Crossing the Line

Hey everybody! It’s A.C. – what’s happening?

The Cavaliers have now won five of their last six. And it’s been more than just LeBron – although his performance on Sunday afternoon in Toronto was absolutely spectacular.

One big reason the Cavaliers are starting to get back on track is that they’ve returned to the rotation that they were in before heading into the postseason last year. I wouldn’t say everything is back to normal, but it’s what they’re familiar with. Consequently, the rotations are familiar – everything that they’re doing offensively and defensively, they’ve done it for a while and they’ve been successful doing it. So that’s why I think things are moving in the right direction now.

The key now is: can they sustain it and get better at what they’re doing? Because when I watched Saturday night’s Detroit-Boston game, that’s a different level of intensity in those games. And can the Cavaliers get to that level of intensity and maintain it before they get to the playoffs?

Right now, we have to generate our own level of intensity – game to game – whereas in the Playoffs, it’s there automatically. And we have to get our emotions right for each game. Because it’s time to stop talking about how much time we have. If you’re trying to win a Championship and get one of those top four spots in the East – which I feel you have to have – the time is now.

You can’t wait much longer; you have to start getting in stride now.

At this point, I don’t see the intensity – night-in and night-out – like it was, say, the first time they played Boston or when they went to Dallas. The intensity level is a little off-and-on right now. The way they’re playing right now is consistent, but the intensity level is not quite there yet. I don’t see it like I saw it in the Pistons-Celtics game. Those two are playing for keeps already, because they understand that every game you play now – games in November and December – those games can come back to haunt you in April, as far as your positioning is concerned.

You look at what the Cavaliers went through last year. Everything fell into place – except that we gave up about 15 games where we had the lead in the fourth quarter to teams that we should normally beat. If we had taken care of business in that respect, we could have had homecourt advantage over San Antonio in the Finals. I think they all understand what these games mean, so hopefully now that the injured players are getting healthy, they can get on a nice roll and get things going.

Getting to .500 is bigger than people think. When you look at the Eastern Conference, .500 is a big mark, because there’s only three other teams that are above .500. So what you’re looking at now – the quicker you can get to .500 and get your team built from that point on, and can get, say, 10 games above .500, you’re among the elite teams in the Conference. You’ve got to get over that Mason-Dixon line. You can’t be below that line. You’ve got to get over that and start building on .500 instead of trying to get to .500.

Right now, the Cavaliers are playing pretty well, even though Larry Hughes is still struggling a bit shooting the ball.

The main thing is to shoot, shoot, shoot. When I would get into slumps, I would practice and get up a lot of shots and try to get into a rhythm – watch tape of how you’re shooting the ball. When Larry first came back, he was going straight up, through the shoulders and into the shot. Now he’s starting to lean left or right, instead of planting, going straight up and – boom! – lacing the shot.

He does a lot better coming off the pick and hitting the jump shot because he has a chance to square himself and go straight up. But when he’s on the move, he has a tendency to float instead of going straight up.

It’s one of the reasons I think point guard is better for him, because he can do other things to help the team when his shot is off. He can direct the show, he can slash to the basket, he can get out on the break, he can do a lot of good things and hopefully the jumper will come back.

It’s all there for Larry, he just needs to reach down and find it.