What to keep an eye on when the Cavs and Bucks match up tonight at the Q:
1. Which new addition has made a bigger impact for the Bucks, new coach Scott Skiles or trade acquisition Richard Jefferson?
The Bucks added two new faces this offseason, bringing in former Bulls coach Scott Skiles as a defensive-minded head coach, and trading Yi Jianlian to the New Jersey Nets for Richard Jefferson on draft day. The jury is still out on both in this young season.
The Bucks brought in Skiles to assert his defense-first attitude on a team that finished worst in defensive efficiency last year, giving up 112.8 points per 100 possessions. Through the first seven games of the season, the Bucks are "only" allowing 97.9 points per game, 19th in the league, and giving up 102.9 points per 100 possessions, good for 14th overall. Unfortunately for Skiles, the Bucks have had problems defensively over the last three games, giving up 103 points per game to the Wizards, Celtics and Suns last week. Skiles and his schemes will be put to the test by the Cavaliers' new, more active offense.
As for Jefferson, he has been solid, dropping in 18.3 points per game while adding 5.1 rebounds and 3.7 assists. Jefferson is a solid player, but he's not quite an All-Star, and it's hard to tell what the Bucks were doing in acquiring Jefferson but trading away Mo Williams for a bag of balls a few months later. With Williams, the Bucks might have had enough offense in the backcourt to keep things interesting, but there's just no reason to expect that a Jefferson and Michael Redd combination can amount to anything more than a .500 team.
2. Will Michael Redd play?
Redd has missed the last three games with an ankle injury, and is questionable for tonight's game. Redd was averaging 21.3 points per game in the Bucks' first four games, and the Bucks were 2-2 when he went down. Last season Redd beat up on the Cavaliers, with 25.5 points, 6.5 assists and 4.3 rebounds per game, and he hit this mean 3-pointer to give the Bucks one of their three wins over the Cavs last year.
With Redd, the Bucks are a much bigger threat when they come into the Q tonight. Without Redd, I don't see how the Bucks are going to score enough points to keep up.
3. How will Mo Williams match up with his Bucks' replacement, Ramon Sessions?
The Cavaliers were able to acquire Mo Williams from the Bucks during the summer in exchange for Joe Smith and Damon Jones. It was a very good trade for the Cavaliers, but one of the reasons the Bucks were able to part with Williams for so little was because they had Sessions waiting in the wings. Sessions is off to a hot start for Milwaukee, averaging 17.2 points, 6.2 assists and 3.6 rebounds per game, numbers that are eerily similar to what Williams averaged last year (17.2 points, 6.3 assists and 3.5 rebounds).
Williams may be looking for a little revenge against his old team, and Sessions will be looking to prove the Bucks made the right choice in turning the point guard duties over to him. Should be fun to watch.
Go Cavs.
Stuff that happened this week in the league that you might have missed.
- Ok, everyone knows, but the Detroit Pistons traded Chauncey Billups andAntonio McDyess to the Denver Nuggets for Allen Iverson. Also, there was a presidential election.

- Antonio McDyess was bought out by the Nuggets, agreeing to take $6 Million not to play for the Nuggets. McDyess can now negotiate with other teams, including his former team the Detroit Pistons. McDyess can join any team he wishes, but if he wants to return to Detroit, he'll have to wait 30 days from his release to return to the Pistons. The Cavaliers, Lakers, and Celtics are among the many teams interested in bringing in McDyess, but right now nobody seems certain of which way McDyess is leaning.
- The Nuggets won their first game with Chauncey Billups coming back to his hometown in Denver, defeating the Mavericks at home. Billups had 15 points.
- The new-look Pistons are still adjusting to the arrival of Allen Iverson, losing games to the New Jersey Nets and Boston Celtics.
- The Celtics did an absolute job defending the Pistons, holding Iverson and Rasheed Wallace to 10 points apiece, and Richard Hamilton to just 3 points. On the flip side though, the Pistons did manage to hold Kevin Garnett to just 8 points and Paul Pierce to just 7 points. Not exactly a battle of superstars in Boston on Sunday.
- LeBron James has taken over the scoring lead, averaging 28.1 points per game after two 41-point performances against the Bulls.
- Tony Parker is currently in second place at 27.8 ppg, but he'll be falling out of the list soon as he's out for four weeks with an ankle sprain suffered in the Spurs' loss to the Heat on Friday.
- The Utah Jazz suffered their first loss of the season Sunday against the New York Knicks, 107-99, dropping them to 5-1 on the season. The Jazz will be in Cleveland on Saturday.
- The Jazz loss leaves the Los Angeles Lakers and Atlanta Hawks as the only undefeated teams left in the league, both at 4-0. The Lakers and Hawks play late Sunday, meaning that the Cavaliers have played seven games in a span where those teams have played only four. That will all balance itself out in the end, but so far the Lakers and Hawks are getting a lot of rest in the first two weeks of the season.
- On the flip side of the standings, the Washington Wizards are the only team without a victory, going 0-5 during the first two weeks of the young season. The Wizards are giving up the most points in the league at 108.8 point per game, and are an absolute mess right now without Gilbert Arenas, to the point where Antawn Jamison refused to get into the huddle during a timeout in their most recent loss, to the Orlando Magic.
- Carmelo Anthony lost a bet playing NBA Live 09, and lost his trademark cornrows as a result.
Go Cavs.
The CavsHQ Postgame Quickhits for the Cavs' hard-fought victory over the Indiana Pacers.
The Good:
John Kuntz/PD2. Zydrunas Ilgauskas kept the Cavs in the game in the first half, going 4-of-6 from the field and 6-of-6 from the line for 14 first half points. He also managed to limit himself to just one turnover, while coming up with 3 blocks.
3. LeBron James's Friday wasn't as good as his Wednesday, but it was still pretty good. LeBron finished with 27 points, 9 rebound, 8 assists and 4 blocks, the last of which was a game-saver, as he charged back to block a T.J. Ford layup that would have cut the Cavalier lead to 2 with 39 seconds left. LeBron also managed to hit his first 3-pointer of the season, a shot that gave the Cavaliers a 7-point lead with 1:15 left in the game.
The Bad:
1. After a four straight very good games, Ben Wallace was completely lost last night, failing to grab a rebound or score a point in 19 minutes. The Cavs went into the game with a major advantage in the frontcourt, but they were outrebounded 44-30, giving the Pacers 13 extra shots last night. That was the only reason the Pacers were even in the game, as the Cavaliers shot 52% from the field.
2. While the Cavs were able to keep T.J. Ford in check - don't ask me how - they once again had major problems keeping a stop-and-pop scorer from scoring. On Wednesday it was Ben Gordon who dropped 31 points on the Cavs, and last night it was Danny Granger going off for 33 points 13-of-21 shooting. Granger is becoming a very good player, keeping the defense off balance with strong drives and accurate outside shooting. He was really getting into with LeBron down the stretch, and could be said to get the better of James if it wasn't for that amazing block by LeBron in the last minute.
3. While the Cavs could expect Granger to have a good night, they also did nothing to slow down Marquis Daniels, who finished with 17 points, 7 assists and 11 rebounds, including a whopping 5 offensive rebounds. Daniels was also a major threat in the transition game, where Indiana scored nearly all of its points. With the Cavaliers sporting a shorter backcourt, big guards like Daniels can be a problem, and he was last night.
The Questions:
1. Can the Pacers win with the way they play?
Hard to tell right now, but the Pacers definitely play an interesting style. While their half-court sets are uninspiring, the team does a great job of turning long rebounds into transition buckets. It's not quite the Suns in their heyday, but I was impressed with how they attacked off missed shots, especially long rebounds. They could definitely surprise teams that start to settle for long jumpers, which the Cavaliers did during the big Pacer runs. The Pacers could be a sleeper team if they can start putting the pieces together.
2. Who would most GMs rather have, Danny Granger or Carmelo Anthony?
With Granger coming into his own as a star in the league, it's interesting to figure out where he is in the pecking order of scoring wings. While Anthony has established himself as a great scorer in the league, he also brings with him a mess of baggage, and may have plateaued as a player. Meanwhile, Granger is developing into very dangerous scorer, with a Melo-esque long- and mid-range game. But also like Anthony, Granger is not especially active on the boards, doesn't do anything exciting defensively, and isn't much of a passer.
If Granger continues to develop, he could find himself in the top-tier of scoring wings very soon. Compared side-by-side, Anthony is the better player, but I wouldn't be surprised if some front office personnel would prefer to have Granger's workman like persona to Anthony's habit of attracting the wrong kind of attention.
3. How will the Cavs respond to their first back-to-back game of the season?
Expect this to be addressed further in the What to Watch For for Saturday night's contest in Chicago. The Cavs played 19 back-to-back games last season, going 8-11 in the second game. The deeper Cavalier bench should give the team a better chance to win more of these second-night games this season.
Go Cavs.
What to watch for tonight as the Cavaliers take on the Indiana Pacers at the Q:
1. Are the Pacers giant killers? The Pacers are 1-2 on the year, but their one victory was a 95-79 shellacking of the Boston Celtics at home. The Pacers have had an even tougher schedule than the Cavaliers through the first two weeks, facing the Pistons, Celtics and Suns, and were competitive at the very least in their two losses. Holding the Celtics to 79 points is pretty impressive, and if the Pacers can bring that kind of defensive intensity to bear, they could catch the Cavaliers by surprise. The Pacers are also a good 3-point shooting team, which can keep them in the game if they make their shots.
2. How will the Cavs deal with T.J. Ford? Ford is the quintessential Cavs-killing point guard, a guy with tremendous speed and a knack for slipping past his defender and getting into the lane. The Cavs had a tough time containing Derrick Rose on Wednesday, and Ford presents similar matchup problems. Ford had 23 points on Wednesday when he matched up with Steve Nash, and he could put up similar numbers tonight. The Cavaliers interior defense has been superb this season, but the perimeter defense is still very much a work in progress.
3. Will LeBron James one-up Amare Stoudemire? In the Pacers' last game, Amare Stoudemire dropped 49 points while grabbing 10 rebounds, dishing off 6 assists, nabbing 5 steals and picking up 2 blocks. Yes, that's a lot of "ing" phrases, but when someone is putting up numbers like that, it can leave you at a loss for words. LeBron is coming off a 41-9-6-4 night of his own, and should be able to take advantage of some suspect Indiana defenders. I'm not expecting a 50-point night, as LeBron's minutes could be cut short with the Cavs headed to Chicago for a back-to-back game Saturday, but I expect LeBron to make his presence known tonight.
Go Cavs. I am really expecting the team to get fat on these weak Central Division opponents this weekend.