No one gave us a shot against one of the NBA's hottest teams, the Dallas Mavericks.
Last night, the Cavs gave Dallas all they could handle in a game that came down to the wire.
The losing streak is now officially cemented in the NBA record books at 25 consecutive games.
Who cares? As Cavs radio legend Scott Zurilla said on Saturday's post-game show, try to think about this record in the context of the future.
In one or two years when the Cavaliers are contending for the playoffs, will you say, "Wow we had such a terrible season in 2011?" No, you won't.
You'll be more concerned with how well the Cavs are playing and the multiple winning streaks we'll be on.
So as far as I'm concerned, this record really isn't that big of a deal. No one could have predicted the departure of LeBron in addition to key injuries. It's not too big of a surprise we're not contending right now.
Back to the game. Solid performances by J.J. Hickson, Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga were the reason we had a chance.
Hickson really stepped up his game last night. He led the Cavaliers with 26 points on 12/18 shooting. That kind of performance going up against Tyson Chandler and the rest of the talented Mavericks roster is downright impressive.
J.J. also snatched 12 rebounds; he's really developing an all-around game that was missing earlier in his career. Add a legitimate center to this roster, a few other pieces, and teams are going to have their hands full with the Cavs frontcourt.
Ramon Sessions is leading the Cavaliers very effectively during the absence of Mo Williams. Sessions has talked about how he's still learning when to drive and when to find his teammates. Sometimes you want to yell at him for walking down the court and immediately driving to take a shot, but more times than not, he finishes at the rim.
Ramon poured in 19 points on 6/12 shooting to go along with 13 assists. That's the kind of performance we're getting used to from him.
Christian Eyenga continues to impress; he scored 15 points in 27 minutes on the floor. Gotta love the progress he's making and experience he's gaining during his first season in the NBA.
The defense was there as well; Cleveland held an opponent to under 100 points for just the second time in 22 games. (Remember we held Chicago to 92 not too long ago). If the Cavs can continue to match this defensive effort, the wins will come.
The problem for this team has never been scoring, we've always found a way to put up close to 100. The defense is where we get killed, as teams shoot a high percentage against us and score in the paint at will.
Antawn Jamison scored 18 points, but made only 8 of the 23 shots he attempted. The one 3 pointer he made came late when we needed it, but making 1 out of 6 from deep is not going to help this team win on a nightly basis.
He seems to have lost that smooth 3 point stroke we were accustomed to seeing earlier this season.
This game was fun to watch and you could see the intensity between the teams on the floor. It probably started with Ryan Hollins' hard foul on Tyson Chandler. Fast-forward to the 4th quarter where Dirk Nowitzki essentially threw a wild punch at Sessions. Dirk tried to talk to Sessions afterwards but you could tell there wasn't a whole lot of love between the two.
Austin Carr pointed out that the NBA should take a look at that play and possibly levy some sort of punishment on Nowitzki. Apparently the referees didn't see it, because he didn't get a technical and you could see the disdain on the faces of Byron Scott and the rest of the Cavaliers.
The Cavs are coming to play every night as of late, which is more than can be said earlier in the losing streak. During the last 4 games, the Cavs have either tied or had the lead in the 4th quarter.
As Byron Scott often says, there's no such thing as a moral victory. However, you have to admit this was a pretty impressive comeback after being down 10 at half. We're not rolling over when things get tough; this team is now fighting back and you can tell they're making progress.
Jamario Moon seems to have replaced Manny Harris in the rotation, who only played 5 minutes last night. Moon has had to swallow his pride and ride the bench for most of the season, which must have been tough seeing as he won the starting SF position out of training camp.
Unfortunately for Jamario, he made a critical error at the end of the game.
With 10 seconds to go, the Cavaliers trailed 99-96. Anthony Parker dribbled down the court and missed his 3 point attempt, but the rebound was kicked out to Moon. With 1.2 seconds or so on the clock, he passed on a game-tying shot and instead swung it over to Antawn.
The buzzer went off before Antawn even had a chance to shoot it. Jamario absolutely should have taken that shot, clearly he thought there was more time on the clock.
Bryon assessed the situation.
"J-Moon just really wasn't aware," Scott said. "That's the bottom line. Because he had really a pretty good look."
This game was hard to swallow, because the Cavs had a chance to beat one of the best teams in the NBA and end this awful losing streak. It just wasn't meant to be.
That being said, this team is getting closer to that elusive win. I hope it happens when we play the Pistons on Wednesday. The way we're playing, we deserve to win a game.
The losing streak is now officially cemented in the NBA record books at 25 consecutive games.
Who cares? As Cavs radio legend Scott Zurilla said on Saturday's post-game show, try to think about this record in the context of the future.
In one or two years when the Cavaliers are contending for the playoffs, will you say, "Wow we had such a terrible season in 2011?" No, you won't.
You'll be more concerned with how well the Cavs are playing and the multiple winning streaks we'll be on.
So as far as I'm concerned, this record really isn't that big of a deal. No one could have predicted the departure of LeBron in addition to key injuries. It's not too big of a surprise we're not contending right now.
Back to the game. Solid performances by J.J. Hickson, Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga were the reason we had a chance.
J.J. also snatched 12 rebounds; he's really developing an all-around game that was missing earlier in his career. Add a legitimate center to this roster, a few other pieces, and teams are going to have their hands full with the Cavs frontcourt.
Ramon Sessions is leading the Cavaliers very effectively during the absence of Mo Williams. Sessions has talked about how he's still learning when to drive and when to find his teammates. Sometimes you want to yell at him for walking down the court and immediately driving to take a shot, but more times than not, he finishes at the rim.
Ramon poured in 19 points on 6/12 shooting to go along with 13 assists. That's the kind of performance we're getting used to from him.
Christian Eyenga continues to impress; he scored 15 points in 27 minutes on the floor. Gotta love the progress he's making and experience he's gaining during his first season in the NBA.
The defense was there as well; Cleveland held an opponent to under 100 points for just the second time in 22 games. (Remember we held Chicago to 92 not too long ago). If the Cavs can continue to match this defensive effort, the wins will come.
The problem for this team has never been scoring, we've always found a way to put up close to 100. The defense is where we get killed, as teams shoot a high percentage against us and score in the paint at will.
He seems to have lost that smooth 3 point stroke we were accustomed to seeing earlier this season.
This game was fun to watch and you could see the intensity between the teams on the floor. It probably started with Ryan Hollins' hard foul on Tyson Chandler. Fast-forward to the 4th quarter where Dirk Nowitzki essentially threw a wild punch at Sessions. Dirk tried to talk to Sessions afterwards but you could tell there wasn't a whole lot of love between the two.
Austin Carr pointed out that the NBA should take a look at that play and possibly levy some sort of punishment on Nowitzki. Apparently the referees didn't see it, because he didn't get a technical and you could see the disdain on the faces of Byron Scott and the rest of the Cavaliers.
The Cavs are coming to play every night as of late, which is more than can be said earlier in the losing streak. During the last 4 games, the Cavs have either tied or had the lead in the 4th quarter.
As Byron Scott often says, there's no such thing as a moral victory. However, you have to admit this was a pretty impressive comeback after being down 10 at half. We're not rolling over when things get tough; this team is now fighting back and you can tell they're making progress.
Jamario Moon seems to have replaced Manny Harris in the rotation, who only played 5 minutes last night. Moon has had to swallow his pride and ride the bench for most of the season, which must have been tough seeing as he won the starting SF position out of training camp.
With 10 seconds to go, the Cavaliers trailed 99-96. Anthony Parker dribbled down the court and missed his 3 point attempt, but the rebound was kicked out to Moon. With 1.2 seconds or so on the clock, he passed on a game-tying shot and instead swung it over to Antawn.
The buzzer went off before Antawn even had a chance to shoot it. Jamario absolutely should have taken that shot, clearly he thought there was more time on the clock.
Bryon assessed the situation.
"J-Moon just really wasn't aware," Scott said. "That's the bottom line. Because he had really a pretty good look."
This game was hard to swallow, because the Cavs had a chance to beat one of the best teams in the NBA and end this awful losing streak. It just wasn't meant to be.
That being said, this team is getting closer to that elusive win. I hope it happens when we play the Pistons on Wednesday. The way we're playing, we deserve to win a game.
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