Hey everyone! It's A.C. here. What's happening?
That was a nice win on Friday night over the Bulls and an even better homestand. The wins were impressive, against two tough teams from the West and a Division opponent. And one of the best moments was when Z broke the games-played record on Wednesday night.
That record is a great testament to, I think, a guy who’s given his heart and soul to the organization. You think about all the lonely days and lonely hours that he had to do rehab.
I went through the exact same thing. They took a piece of bone out of my hip and put it in my foot. I hurt my knee three times and had major surgery. A lot of days you want to get out there and you can’t or it hurts too much. There’s so many things that you go through mentally, and the kicker is, when the rehab is over and it’s time for training to begin … it hasn’t healed!
It’s such a difficult process that very few players have gone through or understand. And Z getting through that is a testament to his will and determination to get back out on the floor.
I played five years without any type of injury until I had my final knee surgery with Washington. Three of those years, I played all 82 games. And that’s how Z has gone with his career. And you can see that finally the right formula was found to work him in. It’s nice when you get that consistency and get back into the game.
When I got back, I probably could’ve played a couple more years and I think the same is true for Z. Those years that you’re off, that’s less wear and tear on your body.
Another encouraging thing from the homestand was Delonte’s play.
He had a rough game on Friday night, but in the Dallas game, he was off the charts. Same with the Phoenix game.
The team gets into a comfortable setting when Delonte’s on the floor. He’s the orchestrator. It gives Mo a chance to play off the ball and do his thing. That’s how we won all those games last year – because everyone was in their perfect position.
That’s why it’s important that Delonte continues to progress – because he puts everybody in the right position. Everyone fits. And that makes us very deep. His basketball IQ is very high; he orchestrates the game. And I love to watch him play.
The Cavs are back on the road this week. Life on the road isn’t like it used to be, but it still can be difficult – especially during the holidays.
You want to be with family and friends during this time of year. And this season, we play on Christmas Day; we were out of town for Thanksgiving. It has a tendency to get you into a little bit of a funk, but you have to focus and keep your focus.
That’s how the holidays would affect me. You’d have to Christmas shop and try to spend time around the family. And, especially when my kids were younger, it was tough.
We’ve been lucky in the past. But the Cavs are one of the hottest items in the league right now, people want to see us, and we get the marquee games. That’s just the price of success.
But having a bunch of road games early in the year isn’t all bad, either.
We’re starting to establish our home court again like last year – which is good. But your test – especially early in the season – comes on the road. That’s where you get to measure yourself. You get to know who you are.
And these little stretches – four games in five nights, three games in four nights – they toughen you up. And you can get in a rhythm on the road, especially if you’re successful. That can really get you feeling good about yourself.
On Sunday, we’ll get our first look at Brandon Jennings, who’s changing Milwaukee’s fortunes and putting people in the stands. They like to go up and down and take advantage of his skills. The Bucks miss Bogut, but he wasn’t setting the world on fire. And Redd is out with a knee problem.
We might be catching them at the right time, but it’ll still be an electric atmosphere with Jennings facing LeBron for the first time.
I think we’ll be ready for them.
Then we go into Memphis, and hopefully that’ll be a game to shut them down in the first half and get that one over with. And from there we head to Houston.
Houston always plays us tough. That’s the one team in the Western Conference that has always played like the Cavs, even back in my day. Every game, they might not be the most talented team, but they’re always trying to be the hardest-working team. They’re tough mentally and they beat you up with undersized guys.
That should be the game of the trip. Both teams play very hard, and you’re going to win a certain amount of games in this league if you play hard. That’s going to be a tough game for us.
