LyXo
Gold Star Member
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2005
- Messages
- 2,916
- Reaction score
- 921
- Points
- 113
PRE-SEASON
Cleveland Cavaliers (1 - 0) VS Boston Celtics (0 - 0)
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
7:30pm ET
Radio : WTAM 1100
Mellon Arena, Pittsburgh, PA
Head Coaches
Mike Brown / Doc Rivers
Probable Staters
Damon Jones / Dan Dickau
Larry Hughes / Paul Pierce
LeBron James / Ricky Davis
Drew Gooden / Al Jefferson
Zydrunas Ilgauskas / Raef LaFrentz
Cleveland Cavaliers Bench
Eric Snow / Luke Jackson / Sasha Pavlovic / Donyell Marshall / Alan Henderson
Washington Wizards Bench
Delonte West / Tony Allen / Gerald Green / Brian Scalabrine / Mark Blount
Cleveland Cavaliers' Notes
* Fresh off a win against Washington, the Cavs go on to their second preseason game against their "rivals," the Boston Celtics.
* Hughes did poorly last game because he got challenged mentally by the crowd. It's up to him to rebound and come up with a big game today to show a glimpse of why we paid him 60 million.
* Ekezie got the minutes last game for the big man spot. Will this trend continue? Or will we see Mengke Bateer or Zendon Hamilton?
* Last roster spot: Will it be Kelenna, Wilks, or Rivera? Each got their share of minutes last night, but none really stood out. Kelenna nulled his shots by getting blocked a couple times, while Wilks/Rivera had uneventful minutes in general.
* Will Mike Brown experiment with the starting lineup? I can see him shuffling Snow and Jones throughout the pre-season to see who fits better with the unit.
* Gooden needs to prove himself consistent. Let's see if he can do it. And let's see Marshall rain down more trey's.
* Luke and Sasha battle will intensify. With Luke coming off a great "first" game, can Sasha rebound and match that intensity? We might see 2-3 treys from Sasha this time around.
Boston Celtics' Notes
* Boston welcomes in Dickau, Scalabrine and Green in the Celtic green. No longer present are Gary Payton and Antoine Walker, key contributors to their playoff run last year.
* What will Pierce do? With all these trade rumors flying around, how will he react on the court? He says he wants to be a Celtic for the rest of his career, he needs to prove it.
* How will things change with Ricky Davis starting? Will he start? At Cleveland, his ego got the best of him, but it was quite downsized last year and he did extremely well. Will it re-inflate if he's given the nod?
* Gerald Green will be fun to watch. What will he do with his minutes? Can he prove himself to be worth the minutes in the regular season? Or does he need further development?
* Now that Antoine is shipped out, Al Jefferson assumes the starting PF position. He was a beast last year, we'll see if he can continue his development this year
* Biggest competition: the starting PG. With Payton gone, Delonte West looks like the favorite through incumbency, but newly signed Dickau has shown that he can run an offense and will definitely compete for minutes and maybe even the job. We'll see how he'll do with talent around him, rather than being the main man like in New Orleans.
Overview : The Cavs look to increase their comfortability with this game. After a shaky start, they stabilized and are looking like a solid team from 1-12. It's always fun to see the Cavs-Celtics matchup, especially because we'll always hate on former Cav Ricky Davis, just for the heck of it. Both teams are fairly balanced and young, this will be a high-tempo, high-intensity game. It definitely heated up last year with Pierce spitting at the Cavs bench. Let's see if it translates again into this year, but Pierce might have his "professional cap" on. I can see the Cavs winning again with their deep bench production and superior talent.