Preview Details: 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/LeBron James/JR Bremer SG: LeBron James/Dajuan Wagner/JR Bremer SF: Eric Williams/Darius Miles/Jason Kapono PF: Carlos Boozer/Tony Battie C: Zydrunas Ilgauskas/Tony Battie/DeSagana Diop 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>
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Rudeezy:</div><div class="quote_post">Dez, is this in Seatle or Clev? If its in Seatle, Sonics in double digits easily.</div> "vs." means a home game Sonics by 20.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting anadagirlballer4strt:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Seattle will win this 1...but still...it'll b a tougher game then you guys all think?</div> The Cavaliers have played terrible this week, I am talking Hawks level.
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.
Cavs up by 7 at the half, 58-51. Very offensive minded game, waiting for the Seattle run and Cleveland slump but it hasn't come yet. LeBron with 16, Ray with 14. Calvin Booth with 7 first half blocks.
Seattle 96 Cleveland 104 Cavs too good down the stretch in this one. After a torrid two weeks, they came up big with a 16-4 run in the last quarter to take a 104-96 win. LeBron had his big game with 27, nine and nine, going so close to his first career triple double once more. Zydrunas Ilguaskas grabbed seven offensive boards on his way to 17 points and 10 rebounds, while much maligned Darius Miles added 12 and 5 off the bench. For the Sonics, Vladimir Radmanovic continued his form revival with 21 points and 13 rebounds, one shy of his career high. Ray Allen had 25 and six rebounds, Rashard Lewis posted a double double with 13 and 10, while Brent Barry had close to a triple double with 10 points, eight assists and seven rebounds. Calvin Booth added a career high 10 blocks off the bench, tying a franchise record. As King James has stated to me numerous times, the Cavaliers are a playoff team at their best, and they showed this tonight. Seattle attempted a whopping 37 threes, making 14, but in the end Cleveland were smarter with their shot selection, while Seattle's defense down the stretch wasn't up to par. <font size="1">Box Score courtesy of NBA.com</font> Next Game: @ Knicks, Friday Jan 16th
See why it is so frustrating as a Cavs fan? We have had quality wins and have come so close in the majority of our games, but these last few weeks has been our first taste of whoop ass. Great win, but where was this aggressive play before? Do they have to get embarrassed to play this way? Guess I am too hard on them most times, they are very young. Future is bright.
If I was a Cavs fan right now I would be very frustrated,not because they won but the fact they can win games like this all season but havn't.On paper their frontcourt is as good as any in the eastern conference.As I have said for quite a while when Lebron is at his best like he was tonight the Cavs energy is up,players are confident,they feel they can do anything on the court and most importantly the young guys are making shots.It was that kind of night for Cleveland Interesting stat that needs to be mentioned Calvin Booth-10 blocks in 16 minutes
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting allnet:</div><div class="quote_post">Calvin Booth-10 blocks in 16 minutes </div> 2 points, 0 rebounds, 0 assists and 10 blocks. Figure that...
My bad to take it off topic about the Recap of the game, but these jerseys that the Sonics wore tonight are nice as hell. I might have to buy one of these.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Purple N Gold:</div><div class="quote_post">My bad to take it off topic about the Recap of the game, but these jerseys that the Sonics wore tonight are nice as hell. I might have to buy one of these. </div> They are nuts I agree. They wear them again on the 27th against Dallas.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Sir Desmond:</div><div class="quote_post">They are nuts I agree. They wear them again on the 27th against Dallas.</div> Dallas will fall, hopefully Cavs defense will pick up and destroy them. I like the look of those myself, great win Cavs, I'm just glad for any wins they receive for as KJ said, they're a young team. Therefore any wins picked up is great experience as well as well deserved since it is so difficult to do without the experience veterans have.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting King James:</div><div class="quote_post">"vs." means a home game </div> Thats weird. I thought it was short for "versus"
