# Game #27 - Cavs vs Hawks - Dec 27th 7PM



## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

*vs*









*Cleveland Cavaliers (15-11)* *vs.* *Atlanta Hawks (9-17)*

*Date:* Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 
*Where:* Phillips Arena - Cleveland, OH
*TV:* FSOhio, NBA LP
*Radio:* WTAM 1100
*Time:* 7:00 PM - ET

















































*C:* Zydrunas Ilgauskas (11)
*PF:* Drew Gooden (90)
*SF:* LeBron James (23)
*SG:* Larry Hughes (32)
*PG:* Eric Snow (20)
























































*C:* Zaza Pachulia
*PF:* Shelden Williams
*SF: * Marvin Williams
*SG:* Joe Johnson
*PG:* Speedy Claxton


*
Game Notes:*

- Hawks are a dangerous team who always plays us tough. Look for Tyrone Lue and JJ to have their typical big games against us. 

- Cavs really need to pick up this win, our road record is pathetic and we need some momentum going into our West Coast trip. 

- East, and Central in particular are starting to pick up. Washington and Chicago are right on our heels, and even Milwaukee is starting to pick it up (5 game winning streak).


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

The Hawks not having Josh Smith is going to help us a little. He would get those energy plays of blocks and dunks. Plus he was another body they'd use to guard post players and occasionally try to check LeBron.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Lue the Cavs killer. We might need to just ride the Lebron train for the rest of the year if we don't get any help in teh personnal departmetn. Meaning he's going to have to be our offense in the 4th again


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

> *CLEVELAND - *When the Cavaliers arrive tonight at Phillips Arena in Atlanta, they'll face an opponent in the Hawks that has given them fits, despite a 9-17 record.
> One of those Hawks victories came Nov. 7 at Quicken Loans Arena, and coach Mike Brown is well aware of the problems the Hawks pose, primarily guards Tyronn Lue and Joe Johnson.
> And despite the Cavaliers beating the Hawks earlier this month, Lue (14.7 points per game, 2.5 rebounds and 3.7 assists) hit for 17 points and five assists.
> ``You have to look at the team as a whole, but Lue is definitely someone who has given us trouble in the past, especially with his quickness,'' Brown said after practice Tuesday. ``We have to make sure we don't let him get loose, because if we do, it's going to be a long night.''
> ...


http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/basketball/nba/cleveland_cavaliers/16326406.htm


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Lebron bail out 3. Offense still looks terrible early


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Hughes actually finishing at the basket...Cavs jump out to an early 17-6 lead. Defense looks pretty good.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

I like how Cleveland has kept the crowd relatively quite for most of the quarter. It'd be great to finish the last 4:50 strong. To get the 1st quarter on the other team's court in a silent environment would be incredible.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

LBJ is back to his incredible self lately.


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

^ And it couldn't come at a better time. If LBJ were to keep sliding, this team would essentially be toast right now. So I'm glad LBJ is doing better.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

remy23 said:


> ^ And it couldn't come at a better time. If LBJ were to keep sliding, this team would essentially be toast right now. So I'm glad LBJ is doing better.


Yeah seriously. 

Two dumb plays in a row by Gooden


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Momentum swinging, Cavs need to string some scores together


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

That's some great defense by Gibson


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Is D. Jones out today? Gibson first in


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

^DJ was in, didn't do anything good or bad really.

Cavs didn't finish that great in the qtr, alot of dumb TO's and wild jumpers.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Nevermind


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Lue is out! Holla!! We got this game I think


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Is Lue hurt? What a break that would be


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

I love when LBJ drives like that :clap:


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Marshall has missed about 10 layups so far

EDIT: Nice drive by Boobie - great explosion off the dribble


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

:clap2:One thing we got going for us this year is we keep getting to play teams with hurt players: love it


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Gibson reminds me of a young Marbury in terms of his speed and explosion off the dribble. He should do that ALOT more.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Not having Josh Smith as a shotblocker is real nice so far: rims open


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Damn Z picks up his 3rd, he was playing great


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Atlanta within 9. That was a blatant over the back by Pachulia btw


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Gooden has about the lowest basketball IQ possible that is still compatible with an NBA player


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Ughh..Brown goes with the Snow/DJ backcourt again. Look for the lead to drop fast

EDIT: NVM, subbed LBJ back in


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Why won't he play Sasha or Brown at SG?


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

We were up like 15 with Lebron, he goes out and we're up 7 in like 6 mins.

I really wonder where this team would be if he went down.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Gooden firing jumpers, get your *** in the paint


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Pioneer10 said:


> Why won't he play Sasha or Brown at SG?



Well Brown sucks. And if Sasha plays Dan doesn't. And Brown likes Dan better.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

futuristxen said:


> Well Brown sucks. And if Sasha plays Dan doesn't. And Brown likes Dan better.


Why not Gibson and Sasha?


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

So many turnovers in this game.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Nice court vision by Hughes tonight..


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

I keep forgetting how ugly Shelden Williams is. What a bad draft that Williams goes #5


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Nice backdoor action :clap:


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

How many steals have occurred in this half?


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Pioneer10 said:


> How many steals have occurred in this half?


I don't know but it benefits us cause LBJ is dominant in the open floor


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

That's a very good half, one of the best we've had in awhile


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

Pioneer10 said:


> Why not Gibson and Sasha?


Neither of them are really experienced at running an NBA team.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

futuristxen said:


> Neither of them are really experienced at running an NBA team.


Play em with Lebron: considering the state of our PG position - I don't think it's a bad idea to force feed Gibson a bit


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

futuristxen said:


> Well Brown sucks. And if Sasha plays Dan doesn't. And Brown likes Dan better.


You could play Sasha and Dan at the same time as LeBron for experimental purposes of being young, giving inexperienced players the benefit of getting comfortable on the court in an actual live game situation with the team's best player. And LeBron would look to be naturally dominant while paired with inexperienced players yet intrigued by the possibility of speeding the pace due to being surrounded with young, athletic legs. And Brown sucks according to your 3 game theory which didn't hold up well at all in the last thread? Well, that still leaves Sasha and it's an inflexible approach that prevents the combination. It's not something that cannot be done but rather will not be done.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Bron getting old, can't get up like he used to :biggrin:


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Z having another good game. Would be nice to see Larry get going


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Cavs quickly choke away another big lead. Atlanta within 6


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Claxton drops a 3-ball and Cleveland calls time out.

While I can see that Cleveland is a better team than Atlanta and other teams like that, there's no denying how much better some of the lower ranked teams from last year have gotten. One thing these teams have is self-knowledge. They truly know themselves well, from their best player to their green rookies. If there is one thing I wish Cleveland could learn from some of these teams, it's knowledge of self. These other teams do a lot of stuff and even if they don't win, you see them really going to different things and giving a lot of different looks. There's a sense of freedom there.


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## futuristxen (Jun 26, 2003)

remy23 said:


> You could play Sasha and Dan at the same time as LeBron for experimental purposes of being young, giving inexperienced players the benefit of getting comfortable on the court in an actual live game situation with the team's best player. And LeBron would look to be naturally dominant while paired with inexperienced players yet intrigued by the possibility of speeding the pace due to being surrounded with young, athletic legs. And Brown sucks according to your 3 game theory which didn't hold up well at all in the last thread? Well, that still leaves Sasha and it's an inflexible approach that prevents the combination. It's not something that cannot be done but rather will not be done.


I've said it before, and I'll say it again, what we are really talking about is getting rid of Eric Snow. Snow is the reason you won't see those combos. And it would be the same no matter who coached the Cavs. Snow is a Coach favorite everywhere he goes for many reasons, not the least of which is that he is safe, and most NBA coaches are very conservative. Make as few mistakes as possible, slow the game down, and try to win it at the end. Most NBA coaches don't coach to dominate.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

^Snow doesn't get hurt either, he's built like a tank


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Z on the floor again, he is really getting it done lately


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

Andy's shooting form seems to change from International basketball to American basketball. He's getting very rigid on his shot and pushing the ball out there. Maybe I'm imagining things but it looks slightly different now.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

^It's weird. Andy is dominant in Int'l ball, but his offensive game in the NBA is entirely different. 

I guess you could say the same in reverse for LBJ though.


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Snow/DJ backcourt out there again


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Lead down to 8. Please drop Snow/DJ :gopray:


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

What happened after I left Lebron's shooting has gone down to crap


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> ^Snow doesn't get hurt either, he's built like a tank


As I've said before Snow is an Israeli tank going into the Gaza strip. Plus he doesn't exactly jump high anymore - the only way he gets hurt if a guy like Shaq decides to fall on his leg


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Pioneer10 said:


> What happened after I left Lebron's shooting has gone down to crap


Lebron looks bad on offense in the 2nd half. Once he starts missing layups it's all downhill with his whole offensive game


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## Benedict_Boozer (Jul 16, 2004)

Ugly win but i'll take it. Record now 16-11, 4-8 on the road. 

Larry generally played like **** again 5/14 but he made an impact late


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## remy23 (Aug 15, 2002)

*Box Score*

*Cleveland 89, Atlanta 76*


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

Good to see Hughes outplay Joe Johnson. If only if the dude every stayed healthy.

* I should qualify that both played pretty crappy just JJ more so


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

Reading the recap on Yahoo you would have thought we might beat them by 40. The Hawks were without Smith, Claxton, Lue, Zaza P. Held Joe Johnson to 10 points and they shot 36% from the field with 20+ turnovers?

I missed the game but we must have almost played equally as bad. But a win is a win.

Was it as bad as the boxscore and recap make it sound?


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## Bron_Melo_ROY (Apr 12, 2004)

Benedict_Boozer said:


> Z having another good game. Would be nice to see Larry get going


It would be even nicer to see him get going toward another city.


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## Brandname (May 24, 2006)

I watched this game on TiVo, so I wasn't reading the game thread.

But you gotta like what Z has been giving us lately. He's looked like a legitimate second or third threat. Having said that, I still think we need to get him more touches.

But no, we didn't play well tonight. On a positive note, part of that is because we missed layups we almost always make. Especially from Lebron. Marshall misses them all the time, so that's no surprise, but we're not going to get so many missed layups from Lebron again. 

But our defensive game was no fluke. Top to bottom, we played excellent defense. We had a great game plan, and we took Joe Johnson out of the game completely. Even Lebron seemed to get up to play defense today. 

That's why I don't want to get rid of Mike Brown. We can afford to have a bad game when we play defense like this. Our offense was bad today, again, but we still won by 13 points. If we can do this every night, we'll be back on track in no time. 

Other thoughts: Larry looked a little more inclined to drive today, even though he still settled for jumpers too often. Hopefully he'll continue to be more aggressive as his ankle continues to heal. 

Gooden played a decent all around game, even though there were a couple defensive lapses. Nothing serious though. Andy was limited because of early foul trouble. One wasn't his fault at all, but it'd be nice if he could consistently stay out of foul trouble. He's been better this year, though.

Gibson played well in limited minutes. Damon doesn't quite have his shot down yet, but he's not playing terrible. His defense has improved markedly since he's joined this team.

Donyell Marshall is terrible.


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## Pioneer10 (Sep 30, 2004)

> *ATLANTA - *In Ohio, the Cavaliers are pretty hard to beat. In Georgia, they are unstoppable. As for the rest of the union, well, that's a work in progress.
> Piecing together a solid road effort, the Cavs hammered a wounded Atlanta Hawks team 89-76 on Wednesday. It was the second time this month the Cavs have exited Philips Arena with a victory, which is their good news. The bad is that those are their only two road wins in December, and the Cavs (16-11) have exhausted their schedule in Atlanta for the season.
> But everything has to start somewhere, so breaking the four-game road losing skid is fairly significant.
> ``I'm happy, I'm taking this win, and I'm not giving it back,'' Cavs coach Mike Brown said. ``I hugged all my guys and gave them high-fives.''
> ...


http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/sports/basketball/nba/cleveland_cavaliers/16334213.htm


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