CLEVELAND — LeBron James scored 27 points, Shaquille O’Neal added a season-high 21 while wearing out Washington’s big men and the Cleveland Cavaliers won their third straight, beating the Wizards 102-90 on Tuesday night.The Cavs trailed by 18 in the second quarter before turning up their defense and relying on their superstar combo of James and O’Neal to win their sixth straight at home over the Wizards.
Mo Williams scored 15 and Daniel Gibson 14 for the Cavs, who made nine 3-pointers in the second half — four in the fourth quarter when James was out. Williams and Gibson were a combined 7-for-9 on 3s.
Caron Butler and Gilbert Arenas scored 22 apiece to lead the Wizards.
O’Neal’s integration into their offense has been a slow process for the Cavs, but they are starting to figure out how to best use the perennial All-Star center, who came over in a June trade from Phoenix.
O’Neal had easily his best game since coming to Cleveland. He made 7 of 9 field goals, 7 of 10 free throws, grabbed eight rebounds and put Washington’s frontline in foul trouble.
He also endeared himself to Cleveland fans by flattening Wizards guard DeShawn Stevenson on a drive in the first half. Stevenson has been a pest to the Cavs, engaging in a war of words with James in the playoffs two years ago.
The Cavs have been using the 7-foot-1 O’Neal and his 7-foot-3 backup, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, together with mixed results. But the pair are getting more comfortable and confident with every second they spend on the floor and have the potential to be a matchup nightmare for any team.
Cleveland only led 78-73 after three, but the Cavs pushed their lead to 94-79 by making four 3s as James rested on the bench. James only played four minutes in the fourth quarter.
Butler, back after missing one game with a bruised left knee, scored 17 in the first half but he and his teammates cooled off after halftime and fell into a bad habit of rushing shots.
Cleveland trailed by 39-21 with 9:19 to go in the second quarter and were still down 12 when James re-entered the game with 7:35 left before half. But with James scoring 10 points, Gibson hitting two 3-pointers and O’Neal scoring eight and drawing fouls inside, the Cavs were within 54-50 at halftime.
The Wizards had no answer for O’Neal and the Cavs used it to their advantage.
They slowed the game down and pounded the ball inside to their big man, forcing JaVale McGee, Andray Blatche and Brendan Haywood to hack or pay. McGee picked up four fouls in less than 10 minutes.
Game Observations
* Talk about a roller coaster ride of a game. The Cavs started off terrible, losing 31-17 at the end of the 1st quarter. There was no way I could have predicted the Cavs to come out the next 3 quarters and proceed to whoop the Wizards butt.
* It all started on defense, what Mike Brown preaches. The Cavs held the Wizards to 36 points in the 2nd half after allowing 31 points in the 1st quarter. The other key that got the Cavs back into the game was the fact they had 25 assists and only 7 turnovers. Taking care of the ball and playing defense is the formula for success.
* One stat that is quite concerning: the Cavs were out-rebounded 48-42 against a Wizards team without Antawn Jamison. So far the Cavs are tied for 26th in the NBA in rebounding. I’m not sure why all of a sudden the Cavs are a bad rebounding team. One would think the addition of Shaquille O’Neal and the subtraction of Ben Wallace would keep the Cavs as a top rebounding team.
* Speaking of Shaq, tonight is when his impact was truly felt. He ended up with 21 points and impact both ends of the floor. Offensively the Cavs played off of Shaq and got multiple open looks off of him. He also got the Washington big men into early foul trouble and eventually fouled Brendan Haywood out of the game. Defensively, the Wizards 4 big men only got a combined 22 points. The Wizards also only got 22 points in the paint compared to the Cavs 40 points in the paint.
* As far as guys who benefited off of him, look no further than Boobie Gibson. He connected on 5 of 8 shots and was 4 of 5 from 3. Boobie looks the best he’s ever looked, as he played a complete game tonight. He played great defense, was hustling and hitting tough 3’s. It’s nice to see a healthy Gibson.
* Delonte had 16 first half minutes, thanks to his great defense on Arenas, but the Williams-Gibson combo kept him on the bench for most of the 2nd half.
* Mo had a nice game too, starting to round into shape. Mo had 15 points, 6 assists, 1 turnover and was, a team best, +18.
* Andy had a good game too with a double-double (10 & 10) and tons of energy. Andy has been up-and-down statistically throughout the season but that’s expected adjusting to playing with Shaq.
* The craziest stats of the night: Anthony Parker was 2-12 shooting but had the 2nd highest +/- at +16. While we’re on the topic of Parker, what’s up with his shot? He’s hitting his 3’s at nearly a 50% clip but his shooting from the field is terrible. It’s weird for a guy who’s always been a highly efficient shooter so that’s why I’m not concerned as of now.
* Jamario had a nice 9 minutes coming off the bench with a little 5 minute stretch in the 4th quarter where the Cavs really extended their lead with LeBron on the bench. Moon was active, playing good defense, getting rebounds and even hit a 3. I’d like to see more of Jamario. He’s a talented kid who really can help the Cavs, if given some minutes.
* Oh yeah and that LeBron guy, pretty good. He struggled with Caron Butler early on but shut him out when the Cavs needed stops. He had his averaged game with 27-8-6 but took too many 3’s (7, yikes!).
* JJ only got a short stint in the 1st half, in which he didn’t do much.
* The Cavs are shooting the 3-ball real well but not shooting the ball well from the field and are decent from the line. Can anyone explain that?
* Z, who’s been shooting the ball well recently, was only 1-6 from the field tonight. Z also played with Shaq a little bit tonight but that was only for one 3-4 minute stint in the 1st half. Glad to see Mike Brown phasing out the Twin Towers combination.
* The bottom line is the Cavs came out flat tonight but really turned it up the rest of the way. Right now the problem is that the Cavs are playing in spurts and playing inconsistently. The Cavs haven’t put everything together yet but once they do, in the flashes they’ve shown, it looks like they could be a pretty good team.
Next Game
Next up is the Chicago Bulls, at home, on TNT, at 8 PM on Thursday. Chicago is 2-2 and, like the Cavs, played on Tuesday and won (against Milwaukee). The Bulls will be a decent test considering the amount of talent on that team but they aren’t the same team they were in the playoffs last year–at least not yet.
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