As the Cleveland Cavaliers square off against the Jazz tonight, I thought I’d share what I’ll be looking for with fellow fans.
Forcing the issue.
In what seemed like a few days ago, I attended the St. Patty’s day game against the Utah Jazz three years ago. As many of you know, this was Carlos Boozer’s first time back in Cleveland in uniform and the crowd made sure he heard it that night. But one of the things that stuck with me that night was his intent to drop thirty points in order to silence the fans. He took a team-high 20 shots and was less efficient than usual, failing to shoot 50% from the floor.
And I’ve noticed this phenomenon take hold in Utah as well, miles upon miles away from fans with duct-taped “Loozer” jerseys. So I decided to analyze how Boozer has played against Cleveland throughout his career, focusing most notably on his shots taken per game.
Carlos Boozer’s shot attempts versus Cleveland.
Season FGA vs. CLE FGA in remaining games
2004-05 14.0 (1 game) 13.6 (50 games)
2006-07 20.0 (1 game) 15.5 (73 games)
2007-08 20.0 (2 games) 15.9 (79 games)
2008-09 12.0 (1 game) 13.9 (36 games)
2009-10 16.0 (1 game) 14.4 (37 games)
As you can see, with the exception of last season, Carlos Boozer has hoisted more shots per game versus the Cavaliers than he has against everyone else on average. In some cases there is a very mild difference (e.g. 14 fga vs. Cleveland in 04-05 with an average of 13.6 fga otherwise), but other times it’s quite obvious he’s forcing the issue (20 shots per game vs. Cleveland from 2006-08 when averaging between 15.5-16.0 shots against other teams).
All in all, this is a good thing for the Cavaliers. In his six career games against Cleveland, Boozer has shot only 47-102 (46.1%) from the field. That’s pretty bad considering he is a lifetime 53.6% shooter and has shot below 50.0% for an entire season only once in his eight year career (last season). Hopefully the overall trend continues and the Cavaliers defense stifles an eager-to-shoot Boozer, despite the 25 points on 9-16 (56.3%) shooting performance he had in Cleveland earlier this season.
Ultimately, my favorite stat comes from the fact that the Utah Jazz are only 1-5 versus the Cavaliers in those games that Carlos Boozer suits up for.
Good defense.
Another trend I’ve caught notice of is the hard-nosed defense that the Utah Jazz applies to LeBron James. Back in November the Jazz held James to only 21 points on 6-15 (40%) shooting, which happens to be tied for LeBron’s lowest field goal percentage at home this season.
In his last seven games versus the Jazz, James has shot below 50% five times, with Utah holding him to 40% or below on three occasions. However, this streak against Utah is at odds with LeBron’s current hot-streak, as he has shot better than 52% in four of his last five games. Furthermore, LeBron also has a 51-point game at Utah under his belt from 2006, when he shot 19-35 (54.3%) from the field.
Interestingly enough, despite being widely known as a solid defender, the Jazz appear to throw better defense at LeBron when Andrei Kirilenko is either out of the lineup or coming into the game in a reserve role. In 13 career games against the Jazz, James is averaging 28.8 points and 6.8 assists per game the five times he started opposite of someone other than Kirilenko. On the other hand, he is averaging 31.1 points and 6.8 assists per game in the eight games that saw AK47 take the floor to start the game.
The good news for Cavs fans is that Kirilenko started in Utah’s most recent game against Miami after a streak of twenty-three straight games off of the bench.
The brothers Williams.
While it didn’t start out that way, thanks to Mo’s second-rounder-to-all-star struggle, the last couple of times that Mo Williams and Deron Williams (no relation) have met, there have been some fireworks. Dating back to Mo’s Milwaukee days in 2008, the last two times they’ve played head-to-head Mo Williams has averaged 23 points and 5 assists, with Deron Williams averaging an absurd 25 points and 13 assists.
Fortunately, Mo has displayed solid defense on Deron Williams since migrating over from the Bucks to Cleveland. Mo held Deron to only 17 points on 5-14 (35.7%) shooting when the two met last season. The 16 assists, on the other hand, may leave reasonable concerns for tonight’s point guard match-up.
A former draft selection of the Utah Jazz, Mo Williams has scored at least 20 points his last four games against his original team, averaging 21.8 points per game over those four meetings. With one road game left after tonight on the team’s final west coast road trip, I look for Mo Williams to drop twenty and the Cavs to exude a lot of energy tonight. With that said, I just hope they don’t sleep on a dangerous Clippers team that has already defeated the Celtics, Lakers, and Nuggets at home in Saturday night’s wrap-up game.
