HOOPLOG: Cleveland Cavaliers

Lakers Become the Best Team in the NBA

Wed, 07 Jan 2009 10:19:01 -0800

The Lakers beat the Blazers 100-86 on Friday night. The Celtics and Cavs both lost on the same night, taking those teams to 6 losses. That means the Lakers’ 27-5 record is the best in the NBA. Home-court advantage throughout the playoffs. Doesn’t it feel great? Yes, but not so fast.

Read more about it and other Lakers insights at Lakerhead.com

http://lakerhead.com/2009/01/04/lakers-become-the-best-team-in-the-nba/

Kobe For MVP

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 09:43:58 -0800

Kobe Bryant is our MVP. And LeBron's too.

"I’d give it to Kobe. What he’s done this whole year, to carry that team to the No. 1 team in the West right now. He’s playing his best basketball all around. I’ve watched him the whole year. I saw it last summer when I played with him with USA Basketball and the sacrifices he’s made for the team and he’s done that with the Lakers."

—LeBron James

Kobe4MVP.com

2007 NBA Season At An End

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:02:45 -0800

The San Antonio Spurs swept the Cleveland Cavaliers in what had to be one of the least watched NBA Finals in many years. Watching the Lebron-led Cavs break against the solid as a rock Spurs left everyone here at Hooplog looking forward to the off-season, as the Eastern Conference has a lot of work to ahead to match the likes of the Western powerhouses, Spurs, Suns, and Mavericks. With Kobe possibly on his way out in L.A., maybe he could help revitalize an Eastern Conference team.

2007 NBA Season At An End

Sat, 16 Jun 2007 12:02:45 -0800

We Are All Witnesses

Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:27:03 -0800

Nike has a new promotion for Lebron over at nikebasketball.com. Capitalizing on the Cavs first entry into the NBA Finals, Lebron will face his toughest challenge of the year, trying to rally his Cavs against a proven champion caliber team.

Team USA Concludes Exhibition Tour With 116-63 Win Over Korea

Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:01:55 -0800

Team USA completed a 5-0 exhibition tour by defeating host Korea 116-63. LeBron James led the U.S. in scoring with 23 points and added six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Dwayne Wade (16), Elton Brand (16) and Carmelo Anthony (13) also scored in double figures. Anthony led the U.S. in scoring overall during the five games, averaging 16.8 ppg. James (15.8) and Wade (12.2) were the only other U.S. players to average more than 10 ppg, but Antawn Jamison and Joe Johnson came very close (9.6 ppg each).

This win does not tell us a lot about Team USA. As Coach Mike Krzyzewski said afterward, "Obviously we knew we were going to win. The talent differential was in our favor by far." It will be interesting to see how this team responds when faced with tougher opposition. Also, as Bill Walton pointed out during the ESPN broadcast, teams have not been playing much zone defense against Team USA during the exhibition tour. Will the U.S. be able to execute offensively against zone defenses during the World Championships?

During my appearance today on BetUs.ComRadio, host Matthew Ross asked me if five exhibition games were too much for the U.S. I told him that, if anything, it might be too few. Keep in mind that the other countries in the World Championships have national teams that have played together for years under FIBA rules, while the U.S. team consists of players who have not played together (except for All-Star Games). It takes time for a team to jell and even more time to adjust to the different FIBA rules (shorter three point line, one less foul before disqualification, liberalized goal tending, trapezoid lane, etc.). I like the new U.S. approach of insisting on three year commitments from each player and I am confident that this will eventually result in gold medals for the U.S. in international play. Team USA's recent results in the Olympics and World Championships prove that winning these events will not be a cakewalk.

The only bad news so far for Team USA is that neither Amare Stoudemire not Gilbert Arenas will be healthy enough to play in the World Championships. Stoudemire returned home to continue rehabilitating his knee, while Arenas suffered a groin injury during practice on Monday. Coach Krzyzewski still must make one cut to get the roster down to 12 players before the World Championships begin. There are a total of 24 players on the Team USA roster for the 2006-08 period, but only 12 of them may be activated for a given event. This time around, injuries and prior commitments have eliminated several players from consideration.

Ben Wallace NBA Defensive Player of Year (AP)

Sun, 07 May 2006 12:05:32 -0800

Detroit Pistons center Ben Wallace won the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year award Monday for the fourth time in five years for his ability to guard Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James. Wallace, a muscular 6-foot-9, 240-pounder, is one of only two players in league history to win the award four times.

One Liners

Fri, 05 May 2006 12:14:05 -0800

- Kobe Bryant is absolutely, hands-down the greatest basketball player on the planet.

- Flash Gordon's curveball is making a lot of Phillies fans forget about Billy Wagner.

- If Peter Forsberg is truly "The Best Player in the World" then he alone should have willed his Flyers over a Sabres teams whose most recognizable player is Chris Drury.

- How incredible would it be to see Kobe's Lakers vs. LeBron's Cavs in the NBA Finals?

- It's pretty clear at this point that A.J. Soprano will never be another Michael Corleone.

- The Rangers, Flyers, and Red Wings sent a ton of players to Torino and maybe it's not a coincidence those players are now on the golf course.

- Barry Bonds comes to Philadelphia this weekend and I hope to God that the Philly fans there don't embarrass the rest of us too badly.

- The 2006 NFL will go down as the best draft ever for the Eagles, beating out 2002's when they drafted Lito Shepperd, Brian Westbrook, Sheldon Brown and Michael Lewis.

- If Allen Iverson does get traded this offseason, the deal better not include Ricky Davis as the other centerpiece as was the case in a rumor I read this week.

- If you haven't already heard of Cole Hamels, you will by the All-Star break.

- Finals week during the Spring Semester is probably the longest week of the year.

No comments

LeBron, It Turns Out, Is Rather Skilled

Thu, 04 May 2006 09:34:35 -0800

Well, perhaps this is one of those games they will end up remembering.

LeBron James’ twisting, physics-defying, insane that-couldn’t-really-have-been-that-easy layup last night as time expired gave Cleveland a 3-2 lead in the series and officially notched LeBron’s first official Gatorade highlight reel in the year 2018 moment.

We’re not particularly adept at NBA-as-poetry, so we’ll leave it to the experts in the field, Free Darko:

He’s so next at this point that it might end up being some shit that, for anyone else, would be a wildly contingent move of a lifetime. LeBron, though, has mastered basketball fate itself, like if Posieden cared for whitewater rafting. Or the inverse of an improvisation that seems like it must’ve been written.

By the way, our sympathies to Wizards fans, particularly the folks at Wizznutzz, who not only had to deal with a crushing loss, but the indignity of the misunderstood. Anyone who has any question about the intelligence of those guys, we cannot possibly recommend more that you head to the site and get yourself educated.

Strength Begat Mind [Free Darko]
Oh, LeBron [True Hoop]

Cavs' Jackson to Have Second Back Surgery

Wed, 03 May 2006 11:29:35 -0800

Cavaliers forward Luke Jackson will undergo surgery on his back on Thursday, his second operation in less than two years and another setback for the former first-round draft choice.

Doc returning as Celts coach?

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:45:58 -0800

Rumors soon spread of his imminent departure. Doc Rivers said Paul Pierce attacked the issue head-on prior to Mondays loss to Cleveland. He came in, I asked him, What do you want to talk about? and he said, You -...

Cavaliers Get 50th Win

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:45:53 -0800

Playing without Lebron James and Larry Hughes the Cleveland Cavaliers got there 50th win with a 100-99 win at home over the Atlanta Hawks. Flip Murray led the Cavaliers with 19 points who reached the 50th win plateau for only the fourth time in franchise history. The Cavaliers almost didn’t get there 50th win as [...]

Cavaliers Celebration Starts With Playoff Spot

Thu, 20 Apr 2006 09:45:20 -0800

In the BEACON JOURNAL, Terry Pluto writes that "Cavaliers fans, the playoffs are a reason to celebrate. Especially how the team made the playoffs, how the Cavs finished with the fourth-best record in their history.Then there's the homecourt advantage in the first round, and a general good feeling that this team not only belongs in the postseason -- but could win a series. They've done it with a 21-year-old (LeBron James) who should be the league's MVP this season. It has been seven years since they made the playoffs -- only the Los Angeles Clippers and Golden State Warriors have been out longer."

Cavs owner expects to re-sign LeBron?

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 09:17:14 -0800

Owner Dan Gilbert believes that the Cavs have an excellent chance of re-signing LeBron James to a long-term contract.``I feel pretty good about him signing,'' Gilbert said. ``I'd say it's more than 90 percent. You never say 100 percent until...

All tomorow's parties

Wed, 19 Apr 2006 09:17:10 -0800

UPDATE: Check out the comments for a scenario I completely missed. - Matt

I tried to avoid doing this after all the confusion regarding these playoff tiebreakers , but I can't help myself:

Tomorow's games:
Bulls vs. Toronto
Washington at Detroit (i.e. the Tony Delk show)
Indiana vs. Orlando

If Bulls win(Bulls guaranteed higher seed than Milwaukee):

AND Washington wins AND Indiana wins:
- Washington is 42-40, Bulls/Indiana are tied at 41-41
- Indiana wins tiebreaker (division record)
- Bulls are the 7th seed
Washington loses, Indiana wins:
- Bulls/Indiana/Washington are tied at 41-41
- Bulls win tiebreaker (highest winning percentage in games among the 3 teams)
- Bulls are 5th seed
Washington loses, Indiana loses:
- Bulls/Washington are tied at 41-41, Indiana is at 40-42
- Bulls win tiebreaker (head-to-head versus Washington)
- Bulls are 5th seed

If Bulls lose(Bulls guaranteed lower seed than Washington):

Indiana loses
- Bulls/Indiana/Milwaukee are tied at 40-42
- Bulls lose tiebreaker (lowest division record)
- Bulls are 8th seed
- I cry myself to sleep
Indiana wins
- Indiana at 41-41, Bulls/Milwaukee tied at 40-42
- Bulls lose tiebreaker (lower division record)
- Bulls are 8th seed
- I cry myself to sleep

Feel free to check my work, the real wrinkle was the Bulls being 3-1 against Washington during the season, which set them apart from Indiana (who split their games against the Bulls and Washington) and Washington.

I'd say the most likely situation is the first, with everyone winning and the Bulls earning the 7th seed.

And if I needed to remind everyone:
5th seed - face Cleveland
7th seed - face Miami
8th seed - face Detroit, I cry myself to sleep.