The Wine and Gold Rush

W&GR Cavaliers Stat Check [3/19] . . . The Minus-Shaq, Minus-Z Edition

The Cleveland Cavaliers emerged from the All-Star Break with three straight losses (to the Denver Nuggets for the second time this season, to the Charlotte Bobcats for the third time this season, and to the Orlando Magic for the first time since they eliminated the Cavs in the '09 Eastern Conference Finals).

It was their first three-game losing streak in almost two full years.  (Their last back-to-back-to-back losses came in March of 2008.)  And it was a real buzzkill after all the exhilarating trade deadline hysteria . . . culminating in the pillaging of the Washington Wizards.

Then the Cavaliers righted the ship.  In a big way.

Since those three loses, the Cavs are 11-1.

That's even more impressive considering the fact that the Cavs have been without Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Shaquille O'Neal, who went down just one-and-a-half games into that 11-1 run.  Yet, without both of their centers, the Cavs are still 9-1.  (Or, technically, 9.5-1)

[And leading into the All-Star Break, the Cavaliers had a franchise record-tying 13-0 streak . . . while being without Mo for 11 of those games, Delonte for nine, and Jamario for four.]

So let's take a step back and appreciate the Cavs' resilience and take a look at some stats to see how they've been getting the job done over the last month. 

Suck down these numbers:

#1.)  Leading into tonight's game against the Chicago Bulls, the Cavs are 54-15, which is three games off last year's pace.  After 69 games last year, the Cavs were 57-12, and nine games into last year's 13-game winning streak.

To match those 66 wins, the Cavs would have to finish the regular season on a 12-1 run, which sounds like a stretch . . . until you consider that they're currently on an 11-1 run.  (Not that the 66 wins really matters in the grand scheme of things.)

#2.)  As of this (Friday) morning, the Cavaliers (54-15) have a 5.5 game lead on the Orlando Magic (49-21) for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.  The tiebreaker hasn't been determined yet. Cleveland has a 2-1 lead over the Magic in the season series, but there's one game left (in Cleveland on April 11th).

The Cavs have a 3.5 game lead over the Los Angeles Lakers (50-18) for the best record in the NBA . . . which, of course, would net the Cavs home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.  Since the Cavs own the tiebreaker - they walked over the Lakers in both of their match-ups this season - the lead is technically 4.5 games.

The Cavs Are in Casual Fridays Mode

[The Month of March + Aimless Opponents = Casual Fridays Mode, where the job gets done.  Eventually.]

Do you think these teams realize when the Cleveland Cavaliers are just screwing with them?

Do you think the Detroit Pistons or the Indiana Pacers genuinely think - if they're up by five or ten points in the second quarter . . . or are locked up with the Cavs in the fourth quarter - that they have the Cavs on the ropes?  That they, at least on this night, have a real chance to get the best of LeBron James?

Back on Tuesday night, the Cavaliers sent the floundering Pistons home . . . from their own arena . . . with a 113-101 loss. 

That's a 12-point margin of victory, which isn't bad.  But despite the fact that the Cavs have the best record in the NBA, and the Pistons have the 25th best, that margin didn't tell the story of the game. 

It told the story of the last four-and-a-half minutes.

With 4:43 left to go, the game was tied 94-94.  From that point on, the Cavs went on a 19-7 tear . . . to easily usher the Pistons aside.  It was a relief to watch, but also fairly unspectacular.  (With all due respect to Mo Williams, who can still get hot.)

It was just Cavalier basketball, making a fashionably late appearance at the Palace.

For most of the first three quarters, the Cavs were playing a loose game, which is something Cleveland fans are used to seeing early in games.  And really, that's when it works best. 

Opponents come into games against Cleveland all geared up for LeBron, but he sometimes diffuses that focus by sitting back . . . hanging out closer to half-court than the basket . . . and orchestrating / facilitating the offense from there. 

He's like having a huge gray cloud ominously drifting on the horizon.  You can make all the over-compensating preparations you want . . . carrying around an umbrella, draping yourself in a poncho, and wearing heavy-duty galoshes and one of those yellow rain hats . . . but you're going to look hilariously uncomfortable until it actually rains.  And since this isn't a cloud that's going to produce a light, scattered shower . . . when it rains, it'll pour.  And when it pours, you're going to get wet anyway.

The Cavs Aren't Good At Free Throws

Fox Sports Ohio color commentator Austin Carr has a saying (naturally) for when a Cavs player fools a defender into biting on a pump-fake, leaving the ground, and fouling the shooter on the way down.

He says:  "He got himself a bird." 

And he usually follows that up with a sing-songy:  "Time to go to the line for two."

But there hasn't been anything sing-songy about what actually happens at the line:  Which, at least recently, has been a split of the pair . . . hopefully. 

It's become so much of an adventure, or misadventure, that - with the way the Cavs have been scoring from the field - you kind of just want them to forget the song, forget the bird, forget the pump-fake and just take the shot and live or die with that.

I realize that isn't great basketball, but it sure beats bricking free throws.

Cleveland's free throw shooting has been atrocious all season . . . and as of late, it's been even worse. 

In November, the Cavs shot 73.4% from the line.  In December, they made 74.7% . . . in January, it was 71.5% . . . in February, it was 72.8% . . . and now in March, it's 65.4%.

And Shaquille O'Neal hasn't even played since February 25th.

Sunday's game against the geriatric Boston Celtics was a 104-93 win.  It's wasn't a blowout . . . although it easily could've been, if the Cavs would've made some free throws.  They went 31-for-48 from the line, which means they missed 17 "free" throws for an abysmal 64.6%.

So, no, the Cavs couldn't even cover their 65.4% average for the month.

[I just Googled "average high school free throw percentage."  The very unofficial answer?  "About 65%."  That seems a little high, but in any event  . . . 15 feet is 15 feet.  It's always the same.  It's a shot these guys have been shooting all their lives . . . a shot the coaches have spent their careers coaching.]

On Sunday, Leon Powe went 6-for-6 and Delonte West went 2-for-2 from the stripe . . . and it went downhill from there.  Antawn Jamison missed six (2-of-8), LeBron James missed five (11-of-16), Anderson Varejao missed three (5-of-8), J.J. Hickson missed two (4-of-6) and Anthony Parker split two shots.

Antawn Jamison: So Who Is This Dude?

The Cleveland Cavaliers went to a lot of trouble to land Antawn Jamison.

Not a lot of expense, trouble.  (Or, maybe trouble and expense . . . if you're either a die-hard Darnell Jackson fan, or were really looking forward to seeing what long, long-lens international project Danny Ferry had in mind for this year's late first round draft pick.)

In a week and a half, Zydrunas Ilgauskas will be able to return to the Cavs . . . and at that point, Ferry's devilish choreography will have played itself out perfectly.  No alarms and no surprises.

It looks so clean now, but Ferry and the Cavs' front office worked feverishly to meticulously line up all the dominoes to make the complicated Jamison for (essentially) nothing rally work out as planned.

So now that we got this guy . . . and he's played 10 games in a Cleveland uniform . . . and that Z has announced his intention to return . . . it's finally time to ask: 

Just who is this dude?

Antawn Jamison, The Early Years.

Antawn Cortez Jamison was born June 12th, 1976, in Shreveport, Louisiana.  (He was conceived roughly nine months prior to that.)  His family named him Antwan (pronounced like "Antoine"), but because of a typo on his birth certificate, his name was spelled "A-n-t-a-w-n".

It's unclear whose fault that was . . . or what they were drinking when they made the mistake . . . but regardless, the spelling was never corrected.  Wikipedia claims that's because Antawn's family felt the misspelling made him more, quote, "distinctive."  (It's still pronounced like "Antwan" or "Antoine".)

Distinctive or not, the constant misspellings / mispronounciations were a living hell for Antawn.  So much so, that when his firstborn son was born in December of 2006 . . . and he decided to make him a "junior" . . . he fixed it.

Regarding Antwan Cortez Jamison Jr., Antawn has said:  "I just didn't want him to go through what I went through.  So we made life easier on him."

Breaking Down the Two LeBron-Less Cavs Games

Unless something unexpected happens, LeBron James will be back on the court on Friday, when the Cleveland Cavaliers travel to Philadelphia to play the 76ers. 

(Philadelphia won't be on a back-to-back, but they played last night and will play again tonight . . . while the Cavs will have had three full days off leading into the game.)

LeBron has sat out the last two games . . . Saturday in Milwaukee and Monday night at home against San Antonio . . . with a cornucopia of banged-up parts, including a left quad bruise, a right ankle injury and a little back soreness.

Thankfully, nothing serious though.

With the three-day break in-between the San Antonio game and Friday's game in Philly, it was a convenient time to give LeBron some rest.  He could pretty much shut himself down for an entire week, while missing just two (nondescript) games.

So, the LeBron-less Cavs got a shot to show what they could do.

But before we get to that, here are a few statistics we dug up regarding life without LeBron.

#1.)  Prior to this season, the Cavaliers have been LeBron-less 20 times.

• 2003-2004:  2-1
• 2004-2005:  1-1
• 2005-2006:  3-0
• 2006-2007:  3-1
• 2007-2008:  0-7
• 2008-2009:  0-1

J.J. Hickson Would Like To Remind You That Danny Ferry Did Not Trade Him

J.J. Hickson has a question for you, along with all Cleveland Cavaliers fans, Coach Mike Brown, the Association as a whole, and Brian Windhorst for one of his weekend "Hey Brian!" Q&A features:

"Do I have your attention yet?"

Last month . . . before the trading deadline . . . I wondered whether the Cavs already had the young, athletic, toolsy power forward that they were looking for in a mid-season pick-up. 

J.J. may not be ready to be a dependable star in the playoffs yet, but he does seem ready to be a playoff contributor . . . and someone who's capable of blowing up if he's ignored, like Daniel Gibson did in 2007.  Simply put, he was in my nine-man playoff rotation.

Unfortunately, he looked to be as good as gone.  Danny Ferry looked set on making a trade . . . a trade for a significant player . . . and J.J. was the commodity everyone wanted in exchange for handing over a great player, and agreeing to the Zydrunas Ilgauskas yo-yoing.

But the Cavaliers ended up being able to pry Antawn Jamison out of Washington without giving up J.J.  And once again, Danny Ferry's intellect, creativity, toughness, and resilience . . . coupled with Dan Gilbert's checkbook . . . proved to be a magic combination.

With Antawn in the fold, J.J. lost his spot as the starting power forward, and for one game (the losing streak-busting win against New Orleans last week) his spot in the rotation.  (It was his first DNP-CD of the season.)  But then Shaquille O'Neal went down, and J.J. was ready to resume his breakout season.

The Distance Between the Cavs and the Knicks Is Much More Than Just LeBron

Did you ever have an imaginary friend while growing up?

It's OK to admit it.  And actually, it's kind of weird if you didn't.  Like your brain was missing a few connections or something. 

I had one.  His name was Sidney J. Mussburger, and he was the CFO for a Fortune 500 company based in Minnesota.  He was pretty dull, and totally sucked at tennis.

The Cleveland Cavaliers may or may not have individual imaginary friends . . . or a collective imaginary friend . . . but they do have a collective imaginary foe:  The New York Knicks.  (And the term "foe" is used so liberally that it's actually being misused.)

The Knicks may or may not actually exist.  But either way, they totally suck at basketball. 

Case in point:  On Monday night, the Cavs beat their imaginary foe by 31 points, 124-93.  And it wasn't anywhere near that close.  Seriously. 

The 42-point lead the Cavs had after three quarters is a little more like it.  The last 12 minutes was basically an extra, full-on practice for the bench guys . . . in front of 20,562 live fans, and many, many thousands more via television.

For the second time this year, the Cavs have scored 74 points on the Knicks in a half.  Which, I suppose, isn't shocking since the Knicks have a 12-player logjam for their "Worst Defender" distinction.

Cleveland is playing like a team that has finally surrounded its megastar with a perfect complement of players to contend in the face of any adversity . . . and to win against almost every single one of them.

New York is playing like a bunch of local dudes who are really hoping to have a shot at winning a YMCA round-robin tournament.  Or, like an NBA team that's been punting seasons since LeBron was in high school.

The Cavs' Stellar Record While *Not* At Full-Strength Is About to Be Tested

You never wish injury on an opponent.

On Thursday night, the Boston Celtics were without Paul Pierce due to a right thumb injury.  Paul, of course, has served as the linchpin of Boston's "Big Three" (copyright 2007, 2008).

You also never wish injury on yourself.

For fans in other cities, that's an obvious joke.

For fans in the success-starved city of Cleveland . . . it's often a temptation, especially when it seems as though an injury is the only way to banish an overpaid, under-performing veteran who was brought in, almost inexplicably, to block the ascent of the younger, potential-filled kid waiting in the wings.

If an injury does not occur, the stubborn Cleveland coaches / front office may never unseat the fading vet to get a good enough look at the prospect.  Then, undoubtedly, that kid leaves or is traded to have an opportunity elsewhere.  And with uncanny frequency, a star is born and Cleveland is burned.

It's the modus operandi of the Cleveland Indians . . . but it's happened to the Cavaliers and the Browns as well.

Relax.

This is not an anti-Shaquille O'Neal / pro-J.J. Hickson (with a slice of Anderson Varejao) article, but if the Cavaliers weren't being run by a smart coach and an elite front office . . . it could've been.

Is LeBron Bummed About Zydrunas Ilgauskas Not Being with the Cavs?

LeBron OK'd the Antawn Jamison move.

Danny Ferry may be a mad GM genius, but he'd just be mad to make a major move without consulting LeBron . . . especially since LeBron is a free agent this summer and no one wants him to be uncool with any moves that were made or not made.

In a recent press conference, Ferry claimed that he did not clear the move with anyone on the team at the deadline . . . since we were going to have to give up at least one player, and you don't really want to put someone on the spot saying 'would you give up this teammate to get that player,' etc.

He says he talked with some of the team's core players before the season started, and asked for their input on a whole slew of players that he thought could be available before the trading deadline . . . just in case the Cavaliers had an opportunity to make a good move.

Maybe that's true . . . or maybe he did float some of the particulars by LeBron privately, and doesn't want to say anything about it to ensure that he doesn't say or do anything that would prohibit the likely buy-out and return of Zydrunas Ilgauskas. 

Even if it's obvious that the Z yo-yo was the Cavs' hope (or even intention) you don't want to make it sound like there was an illegal agreement in place. 

Regardless, at some point, Ferry and LeBron talked about Jamison.  They also talked about Z's expiring contract, and the possibility of trading him to take the opportunity to add a significant talent to the roster.

And since the trade happened, LeBron was cool with it.

But like a lot of fans, there's a chance that LeBron felt heavier about it once it was actually time to say goodbye to Z . . . even if it might only be for 30 days.  

Mike Brown Shrinks the Rotation . . . and the New Cavs Grind Out a Win

If you were Mike Brown, what would be harder:

Taking minutes away from one of your Top Seven guys (LeBron James, Anderson Varejao, Shaquille O'Neal, Antawn Jamison, Mo Williams, Delonte West and Anthony Parker) . . . or allowing your team to play through periods of turbulence and ineffectiveness while the talents of your B-team (Daniel Gibson, J.J. Hickson, Jamario Moon, Jawad Williams, (soon) Leon Powe, and maybe Danny Green) . . . waste away on the bench?

Prior to the playoffs, the challenge might be finding enough minutes for everyone (or the Top 13, at least) to keep them in a rhythm, and to give them an opportunity to build on-court chemistry with each other, so that in the event they are needed in the playoffs, they can be plugged in without appearing disconnected from both their individual and team play.

Once the playoffs hit, Mike Brown's tendency (like a lot of coaches) will be to shrink the rotation down to seven or eight players . . . and barring any injuries or severe lop-sidedness, that's it.  That's the team.

If Zydrunas Ilguaskas comes back, he gets the final spot in that Top Eight.  That sure leaves a lot of talent on the bench.  This deep, deep depth is a good problem to have, but it doesn't exactly output easy answers.  The nagging question will always be:  Are my Top Eight really my Top Eight . . . right now?

Wednesday's game against the New Orleans Hornets was a "must win."

Not in a playoff, do-or-die way, of course.  And actually, not in any sort of real, necessary way either.  But it was nonetheless, and Mike Brown celebrated that fact by using a tight, playoff rotation.