Well that was one ugly basketball game. Anytime a game goes into overtime and neither team manages to reach 100, you know the offense was struggling. Both teams shot like NCAA tourney teams and not coincidentally both teams will end up very high in the draft in order to draft NCAA players from those tourney teams. Neither team managed to shoot above 38% from the field. That’s just tough to stomach.
Hard for me to really give any praise for any Cavalier. Even the one guy I was going to praise ended up not deserving it by the end of the game. For the most part, I thought Hollins played some really good defense on Brook Lopez, that was untill he fouled him 3 times in overtime. A couple of them, especially his last one, was an incredibly stupid foul. With the Cavs still in the game and nearly a minute to play, Hollins made a fatal error by reaching in after an offensive rebound attempt and fouling Lopez 80 feet away from the basket.
Hickson and Sessions weren’t much better in OT. Sessions, I have to say, is wearing my patience thin. The guy makes up his mind long before the play actually develops that he’s going to drive and shoot and that’s that. Multiple times down the stretch he put his head down, headed towards the rim, and through up some wild lay-up attempt with no intention of actually playing like a PG and setting up a teammate. For once, his box score actually backs up the way he normally plays. 2 assists to 5 turnovers. Not nearly good enough for a point guard. He’s a selfish, shoot first PG, only he can’t shoot and he isn’t overly athletic. A really terrible combination.
Hickson was close to brain dead during the OT. He had multiple turnovers, tried to dribble drive, committed a foul, and simply hurt his team far more than he helped it. For the game, he rebounded the ball well if you ignore the fact that the man he was guarding rebounded the ball even better. These are the things I mean about empty stats. Yes, Hickson grabbed 17 boards, but the man he was supposed to be boxing out grabbed 23, 9 of which were offensive. So did Hickson really have a good night on the boards? Questionable.
Anyway, it’s a sign of the times where this team is at when it can’t beat the lowly Nets, at home, without Deron Williams. Things are bleak.
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