Cavs 07-08 Season Thread

[osugrad21]

ABJ

McManamon's deep thoughts, heading into Cavs Game 2 Published on Monday, Apr 21, 2008

1) Washington writers pretty much summed up the way the Cavs are viewed nationally. A Washington Post column on Sunday stated: ''You do have to wonder when and if the Wizards are going to realize they have more weapons, more depth and too much talent to let one great player and a smattering of very marginal role players ruin Washington's postseason for the third year in a row.'' Now THAT is disrespect.
2) Then there's this from a Washington Times columnist, who called for James to be suspended for his elbow to the jaw of Andray Blatche: ''This is James, the schoolyard bully who sometimes exhibits little class. It is as if he cannot let his wondrous talent tell his story. He has to add a strut, a glare and an elbow or three.'' Truth be told, I'd not be surprised if James is fined for that elbow. It was pretty blatant.



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[osugrad21]

CPD

Cleveland Cavaliers' Anderson Varejao endures up-and-down season

Many factors make for a roller-coaster season for Varejao
Monday, April 21, 2008

Story by Jodie Valade Plain Dealer Reporter
When Anderson Varejao's late-game, decision-making skills still were be ing questioned after last season, he was walking the halls of the Cleveland Clinic with his father to help speed Sebastiao Varejao's recovery from heart surgery.
When Varejao was being vilified as a money-hungry malcontent in his free-agency summer, he was helping nurse his mother, Nely, back from her own heart surgery back in his hometown in Brazil.
And when Varejao and Cavs fans finally had put all the hard feelings behind them and he was averaging career-best statistics in every category, his left ankle gave out and forced him to miss 13 regular-sea son games.
Still, according to the Cavaliers' energetic spark plug, this season of ups and plenty of downs - a roller- coaster ride mirrored in Satur day's Game 1 victory over Washington - has not been diffi cult.
"Different," Varejao said. "Just differ ent."
At times this sea son, much like in Game 1 against Washington, Varejao has dominated defensively and on the boards, performing his best maneuver as the Cavs' designated pest. And at other times, again like against the Wizards, he is frustratingly inconsistent, attempting swooping layups or 15-foot jumpers and vanishing from the defensive role the Cavaliers desperately desire.




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[osugrad21]

Plain Dealer columnist Bud Shaw analyzes the play of Cleveland Cavaliers' Ben Wallace


Monday, April 21, 2008Bud Shaw
Plain Dealer Columnist
Ben Wallace let his hair out, not down.
He looked like his old self, all the way up until the tipoff.
"It was fun seeing Ben bring out his haircut again," Cavs center Zydrunas Ilgauskas said Sunday.
It's supposed to be something else, too: intimidating, even scary, at the very least a reminder that Wallace -- not as it's turned out Delonte West -- was thought to be the defining piece in Danny Ferry's Big Adventure at the trade deadline.
With Wallace stuck to the bench in the fourth quarter, Wizards power forward Antawn Jamison (23 points, 19 rebounds) apparently missed that point. He also missed some wide-open 3s -- not all on Wallace's watch -- that nobody expects him to clang again in the series.
"Any matchup is a tough matchup in the playoffs," a terse Wallace said after the Cavaliers' workout.
Granted, Jamison isn't an easy one. Wallace is best as a help defender, springing his hair-enhanced self on penetrations into the lane.


CPD

[osugrad21]

CPD

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James expects hard fouls


Monday, April 21, 2008Branson Wright
Plain Dealer Reporter
The series between the Cavaliers and the Wizards began with plenty of trash talking, and that spilled onto the court in Game 1 with hard fouls, especially on LeBron James.
James was knocked down on several occasions, and he went to the line 14 times. James expects more of the same tonight.
"I have to be smart about things and go out and play my aggressive game," James said. "I don't have a problem on getting hit. If that's their game plan, I have to be able to get back up and continue to let my game speak. I've been in the top five in the league in and-ones. They don't want to give that up."
So many times before, especially during the past two years in the postseason against the Wizards, James has gone through the teeth of the Wizards' defense untouched. For most of the first half, the Wizards greeted James with hard fouls on his attempts to go inside. Despite one particular foul when James was hit in the face by Andray Blatche, the fouls on James were simply hard fouls.
"I don't think they did anything intentionally, and I'm not going to retaliate intentionally," James said. "No one's coming out to try to hurt me. They do want to commit hard fouls, but I have to protect myself."




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[osugrad21]

Canton

Beat-up LeBron will stand his ground
James, Brown

crying 'foul!'
Monday, April 21, 2008
BY Chris Beaven
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

With each pound of his fist on the table, Mike Brown made his point loud and clear Saturday. His All-Star forward, LeBron James, "is getting clobbered," and the Cavs coach is tired of it.

The side of Brown's hand thundered off the table to put extra emphasis in the words ? "boom, boom, boom" ? he used to describe some of the hits James absorbed Saturday in Game 1 of the first-round playoff series with the Wizards.

The Cavs won, 93-86, but it's clear Brown wants James to get more protection from officials in tonight's Game 2, which tips at 7 at Quicken Loans Arena.

"LeBron is so strong, quick and athletic, that when he drives, he gets hit all the time," Brown said after Sunday's practice. "And teams like Washington have come out and said, 'We're fouling him when he gets in the paint.' So that's something you'd hope the officials take a look at; when he drives the basketball, they've already said, they're fouling him.

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