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Williams' best play yet with Cavaliers comes in win over Mavericks
By George M. Thomas
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Wednesday, Nov 05, 2008
Cavaliers point guard Mo Williams sounded relieved after Monday night's 100-81 victory against the Dallas Mavericks.
In his best display of the young season, he scored 14 points on 50 percent shooting and handed out six assists, after struggling in earlier losses against the Boston Celtics and New Orleans Hornets.
He seemed to take the loss to the Hornets especially hard because he missed several shots that could have provided a much-needed lift to the Cavs.
''You just got to get back into that groove, and tonight was a great sign,'' he said following the game in Dallas on Monday. ''I put in the extra work just to get back into that groove.''
''I had two surgeries this summer, so it was a long summer.''
Many of Williams' earlier problems could be attributed to having to adjust to a new system and new philosophy after being traded to the Cavs from the Milwaukee Bucks in August.
Other early season problems can be contributed to those two surgeries — one for a sports hernia that required Williams to take it easy during the offseason.
''I expected to struggle a bit — not struggle — but be slow to get it going,'' he said. ''But it's still frustrating at the same time when you're used to making plays and used to making shots.''
Williams threw frustration to the wind Monday night and led the Cavs down the stretch. After three quarters, he had five points. He scored nine in the fourth.
More impressive is that he got his shots, involved his teammates and helped the team to pull away. Most of the production occurred with LeBron James getting rest.
''Mo is a guy we feel can go out and create shots for himself and create shots for others. That's what we did,'' coach Mike Brown
said.
The Cavs opened the fourth quarter with a lineup of Anderson Varejao, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Wally Szczerbiak, Daniel Gibson and Williams on the floor, clinging to a 72-66 lead when Williams' jump shots began to rain on the Mavericks. By the time James returned to the floor at 8:09 of the final quarter, the Cavs led by 16.
''When LeBron went out, that's the time we have to step up as a team and either sustain the lead or get something going,'' Williams said. ''It will make it a whole lot easier on him down the stretch. That's what we expect from this basketball team. The more pressure we can take off him, the better.''
Relieving James of some of his responsibilities — such as getting the ball up the court — offers benefits. Most notably, it frees him to attack the basket, as he did against the Mavericks. The box score will show that James hit only 9-of-20 shots, but he made 15 trips to the free-throw line and converted 14 of those shots.
George M. Thomas can be reached at sportswriterabj@sbcglobal.net. Read his blog at http://www.ohiomm.com/blogs/cavs/
Cavaliers point guard Mo Williams sounded relieved after Monday night's 100-81 victory against the Dallas Mavericks.
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