4-3 CLE 10:34 1st: Raptors start off with a couple of turnovers and LBJ finishing on the break. LBJ reaches some sort of milestone. Bargnani’s looking to get involved, got a wide open three off of a nice play but then missed a very quick jumper (badly). Game is stopped to LBJ can be honored.
23-12 2:29 1st: Raps Milestone – It’s getting ugly, the good part about this stretch is Bosh reaching 1000 OREB. Our offense not looking great, stricly jumpas. Big Z’s scoring against JO in the post and shooting over him from the outside. JO has trouble launching his fadeaways against his length but does gather and power himself in for a couple. Unfortunately he has a nasty habit of turning the ball over for every made FG. Bosh fakes a three and turns the ball over. I don’t mind the turnover, but faking threes is for girls. Parker’s having trouble containing West, he’s burned him for a couple assists after DP and gotten crossed over once. Cleveland’s applying very good ball pressure and we’re responding by taking jumpers instead of challenging their tight D. Gibson and West making plays off the bounce against Calderon and Parker. Bosh is a non-factor. Kapono gets crossed by West who missed the J but Kapono bails him out with a late hit. We’re playing like we don’t want it. Raps with 5 TOs and CLE already with 12 PINP. Memo to Bosh: do something.
29-19 End 1st: Jose hits a three and our best looking play of the evening is a Kap/Bosh PNR which Bosh lays in. Just as I’m celebrating LBJ drives unmolested for a lay-in. Leave it for Will Solomon to make the most aggressive move of the night and get two FTs. Atta boy Will. It actually motivated Bosh to drive and get fouled by Sideshow Bob. Cleveland’ moving the ball beautifully on the perimeter and we’re struggling to keep up, they’re not hitting their wide open jumpers so far and we should be thankful for it. It’s what’s keeping us in the game – somewhat.
45-26 7:37 2nd: This one’s getting ugly. Not a great start to the quarter with Cleveland looking for Wally v Kap early and it gets them a three off of an OREB. On the next possession Willie turns the ball over and to make matters worse, him and Kap lose Boobie who nails another three. 6-0 run right there. The Raptors have trouble defensive rebounding because they think the possessions over once CLE misses a shot. Bosh and Parker have “the look” on the bench. Cleveland getting great ball movement kicked off by semi-deep dribble penetration and we’re having trouble keeping up – trailing plays and having our ankles twisted. Raptors are scoring here and there through Will’s one-on-one jumpers and Kapono’s impersonation of Reggie Miller but its not happening as a unit. Mike Brown is not wearing a tie, in fact it’s a pink shirt. Bosh 3pts, LBJ 10 pts.
47-33 6:24 2ndThe stretch starts off with JO finding his desire to play. First he blocks Sideshow who thought he had found the lane. Then he finds a cutting Kapono for two (yes, I said cutting). Mo Will burns Calderon but JO gets the assist of the night finding Bosh who’s left open.
53-45 2:33 2nd: LBJ sucked the momentum we got in the last stretch with a thunderous dunk after curling on Parker. JO then dribbles it off his foot ala Big Dog in those days when his back stopped working. Parker’s been left open twice by LBJ who’s busy cheating for steals and gets burned for two treys. Calderon doing an excellent job of setting people early and its catching the Cavs a little off-guard, his highlight is finding Bosh for an alley-oop dunk, but Bosh gave it right back by letting LBJ back-cut him for another ESPN highlight. Calderon’s also had a great drive to the rim against West whose defense remains untested. JO and Big Z trading FTs, JO fouling him on his fade and Big Z getting him on the drive. JO is learning from Parker though, flops beautifully much to the chagrin of Z. The stretch ends with Calderon turning the ball over on a bad entry pass which sparks the Cleveland break, West finds Wallace but he misses a dunk after the contest from JO.
59-51 Halftime: Jose with 51 straight FTs to start the season (ties Billups for franchise lead). All Parker can do is keep LBJ on the perimeter and entice him for threes and LBJ misses one after Parker goes under the screen. Big Z with another CLE milestone, all-time rebounding leader beating Brad Daugherty. Our rebounding might be a bit off but you wouldn’t have thought it the way JO cleaned up a Bosh jumper with a dunk. Bosh had Mo Will on him and passed it off resulting in a turnover – had a chance to cut the lead to 4, I cannot even begin to explain that. Jose has his second nice drive of the game and finishes in 06-07 style. Raptors were down by 19 but JO, Jose and Parker bring the Raps back to within 8 and that’s only because Parker gave LBJ a very, very clean look for three to end the quarter. Still, we’re in it because of FT (11-17) and 3PT (5-11) shooting. Need to tighten up that D and maintain that second quarter enthusiasm for the rest of the game.
67-53 8:30 3rd: Bargnani starts off the third like he did the first. Nice screens and a nice catch and shoot for a nice jumper. Big Z with a hook over JO, noting he can do to stop that. Bosh/Jose miscommunication for a TO, one of the rare tmes you’ll see Bosh pass to Jose and not the other way around. Bargnani’s got LBJ in the post and finally gets it, LBJ reached and gave Bargnani the lane but Bargs took the J, should’ve driven it. JO needs to start hitting his paint jumpers, those are key to our offense under Triano. Mo Will gets the better of Jose for two. More miscommunication between Parker and Bosh and LBJ pounces on it like a cat for a breakaway dunk.
74-55 7:45 3rd: LBJ picks off another pass (this time by Jose) for another breakaway dunk. He’s playing the passing lanes to perfection. JO with a bad pass to Jose and Mo William picks it off for a breakaway. Cleveland has uppet its defense and we haven’t failed to match the intensity. Wallace blocks JO after helping Big Z and Z caps off the run with a three-pt play. CLE defense keying their offense. Bargnani with the worst turnover of the quarter, just throws it away out of bounds after driving and expecting somebody to be 180 degrees behind him.
90-67 End 3rd:
Let’s switch to bullet point form:
– Bosh, Bargs and JO watch Big Z get a put-back
– Bosh misses dunk
– Mo Williams makes a three
– Parker takes a bad three
– Ah fuck it…..
Cleveland’s superstar had them up their defensive intensity and the entire team responded. They suffocated us and we turned the ball over and got flustered under the pressure. The offense never had any continuity to begin with and whatever little we had going fell apart. We don’t have the offensive firepower to make up for our bad defense and when Bosh is taking the night off, it becomes impossible to win…we’ll chat more in the post-game. It’s garbage time END BLOG