Cleveland Cavaliers (34-26) vs
New York Knicks (18-41)
Madison Square Garden,
New York, NY
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
7:30 PM EST
FSN OH/WTAM
LeBron. New York City. The brightest stage for the NBA’s brightest star (yes, we’re a little biased here at WFNY, in case you couldn’t tell….no more Kobe talk). Honestly, that’s about the only thing to be excited about for this game. Seriously. The Knicks are a mess. Everyone knows this. Even Knicks fans have long since reached their breaking point with Dolan, Isiah….everyone. None the less, this is the NBA, and you always have to be ready for any game, especially a road game. As mentioned a few games ago, the Cavaliers are in a key stretch of very winnable games, and this one is no exception.
Projected Starting Lineups
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-G Delonte West (7.3 ppg, 3.4 apg, .324 3-pt%, 10.42 PER)
-G Devin Brown (6.5 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 2.0 apg, 10.92 PER)
-F LeBron James (30.3 ppg, 8.1 rpg, 7.5 apg, 30.07 PER)
-F Ben Wallace (5.4 ppg, 8.8 rpg, 1.5 bpg, 12.14 PER)
-C Anderson Varejao (7.2 ppg, 8.2 rpg, 0.6 bpg, 13.16 PER)
Key Injuries: Zydrunas Ilgauskas (Out), Sasha Pavlovic (Out), Daniel Gibson (Out)
New York Knicks:
-G Nate Robinson (11.8 ppg, 3.0 apg, 0.8 spg, 15.50 PER)
-G Jamal Crawford (20.8 ppg, 5.0 apg, .342 3-pt%, 15.43 PER)
-F Quentin Richardson (7.7 ppg, 4.8 rpg, 1.7 apg, 8.47 PER)
-F Malik Rose (2.4 ppg, 1.9 rpg, 0.1 bpg, 2.44 PER)
-C Eddy Curry (12.8 ppg, 4.6 rpg, 0.5 bpg, 14.95 PER)
Key Injuries: Jerome James (Day-to-Day), Zach Randolph (Day-to-Day), Stephon Marbury (Out)
Team Efficiency Stats
Cleveland Cavaliers:
-Off (97.1 ppg, 44.0 rpg, .441 FG%, .719 FT%, 19.7 apg, Efficiency-102.9, Rank-17)
-Def (97.7 ppg, 40.8 rpg, .457 FG%, Efficiency-103.6, Rank-12)
New York Knicks:
-Off (95.2 ppg, 41.9 rpg, .440 FG%, .727 FT%, 18.6 apg, Efficiency-100.4, Rank-24)
-Def (101.3 ppg, 41.5 rpg, .472 FG%, Efficiency-108.6, Rank-29)
Game Notes
I’ll admit, I have yet to see a Knicks game this season. For varying reason, I missed the first 2 games against the Knicks this year and, well, if you don’t see the Knicks play your local team, you’re probably not going to see them play at all. It’s really kind of tragic what’s happened to the Knicks, although I won’t complain too much because of my inferiority complex over talks of LeBron going to New York early in his career. Now, if only the Nets could find themselves in similar disarray.
Anyway, since I haven’t seen the Knicks, I don’t have much to break down as far as keys to this game. Look, the Cavaliers are better in pretty much all aspects of the game. They score more, rebound more, shoot the ball better from the field, get more assists, and play better defense. The Knicks shoot free throws better. Instead, what I’m really looking for is improvement on the offensive end from the new look Cavaliers team. Lets face it, this starting lineup for the Cavs is severely flawed offensively. Delonte is a good facilitator, but he’s yet to step into a consistent scorer’s role. Ben and Andy, well, their offensive woes speak for themselves. And despite showing glimpses of a nice offensive game in spurts, Devin Brown is just too inconsistent to rely on. That leaves a significant amount of offensive pressure on LeBron to score. Not that he’s not up to it, but this feels a little like it did before the trade, where LeBron is unfairly asked to do too much. If only the team could get healthy.
The Cavaliers will probably look to get the bench involved early and often, as guys like Joe Smith, Wally Szczerbiak, and Damon Jones all have the ability to relieve a little bit of that pressure from LeBron. LeBron loves playing in NYC, and has had a couple monster games against the Knicks this year. Expect more of the same in this game, and as long as the Cavaliers show up ready to play and don’t overlook the Knicks, this is a game they should win.
For the Knicks, there’s not a lot to say because, again, I know so little about them. I know they have gotten pretty solid play from their guards, as Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford are both able to put up some numbers. But the frontcourt is just so weak, especially with Zach Randolph being beat up. Richardson and Rose just aren’t going to get the job done. Playing the Knicks in the Garden always used to be an exciting adventure, but thanks to Isiah, these days it’s just hard to get up for these games.
Vegas Line
n/a
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