WARRIORS 99 | CAVALIERS 91
Cavs stumble at home to sub-.500 Warriors
Sunday, February 12, 2006
James Walker
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
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</IMG> </TD></TR><TR><TD class=credit width=200>TONY DEJAK | ASSOCIATED PRESS </TD></TR><TR><TD class=cutline width=200>LeBron James of the Cavaliers beats Jason Richardson of the Warriors to a loose ball. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>
CLEVELAND — There’s a nasty trend developing with the Cavaliers that could end up hurting them late in the season.
The Cavaliers have a way of playing down to their competition, particularly at home, which was evident in last night’s 99-91 loss to the Golden State Warriors (22-27).
The loss dropped the Cavaliers to 5-5 at home against teams worse than .500, which is not the type of record one associates with a team with playoff aspirations.
Cleveland is 18-7 at home, but five of those losses have come against the Warriors, Atlanta Hawks, New York Knicks, Houston Rockets and Philadelphia 76 ers. Those are the types of defeats that at the least could hurt seeding down the stretch.
Last night, the Cavaliers fell behind early and tried to make a run in the second half. LeBron James led Cleveland with 33 points — including five three-pointers — but he scored only two points in the fourth quarter.
The team followed suit by getting outscored 15-7 in the game’s final six minutes.
"Mentally, we weren’t there tonight," James said. "I guess you have games like that, but we need to find a way not to have games like that for us to be a great team."
Cavaliers coach Mike Brown also questioned the team’s effort.
"Our focus, our effort and our energy level against teams with (below .500) records is nonexistent," Brown said.
Besides James, no other Cavalier scored more than the 14 points of Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who missed 11 of 16 shots.
The Warriors also took advantage of the Cavs’ lack of defense by shooting 50 percent from the floor.
Warriors guard Jason Richardson led the team with 31 points on 12-of-26 shooting.
Cleveland nearly gave up 100 points for the second consecutive game. Golden State had scoring quarters of 29 and 27 in the win.
"We played defense for 10 — at the most 15 — seconds of every possession," Brown said.
At season’s end, the Cavaliers may be in a fight with at least four other teams for the fourth seed, which gives the team home-court advantage in the first round.
That might be too much forward thinking at this point for the Cavaliers, who have now lost four of the past six games.
Just making it to the All-Star break healthy and with a string of victories would suffice. The Cavaliers will play host to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday and play at Boston on Wednesday before getting six days of rest at the All-Star break.
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