After Wednesday's trouncing of the sad, sad Wizards, the Cavs head West to for a five-game swing that includes the Nuggets, TrailBlazers, Warriors, Jazz and Clippers. Here's some stuff to chew on:
1. The Cavs are 14-6 on the road this season, with those losses coming in Toronto, Washington, Charlotte, Memphis, Houston and Dallas. The losses in Memphis and Houston came back-to-back. The loss to Dallas particularly hurt because the Mavs were without Dirk Nowitzki. Anyway, when I look at this five-game trip in front of them, I 'd be happy with a 3-2 record, but 4-1 would be incredible. I pencil in wins against the Clips, Warriors and Jazz with the Nuggets and TrailBlazers as the two more tough ones.
2. Stat-wise, there are a couple of things I wanted to highlight here: The Cavaliers are still leading the league in defensive field goal percentage, allowing the opposition to shoot 43.2 percent. The Lakers are second with a 43.4 percent-clip. This is one of the biggest stats you will read when talking about the Cavs, because defense is what they take pride in and most often times, when they win games its because they clamp down on teams are prevent high-scoring games. Fourth-quarter defense is also a big deal, which is something the Cavs have gotten better at as the season has progressed.
Also, the Cavs' point differential is +6.9, they score an average of 100.5 points and allow an average of 93.6 points per game. That is third in the NBA, behind the Celtics (+7.7) and the Lakers (+7.1). For comparison's sake, the Nets' check in at -11.5. Ouch. The other stat I wanted to hit on real quick is that the Cavs are second in the NBA in 3-point percentage at 41.6, behind the Suns at 41.8 percent. That is also a significant number and is the direct result of Mo Williams, Anthony Parker and to an extent, Daniel Gibson, who has been good in spurts this season but has been invisible lately.
3. Delonte West is starting to come on. Yes, he will have his bad moments, probably one for every two good moments. But when you look at the numbers, you see good signs: In each of the last 12 games, West has played at least 17 minutes. Of those 12 games, 10 have been wins. Also in those 12 games, West has scored in double figures in five of them, with the highest point total (18) coming against the Mavericks in the loss I mentioned earlier. More importantly than the points is his defense as Deltonte usually guards the opponent's best scoring backcourt player. When Deltone is on, the Cavs are usually on. However, I think they can win without him and I would not be surprised if they included him in any possible trades they may do between now and the deadline in February. How about in a possible deal for Antawn Jamison? Not sure that is plausible, but just a thought. Here is a link to Brian Windhorst's blog post last night about a possible Cavs-Jamison marriage:
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2010/01/cleveland_cavs_vs_washington_w.html
4. The team needs stay focused against the lesser teams. This is a very wide-ranging topic that I could go very deeply into, but I just want to get the basics out there right now: this Cavs team has shown the tendency to lose focus or intensity against some teams that they shouldn't, such as the Bobcats, Bulls and Raptors. They don't seem to have a problem playing against the big boys of the NBA. I expect Mike Brown and the coaching staff, along with the veterans of the team, to have this problem taken care soon before the games really start to "matter".
5. Shaq will be crucial to this trip. He had one of his best games in a while last night against the Wizards, totaling 17 points, six rebounds on nine shot attempts. But he always plays well against the Wizards so that may not be a good barometer. Also, just to prove how quirky the +/- stat is, Shaq's was -1 in that game, and if you watched it was obvious that he was quite effective. I can see him posting big numbers against the Jazz, Warriors and Nuggets on this trip. If the Cavs get him involved in the offense early and build a big lead, that will increase their probability of success in some of these tough road games.
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