L Nets 109 Cavaliers 100

[Slim Sheedy]

vs

New Jersey Nets (7 - 9) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (11 - 6)

Friday, December 9, 2005
7:30 pm ET
TV: ESPN
Radio : WTAM 1100
The 'Q' Arena, Cleveland, Ohio

Head Coaches

Mike Brown / Lawrence Frank

Probable Staters

Eric Snow/ Jason Kidd

Larry Hughes / Vince Carter

LeBron James / Richard Jefferson

Drew Gooden / Clifford Robinson

Zydrunas Ilgauskas / Nenad Krstic


New Jersey Nets Bench

Scott Padgett / Marc Jackson / Jeff McInnis / Jacque Vaughn / Zoran Planinic​

Inactive Roster

Linton Johnson, Lamond Murray, Antoine Wright*(subject to change)​

Cleveland Cavaliers Bench

Damon Jones / Luke Jackson / Martynas Andriuskevicius / Donyell Marshall / Alan Henderson​

Inactive Roster

Aleksandar Pavlovic, Ira Newble, Anderson Varejao*(subject to change)​

Net's Notes
*In 2nd place in the Atlantic Division at 7-9.

*Vince Carter still bothered by the ankle injury.

*Defense has been horrendous lately.

*Playing against the Bobcats(Wednesday Night)

Cleveland Cavalier Notes
*Just got off a 3 game Road Trip and went 1-2.

*7-1 at home games this year.

*Another ESPN Game, which we don't always do good in.


Slim Sheedy's Keys
1. ESPN. Forget that it's an ESPN game, since our record ain't great. This is a crtical game since we have a few central division games coming up.

2. Leadership. Eric Snow needs to continue leading the team as a player and a captain. He was real good against Sacramento and he has to keep it up.

3. Big Z. Z needs to start off early simply because he has a good advantage against Krstic. Get him a few buckets early and for the whole game he should be a difference maker.

4. Containment. New Jersey is a team that loves to run with Kidd, Jefferson, Carter running the floor so we gotta stay with them in the running game and contain the explosive Trio.

Players to Watch

Larry Hughes-Vince Carter​

**The Outcome**
It'll be a real sloppy game, but both teams have the fire power to score a lot. If we don't contain the Big 3 of NJN than we can forget about this game. We Also got to worry about Cliff Robinson he has a history of hitting big 3's against many teams in the NBA. So basically what you will get Friday Night is a sloppy high scoring game with a bunch of highlights and top play nominees. Cavs win in a high scoring/sloppy game.

Cavs-102 Nets- 91

 

[Dungong]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

Kidd is one of the few guys in the league that compares in the open court to Lebron. And with Carter and Jefferson to pass it to, these guys are bound to put up some sort of highlight reel material. I would personally love to see Eric Snow take it to the hole against Mcinnis.

I think the Cavs would have the advantage here actually in the half court set, where I don't think the Nets have an answer to Z or penetration from our swingmen. Z could basically own this game. I'm sure the Carter and Jefferson vs Lebron and Larry matchup will be intriguing. I wonder whos going to be guarding who.

Also, with Sasha out for 3 weeks, I think Marty gets a roster spot. I would love to see some 20 point advantage garbage time to see this kid play.

 

[Karma]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

This is a game where I expect Drew Gooden to show a little dominance. The Nets dont have anyone who can handle the "quicks" of Drew. Our frontcourt does have the advantage, so if our perimeter rotation can match theirs, I expect Ilgauskas, Marshall and Gooden to prove to be the differense. The Nets should not be taken lightly despite their poor start. Kidd, Carter and Jefferson could go for anything from a triple double to a 40 point outing. Krstic is a very talented scorer, so he will certainly challenge Ilgauskas as he does to every opposing center. Some solid contributions from Jones and Marshall should give us a boost as the Nets have a rather slim depth chart.

Cavs should take this, but we need LeBron to defend as he did on Peja.

 

[Pioneer10]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

This is a game where Snow can be the big key for us. Kidd is an aging but still effective PG who is big and physical. He's lost a step though. Snow is tough physical defender who can't handle quick PG's. I like this matchup as I'm hoping Snow can show Kidd down a bit.

If we do that then our next 2 best players play the exact same position as the Nets. That leaves the frontcourt where we hold a huge edge. No excuse not to win this game as it is also at home. Need to revenge last year

 

[cavincali]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

this team isnt very good. we should win.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

This should be a competitive game. We owe the Nets for edging us out of the playoffs last year. Will be interesting to see if Snow can handle Kidd. And theres Carter/Jefferson vs LeBron/Larry. This should be a fun game to watch.

 

[Karma]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

Nets forward center Jason Collins is having problems with his knee and will likely miss the game leaving the Nets very thin up front. Lets hope Cav killer Clifford Robinson does not have any gas left in the tank to hurt us once more.

 

[Karma]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

Coach’s Corner: Nets Try to Corral Cavaliers

By Terry Porter (as told to Andrew Pearson)


Dec. 9, 2005 -- Amid the blinding lights of national television, the Cleveland Cavaliers will host the New Jersey Nets tonight at Quicken Loans Arena (7:30 ET, ESPN). We asked coach Terry Porter to give us his insights on this matchup as the Cavaliers try to keep pace with Detroit in the Central and the Nets try to break from the mediocre pack in the Atlantic.


Porter's Overview

After allowing the fewest points that they’ve allowed to an opponent in the last eight games in their win over Charlotte, the Nets are facing a tough task traveling to Cleveland to play the Cavaliers. Cleveland this is a team that is really on the rise. They are playing extremely well at home this year, having won seven of eight at Quicken Loans Arena. The new editions of Damon Jones, Larry Hughes and Donyell Marshall have really stepped up their perimeter play and have given LeBron a nice supporting cast. His scoring average is actually slightly up, but he hasn’t had to worry as much about scoring.

Keys

One of the keys to the game is really the Nets ability to see if they can get back to defending. The Nets only gave up 84 points to the Bobcats, but although Charlotte is a much improved team, they aren’t anything close to the team they’re facing in the Cavs. Whenever a team gets challenged by one of its leaders, as Richard Jefferson did recently, it can spark a team.

LeBron can smile because he has a great supporting cast.


It will be important to use this as a springboard to go out and play with a physical presence and defend, because the Net teams of old were always a team that defended, enabling them to get out in the open court, which helped their offense.

Can the big three get back to getting out in the open court – Jefferson, Kidd, and Carter? Right now they’re really struggling with that. They’re not getting those timely steals or timely turnovers that enabled those guys to get those easy baskets that every team needs in the league.


X-Factors

Who is going to fill-in in the middle is a big question mark for the Nets with Jason Collins out with the inflamed nerve in his right leg. The combination of Krstic, Robinson and Marc Jackson are going to have to step up and help defensively on Z, who has gotten off to a pretty good start with Cleveland.
The Nets are going to make sure that they don’t allow Cleveland to do a good job on the boards. When Cleveland is getting the rebounds and limiting their opponents to a one shot possession, they’re getting out in the open court. They have so many great finishers, Larry Hughes, LeBron, and with Donyell Marshall and Damon Jones spotting up on the perimeter, it will be critical for New Jersey not to allow Cleveland to dominate the boards.

In transition, teams try to stop the ball, the defense collapses and obviously with LeBron warranting a lot of attention, they are going to try and stop him. What ends up happening is guys like Damon Jones, who is a great three point shooter, Donyell, who has proven he can hit threes, and Larry, who hits timely threes, become a concern. Even at the half court level, when LeBron has iso’s, they are going to try and double team him and throw different defensive schemes at him. If Snow is in the game, they will be able to do a little bit more cheating off Snow as compared to when Damon comes in the game because of his ability to stretch the defense.

The LeBron-Carter matchup could be one to watch. It might be LeBron-Jefferson, but either way that match-up is going to be a tell-tale sign depending on who gets the edge. Initially Jefferson will probably be on LeBron, with Carter maybe on Hughes, but Hughes is not an easy task either. He is more of a slasher, doing a lot more ball-handling. Jefferson has the rep of being a better defensive player. Frank will probably lean that way. As the game goes on he may go back and forth and might even put Kidd on him. If Jersey can do a good enough job on LeBron and hold down the other guys, they have a good chance.


Bottom Line

I like Cleveland. Jersey is still trying to find itself. For the most part in Cleveland, the new guys have really fit in well. Mike Brown has done a great job with this team and I just like the way they’ve been playing up to this point. The first game off a long road trip is always the easiest to get tripped up. Guys get too comfortable getting back home thinking they can just show up and win, but Cleveland can definitely turn it on when they want to at home. It’s important that Jersey controls the game, controls the tempo, and doesn’t let Cleveland go out on any big spurts.

Link

 

[West Remy]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

This game is on national television (the curse). I'm not one who is very quick to subscribe to curses but in the limelight, we've managed to come out very flat in those type of games. If we want respect, we can't continue to get blown out or lose close games we had in the bag in front of the national audience.

 

[insshc]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

refs making some very nj-friendly calls all throughout the 1st

 

[moohead]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

EL SUCKO.

Moo

 

[West Remy]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

That was one of the hardest opening quarters to watch I've ever seen. Ouch.

 

[Troy Wingate]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

Too many forced shots, but also refs are losing it for Cleveland

 

[Pioneer10]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

refs making some very nj-friendly calls all throughout the 1st

Really some incredible calls for NJ that 1st quarter: we just need to keep this game within 10 so we can make a run in the second half

 

[West Remy]

Re: Nets vs Cavs 12-9-05

Cleveland is still hanging around. I can't get the flow of this game at all.