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Joe Smith Ownz You!
Yahoo! Box Score
So close, yet so far....
There's really not much to say about this game. The Thunder played the best possible ball that they could tonight. I'd say that if we played 100 games, this would definately be in the Top 10 effort-wise. We just didn't have the talent to win. LeBron James simply "threw the hammer down" as a sign from a Cavaliers fan from Arkansas who sat behind me said.
But, aside from LeBron James, we really did do a good job of defending the inside tonight. We never left Wilcox without other big men on the floor, and it really helped. Ilgauskas, Wallace, and Varejao were all held to under 6 points, and Ben Wallace scored higher than the other two. Now, I know that these guys are only borderline All-Stars, but it really is a testament to our interior defense of only LeBron slipped by them. Other than him, the Cavaliers were forced to rely on a lot of outside shots from Mo Williams and Delonte West. If there ever was a day for the Cavaliers to lose to the worst team in NBA history, it would have been today.
Chronologically, the Thunder were pretty much in the game until the 3rd quarter. The Cavaliers got the Thuder by 5 points at the end of the 2nd due to some bad calls, and when they stretched the lead to 10 points by the end of the 3rd (mostly due to circumstance) the game was pretty much unreachable from that point on.
But, during the game, I had an epiphany. I had just bought some ice cream (a rarity), and I was sitting during halftime while the teams were warming up and the sound system was playing the song, "Space Jam" from the movie, "Space Jam". It reminded me of my childhood in the 90s, and how much I enjoyed the Jordan era of basketball. It was also a longing, because by the time I was old enough to really appreciate basketball, it was the post-Jordan era, and the NBA really wasn't the same. I really wanted to take a trip to see one old Bulls game. Where they'd travel around the nation and sell out stadiums and nearly a quarter of the arena would be cheering for them. It then occured to me, I was experiencing that! There were heaps of LeBron fans, and the Ford Center had, indeed, sold out. The Cavaliers are, at least in one sense, becoming the new Bulls. I then relaxed, and for the first time in my life, I felt satisfied that I wasn't raised in the Jordan era. But, that was only for a moment, anyway.
Onward! To the Awards!
The Thunder Wonder is easily Russell Westbrook. With perhaps one of his best games ever, he had a double double (and nearly a triple double) with 24 Points, 7-16 Shooting, 2-3 3 Pointers, 6 Rebounds, 7 Assists, and 5 Turnovers.
The Thunder Down Under goes to none other than Kevin Durant. His numbers outside of his scoring aren't that impressive, but he really helped us when we were in a pinch. 26 Points, 9-17 Shooting, 2-3 3 Pointers, 5 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 4 Turnovers, and 2 Steals complete his night.
The fabulous 3rd Star goes to Jeff Green (another double-doubler), who had 16 Points on 7-15 Shooting, 2-7 3 Pointers, 10 Rebounds, 1 Assist, 2 Turnovers, and 1 Steal. Massive props also go to Nick Collison, who had 10 Points and 6 Rebounds while also doing a good job of defeinging against Clevelands above-average Centers.
The Thunder Blunder goes to nobody. Everybody had a good point to their stats tonight, and some of the hustle they showed didn't show up on the stat sheet. Okay, I could give it to Wilcox who only had 6 points tonight, but that's not fair. As a reward for all of the hustle they showed, they really deserve to have no blunder tonight.
I'm not even going to mention the name of the Thunder Plunderer and you'll know who he is anyway. He had 31 Points, 14-24 Shooting, 2-4 3 Pointers, 4 Rebounds, 7 Assists, 3 Turnovers, 3 Steals, and 1 Block. That's all I'm gonna say.
Next Game: Tuesday, December 23rd at the Atlanta Hawks.
Another chance to steal?
Side Note: At one point, the Cavaliers had 4 non-Afircan-American guys (counting Anderson Varejao, who's hispanic) on the floor. That freaked me out.... Also, sorry for the lack of photos tonight, but during Cavaliers games, 90% of the photos are of LeBron James. So I tried to use the most unflattering one possible.
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