Author: Tim Russo (Page 8 of 89)

Impossible.

“I tried to defend him,” Nocioni said. “It’s hard because he’s a great player. I think he’s the best offensive player in the league and it’s difficult for me and everybody.”

Bulls coach Scott Skiles tries to make him feel better.

“I thought [Deng] did a good job on him, and I thought [Nocioni] did a respectable job on him,” Skiles said of defending James, who scored 25 points in the second half. “Sometimes it’s hard to tell if you’re doing a good job on him or he just isn’t kind of trying all the way until he wants to. But he made some difficult shots in the last three minutes.”

You gotta feel for coaches who have to convince their guys to defend Lebron. The player knows damn well it can’t be done, but as coach, you have to do…well….something. Lebron’s like, “whatever“.

“He believed he could guard me, I guess,” James said after surpassing 30 points for the 16th time this season and ninth in December. “He believed his aggressiveness could make me do things that I don’t do. I just tried to use that aggressiveness against him. It’s a great battle. I like it.”

We are all witnesses.

At 17-9, the Cavs have the second best record in the East. Last night’s win over the Bulls at home had the feel of a day at the office. Chicago put up a fight, made a few runs, but the game never felt in doubt.

And does anyone fill up a stat line as thoroughly and as uneventfully as Lebron does sometimes? Sure, some nights he’s torching the place, but just as often, Lebron just seems to get near a triple double as if it is entitled to him. At the start of the 4th last night, he was at 20 points, you kinda thought he might not reach his average of just above 30….and then he just kicks it into not another gear up, but a half gear up, just to show you his next full gear up is somewhere beyond the Larry Bird imitation of hitting 4 turnaround fallaway jump shots in a row to ice the game.