Osupa 17 December 2009 Sports No Comment

By Brian Windhorst

December 16, 2009, 11:23PM

PHILADELPHIA — Thoughts following the Cavs’ 108-101 victory over the 76ers:

• In the locker room after the game there was a book in LeBron James’ locker called “The Law of Success,” which is a personal improvement book written by Napoleon Hill in the 1920s. It take a look at highly successful people of that age and how they got there. LeBron likes this sort of thinking literature, last year he read Malcolm Gladwell’s “Outliers,” for example. He reads the newspaper, too (pay attention kids out there, Read to Achieve isn’t just a slogan in the NBA. That goes for some adults, too. This is the MVP after all).

Pardon the pun, but there’s lots of laws of success in winning in the NBA, too. Perhaps LeBron is trying to apply all of them just to see what sticks. The Cavs are winning right now and he’s getting it done with some great games. But they are doing so much wrong while doing it.

Perhaps some Google searches will prove me wrong, but I can’t remember the Cavs having this shaky of a four-game winning streak in the LeBron era. They nearly coughed it up against Portland, got lucky hot with 3s against the Thunder, barely got past the Nets and took advantage of Philly going limp in the fourth tonight even when LeBron and the Cavs were trying to make it easy on them.

When they play in Dallas, Phoenix and L.A. next week, it stands to reason that they can’t do any of that and win. The transition defense and offensive stagnation late is recurring yet they keep getting by because they play defense just well enough and LeBron and Mo Williams make a few plays. It doesn’t seem like this stuff should last and maybe it won’t. But the question is whether lessons will get learned in the meantime. Doesn’t look like it so far.

Yet no one in the locker room seems to feel ill at ease. The season is too long and fragile to be unhappy with wins and I totally get that. They won two road games this week without playing very well. There’s frankly no shame in that. Getting through periods like this is what makes a 60-win team.

• Philly is up three points in the fourth quarter and they are playing well. The Cavs were on the ropes a bit. Then, for no good reason, the crowd starts chanting “A.I., A.I., A.I.” Why A.I.? Now I understand why the Sixers signed him and why Iverson cried when he came back. There is a love affair. Exactly 16 seconds after A.I. came into the game he threw a lazy pass toward Andre Iguodala.

LeBron picked it out of the air and started toward the other end. Now, he made a great play because after dribbling it off Iguodala’s foot, he recovered and drilled a 3-pointer right in front of the Philly bench to tie the game. The Cavs never trailed again.

Iverson’s +/- in the fourth was -10. OK, it wasn’t all his fault. I just don’t understand why the crowd was demanding he come back in the game when things were going fine without him. He can still play pretty well, I know.

Anyway, after LeBron hit that trey, he slid down the Sixers bench and slapped Eddie Jordan on the behind.

“Eddie Jordan and I have history,” LeBron said with a smile.

• Mike Brown’s rotations in the second half were bizarre. In general, he’s been struggling with his guard rotation for the last couple of weeks. He doesn’t seem to know when he should play Delonte West and having him and Daniel Gibson in and out of the lineup hasn’t helped his flow. Tonight in the fourth quarter there wasn’t a starter in the game for a stretch, which was a questionable move to say the least.

Because of Iverson, Brown played West a little more and Anthony Parker a little less in this game. That or he just didn’t know what he was going to do with his guards. Can’t quite tell.

Anyway, Mo Williams sat for nine straight minutes and I don’t think that’s a good strategy even when he’s having an off night. Asked about it, Mike said it was because he played Mo 37 minutes last night and that was too much so he wanted to give him some extra rest. That may be true but the rotations are so off I can’t tell. It all worked out in the end, though.

• Don’t know about you, but Jrue Holiday looked pretty good tonight. He missed some shots badly in the fourth but that is going to happen as a rookie. He had nine assists and one turnover and outplayed Williams for a lot of the game. Last time these two teams played, Holiday didn’t even get off the bench.

Recap:

GAME RESET

Cavs 108, 76ers 101

Game No. 26 at Wachovia Center

What happened: The Cavs once again played far from their best but were able to get away with it against a bad team. After missing his first six shots, Mo Williams hit two big 3-pointers in the final four minutes and LeBron James scored 13 points in the fourth quarter. The defense held the Sixers to 34 percent shooting in the second half.

The star: James had a typical game, scoring 36 points with six rebounds and seven assists.

The co-star: Andre Iguodala had 26 points and seven rebounds for the 76ers.

Highlight: Jrue Holiday’s lob to Iguodala for breath-taking alley-oop dunk in the third quarter.

Lowlight: James missed a wide-open dunk in third quarter.

Third Quarter: Cavs 83, Sixers 80

• The Sixers look pretty good for a 6-18 team. Getting Marreese Speights back has helped them, he’s been a big lift inside off the bench. Also, Andre Iguodala has been near the top of his game tonight. He’s hammered the Cavs in transition, which is their weakness. Allen Iverson hasn’t played great, but he’s been able to get to the line for easy points. Overall, after some poor defense in the first quarter the Sixers have played rather well.

• Mo Williams has been outplayed by rookie Jrue Holiday in this game. Jrue has nine points and eight assists and Mo doesn’t have a basket yet.

• The offense has been OK but the ball has stalled in LeBron’s hands a bit at times. They scored just four points in the paint in the third quarter as they settled for some lower percentage shots. They just didn’t seem like they got into their offense much. The Sixers will have defensive breakdowns if you force them.

• This may well come down to a possession game. Which means heavy lifting at offensive end by LeBron. Probably against Iguodala.

Halftime: Cavs 60, Sixers 55

• Cavs are having trouble defensively. In transition they have been getting schooled, but that isn’t new. They’ve been slow in rotations and the Sixers are getting a load of inside points, they have 22 points in the paint. The Cavs only give up about 34 paint points a game on average, which is the best in the league. It was telling that in the second quarter they actually went to a zone defense for periods. The Sixers are shooting 55 percent overall, which isn’t good because this isn’t a good offensive team. Though they were better in the last few minutes of the quarter.

• Andre Iguodala is a pretty good on-ball defender when he wants to be and he’s had success on James after a poor start. LeBron hasn’t challenged him by attacking. LeBron’s playing pretty well offensively, his jumper has been on, but it does seem like Iguodala is perhaps taking him out of his normal game a bit.

• One thing the Cavs have done nicely tonight is get the ball into the post and create offense out of it. J.J. Hickson has taken advantage of being ignored for some easy baskets and Shaq has moved the ball when double teams come. That is why they are shooting 58 percent and have 60 points.  But only a five-point lead, not so good.

First Quarter: Cavs 32, Sixers 26

• The Sixers’ defense was very poor in the early going, no wonder they have lost 12 of 13. The Cavs were able to get inside with ease, scoring 16 points in the paint. They shot 57 percent and had a big lead. But, like their custom, turnovers and weak transition defense shrunk the lead fast. It is truly reaching epidemic proportions with this team. They just don’t know what to do with leads.

• LeBron played way too loose in the first quarter. He had a couple of just plain sloppy and careless turnovers leading to points. The Cavs had six turnovers in the first 12 minutes. There’s simply no excuse for that sort of play. He’s got to take care of it, it is simply a bad habit that’s gotten out of control.

• Both Shaq and Zydrunas Ilgauskas have picked up where they left off last night. Both had good opening quarters, especially on offense. That’s such a valuable 1-2 punch when they have it going. Also, JJ Hickson made four or five positive plays which is a good sign after his last few games.

Projected starting lineups:

Cavs: Mo Williams, Anthony Parker, LeBron James, JJ Hickson, Shaquille O’Neal

Sixers: Allen Iverson, Jrue Holiday, Andre Iguodala, Thaddeus Young, Sam Dalembert

Officials

Joe DeRosa, Nick Buchert, David Guthrie

• No update yet on Delonte West, it won’t be known until about an hour before gametime whether or not he’ll be activated. Based on my knowledge, it could go either way. Both Iverson and Iguodala sat out practice yesterday but they are expected to play. Marreese Speights is out for the Sixers.

• Key player tonight is Hickson. The Sixers have gone small in the last couple games, taking Elton Brand out of the starting lineup and using Young as the power forward. He’s active and has range and has been a big key for them. He’s a tough cover and Hickson had trouble in the last meeting. Hickson has not played well over the last two weeks and he’s getting pressure from the coaching staff and teammates to turn it up. Let’s see if he’s able to. With the schedule coming up, the Cavs really could use Hickson getting back to his form of a month ago.

• Iverson has played pretty well for the Sixers since coming back, averaging 16 points and shooting 43 percent. He’s still a high-volume scorer, he puts up a lot of shots. He’s been having knee trouble and had it drained earlier this week. But he’s still dangerous, scoring 20 points in the Sixers’ win Monday.

• Philly is a bit of a dangerous team for the Cavs. They are a poor scoring team in the halfcourt so they try to push the ball in transition. That is why they are playing small now, they’ve had to because of the trouble scoring. That’s also why they signed Iverson. The Cavs are one of the worst transition defensive teams in the NBA, partially because they have been committing so many turnovers lately that they don’t have a chance. Last night, LeBron and Mo combined for 10 turnovers. If that happens again tonight there will be problems.