Game 38 Preview: Cavaliers vs. Blazers

going with LeBron.

Should be a good game though.

so obviously, we will beat Cleveland

And they just lost to the Nugs who just lost to the Kings so we are clearly better

Thought they were synonymous?

Cunningham can slow Lebron.

Or five defending one when he gets the ball. Thats what Philly did to Roy and it worked.

Got to get that guy in foul trouble fast. Maybe a first quarter flop-athon . Refs can’t ignore them all can they? Jeesh I’m encourageing cheating. That can’t be good.

How do you see this one playing out? I imagine Howard will have to be ready to shoot that foul-line jumper to draw Shaq out of the paint, and maybe Howard’s smarts combined with stealing all Shaq’s Centrum Silver will give him an edge.

Go Blazers!

And we’ll at least have a chance.

I believe.

We always play better when we’re on national TV.

The Blazers were competitive at Cleveland last time, and the Cavs are iffy on the road against the west (5-4, I think). According to Hoopdata.com, Roy was inefficient shooting (9-25 FG), and James efficient (14-24 FG). Przy played (2 pts 11 rebs), but Shaq had a good game anyways (14 pts 8rebs, which is almost his ceiling for a game this year). The other shooting guards were great – LMA was 22 pts, 2 rebs, with just one shot within 10 feet, and Howard 6-7 FG, 1 reb, but Varejao feasted on the 4 guard lineup with 22 pts and 10 rebs. Miller (8-13 FG, including [gasp!] 2-3 3pt) and Blake (0 pts, 8 assists) mixed up their underwear, but overall weren’t bad, and kept Mo Williams in check (14 pts, 10 ast). Webster could be exactly the same (4-13 FG, 4 rebs). Rex and Dante were nonentities, Pendy injured.

It’s reasonable to hope that Roy will be more efficient and LeBron a bit less, which by itself might be enough to change the outcome.Shaq and Varejao might dip a bit by simple force of probability, and with hustle and quick help doing against them what Przy by himself could not. Andre + Rex could easily match Andre + Blake, and maybe draw a few fouls on Shaq.

I smell a good chance at an upset. And if I can smell it, Rex can too.

Well, we have a player named Brandon Roy on our team, so I always expect a win.

LeBron is too hard to stop. And we almost need to throw some sort of junk D at him to disrupt him. Perhaps changing up the look on alternating plays? I’d like to see the likes of Pendergraph go out there and just hit him a few times, to throw him off his game. Not many people like to match him physically, because they come off second best.

BUT, more than LeBron, the rebounding issue will be a big one for this Blazers team. Against the Lakers, Odom and Bynum got second chance opportunities far too many times at inopportune times. Thank goodness that Bryant was being forced into failing shots, because if not, the result may have been different. With Varejao, Shaq, Big Z, JJ and LeBron crashing the boards, this is the area that the Blazers need to look out for the most. Fo shizzle.

We can’t go with small lineups, unless we really want to run them like we did with the Lakers. We need a big lineup out there. Let’s hope Juwan can do his thing on the boards and that LaMarcus has the mindset of a 12 rebound game as opposed to a 6 rebound one. The two rookie bigs will have to play their butts off too.

Either way, a loss in this game is no disgrace; rather, a reflection of the unfortunate situation the Blazers roster finds itself in.

Hit 11 3’s …Marty and Steve (?) combine for 9!
’Dre penetrates, gets to the line, LBJ & Shaq get into some early foul trouble, and winds up w/22 pts 9 assists.
Brandon matches whatever LBJ scores
J.Fearless gets into shoving match with Varejao when LBJ fouls Marty hard, pumping up the crowd and getting the team motivated. JBay scores 18 tough points.
LA finally has a good game and gets a double double.
Juwan stays Juman and plays tough D while also getting the double d.

OK …….maybe more like predictions….or maybe rays of hope…..

I’m just askin’… exactly when did Shaq ever hit an outside shot? Has he developed new game in Cleveland? I haven’t paid him much attention since he left LA for the eastern conference but outside of his little hook in the pain, I’m just not remembering much.

Another game preview with the “Blazers Shouldn’t Win” theme? You know, maybe it’s a busy weekend with the excitement of the win over the Lakers and the start of the NFL playoffs, etc, so I suppose I can let it slide. But seriously, it seems like every time the Blazers play someone remotely good, local media, especially radio guys, and to a much lesser extent, around here, bring out the “Blazers Have No Business Stepping Onto Floor” theme and begin beating the dead horse. It grows tiresome. How many times to we have to “shock the world” to have people accept that the team is actually playing well despite the myriad of ill luck, and not keep pretending that we are setting the world record for fluke victories in a season?

Lebron scores 100, dances on the Trailblazers symbol afterward

I think I’m like 8-2 when predicting an opponent blowout, clearly this is key

Blazers have played the Cav’s tough the last few games, so maybe this is the one we finally pull out.

Or maybe we get our butts handed to us (hope not).

Sorry, should not have posted twice. Still getting used to this blogging thing.

We beat the Lakers, and they’re clearly far better than the Cavs no matter what the Christmas day snafu will lead you to believe. Besides, we’ve beaten DALLAS AND SA on the road on a BACK TO BACK. Now that we’ve been there, we can do anything. The Cavs? Pffttt, Juwan Howard will eat them for a snack.

Roy’s hamstring and LMA’s ankles, I say rest them the majority of the game. Give the vets and rookies a boost of confidence and let them have a go at Cleveland. Hand Miller the reigns, send Howard to evesdrop on their strategies, open the cage door for Rex, light the Inferno and unleash the PenderBEAST on Cleveland and see what happens. If we lose, oh well, most people think we’re going to lose anyway, but, if we win, huge confidence boost for everyone. Confidence=believing, believing=winning.

have pity on Dave , he has church this morning.

I’ll excuse the " we aren’t going to win" theme this time ;)

S

Yet when it’s time to play them, everybody is more scared of Lebron. It’s not even close anymore. When we play the Lakers, poor games like Kobe had against us last are not a surprise, but I fully expect Lebron to absolutely dominate, even if his shot isn’t falling.

it will never fail at giving me a bath!
In fact, I think you should come up w/ a weekly column called Phil’s Rage which you point out all of the whining that is going on in Blazerdom.

I think he’ll be the key to winning this game. I sincerely hope Blake gets more minutes than Miller.

Hold on to your butts..

man I feel like LMA is gonna crush tonight. THis feeling is based on mochi Ice cream.

I tried clicking through to the Fear the Sword site to get Cleavland’s take on the game. Apparently it’s such a trivial game for them that it’s not even up (it still shows their Denver game from the 8th).

Dave,
You might want to remove that link… though I guess it does give their “assessment” of how important this game is to them!