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With LeBron leading the way, Cavs claim 13th straight win 106 - 115
February 11, 2010
The Cleveland Cavaliers reshaped their team for games like Thursday's 115-106 win over the visiting Orlando Magic. They needed to get smaller, quicker, and more capable of defending from the perimeter. They needed a quality big man who could counter, and maybe even agitate Dwight Howard. Perhaps most of all, the Cavs needed someone who could step up and throw one down when the Magic tried to place all those double- and triple-teams in the path of LeBron James. On Thursday, the Cavs (43-11) got all those things and more, and right when they needed them most. So make it 13 wins in a row for the team with the league's best record, and two wins in two tries over the opponent that stunned the Cavs in last season's Eastern Conference finals. But ask the Cavs, and they will tell you their struggles against the Magic (43-11) are so yesterday. "Our team was built to win a championship," James said. "We're gonna continue to play the way we know how to play." And it's new additions such as veteran center Shaquille O'Neal, and athletic wing players such as Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker, who are proving to be the difference-makers.
Thanks to O'Neal, the Cavs rarely have to double-team Howard. Thanks to Moon, Parker and young forwards J.J. Hickson and Jawad Williams, the Cavs are no longer utterly helpless against the Magic's glut of perimeter marksmen. "We got stops," James said. "We closed out on their shooters. We saw that a lot in last year's playoffs, and they made them. But we were right there in their face tonight." Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Cavs have old standbys like James. With the game tight in the fourth quarter, the reigning MVP proved that the fundamentals of basketball can carry you a long way. In the final three minutes, James threw a pinpoint lob pass to assist on an O'Neal dunk, hit two pressure-packed jump shots, and grabbed a key defensive rebound that he yanked down with one hand while slapping the backboard with the other. In the end, he recorded game highs of 32 points and 11 assists, and grabbed a team-high eight boards. But he knows that against a quality team like the Magic, one man will never be enough. That is why he was quick to credit teammates like O'Neal (10 points, six rebounds), Hickson (20 points, 9-for-14 shooting) and Anderson Varejao (16 points, 8-for-11 shooting).
Hickson and Varejao were particularly valuable on offense, finding seams in the defense for easy layups and more than a few dunks. It was the play of those two that made the Magic pay for giving so much attention to James and O'Neal -- and offered evidence that today's Cavs may be even deeper than the team that won 66 games last season. "We gave [Hickson and Varejao] a lot of room, focusing on keeping the ball out of Shaq's hands early and trying to keep Dwight out of foul trouble," said Magic coach Stan Van Gundy. "They got some openings and I give them credit. They took advantage of it." Actually, the was pretty much true of the everyone for the Cavs. With about five minutes left in the third quarter, the Magic led 79-72. With 5:21 remaining in the fourth, the score was tied at 96. But three minutes later, the Cavs had run off nine straight points, which included a triple from Delonte West -- who was back in the lineup after missing the previous nine games with a broken finger. West also passed for four assists and ran the team to near-perfection in his 23 minutes, and was yet another guy who helped to contain all those Magic shooters. "Delonte was terrific," said Cavs coach Mike Brown. "He did a heck of a job trying to body up [on defense], getting over the top with their shooters and trying to put pressure on them." Howard scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds to lead the Magic. But like O'Neal, Howard spent the majority of the night in foul trouble (both finished the game with five fouls).
Of course, none of that mattered to O'Neal, who has never failed to entertain when Howard is mentioned. "I don't really consider it manning up unless you play me straight up," O'Neal said of his younger adversary. "When I was coming up it was Patrick Ewing and Hakeem [Olajuwon]. I never doubled anybody. So you tell me who the real Superman is. Don't let them double me and then try to make it a him-versus-me thing. I've been in this league 18 years. I played Hakeem, Ewing, Rik Smits, David Robinson and Tim Duncan straight up. I never doubled anybody nor have I ever asked for a double team." Rashard Lewis added 19 points for the Magic, and Vince Carter scored 14, but was just 5-for-16 from the floor. Still, Carter insisted the Magic won't easily be deterred. "We're very resilient," he said. "We know we can play with anybody in the NBA. It's just we have to finish the job." So far this season, that role of finishing the job belongs to the Cavs. "We have some momentum and that's part of the process," James said of the Cavs' winning streak going on a brief hiatus for this weekend's All-Star break. "Now we'll get some rest and then see what happens."