I'm a tad bit surprised by the number of Celtics fans confident in victory tonight. They are about evenly split with those predicting defeat. Since we played them on the road five times last year and came away empty each time, I'm not sure why we think we'll win tonight. Sure, Z is out. But how many games have the Cs lost recently against teams that were missing one or more of their stars?
But I digress.
The real point of my post is this.
If the Cavs don't scare you now, keep in mind the Power of Wall-E.
Wally Szczerbiak is in the last year of a contract that pays him $13m. Let's just say he's the Cavaliers' version of Theo Ratliff, and we all know what the Boston Celtics were able to do with his contract.
The X-Factor here is that Wally is actually playing well this year. So would the Cavs really want to trade him? If they did, I shudder to think what they might get in return.
7 comments:
Yeah, I have been thinking about this. They not only have LeBron, Have been playing very well, and are getting better, but they have an expiring contract that may make them even better. Yes, Wally is playing well now, but remember those bone on bone knees. If I were them, I'd use the expiring contract and bring in another player.
That is scary. But on the other side of it, if they do trade Wally for another star, there is always the chance for a chemistry disruption. I said right from the beginning that the Cavs scare me more than the Lakers and they are getting scarier every day.
Bone on bone.
Boy, it has been a long time since I've thought about Wally's knees.
Brings back bad memories.
Wally and TA--the green got about the same out of each.
Also, it sounds like JR and Sky won't be playing.
What a freakin' joke.
The reason I'm confident of the Celtics winning tonight has a lot to do with Ilgauskas missing out ....
In terms of relative importance, Big Z is equivalent to the Celtics missing Paul Pierce or Kevin Garnett. He's a massive loss.
Ilgauskas' offense is necessary for the Cavs spacing offensively. He's the only big that can consistently make a shot outside of 5 feet. He pulls opposing centers out of the lane and opens it up for slashers and cutters. He creates the space for the Cavs passers. Then you talk about his scoring and a few post ups, and also he's had a lot of success against Perk over the years. You take him out of their offense and that offense that's ranked #1 in efficiency falls back towards the level it was at last season.
Ilgauskas is also a very good defensive player, and an excellent rebounder.
He's easily the Cavs second best player and he's so important to what they do.
Z's importance is also magnified because of a lack of top tier talent on their roster. They have no second star to go alongside James, and no third star at Ray Allen's level. You take away their second best player and the Cavs feel it. You take away one of the Celtics best players (like KG last season when they went 7-2) and the show goes on.
I also don't think the Celtics problems are serious/long term. They'll be short lived and there's no better place to snap out of it than a team that took you to the wire in the playoffs last season.
I'm fairly confident (about as much as you can be when you play a team of the Cavs caliber) that the Celtics will win tonight.
I will concede that KG feels a lot more confident against smaller guys.
I just don't have confidence in the green in Cleveland or in the green down the stretch.
But, hey, I picked the Cs over LA. So maybe, by reverse logic, by picking Clev tonight, the Cs will win.
I’m legitimately surprised by the Cavs winning this game. I didn’t think they were capable of a performance of this nature without Big Z anchoring the middle for them.
Impressive game by Cleveland.
I'll be curious to see how they do against the Fakers.
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