Cavs Need to Use Assets, The Tribe Finds a New Ace

 

Some thoughts prior to another big sports weekend in Cleveland:

 

Cavaliers.  The wine and gold laid a gigantic egg Wednesday night in Game 5 against the Nets, and need to play much better tonight to avoid a deciding seventh game back at the Q on Sunday nignt.  Mike Brown’s offense is taking heat again, as he lost his standing as a good coach in one contest.  For me, the biggest criticism with the offensive strategy is the same as it has always been, that is the inability to get the ball to Zydrunas Ilgauskas.

 

The big man had 14 points in the first half of Game 5, and despite the shooting woes of the rest of the team in the second half, no one seemed to get the ball to Z in the last 24 minutes.  He wound up with a two point second half.  If Ilgauskas is scoring, his teammates simply half to get him the ball, but too often, they don’t look his way.  That’s Larry Hughes’ weakness as a point guard.  A quality lead guard finds the hot man and keeps feeding him until the defense makes an adjustment.  The Cavs didn’t do that and paid the price. 

 

Tonight is also a night for LeBron James to take control early.  Usually, the King starts slowly, trying to get his teammates involved in the first quarter.  He should abandon that strategy tonight.  LBJ should come out of the locker room looking to score and taking the ball aggressively to the basket.  The wine and gold should also forget about Mikki Moore’s antics.  Moore is starting to get in the Cavs’ heads much like Rasheed Wallace of the Pistons.  The difference is Moore isn’t even a good player.  Just play the game, play solid defense, and be more efficient on offense.  Do that, and you can get ready for the Pistons.  If they don’t, it’s Game 7 with the Nets having momentum.

 

Indians.  Has the Tribe found the second half of a one-two pitching punch in Fausto Carmona?  It looks that way right now as the 23 year old righty dominated the Twins in a four hit shutout yesterday afternoon.  Carmona has now won five straight starts, including two duels over Minnesota’s reigning Cy Young Award winner, Johan Santana.  Together with C.C. Sabathia, the Tribe has two lights out starters at the top of the rotation for the first time since maybe the 60’s (Sam McDowell and Luis Tiant).  The team has some depth in the rotation, but I don’t think we will see any kind of trade unless it solves a major problem for the Tribe.

 

The Indians are now 9-2 in the AL Central, and lead the division by one game over the Tigers.  They are ten games over .500 at 24-14.  This despite slow starts offensively from Travis Hafner and Grady Sizemore, and virtually no production from left field.  Here’s a solution to the Andy Marte dilemma:  Move Casey Blake to left field for the time being, and put Marte back at third.  Blake is starting to hit, and let’s see if the young third baseman can hit better than David Dellucci and Jason Michaels. 

 

With the Reds and Royals coming up on the schedule, the Indians could get on another streak.  Keep an eye on Jeremy Sowers’ start on Saturday to see if he has solved his problems. 

 

MW