CLEVELAND TEAMS

It wasn’t the best opener for rookie Kyrie Irving, as he only managed 6 points on 2-12 shooting. Three of those points came from a meaningless 3-pointer at the end of the game. Irving has not shown much with his outside shot in the two exhibition games. It’s early of course but it would be nice to see some flashes there. That said, he had 7 assists and only one turnover in 26 minutes, so the other parts of his game looked solid.

Meanwhile, Ramon Sessions had a great night. He seems to have discovered a 3-point shot as he hit two tonight, and he was excellent in every phase of the game as the second teamers led by Sessions got the Cavs back into the game

The other rookie, Tristan Thompson, had a great night with 14 points in 17 minutes as he was active in all phases of the game. The kid is a gamer and he’s opening up some eyes.

Here are some more thoughts:

Omri Casspi wasn’t very impressive in his Cavs debut with only 2 points on 0-4 shooting.

The Cavs need scoring, but Antawn Jamison was forcing up too many bricks from the outside.

Alonzo Gee continues to look great. The kid has a ton of energy and he’s a scorer. I wouldn’t be surprised if he fights his way past Casspi into the starting lineup at some point, or becomes the main scoring option off the bench.

I like seeing some more aggressiveness out of Anthony Parker. He has a nice shot and might be able to take on more of the scoring load.

It still blows me away that some Cavs fans think Anderson Varejao is overrated. He hustles like nobody else!

It’s a year for learning, so hopefully we’ll see some nice progress from Irving and the rest of the team over the course of the season.

Photo from fOTOGLIF

Here’s a great photo of LeBron James blocking Boston Celtics’ Glen Davis during the second quarter in Game 3 of their NBA Eastern Conference series on Friday night. Big Baby is a punk, and it was fun to see LeBron stuff him.

Most of us were shocked to see LeBron and the Cavs play so well after looking so bad in game 2, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised. Sure, it helps that LeBron seems healthy now, but even great teams have bad games, and it was up to LeBron to take charge and show that he’s the best player in the world. He did that.

The shift in defense also helped. Having Anthony Parker guard Rajon Rondo was a great move. Parker pressed him and then dared Rondo to shoot jumpers in the half-court game. Delonte West and Mo Williams then shifted to Ray Allen, and they hounded him and dared him to drive to the hoop instead of shooting jumpers. It worked.

Mike Brown has taken some serious heat, but even with a superstar like James he deserves some credit for the game 3 performance. Now it’s time to keep up the pressure in game 4.

I was at the game last night, and the first half was one of the worst performances this season by the Cavs. They were a little unlucky as well, as layup after layup would roll off the rim, but they had very little energy and Rondo was eating up Mo Williams and the rest of the Cavs defense.

Fortunately, things changed dramatically in the third quarter. First, Mike Brown moved Anthony Parker over to cover Rondo, and that turned out to be a great move. More importantly, however, Mo Williams got the team going and his own offense going with a beautiful dunk over Paul Pierce. I had a close view, and immediately I saw the look Williams gave Pierce. Mo went on a run that ignited the Cavs for the rest of the game and the Celtics didn’t know what hit them.

The Cavs need Mo to play aggressively, and hopefully this will fuel his confidence. When Mo plays well it’s almost impossible to beat the Cavs with LeBron and all their other weapons.