Get ready for a lot of bad jumpers
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by user Benny08302
If the Cavs win four more games, Larry Hughes gets a $2 million bonus.
I'm half joking, hopefully Hughes won't take it upon himself to win those last four himself. Actually, the Cavs are better when Hughes distributes the ball (surprise!):
> Over the past two seasons, the Cavs are 30-5 when Hughes has five or more assists. In the easy win over the Timberwolves, Hughes' distribution was key: He had a season-high 10 assists.
30-5? 30-5! Why hasn't this been mentioned more? As if I need more reasons to want Larry to pass the ball. 30-5! It's really not that shocking that the Cavs are better when Hughes distributes the ball, but that 85% winning percentage is eye popping. It just goes to show that the Cavs are a better team when they share the ball (you know, getting easy baskets, feeding the post, etc).
As for driving to the hoop, Windhorst tells us that Sasha is getting a bit testy with the officials:
> Sasha Pavlovic is not an outwardly emotional person by nature, but he's finding it increasingly more difficult to maintain his cool at what he believes are a series of no-foul calls. > > No one on the Cavs gets his shot blocked as much as Pavlovic, 19 percent of his shots in the paint have been blocked this season. He only draws a foul about one out of every 10 times he shoots. > > Pavlovic got his first technical foul of the season for arguing Tuesday night. > > ``I am getting frustrated, I try to create contact every time I go to the basket, Pavlovic said. ``It makes me mad, it is the first time I've been so upset because I think it has cost us.
I'm not really surprised that Sasha is pissed, I've long said in the recaps that he gets the least amount of respect of any Cavalier. As for the 20% blocks, it sounds like a lot (and it seems he gets his shot blocked often), but I have no other number to judge that against. Meaning, what's the NBA average for percentage of shots blocked off of drives? What's LeBron's average? (I'd bet it'd be very low) What's Hughes's? (I'd bet a tad lower than Sasha's, but not by too much)
It seems to me that Sasha isn't particularly mad at the blocks (cause when his shot gets blocked, it gets stuffed hard), but because of the contact he takes on his way to the hoop that goes unnoticed. He takes a ton of bumps and hits on his forays to the hoop but doesn't seem to get the benefit of the doubt from the zebras (I also think that this will change next season, once the refs know his game). The refs let the 'Wolves get in some free hits on the Cavaliers Tuesday night, I'm not really surprised that Sasha got T'd up.
And finally, as you well know, I missed the Boston game last Sunday and from reading Windhorst's blog, I'm glad I did (as I probably would've broke something):
> The entire team played with more controlled vision tonight than in Boston. Their offensive execution was extreme good and defensively they worked together well. This includes Mike Brown. In Boston, I was puzzled by him starting Shannon Brown, who had played a grand total of seven seconds the previous five games. Then he played Eric Snow 27 straight minutes, then benched him for the rest of the game. There were other oddies He was searching, I understand, but it just showed how much out of the flow the entire team was. They still haven't outgrown those nights.
I'm just going to repeat a line of that, just so it sinks in:
> Then he played Eric Snow 27 straight minutes
I don't even know what else to say besides, Daniel Gibson is back.
