Final Game of Season, Wally & Gibson Team-Up

I must say I am a little depressed at our loss to the 76ers yet I'm also pleased and I had a great time watching it. I would just feel much better if we, you know, won our last game.


Today Mike Brown (for those of you who don't know, he's the Cavaliers' head coach) decided not to play Lebron, Mo, James, and Joe Smiph. Instead, West started as Point Guard, Sasha as Shooting Guard, Andy as Center, Darnell Jackson as Power Forward, and former-all star Wally Szczerbiak from Miami Ohio as Small Forward.

The game started off pretty evenly with Sasha putting in 4 points, but we had a hard time creating some offense with the new players in the line-up. That's when West and Wally attempted to step up with an And-1 play from West and 5 points from Wally off a long 3 pointer and an iso'd "dead leg" jump shot.

A major problem in the 1st quarter was turnovers. No, it wasn't Wally-- it was Sasha, Gibson, and others. Many turnovers were made and bad fouls were given. Bad passes and bad ball-handling skills led to these turnovers which shouldn't have happened. Thankfully Mike Brown took out Sasha and we started to regain our composure.

By half-time we were up 49-37... of course, we had a little boost from Andy and West. The now overconfident bench started to slip up (minus Gibson and Wally). The 76ers slowly crept up with a large boost by Andre Miller who mimicked Szczerbiak's shooting ability. Despite the problems, Wally and Gibson, the two best players there by far, worked together astoundingly. Wally Szczerbiak obtained several assists by passing the ball to Gibson who consistently scored off the great passes by Szczerbiak. Once again Wally shows his ability to do more than shoot as he directs traffic and grabbed 8 assists leading the team in assists.

Most of Wally's points came from 1-on-1 plays where they isolated Wally against whoever was unfortunate enough to guard him. On one play Wally grabbed an offensive rebound, broke a guy's ankles, and threw the hammer down, making the bench go crazy as did Wally's block two games before.

It came down to 4th quarter where Wally got a short rest, but he soon came back in as he was needed to keep the game in line. The 4th quarter clock ticked down as Wally and Gibson took over scoring most of the last points.

Shot-score-foul-timeout-shot-score-foul-timeout. The last 2 timeouts were used up and the ball was inbounded to Gibson who shot off the dribble and tied the game 98-98 with what was essentially a buzzer beater (it left only 00.6 seconds on the clock). That play was tight and I liked it. I'll give him props, if I didn't I'd just be a Gibson hater and it's hard to hate the guy who ties up the game and brings it to overtime, right?

Overtime started and Wally Szczerbiak and Gibson once again went out to lead the team, with Sasha backing them up. At this point the Cavaliers were having a lot of foul problems and the 76ers were scoring and were going to end up scoring many points off of free throw shots. Sasha had 5 fouls, Gibson had 4, Tarrence Kinsey had 4, Darnell Jackson had 5, and Lorenzen Right had 4.

Here's the rundown of overtime; Sasha starts off with a horrible shot but the 76ers don't score off the stop. Wally goes iso again and drops a shot making it 100-98, Cavs. Szczerbiak grabs his 7th rebound and Sasha attempts to score again but gets utterly rejected by Ratliff. Nobody is able to score so they go to Wally again who plays a veteran move on his defender (a move he learned back when he was an all-star) and draws the foul.

Wally is the biggest veteran on the floor and by far the most skilled of any of the players. This being said, he makes the 1st free throw shot. While he's high-fiving everyone after the shot, he quickly whispers to Wright that he is going to purposely miss in order to get the Cavaliers another possession. He does so and Wright makes the hustle to obtain the possession. Unfortunately Gibson couldn't convert the play to a couple more points and when the 76ers tie it up and the Cavs go to their leader Wally, Szczerbiak finally misses a shot (one of his 3 misses).

The 76ers lead due to clutch free throws and Sasha hits a 3-pointer (finally) to obtain his 20th point of the game on 9-18 shooting in 41 minutes of play. Jackson is fouled and hits his free throws making the game 106-107 Philadelphia. After the 76ers free throws Kinsey goes for a drive and is subsequently fouled out.

With 4 seconds remaining Gibson slips and ends up crossing his opponent and laying in a shot for 2 more, making it 111-110. After a quick foul with 3 seconds on the clock, Miller goes to shoot 2 more clutch free throws... Thanks to Austin Carr's mind games, Miller misses both, and Szczerbiak grabs his 8th manly rebound giving him 8 rebounds and 8 assists for the night.

You probably know what happens now-- the best inbounder on the team, Wally Szczerbiak, passes it to Gibson who SLIPS and can't control the ball enough. The clock runs out and the 76ers barely win it, 111-110.

Still, Wally had the best game of the season in his 42 minutes of gameplay. Wally Szczerbiak was named Player of the Game as well. His defense was purely phenomenal-- he hardly let his opponents score, only had 1 foul that wasn't on purpose (in the 4th quarter) and 2 fouls total compared to everyone else. He didn't give up many points, grabbed 7 defensive rebounds, made lots of hustles, and worked with his teammates to give up less points to the 76ers. Austin Carr and Fred Mcleod (the commentators) commented on Wally's defense many times throughout the game. Wally Szczerbiak was unofficially named the Defensive Player of the Game for his outstanding effort.


In 41 minutes Wally Szczerbiak scored a total of 21 points, the 2nd leader in points (Gibson had 28 points). He shot 72% from the field, the best shooting by far, in 8-11 FG and 2-3 in 3-point field goals.


Wally had a total of 8 rebounds (7D, 1O) and 8 assists, also leading the team in both of those categories. He was 3-4 in free throws, shooting the most free throws (Jackson was 3-3 as well). Wally's World was brought forth as he was also the most solid player of the game with only 2 personal fouls and 1 turnover.

Congratulations to Wally Szczerbiak for outstanding play and the Cavaliers for having such a great season. I'll give a little respect to Gibson as well for his play. Darnell Jackson was also quite good and I give him props as well. Let's go into the playoffs and rock the Pistons!

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