Game 9: Nuggets @ Cavs - Thu, Nov 13, 8pm [TNT]

[LoveThemCavs]

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Game Date: Thursday, November 13th, 2008
Game Time: 7:00 P.M. ET
Location: Quicken Loans Arena
TV: TNT
Radio: WTAM 1100

Probable Lineups
Denver
PG- Chauncey Billups
SG- Dahntay Jones
SF- Carmelo Anthony
PF- Kenyon Martin
C- Nene Hilario

Cleveland
PG- Mo Williams
SG- Delonte West
SF- LeBron James
PF- Ben Wallace
C- Zydrunas Ilgauskas



Both teams are playing some good basketball right now. The Cavs are winners of 5 straight and the Nuggets are winners of 3 in a row. It's always fun to watch LeBron and Carmelo go against each other. I'm a little worried about the rebounding of the Cavs the past few games. As good as the team defense, they are giving up an alarming amount of offensive boards. For whatever reason, the Nuggets have had the Cavs number too. It should be a good game, Go Cavs!

[MHZ]

Nuggets are banged up up front, so rebounding is more concerning to me. K-Mart's missed the last two with a wrist injury (I imagine he'll be in the lineup tomorrow night) and Chris Andersen's out 2-3 weeks with a fractured rib.

LeBron's been on a tear, which is pretty concerning to me. Nene has to stay out of foul trouble, or we would be royally screwed up front.

Hopefully it's an entertaining game.

[Rise Against]

* LeBron James scored 41 points against the Bucks on Nov. 11, shooting 16-24 (.667) from the floor and 8-10 (.800) from the foul line, and leading Cleveland to its fifth straight victory. It was his third time in the last four games and the 27th game in his NBA career in which James has scored 40-or-more points. The Cavs are 22-5 in those games. There have been five 40-point games in the NBA this season - three by James and only two by the rest of the league combined (Amar'e Stoudamire and Tony Parker). The last NBA player to reach the 40-point mark at least three times in his team's first eight games of a season was Michael Jordan in 1991. (Elias)

* After eight games, LeBron James is averaging 29.8 points (1st in the NBA), 8.4 rebounds and 6.9 assists per game (7th in the NBA). He is the only player to rank in the top 25 in the NBA in all three categories.

* Cleveland has now started the season 4-0 at home for the first time since 2005-06 when they started the season 6-0.

* The Cavaliers have held their opponents to a combined .419 shooting (263-628), ranking 5th in the NBA while allowing opponents to only score 93.0 points per game, which is tied for 6th in the NBA.

* Cleveland ranks 4th in the NBA in field goal shooting at 285-607 (.470) and 1st in the Eastern Conference while ranking 8th in the NBA in points scored (99.5) and 3rd in the Eastern Conference (Indiana, Miami).

* Against Milwaukee, the Cavs shot .813 (26-32) from the free throw line and have shot at least .813 from the line in four consecutive games. The last time Cleveland shot .800 or better from the line in four consecutive games was from November 5-11, 2005. The team currently ranks 7th in the NBA in free throw attempts per game (29.3).

* Zydrunas Ilgauskas recorded his third double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds on Tuesday. Cleveland has won 12 of the last 13 games in which Ilgauskas has had a double-double.

* Anderson Varejao scored 13 points, on 5-5 shooting, and grabbed 10 rebounds, notching the 16th double-double of his career. Cleveland is 14-2 in games Varejao records a double-double and 35-14 in games in which he scores at least 10 points. Varejao is averaging 14.7 points on .720 shooting (18-25) and 7.3 rebounds per game over his last three games. This is the fourth time in his career Varejao has scored in double figures in three consecutive games.

* Mo Williams finished the game against Milwaukee with 16 points and five assists. Williams started the season 24-24 from the free throw line before recording his first miss in the fourth quarter Tuesday night. He is currently 25-26 (.962) from the line on the season, which ranks 2nd in the NBA among players with at least 25 free throw attempts (Calderon).

[Da_James_Gang]

Nuggets are banged up up front, so rebounding is more concerning to me. K-Mart's missed the last two with a wrist injury (I imagine he'll be in the lineup tomorrow night) and Chris Andersen's out 2-3 weeks with a fractured rib.

LeBron's been on a tear, which is pretty concerning to me. Nene has to stay out of foul trouble, or we would be royally screwed up front.

Hopefully it's an entertaining game.

Yea but you guys usually own us, and Billups has instantly improved that team imo. Nene is a beast down low, so i think there are concerns both ways. But good luck....

[el loco]

Nuggets are banged up up front, so rebounding is more concerning to me. K-Mart's missed the last two with a wrist injury (I imagine he'll be in the lineup tomorrow night) and Chris Andersen's out 2-3 weeks with a fractured rib.

LeBron's been on a tear, which is pretty concerning to me. Nene has to stay out of foul trouble, or we would be royally screwed up front.

Hopefully it's an entertaining game.

Yea but you guys usually own us, and Billups has instantly improved that team imo. Nene is a beast down low, so i think there are concerns both ways. But good luck....

Billups has been great in every area of his game for us except his scoring. He has shot terrible since joining the team, but everything else that a pg brings has been an improvement/upgrade. JR and Linas have also been struggling for us. Balkman has played great, Melo is Melo, and Nene has been impressive. It should be a good game.

[Benedict_Boozer]

I'm a little concerned with this game because we have not played great ball the last 3 games (even though they were wins). Too many offensive boards, turnovers, a little too much Le-Iso, etc.

That said the Cavs have played the better teams on their schedule very well so far so I'd expect the squad to come out ready to play. Lebron will want to play well against his boy Melo too.

[prekazi]

Another must win game. We all know that alongside with Bucks and Hornets, Denver owned us in the last couple of years. It's time to make a change. We can't win this game with the way we played lately. Everyone must contribute, we can't afford another Gibson-Wally-Mo brick laying and rebounding will be crucial as always.

I can see Billups abusing Mo, I can see Ben-Varejao having difficulties guarding Kleiza, I can see JR Smith going off against us so... we have to be fully concentrated! No sloppiness allowed!

[el loco]

Another must win game. We all know that alongside with Bucks and Hornets, Denver owned us in the last couple of years. It's time to make a change. We can't win this game with the way we played lately. Everyone must contribute, we can't afford another Gibson-Wally-Mo brick laying and rebounding will be crucial as always.

I can see Billups abusing Mo, I can see Ben-Varejao having difficulties guarding Kleiza, I can see JR Smith going off against us so... we have to be fully concentrated! No sloppiness allowed!

Both teams have made some major shake ups since the last time they played one another. In this one, Kmart is questionable, The Birdman is out, so if you guys get Nene into foul trouble all of a sudden we become a very small team. If this happens, things could get ugly.

[LoveThemCavs]

I'm expecting Gibson to have a good game tonight. Coming off an 0-8(0-6 from three) game, actually he has been slumping since the NO game. That would be a huge lift from the bench since AV and Wally(at times) have played pretty well in their minutes. With Denver being shorthanded on bigs, seems like a perfect game to start the offense through Z atleast in the beginning. Limit the turnovers to keep the Nuggets off the break and we should be okay. The Nuggets don't seem to be as uptempo as years past, but they're still better than the Cavs at that pace. It seems like they always shoot some ungodly percentage from three against the Cavs too. It's going to be a tough game, glad this one is in Cleveland.

[B Mac]

Both teams have made some major shake ups since the last time they played one another. In this one, Kmart is questionable, The Birdman is out, so if you guys get Nene into foul trouble all of a sudden we become a very small team. If this happens, things could get ugly.

Dont worry. Even if we get Nene in foul trouble we will likely have to put up with Wally Slowbiack playing the PF spot. We had Bogut on the bench with 5 fouls in the third quarter last game and we didnt see Z in the game for the last quarter and a half. This terrible "small ball" gimmick is driving me insane. Z is off to one of the best starts of his career and could have demolished whoever was left behind Bogut for the Bucks, but we are forcefeeding this ridiculous lineup. So once again, dont worry. As long as you have someone quick enough to stay in front of Wally (snickers) you'll be fine.

[Rise Against]

^^If Coach Brown plays Wally at the 4, I am going to shoot myself.

[LoveThemCavs]

Apparently Kenyon Martin is starting tonight so Denver won't be as undersized as originally thought.

[LoveThemCavs]

Man both these teams came out on fire tonight. Both are shooting 64+ percent from the floor. If pace is an indicator, this is bad news for us. The Cavs ball movement is great though, 7 assists on 9 field goals. Mo starting off strong, but so is Billups.

[TheOUTLAW]

I don't think I've ever seen Billups light us up like this. We might need Hughes back

[TheOUTLAW]

Billups makes a falling away 3 pointer over Varejao. He just can't miss tonight

[L&H_05]

We're defending like the Nuggets normally do....

[LoveThemCavs]

The Nuggets shot 74 percent in the first quarter. Billups with 16 after 1 quarter. Unreal. Could that possibly be our best offensive and worst defensive quarter of the year at the same time? 12 assists on 15 field goals for the Cavs. Atleast we have something going good. I'm suprised we're only down 3 with how hot they are from the floor.

[TheOUTLAW]

Hickson with the beautiful reverse layup

[LoveThemCavs]

Nice to see Mike Brown atleast trying to switch some things up tonight. JJ and Sasha getting some early minutes here. JJ had a sweet move under the bucket and a quick 4 points. Don't really recommend him shooting that one shot again. It worked though. This game is at a crazy pace. with near 8 minutes left in the second quarter. 45-43 Nuggets.

[prekazi]

49 pts in 16 minutes! This is unacceptable.