Donnie Burton: January 2009 Archives

Last night inside of Quicken Loans Arena, a sold out crowd waited with baited breath to see what Lebron King James and his injury prone Cleveland Cavaliers (31-7) had in store for Chris "CP3" Paul and the visiting New Orleans Hornets (23-13). This game had a different dynamic; the seemingly unbeatable Cavs are coming off a tough overtime loss on Thursday to the Chicago Bulls. The Cavs lost shooting guard Delonte West for at least 5 weeks, Zydrunas Ilgauskas for a month, and Ben Wallace limped into tonight's game after missing the last two games with an intestinal virus. On top of all of those issues, the banged up Cavs have already lost a close game to Paul and the Hornets earlier in the season. All these factors seemed to equal an easy win in the mind of Paul and the Hornets, and even in the mind of some Cleveland fans, who seem to be waiting for the other shoe to drop on the Cavaliers early season success.

BUT that shoe won't be dropping tonight! This is The King's Castle and the versatile Mr. James was ready to do anything it took to remain undefeated (20-0) on his home court. He proved that again last night by playing all five positions for the banged up Cavs. Unfortunately, for the frustrated Hornets, a win in Cleveland against the Cavaliers, would be tougher to get than they ever could've imagined.

The lights dim as the fireworks and 20,562 crazy fans shake, and rattle the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. When lights come back up the big three Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, and Ray Allen along with defending World Champion Boston Celtics (29-8) take the floor and prepare to do battle against his highness "King" Lebron James and the NBA first place Cleveland Cavaliers (28-6). POOF, CLAP, CLAP as Lebron claps his routine cloud of smoke in the air and... We are all witnesses.

In the early stages of what seemed to be a surprisingly dull game, was dominated by the exciting play of big men on both ends of the court. Not by whom you would expect though, KG for Boston or Big Z for Cleveland. It was the Cavs, Ben "The Body" Wallace and Anderson "Wild Thing" Varejao who combined to score 10 first quarter points, in the absence of Cleveland's All-Star center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. And the offense of Kendrick Perkins paced the Celts with 9 points. But as always, by the end of the first quarter, Lebron proved he is the king of his castle finishing with 9pts 4ast 1 block and 1 rebound as the Cavs pulled to an early 33 to 23 lead. The Cleveland Cavalier Head Coach, Mike Brown told BlackSportsOnline.com "Lebron made play, after play, after play, after play, and carried us... [early]."

The Cavs continued their assault on the Celts in the second quarter, The newly acquired Cavs point guard Mo Williams and the guards, set the tone for the Cavs as Cleveland's 2nd unit shook up the arena, with long range threes and short jumpers. The Celtics couldn't get off the snide offensively in the second quarter and Garnett and Leon Powe did what they could to keep the Celts close by the end of the first half. Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and Rajon Rondo only combined for 11 total first half points. The Cavs led at the half 49 to 40.

After halftime, the Celtics led by Garnett stormed out the gates and cut the lead to three, seemingly stepping up to the challenge from Celtics Head Coach, Glenn "Doc" Rivers, but all that came to a screeching halt in a matter of minutes, as the King grabbed the reigns and took over.