Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Cav

I sure do hope Ori can pull himself away from those nubile, uniformed exchange students. He was at the game tonight, while I was busy entertaining some clients on the company dime, catching tidbits as I could at the bar. And despite some helpful recaps from St. Rummy of Beernuts, it was confusing as hell.

First, where did Sasha come from? Looks like he played before and after halftime. Mike said after the game it was a "gut feel" decision. I didn't see anything in a brief moment in the first half to explain his second half burn, but I guess he put together a reasonably effective game. I was happy to see Mike Brown decide on a 9 man rotation and go to the mattresses with it, but there is no disputing that Sasha is more talented than just about any of the Lebron's wing sidekicks, especially Devin Brown, who's gotten all the starts in place of Sasha and often logs starter minutes. Now I have no idea what to expect on Friday. I think we'll see more Sasha, though.

Speaking of appearances out of the blue, whither Damon Jones? At this point, I think he has every right to be ticked off, and we all know I love the man like the brother I never had, plus it's odd that Mike Brown sticks to his guns with one but not the other, but I guess the continuity of a 10 man rotation is still better than 11. Still, Sasha has been awful, Boobie was worthless until tonight, Wally has climbed out of the doghouse, but Damon took his criticism, did as he was told, was always effective and probably won't see another minute of floor time, meaningful or not, for months.


Speaking of Lil A-Cup, look who's back and better than ever. I guess after building a house with all those bricks, Boobie finally decided to move in a little closer. And while he did it he managed to the double threat of pass or shoot, unlike his usual flailing-flop-fast-break-the-other-way foray to the hoop. I'd love to pencil him in for 12, 5 and 5 every night - or even just the 12 and 5. If he can do it on demand, we're that much closer to the returning to the finals. I guess last year was just the bombs. This year, with Mr. Gibson supplying the small arms, maybe we can win a few once we get there.

Now, as good as things turned out, the fact remains we were down 67-53, to the Nets, at home, in a game where the Nets had nothing to gain. 67-53! At home, rested and healthy. 67-53! Absurd. Embarrassing. Unconscionable. Did we storm back out of pride? Necessity? Probability? I don't think I saw the Nets hit a shot in the last 20 minutes of the game. Is our defense really that easy to flip on and off? Seems like our offense and defense rely heavily on each other, or at least the willingness to sweat put us over the top of the Nets on both fronts. It's the same story, so there's no need to rehash beyond a bevy of one word sentences, but we all know that's not going to fly against the Pistons or Celtics.

So what else?

I didn't see enough to figure out why, but Devin Harris didn't kill us. In fact, he was so bad, he lost minutes to Marcus Williams. Did we just clog the lane? If we did clog the lane, who was it? Andy had an uncharacteristic 3 blocks (in 19 minutes). Wallace only played 16.

Lebron went all game without a turnover. Can we go back and check our record when Lebron throws a dumb pass in the first 3 minutes vs when he doesn't?

Lebron dominated in his standard way; 33, 8 and 7 is just about on his averages. Plus he seemed to be willing and able to drive. I guess he's all better?

Lasagna Diop pulled in 6 offensive boards. With his T-Rex arms, he's not going over the back. Who's not boxing out?

Wally has been in double digits 3 of the last 4 games.

We didn't shoot great, but 84 points from our top 5 scorers came on 58 shots. Let the scorers score and they can do it well.

I'm really out of steam fabricating thoughts from 11 minutes of watching the game and half an hour of ogling the box score like it's a foxy strawberry in nothing but a just long enough Mark Price jersey.

What do you think? Good win? Lucky win? Expected win?

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