Preview: Cavs vs. Spurs

The Cavaliers and the San Antionio Spurs will pla each other tonight in Cleveland in which each team will look to win without a key player to their rosters.

San Antiono's Tony Parker strained his left calf in Sunday's win against the Memphis Grizzles, is expected to miss 2-4 weeks.

On the other side, Cleveland's leading scorer at 18.0 points a game will most likely miss the rest of the season. Antawn Jamison broke is left pinky finger in the lose against the 76ers.

San Antonio will look to avoid losing consecutive games for just the second time this season. The last time they lost consecutive games was back in January when they lost to Boston and New York.

The Spurs immediately felt the impact of missing Tony Parker in their starting lineup. They had 21 turnovers against the Grizzles and the defense was awful, something the Cavaliers should take notice.

For the Cavaleirs, their road without their starting forward Antawn Jamison starts tonight. The injury will allow younger guys to log more minutes including Samardo Samuels.

Samuels was named the starting center yesterday, allowing JJ Hickson to move over to power forward.

Coach Scott wants JJ Hickson to continue his recent succes at his natural positon and that being the power foward spot. Jamison's injury will also allow younger players to step-up. Newly aquired, Luke Harangody will be the only player available to play tonight of the three that were traded to Cleveland.

Baron Davis is still nursing a Knee injury and Semih Erdan will be out for another week will his own injury. However, Luke Harangody will look to improve his game and show his potential with more of an opportunity to play with Cleveland.

Tip-off is at 7:00pm at Quicken Loans Arena.

Cavaliers 106, San Antonio 80 (Cavs continue preseason success)

Who would have thought the Cavaliers would have been 4-1 with a 3-game winning streak in the middle of preseason? I think I know of only one person who would have said yes. That would have been my co-writer and creator, Ben Jackson.

Anyways, the Cleveland Cavaliers are proving to the rest of the NBA that they still belong in the league and are proving to the haters that the Cavaliers are a forced to be reckoned with.

The Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1) beat the San Antonio Spurs (2-2) Thursday night with a final score of 106-80. The Cavaliers and Spurs played at the University of Pittsburgh’s Peterson Events Center and just over 5,000 fans crammed together.

J.J. Hickson continued his strong preseason, finishing with 18 pts and nine rebounds.

Others that had big nights seem to be the norm, including the newly acquired Ramon Sessions. He finished with 14 pts and nine rebounds as well. Daniel “Boobie” Gibson showed his all-around game tonight, finishing with 13 pts, six assists and four rebounds.

The Cavaliers used an 11-2 run late in the third quarter to help outscore the Spurs 56-39 in the second half. However, the short-handed Spurs didn’t play Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker or Richard Jefferson.  Minor detail. 

Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao were dressed and with the team, but did not play. Also, Antwan Jamison did not play after sustaining a left knee sprain in the second quarter. I have not heard how serious the injury is or how long he will be out. I also heard Anthony Parker also had an injury as well, not sure about him either.

The win against the Spurs continued the Cavaliers streak at 3 games in a row. Even though its preseason, the Cavaliers are starting to look they have found themselves and are starting to find a swagger. Maybe, the Cavaliers are starting to play with a chip on their shoulders, or maybe they always have had one since someone “Took their talents to South Beach” and we didn’t even know.

The Manny Harris Watch:

- News broke that former second-rounder Danny Green may soon be getting cut. With Manny Harris emerging as a Cavalier Legend, how could you not cut Green? Harris fits the system better and he has raw talent you can’t find around the world.

- Speaking of Harris, the man played again tonight. If you guess he played another stellar game, you’re right. Manny went 3-8 from the field, with 11 points in 24 minutes of action.

- Harris had a PER (Player Efficiency Rating) of +17. That was second best tonight, second to Boobie Gibson of +20. Let’s face it, if he continues to play like this, Byron Scott will have no choice but to start the soon to be Hall-of-Famer.

- I would suggest starting to pre-order your Manny Harris jersey’s now before they sell out.

All for One. One for All

Keep your heads up Cleveland