A sour night in Cleveland

As I mentioned in an earlier post,I spent last night taking advantage of the free NBA League Pass preview to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers attempt to break a 14 game losing streak.
By luck,it appeared that Cleveland was in a position to possibly do so as the Milwaukee Bucks were the opponent and the Bucks were the lowest scoring team in the league.
As an added bonus,the Bucks two top scorers were missing with John Salmons and Brandon Jennings out with injuries and considering the home court,this looked as promising as Cleveland will have for a while.
The Cavaliers also returned three players to the floor after having to play games with as little as eight men as Joey Graham,Christian Eyenga and Anthony Parker were able to play.
None of that mattered as the Cavaliers were whipped by the visiting Bucks 102-88
Antawn Jamison and Ramon Sessions each scored 22 points for Cleveland.
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Swashbucklings

1) I know Cleveland is missing their best rebounding presence with Anderson Varejao and one of their two best scorers in Mo Williams,but neither of those guys remind me of all time greats and the fact that this team is so reliant on players of that caliber and be this bad shows you just how talented a motivated LeBron James was.

2) Ramon Sessions struggled from the floor (4 for 14),but I liked the way he finds his way to the line.
I dont think that Sessions is the type of guard that title contenders start,but he sure seems to be a energy off the bench type of player even on those teams.

3) J.J.Hickson may have loads of potential as a rebounder,but he is painfully overmatched at center.
Cleveland needs to somehow find a average center for next season in order move Hickson to his natural position at power forward.
Watching Hickson struggle to guard Andrew Bogut was pretty tough to watch...

4) I still like the hustle and effort by Daniel " Boobie" Gibson though.
Gibson is the only healthy link to the beginnings of the Cleveland contenders and he doesn't seem to have quit at all.Like Sessions,Gibson would be best as a role player on a good team,but on this one he needs to play a bigger role.

5) 2009 top pick Christian Eyenga has athletic ability,but it is clear that it is raw ability.
Back in the day,an Eyenga would have either came to the USA as a college player or fine tuned his game in the European leagues and came away with far more polish.
However,considering the Cleveland situation at this time and that the player is here,it would be best to give Eyenga as many minutes as possible....

6) I like Byron Scott as a coach and he sure got a raw deal in losing LeBron James after he was hired as the head man,but if he truly believes that this team isn't rebuilding,he is delusional.
Scott needs to showcase as many of these roleplayers such as Anthony Parker,Joey Graham etc and try to move them for anything that they can get in order to speed the process along..

7) I didn't see much that impressed me about either Manny Harris or Alonzo Gee.
Considering that the pair played a combined thirty-eight minutes,scored a whopping two points and BOTH are starters on this team shows just how far the team has fallen.

8) Fox Sports Ohio has the TV rights to the Cavaliers and feature two of my favorites from the past with Campy Russell on the pre and post game show and Austin Carr as the color analyst.
Nice to see guys sticking with the team and Carr raises some interesting points in his role,although he tends to speak quickly and it might take being a regular watcher to really understand what he is saying.

9) The Cavaliers wore what Fred McLeod say was "a one time only amalgam of Cavalier uniforms of the past".
Good,they were ugly.
I mean you wait thirty years for this franchise to finally wake up and use their true colors and they still wear crud like this???

10) Dan Gilbert "tweeted" this before the game- “You don’t panic when things get tough,” “You think. You examine. You calculate. THEN you strike. And we will strike.”
Not sure what that strike could be at this point to turn things around,but good luck to you.
A better strike would be take your lumps,move in the right direction and hope to rebound in a few years....


Photo Credit-Thomas Ondrey-Cleveland Plain Dealer