I mean come on 6 points and 3 rebounds.....whew...you almost had us believing in you again with all those double rebound games. Thank god we can count on you to slouch back to normal.... DaDakota
Ah well, it's only normal for players to have an off game every now and then. Hopefully he'll get back on track and continue for the rest of the season, or else it's back to relying on drafting/trading a pick for a C in the draft. Besides, I'd fall asleep too in that dull-house Cleveland arena...
tonights game is an unfair evaluation of cato, he played hard limited playing time and we don't even know if he still had symptoms from the food poisoning. i can't understand why he wasn't in there to guard ilgauskas when he was picking us apart.
I really dislike inconsistency. If he will suck, then he needs to do it consistently. Please don't toy with us Cato!
Flu last more than a few days give it a rest Cato was still down but he tried...he played for the team but flu can kill your energy quick
Yeah, I didn't see any inconsistency tonight on Cato's part as far as effort go. He was trying, and he was generally playing smart. Ilgauskas did beat him out for some rebounds on the defensive end, but that is to be expected because Big Z is a huge, hulking, bulging player who has good big man skills. Overall, I didn't think Cato played that much worse than his recent play (with the exception of the missed slam).
from espn david alridge didn't know anyone had to pry kelvin cato ever. link sorry if already been posted
A few things to remember: 1. Even Jabbar only grabbed 2 rebounds in a play-off game against the Rockets once. The Lakers ended up loosing that series to the Rockets in 1980. Cato is no Jabbar but it just proves that even some of the greats have off games. 2. Cato had food poisening less than 24 hours earlier. Has anyone here besides me ever had food poisening? It takes a few days to recover your strength. He did manage to chip in 4 steals and it looked like he was really trying. 3. Bill and Calvin jinxed him. Right after that nice little reverse dunk that Cato got from a pass from Steve, Bill began talking about how Cato now had a finish to his game that he did not have before. Calvin also put his two cents by talking about how the other Rockets were afraid to pass the ball down low to Cato but that they love it now because he was almost automatic when you get him the ball down low now. Prior to those statements I don't think Cato fumbled a pass or missed a dund for at least two weeks. After that he either fumbled every pass or missed clanked his remaining dunks off of the iron. Thanx Bill and Calvin. BTW, would anyone be willing to trade Cato and something else for Finley? There has been a lot of talk lately about the Mavs trading him. It has been generated mostly from talk shows and newspaper collums but the word is that the Mavs played their best ball when Finley was on IR. Does a Francis, Mobley and Finley trio excite anyone? Personally I don't care for Finley because he is a one deminsional player but Rudy does like the SF that will stand outside and hit the spot up jumpers and that is Finleys game. The guy can avg 20 a game shooting jumpers but his defense is not all that great, he refuses to drive to the basket even though he has a great first step and can finish with anyone, and he gets shut down in big games. Unless we have a plan to replace Cato then I don't do that deal.
The Flu is no joke. When I played in college, I was like superman in the first half and Superwimp in the second. The flu just drained all my energy and i sucked air the whole second half. Hopefully after the all star break he'll get healthy and play consistent ball.
I didn't finish reading your post before i posted crash but if you say Finley is 1 dimensional, then obviously you haven't seen him play.
We shouldn't jump on Cato already . . . he had a decent game in limited minutes. He may not have had as many points or rebounds, but he came up with some great steals. And there were MANY times near the end of the game where Cato was open down low for easy dunks, and nobody passed it to him. Granted, the guards were hitting almost all their shots, but that is one of the reasons Cato didn't have a bigger game. Man, I never thought I would be defending the Hallucination.
I just wanted Cato to get ONE rebound....the one that the Cavs Murray used to put back in the basket. DaDakota
i'm not sure you understood my post crash. the chat with alridge is supposed to be about the mavs prying cato off our hands to boost their defence. if anything, its a huge praise to cato. and we all know great players have bad games sometime. just look at moochie norris anyway, i'm not jumping on kelvin or playing down his flu.
Dakota, there were 5 Rockets fighting each other for that rebound, and anybody who saw the tape knows there should have been over the back called against the Cavs and then an offensive foul against Murray for the elbow against Torres. It's harder to grab rebounds when you're getting fouled. I think we all know it's not because "Cato sucks" that we didn't come up with that rebound. Besides, if we've learned anything from these past couple of games, it's that Cato is infinitely better than Jason Collier.
Not saying he sucks at all, just glad to have him back...and I do acknowledge that he might not have been at full strength. DD
I live in Dallas and watch the Mavs regularly and was at AA arena when the Mavs beat Houston last week. When Finley came to Dallas he was suppose to have great defense but he certainly does not now. He has multi dimensional talent but plays one dimensional. Finley will not drive to the basket when his shot is not falling and it has been driving his coaches nuts for years...fact. He does have a great first step and an all star finish which is why it is so hard to understand why he does not drive to the basket more. I should have said he is a one dimensional scorer not just one dimensional because he is above avg at handling the ball and usually avgs a decent number on assists but when it comes to scoring points he is one dimensional which is why it is so easy for teams like S.A. to shut him down in the play offs.
didn't mean to sound like I was being dissagreable with you. I agree and I also think that Cato's play has made him a valuable comodity. The reason I brought up Finley was because some of the fans and media seem to think the Mavs are a better team with out him right now.
