Game 22 | Cleveland @ Houston | December 9th, 2009 | 8:30pm EST

[elcheato]

20 turnovers, but I'd like to count how many were really iffy referee calls. I'd bet half. There were 2 Z offensive fouls on moving screens which were laughable, that 5 second back to the basket call on Delonte, which NEVER gets called. That's just off the top of my head. Refs forcing turnovers is hard to avoid, if they have an agenda, it will get pushed.

The refs really had an agenda to make the Cavs and the leagues marquee player lose to the Rockets..

We played terrible, didn't hold onto the ball and got out played.

 

[Otsego Mar]

Just an all round sucky night, the Cavs lay an egg, the officiating was horrendous, no defense and sucky online streams, thank god its over...

I'm thanking satan it's over.

 

[nime]

i'd like to see Delonte starting in Portland Friday night.

LBJ and Parker aren't covering up the holes left by Hickson, Shaq, and Mo.
Delonte can help more so than Parker defensively.

Offensively, Delonte can wait his turn like Parker has.

Parker and Gibson should be the matchup guys. As should Z and Powe eventually.

The 6 that should always play are Mo, Delonte, LBJ, Shaq, Moon, and AV.

Matchups filter in the other 4. Hickson is in the SA Del Negro role until a trade happens.

 

[SteelSmack]

The refs really had an agenda to make the Cavs and the leagues marquee player lose to the Rockets..

We played terrible, didn't hold onto the ball and got out played.

Did you watch the same game I did? 6 technical fouls? Why? Cause the refs sucked, they weren't calling the same contact on both ends.

 

[*L-Train*]

lol our starting five (without lebron) has scored a combined 23 points tonight....that's probably a new negative record for us in the lebron era

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

The refs really had an agenda to make the Cavs and the leagues marquee player lose to the Rockets..

We played terrible, didn't hold onto the ball and got out played.

Yeah, they did.

Donaghy goes on 60 minutes to talk about how corrupt the refs are when it comes to star players, Stern needs to crush that talk...best way? Let LeBron get destroyed for a few games with no calls.

We lost the game ourselves, that doesn't mean the refs weren't incompetent and don't have an agenda to push.

 

[CHIMOCHIS]

lol our starting five (without lebron) has scored a combined 23 points tonight....that's probably a new negative record for us in the lebron era

yep anythings possible

 

[elcheato]

Did you watch the same game I did? 6 technical fouls? Why? Cause the refs sucked, they weren't calling the same contact on both ends.

Or because we have a team full of whiners who never shut up. Every time LeBron shoots the ball he screams something and then puts his hands up at the refs and says something.
Stop complaining, get back on D and you won't get called for technical fouls. You complain about refs every game regardless of if we win or lose.

 

[Reeko_Htown]

Rocket fan back.

Great win for us!

Your guys looked unintrested all night.

We got a lot of calls but we tend to because we take charges and do flop at times.

I hope you can appreciate how hard we work and never give up.

 

[lars]

Good game Cleveland,

Its always a joy watching Shane match up with one of the best in the business.

I think Mike Brown didnt make some much needed adjustments in the game tonight and I think it cost you. Obviously our gameplan was to contain Lebron and make him shoot jumpers. You could tell when the bench crew came in we starting losing our lead fast because we didnt game plan for it much.

The pic and pop play with big Z was working well for you guys, not sure why we only saw it 3 times. I think Cleveland starting unit has a tendency to stand around and watch Lebron play rather than play real team basketball...but I think thats on the coach. On a positive note, after the 1st I saw some shades of really good Cleveland D.

Anyway, good luck with your season, see you next time.

 

[MikeSwim07]

:thumbdown SMH

 

[SteelSmack]

Or because we have a team full of whiners who never shut up. Every time LeBron shoots the ball he screams something and then puts his hands up at the refs and says something.
Stop complaining, get back on D and you won't get called for technical fouls. You complain about refs every game regardless of if we win or lose.

I don't remember LeBron getting a Tech. I'm not blaming the refs for the loss, they cost us plenty of possessions on horrible calls. A fairly officiated game and we probably win, but such is road life in the NBA. We played like crap, we earned this loss, just as we did last night, but that doesn't excuse the refs.

 

[elcheato]

Yeah, they did.

Donaghy goes on 60 minutes to talk about how corrupt the refs are when it comes to star players, Stern needs to crush that talk...best way? Let LeBron get destroyed for a few games with no calls.

We lost the game ourselves, that doesn't mean the refs weren't incompetent and don't have an agenda to push.

Then I'm wondering, why do you follow the NBA if you think that it's corrupt, and that Stern is telling his refs to essentially fix games?

Blaming refs is the easy way out I guess..

 

[SteelSmack]

Hopefully this is one of those games ESPN highlights the plays we got techs on and shows how legit the Cavs' gripes were. That is about the only way we'll get respect from refs, if the league has pressure from the media.

 

[thecrowning]

We seem to have some kind of a team character issue going on. It's hard to put your finger on what exactly the problem is. Motivation has something to do with it... lack there of.

The Team character issue is that we swap Ben Wallace with Shaq. Lebron imo, always lack the motor and hunger to play with intensity for every second on the floor, which in my mind will eventually define him as a player, he will NEVER be on the level of Jordan in people's mind, or in opponents mind.

With a mentally stable Dwest and phycially healthy Ben, that's how the Cavs were blowing people out early last season, because they have the characters on the court that could and desire sustain defensive intensity, thus protecting/extending leads. But, this year, that is gone, and that responsibility falls back on Lebron. And he is simply a lousy competitor in terms being motivated all the time.

The Cavs team now is a Shaq type team, that plays with little moltivation during the regular season, whats worse you substitute a win-hungry intense type player like a kobe/wade with a lax guy like Bron. You will have the best display of off the court dancing entertainment and bench celebration over meaningless things with a bunch of losing to bad teams, a team playing without fire that is easily satisfied. Lebron and Shaq are very similar, both talk a big game and a happy go lucky attidtude.