Live Thread: Cavs @ Pacers
2015-02-06
The Cavs are in Naptown tonight to face a slightly less depleted Pacers team. Paul George is still out, but point guard George Hill recently returned and brought a little stability to the team. The Pacers have pulled out wins in three of their last five games and have won their last eight home games. While Indiana sports a record of 18 wins and 32 losses, they are still playing properly. They hold teams to a top ten ranking 97.2 points on 44% shooting; they also allow just 20.8 heaves from beyond the arc, which is sixth best in the league.
The Wine & Gold, over the past ten games, have been limiting teams to 92.1 points on 40.1% shooting. This may be a battle of the defenses.
Pacers center Roy Hibbert has been outstanding this year safeguarding the rim. He’s treating it like a hot new hipster club and just 41.8% of NBA players have the proper beard to ironic tattoo ratio to enter it. He’s saving the Pacers 2.04 points a game. Thankfully, the Cavs are averaging 101.7 points this season, and that’s without weighting the recent win streak games. The Pacers average 95.4 a game. Roy’s not going to alter the outcome too much considering the Pacers can’t capitalize on the points he prevents.
The Cavs should get their 13th win easily tonight. I’m predicting it will end 102-90.
The Pacers will be without front court players Lavoy Allen and Ian Mahinmi, so expect the Cavs to get Kevin Love the ball early and often to force the Pacers into big man foul trouble.
Overall FG% has dropped yet again. down to 45%. They are cold!
Nobody moving on that possession… let Shump just dribble his way out of bounds… yikes.
Nobody puroposefully dribbles the ball out of bounds. They get “nudged.”
Bring back the force-out!
LBJ had an open lane to drive there… don’t know why he pulled up
Great block by TT… Man Scola is one of my least favorite players…
TOO MANY 3s! Get it inside! Wow
Agreed… shot fake, then drive it to the whole.
14 pts this quarter?
Cavs better eat their food and stop playing with it lol.
HAHAHA… I like that JB225!
The danger of taking too many quick outside shots is that you give a veteran team like the Pacers a chance to get right back in the game… The drives are working… keep that going fellas
J.R. giveth and J.R taketh away.
Had a couple open looks that he didn’t make… hope he find the rhythm back.
Good one! HoopsDogg bro!
Because Scola should be complaining to the refs about that miracle shot…
I know right?? Mozgov played great D on that play, just got lucky.
Only 63 points allowed so far. Let’s go Cavs.
Love CJ… Nice flush! But Kyrie took it personally.
Good timeout. Cavs are getting sloppy.
Need Delly in their to bring some energy defensively against their guards. Matrix wasn’t doing half bad either.
KYRIE MAGIC TRICK!!!
Everybody can see that ya gotta throw a catchable ball to Moz. Some of those are tough to catch.
I actually put that one on Moz… he should’ve been expecting it with a passer like LBJ.
Mozzzzzzzzzz!
Man I wish Fred would stop calling him “The Wizard of Moz” yeesh
Agreed 100%. He is not a little man in a musical, he is a murderous savage villain in a rated R for violence thriller.
Right now, he is a bit of Edward Scissorhands
Cavs are winning cause Kevin Hetrick is there tonight. #CtBKarma
YES!! HETRICK IN THE HOUSE!!
#C:tBKarma!
Yes!!!! How do you know?
Cuz he told me.
Cavs usually do well in their gold unis…
Just can’t stand only having a 12 point lead.
I bet they stretch it to 20 in the next few minutes…
Not if JR keeps bricking 3s. OK, that was harsh given he’s made some big ones, but is there nothing open inside?
12pt lead is like 20 against this slow pace with Indiana.
They can run these guys off the floor if they want to…
Spreading the rebounds around. Love, James, Mozzy and TT all with 5 …
Kyrie will finish with 30 – easy.
Let’s pick up the pace.
Gotta get on West… Maybe they need to put LBJ on him for a minute
Put Delly on him.
Or that…
Delly can guard anyone
HAHAHA… I love that Joey B!!!
JR SWISHHHH!!! Man that one was DEEEEEEPP
Kyrie’s shot looks really good
I’m hoping to see some halftime defensive adjustments.
Moz has got to watch that… his hands haven’t been the best the last couple of games it seems
JR SWISHHHHHHH!!!!!
They only really need to stop West and Hill. Those are the only guys who score for this team…
Looks like Kyrie has his shot back tonight?
Yes sir, he needs to keep going.
Any signs of let down or trap gameishness?
Not yet. 3 rd quarter is key
I don;t see a trap game, but they do need to make some offensive adjustments at the half and keep up the second-quarter defense.
Seems to be subpar defensive effort
Okay… missed first half… how are they playing?
I think they’re playing well enough… better offense in the 1st quarter, better defense in the 2nd quarter…. Indiana is playing slow as dirt. Need more energy to really put this game out of reach like last night.
Figured they’d try to slow things down and muddy it up
They are running everyone back on transition defense, and not running on transition offense.
I think they are letting the pacers choose the flow of half court playoff style.
Since I can’t watch live – is West just abusing Love or is it something else? Love 2-4, 5 reb 5 pts. West 6-9, 7 reb 14 pts.
West is playing well, Love overreacted to an outside shot once… but Love’s played fine as well, LBJ and Kyrie should look for him more in the 2nd half.
Love not the main guy on west. They are sticking to kevin like glue on offense and making other guys beat them. With Hibbert they can afford to
Interesting sub – Shump for Lebron for last defensive possession.
Too much one on one by the Cavs. Cavs need to get more player movement off the ball.
This game is hard to watch. Tempo is so slow, bit of a defensive struggle, and Lebron is dribbling the air out of the ball and putting up highly unadvised fade aways.
Expected tired legs after yesterday, but confident that they’ll grind this out.
This game was never in doubt… all that matters is that they get the W and get ready for the Lakers on Sunday.
Cavs have definitely come back to earth on the FG%. 50% overall, after 65% in the 1st. Why do they seem to play down to lesser competition. I know Indy is a better defensive team, but wow.
And just like that KYRIE WITH THE 230-foot 3 at the half!!!!
Er … 30-foot 3 …
It’s more than Indy being a good defensive team, they’re also a damn slow team… They don’t allow transition offense for the Cavs, and aren’t looking to run when they have the ball.
I’d say they’ve played a good half… better offense in the 1st quarter, better defense in the 2nd quarter.
Makes sense. I obviously can;t see that, so thanks for the insight.
No problem hahaha…. and actually like believeLAND said, it’s kinda hard to watch :/
That is infuriating – when a lesser opponent starts to make a run, you do not settle for 20 foot midrange jumpers. You attack the hoop.
Pretty poor effort to end the half by the Cavs. Lazy offense
Kyrie is shooting well tonight. That doesn’t bode well for Indy.
. . . but a step late on defense.
He’s going over on picks when he should be going under them, Pacers don’t have proficient outside shooters.
NICE CALL U-DOG!
Prediction for jr smith. In 1 playoff game smith will single handed pull out a late victory with his gambling defense and timely 3 pointers. He seems to have a knack for gambling on plays.
HAHA… agreed. He’s an aggressive player, which I like because you can’t be afraid, especially in the playoffs.
No doubt. When mozgov is in the lane it doesn’t matter how much he gambles on the wing
No question. He’s like Jet was on Dallas’ 2011 Championship team.
Great comparison Joey B… I’d say he might even better on defense.
What is JR’s contract picture next year? We need to re-sign TT and have NO cap space.
He has a 6 mill-ish player option.
Most think he’ll pick it up. If we are in the Finals this year, I think he’d pick it up seeing as its roughly his market value. Unless, of course, he totally explodes in the playoffs and drives his price up. Win-win for us, I think.
I hope you’re right Joey B… He’s already increased his value by virtue of what he’s done for the Cavs thus far.
He has a player option for something like $6 million.
Man TT is scooping those Offensive boards now! And with a put back. NICE!
TT is a different man this year. So is Kyrie. Last year at this time I was ready to trade both of them. Glad I’m not GM.
OK, keep in mind I’m not watching this game live but on GameCast, but a couple points. We are shotting 65% on FG now (and 60% on 3PT). We need better defense quick because we are not going to keep that up. Also, we only have one offensive rebound. I’m not liking how this is going despite the lead.
And just that quick TT gets 3 Offensive rebounds. Go TT!
Whatever telepathy you’re using is working.
They are very very fundamentally sound on defense. They don’t give up offensive boards…hence their high defensive rating. The more we attack the basket the more of those rebounds there will be and the closer we get to starting a three point barrage. Against good defenses it just takes a little longer to develop the offensive patterns that lead to sustained runs. Defensively we are starting to keep them out of the paint and off the block
Agree with Scotch… They’re very sound on defense, and they don’t exactly run out for transition offense… they play at a slow pace.
Also, apologies if any analysis is a bit off as I miss seeing the game live :(
No problem John, I enjoyed the stats you provided!
No apologies necessary. You are noticing the right problems…hard to see them correct themselves cuz box score improvements lag behind adjustments on the court by several minutes
And also agree that the defense is coming around this quarter.
Blatt has a defensive crew in with Delly, TT, Matrix, LBJ, and Mozgov… they seem to be doing well.
Cavs’ defense is coming. They’re starting to make the Pacers uncomfortable.
Exactly what I was thinking Phil.
Good job by LeBron to get to the line
This completely went the other way man, lol, NBPA Michele Roberts supporting CP3.
http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/story/_/id/12288601/referees-union-backs-nba-female-ref-lauren-holtkamp-personal-comments-chris-paul-los-angeles-clippers
That’s the union leader’s job…. but that being said, CP3 is a dirty chump who needs to check his fat ego at the door.
He heard us Joey …
Trap game warnings: Settling for mid range jumpers and not giving 100% on defense.
For all the things Lebron has improved on in his career, he still doesn’t seem to pay much attention to free throws. He should be automatic at this point in his career.
He was doing well last year trying to be in the 50-40-80 club…maybe Ray allen should sign just to show him how to shoot free throws again.
LeBron misses 2 FT. Ouch.
That’s twice now, John. Great minds think alike.
Well, at least the offense is running smoothly… need to buckle down on defense… they seem to be a little slow on switching.
Delly with the nice feed to Shump for the 3…. Delly’s gaining in confidence.
So where is the defense? Pacers seems to be getting a bunch of good looks.
They played better defense earlier in the quarter, now they’re letting them have too many open looks. Not mad about the jumpers, more about the lay ups.
Seriously. Pacers shouldn’t be shooting over 50% against cardboard cutouts.
They are making long twos and threes after we overplay a bit on pick and roll. Blatt will notice this and adjust. If Lebron would make free throws at maybe an 80% clip instead of his horrendous 72% we’d average 2 more points per quarter. 27 is way too many points to give up tho you are right
Jr smith has sneaky good hands on defense. He and shumpert still surprise me with how long they are. Would love to see more kevin love touches right now
Clips taking out last night’s frustrations on the Raptors right now.
I’ve noticed that several teams have played quite well the night after the Cavs have humiliated them.
Clippers taking out there frustrations on Toronto. 14-2 run to start the game …
Took the words out of my keyboard. Ha
Ha Fred said if the pacers don’t want to run up and down with the cavs they should change their nickname!
Mozgov causing all kinds of problems for Hibbert after knocking down his first 18ft attempt. Lebron getting layups
I like Fred and AC… both do a good job.
An efficient start on offense for the Cavs–good shooting, LeBron getting to the basket several times, a nice LeBron to Kyrie to Mozgov combo.
Agreed, beautiful offense to start the game… good defense early, forced tough shots, but then allowed them to get some easy shots later in the quarter.
Quinn Buckner on the Cavs: “They don’t run much offense.”
Is this on any network TV or am I forced to watch GameCast?
It’s on FSO, but I had to go to an alternate channel because the normal channel is showing hockey… I have no idea if they offer the channel on basic cable, I’m assuming they don’t because I’ve never found it.
I’m in Florida :(
My condolences, John… on the bright side, you are not freezing your ass off hahahaha! Get to a BW3s!
If we can get Hibbert in foul trouble and keep mozzy out of it, we should have a layup drill. They are a high quality defensive team w Hibbert, but without Allen and mahimi to spell him we should wear them down by the 2nd quarter. Jr smith ought to have planet of open looks with Lebron being guarded by nobody I can name
David Blatt is a Muppet of a man.
Hope Paul George’s recovery has been going well, and he gets back soon now and even stronger. Great talent, miss seeing him out there.
Agreed… great post believeLAND.
George Hill is back and the Pacers have 8 in a row at home.
Yuck. I have to watch Roy Hibbert play basketball? I may just skip this one. The Pacers are painfully awful and unertainiubg
hAHAHA… I feel ya Cols. I actually wanted to go to this game since Indy’s only 90 minutes from Cincinnati and tickets were dirt cheap because not even Pacer fans want to see the Pacers!
Haha. Yep. They’ve sucked since about this time last year. Just an awful team that is horribly unfun to watch.
They could still beat the Cavs. If I’m the Cavs I have a really hard time getting up for playing this crap team.
I agree… my hope is that they’re energized by the fact they just claimed the 3 seed and the streak is still alive. I liked what LBJ’s been saying about focusing on the “process” and that they’ve “not done anything yet.”
To be more clear, I agree on both counts re: Pacers’ style and that they could come out with a win.
“Unertainiubg” is my favorite new word. A good way to describe the Pacers.
HAHAHAHA…. great point Phil!
Hopefully rest during 4th quarter last night allows for energetic play from the starters even with the back-to-back.
May not see as much Delly though, since he did a lot of work in garbage time.
Great point about the defenses… shaping up to be an old-fashioned East coast brawl. Glad the starters received their rest last night!
Threads up early tonight.