Cleveland Cavaliers And Charlotte Bobcats Preview
By Zak Kolesar
If you want to know how horrible the Charlotte Bobcats (7-48, 3-26 away) are, just look at the video above of Monday night’s game against one of the other horrible teams in the league, the Washington Wizards (13-44). Pay attention to the number of attendees.
The Cleveland Cavaliers (18-36) are coming off two hard-fought road games against the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets, staging a late-game comeback against the Raptors and losing to the Nets in overtime. The Cavaliers will be without Daniel Gibson, Anthony Parker, Anderson Varejao and Kyrie Irving for the third straight game, giving Lester Hudson, Manny Harris and Donald Sloan more playing time. They all have had shining moments of their own, but sooner or later the injury report will lessen.
The Bobcats will be traveling to Quicken Loans Arena to take on the Cavaliers Tuesday night at 7. If the Bobcats beat the Cavaliers, they will snap a 12-game losing streak. The Cavaliers don’t want to be the team that loses to the kind of team they were last year. Those were pre-Kyrie Irving times. Those were before Tristan Thompson double-doulbe times. The Cavaliers don’t want to lose to one of the worst NBA teams in history of the league.
Cavaliers (18-36, 9-18 home):
Offensive Efficiency – 98.5 (25th)
Pace – 94.2 (11th)
Turnover Ratio – 24.9 (18th)
Effective Field Goal Percentage – 46.4 (29th)
Defensive Efficiency – 105.3 (25th)
Charlotte Bobcats (7-48, 3-26 away):
Offensive Efficiency – 93.2 (30th)
Pace – 93.9 (15th)
Turnover Ratio – 24.0 (15th)
Effective Field Goal Percentage – 44.2 (30th)
Defensive Efficiency – 107.7 (30th)
The Cavaliers look really good when matched up against the Bobcats. The Cavaliers are only in a one-game slump, but were on a nine-game losing streak just last week. The Bobcats have lost their lsat 12 and have had losing streaks comparable to that multiple times this season. The Bobcats are just a horrible team, even check their stats.
They average 88.1 points per game, ranking them 30th in the Association. The Kentucky Wildcats could beat these guys. They give up 101.2 points per game, which ranks 28th in the league. They also have no players who average over a steal per game and they turn over the ball 14.3 times per game.
The Cavaliers have beaten the Bobcats in both meetings they’ve had so far this year, winning 115-101 on Jan. 3 and 102-94 on Jan. 16. The Cavaliers will go for the season sweep of the Bobcats on Tuesday, which would be a good way to look back on the season.
Let’s look at some Cavalier stats. Lester Hudson is averaging 12.7 points, and 1.5 steals, which leads the team. Antawn Jamison and Alonzo Gee are two of three Cavs players who have played in all 54 games. That’s impressive considering Jamison’s age (35) and Gee’s impact from the bench and then as a starter.
Gee is averaging 10.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in 29.4 minutes. Jamison is averaging 17.9 points, second best on the team, and 6.5 rebounds. Although they haven’t been consistent this season, they have been very reliable at times.
There isn’t much more to say about this laughable matchup. After being blown out by 28 points by the Washington Wizards, the second-wosrt team in the league. It will be interesting how many points the short-handed Cavaliers will put up against the hapless Bobcats.