# Cavs @ Pacers | Game #71 | March 27th, 2007



## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

_*Game 71*_


*Cleveland Cavaliers* *(42-28) VS* *Indiana Pacers** (31-38)*

_*Sunday, March 27th, 2007*_
*Time:* 4:00pm PT, 7:00pm ET
*TV:* FSOhio HD, *NBATV*
*Radio:* *WTAM 1100*
*Location:* *Conseco Fieldhouse*, Indianapolis, Indiana



> *Preview*
> 
> The Cleveland Cavaliers look to snap out of their slump Tuesday when they begin a key five-game road trip with a matchup against the Indiana Pacers.
> 
> ...


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

ugh, Lebron misses his first two free throws. This could be a long night.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

If Drew Gooden is so incredibly sensitive, why don't we make it a point to establish him early in the game?


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Good ball movement on that last possession.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Eric Snow's man was draped all over Lebron there.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

With the complexity of defenses in today's NBA, I really don't think you can afford to put a perimeter liability like Eric Snow out there.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Of course, I say that and Eric Snow immediately makes 2 good drives to the basket.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Z is really feeling it tonight. We're actually going with the hot hand right now. Will we take him out soon?


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Larry's lucky he hit the rim on that FT.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Wow. Couple of really tough calls could take Andy out of the game for a while.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I love Lebron taking it to Dunleavy like that.


----------



## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Cleveland needs to win this game and clinch a playoff spot. This game has a funky feel to it. Cleveland could put some more distance between themselves and Indiana. 

Cleveland leads 52-45 at halftime.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

It feels like the crowd is just looking for a reason to explode. If that happens, the Pacers could easily run away with this in the second half. We have to make a big run to start the second half and put this game away.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I like that we're going to Drew and Z early in the 3rd here.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

We also need to get Sasha more shots. He's really having a hard time getting into his rhythm because he isn't getting enough shots.


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Great play by Sasha


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Tinsley gets under Lebron on the alley, but I think he's ok.


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Z has to establish deeper position on the block


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Non-shooting foul?! WTF?


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Brandname said:


> Tinsley gets under Lebron on the alley, but I think he's ok.


Thank God he's built like a tank. Hughes would have been out 2 seasons


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

lol @ Eric Snow laughing at Lebron's call. The refs knew they owed him a couple of FTs. hahaha


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Z playing some great ball.

Pretty absurd how James wasn't shooting FT's there


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Thank God he's built like a tank. Hughes would have been out *2 seasons*


lol


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

How smooth is Lebron avoiding the contact on Dunleavy there. Man he is the best athlete in the world


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> How smooth is Lebron avoiding the contact on Dunleavy there. Man he is the best athlete in the world


We see the stark contrast with Larry Hughes, who gets an offensive foul every other drive to the basket.

I was arguing with someone the other day on NBA General who said Lebron isn't as good as Kobe, Wade, T-Mac, Arenas, etc. because he doesn't have good body control. It made me wonder which Lebron he was watching.


----------



## ¹²³ (Jan 8, 2003)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Z playing some great ball.


We need more of this come playoff time.


----------



## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Nice to see Sasha make that jumper. I want to see him in double-figures tonight.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Sasha looking aggressive with his shot. I like to see that.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Damn, Lebron with 4 fouls. That's going to hurt us.

If we can keep this lead at about 7 going into the 4th, I think we'll be ok.


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Nice faceup by Sasha


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Man, why can't we try a Gibson/Sasha/Shannon lineup? That way everyone has the ability to score.

Immediately Indiana gets the lead to 6.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

How can we just fall apart like this when Lebron leaves?


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

LOL @ Lebron immediately walking to the bench. 

We should be able to survive the rest of this quarter without him


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I really hate the way the NBA calls games now. Lebron almost fouls out and he's not even guarding a superstar. IF they're going to call these games so tight, they should up the foul limit to 7.


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Uggh guess not. Lebron goes down with 4 Pacers get back within 4. Need to finish the qtr strong here


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Hughes drives to the basket! Hope he doesn't have an allergic reaction!


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Sasha should be the primary scorer for this squad. We should start each possession by going to Gooden, though.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

MB has to understand that Marshall is not a scorer. He's a spot-up shooter. And not a very good one at that.

I can already tell that this lineup is going to struggle to score. Snow/AV/Marshall is just a terrible lineup.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Another terrible blocking call against AV.


----------



## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

I hope Hughes gets injured again. He sucks. I hate watching him over dribble and then turn the ball over. Sasha is a better basketball player. Hell, so is Shannon Brown.


----------



## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Andy has not been good the past few weeks. Just not having much of an impact on the game these days.


----------



## LostInGeorgia (Jun 29, 2006)

indiana must be huge cavaliers fans, even they want to get lebron the extra free throw practice that he needs


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

We really don't want to fall to 4, I didn't even realize Miami had climbed all the way to the 5 seed.

That would be a brutal 1st round matchup, no wonder Chicago is fighting so hard to pass us


----------



## ¹²³ (Jan 8, 2003)

futuristxen said:


> Andy has not been good the past few weeks. Just not having much of an impact on the game these days.


I was wondering what is the reason to this. I just can't figure right now, maybe he hit some wall, I don't know.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> We really don't want to fall to 4, I didn't even realize Miami had climbed all the way to the 5 seed.
> 
> That would be a brutal 1st round matchup, no wonder Chicago is fighting so hard to pass us


We wouldn't fall to 4, we'd fall to 5. Miami is actually currently the 3 seed, so we'd be playing Toronto in the first round (right now). I don't mind that matchup. 

Toronto would have to finish the season better than Miami, and we'd have to fall behind Chicago to face them in the first round.


----------



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

I've seen a lot of posters wanting Shannon Brown,Gibson,Sasha lineups and saying Shannon is better than Larry. Come on now fellas, that could be sarcasm that I am over looking, but Shannon has rarely showed anything, his prob. better than Wesley by default but not much more than that in his play this year.


----------



## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Missed this one. Looks like Snow blew up. Z was strong as well as Lebron. Not sure about the D: both Granger and JO had very strong games by the box.

Any word on the team only meeting where Lebron asked to speak to the team w/o Mike Brown?



> - *LeBron James led with words, then he led by example.** After kicking coach Mike Brown out of a team meeting Tuesday morning,* James had 26 points, seven rebounds and six assists as the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers 105-94 to clinch a playoff berth. Cleveland had lost three of four after an eight-game winning streak, but pulled within 2{ games of Detroit in the race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It was the opener of a five-game road trip for the Cavaliers, who won the season series with Indiana 3-1. The Cavaliers came out focused after the meeting that James led on Tuesday. "This is my team, that's my responsibility to make sure everyone's on course," James said. "There can be a lot of distractions on a five-game road trip." Brown didn't mind his star player becoming more vocal. "We can help them and put them in spots, coach them, continue to show them where they're wrong, where they're right and so forth," Brown said, "but really, when it gets down to it, they're the ones on the floor playing. If you have a team that decides to take ownership of what they're doing, then the sky's the limit." Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 23 points for the Cavaliers, who shot 52 percent from the field. Cleveland outrebounded the Pacers 43-33 and outscored the Pacers 27-19 from the free throw line. Indiana's Jermaine O'Neal did just about everything but scrub the floor at Conseco Fieldhouse the past two games, but the Pacers didn't reward him with a win. O'Neal scored 32 points, his second straight game with more than 30. He was coming off a 39-point game, the second-best scoring effort of his career, in a 92-90 loss to Chicago on Sunday. He followed it up Tuesday by shooting 11-for-18 from the field and 10-for-10 from the free-throw line.


http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/recap?gameId=270327011


----------



## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Hughes is going to break the record (if they track this) of shooting more shots then scoring actual points.
8 shots for 7 points


----------



## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

> Indianapolis -- Beating a team that is eight games under .500 can't be classified as a great win. The Cavs will have plenty of tougher games between now and the playoffs. Still the 105-94 win over the Pacers got them their playoff berth and, for the time being, their focus back. So it had its merits.
> Some thoughts...
> *--There was some disagreement over whether the Cavs had one of those famous/infamous "players' only" meetings this morning. Mere semantics. Basically, LeBron James asked the coaches to leave the huddle and had a few words about taking the road trip very seriously. Two things are important here: 1. LeBron took it upon himself to do it. 2. He led by example when he got on the first bus and came over to the arena early to get extra shooting in. It is the first time I can remember LeBron coming over on the first bus since his rookie season.*
> --In the fourth quarter I was closely charting each Cavs' possession with a "G" or a "B." As in good or bad. I only wrote down two Bs. They played at a controlled pace, ran when they could and calmly used their sets. The Pacers aren't a great team obviously, but they are a good defensive team yet couldn't stop the Cavs in the fourth. Six of the nine baskets in the fourth were scored in the paint. Plus the Cavs were 12-of-13 at the line in the fourth.
> ...


http://blogs.ohio.com/cavaliers_blog/


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Gotta say i'm pleased with Lebron's stance on taking an active leadership role on the team like that, kicking Brown out of meetings. Gotta remember he's only like 21/22 years old sometimes, so that is a pretty big step.


----------



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Pioneer10 said:


> Hughes is going to break the record (if they track this) of shooting more shots then scoring actual points.
> 8 shots for 7 points


It's pretty staggering just how poor his fg% is. His release isn't ugly, it generally looks good. But he throws up so many ill-advised jumpers his fg% is in the trash. 

He did have a nice drive and lefty finish in this game, more of that would offset his horrendous shooting


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> It's pretty staggering just how poor his fg% is. His release isn't ugly, it generally looks good. But he throws up so many ill-advised jumpers his fg% is in the trash.
> 
> He did have a nice drive and lefty finish in this game, more of that would offset his horrendous shooting


Also, his shot is just terribly terribly flat. It reminds me a lot of Kevin Garnett's shot, but KG is a much better midrange shooter than Larry. But his shot selection is easily the worst on the team.


----------



## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Gotta say i'm pleased with Lebron's stance on taking an active leadership role on the team like that, kicking Brown out of meetings. Gotta remember he's only like 21/22 years old sometimes, so that is a pretty big step.


Now if only he could kick him out of the actual games. :biggrin:


----------

