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February 7, 2010 - By Jesse Lamovsky
What started out as a celebration at Quicken Loans Arena Saturday night turned into a grim battle for survival, as the Cavaliers built a 24-point lead but had to hang on for dear life against the spirited Knicks. Despite a terrifying fourth period Cleveland held the lead throughout- by the hardest- and pulled out its eleventh consecutive win, 113-106. It's been a weekend of upsets in the NBA- the Magic blowing a 21-point lead at home to the Wizards, the Lake Show falling at home to the Nuggets sans Carmelo Anthony- and for much of the harrowing final period it looked as if the Cavaliers would be the latest victim. But LeBron James made sure that wouldn't be the case.
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February 5, 2010 - By J.D. Shultz
J.D. Shultz does not want the Cavaliers to trade J.J. Hickson. Not for Andre Iguodala . . . not for Amar'e Stoudemire . . . definitely not for Troy Murphy . . . and not even for Antawn Jamison. J.D. says that we have the best team in the NBA, we have two starters coming off the disabled list, and an intriguing piece in Leon Powe that will join the team after the All-Star break. And that Hickson is evolving to the point where he gives us some of what some of the players the Cavs are rumored in would provide, in addition to a bright future as a long time running mate of King James.
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February 5, 2010 - By Nick Allburn
The Cavs took care of business on Thursday night, beating the Miami Heat 102-86 and pushing their winning streak to a league-best 10 games. Once again, they won in spite of serious attrition at guard, except this time there was a new wrinkle. Daniel Gibson, who has been filling in for injured guards Mo Williams and Delonte West, was scratched from the starting lineup so he could tend to his fiancee, who was having some minor complications with her pregnancy. Jawad Williams started in Boobie's stead, and LeBron served as the de facto point guard as per usual. At the end of the day the end result was what we've been used to seeing: another impressive Cavaliers win. Nick Allburn tells us about it.
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February 5, 2010 - By Erik Cassano
Shaquille O'Neal's first two months in a Cavaliers uniform required a big-picture definition of success. If you were to believe that the soon-to-be 38 year old man-mountain was going to help the Cavs win a title, you had to believe in what he could give the team in the long run. Because on a night to night basis, he looked like a fading star whose time had come and gone. But these past two weeks have been a different story. He scored 22 points on 8-of-10 shooting against Indiana, and followed that with 16 points and 12 boards against the Clippers, and 13 points and a season-high 13 boards against Memphis. And is making a big time impact at both ends of the floor. Erik Cassano talks Shaq in his latest.
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February 4, 2010 - By Greg Popelka
Time to bring Greg Popelka back in for his latest installment in the excellent "Blast From the Past" series he pens for us. And today, Greg talks about John "Hot Rod" Williams, the excellent sixth man for the great Cavaliers teams of the late eighties and early nineties. As many of us may remember, Hot Rod's career as a Cavalier got off to an uncertain start as he was forced to sit out hs rookie season due to point shaving allegations after being selected by the team in the second round of the 1985 Draft that also netted the Cavs Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper, and Mark Price. Greg takes our readers on a trip down memory lane in his latest.
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February 3, 2010 - By J.D. Shultz
J.D. Shultz is a Cavaliers fan that is living on the west coast in Southern California. And during halftime of Sunday's Cavs/Clippers telecast on Fox Sports West, they ran a cool feature where they talked to every member of the Cavaliers about why they chose their current jersey numbers. Since many of us here on the north coast didn't get to see it, and since some of the answers were very interesting, J.D. hit the rewind on his DVR and transcribed the answers all the Cavaliers players gave, and made it the basis of his latest column for us.
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February 3, 2010 - By Brian McPeek
It was just another wire-to-wire romp in ‘The Q' on Tuesday night when the Cavs faced off against the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies team that beat the Lakers must have remained on Beale Street partying late into the night after their win over Los Angeles because they certainly didn't show up in Cleveland in time for Tuesday night's 7pm tip. The most impressive part of the 105-89 win over Memphis was the fact the Cavaliers never let the Grizzlies sniff a whiff of hope. Cleveland got out to a big lead early, pushed it to a bigger lead at the half and then kept the pedal down to the floor. Brian McPeek recaps the beating.
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February 2, 2010 - By John Hnat
The Wine and Gold are now working on an eight-game winning streak, have won 23 of their last 27, and are now only one game off last year's 66-win pace. They went an NBA-best 12-3 in the month of January, and lost those three games by a combined total of six points. If you're the rest of the NBA, the scary thing is that the Cavs are dominating without their starting backcourt from last season, and with Shaquille O'Neal only now rounding into form. In other words, they may have a little more room to get better. Maybe even a bit more than that, if they can pry a quality player loose from a team looking for nothing more than salary relief. John Hnat gives us The Good, The Good, & The Good of the last week of Cavaliers basketball.
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February 2, 2010 - By Jesse Lamovsky
Cleveland sports history will- or should- remember this as the Cavaliers' answer to Warfield-for-Phipps. On November 6th, 1989, the team broke up its sensational young nucleus, sending Ron Harper off to the Los Angeles Clippers and getting back very little in return. As another team from the same division rolled up one Championship after another, claiming the glory the Cavaliers once thought would be theirs, Cleveland fans couldn't help but wonder ... would it have been different had the high-flying ex-Miami Redskin not been sent packing to the L.A. Junior Varsity? What if ... the Cavaliers hadn't traded Ron Harper for Danny Ferry?
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February 2, 2010 - By Gary Benz
It's quiet time in Cleveland at the moment. That's a good thing for it means the Browns' season and attendant drama is behind us, the Indians season is still a little too far away to get excited about and the Cavs, well, they just keep on winning. But just as losing brings a whole set of issues, so too does winning. Perhaps the biggest issue at the moment is whether the Cavs should try to improve their odds by further deepening an already deep team. Doing so would almost certainly mean the Cavs would have to deal Zydrunas Ilgauskas. Is Danny Ferry willing to do that? Gary Benz opines.
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February 1, 2010 - By Jesse Lamovsky
Two clubs moving in opposite directions met Sunday evening at the Q. The Cavaliers came in white-hot despite a rash of injuries, winners of seven straight and just tipping off a seven-game home stand that will roll right through the All-Star Break. The Clippers, on the other hand, had dropped three straight and four of five on their East Coast swing, including losses to the horrific Timberwolves and historically horrific Nets, and hadn't won in Cleveland since the 2001-02 season. And this one was over early. With LeBron and his teammates on fire from the perimeter, the Cavaliers exploded for a club-record 46 first-quarter points and rolled to a 114-89 victory that was never in doubt almost from the opening minute.
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January 30, 2010 - By Jerry Roche
Is there any basketball fan in the world who doesn't absolutely love to watch Anderson Varejao's frenetic, whirling-dervish style of play? You can sum up his style in six words: He's here, he's there, he's everywhere. As one of the keys to the Cleveland Cavaliers' 37-11 record, Andy (aka "Wild Thing") is gaining notoriety as a bona fide candidate for the NBA's "Sixth Man of the Year" award. In some corners, "Defensive Player of the Year" is even being whispered. And he's all ours Cleveland. Jerry Roche talks about The Wild Thing in his latest piece for us.
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Successful poker players may lose many small pots and still be totally happy, for their goal is to win the occasional big ones. The same thinking comes naturally in football. When the "Browns are in a fourth down, "moving all in", in the meaning of going for it, is worthwhile only if the odds for success are good enough. In most other cases, it’s probably wiser to just "fold" the hand, as in punting the ball away. In the same way, winning or losing a single yard means nothing as long as they manage to get a first down.
January 30, 2010 - By Nick Allburn
Was this a game or a scrimmage? The Cavs stomped the Pacers in Indianapolis last night, and it often felt more like a varsity/junior varsity game than an NBA contest. LeBron James had 13 assists and scored 22 points in spite of a bad shooting night, and Shaq poured in 22 points in less than 25 minutes as the Pacers had no answer for the big man down low. As opposed to Wednesday night's game against the Timberwolves, which was close for over a quarter, the Cavs came out guns blazing and doubled up the Pacers 36-18 in the first quarter en route to a road route in Indianapolis. Nick Allburn tells us about it.
January 29, 2010 - By Jesse Lamovsky
After years of hopelessness, Cavaliers fans suddenly found themselves rooting for a team with an embarrassment of potential. But "The Shot" doomed the Cavaliers to be the eternal caddy of Michael Jordan and the Bulls. Cleveland fans would have to keep waiting for their Championship. Maybe it was never meant to be for that team. Maybe the presence of His Airness would have been too much either way. But it's tempting to wonder what would have happened had that Shot rattled the rim and fell out.
January 28, 2010 - By Brian McPeek
The Cavs, with LeBron James resting for the entire 4th quarter, won their sixth straight game Wednesday night by disposing of the Minnesota Timberwolves 109-95. You can forgive LBJ his slothfulness Wednesday evening. His last four games have seen him and the Cavaliers face off against Chris Bosh, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Durant and Dwyane Wade. Nearly all of those games were fiercely contested and close. So when life and the NBA schedule-makers drop Sasha Pavlovic and the Wolves in your lap on a Wednesday night in January, you take advantage of the opportunity to steal away some valuable downtime for your front line guys. Brian McPeek talks about the win in his latest.
January 26, 2010 - By John Hnat
Four more games, four more wins. But it wasn't quite as easy as it sounds. Despite dealing with a couple of significant injuries (Mo Williams went down for four to six weeks with a sprained shoulder, and then Delonte West broke his ring finger a couple of days later), the Cavs continued to win. A 108-100 win over Toronto, a 93-87 victory against the Lakers, a 100-99 nailbiter over the rapidly improving Thunder, and another one-point win (92-91) at Miami last night. They may not be dominating the regular season quite as much as they did last year, but they're getting to the pay window, and that's what matters. John Hnat talks about the exhilirating week of Cavaliers basketball in his weekly Tuesday piece for us.
January 26, 2010 - By Brian McPeek
Wow. What a basketball game! As is often the case when the Cavs and Heat get it on, LeBron James and Dwayne Wade waged a personal war of three point bombs, drives to the hoop and thumping dunks in the first half. James may have saved his best for last though. With Miami clinging to a one point lead and ten seconds remaining in the ballgame, LeBron read Wade's behind-the-back pass attempt, picked it off and raced to the other of the floor. He was nearly beheaded on the drive to the basket but he calmly sank the two free throws to lift the Cavs to their fifth win a row. Brian McPeek tells our readers about the epic win.
January 25, 2010 - By J.D. Shultz
Superstars can't always follow the script of an NBA "Amazing" commercial. In the first half of Monday night's game between the Cavaliers and the Heat in Miami, LeBron James and Dwyane Wade were locked in what promised to be an epic duel that would go down in the annals. In a three-plus minute period, LeBron and Wade scored 24 straight points. It was an amazing back-and-forth, with both players seemingly trying to one-up the other. By the end, both LeBron and Wade had scored the last 12 straight points for their teams. J.D. Shultz talks about it.
January 25, 2010 - By Jerry Roche
Cavalier fans -- and many scribes -- are still crowing about sweeping two games from the defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers. But the real challenge to the Cavs this postseason might not even come from the Lakers. Of course, there's our old friends in Boston and Orlando, the teams that have knocked the Cavs out of the playoffs the last two seasons. And there are some new teams starting to emerge in the East. The Hawks have taken another step forward, the Bobcats are emerging and have had the Cavs number, and the Bulls are surging after a rough start to the season. Jerry Roche breaks down all the NBA contenders in his latest piece.
January 24, 2010 - By Erik Cassano
Over the span of an 82-game NBA regular season, the statements made in December and January are generally lost by the time the winter ice thaws. By the time warm weather arrives and the league's playoff brackets have been pared down to a final four, the battles of wintertime are pages in dusty, seldom-opened history books. With that in mind, what the Cavs did to the Lakers in two regular season meetings this year could have little to no bearing on what might happen should the teams, who lead their respective conferences, meet again in the NBA Finals. And yet, it's hard to deny that something happened in these two games, spaced a little under a month apart.
January 24, 2010 - By Brian McPeek
Daniel Gibson may not be able to handle the ball or distribute it like most NBA point guards but the dude can shoot it. And Gibson's three-pointer with eight seconds left gave the Cavs a two point lead that even they weren't able to foul up with a turnover or a missed free throw. The Boobie three gave the Cavs a 100-99 win over the Thunder on a night when they found themselves down to their third string point guards. It was a completely entertaining basketball game but it will not be part of any introductory course in basketball fundamentals. Brian McPeek tells us about it.
January 22, 2010 - By Tom Mieskoski
The newest member of the Cleveland Cavaliers Cedric Jackson was all smiles at yesterday's Cleveland State game. The former Cleveland State point guard will sign a 10-day contract with the Cavaliers today and be suited up for tonight's home game against Oklahoma City (7:30 p.m.). Jackson averaged 14.7 points, 7.6 assists, and 4.6 rebounds, starting 14 of 25 games, during his rookie season for the NBA Development League's Erie BayHawks, the affiliate of the Cavs. Tom Mieskoski had a chance to talk to Cedric last night about this opportunity of a lifetime.
January 22, 2010 - By Sam Amico
You might want to know, but Sam Amico doesn't have a real answer. He cannot tell you who is better: LeBron James or Kobe Bryant. He can't base it on the fact that James and the Cavs have swept the season series, winning 93-87 on Thursday in Cleveland. He can't use the logic that Bryant has won four championships (to zero for James). And he can't come closer to a decision after watching James score 37 and grab nine rebounds, and Bryant score 31 with a bandaged index finger on his shooting hand. Sam's just happy he is getting a chance to watch these living legends perform in their prime.
January 22, 2010 - By Jesse Lamovsky
The Lakers came into The Q last night with revenge on their minds against a Cavaliers team missing Mo Williams and Jamario Moon due to injuries and shot out of the gates quick, cruising to a 9-0 lead to start the game. But the Cavaliers, despite the attrition, despite a black hole in the backcourt, despite turnovers, despite second and third looks given up, stayed within contact. Then, with some fierce defense and on the broad backs of a couple of all-time greats, one young, one old, they took over at winning time. They wrested control of the game from Los Angeles down the stretch and came up with perhaps their grittiest win of the season, a 93-87 thriller that gave Cleveland the season sweep. Jesse recaps the win.
January 21, 2010 - By J.D. Shultz
Tonight's game against the Lakers is going to have a playoff feel. And it has J.D. Shultz in the playoff discussion kind of mood. If the regular season ended today, the Cavaliers (32-11) would enter the NBA Playoffs as the #1 seed in the Eastern Conference. They'd be playing the #8 seed Chicago Bulls (18-22), and would then move on to play the winner of the #4 Orlando Magic (27-15) / #5 Charlotte Bobcats (21-19) series. In J.D.'s latest, he starts to take a look at the potential bracketing, the manuevering that may take place these next few months, and how things may end up shaking out once it's playoff time.
January 21, 2010 - By Jesse Lamovsky
Forty-six years and counting Cleveland fans. 1964. Our last pro sports title. Some call it a curse. Jesse Lamovsky calls it a drought. And in this latest series from Jesse, he's taking ten of the biggest heartbreakers of the Cleveland Sports Drought, putting them under his microscope, and giving our readers his somewhat-educated opinion on whether or not any of these disasters really deprived us of a World Championship for the city of Cleveland. Today, he starts with the 1976 Cavaliers and their "bad break".
January 21, 2010 - By Sam Amico
Even if you don't care about the Cavaliers, you care about tonight. You care about our beloved city, and how much it will mean to Beat L.A. You remember how the Cavs had their way with Kobe Bryant and the Lakers on Christmas Day; how our so-called insignificant part of the world bent Hollywood over its knee and gave it what it deserved. You remember Lakers fans throwing those foam fingers on the floor, angry over the officiating ... angry over the loss ... angry over the fact a team from Cleveland kicked its butt. It's round two, tonight, Lakers at Cavs. Sam Amico previews tonight's epic tilt for our readers.
January 20, 2010 - By Brian McPeek
If the Cavs have shown nothing else all season, they've shown that are willing and able to play pretty much any style of basketball and win while doing it. You want to go Western Conference, up-tempo, push the ball at any opportunity and run until the cows come home? The Cavs can go small and run right with you. You'd rather play a plodding, physical, squeeze the clock and pound the ball down low style? Go ahead and take your chances with Shaquille O'Neal and a bigger lineup and have it at. Tuesday night at ‘The Q' the Cavaliers employed a little bit of both styles in beating the red hot Toronto Raptors 108-100. Brian McPeek talks about it in his recap of the Cavs latest win.
January 19, 2010 - By John Hnat
It was a light week for the Cavaliers. Just two games. Both thrilling affairs that went down to the final shot. The Cavs lost out in Utah, and then went west to LA and beat the Clippers. The 1-1 week leaves the Cavs with a record of 31-11. Thanks to the Celtics and Magic both stumbling into losing streaks, the Cavs have now opened up a bit of a margin in the Eastern Conference, as they lead the Cs by 2.5 games and Orlando by 4.5 games. Just as importantly, the week marked the end of the Cavs' longest road trip of the year, as well as the end of their last West Coast swing. With 11 of their next 13 games at Quicken Loans Arena, the Cavs are set up well. John talks about it in his latest piece for us.
January 19, 2010 - By J.D. Shultz
The 2010 NBA Trade Deadline is February 18th at 3:00 P.M. Eastern . . . which means that we are exactly one month away from finding out whether Danny Ferry will be able to pry a rotation player away from an under-performing team in cost-cutting mode. The latest rumors have the Cavs inquiring with New Orleans about power forward David West, and in J.D. Shultz's latest, he addresses those rumors, and also lays out all the chips that Danny Ferry has at his disposal that may interest some of these teams that are looking to make a deal.