Orlando Does it Again Beats Cleveland 100-84

When Cleveland Cavaliers center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, a man not renowned for sharing the ball has the second most assists on your team with three(Larry Hughes and LeBron James each led the club with five apiece) that should be a wake up call to your organization! Combine that with a second and fourth quarter where Cleveland scored only 15 points per quarter, and a sub-par performance from forward Drew Gooden, and you are probably going to lose, big. Which is exactly what happened as Cleveland found themselves on the short end of the stick losing to the Orlando magic for the second straight game 100-84. The game ended the series known as NBA China 2007, and this game was held in the fast rising metropolis of Macao(I swear, a year ago at this time I had never heard of Macau, now you can’t go a week without hearing something about it. It’s omnipresent!)

Magic center Dwight Howard did not have one of his better games although he led the team with 17 points, and was 6-8 from the field he shot just 50% from the line 5-10 and had only 3 rebounds. However six Orlando players were in double figures that helped lead to the lopsided win. Cleveland won the first quarter 30-23 but as previously mentioned, scored only 15 in the second, and walked into the locker room at the half lucky to still be ahead 45-43. It’s bad enough to score 15 points in a NBA game for a quarter once even in an exhibition game, to do it twice is simply inexcusable. Drew Gooden’s performance did not help Cleveland either scoring only six points, but even more significantly getting just three rebounds! Ilgauskas had 11 boards to lead the Cavaliers, and Dwayne Jones who is desperately trying to make this team had nine. James and Hughes also led the club in scoring with 14 each.

I realize this is just the pre-season, but we are already seeing some very troubling trends developing for the defending Eastern Conference Champions. Not only did the team fail to address the need of bringing in an elite point guard to take this team to the next step, the only true point guard on the team aging Eric Snow is on on the Injured List and will not becoming back any time soon. Larry Hughes tried to be the point against Orlando, but both he and Gibson are shooting guards not point guards. Combine that with Hughes history of getting hurt every season, and you will soon find yourself up the river without a paddle, and heading towards the waterfalls. Although to me Sasha Pavlovic is nothing more than a journeyman, Cleveland desperately misses Anderson Varejao as far a force to be reckoned with. I am not saying that he is the second coming of Gus Williams, or Maurice Lucas, but he brings adrenaline, energy and excitement when he is on the floor. The Cavaliers have no replacement on the roster this year that brings the same skill-set that Andy possesses.

Cleveland had made great strides the last two seasons, but they have regressed this year while others in the East including Orlando have improved. Any fan who suffered through the 15-67 season that brought LeBron James to Cleveland (I was in that locker room after 41 home games, it was torturous) deserves better than a two year tease. It is time for Danny Ferry to get down to business, sign Varejao, get Andre Miller from the Sixers where he is just rotting on a team going nowhere. Danny the fans of Cleveland coach Mike Brown and the players that have busted their tail deserve better than this!