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Jesse Lamovsky

Cleveland’s 99-92 win over the Los Angeles Clippers at the Q on Wednesday night came 362 days after the Cavaliers knocked off the Clip Show to end its NBA record 26-game losing streak. Although the result was the same, the circumstances were not. Last season’s Cavaliers were a shell-shocked, lifeless bunch wandering aimlessly from one beat-down to the next: this season’s Cavaliers are anything but, as without Kyrie Irving they simply outworked the New-and-Improved Clip Show in a physical battle at the Q.

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Andrew Clayman

cavsmavsdirkHere 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.

And to be clear, the improbability factor was less about Cleveland beating Dallas (the defending champs have been a shell of themselves most of this season) and more about how the Cavs (9-13) pulled it off—shooting a pretty abysmal 39.8% from the field and 26% from three-point range. By comparison, Dallas (14-11) connected on 48.5% of their efforts and 50% from downtown. So how does a team outshoot another by nearly 10 percentage points and lose? Well, simply put, by letting the other team hoist up almost THIRTY more shots, as Cleveland attempted 93 shots to Dallas’ 66!  Schnikes!

Kyrie Irving (20 pts, 7 asts, 4 rbs, 2 stls) will likely get the bulk of the headlines again, as he came up big down the stretch in the Cavs’ first triumph over a winning team this season. But make no mistake; this was Anderson Varejao’s game yet again. After years of being “the guy whose contributions don’t show up on the stat sheet,” Varejao (17 pts, 17 rbs, 3 asts) has gone graffiti artist on the boxscore lately— visibly eclipsing the efforts of every other name in it. He’s a quantifiable all-star, and bloody well better be in Orlando for that particular exhibition game.

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Demetri Inembolidis


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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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Greg Popelka

hot rod williamsRecently 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.

Nobody remembers who gave Uncle Tipski his nickname; everyone fondly called him their tipsy uncle until somebody added the -ski, a la Hoolihan and Big Chuck. 

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Richard Hanes

Kyrie IrvingI just finished watching Kyrie Irving hit a game winning, spinning layup, in traffic, against the Boston Celtics in Boston.  It was the kid’s first NBA game winner.  It showed improvement over his missed opportunity against the Pacers.  It also showed that he has the type of killer instinct that an NBA team needs out of a star player.  That’s right I said star.  Kyrie Irving is going to be a star in the National Basketball Association.  He might not ever be the league MVP, but he is going to play in all-star games and he is going to win playoff series. 

When the Cavs took Kyrie #1 overall in last summer’s NBA Draft I supported the pick.  I did not think the combo of Derrick Williams and Brandon Knight or Kemba Walker would be better than Kyrie and whoever they took at #4.  The point guard position is extremely important.  I wanted the best one no matter what and I felt Kyrie was just that.  Even with all of that being said, I wasn’t sure if Kyrie would be an All-Star lock during his career.  I was unsure about his ability to be a #1 or #2 scoring option on a legit playoff team.  I thought he was going to be good, but he has already blown away my expectations.  Kyrie’s ability to push the ball, weave through traffic, and finish at the rim is already amazing.  His jumper is smooth and he shown the ability to knock down the 3-ball through 19 games.  I don’t think any of us really knew what we were getting when we drafted Kyrie Irving, but I am pretty sure we are all pretty happy so far.

But exactly how happy?  How good is Kyrie Irving right now?  How does he match up against the NBA’s best point guards?  I’m not talking about the NBA’s best point guards in their rookie seasons either.  I mean in 2012.  Let’s check it out.

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