Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Cleveland 102, Miami 90: (Believeland is rocking again... for one night at least)

LeBron James return to Cleveland for the second time was one to remember for the Cavaliers and James himself. It all began with LeBron having trouble entering the underground garage for shootaround.

It was reported that LeBron showed up at the gate with a driver and an extra car with other people, the building denied access to the people and eventually let LeBron in.

All of that just a few hours before the Cavaliers went on to shock the Heat, beating them 102-90 despite LeBron's triple-double.

LeBron witnessed the Cavs instead of the fans witnessing LeBron for a night.
The Cavaliers and the crowds energy was ecstatic from the start of the intros all the way through the game. The crowd gave loud boos for LeBron when his name was announced first for the Miami Heat, only to show up on the bench after the National Anthem (It was reported he was using the "restroom").

The crowd boos eventually turned into cheers once they realized that the Cavaliers showed up and wanted to beat Miami. The Cavaliers jumped out to an 11 point halftime lead and pushing that lead to 23-points in the second half.

JJ Hickson continued his strong play since moving back to power forward, scoring 21 points and grabbing 12 rebounds. Anthony Parker, who is in his last year of his contract with Cleveland has his best performance of the season, scoring 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds.

Miami fought back hard and erased the 23-point deficit thanks in-large part to James triple-double performance, who was making his second return to Cleveland since leaving in the summer of 2010.

James scored 27 points, 12 assists and had 10 rebounds, but this time around it was the Miami Heat on the losing end after embarrassing Cleveland on December 2nd. Dwayne Wade scored 24 points and had 6 assists but shot 8-20 from the field and struggled all night.


Part of Wade's struggles may have come from the unsung hero, Ryan Hollins. Hollins got in Wade face in the first half and exchanged heated words and from that point on it seemed to fuel Hollins and the Cavaliers.

Hollins scored 13 points in the game, but was a force in the middle for Cleveland all night and brought the toughness that seemed to be missing from the first meeting of this growing rivalry. Hollins had a +33 per in minutes compared to a -22 per for the third heatle, Chris Bosh who struggled throughout the night.

With the win, Cleveland rocked out and felt like old times, even though it was for one night.
In the final seconds, the crowd of over 20,000 cheered loudly and even Dan Gilbert was high-fiving everyone within reach. Gilbert tweeted "Not in our garage" in reference to LeBron's trouble's at Quicken Loans Arena.
For one night, Believeland was back and it sure felt good.

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