On the road with an NBA team, not all the action happens between the white lines.The Cavaliers are in L.A. on Monday where they’ll take on the Clippers at Staples Center. It’ll be the first meeting between Byron Scott’s former pupil Chris Paul and his current one, Kyrie Irving.
As the Wine and Gold’s early-season junket rolls on – heading north to San Francisco for a Wednesday matchup with the Warriors – here are some sights, sounds, and scenes from the road so far …
* As long as we’re talking about Kyrie and Chris Paul, Coach Scott said before Monday’s shootaround that he’ll get Irving up to date on his Clippers’ opposite.
“After Kyrie was drafted, Chris and him talked about what to expect from me,” said Scott. “So I think they’ve bonded a little bit. But I think Kyrie – because he didn’t play against him last year – doesn’t really understand who Chris Paul is. And Chris Paul is great off the court as your friend. But on the court, Chris Paul is not your friend. Chris Paul is a silent assassin. I don’t know if that’s something Kyrie knows about him, but it’s definitely something that I’m going to have to tell him, because (Paul) is going to come at his throat.
* Speaking of quotable head coaches, Milwaukee’s Scott Skiles didn’t pull punches as a player, and slices it just as thin as a coach. Before facing off against Cleveland, Skills was asked about success in the NBA.
“Part of the difference of being a high-level NBA player, being average and being below average is bringing it every night, doing it every night, that’s just the nature of our business. If a team is not successful for a long period of time, everyone is always looking for a glimmer of hope. If a guy has a good game everyone is on the bandwagon, if a guy has a bad game everyone jumps off.”
* Once they won the opener, the Bucks were assured a win in their first three games. Milwaukee has now gone 36 years without starting 0-3. (The Lakers were at 33 years before sputtering 0-3 out of the gate last week.)
* UNC head coach Roy Williams sat courtside for Saturday’s game at the Bradley Center. Both his former big men – Cleveland’s Tyler Zeller and Milwaukee’s Jon Henson – were taken in the first round this past June.
* Before the Milwaukee game on Saturday, some of us were watching the 3rd overtime of the Notre Dame-Pittsburgh game outside the Cavaliers locker room. The Cavs have their share of interested Golden Domers – including Luke Harangody, Austin Carr, and radio play-by-play guy John Michael – although not all were watching.
With the Irish on the 1-yard line, Luke Walton walked over to the TV and cut through the tension, saying: “Hurry up and fumble so we can get this game over with.”
* In terms of football watching – and falling under the headline of “Only in L.A.” …
Some of the guys from the Cavaliers traveling caravan (FSO guys, including Austin Carr, some Cavs training staff and a couple assistant coaches) went to a bar/restaurant next to the hotel to watch some Sunday football on a day off following a back-to-back.
During halftime of the first game, we could hear yelling, cheering, table-pounding – the usual sounds fans rooting for their football team. The only problem was, there was no live NFL game that was going on. We thought maybe they were watching a tape delay of yesterday’s college football games. So I decided to go into the next room to find out.
It was entire room of (mostly) women – boisterously watching professional roller derby.
* The Cavaliers have won 12 of their last 14 games against the Clippers dating back to 2005.
* On the eve of the 2012 Presidential Election, Coach Scott was asked if he encouraged his guys to vote.
“Our guys are 20 years old – can most of them vote?” joked Scott. ”I don’t talk to guys about voting. I don’t talk to guys about religious beliefs. Now if they come to me and ask me a question, I’m obviously gonna give them an answer. But I went and voted last week, so I got mine done way before we ever left for the road trip.”
* In last year’s lockout-shortened season, the Cavaliers didn’t travel to L.A. to face the Clippers. But the previous season, they encountered one of the weirdest events at an NBA game.
About 90 minutes before tip-off, with most of the squad already in the building – (and several players already shooting around) – a man wielding a steak knife rushed through arena security and made it down to the playing floor, where he kept building security and LAPD at bay for over half an hour.
About 20 minutes into the standoff, police fired beanbag pellets at the man as he made a move towards the tunnel. When he dropped the knife, officers swarmed him, placed him in cuffs and led him out of the arena.
Samardo Samuels was one of the Cavaliers who remember watching that morning unfold.
“That was a weird day – I didn’t really know what was going on,” smiled Samuels. “I thought it was a gun, I didn’t think it was a knife – from the scene that they made. I would think a knife to all the cops at Staples Center wouldn’t be a big threat.”
“That was crazy for an NBA game. That’s at the top of the list when it comes to crazy stuff I’ve seen in this league.”
* Alonzo Gee is off to a great start in 2012-13 – averaging 11.3 ppg through three games and coming off a 16-point, career-best six-assist game against Milwaukee. Coach Scott loves what he sees in his starting small forward. But he knows neither he nor Gee is satisfied.
“Once you say, you’re happy, then you’re at a standstill,” said Scott. “I expect more; I hope he expects more. That means he’s trying to grow and get better. When he says he’s fine with what he’s doing, it’s time for us to trade him. I think he has a lot more to improve and a lot more improvement left in him. And that’s what we expect.”