Yay! We beat the evil CrabDribbles! What, you say? LeBron James wasn't playing? Mo Williams wasn't playing? Daniel Gibson and Anderson Varejao left early? Who cares??
Some quick thoughts:
- Obviously, let's hope Antawn Jamison's shoulder is okay. I hate to say it, but that looked a bit ugly. It certainly didn't look as bad as the play where Shane Battier popped Dwyane Wade's shoulder a couple years ago, but it brought back memories of that. I'm hoping he just stung it a bit and will be okay by the regular-season opener, but we'll see. Right now, the Wizards are saying it's a sprained shoulder.
- Either way, while it definitely sucks, this is where our better depth at the 2, 3, and 4 positions should help us. We're better able to withstand an injury to, say, Caron Butler or Jamison this year. On paper, at least.
- Hey, Mike Miller, look what happens when you shoot the damn ball! Do it more often. THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!
- Gilbert Arenas looked pretty hesitant at times tonight to me, though I guess that's understandable since this was his first back-to-back in almost two years. The good news is that a) he still set up people well (though he needs to cut down on the turnovers) and b) he got to the line 11 times. We're back to the Arenas that manages to be efficient even without shooting all that amazingly.
- The big lineup was, by and large, a pretty good success, in my opinion. We didn't see it much, but that was when they played their best defense.
- God bless Caron Butler, love his renewed aggression on offense, but he really doesn't have the mindset to be a lockdown defender. It's looking more and more like it might make sense to start DeShawn Stevenson and Dahntay Jones him (aka have him play like 15 minutes a game and be aggressive as hell on defense while playing the better player -- Miller -- off the bench in crunch time).
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Fabricio Oberto is moving a lot better than he did earlier in preseason, and he does some good things on defense that you don't always notice unless you watch closely. He also sets some nice screens.
- Randy Foye displayed in the fourth quarter that he can prosper without Miller out there with him. That's big. I don't think I've seen that all preseason.
- The second-quarter three-point defense was pretty pitiful, and it all happened with JaVale McGee on the court. He has all the athleticism, but guys are double-teaming his man and covering for him when he isn't getting up the floor. That opens up the three-point line, and that's how Cleveland can rain threes. That's definitely a bit of an oversimplification, but I think it's part of it.