West Coast Trippin' (Joe Gabriele blog)

[wuck]

Tidbits (some are quite memorable) from Joe Gabriele of Cavs.com after the road trip:

West Coast Trippin'
Monday, January 18, 2010, 12:36 AM EST [General]

Here are just some random ramblings from the West Coast trip that wrapped up with Saturday night’s win in Tinseltown …

The Cavaliers needed Saturday night’s game against the Clippers. There was a collective exhale – you could see it in their postgame celebration – when Baron Davis’ shot fell short. It’s not that a 2-3 road trip would have been devastating. But losing the last two games on buzzer beaters would have sure made for a long flight home.

Instead of going to Alcatraz when we were in San Francisco, I wanted to check a couple things off my list: the Cartoon Art Museum and San Francisco’s famous Haight-Ashbury section. The Cartoon Museum exceeded all expectations – with rare Warner Bros. cells and Simpsons storyboards. One of the displays were the actual figures from Wes Anderson’s animated movie, “The Fantastic Mr. Fox.”

“The Fantastic Mr. Fox” is the best movie I’ve seen all year. It’s done in stop-motion animation and definitely not your standard Pixar kid’s flick. Hilarious performances by George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman. The best running joke is characters replacing cuss words with the actual word: “cuss.”

Haight-Ashbury was underwhelming. I didn’t expect Bob Dylan singing on a street corner, but it was definitely wasn’t the progressive hotspot I expected. I also learned that the tough part of San Francisco is called “The Tenderloin.”

LeBron James is Elvis. The Cavaliers are rock stars. When the Cavaliers bus rolls in or out of an arena, fans go absolutely berserk. When LeBron is in a good mood, he’ll come down the aisle of the bus after a game, saying “They love me!” in a funny high falsetto. LeBron gets it. He knows it’s serious and surreal and silly all at the same time.

LeBron was in a great mood before and after Saturday’s Clippers game. Charlie Sheen came into the locker room after the Cavs win, praising James for another great game and complimenting him on his documentary, “More Than a Game.” LeBron’s always the straw that stirs the drink, but he was on top of his game on Saturday – on and off the court.

As good as his mood was surrounding Saturday’s game, I’ve never seen LeBron more solemn – (read: angry) – than after Thursday’s loss to Utah. James scored 18 points in three minutes – overcoming an 11-point deficit – and the Cavaliers still lost. That should have been him plastered all over SportsCenter on Friday, not Sundiata Gaines.

LeBron James is the best basketball player on the planet. Period.

It was really nice to watch No. 23 going to work in the post against Corey Maggette in Oakland. LeBron is fantastic facing up, but he’s absolutely unstoppable in the post.

One of the highlights of the trip came during the Clippers game, when a fan named “Clipper Darryl” broke out the “U.G.L.Y. – you ain’t got no alibi” chant on Delonte West while he was shooting free throws in the first half. Delonte broke out into a big grin and patted the ball to the chant’s beat. He split the free throws and wound up back on the stripe on the next possession. Same thing from Darryl, but this time Delonte sank the pair. It was good to see Delonte smile.

When the Cavaliers returned to the hotel after Saturday’s win, there was a huge bar mitzvah going on. It was nothing but screaming (well-dressed, wealthy) little kids. They went nuts over how huge Shaq was. (It is pretty amazing in-person.) But, faithful to their hometown, they started chanting “Ko-be, Ko-be …”

When you’re on an extended road trip, the question of which NBA city is one’s favorite always comes up. Most the players say Miami, New York, L.A. or Dallas. Mine is Portland, hands-down. The hotel is old and ornate and allows dogs. The city is friendly and Oregonians strike me as West Coast Ohioans. And Portland has my favorite non-Cleveland watering hole in the country: Kelly’s Olympian.

Joe Tait hates hip cities. He always prefers Sacramento to San Francisco. His favorite might be Salt Lake City and he never, ever misses a chance to repeat his Herb Score line about Los Angeles: “The land of fruits and nuts.”

I feel bad for Daniel Gibson. All Boobie has done this year is shoot .477 from three-point range, good for the top spot in the NBA. Finally fully healthy, Boobie was in the midst of the best season in some time. You certainly can’t blame Coach Brown. The button he pushed with Jawad Williams since Jamario Moon has gone down has paid off in production and wins.
Jawad Williams has been the surprise of the trip, shooting .625 from the floor and giving Mike Brown big minutes in crunch time. The Cleveland native came into the junket with 25 DNP-CDs this season, but stayed ready. In L.A., a friend observed that Jawad has “a quiet, street confidence” to him. He does. And he’s one of the most well-respected guys on the team.

By about Day 8 on an extended trip, everyone gets a little chippy with each other. Then things get back to normal. It’s natural, when you’re considering the same 35-40 people – seeing each other every day, most of the day; traveling in a rolling or flying tube together.

Every now and then, you need to be alone. And one great snapshot was LeBron, for one of the few times ever, sitting alone at the hotel bar in San Francisco, having a quiet lunch alone.

It really is hard to believe Staples Center is the same arena for both Lakers games and Clippers games. They do a fine job for both, but a Clippers game is a game. A Lakers game is an event.
The one celebrity I really wanted to see in L.A. was Larry David. Instead, we saw Simon Cowell, cruising down the street in a Rolls-Royce convertible. We saw him while walking along Rodeo Drive, where neither I nor anyone I know could afford anything.

Why do the Nuggets always give the Cavaliers such problems? Is it the Denver altitude? Their uniforms?

LeBron and Shaq might be the team’s superstars, but there’s no more galvanizing figure – or naturally hilarious dude – than Anderson Varejao. Fans hate the Wild Thing on the road. Andy’s either surprised by it or doesn’t care. And in the locker room, on the bus or plane, during practice – he never stops entertaining. He’ll mess with anyone and he’s friendly with everyone. On the floor, he’s having a Sixth Man-type season.

Mo Williams struggled from the floor on the trip, shooting just 35 percent – 26 percent from long-distance. Mo still notched double-figures in four of the five games and, more importantly, made a huge fourth-quarter save on Saturday night in a game the Cavaliers needed to have. (See Point 1.)

It’s kind of surprising that the Cavaliers would practice after getting in late on Sunday afternoon, but with a Tuesday night matchup with the Raptors (and Lakers rolling in on Thursday) Austin Carr said Monday’s practice will be to “get their mind off the road.”

The Cavaliers have played more road games (25) than any team in the league and are tied with the Lakers for the most wins. Their furthest trip west is San Antonio. They have a seven-game homestand starting at the end of this month and play only five back-to-backs for the rest of the season. Life is good.

And it is SO great to be back in Cleveland!

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