The Cleveland Cavaliers (8-13) appear to be in the bad habit of falling behind and working extra hard in the 4th quarter to be within striking position for the win. The problem with that is that this Cavaliers team is not the Kardiac Kids.
The Cavs had another great 4th quarter and scored 41 points compared to the Magic’s 31. The “Hack-a-Howard” method was employed by coach Byron Scott and it worked fairly well, but the deficit was too large. Dwight Howard took all of his 16 free throws during this stretch and made 9 of them. On the year, Howard is hitting on 47.9% and he made 56.3% last night. Although he shot better than his average, the difference is negligible. The “Hack-a-Howard” method was a good idea in principle and I would like to see Byron Scott call for it again whenever the Cavs play whichever team he gets traded to.
The reeling Orlando Magic (14-9) seem to have a way of always showing up against the Cavs. After much talk about how horrible Hedo Turkoglu was for the Toronto Raptors, Phoenix Suns and the Magic on his second sting with the team, he was a huge difference and gave the Cavs nasty flashbacks to the 2009 Eastern Conference Finals. Turkoglu scored 18 points and did an admirable job of controling the offense and getting the ball to the right guy at the right time. He has a unique skillset and it is odd to me that he is not considered a better player than his reputation allows him.
In true Orlando Magic fashion, they took a lot of three pointers. Out of 26 attempts, the Magic only made 9 of them but they came at the most inopportune times. For example, with the Cavs only trailing by 7 points early in the 2nd quarter, the Magic made 3 straight three-pointers in the span of less than 3 minutes. The 7 point lead for the Magic ballooned into a 14 point one in what felt like a blink of an eye.
Dwight Howard was fantastic and flirted with a triple double (19 points, 16 rebounds and 8 blocks). Anderson Varejao, who typically struggles rebounding against the Magic managed to pull down 15 rebounds. I do not know what has gotten into Varejao this year, but he has transformed himself from a good rebounder to an elite one. This is good regardless of whether he is traded or kept by the Cavaliers. Either his trade value is increased or the Cavs have an elite rebounder under a reasonable contract.
Kyrie Irving had his first subpar shooting performance since he shot 1-7 against the New York Knicks on January 25th. Irving did not seem intimidated by Dwight Howard’s interior presence and he repeatedly took it to him. The result was 18 points on 7-21 shooting, but it also resulted in Irving getting his shot blocked 4 times. On the one hand it is encouraging that he did not let Dwight Howard affect his mentality and approach, but on the other hand it would have been nice to see Irving take advantage of Howard’s help defense and try to get the Cavaliers big men some open shots under the basket.
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Here for his lone visit to Cleveland this season, Dirk Nowitzki—the slayer of the beast—was roundly cheered during pre-game announcements at the Q. But as it turned out, the giant German had still more gifts left to bestow upon his adopted devotees; coughing up five of the Mavericks’ 21 turnovers in an improbable 91-88 Cavalier victory.
Recently overheard at the Olive Garden restaurant, on the road somewhere in Ohio. Uncle Tipski is taking nephew Connor and his friend Trevor for a bite to eat on the way back to college after Christmas break.
I just finished watching Kyrie Irving hit a game winning, spinning layup, in traffic, against the Boston Celtics in Boston.