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For the second straight night, winning took a back seat to role players finding their rhythm and, above all, keeping the core healthy. Tonight, Mo Williams and Antawn Jamison joined LeBron James in taking a seat for the festivities, giving the wine and gold just ten bodies to play combined with the injuries to Shaquille O'Neal and Daniel Gibson. What we saw, just as last night, was a surprising amount of efficient, attacking offense and an equally startling lack of effort on the defensive end. The fold resulted in an end of the team's 11 game win streak against Indiana in Cleveland and their 11 game winning streak at The Q. Other than that, it was a highly entertaining contest that gave some non-traditional heavy minutes guys time to shine.
With Mo, LBJ, and 'Tawn all sitting, Delonte West returned from back spasms to start along with Jamario Moon and Leon Powe, making their first and second starts of the season respectively. Normally the sixth man, Anderson Varejao was one of the last players into the game along with Danny Green as Sebastian Telfair, Jawad Williams, and Zydrunas Ilgauskas all checked in prior to that. Other than Green with just nine minutes, the other eight guys played at least 18 minutes as many of them are almost interchangeable (Jawad/Moon/Parker, Powe/Hickson, etc.). The result was everyone giving the effort as if they were truly involved in the game, and every played scored a field goal except for Green.
As for the Pacers, they were relatively healthy, and they played like a team that knew they were being gift-wrapped an opportunity to win tonight. Danny Granger pretty much thrived without LeBron to match him shot for shot, while Earl Watson and Brandon Rush each turned in 16 point performances to help carry the Pacer backcourt. Granger had a game-high 36 points with 13 of them coming in the final quarter, and he and the rest of Pacer guard sliced and diced up the Cavalier interior defense for the second straight night. It was as if Derrick Rose and Kirk Hinrich had simply boarded the Cavaliers' flight to Cleveland and had stolen a couple of navy colored Pacer jerseys.
For the second straight night, newcomer Sebastian Telfair stole the show for the Cavaliers. If he didn't make enough of an impression last night in Chicago, he resoundingly did so tonight with a 21 point, 3 rebound, 4 assist performance in 30 minutes. Telfair continued the same method of success as last night, slicing to the basket, zipping spot-on passes to his new teammates, and dismissing the naysayers with his jumpshot. Sometimes, I forgot Bassy has been in the league for six years, because I had only seen him play a handful of times in that time. But, he has made a statement in these two short games with two more to go that he could be an option as the backup point next season.
Once again, it didn't stop and end with Telfair. Jamario Moon posted a season-high in points for the second straight night with 16 points, 6 boards, 4 assists, and 2 steals in a team-high 35 minutes. The rising Moon is making a case for playoff playing time in a big way, especially with some of his big defensive plays the last two nights. In each of the second halves, he has made some nice plays around the rim by blocking shots and getting deflections. Moon hit some shots, but the offense really ran through J.J. Hickson and Zydrunas Ilgauskas for a good portion of the night. Hickson matched Telfair's 21 points and added 10 rebounds and 3 assists, while Z scored 14 points and grabbed 4 rebounds, dished out 2 assists, and blocked one shot. The play of the night had to be the alley-oop from Z in the post over his head to a cutting Moon for the jam. The large Lithuanian has time after time shown his ability to pass the ball well, and he looks to be rounding into postseason form.
One area where the team was not that sharp in was controlling their temper. Delonte West got tossed in the third quarter after two technicals in a couple of minute span, both administered by official Mark Davis. Davis did his best Monte McCutchen impersonation by T-ing up Delonte after he missed a foul call for West. He then slapped West with a delay of game that baited Delonte into flapping his jaws even more, giving Davis the window for a second T-bomb. Immediately after, Davis warned the other Cavs players and coaches that he didn't want to hear any of it. Once again, the NBA officials think they are ABOVE the game, when they are really just lowering the end product by making the game about themselves. Zydrunas Ilgauskas also got hit with a tech after being whistled for having his hand on a player's hip before he even made a move toward the basket. All I can say is that was so unbelievable awf-ficiating. On the positive side, at least Delonte avoided further injury and got some extra time to rest.
Three point shooting was the fourth quarter story for the Pacers, and hitting 6 of their 14 in the fourth allowed them to work outside-in on the wine and gold and end up getting the buckets to win the game on the interior and at the line. After threes from Rush and Granger that were relatively open looks, the Cavs overpursued to the arc which they had been lagging on the entire game. That led to layups by Watson and Granger with 58 and 24 seconds remaining. After that, four freebies at the line for Granger, all makes, made it academic. The Cavs struggled to run late game offense again. Possibly, they struggled because they were without arguably their five best players (offensive players especially). At least the shots they got on the last two offensive possessions weren't from Anderson Varejao. Instead, Anthony Parker rattled home a three that bounced around the rim for about five seconds that landed with 3.9 seconds left, cutting the Pacer lead to one. After two Granger makes at the line, the Cavs needed a trey ball to force OT. The ball went to Z at the top of the key who did not look for his shot, instead whipping it to AP for a 30-feet fadeaway that got about two-third of the way there.
Game ball goes to: Sebastian Telfair and J.J. Hickson. Telfair gets a second straight game ball as I'm in a semi-love affair with this guy. I'm not going to overreact and say he's the point guard of the future or anything, but perhaps he sticks on next year and helps contribute to that team. Bassy had 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting, 3 rebounds, and 4 assists in 30 minutes. Hickson was a focal point in the offense tonight, scoring 21 points on 8-of-11 shooting, grabbing 10 rebounds, and dishing out 3 assists. They included several highlight plays as always.
Team Grade: C+
The wine and gold gave up plus-50% shooting once again as the Pacers shot 51% and nailed 14-of-32 threes (44%). Meanwhile, they shot 46%, won the boards 47-35, and made a miraculous 24-of-28 foul shots. They also assisted on 29 of their 41 field goals. Five guys (Telfair, Hickson, Moon, Z, and Parker) were in double figure scoring with nine guys making at least one field goal.
With two games left, playing time is still up in the air for the Cavaliers. First up is Orlando on Sunday afternoon in a highly meaningless game, except for pride, of course. It doesn't sound like Shaq will play, so expect a lot of guys sitting once more. In a related note, if Dwight Howard plays and plays a lot, expect 35-40 points.
All for one. One for all.
Kirk
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