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Cavs 07-08 Season Thread

CPD

Cleveland Cavaliers' LeBron James even impressing himself


Tuesday, March 11, 2008
CAVALIERS INSIDER
LeBron impresses
himself these days
@StoryAd
%%endhead%% LeBron James came into Monday's game on a tear. Over his past four games, James was averaging 41 points, 50 percent shooting from the field and 41.2 percent from 3-point range.
James was playing so well that even he was impressed.
"It's unbelievable, honestly, what I've been doing," James said. "I've just been taking what the defense has given me. I haven't gone out there and forced anything. I've been shooting the ball extremely well."
More importantly, the Cavaliers have been winning, going 3-1 over the stretch. Once everyone gets healthy, James said the Cavs can be even better.
"We're playing good basketball, and we can't find out how good we are until we're injury-free," James said. "We're missing two of our starters in Sasha [Pavlovic] and [Zydrunas Ilgauskas], and sixth man [Daniel] "Boobie" [Gibson]. We'll been pretty good when we're all healthy."




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CPD

James scores 10 with ESPN

Magazine celebrates anniversary

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 Jodie Valade

Plain Dealer Reporter
LeBron James is the Chosen One once again. And this time, he's been chosen not for who he is, but for who he will be.
The Cavaliers superstar is one of 11 athletes appearing on the cover of ESPN The Magazine's 10th anniversary issue, to be released Wednesday.
The magazine has multiple covers: one that includes six athletes who represent the past 10 years, and then when turned around and flipped upside down, five more athletes who represent the next 10 years. Each athlete has one full-page cover, so five separate pages make up the "cover" of each side of the magazine.
@StoryAd
James, though, beat out all contenders to represent sports in the future as the outermost cover. In the pages behind him are NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., Tennessee Titans quarterback Vince Young, Pittsburgh Penguins center Sidney Crosby, and New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez.
For the side that features the athletes of the last decade, Seattle Mariners outfielder Ichiro Suzuki graces the cover, followed by San Diego Chargers running back LaDanian Tomlinson, tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams, snowboarder Shawn White and Spurs forward Tim Duncan.




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Canton

Cavaliers notebook: Injuries delay decisions
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BY CHRIS BREAVEN
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

CLEVELAND Tough decisions await Mike Brown when the Cavaliers get healthy.

And though it remains to be seen when that finally will happen, the Cavs coach already is contemplating potential playing rotations.

"I've thought about it, but I've jumped from this to that to this," Brown said. "It's going to be predominantly on gut feel."

The Cavs' playing rotation has been in flux all season because of injuries. It became more interesting with last month's trade that brought in four new players as the team dealt with more injuries.

"We can't find out how good of a team we can be until we're injury free," All-Star LeBron James said.

That could be awhile.

Starting shooting guard Sasha Pavlovic (sprained left foot) has been out since Jan. 23, and could return soon. But 3-point marksman Daniel Gibson (sprained left ankle) was lost Feb. 20 for four to six weeks, and starting center Zydrunas Ilgauskas (strained back) has been out a week with no timetable set for his return.

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Canton

Another triple double for LeBron James, another win for the Cavaliers
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
BY Chris Beaven
REPOSITORY SPORTS WRITER

CLEVELAND Defending LeBron James gets tougher by the game.

Ask the Portland Trail Blazers, the latest NBA team unable to stop the Cavaliers All-Star forward. Determined not to let James beat them as a scorer after his recent offensive binge, they ran defender after defender at him in crunch time Monday night.

James didn't mind. He just picked them apart as a passer, picked up another triple-double, and led the Cavs to an 88-80 win in front of 20,213 fans at Quicken Loans Arena.

"I could've played better, but I did a good job at finding other ways to control the game in the fourth quarter," said James, who averaged 41 points on 50 percent shooting the previous four games.

Two assists, a couple of nice defensive plays, three free throws and a tough rebound in traffic were James' major contributions over Monday's final 2:16.

It wasn't as flashy as the 17 fourth-quarter points, including a last-second game-winning layup, James scored at Portland two months ago. But it was equally effective.

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Dispatch

Cavaliers 88 Trail Blazers 80
Critical James rallies Cavaliers

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:12 AM



Associated Press
0311_cavs_sp_03-11-08_C2_7D9JVDM.jpg
MARK DUNCAN Associated Press
Joe Smith grabs a rebound between teammate Anderson Varejao, left, and Portland's Channing Frye.


CLEVELAND -- LeBron James is playing at such a high level, not even a triple-double impresses him anymore. "As an individual, I didn't feel I played particularly well," he said after the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Portland Trail Blazers 88-80 last night. "If you didn't play well and you have a triple-double, something is wrong. I could have played better."
Just about everyone else who saw the game would beg to differ.



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Dispatch

Rob Oller commentary: If LeBron is happy, then trades are success

Tuesday, March 11, 2008 3:14 AM
By Rob Oller


THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH


CLEVELAND -- One guy matters. Remember that. One. Guy. Matters.
There is LeBron James and then there is everyone else. LeBron > team. LeBron > general manager. LeBron > owner. Well, OK, maybe LeBron = owner. But even that is a tenuous argument.
So even though the deals that Cleveland made at the Feb. 21 trade deadline have yet to produce discernible results, they had to be made. Because LeBron matters.



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Another good game by AV.

Wally and Joe Smith were big in the 4th quarter, scoring 6 points each. West with another solid game.

After 9 games, West is averaging 10pts , 4 reb, 4.3 ass, 1 stl and 1.8to's. In that time he's shooting 45% and 36% from beyond the arc. Nice job.
 
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When everyone is back I say we put Sasha in the starting lineup and put Z in for Andy...

So West, Sasha, LBJ, Wallace, Z as the starting five...

Have Andy, Joe Smith, Devin Brown, and Boobie be the main guys off the bench...

Then you have Damon Jones and Wally when in need of more offense, maybe say 10 or so minutes/game for these 2...Unless of course Sasha struggles...But Jones could also steal minutes at the point if you don't want to put Boobie there...

We will be a solid 11 deep, and Dwayne Jones has shown that he can give solid minutes if needed...
 
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Sasha will struggle. He has all year, no reason to believe that won't change when he comes back. His size will keep him in the lineup. I don't think they want to start Delonte and another small, so it will have to be Sasha.

The bench of Andy, Smith, Bobbie, Wally, DJ and Devin Brown will be nice.
DJ will see the least minutes once everyone returns, especially in the playoffs.
 
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I tend to agree... Sasha should be extremely rusty when he gets back. He was rusty before the injury and no reason to suspect otherwise.

What Brown should do is bring him off the bench to start, but you know he will start him. Hopefully he will have minimal minutes. But Devin isn't playing bad.

Also, I am not liking the way the TV guys are talking about Gibson. Sounds like he will be out at least another 2 weeks. I hope he can make it back a couple of weeks before the playoffs so he can get some time with the new guys and get acclimated to his new role (which should be alot of time at the SG)
 
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crazybuckfan40;1113191; said:
When everyone is back I say we put Sasha in the starting lineup and put Z in for Andy...

So West, Sasha, LBJ, Wallace, Z as the starting five...

Have Andy, Joe Smith, Devin Brown, and Boobie be the main guys off the bench...

Then you have Damon Jones and Wally when in need of more offense, maybe say 10 or so minutes/game for these 2...Unless of course Sasha struggles...But Jones could also steal minutes at the point if you don't want to put Boobie there...

We will be a solid 11 deep, and Dwayne Jones has shown that he can give solid minutes if needed...

I don't know about that, he is constantly getting beat on both sides of the floor. His attitude sucks too, always seems to be pouting out there. Shouldn't be in the NBA imo
 
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I see Wally getting more minutes than most people think. He seems to be working hard on D and his shot will continue to get better. Brown will lose minutes when Pavs comes back. West and Jones will lose minutes when Boobie comes back. I think all 4 bigs will be in the 20-30 minute range and probably be closer to 25. I really hope Pavs has worked on his shot because a lineup of Boobie, Wally, Pavs, Lebron, and a big could be deadly for spurts if all four of them are on. Small, but not really.
I see Pavs moving back into the starting lineup. When Boobie comes back I think he'll come off the bench since he has shown that he is good doing that. West is doing a good job bringing the ball up at PG and will continue to start, but I think he will drop under 30 minutes a game with Boobie in the 30 min a game range as well.
 
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