What an interesting and disappointing week this has been. It was only one
week ago that Ira Newble was suspended for the New Orleans game, and Michael
Stewart and Ricky Davis were announced as to not making the trip. Upon that
announcement, the rumors started flying from league and team sources saying that
a trade was in the works. Many of those sources still haven’t backed off that
claim, but when Ricky was allowed to make the trip on Wednesday it became a sure
sign, that something had gone wrong or maybe even right. Depending on which side
of the Davis fence you sit on.
Now onto New Orleans, there was no Ricky Davis on the court and not too much
offense either. Ilgauskas led the Cavaliers with 20 points while Baron Davis led
the charge for the Hornets with 26. LeBron James added 15 points, 8 boards and 9
assists while having trouble with his shot. Kevin Ollie and JR Bremer combined
to shoot 1 of 15 for a total of 4 points off the bench. A very sad display of
shooting for the Cavaliers as they could only manage to put down 33% of their
shots The Cavaliers were held to just 30 points in 2nd and 3rd
quarters combined to be held to the lowest scoring output of the season in the
72-82 loss. This was not a good reunion for Paul Silas.
Davis did manage to get back onto the court for Friday night’s game vs. the
Detroit Pistons and put up 25 points in a solid effort. The bigger story was the
embattled Cavalier bench, Ira Newble put up 12 points, Desagna Diop pulled down
6 boards and the rejuvenated Chris Mihm put up his second double-double of the
season with 14 points and 13 rebounds in just under 30 minutes of play. The day
belonged to Richard Hamilton though as he put up a career high 44 points for the
bad guys. The Cavaliers did take a 5 point lead with 5 minutes left in the game
only to be outscored 18-9 the rest of the way out for their 5 straight loss
88-92.
The most discouraging game though had to come Saturday night vs. the Memphis
Grizzlies. It was LeBron James day, with 33 points, a career high, 16 rebounds
and 8 assists in double overtime. It was easily a game that never should have
come close to overtime. In essence this game was dominated by the good guys and
never should have been close. On two separate occasions the Cavaliers led by 24
points only to watch Pau Gasul lead a charge by the Grizzlies with 37 points of
his own and Shane Battier’s 12 rebounds and three pointer that sent the game
into overtime. Then with on 2 seconds left in the first overtime, Ricky Davis
made a huge mental error by giving Mike Miller a clean shot at a three pointer
that was nailed to send it into double overtime. It was then double overtime
that the Grizzlies closed out the game to hold to a 115-122 victory, to move the
Cavaliers road losing steak to 31 games.
This team still doesn’t understand how to win games, it still plays very
undisciplined basketball and no one ever knows what team is going to show up. A
0-3 week, that saw two late leads evaporate into losses, is a cause for concern.
Hopefully they also will be a turning point as this young team learns what it
needs to do to close out games.
