LeBron vs Artest, Part 1

[Wine and Gold]

This Indiana game came at a good point in the season for a reality check, because it gave the Cavaliers players a chance to see exactly where they have to improve to get to be what they want to become. And that is a team that can successfully win when the contenders get separated from the pretenders after the all-star break. It's at that point every year, that the true best begin to get their defensive games intact and have all their glitches ironed out ...it's hammer down time at that point. It's also the point, in past seasons, where our teams failures to develop a strong defensive base gets exposed and we begin our tumble out of contention and into the also ran category. I don't expect to see that this year ....we may level off to an extent and come back in the standings behind the 'provens' in Detroit and Indiana ...who in my estimation are the cream of the crop in the East ...but it will be interesting how we hold up and can stay atop or on par with the other top team ...the Heat. Building a winner ...a team that can win late in the season and into the playoffs requires a team developing defensive cohesion ...and we aren't nearly there yet. We've developed enough offensive capbility to beat teams, but, we aren't even remotely close to getting where Detroit and Indiana have proven they can get theor defensive levels at. And I doubt, with our current personnel, that we can get to their level. We just have to many guys limited by their physycal inabilities to compete defensively ...Damon Jones and Ilgauskas ...and a few too many younger guys that have yet to figure out the concept of defense in Luke, Lebron, and Gooden. That's alot of minutes on the court devoted to guys that don't have it defensively yet....but, our hope and dream is that the younget guys begin the development process, and build on it gradually as the season progresses ...from there ...guys like Z ...wil have their weaknesses neutralized because the needed help will be there more consistently.

But, in a nutshell ...we saw where we are at defensively against Indiana ...we had an off night offensively irregardless of what Indiana brought defensively. We misses alot of uncontented shots early to help them out ......IRREGARDLESS ....They are the better team ..the more experienced team, and the more balanced team on an offensive and defensive basis .....but, we have alot more room for growth, where as they've already reached whatever level they will ascend to ...

I wasn't chocked or surperised by what happened in the Indiana game ....I was actually hoping we wopuld see Indiana come in and play their 'A' game so that we WOULD have a good idea exactly where we are at , at this point in our development process ....and we now know and hve a good feel as to what it is we have to do to compete later on in the season ...

The FACT is ...as a coach ...they probably will gain more from this loss than anything they gained during the winning streak.