Cleveland Cavaliers Blog – Page 94 – NBA Blog

LeBron James would love to own NBA team

The AP reports:

LeBron James, whose path to superstardom has followed a similar trajectory as Jordan’s, said Tuesday night before the Cavaliers faced the Chicago Bulls in Game 5 of the playoffs that he would “love” to own an NBA team someday. Jordan assumed ownership of the Charlotte Bobcats in March, buying the club for $275 million from Bob Johnson.

“I would love to be in that position,” James said. “It’s a great position to be able to own a team and be able to put pieces together and make decisions.”

InsideHoops.com says:

Well, if any current player should have the money to own most or all of an NBA team by the time his playing days are over, it’s LeBron.

LeBron says Bulls were well-coached

Jim O’Donnell of the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

For LeBron James — who just missed a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists despite a troublesome elbow — the question was tweaked.

”After the five games,” James was asked, ”did you think the Bulls were particularly well-coached, poorly coached or just in between?”

”I think they were well-coached,” James said. ”Vinny and his staff had that group ready. They have a group of young talent that can really play the game of basketball, and they played hard. There was not one point where they were laying down.

”In Game 4, we just got our stuff going and made stops, but they didn’t lay down. I’m not trying to make a pitch for Vinny because I know what’s going on — is Vinny in or is Vinny out? That’s not my job. But they played hard.”

Game 5: Cavaliers eliminate Bulls

The AP reports:

LeBron James just missed a triple-double despite an apparently sore right elbow, and the Cleveland Cavaliers advanced to a playoff date with Boston by beating Chicago 96-94 in Game 5 on Tuesday night in perhaps Vinny Del Negro’s final game as Bulls coach.

James, favoring a tender right elbow that appears to hurt worse than he’s letting on, scored 19 points—16 in the second half—and added 10 rebounds and nine assists as the Cavs finally saddled the stubborn Bulls to win the series 4-1. Unable to lift his right arm, James was forced to shoot a free throw left-handed with 7.8 seconds left.

Antawn Jamison scored 25 points for Cleveland, which will face the Celtics, reuniting teams that don’t like each other and who played a testy seven-game series in 2008…

Derrick Rose scored 31 points and Luol Deng 26 for the Bulls, who had several shots roll in and out in the final minutes.

Delonte West had 16 points and Shaquille O’Neal added 14 while racking up fouls against Chicago’s big men.

InsideHoops.com notes:

The Bulls hit just 2-of-10 three-pointers.

The starting Cavs guards were awful today. Mo Williams shot just 2-of-13 for the Cavs, finishing with seven points and five assists. Anthony Parker played 19 minutes and had three points and almost nothing else.

Shaq shot 7-of-9 for 14 and eight, though he had a few too many turnovers.

Derrick Rose had 31 points, but it took 27 shots, with six assists.

Other than Luol Deng shooting 9-of-17 for 26 points, few Bulls stepped up offensively.

Jamal Crawford wins Sixth Man of Year

As expected, Atlanta Hawks guard Jamal Crawford won the 2009-10 NBA Sixth Man of the Year award.

He deserved it. Crawford’s scoring off the bench was a huge part of Atlanta’s success this year.

The team finished with a 53-29 record and the #3 seed in the Eastern conference.

For more info on the award, with voting results and the guys that finished behind Crawford, click here.

Game 4: LeBron amazing 37-point triple-double, Cavs beat Bulls

The AP reports:

LeBron James had 37 points, 11 assists and 12 rebounds, Antawn Jamison added 24 points and the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Chicago Bulls 121-98 Sunday afternoon to go up 3-1 in their first-round series.

The Cavaliers led by 10 at halftime after scoring 38 in the second quarter and broke it open with a 37-point third, putting them in position to close it out at home on Tuesday.

InsideHoops.com reports:

The Cavs shot 53.2%, the Bulls just 37.4%. Cleveland also nailed a fantastic 12-of-25 from three-point range.

For Chicago, Joakim Noah (7-of-12) had 21 points and 20 rebounds, including seven offensive boards. The Bulls had 17 offensive rebounds, the Cavs just five — though Cleveland was hitting their shots, so there were fewer misses for them to collect.

Also for the Bulls, Derrick Rose had 21 points, but on 20 shots, and he didn’t do a lot else. Luol Deng scored 16, but on 17 shots, and also contributed little else.

As expected, the Bulls are in trouble. The Cavs will probably close out the series in Game 5.

David Stern urges NBA coaches to stop criticizing referees

The AP reports:

David Stern is fed up with NBA coaches criticizing referees and said he would not back down from penalizing them. In fact, in his perfect world, he could impose steeper penalties.

“I wish I had it to do all over again, starting 20 years ago; I’d be suspending Phil and Pat Riley for the games they play in the media,” Stern said Thursday before the Lakers and Oklahoma City played Game 3 in their first-round series.

“As you guys know, our referees go out there and knock themselves out and do the best job they can. But we’ve got coaches who will do whatever it takes to try to work them publicly. What that does is erode fan confidence.

“So our coaches should be quiet because this is a good business that makes them good livings and supports a lot of families, and if they don’t like it they should go get a job someplace else.”

Game 3: Bulls upset Cavaliers, 108-106

The AP reports:

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers can forget about sweeping the Bulls out of the playoffs.

Derrick Rose scored 31 points, Kirk Hinrich added 27 and Chicago hung to beat the top-seeded Cavaliers 108-106 Thursday night in Game 3 of a first-round series after its 21-point lead dwindled to one.

James scored 13 of his 39 points in the fourth quarter but also committed some turnovers down the stretch. Even so, the Cavaliers were within 107-106 after Mo Williams nailed a 3-pointer with 3.8 seconds left. They immediately fouled Luol Deng, who hit the first free throw but missed the second.

Cleveland’s Anthony Parker got the rebound and raced up the right side but missed a 3 at the buzzer, and the Bulls escaped with the win despite some shaky foul shooting late in the game.

InsideHoops.com Reports:

The Bulls shot 50.0%, the Cavs 43.9%. The Cavs launched 35 three-point attempts, hitting 14 (40.0%), while the Bulls hit 5-of-12. Free throw attempts were fairly close, but the Cavs only hit 64.5% from the charity stripe. Rebounds and assists were close.

For the Bulls, Joakim Noah had 10 points, 15 rebounds, five assists and two blocks.

For the Cavs, aside from LeBron’s 39, Mo Williams had 21 points but little else, and Antawn Jamison had 19 points and 11 rebounds. But Shaq shot just 2-of-8. And the entire Cavs benched combined for just 13 points.

Game 2: LeBron scores 40, Cavs beat Bulls

The AP reports:

“They were telling me I can’t make jump shots,” LeBron James said. “They asked me to shoot a jumper so I did that. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.”

James scored 40 points—15 in a tour-de-force fourth quarter—as the Cavaliers, fueled by a rabid home crowd that booed every move by Joakim Noah, maintained home-court advantage by beating the Bulls 112-102 on Monday night to take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

James added eight rebounds and eight assists for the Cavs, who led 96-93 with 4:30 left before the league’s soon-to-be-two-time MVP took over. He hit his 3 with the 6-foot-11 Noah coming at him and followed with a quick dance move and wink directed at Chicago’s talkative bench…

Noah, who drew the ire of Cleveland fans by criticizing the city’s lack of downtown activity, had 25 points and 13 rebounds…

Derrick Rose added 23 points and Luol Deng had 20 for the Bulls, who will head home for Game 3 on Thursday night.

Rose wants Bulls to get physical with Cavs

John Jackson of the Chicago Sun-Times reports:

”We’ve got to go out there and be totally opposite of what we did last game,” point guard Derrick Rose said. ”I didn’t think we were aggressive on the defensive end. We talked about it, and we have to have some type of swagger or nastiness about ourselves.

”[Tonight] I think it’s gonna be totally different. I think now that we got our feet wet a little bit, I think some of the guys will be a little more comfortable in the game and we’ll get a groove to our game. We have to just start hitting people. No ‘[basket]-and-ones’ or anything like that. We have to start hitting people.”

Rose isn’t talking about becoming the modern-day Detroit Pistons Bad Boys or playing dirty. He’s simply pointing out that the Bulls were too passive and need to do a better job of matching the Cavs’ physicality.

Game 1: LeBron, Shaq lead Cavs over Bulls

The AP reports: Completely healthy and well rested, the Cavaliers took their first step toward an NBA title on Saturday as LeBron James scored 24 points and Shaquille O’Neal looked and played 10 years younger in a 96-83 victory over the Chicago Bulls in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference series. O’Neal, playing for the first time since tearing a thumb ligament on Feb. 25, had 12 points, five rebounds, four assists and three blocks in 24 minutes as the top-seeded Cavs won a testy opener between two teams that obviously don’t care for each other… Derrick Rose had 28 points and 10 assists for Chicago, which had the misfortune of being the first team to face the Cavs in these playoffs. .. Mo Williams added 19 points and 10 assists, and Jamison, acquired at the trading deadline from Washington, had 15 points and 10 rebounds. Cleveland blocked 12 shots—10 in the second half.