For the first time since November 5th, the Cavs were the victors. And it came at an unlikely time. The Cavs (3-8) bested the Philadelphia 76ers (7-5). The 76ers were playing good basketball as of recently despite missing their newly-acquired superstar center Andrew Bynum. They had won three straight but sweeping a home-and-home series almost always proves to be more difficult than it sounds.
There was little excitement leading into the game due to the news that Kyrie Irving would miss the next four weeks with a fracture in his left index finger. The Cavs bench has been abysmal thus far in the season and it was without Jeremy Pargo due to the fact that he was named the starter in Irving's absence. In addition, Daniel Gibson missed his second straight game with a sore right elbow.
The story of the night was the performance of Jeremy Pargo. The second year point guard stepped up and set the tone early. He scored 7 points and had an assist in the first 6 minutes of the first quarter. Pargo followed it up with a 6 point second quarter. Pargo did his best Kyrie Irving imitation by scoring in a miriad of ways and played with a lot of control and confidence. When Chris Grant traded for Pargo in late July, it was assumed that he did so in order to get a second round pick from the Grizzlies. Jeremy Pargo should not be anointed the backup to Kyrie Irving quite yet, but he contributed quite a lot already considering what few assets the Cavs gave up in order to acquire him from Memphis. To put it into perspective, Pargo came into Friday night's game having scored 8 points in three appearances. One has to wonder how much of a buzz there would be if Pargo had this performance in Madison Square Garden while wearing a New York Knicks jersey. The Cavs probably would not have won this game if it weren't for his 28 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists. The only logical explanation is that Jeremy Pargo pulled a Thunderstruck and somehow acquired Kyrie Irving's talent prior to the game.
Jeremy Pargo's performance is going to outshine the bench actually showing up. The numbers weren't great, but the shortened three man bench scored 20 points. Most impressive was C.J. Miles scoring 13 points and converting on three out of four attempts from beyond the arc.
Much like Jeremy Pargo, the Cavs set the tone early. Three minutes into the second quarter, the Cavs more than doubled the score of the 76ers and had a comfortable 36-17 lead. It turns out that they needed almost every one of those points because Philadelphia made it a game and actually had a short-lived two point deficit in the fourth quarter.
On the Philadelphia side of things, the Cavs did a poor job of stopping Jason Richardson when the second half began. The fourteen year veteran went on an 11 point run in a four minute span. Either the Cavs made the appropriate adjustments or fatigue set in because he was a non-factor for the rest of the game. In other news, Kwame Brown is still in the NBA. The only noteworthy thing that he did was completely airball a free throw during the first quarter.
There was an interesting confrontation between Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson in the second quarter. There was a rebound opportunity and both Varejao and Thompson were actively trying to secure it. Thompson was a little too active and he pushed Varejao which cost them both the rebound and resulted in a turnover. Varejao was clearly heard yelling at Thompson over the sequence. It is interesting to note that up until that moment, Thompson had 8 rebounds and he only finished with 11 on the night. I've been critical of Thompson in the past and Varejao is one of my favorite players in the NBA, but I have to criticize Varejao for the way that he handled the situation. At this point in Thompson's career, he is not much more than an energy big man who rebounds. He also strikes me as a very nice person who is a little too green for his own good. Making such a big scene in front of everybody over the one thing that Thompson does well is likely to make him play more timid and might make him want to stay out of the way. I hope this does not have a lingering effect on the second year power forward. After all, it wouldn't be fair for Varejao to have a monopoly on playing with high energy.
This game had potential to be horrible for Cavs fans. In reality, it was a lot of fun to watch. There were great individual performances such as Anderson Varejao's 19 rebounds, Alonzo Gee's 4 made three pointers, Tyler Zeller's multiple drawn charges and Jeremy Pargo's 28 point coming out party. This was a great win for the team and it came at a very critical point in the season. The Cavs travel to Orlando to take on the Magic on Friday night. Tipoff is at 7:00 PM.