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| Some around the NBA ridiculed the Cavs drafting guard Dion Waiters with the fourth overall pick in this summer's Draft. After seeing how he and sophomore sensation point guard Kyrie Irving are playing with each other early on this season, those critics are probably eating their words. |
Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY
TV: YES Network
The Nets and Cavaliers are very similar teams in their general talent distribution, but very different in total amount of talent. Each team's focus is certainly on their backcourt, led by strong point guards and shooting guards. Obviously, the Nets have Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, a pair who have been around the proverbial block in the NBA and have attained veteran status. The Cavaliers have Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters at the 1 and 2, whom they acquired in the 2011 and 2012 NBA Drafts respectively. Deron and Joe have the experience and are the more-established pairing while Irving and Waiters have youth on their side, and are arguably more explosive than both D-Will and Johnson. These four guards duking it out later tonight at the Barclays Center will be fun to watch, and whichever backcourt outplays the other will probably determine the winner of the game.
The Nets are actually catching Cleveland at a pretty good time, considering the Cavs are playing their sixth, and final, game of a brutal road trip which has taken them to LA and Oklahoma City, among other places. A road trip which they are currently just 1-4 on and a road trip which they want to end as soon as possible, inviting the possibility of a let-down game by a team that just wants to go back home immediately. That's certainly an advantage in Brooklyn's favor but, as we have learned with the Nets in recent years, they can't take ANYTHING for granted against a lower-level team. Too many times have the Nets lost to awful, awful teams that have they have rightful reason to be losing to. They can't have that happen a lot this season if they are going to be a playoff team. No chance.
