Re: Portland @ Cleveland
Overall it was a nice win. Some things I noticed:
Zach Randolph is playing well again. This guy is like Drew, he has huge potential, but the problem is he tends to have entire off years instead of off games, but tonight he was just unstoppable and the only thing the Blazers had going. The Blazers team isnt bad, just needs some experience, but they got some talent there.
Z was struggling a bit. Hes getting some shots that just aren't his game, quick looks off cuts to the basket and such. A couple games ago he even got an alley-oop thrown at him. He does best on the block in iso on a mismatch, which can be created in the motion offense by switches and things, but lets just say the motion offense isnt a strength. The few times he gets a deep iso, he's seemed to force things a bit or overplay the moves. Defensively though, Z was very good I thought, playing against some younger quicker guys.
All in all the D was excellent. This was the most active I have seen this team play as a whole, there were tons of blocks, forced turnovers, and charges taken. Also, the zone seems to be how we counter some of the smaller quicker types as Damon didn't look half bad out there in a zone.
Damon's trey wasnt falling at all, he got some good looks, nothing really forced, but I was impressed by him doing some other things besides looking at the 3 ball. Snow was 6-6, just taking what was given to him. Sasha had a solid game filling in for Hughes. Oh and Lebron quietly had a monster game basically taking over the 4th yet again. Thats not an afterthought, just that he's so damn consistant you want to talk about the other things before you mention how Lebron delivers night after night after night.