Cavs Not Gypped By Scoreboard Again

It seems the Cleveland Cavaliers shared my frustration with the fact that the 119-101 final of their Tuesday game with the Knicks didn't come close to reflecting just how bad a beating occurred at Madison Square Garden.  They saw to it that there was no recurrence of this phenomenon while hosting Oklahoma City on Wednesday.

The Cavs put their foot on the gas, rushed out to a 13-0 lead and never took it off last night against the Thunder.  This game made the pseudo-contest in New York look like a barn-burner.

This was a joke right from the start.  OKC had no answer for Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who went to work hitting a series of jumpers sprayed in from all over (7-for-9 from the field).  Ben Wallace blocked shots.  Delonte West dished (10 assists) and knocked down shots (4-for-6) like he was suddenly Steve Nash.  LeBron put down a couple of uncontested dunks.  And then all the starters got of the floor.  Not a one played so many as 28 minutes.  Four of the Cavs' six double-figure scorers for the night were reserves.  Yet Cleveland was up 40 at the end of three quarters en route to cruising to a 117-82 win.

The Thunder's problem is mainly that this team is really bad.  Bad defensively (20th in efficiency), bad offensively (30th), and I'd imagine they aren't too solid on special teams.

LeBron has now played a total of 47 minutes over his last two games.  In the interest of scheduling fairness, perhaps the rule should be that teams can be forced to play on three consecutive nights but only if the first two games come against the Knicks and Thunder.

Beating those two certainly didn't look too tiring for the Cavs.