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Everyone gets chance in exhibition opener
By George M. Thomas
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Wednesday, Oct 08, 2008
CLEVELAND: He was gone in a flash.
LeBron James played a little more than eight minutes in Tuesday's exhibition-opening 104-84 loss to the Toronto Raptors.
Before the game, coach Mike Brown all but said that the NBA's premier player wouldn't see a lot of action. That might be the modus operandi for the exhibition season as Brown looks to get No. 23's minutes below 40 per game.
That doesn't mean there wasn't anything to watch as the Cavs tried to cage the Raptors. While it's not easy to project what the final product will look like with James in the lineup, fans could walk away feeling a bit optimistic because this won't play like that Cavaliers team that far too many times looked as if it were lumbering up the court.
These Cavs? They produced 21 points in transition.
Why? Because the team finally has a point guard in Mo Williams who will allow them to do that. While on the floor, Williams (12 points, 4 assists) led the charge to drive up the court. It looks as if Brown will have to live with Williams' two
sides.
During one sequence, Williams led the team on a break that resulted in an easy layup for the point guard the team acquired in a three-way trade with the Oklahoma City Thunder and Milwaukee Bucks.
But Williams also showed a willingness to turn what should be easy points into something altogether different by pulling up and popping jump shots.
Other players made their presence known as well. Center Zydrunas Ilgauskas hit 8-of-12 shots, knocking down 16 points and looking to be in midseason form. He added six rebounds in just 22 minutes on the floor.
Rookie J.J. Hickson (7 points, 4 rebounds) didn't light things up on the scoreboard, but willingly and enthusiastically played some tenacious defense. His digging one off the floor in the first half led directly to a Cavs basket, but it was in the fourth quarter that he showed what the team saw in during the summer. He stole the ball from Toronto's Will Solomon at the 10:44 mark near midcourt and dashed to the Cavs basket, sealing the deal with a thunderous two-handed dunk that got the crowd roaring.
Brown took the loss in stride, saying he saw good things and bad things. ''My main thing was to make sure everyone got an opportunity to play and we tried to play as hard as we could, or as close to 48 minutes as possible,'' Brown said. ''Everyone got to play and our effort level was there until fatigue set in at certain times and you could see it was tough for our guys to get over the hump.''
Open tryouts
The Cavaliers NBA Development League affiliate, the Erie BayHawks, will host the second in a series of three free-agent tryouts in Akron this weekend at Rhodes Arena at the University of Akron.
Check-in and registration is set for 6:30 p.m. Saturday with tryout sessions beginning promptly at 7:30 and running through 10:30. The Sunday sessions will run from 9 a.m to noon and 2 to 5 p.m.
Tryout applicants must register by submitting the official registration, disclosure and release forms in advance or in person, Saturday at Rhodes Arena. The nonrefundable, $150 registration fee must be paid in cash, money order or certified/cashier's check. No credit cards or personal checks will be accepted.
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net. Read his blog at: http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/cavs
CLEVELAND: He was gone in a flash.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Posted 07:04 AM, 10/08/2008
Tryouts for the cavs! Cant wait to see all the high school kids!
akron, oh
Posted 08:21 PM, 10/08/2008
Good for them Can't stand lebron and all NBA whiners.
