Getting It Together

Hey, everyone. It’s Donyell – checking in from the road. I hope everyone had a great Christmas.

It was nice to get a win over Miami on Christmas Day. We’ve been struggling a little bit lately. Obviously, we just need to start coming out and doing the things we did last year and even earlier this year.

We’ve gotten away from our defensive schemes. I think a lot of people wanted to see offense, but we went to the Finals playing defense, and that’s what we have to get back to. Teams have been shooting the ball well and coming out in the first quarter and getting a lot of confidence.

I think once we realize that when we get our defensive mindset back, we’ll get back to the way we’re used to playing. Fans want scoring, but they have to realize that to win a Championship, you’ve got to play defense. You look at last year, we were one of the top defensive teams and right now, we’re near the bottom. We have scorers and we know we can put points up. For us to win, we have to play defense. It’s very simple.

Sometimes to snap out of a stretch like this it just takes one or two games. We had that losing streak in the middle of the month, but right now we’re winning one, losing one, winning one, losing one. And it might take just a two-game run to turn this thing around.

It’s still relatively early in the season, and if you look at the East, it’s still bunched up – and anyone can emerge. You can look at it today and say that Boston and Detroit are the two teams that have the advantage, but it’s bunched up and, in a long season, anything can happen.

You look at last year, when Orlando started 10 games over .500 and barely made the Playoffs. You just have to continue to play and work hard, come to practice every day, and hopefully continue to get better.

We’re not oblivious to the fact that fans have been unhappy with our play at times. We are, too. But we look to each other for support when things get rough. We have the same team back this year – and we’ve said it for the last three years: the only people that really believe in us is us.

When things are going right, fans are cheering; when they’re going wrong, they boo. But the guys in this locker room are going to be here through thick and thin, win or lose. That’s what we realize – that it’s going to be us 15 guys and the coaching staff that’s going to turn this thing around. We have to come in, work hard, get better, help each other’s game, get healthy and try to get back into the hunt.

I’m not going to sit here and say that fans booing doesn’t affect us. And it can get frustrating as an athlete. It’s the fans’ right to boo – and we all realize that – but it can get frustrating. It’s a difficult thing, but that’s the way fans are and it’s our job to play through it. Most of us have been through these situations before and we just have to push it out of our minds and keep playing hard to try and work through this.

I’m really excited to get back out there and help my teammates. My wrist is getting there and I’ve been released to shoot the ball. I’m starting to get back to shooting and I’ll be released for contact within a week or so. And once I get to the contact, it’s just about getting some shots up and getting in game shape.

I’ve been doing cardio, but that’s a big difference from playing basketball. So right now, it’s getting some shots up and once I get released for practice, it’ll just be a matter of time.

It feels pretty good, but obviously, I haven’t shot in almost a month-and-a-half, so right now it’s a little difficult. But it’s starting to come along. I just have to get into a rhythm. Shots now are easy, because I’m by myself. But I have to feel comfortable with guys running at me and on the move, getting banged and things like that.

It gets a little sore now, but that’s just from not using it. But I think it’s slowly getting better every day. And pretty soon, I’ll be back. By then, maybe we’ll get this thing rolling, start getting some wins and get back to business in the East.

Holiday Happenings and the Road to Recovery

Hey, everyone! It’s Donyell, checking in from Cleveland. The Cavaliers are starting to get healthy again and hopefully I’ll be coming back soon, myself. I see the doctor next week and we’ll go from there. I’m looking forward to being back out there with the guys.

I’m still able to contribute to the team and the community even though I can’t suit up yet. On Wednesday night, I took 30 kids from the Broadway Boys and Girls Club out to Target for a little shopping spree. It’s the second straight year I’ve done it and it really means a lot to me.

You see that people can’t afford things and I look back on last year – I gave kids a gift card and watched them shop. I asked a couple of them what they’re going to get for themselves. And a lot of them don’t get anything for themselves; they bought stuff for their family members. They get things they know their parents wanted.

Last year, the kids got $150 and – this one girl – you could tell she was looking at inserts in the paper because she walked out of there with a shopping cart full of stuff. Then other kids just walk out with an iPod. And that’s great; that’s what this is for. But it’s just good to see the smiles on people’s faces and you’re able to make a person’s day.

I look at my kids’ situations and they can walk into a Wal-Mart and pretty much walk out with what they want to walk out with. And some of these kids are happy to go home with a miniature remote-controlled car. It’s things like that – seeing kids happy for the holidays – which make it all worthwhile.

As to how I’m able to contribute to the team, like I said in my last entry, I can still help out other players because being on the bench with an injury gives you a different perspective on the team.

When you’re a player – even when you’re sitting on the bench – you still tend to wait on getting in the game, waiting for the coach to call your name. Now, I know I’m not going to get called so I’m watching the game for guys setting screens, guys rotating on defense, plays being run right or wrong. And I’m able to talk to guys when they come out of the game.

There are times where a player gets pulled out of the game and they’re not too happy with Coach – and don’t want to listen to the Coach. I’m able to go talk to that person and tell them what they’re doing right or wrong, and they listen because they know it’s coming from a player. They’ll just listen to you more. Sometimes, I’ll yell at guys for not shooting the ball, especially when they’re wide open. I tell them: ‘You complain about not getting shots and you’re getting the shot and passing it up.’

It’s actually a good experience. And if you look at the guys who aren’t playing a lot – if you watch me on the bench – there are times where I’m serious and times when I’m joking around. I’m probably joking around with guys who aren’t playing a lot just to keep the smile on their face, so they don’t get frustrated. I learned that just from my own experiences, going through the last two years – sometimes playing a lot, sometimes not playing a lot.

So now I’m just trying to keep the other guys motivated throughout the game.

Like I said, it feels great now that the team is getting healthier and things starting to take shape. It’s kind of like LeBron said the other night, you don’t want to talk too much, but there were a lot of people talking trash about us at the beginning of the year that without Andy, without Sasha that we’d be about 4-15 right now.

Obviously, we’re 10-12. We had a good winning streak before LeBron got hurt. Then we lost some games in there. But now Andy’s back, Sasha’s back, LeBron and Larry are back healthy. We have to get Boobie and myself healthy, but I think once we get our full team back, people are going to see.

I think what’s helped us out is that we’re 10-12 after going through maybe the toughest part of our season. We’ve done China, we’ve done the West Coast. I think I saw an article that said since we left for China, we haven’t been in Cleveland for longer than 72 hours straight. That’s a rough stretch – the first two months of the season, including Camp and you haven’t been home for three days at a time.

So to be 10-12 right now with everyone coming back healthy, it only helps us out in the long run.