Cavs played hard in Miami, which is all I was really hoping for
The beating that Ryan and them put on him felt like way more than one win. I was actually surprised to realize he had won six of seven times already.
The team splits, however, could possibly be spun into something encouraging.
There were only four other NBA teams he's averaged less points against for his career through seven games. So the good guys are like the fifth best team at defending the best player in the world or something.
Awesome.
Until you realize those numbers were still 25.7 points, 6.7 rebounds and 7.0 assists. After the 30 it's probably more now too, but I'm getting ahead of myself.
His new team had won three straight heading into last night's matchup with Jeremy Pargo and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They had also won four of their last five and were 9-3 overall. The same record the Cavs would have if you reversed each number.
He was the NBA's sixth leading scorer at the moment too, on a career-high pace in the rebounding category.
Oh and he's finally playing the four, operating closer to the basket offensively than he ever did in Cleveland. Three-point attempts are way down, shots from nine feet and in way up. Did I mention he's also averaging a career-high in rebounding?
Getting sidetracked again.
As far as last night, Chris Bosh was coming in playing like the superstar they billed him as originally when the Bostrich first stepped awkwardly onto that South Beach stage.
He was up over 20 for the season, fresh off a 24 and 18 game on Wednesday in their last win.
He might have a hard time against bigger, stronger, more traditional NBA centers but the Cavs don't have any of those.
Vitaly Potapenko would not be making the trip.
It wasn't looking good.
That was my conclusion as I finalized my pregame notes for my Live Blog assignment at Bleacher Report.
The Cavaliers might lose this thing by 40.
Dwyane was going to play they tweeted. Ray Allen is down there shooting 52 percent from three on the season.
If the Cavaliers could keep it close through the first two quarters I was going to count it as a win for Cleveland. I was questioning myself for agreeing to the assignment based on my fear that they wouldn't.
I might have to speak objectively about how exactly he and his new team are pulling the Cavaliers apart one piece at a time for two hours as things get out of hand early.
Again. Best case scenario was I only had to do that for the second half.
Then, something awesome happened.
Not totally awesome, or course, but pretty encouraging as far as my standards of awesome are concerned.
For some perspective, without Kyrie Irving, the Cavaliers might have the worst roster in the NBA right now. Maybe they have the fourth worst roster, or third, or sixth or something, but it's bad.
Regardless of that truth, the Cavs played hard enough last night to allow the team with the worst roster in the NBA to hang for four quarters with the craziest collection of talent in the league.
Dion Waiters was not afraid while being matched up against a Hall of Famer in Wade. He missed a whole bunch of shots to be sure, but came out firing 14 times to finish with 16 points.
