It was 38-20 at halftime (only 4 points allowed in the second quarter!!?).Īs for the Cavs, and I am writing this before having seen the box score (unlike the all star description), LeBron did nothing. Then I scored 13 straight to start the second and I did not look back after that. The first quarter had me excited, as I led 20-16 and it seemed like turning up the difficulty was a great idea. However, this obviously did not change things for me score wise. The ability to get past a defender 1-on-1 was definitely more difficult, and I had to rely on passing more. I didn’t see much of a difference in my offensive game, although it felt like I shot more jumpers and did not do much inside work. Frankly, it seemed on par with the all-star level. It was harder to get to the basket, in that I had to work more, but I still got there. Things got more hectic in the 4 th, and I got a little lazy, which attributed to some of it, but I think there should have been more from either side. I think it was 3 or 4 altogether at half time.
Up until the 4 th quarter, there were very little turnovers. No ridiculous put backs or crazy rebounds from either team you know the kind, where a guy reaches for a rebound and “amazingly” taps it with his hand, and it zooms into the basket. He also did not post up at all, and his patented “watch-me-as-I-freight-train-my-way-to-the-basket” was missing.
It was not hard for Thornton to stay with him. Even in the 4 th quarter, when I was up by 15-20, they were still running around and keeping me entertained. Very surprised by the amount of movement on offense I was not expecting that at all, and it was very refreshing. I was the home team, lol, but this was definitely something that needs to be fixed. Most of their points came from open looks on the outside perimeter or cuts to the basket. Ilgauskas was not visible on offense, in fact their post game was non-existent. West took a few 3 pointers even when he was guarded, so that was unexpected. I thought him and Baron would be a fun matchup but Baron was running laps around him from the get go. He was not as aggressive as I expected him to be. I did not see much penetration by their players though, especially Mo Williams. I was definitely not sitting there waiting for Cleveland to make a move though they were constantly in motion, the ball was consistently being passed around, passed inside then back outside when the double came. As long as I stayed in front of my man, and jumped when he shot, there was a good chance he was not going to make the shot. Also, when there was a congregation under the basket for a loose ball I would switch for that reason. When someone got open and was passed the ball, I would switch to put a body on them. I controlled Baron for most of the time on defense. Quite unreal because 1 or 2 of the put backs were wide open looks. I ended up with the board, and they got no points.
However, there were many missed inside shots, and there was one particular play where they rebounded the ball 4 or 5 times, and each time the put back would clang rim and fall out. LeBron missed a few shots that I thought he would make, but he took a lot of outside shots, and he doesn’t really have a jumper in real life (zing!) so that wasn’t awkward for me. If I was losing or if it was a close game, I think my points in the paint would have been higher, and I think that would raise my FG% as well, which is not good because I think it is already a little high.Ĭleveland couldn’t really hit much of anything. Over all I thought the shooting was not bad, it seemed quite realistic, but I took a lot more 3 pointers as the game went on, due to being ahead.
In the first quarter my 3 pointers were draining in with Baron, and I thought it would be a disappointing blowout, but those evened out later on.Īs long as I continuously moved players around the court I would be able to find either an open shot or penetrate to the basket. I didn’t feel like I had to work very hard to get my shots.