it's amazing how this same team, minus just one single guy, was 61 and 21 last season...they'll be lucky if they manage 20 wins this year. take out any of the superstars from the other elite teams last season, duncan, amare, dirk, pierce, kobe, etc. and I guarantee while they won't be good, they're still at least be a 30 win team. the difference all the other elite teams have at least a star or two besides their superstar. who do the cavs have? mo williams? boy oh boy... come playoff time, we're gonna see what lebron can really do with some real backup.
The Rockets are only 7 games ahead of Cleveland. They go from 20 losses to 27 losses for the season to date. It's not that much difference.
Those are the Rockets' best players. The Cavs best players other than LeBron were Mo Williams, Antawn Jamison (the supposed 2 all-stars), and Andy Varejao. They were LeBron's main cast and they're still on the team. Shaq played half a season and they had a better record without him, and Delonte and Z both averaged 10 points a game. In other words...nothing like Scola, Martin, and Brooks.
Besides the emergence of Blake Griffin, this is probably the most exciting thing in the NBA for me...I can't wait for the Celtics/Heat matchup in the playoffs...hopefully everyone can stay healthy and we can see some great games between those teams.
Other than sportscenter highlights, what other reason is there to watch Griffin? HIs team is terrible.
Or Yao? Just two years ago we lost our superstar and the next season we still managed to be a .500 team. I'm not comparing Yao and LeBron but from the Cavs went from a contending team to a lottery team.
This guy has came through every big game this season. I'm sorry but I know he's gonna come up big in the playoffs. The level of confidence LeBron is playing with at the moment is probably more than ever. This is the first season that I've seen him not having to go all out on both ends. He can finally cruise through the regular season like all the other contending stars and come up huge in the playoffs. For all the people still doubting the Heat... Give it up already.
Here is some info I found about the Cav's from a message board. -The Cavs are on pace for the 2nd biggest fall in SRS (team performance based on point differential and strength of schedule) in NBA history. Here’s a table, with the top 10 falls and the changes involved:
Wow, that's pretty amazing. Especially considering that two of those other top 5 teams (Rockets, Spurs) intentionally tanked for draft position.
Actually the Cavs also lost Big Z. That's the difference maker right there As for LBJ, I'm not sure Miami's all that different from the Cavs. Bosh and Wade perform well at times but they also play like crap at times. Replace those two with a bunch of consistent performers like Scola/Martin/J-Rich/Lee and a better pg like Lowry and I think its a much better supporting cast. Regardless he still needs an inordinate amount of heavy lifting to do when playoff time comes. Also regarding the cavs I'm left wondering how far they could have gone if Delonte didn't bang LBJ's mom and the entire team didn't keep it from him. I'm pretty sure they would have beaten the Celts and given the Lakers a tough fight.
IIRC the Spurs tanked because the Admiral got injured. Also they weren't a top pick, and beat the Celtics who had the worst record in the league for TD.
I think they probably would have won it all. Watching games 3 and 4 between the Cavs and Celtics last year was amazing. Lebron came out in Game 3 and was a monster. It was clear that he could have single handedly beat that team in a series. Then he came out in game 4 and something was just wrong. He still put up great numbers in a couple of those games and his defense against Pierce was top notch, but you could tell that something was bothering him. I think the Delonte incident completely derailed what would have been a championship season.
