# Cavs vs Rockets - TNT 8PM EST - Feb 7th



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

_vs_







​
*Cleveland Cavaliers* 
_vs_
*Houston Rockets*

*Toyota Center*
Houston, TX
Thursday, February 7th, 2008
8:00 pm EST


*Projected Starting 5*
*Cavaliers*:
*






PG - Larry Hughes







SG – Ira Newble







C – Zydrunas Ilgauskas







SF – Lebron James







PF – Drew Gooden​* 
*Rockets*:*







PG – Rafer Alston







SG – Tracy McGrady







C – Yao Ming







SF – Shane Battier







PF – Luis Scola​*



> As 2007 came to a close, both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Houston Rockets were underachieving as their big-name players failed to deliver. Just over a month later, LeBron James has the Cavaliers in the thick of the Eastern Conference playoff picture, while Tracy McGrady has the Rockets closing in a playoff spot in the Western Conference.
> 
> Cleveland and Houston both look to continue their impressive starts to the new year as they meet Thursday at the Toyota Center.
> 
> ...


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Should be a good game. They match up well against us.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

I wonder when all the injuries finally catch up to us: we're do for a bad game that's bad enough even Lebron can't save us (i.e. Portland game w/o James's 4th quarter)

That being said Z seems to get up for this Yao matchups: should be fun


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Yeah personnel wise we are way overmatched pretty much every night. 

Lebron draws so much attention though, all we need to do is play good D and we should have a chance late. The Cavs have played well on Nat'l TV and against the West this year as well.


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Gooden is fine?


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

**** no Gooden.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Holy crap, Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall are starting for us.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Lebron is ridiculous


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Brandname said:


> Holy crap, Ira Newble and Donyell Marshall are starting for us.


Lebron better re-check his trade wishes all our players with trade value are hurt.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I almost can't imagine us winning this with our lack of players. lol

We have nobody left.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Houston is shaky to start, Cavs need to jump out and build a cushion. They have a deep bench


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Wow nice block by Yao


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Lebron got his headband knocked off, lol.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Bad shot by Larry there.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Hot Donny! :clap:


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Wow, I think that's the first 3 I've seen Donyell hit in like 2 years.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Z and Yao going back and forth! I love it!


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

I'm liking the Yao/Z battle. It's fun to watch.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Imagine if we had gotten Scola and Bibby. Wow.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Oh come on that's not a travel - give me a break


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Brandname said:


> Imagine if we had gotten Scola and Bibby. Wow.


I try not to think about it :azdaja:


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Is Shannon dressed?

We might need someone to play that can pretend to have athletic ability


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Oh come on that's not a travel - give me a break


I thought the same thing.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Houston is playing like crap. We have some bad players out there right now - Dwayne Jones/Marshall frontline..just keep it close and we have a chance


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Is it really 14-13 with 2 min left?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I'm worried we just don't have the horses to keep up in this game.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Wow was that an actual inbounds play? Nice.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Bron's shot is off early.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Wow, what's going on Lebron?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

How long to our guys have to be standing in the lane to get a charge??


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Christ Lebron 0-3 from the line? Looks like the guys were out partying pretty good last night at Damon Jone's restaurant


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

That was a great double clutch shot.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Down 4 due to James' last shot.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Lebron is kind of in coast mode. I think he knows he will hvae to be superhuman late in this game for us to win so he is conserving his energy.

We need one of our scrubs - Hot Donny/Newble/Devin Brown to put up some points to help him on the perimeter


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Danger time here - bench needs to step up


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Gotta hit the boards guys...


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

We got mismatches all over the court right now defensively...


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Picking up a lot of fouls here: we need another scoring threat in here. Forgot we don't have any


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Where is Larry? Get him back out there


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Boobie look for your shot! He is playing passive


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Dwayne Jones is getting beasted on the glass by this Landry Kid


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Bron must have gotten some before the game, doesn't have any legs at the FT line.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Larry again playing well


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Larry Hughes for Retirement said:


> Bron must have gotten some before the game, doesn't have any legs at the FT line.


He's starting to heat up


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Seems as though Devin has lost some minutes off the bench, any reason? or is that just me?


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Larry Hughes for Retirement said:


> Seems as though Devin has lost some minutes off the bench, any reason? or is that just me?


He's been bricklaying the last few games. Still I agree he should see more minutes

Newble has played well though


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Marshall looks like a snail out there: he is sloooooowwwwwww.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Great McGrady woke up. Rockets on fire from deep


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Newble and Marshall are not a good combo out there. Both of those guy have had wide open 3 point looks and bricked it. Marshall is not helping on the glass either: guards are beating him to balls he is closest too.


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## Larry Hughes for Retirement (Jul 5, 2004)

Well thats not a good start... hopefully we can stand their punches right now and still be standing well enough to deliver ours.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Man we just can't get any rebounds without Gooden & AV


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

What a flop by Scola. I can't believe they gave him that.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Come on guys, you HAVE to hit those open shots. Goddamn.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

This is a really irritating game.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

ugh


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

How do we let that happen? That was the easiest play any team could make. You can't leave someone open in the lane like that. wow


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

The effort isn't there tonight. If you're shorthanded and you don't come with effort, you're basically just giving up on the game. I'm very disappointed with our guys so far.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

We have no chance in this game.

We can't control the boards and that is basically our game. Without that we got nothing


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

We are getting DESTROYED on the glass tonight. Absolutely obliterated.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Lebron's body language is terrible on defense.

He needs to step it up


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Lebron's body language is terrible on defense.
> 
> He needs to step it up


Everyone's is in this game. It's really pathetic. How could we be so unmotivated for a game? I just don't get it. Do we give up because Drew's not playing? really?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

oh crap, Lebron is sitting.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

terrible foul


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Stupid foul by Hughes

Dumb time to take Lebron out in the middle of a run :azdaja:


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

I have a feeling Bron is going to torch us when he comes back in.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

We miss having a PF.


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Boobie going out... Not a good sign


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Lebron shooting 55%, rest of team shooting 34.8%.

Oh and awesome, Gibson is hurt.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

OMG now Boobie is hurt


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

And the regular 4th quarter collapse is underway...


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

How desperate are people to take charges on Lebron? It seems like so many players' main defense against him is falling down. Not cool.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

oh come ON. That was terrible defense.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Hughes should not be camping at the 3 point line. son of a *****.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Lebron settling for that fadeaway killed our run

That could be the game


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Brandname said:


> How desperate are people to take charges on Lebron? It seems like so many players' main defense against him is falling down. Not cool.


Seems the only logical way to stop him really...


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Lebron settling for that fadeaway killed our run
> 
> That could be the game


There's still 6 minutes. You never know. Hopefully he learned his lesson and won't do it anymore.

And why don't we try switching things up a little? Have someone slip a screen. Or, you know. ROLL to the basket after setting the pick.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Boobie better not be seriously hurt or we are really screwed


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Yeah I can't believe how hard we've been hit by injuries all at once.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

That was a fairly weak call for Z's 5th.


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

That Big Z and Lebron screen is giving Battier the fits...


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

First foul against Houston?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Right hamstring strain for Gibson. ****


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

damn, that bounce really hurts us


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

And Larry camps at the three point line again. Goddamnit


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

We are ****ed with all of these injuries. At least against any team with a frontline.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

This is just a killer: No AV, Boobie, Gooden, or Sasha finish this game. Instead we get to watch Hughes, Newble, and Marshall brick wide open 3's


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Brandname said:


> How do we let that happen? That was the easiest play any team could make. You can't leave someone open in the lane like that. wow


That was Marshall with that awful defensive rotation: Hot Donny was terrible today


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

WTF: no ****ing rebounding at all


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

You have gotta be kidding me. Is the ball going to rebound itself if you're just standing there watching?


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## OneBadLT123 (Oct 4, 2005)

Man the rebounding spread is just killing you guys. Houston has 52 and Cavs got 34..


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Wow. I really hope the guys enjoyed their night last night.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

OneBadLT123 said:


> Man the rebounding spread is just killing you guys. Houston has 52 and Cavs got 34..


Yeah, that's how it usually is in our favor (although you guys are really good too). We just have no guys left.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Wow without Gooden or AV we can't even get a rebound. It's pretty ridiculous


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

We aren't going to win a lot of games w/o AV and Gooden both gone against teams with an actual frontcourt. Newble/Marshall couldn't start at PF in the NBDL probably. We have no rebounding with these guys. Marshall was just awful out there. On offense he missed wide open 3's, he didn't box out, and couldn't get any loose ball as well


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Man now I know how other teams feel when they play us and we kill them on the boards. Without our PF's we are nothing on the frontline.

Maybe we shouldn't deal Gooden afterall


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

You know, we still could have won this game if the guys that did play even gave a half-assed effort. It's not like the Rockets were playing great. It was winnable, but they just didn't want it enough. Their body language on the court told me all I needed to know.


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## gi0rdun (May 31, 2007)

Why does your game thread have 7 pages!?


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

And I won't excuse the lack of effort, but damn did it look like we were fielding a high school team out there tonight.

I feel like without Lebron, we would have cracked 40 points. Maybe.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

giordun said:


> Why does your game thread have 7 pages!?


Because we're constantly complaining about everything in sight, especially me. lol

I can't get enough of complaining about Hughes, injuries, refs, Mike Brown, and anything else I can think of.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Yeah I was surprised we were even close in the 4th quarter but we just got no rebounding out of this group. I hate to harp on this Marshall just killed us tonight: freakin snail out there. Add in that Newble was getting outphysicaled by Wells and Scola and we had no shot.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Maybe the answer is to play Lebron at the 4 with Gooden out. Lebron's a better rebounder than Ira. I think Lebron has to look to be super aggressive on the defensive backboards with our frontline gone. He was stuck waiting for our bigs to get a lot of rebounds and it just wasn't happening.

Though I think Z was really bothered by Yao's length, and it contributed to his overall poor play tonight. He was just off on the rebounding.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Didn't we almost get Scola and Bibby this summer? Scola would have been a perfect player to play with Lebron. He's kind of a 6-9 Ginobilli.


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## Dean the Master (Feb 19, 2006)

The Cavs made Rockets look like a great offensive rebounding team. I was actually surprised that the Rockets got more than one offensive rebound. They normally don't get that much. 

I fell so bad that you guys have Larry Hughes. He is terrible.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

giordun said:


> Why does your game thread have 7 pages!?


We have posters who watch the game and like to talk about it online. My wife certainly doesn't appreciate my burst of anger against Larry Hughes


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Dean the Master said:


> The Cavs made Rockets look like a great offensive rebounding team. I was actually surprised that the Rockets got more than one offensive rebound. They normally don't get that much.
> 
> I fell so bad that you guys have Larry Hughes. He is terrible.


This happens when 2 of your top 3 frontcourt players are out. We could have used Sasha against Wells as well

Injuries are simply catching up to us


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Pioneer10 said:


> We have posters who watch the game and like to talk about it online. My wife certainly doesn't appreciate my burst of anger against Larry Hughes


Haha, mine just goes upstairs and watches TV up there.

She says she can't watch Cavs games with me anymore because I get too emotional and enraged over them. Hahahaha


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

futuristxen said:


> Maybe the answer is to play Lebron at the 4 with Gooden out. Lebron's a better rebounder than Ira. I think Lebron has to look to be super aggressive on the defensive backboards with our frontline gone. He was stuck waiting for our bigs to get a lot of rebounds and it just wasn't happening.
> 
> Though I think Z was really bothered by Yao's length, and it contributed to his overall poor play tonight. He was just off on the rebounding.


Subtle way the lack of bigs cost us. Lebron was definitely shading downlow more then usual to get boards and protect the interior: this led to Battier getting some easy looks


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Dean the Master said:


> The Cavs made Rockets look like a great offensive rebounding team. I was actually surprised that the Rockets got more than one offensive rebound. They normally don't get that much.
> 
> I fell so bad that you guys have Larry Hughes. He is terrible.


Yeah, this is definitely not the normal Cavs team, especially on the glass where we're usually dominant. We just didn't have the guys in there to do it tonight.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

futuristxen said:


> Maybe the answer is to play Lebron at the 4 with Gooden out. Lebron's a better rebounder than Ira. I think Lebron has to look to be super aggressive on the defensive backboards with our frontline gone. He was stuck waiting for our bigs to get a lot of rebounds and it just wasn't happening.
> 
> Though I think Z was really bothered by Yao's length, and it contributed to his overall poor play tonight. He was just off on the rebounding.


That's too much to ask of Lebron. Your basically asking him to cover the boards, score 30 points, be our lock down 4th qtr defender, and create every shot we get in the halfcourt.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> That's too much to ask of Lebron. Your basically asking him to cover the boards, score 30 points, be our lock down 4th qtr defender, and create every shot we get in the halfcourt.


I'm pretty sure that's what is going to be asked of him if we are to have any shot at winning these games before the all-star break.

Unfortunately.

You know. If we traded for Jason kidd, he averages like 8 rebounds per game...


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

futuristxen said:


> I'm pretty sure that's what is going to be asked of him if we are to have any shot at winning these games before the all-star break.
> 
> Unfortunately.
> 
> You know. If we traded for Jason kidd, he averages like 8 rebounds per game...


I wish.... but now we REALLY have no trading pieces.


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## thaKEAF (Mar 8, 2004)

Damn you guys do numbers for every game thread, if only the Grizz board could come close. :no:


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

It's weird how I just felt like Lebron had a really bad game tonight. One of the least impressive games of the year.

Then I look at the box score and he's got 32 points on 12/23 shooting (52%), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. I guess he's just set a new standard or something, because I didn't feel like he played all that well tonight.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

thaKEAF said:


> Damn you guys do numbers for every game thread, if only the Grizz board could come close. :no:


Yeah, we have a really good group of posters on the Cavs forum. Really active guys here.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Brandname said:


> It's weird how I just felt like Lebron had a really bad game tonight. One of the least impressive games of the year.
> 
> Then I look at the box score and he's got 32 points on 12/23 shooting (52%), 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks. I guess he's just set a new standard or something, because I didn't feel like he played all that well tonight.


That's odd cause I thought he was mediocre also. 

I really think Lebron can put up numbers like that in his sleep. If he was really playing at the top of his ability you don't see him settle for that fadeaway on Shane Battier when we were down 6, he doesn't go under so many screens, he gets double digit rebs, etc. 

Of course that's also an indictment of his supporting cast right now when you expect one guy to produce 40/10/10 type numbers night in night out.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

I do agree that Lebron didn't play as good as he could have. He didn't seem to have a lot of energy out there: we need either more hecklers or somebody to put a muzzle on these parties that are occuring the day before games.

That being said lebron found some wide open people tonight. I mean guys had about 4 seconds to put up a shot and we bricked a bunch of them. Would have been a whole different game if those three's went in and w/o the PF's we need those outside jumpers too fall


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Pioneer10 said:


> I do agree that Lebron didn't play as good as he could have. He didn't seem to have a lot of energy out there: we need either more hecklers or somebody to put a muzzle on these parties that are occuring the day before games.
> 
> That being said lebron found some wide open people tonight. I mean guys had about 4 seconds to put up a shot and we bricked a bunch of them. Would have been a whole different game if those three's went in and w/o the PF's we need those outside jumpers too fall


Yeah I seem to remember complaining all night about guys not being able to hit shots.

There were A LOT of WIDE OPEN shots tonight off of Lebron's passes, and the rest of the team shot 19-55!!! That's terrible!

We just need guys who can hit shots, to be honest. We only have 2 good shooters on this team. Heck Donyell is supposed to be a 3 point specialist and he's mediocre at them at best. And that's really all he does. We are just in a bad situation as far as shooters goes. Bibby here we come! Or Mike Miller! Please!


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

> There were A LOT of WIDE OPEN shots tonight off of Lebron's passes, and the rest of the team shot 19-55!!! That's terrible!


Have to make shots when you don't have your rebounders. Pretty pathetic that the supporting cast shot that bad when the shots they got were good shots


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## UrFavTeamSux (Jan 17, 2007)

Do minor injuries like Drew's really take them out of the trade pool? Is there any hope at all at pulling off something, like even Mike Miller? Is it that hard to ask for someone who can hit wide open shots?


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