 20 of the last 23 games against Cleveland at Key Arena, but Cleveland won this fixture last season. [quoteright]"He's like Michael Jordan right now. ... He's got everybody excited." Fellow High School to NBA player Rashard Lewis on the hype surrounding LeBron James[/QUOTERIGHT] Key Factors: - The Sonics need to feed the ball to Rashard Lewis early, and get him into the game. Lewis is coming off strong performances against Memphis and Golden State, and with the Cavs deprived of their best match-up for Lewis in Ira Newble, getting Lewis to a hot start could end up too much for Cleveland to handle. - Double Ilguaskas and Boozer as a soon as they get it inside. Seattle don't have the interior defenders to deal with these two guys downlow; they need to get the ball out of their hands, particularly Ilgauskas, straight away and make Cleveland shoot the basketball from the perimeter. - Crash the boards. The Cavs are statistically the top rebounding team in the league, while Seattle are sitting on the bottom end of the scale. Reggie Evans grabbed 10 rebounds in the first period and 17 overall in Cleveland last year, and the Sonics will need him, Jerome James, Calvin Booth and Rashard Lewis primarily to all rebound the basketball and box out. By King James: I see a big trouble for the Cavaliers in this game. The Cavaliers always give up open looks on the perimeter, and that will play right into Seattle's favor. Without Brown, Wagner will be forced to have his best game in more than a year, and his shot has been terrible thus far. Williams has been lost and is looking for his game. Kapono can't find minutes because of his terrible defense. Where will the scoring come from? For the cavs to contend with anyone, James, Ilgauskas, Boozer, anmd Williams must all do above their averages for things to be even close. Seattle takes this by 20, though they don't have one of the better defenses in the league, they move the ball very well and shoot the ball amazing. Key Matchup: Rashard Lewis vs Eric Williams With LeBron James and Ray Allen out on court, two of the NBA's most marketable players are in town. However, it could be the battle of the small forwards that determines this one. Without Newble, Eric Williams is the Cavalier's best perimeter defender, and he has the size to match up on Lewis. However Lewis has an advantage in terms of speed and athleticism, and will look to penetrate and get to the basket or pull up for midrange jumpers all night on Williams. At the other end, Lewis is not a great defender, and Williams can be an underrated shooter/slasher. Hs shot has been off recently, but if he can have a good night offensively then he may chip into Lewis' confidence, and also take the load of LeBron and Ilgauskas. X-Factors: Reggie Evans - the Sonics' best rebounder against the league's best rebounding team. Evans will be used off the bench primarily to recound, but Seattle will also need his hustle and scrappy defense to match that of Carlos Boozer. Tony Battie - went from an overrated draft pick to a now underrated centre, Battie has provided some toughness and leadership to the Cavs team lacking both before his arrival. Battie will again be important off the bench in terms of crashing the boards and protecting the Cleveland basket. <font size="1">Player photos and logo images courtesy of NBA.com </font>
I say if the Cavaliers can contain Ray Allen from having one of those if I get the ball somethings going to happen game and play good basketball going on runs and stuff they'll pull of the win. If they can't they get the L. Sonics by 5.
I give the Cavs no shot in hell at winning this one. After successfully stringing together 3 straight games of utter patheticness, I look for this to be a game that isn't even that close Sonics by 15.
its going to be a good game. altho cavs will still lose, but only buy a single diget. looks like wagner is taking the snaps tonight at the 2. lets see how he does.
Cavs up 58/51 @ the half The Cavs had just 2 turnovers in the half, 2 they did not get until the final minute of the 2nd quarter. Seattle on the other hand has 11 turnovers. Seattle is 9/16 from the 3 point line, unreal shooting. James has 16, 4, and 3 Boozer has 11 and only one rebound Z has 6 and 7 Can this pace be kept up in the 2nd half? Stay tuned.
Ray Allen will spark up here in the third and make a 10-0 rally to start the 4th with an under confident Cav team.
I can't see the game, whats going on? Boozer only one board through 3? Miles with a doube figure night? Sonics with almost 30 3 point attempts? Sounds like an odd game. Cavs playing unexpecetedly well.
Cavs win 104/96 James was the man, scoring 27 points, grabbing 9 boards, and dishing out 9 assists, got 2 steals as well. Miles was HUGE off the bench going for 12, 5, and 2, while blocking 3 shots and stealing the ball once. Miles had many super highlight dunk feeds from James that made that Seattle crowd respond with many oo's and ahh's. Boozer had 11, 1, and 1...very odd. Wagner has 7 points, 7 boards, 4 assists, 2 steals, and a block. Oh, and he made a huge 3 to just about put the game away. The Sonics shot 14-37 from deep and had 18 turnovers to Cleveland's 9. Full story and box score coming soon.
free throw shooting and lack of turnovers won us the game. good to see wagner hit his 1st three pointer during crunch time. it was huge. tonight i jumped up and down like a school girl during each of LeBrons and Darius' dunks tonight. hopefully this style of play will carry on through out the season but i highly doubt it.
James Takes Over 4th <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post"> LeBron James scored nine of his 27 points in the fourth quarter, sparking a key burst that led the Cleveland Cavaliers to a 104-96 win over the Seattle SuperSonics on Tuesday night. James, making his first appearance in Seattle, scored six points during a 10-0 run midway through the fourth quarter, finishing it with a breakaway dunk to give Cleveland a 94-83 lead. Dajuan Wagner added a 3-pointer to make it 99-86 with 3:57 to play before the Sonics rallied with a 7-0 run. James answered with a driving basket as Cleveland snapped a three-game losing streak and won on the road for only the third time in 21 games. The Sonics have lost two straight after winning eight of 10.</div> Full Story Box Score
my goodness what an effort tonight. now if we could just get the team to give effort like that everynight we'd be alot more competative night in and night out. nice win.
Cavs defense just stopped them! They just got pissed and were everywhere!!! D Miles looked amazing out there! If he only played like that 50% of the time! His defense was nice! That is a long dude! He gets up and down the court in seconds & his wingspan is huge! :thumbsup: quick trade him now for something good
Is there a more frustrating player in the NBA than Miles? Everytime that I get fed up and demand that he be traded, he comes out and has an excellent all around game. He can be a 12, 5, and 3 guy every night off the bench. However, he only plays this way about once every 2 weeks.
I can't figure this team out, one night they will look like they are playing for the title, the next they look like they never played the game of basketball. Silas needs to be preaching Consistancy. Weather good or bad so I don't have these emotional break downs : :mrgreen:
I think it comes down to D Miles was getting some Press for that stupid movie he did.. he knew the cameras were on him in the last few days.. sooo he got motivated
