BEYOND THE BOX SCORE - November 22

Cleveland 115 Boston 93 – Cleveland is on fire. This team is the real deal. Early in the year they were just playing the game on the offensive end, but first year Head Coach Mike Brown is out of the Greg Popovich and Rick Carlisle school of coaching so you knew the defense would come ….. The Cavs have won 8 straight …. The Cavs are crushing people at home by more then 20 points a game …. LaBron amazes every time he touches the floor. He had 36 for the second straight game. He had 36 points on 20 shot attempts. Kobe and AI have never done that. …. Larry Hughes has clicked in for the Cavs as well … When Delonte West got hurt and the Celtics turned to Dan Dikau is when the game got out of control.

Denver 108 Washington 105 – I have said it all year. Marcus Camby is the key to the Nuggets. When he goes they go. The issue is if he will go all year. If he does they will win the division with ease … Camby has 9 double doubles in 12 games …. Arenas has 36 but was just 1 of 6 in the 4th Quarter … The Wizards have lost 4 in a row … AD was taking out of the starting line-up and went 0 for 10 off the bench. He is now shooting just 35% and is 1 of 11 from 3. If you recall he slumped in the second half of the season last year. I still bet he doesn’t play over 60 games this season. Surprisingly, AD’s assist to turnover ratio has not been very strong recently …. Kenyon Martin returns for Denver soon, but Denver is 5-0 without him in the line-up …. Carmelo Anthony went to the line 22 times. That is a sign of development in his game. He didn’t have his shot just 5 of 17, but he stayed very aggressive …. Francisco Elson was +11 in 21 minutes for the Nuggets

Portland 95 Memphis 87 --- I have wondered how long Eddie Jones and Damon Stoudamire can hold up. They didn’t last night, they were 5 of 20. …. Portland is winning games because teams are taking them lightly and not getting up for the game and the Blazers are playing very hard … Portland took 33 free throws to Memphis 15 … The Joel Przybilla and Theo Ratliff combo act is playing very well for Portland. Last night they comboed for 41 minutes 10 points, 14 rebounds and 4 blocks …. Shane Battier another strong offensive game … Juan Dixon was +16 for the Blazers and Travis Outlaw was +12 …. Mike Miller had a nice box score but the Griz were -17 when he was on the floor.

Dallas 102 Houston 93 – Houston drops to 3-8 …. I thought Dallas was going to struggle a little bit without Finley, but it is clear that Nowitski has reached a level where he is so good that he can carry any load … Jason Terry had 29. I was not a Terry fan when he was in Atlanta. However, he is scoring consistently enough that his shoot first pass second approach is becoming acceptable … Dallas is playing without Van Horn and Stackhouse …Luther Head replaced Derek Anderson is the starting line-up and busted out for 28 points, however, Houston was -18 when he was on the floor, 10 worse then anyone else on the club.

Phoenix 90 Toronto 82 – Shawn Marion almost had a triple double with double-figures in points, offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds. He had 18 rebounds and 9 on both the offensive and defensive ends … Phoenix went 4 of 25 from 3 and still won. … Phoenix won the rebounding battle 52-43 …. Morris Peterson of Toronto was +15 in the 20 minutes he played and in the 28 minutes he was on the bench the Raptors were -23. However, Sam Mitchell didn’t play Peterson for the final 18 minutes .. Kurt Thomas was -14 in 17 minutes on the floor for Phoenix ….