Listen, we all knew what we were getting into this season as Cavs fans. We knew replacing the other fella was going to be hard, deep down though I’m not quite sure we thought it would be this hard. The pain and aguish we experienced once the words “I’m taking my talents to South Beach” were uttered were temporarily erased on the 27^th of October, better known as opening night at the Q against Boston. The team that unwittingly ended our obsession with Number 23 were the victims in what was to be game one of the season where we showed the world that no matter who comes or goes, the Cavaliers will always be there. Hand on heart; can you honestly name me 3 good things that have happened since then for our Cavaliers? I can think of two – Mo’s game winner over Brandon Jennings and the victory over the (at the time smoking hot) Knicks. Yep, our season so far has been defined by victory over the Milwaukee Bucks and the New York Knicks. We’ve had a ten game losing streak, briefly ended with said victory over the Knicks, and now we’re the proud owners of the worst record in the Eastern Conference. Scratch that – the worst record in the entire NBA.

We’ve lost 28 games so far this season; the two seasons previous yielded a combined 37 losses. So to say this is a little bit of a culture shock to us Cavs faithful would be underselling it to the point where it’d be laughable. Some daunting numbers for you very briefly; we have the worst points differential in the league, we are 1-6 in our division where only one team is above .430, of our 28 losses 18 have been by ten or more points and we’ve only scored over 100 points twice in the past five or so weeks.

January is going to be an ugly start to 2011 for our Cavaliers. Actually, it’s going to be so ugly it might just be oogly – seriously. But for anyone who seriously follows me here, you know that I’m a pretty lighthearted guy, I tend not to let things get too serious here because like I’ve said before, I fell very very lucky to be doing this so the last thing I want to do is make the readers depressed. Sure, there have been times when I’ve tore into our guys – notable victims have been JJ (more than once) Jamario, Ryan Hollins, AP and the artist formerly known as Jawad Williams – but most of the time I like to have fun, I like to look at the bright side of things while still being serious, to an extent. With all those things in mind, I’m about to dress up as Nostradamus again and preview all our games for the month o f January, beginning with tomorrow’s game against the Raptors…

Jan 5^th vs Toronto – We realise that the Raptors are basically the exact same team as last season, except swap Bargnani for Bosh as the focal point. Mo Williams goes off for 40 points and we win, 112-90. Dan Gilbert stops crying midway through the fourth quarter, finally.

Jan 7th @ Golden State – It’s a shoot-out with the Warriors. With JJ getting extended minutes, he realises now is his time to shine. The score is locked at 122-122 with 8 seconds left, Warriors have the ball. Monta drive to the rim where JJ meets him for the monstrous block sending the game to OT, where Antawn Jamison hits the buzzer beater over David Lee to give us a 134-133 win. 2 in a row baby!!

Jan 9th @ Phoenix – Steve Nash breaks Scott Skiles NBA record by tallying 32 assists as the Suns blow us out 136-102. Dan Gilbert reaches for the box of tissues.

With 4 points in his first NBA game, Christian Eyenga now ranks tied for 284th in career scoring in Cavaliers History.  Here's the company he recently joined: 



280. Kent Benson (1987-88) 5 
        Butch Graves (1984-85) 5
        Geoff Crompton (1983-84) 5 
        Melvin Bennett (1981-82) 5

284. Christian Eyenga (2010-11) 4
        Trey Johnson (2008-09) 4
        Cedric Simmons (2007-08) 4
        Ruben Boumtje Boumtje (2003-04) 4

288. Lance Allred (2007-08) 3 

So with those four points against Dallas (2 of 6 from the field in 15 minutes of action), Eyenga passed the following players:

3 points - Lance Allred (288th);
2 points - Demetris Nichols, Kaniel Dickens, Kannard Johnson, Benoit Benjamin, Jerome Whitehead, Gary Voce (289th)

1 point - Cedric Jackson (295th) 

Also a quick FYI, seven players have logged playing time for the Cavaliers without scoring. They are the following players:

Pete Chilcutt, Jelani McCoy, Martynas Andriuskevicius, Eric Fernsten, Coby Karl, Litterial Green and Larry Robinson.

I am going to track Eyenga as he soars (hopefully) through the Cavalier scoring ranks in his career. It will be fun to watch the names he passes, especially here in the beginning.

Who can forget the great contributions from big Ruben Boumtje Boumtje in the 2003-04 season?

In addition to the 4 career points, you may have forgot that Boumtje Boumtje also contributed 1 rebound, 1 assist and 1 blocked shot in his 9 game Cavalier career.

Check back for further updates in the Christian Eyenga Points Tracker Series

Shocking to not one single person alive, the Cavaliers dropped another one on Saturday.  This time to Derrick Rose and the Bulls. 

I mostly sat staring blankly at my television watching for the better part of two quarters in a daze though, wondering how things would've shook out if Boozer didn't pull that 'gotcha' move on that nice old blind guy way back when he did. 

I then realized that was what I was thinking about, and spent the duration trying to get through to Dr. Melfi's office.  Time to talk some things out this week.  This hasn't been a healthy stretch, thanks Cavs.

But part of the unhealthy ramifications of following what might be the worst team in the NBA afterall are things that can be controlled.  No reason I can't focus my attention elsewhere, I mean.  

Sure there's some in-game blogworthy material I could mention in a positive light with regards to the latest loss.  I could talk about how the Cavaliers played hard for a half with as many guys out as they had.  I could say they didn't appear to be hung-over after NYE also, and I could even work in a hopeful rant about maybe J.J. Hickson "getting it" after entering the 20-point category for the first time in a while.  

I'm going to start talking trades instead, however. 

NBA.com felt it necessary to post their countdown to the trade deadline the other day, so I guess it's time, and it might help actually.    

So first off, here's what they're said recently about the Cleveland Cavaliers:

Rookie time. Rookie report card time I should say. Not only that, you’re getting a double-blog right about now as with the 2^nd part I’m giving you five guys currently plying their time in college that our Cavaliers should be monitoring…closely. People are starting to say it’s “tank time” with regards to our season, others are a little hesitant regarding the same issue. Look, I’ll give you my opinion in a minute, first off let’s get into my five rookies…

John Wall

He’s missed a chunk of games with that injury, he hasn’t exactly shot the ball well at times, he’s averaging a rookie-high (worst?) in turnovers – but the kid’s just awesome for me. He’s everything you want your rookie point guard and franchise guy to be – athletic, quick (like, really quick) can pass, can drive, makes the impossible look possible – just incredible. If he didn’t miss all those games with injury people wouldn’t already be crowning Blake Griffin with the ROY award. Fact. Wall leads all rookies in assists (by some way) and steals, is in the top ten in rebounding and blocks and second in scoring. Sure he plays for a pretty crappy team who are reportedly shopping their starting frontcourt duo – but I know that if I had to have the future of my organistaion in the hands of a rookie point guard, those hands would be John Wall’s. Give him a week or two to get back into the swing of things, then sit back and enjoy. You know what I really can’t wait for? The Rookie/Sophomore game at All Start Weekend, when he’s throwing alley oops to this fella…

Blake Griffin

Reason number 319 Blake Griffin is cool – he has more double-double’s than Dwight Howard does at this stage of the season. That’s like eating more sandwiches Renardo Sidney does, just impressive. Griffin is everything the Clippers in general are not – fun, athletic, competent, hungry, determined and entertaining (for the right reasons). He works his butt off every single night – point being that he’s played every single game this year and not had double digit-rebounds in only 7 of them. Baron Davis has broken a sweat 7 times this season. Griffin leads all rookies in scoring and rebounding, is second in FG%, is in the top ten in blocks and assists and leads pretty much every athlete alive in plays that make you say “Holy Crap”. He could genuinely be the reason why the Clippers will soon be very, very relevant in the West. Actually, scratch the word “could” – he will be the reason why they become relevant. I actually can’t even begin to imagine how good he’ll be if he develops a reliable jump shot.

Cavs v Orlando

1.      Free Throws again – you can’t leave ten points slip when you’re battling against a top team

2.      If Mo Williams had played the final three quarters like he had the first (14 points) things might have been different

3.      You cannot allow two teams on two separate occasions to come to your home building and break records for three pointers made

4.      If Anderson Varejao were wearing a Magic uniform last night, God only knows how big the final margin would have been

5.      Coach Scott: “JJ, 5,000 made free throws in practice today or you don’t go home”, JJ: “Guess that’s what I get for going 1-7 when my team needed those points last night”

I was just amazed by this while watching at home...had to hit rewind and break out the flip cam.  My head hurts just watching this series of self-inflicted shots the grill.  Whatever pumps you up, Andy.

In the end on Sunday, the Cavaliers were as close as Jawad Williams is in the picture below to grabbing the ball, tipping it in, and preventing their 13 loss in the last 14 games.

 

Photo Credit: Stepien Rules / BB

He'd never actually touch the ball though from best I can tell, and the desperation fall-away-heave from Antawn Jamison that he attempted to put back in the picture above never had a chance of touching the net either seconds earlier. 

Jamison did put the Cavaliers up one with less than 10 seconds to go though, but then he'd play "defense" like this on Micheal Beasley who'd dribble straight to the hoop for what would prove to be enough for the W (Beasley finished with 28, 6 and 1 on 10 of 25 shooting from the field).  



Jamsion would've probably been better served just taking off to the other end of the court cherry picker style and attempting to catch a length of the floor inbounds pass off that lay-up they let Beasley have, but they don't do that kind of thing in the NBA.  I didn't think they played that type of defense either with the game on the line, but I guess it happens sometimes.  

With the Cavaliers up double digit points late though, this game should've obviously never come down to being decided by either of those plays.  Up 10 and 12 points with 2 and 3 minutes to go at home, you really have to know how to lose to drop a game like the Cavs dropped tonight.  Which is probably why it stung so much.

Byron Scott said postgame that this latest loss "stings more than the others this season."  Mo Williams would go on to echo those same sentiments.

Said Scott: "It was almost like we were afraid to win late in the game." 

More from Byron Scott's postgame presser is below:



Mo would follow Byron up postgame by saing:

"This one probably hurts the most out of all the losses this year."  He would also add in regards to the final possesion:  "We thought Kevin Love had some contact."  

Video from Mo's postgame presser is below:



From the Minnesota side, Kurt Rambis said postgame of that eventual game winner by Beasley: 

"We just put the ball in his hands and looked for him to make a play." 

He would do just that, and Minnesota (7-24) would get the win.  

If you found a bookie taking action on the Over/Under 17 Rebounds for Kevin Love I set pregame though - and bet the over - you would've got the win too.  Love finished with 18 rebounds to go along with 16 points.

Luke Ridenour finished with 23-5-6 for the Twolves as well - ummm that's not a normal night, is it? - and on the flip side of that match-up Mo finished with 17 points and 10 assists.  Jamison had a team-high 24 and Anthony Parker scored 21 points to go with 7 dimes of his own (nice game AP).  

J.J. Hickson only played 12 minutes but did manage 11 points and 5 rebounds while he was out there. 

Jawad Williams finished with 9 points, and said when asked how close he was to that final put-back:

"I was very close.  I don't know who hit me, maybe it was a teammate, but somebody did and I missed it."

Cavs missed it too, they won't get many chances like this to win games this season. 

Ever been genuinely terrified of getting your Christmas Report Card from school? You know, you’ve just lumbered through the first few months, done enough to get by but not enough to stand out, then the report card comes home and the instant thought of “Oh Crap!!” pops into your head as your mom opens up that hideous brown envelope all schools use.  Well today is our very own Cavaliers turn to feel nervous and uneasy as we present the Official, NBA Certified Cleveland Cavaliers Report Card, Christmas 2010 (Yeah, good old Mr. Stern gave us his seal of authenticity today over lunch incase you were wondering on the validity of that previous sentence. Funny, at that exact same lunch he also preached how sad he was to see the Knicks doing well again? David’s a strange kinda guy).

So anyways, below are first my thoughts and grades, as well as those of Kirk and Brendan... 




Mo Williams – No surprise he’s leading the team in points per game, but I kinda expected more. Last season he averaged more points (15.8 – 14.4) shot better from the free throw line and from long range. He’s shooting the three ball at a 29% clip this season by the way. His assists have gone up, but not significantly enough to make that difference we all hoped it would. Game winner against the Bucks, big night against NY, but outside of that not much else to note from our floor general. Grade – B

Kirk: Mo’s in a no-win situation; we all know that. He has and is going to take more criticism on this team than probably anybody else. He’s had some ups (aforementioned game-winner over Jennings being one of them) and some downs (see: every single night on the defensive end of the floor and hideous shooting nights, including 1-of-10 from three in the second Miami game). Overall, Mo’s been a better team player this season (four straight double digit assist games, obvious step-up in leadership and accountability), but his own skills have suffered. His unbelievable strengths of the past (three point shooting, clutch shooting) are no longer strengths, and his overwhelming defensive handicap remains. Grade: B

Brendan: Mo's averaging a career high in assists so far this season, so props for that, and I did appreciate the game against NY, the buzzer beater to win it as well, and I also agree that he is in a spot where he will get the most criticisim.  I'd love to say it's unfair criticism too, but beyond some very solid nights, I can't get past how hard he tanked it during that 10-game stretch to bury the season.  He's shown above average flashes at times, but given his ability - read grading scale - I can't say he's been anything more than slightly above average so far.  Grade: C+