Cleveland Cavaliers
Shaq is moving
Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | NBA | No Comments
The Cavaliers and the Suns have come to an agreement to trade Shaquielle O’Neal to the Cavailers to play with super star LeBron James. The deal should be finalized Thursday, according to ESPN sources. Cleveland will give up Ben Wallace and Sasha Pavlovic and 46th pick in Thursday’s NBA draft. Shaq could be a dominant force since center Zydrunas Ilguskas has been breaking down since February. The Cacaliers struggled to defend Dwight Howard in the playoffs when they played the Magic and with the addition of the big man this should help. Shaquille averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 reboudns per game and made is 15th All-Star game. O’Neal who had only one year left on his contract will not take up any salary cap for the Cavs which made him a much better option, rumor had it that Cleveland was also looking at Tyson Chandler. The Cavaliers are not done with Shaq they are still looking to re-sign their power forward Anderson Varejao. With this trade the Suns look to save about $10 million next year in luxury tax and if Wallace decides to retire and they can buy him out of his $14 million contract they could save even more. The Suns are looking to rebuild and have the 14th pick in the draft.
Lebron Who? Bulls Top NBA’s Beast 102-93 in OT
Friday, January 16th, 2009 | Chicago Bulls, NBA, Sports | No Comments
2 nights, 2 improbable victories. After struggling through a 3-week stretch at the end of December and the beginning of January, the Chicago Bulls put together 2 good outings on back-to-back nights. On Thursday night, the Bulls upset the NBA’s best team (record-wise at the time) – the Cleveland Cavaliers – 102-93 in overtime on the United Center hardcourt, pulling off the improbable victory after Derrick Rose’s 2 free throws tied the game with 20 seconds left in regulation.
The Bulls were helped by an “off-night” by Lebron James. James scored 28 points, grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out 7 assists, but the focus was on the atrocious 8 of 28 shooting from the floor (including only 1 of 6 from 3-point range) and his season-high 8 turnovers. The Cavs did get a solid effort from Mo Williams, however, who scored 26 points with 5 of 10 shooting from behind the arc. The Cavs were a little short-handed after an ugly injury to point guard Delonte West while trying to block a Derrick Rose layup from behind late in the 1st quarter. The Cavs also started the game without forward Ben Wallace and center Zydrunas Ilgauskas.
As for the Bulls, it was a full team effort, with 6 different players scoring at least 11 points. Rose chipped in 16 points and dished out 6 assists. Luol Deng led the Bulls in scoring with 22 points and also grabbed 8 boards. Tyrus Thomas knocked down 15 points and grabbed 7 rebounds. The bench was the key for the Bulls – Andress Nocioni (11 points and 6 rebounds) in 37 minutes; (12 points and 5 assists) in 30 minutes; and Drew Gooden (11 points and 6 rebounds) in 18 minutes. The only negative – Ben Gordon had a 2nd straight poor game – scoring only 5 points on 2 of 6 shooting (he scored only 10 points on Wednesday night in Toronto shooting 4 of 13 from the floor).
Can the Bulls win 3 in a row? It will be a tough task against the Southwest Division-leading San Antonio Sours who have won 8 of their last 10 games. But no one expected the Bulls to beat the Cavs either, so anything is possible. Del Negro is working in a nice new rotation of players now that everyone is healthy again. If the team continues to develop together with a full complement of players (avoiding the injury bug the last half the season), the Bulls could make a run at the last 2 playoff spots in the East. A realistic goal would be to try to get back to .500 and stay there through mid-April. If they can do that, we’ll likely see the Bulls in a 1st round Eastern Conference match-up against either the Boston Celtics, Cleveland Cavaliers or Orlando Magic.
Kobe who?
Saturday, January 10th, 2009 | NBA | No Comments
It seems like almost every day we read a story about LeBron James and his amazing skill of taking over any game. Last night was no different. The cavs star had an amazing 38 point game ageist the Celtics and are now 19-0 at home. Boston who had a 27-2 start having been on a downward trend since that amazing trend. James had 23 points in the second half with seven rebounds, six assists, four steals, and three blocks in 35 minutes. This ended up being the second worst loss for the Celtics all seasons. Paul Pierce who is averaging 19.5 points a game was held to 11 by James on 4 of 15 shooting. James who many think is this years MVP sure looks like it after this game. The other Boston stars didn’t have a stellar game with Garnett scoring 18 points and 15 rebounds Rondo adding 13 assists but only shot 41 percent. People have always been talking about Kobe and how he is the next MJ, I’m no basketball expert but LeBron has looked a lot better the last few years.
Cavs Top Bulls Again 106-97
Monday, November 10th, 2008 | NBA, Sports | No Comments
The Cavaliers beat the Bulls for the 2nd time this week behind a stellar performance from Lebron James. Once again, James scored 41 points, and this time, he also added 13 rebounds and 4 assists. Zydrunas Ilgauskas chipped in 16 points and 6 rebounds, while Mo Williams contributed 11 points and 7 assists.
The Bulls got off to a better start in this game against the Cavs. Despite trailing by 5 after 1 quarter, the Bulls used a team-oriented 2nd quarter to take a 57-54 halftime lead. After an even 3rd quarter, the Cavs used a 32-20 4th quarter advantage to win the game at the United Center. Ben Gordon scored 29 points and also had 4 rebounds and 3 assists. Luol Deng knocked home 20 points and added 7 boards. Derrick Rose was once again shined for the Bulls with 17 points, 9 assists and 5 rebounds. While Andres Nocioni also chipped in with 16 points and 5 rebounds off the bench. The Bulls were without Kirk Hinrich and Drew Gooden due to injury.
The Bulls lost their 1st home game of the young season and fell to 3-4 overall. Next up for the Bulls is a game against the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night at the United Center.
Cavs Crush Bulls 107-93
Thursday, November 6th, 2008 | NBA, Sports | No Comments
The Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Chicago Bulls 107-93 to hand the Bulls their 3rd consecutive road loss during the young 2008-9 NBA season. LeBron James dominated the Bulls from start to finish – 41 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 5 steals. Wow! The Cavs had 3 other starters in double figures – Delonte West (16 points); Mo Williams (15 points, 10 rebounds); and Zydrunas Ilgauskas (15 points). Former Bulls and Pistons player Ben Wallace racked up 14 rebounds for the Cavs in only 28 minutes. The Cavs took and early 30-24 1st quarter lead and doubled that by the time halftime came around.
If Vinny Del Negro expects his team to win on the road anytime soon, he is going to have to do something about getting his starting unit off to a better start. One key change – get Tabo Sefolosha out of the starting rotation. Sefolosha has yet to play 20 minutes in a game this season, and his season-high in scoring is 8 points. He has scored 3 points or less in 3 of the 5 Bulls games so far this year. For a starter to have such dismal number is atrocious. At some point, Del Negro needs to wake up and smell the coffee.
So what are Del Negro’s options? Ben Gordon should still come off the bench. That is where he is the most effective, especially since he is a liability on defense. Last night he scored 31 points on 11 of 19 shooting, including 5 of 9 from 3-point land. Kirk Hinrich had an awful night against the Cavs, going 0 for 5 from the floor and scoring his only 2 points of the game on free throws. I think Hinrich is the perfect candidate to step back into the starting rotation. He is better on defense that Sefolosha or Gordon, and can also be counted on to score points when needed. Having him in the backcourt with Rose to start the game would give the Bulls a much more dynamic look.
Drew Gooden chipped in another quality game for the Bulls against his former team – 11 points and 7 rebounds. Luol Deng quietly scored 18 points and raked down 7 rebounds, but needs to be more of a focus for the Bulls if they expect to win on a consistent basis. Tyrus Thomas has regressed to his own poor ways of late, scoring only 1 point and recording only 3 rebounds. Last but not least, Derrick Rose, the Bulls youngest, but best player showed why the Bulls were right to select him with the #1 overall draft pick in June. Against one of the better defenses in the Eastern Conference, the 20-year old rookie scored 20 points and dished out 7 assists, while only turning the ball over 3 times (2 less times than LeBron James did). He is the Bulls leader on the court and Del Negro needs to be more creative in devising a game plan that takes advantage of Rose’s unique ability to get his teammates more involved in the game. Rose would rather run a good offense and create easy baskets than be the focal point of a team’s offense. He would rather score 10 points and have 15 assists, then have the 20-point night with only 5 assists. Until Del Negro and his staff make a change to the starting rotation and develop a new game plan to focus on the athletic abilities of Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas and Andres Nocioni, we are going to see more losses than wins from this Bulls team.
The Bulls open an important 5-game homestand against the Phoenix Suns on Friday night at the United Center. Phoenix has gotten off to a quick start – going 3-0 on the road so far – so the Bulls will need to be on the top of their game in order to avoid a loss. After the Suns, the Bulls have to play the Cavaliers, Hawks, Mavericks and Pacers before a lengthy west coast road trip. The Bulls need to win at least 3 of these upcoming home games in order to gain some confidence heading into that trip. Let’s hope Del Negro has some changes in store when the Bulls announce their lineup on Friday night.
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