Live Thread: Cavs @ Thunder
2014-12-11
This is always one of my favorite match-ups of the year. I’ve Aunts and Uncles and cousins in Wichita and OKC, and they pull big-time for KD and the gang. It’s fun to send some trash talk across the great plains. The Tacoma City Plunder, as I call them, come into the game finally healthy and winners of five of the last six, now that reigning MVP, Kevin Durant has returned along with All-Star, Russell Westbrook. KD hasn’t lost much in his four games back, with shooting splits of .492/.316/.889 to go along with 22 points, 5.5Â rebounds, and four assists in 29 minutes a night. Westbrook has been similarly stellar, posting a 31.5 PER so far this year, and adding 24.5 points, seven dimes, and six rebounds in 28 minutes a night with splits of .433/.306/.814. Contrast that with LeBron and Kyrie… The head-to-head position battles tonight will be epic.
James Vs. Durant, Irving Vs. Westbrook, Marion Vs. Roberson?, Varejao Vs. Adams… One can’t ever forget block machine, Serge Ibaka when talking of the Thunder. Kevin Love will have his hands full. Jeremy Lamb has also emerged as a solid bench scorer for the Zombie Sonics, averaging 12 points off the bench with a 58.5 TS%. A lanky 6’5″, Jeremy will be a tough match-up for the Cavs bench guys. Add Anthony Morrow, Reggie Jackson, Perry Jones, and all-time-tough-guy, Kendrick Perkins, and this Thunder bench is intimidating. Cleveland is going to need big contributions from everyone.
Oklahoma City is still on the outside of the Western Playoff race, looking in. At 8-13 they’re three games back of eighth place Phoenix and 11 games back of the NBA best Warriors. So every game is huge for them right now. The Cavs, meanwhile, are waiting on a “Game Time Decision” to determine if LeBron James plays tonight. Fortunately, the Cavs have shown they can win without him, taking three of the the last five contests from OKC during the LeBronless years, including one of the biggest Cavs victories last season, a stunning 114-102 February victory in OKC. Given the burgeoning rivalry, I’d be shocked and concerned if the King missed a showdown this big.
Update: LeBron will sit out this game with “general knee soreness.” Matthew Dellavedova will start in his place.
WOW! GOOD NEWS! Kyrie back on the floor loosening up
@mcten: Kyrie Irving is back on the court for second half warmups
@JasonLloydABJ: LeBron will not play tonight vs OKC. #Cavs
Well at least he broke the news before the game was actually over. SMH
Sorry didn’t mean to post this…
I figured, but that would be about right for the ABJ
would sit both LeBron and kyrie ( hopefully it is NOT SERIOUS )—-the next 3 games —-their health is more vital than 3 wins —–love needs to be more of a force
You just know this will bring all of the “Kyrie is injury prone” idiots out of the woodwork again. Ugh.
Dion hyperextended his knee last season and missed a couple of weeks. Hopefully Kyries injury isn’t too serious.
Me too, but it looks like a little more than “general knee soreness”
Playing 4 on 5 with delly out there. The dude just cannot dribble or create at all
Yeah those rebounds that Delly snagged down the stretch were worthless.
Are you kidding?? He set up Dion several times with open looks. Your hate is blinding you man
Good thing waiters is scoring. He’s keeping us in the game.
Cavs still going to win this game. Calling it now. Dion, Delly, TT and Love taking over this game in the second half
Great clock control by Delly and two great shots by Dion. Cavs lucky to be tied.
Lucky to be tied? Playing without LBJ and with Kyrie going down? Sure the Thunder are almost 0 for the game on threes, but Westbrook and Ibaka have been awesome
Delly to Dion for THREEEEEEEE!
Dion coming to life like Johnny Football.
Dion is going to take over.
I bet he just sprained it.
Good sign that he’s walking on it even with the help. Maybe it’s not too bad…
Well at least he’s walking off the court.
Looks like he hyperextended it. Doubt he comes back tonight.
Well…. THAT’S not good
That’s not good.
Oh great!!! Now Irvings knee….
Some bad habits playing out right now.
Run the offense through Love…
Gonna need some magic to win this one.
Something’s happened the last few games to Matrix. He was looking good there for a stretch, but just not shooting or finishing well the last few games. Cavs will need him in second half, especially to D up Durant
At least waiters going to the basket. Also Dion is 63% at the rim this year. So your minds are playing tricks on you all.
He ain’t 63 percent THIS game man. You watching??
Anyone notice how Kyrie either dominates or can’t buy a shot? Been like that his whole career sans Bron. Looks like we’re in for a long second half.
4-18 shooting ain’t gonna cut it against OKC. Good news is that game is still close.
Even James Jones is starting to miss 3s.
Nobody finishing well at the rim in this quarter
Kyrie seems to be holding the ball at the top of the key a lot. Looking to get others involved. He needs to drive some
Dion with a chuck.
Delly looks like a back up out there. Would have preferred Dion starting then pulling Ky after six minutes like his normal minutes. Also, they stopped going inside after those blocks. Need to man up.
Dion doesn’t fit great next to Kyrie
Agree they need to stop living exclusively on the perimeter
Uncharacteristically bad pass from Delly there. Getting sloppy out there right now
Love seeing Love mix it up though, even if he did get the raw end of that one
Andy with a terrific rebound in traffic! But two good looks at threes just not going down
I guess Ibaka doesn’t like Love.
Good ball movement, just shots not falling as much this quarter
DELLY TREY! oh and then Delly side of the backboard…
I’ll take it.
He’s 2 for 3 on Delly treys
I think Dion just prays that the refs will call a foul for him that’s why he always screams and 1 after missing at the rim.
Dion taking to just yelling AND ONE at the top of his lungs in an attempt to get the foul call
How did TT miss that tip in???
That’s another missed shot at the rim for Dion.
TT making Durant earn it inside! Good hard foul TT!!
WOW! You NEVER foul the three point shooter! Nice vet move by JAMES FREAKING JONES
Perk undid the good block with the horrible foul on Jones
Perk with a big block right there
Dion has to be one of the worst finishers
Delly to Dion. Nice rhythm between them
If the Cavs make them work for shots, they won’t
It’s gonna take some time for OKC to find rythm with Durant and Westbrook back in the lineup. Hopefully they don’t find it tonight.
0-8 from three with 7 turnovers. Some good D from Cavs, but also cold shooting from OKC
Helps that OKC is ICE COLD from the outside tonight so far
Nice pass from KLove, although he was pretty wide open and probably could have canned that trey
Delly Trey!!! Love to see that (even if Cols doesn’t)
Lamb looks like he’s trying to join the Kid n Play hair club with Noel and Shumpert
walked right to the hoop
Haha Delly starting in LeBrons place.
That I-BLOCK-a on Love after Kyries amazing pass followed by Westbrooks sweet transition double pump layup showed why that team can be great. This is so much more fun playing the good West teams
That was an awesome block, but it was a pretty awesome pass from Kyrie too
Love’s shot looks sweet from the outside tonight
unsweet move to the hoop
Great start for the Cavs.
Waiters needs to work on finishing on fast breaks
Like to see the Cavs come out aggressively like this. Need to jump on OKC early since they can score in bunches.
DION sidesh*t from downtown!!!!
Great start for the Cavs! Kyrie and KLove look particularly active. As does Andy!
I hope Leb feels better. Sucks he isn’t playing. But it will be fun to see Kyrie, Love, and Dion score a ton of points.
You forgot Delly!
“Delly will start in his place” Does that mean that LBJ usually starts at the 2? I thought LBJ was the 3 and Marion started at the 2. I would assume that Marion would shift over and start at the 3 for LBJ and Delly would replace Marion at the 2. Right?
Think about the recent threads on here and then read that update again pretending you’re cols
Nevermind I thought that was a CtB inside joke but Delly starting for LBJ is actually how the associated press spun it too
Going to be tough without LBJ, but I’m going to stay positive and say the Cavs pull out a high-scoring affair 118-115.
I think is the best decision even if is not a serious thing as you want a healthy LBJ in the playoffs even if they lose some games in the process during the regular season. Hopefully the team steps bigtime up without him.
The LeBron thing worries me, but better safe than sorry. I’m looking forward to a full game of Delly at the point, though.
Nate, I love that you are on top of things and have the Game Thread up an hour ahead of time (as it should be). Half of the fun is prognosticating what might happen on a given night.
That said, it was unfortunately about three minutes too early with the apparent announcement that LBJ will not play. Oh well. Cavs have their work cut out for them against a rapidly improving OKC team.
I love that Delly is in the starting lineup. He fits like a bra!!!
No LeBron… no problem. Go Cavs!