AOW: LeBron James (NBA)

Why play four quarters, when you could win it in one?

That seemed to be the Cavaliers’ strategy Sunday against the Clippers, when they scored 46 points against LA’s 20 in the first quarter. LeBron James scored half the Cavs’ points in that quarter. Three of those points were off a shot from the “C” in “Cavaliers” 30 feet toward center court. Moments later another trey came from the “a” a few feet deeper.

James kept contributing to accumulate 32 points including five three-point shots and 11 assists. Four of those threes were in the first quarter.

LeBron is almost too easy a pick for the Athlete of the Week (AOW). Of all the teams in all the sports in the world, he might be the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of all. His career average is 27.7 PPG! He has improved all of his major stats in this, his seventh season in the NBA, scoring 29.4 PPG with 8.0 assists. He is one of the best athletes to ever play the game of basketball, but he continues to work to improve his game. He focused in the off-season on his shooting, and improved both his FG% and 3P% by 2% each over his career average.

As he has improved, so has his team. The Cavs now have the best record in the NBA at 38-11, are on an 8 game win streak, and are 2-0 against the Lakers, who are a half game behind them at 37-11.

Athlete of the Week is such an understatement for LeBron James it is almost insulting. James is simply “King.”

AOW: Jamal Crawford (NBA)

This week’s Athlete of the Week (AOW) is Jamal Crawford of the Atlanta Hawks, much due to his stellar performance last night against the Pheonix Suns. Crawford was drafted out of the University of Michigan by the Cavs in 2000 and played for the Bulls, Knicks, and Warriors before joining the Hawks this season. So far this year, he has been a reliable sixth man, playing 30.7 minutes per game off the bench to score 17.2 points a game.

Crawford has become a prolific shooter, and that is his primary role on the team. This year, he has improved his FG% from 40.7% to 45.6%, his 3PT% from 34.7% to 35.3%, and his FT% from 84.4% to 85.6%. The Hawks can count on Crawford to hit a big shot when they need it. Last night against the Suns they needed it, and he delivered.

Amare Stoudemire hit a FT to take a 101-99 Suns lead with 3 seconds left. After a timeout, the Hawks’ Mike Bibby inbounded the ball to Crawford, who fired a 28-foot 3-point shot over Jared Dudley that went in at the buzzer, earning Atlanta a 102-101 victory. In a game with horrible 3PT percentages of .154 for Atlanta and .217 for Pheonix, it was a perfect long ball from Jamal Crawford that made the difference.

Crawford finished the game with 21 points, 4 assists, a rebound, and a steal. He made 7 of 7 FT attempts, and of course the game winning 3 to bring the Hawks’ record to 26-13 and give the struggling NBA East a victory over a 24-16 West opponent. (Recap, Box Score)

LeBron’s 48 pts keep Cavs hot with comeback win

On LeBron James’ birthday he wasn’t about to give up a game to one of the top teams in the NBA East. He put up 48 points to lead the Cavs, who got off to a slow start, but tied it up at 101 with seconds left thanks to a 3-point shot by Anderson Varejao.

The big 106-101 win over the Atlanta Hawks brings the Cavs win streak to six. That includes road wins over the Suns, Kings, Lakers, and Hawks, and home wins over the Rockets and Hawks. That puts the Cavs to 26-8. They are tied with the Celtics (23-8) and Magic (23-8) in the loss column at the top of the East. The Lakers (25-6) and Suns (21-12) are two of the top three teams in the West.

The Cavs are without question the hottest team in the NBA. With the quality of these wins, I would argue that they are playing the best basketball in the league right now as well.

The Cavs have a bit of an easier stretch coming up (if there is such a thing in professional sports) with games against the Nets, Bulls, and Wizards, all teams with losing records. They head back out west for two tough nationally televised games after that:

@Denver (20-12), January 8th, 10:30 PM, ESPN
@Portland (20-13), January 10th, 9:00 PM, ESPN

Those games are also available online at ESPN360.com.

(Cavs-Hawks recap & box score)

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