The Cavaliers came up flat on Saturday night against the Bobcats, only shooting 38% as a team. LeBron James had a bad night as he was 3 for 13 shooting from the field. James wound up scoring 16 points, getting 9 rebounds and 7 assists. Drew Gooden had a good game scoring 21 points and collecting 16 rebounds. Big Z had 14 points and 9 rebounds. Donyell Marshall (14 points) and Larry Hughes (12 points) also pitched in on offense.

The Cavaliers are very versatile on their front line, often time mixing and matching against the opponents they are playing. Drew Gooden has been a find for the Cavaliers. After Carlos Boozer stiffed the Cavs, they didn’t panic….they just made a trade with the Magic. The Cavs traded Tony Battie for Drew Gooden & Anderson Varejao. The Cavs GM is lucky he wasn’t arrested for robbery! Gooden does all the dirty work for the Cavs, as they don’t set up many plays for him on offense. Most of Gooden’s scores are on putbacks, as he is a fine rebounder. Gooden has averaged 12.3 points & 7.7 rebounds per game for his career. Gooden will probably average a little better than his career averages this season.

Donyell Marshall plays most of his time at power forward, but once in a while he plays small forward. Marshall can do almost everything on the court. Marshall is a good 3-point shooter (34.9%) for a power forward. Marshall has averaged 12.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 1.5 assists and 1.0 block per game for his career.

The Spurs couldn’t handle the King, as LeBron scored 35 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 4 assists. He was unstoppable and even dunked on Tim Duncan in this game. Larry Hughes played well again, scoring 18 points. The big guys helped control the glass, as Zydrunas Ilgauskas scored 10 points and grabbed 11 rebounds. Drew Gooden scored 9 points and grabbed 9 rebounds.

This team is growing into a serious contender in the Eastern Conference right before our very eyes, as we are all witnesses!

The Cavs barely held on for an opening night victory over the Wizards. The Cavs out-rebounded the Wizards 50-33, but almost lost the game because they only hit 15 of 30 free-throws. LeBron James scored 26 points, grabbed 10 rebounds and dished out 5 assists. Drew Gooden added 14 points and 11 rebounds. But the star of this game was definately Larry Hughes. Hughes scored 27 points, grabbed 9 rebounds, dished out 5 assists and held Gilbert Arenas to 7 points!

The Cavs bench only scored 21 points and they will need more than that on most nights from that veteran bunch. The Cavs must also hit their free-throws if they want to have a chance to be NBA Champions….which is what their goal is!