Live Thread: Cavs vs. Sixers
2015-03-29
Fear the Flat Top?
In true March Madness tradition… the Cavaliers will go for their own “Sweet 16” as they try to win their 16th straight home game today against Sam’s Club the 76ers.
The lottery-bound Sixers were blown out Friday 119-98 by the Clippers, although they have two more shots before the end of March to tie their season best of six wins in a month. Philadelphia has only three wins over teams with winning records, but one of them was against a depleted Cavs team on the eve of the trade that sent Dion Waiters packing.
While it might be a boring end of season Sunday game to most, Brett Brown looks forward to the challenge, “I think it’s a great lesson, a great experience to play against a real team that is a few weeks away from going into the playoffs,” Brown said. “I think it’s a fantastic, real-time lesson, a real-time example of this is what we aspire to get to.” Probably not a coincidence that coach Brown used the word “real” repeatedly in his quotes… since his team seems stuck in the Pinocchio-phase.
Nerlens Noel (who leads all rookies with 16 double-doubles… and also in hair height) had a career-high 30 points and 14 boards against the Clippers. Such performances no doubt put him squarely in Uncle Sam’s cross-hairs as the next worm on the hook to catch a few more lottery picks.
The Cavs themselves, on the heels of a tough to watch loss to the Brooklyn Nets, must find a way to stave off boredom and complacency that can settle in while waiting around for the playoffs to start. Maybe by imagining themselves trying on a flat top for size…
Does wonders for the hairline…
Moz should definitely go for this look…
“Y’all just going for second place…”
Wow… just wow… complete ineptitude on both sides…
Blatt to his assistants in the huddle: “Can you believe this s**t?”
Undrafted D-leaguer outplaying everyone on our team. How pathetic.
Seriously, they have to take some pride in these games even if its the Sixers…
Typical crappy LeIso play…
Great job LeBron. Iso ball and then take the most off balance fadeaway jumper the league has ever seen. That’s just lazy.
Le Iso results in a ridiculously tough fadeaway that he misses.
What the hell was that shot Bron?
Cavs not finishing around the rim…
This is one of the UGLIEST games I’ve ever seen…
Lucky you that you didn’t see the first Philly game that we lost. That one was super ugly.
LBJ stuck on 20 (tied with Ewing)… now 8-23
How many times has PHI had the ball with a chance to take the lead in the second half and failed. At least 15-20 right?
Why is TT not in for Delly? Do we really need 4 ball handlers and one big guy?
^So they put TT in and take Mozzy out. Still got the 4 ball handlers when we really only need 2, maybe 3 max.
Kyrie and LeBron a combined 10 assists, and 10 turnovers. That’s just ugly basketball.
What is Kyrie doing out there?
Like I posted before, they have nothing to lose.
You would have thought after the Nets game that the Cavs would have been sharper for this game…
Yeah, this is pretty sad. Back-to-back games where we’re playing 1/10th as good as we did against Memphis. Stupid.
No KLove and no Shump to finish the game.
What happened to Shump? I missed that. It did look like he might have hurt something more than his pride when he missed the dunk in the first half.
Sounds like he hurt his ankle… unclear as to whether it was before or after the rim blocked him…
Lower back issues for Love. Hopefully just spasms.
According to Allie… KLove dealing with “low back issues” and won’t return…
Allie confirms: Love has lower-back issues. Will not return.
That was like the fifth Covington three in transition after a Cavs made basket…
Good passing —> Moz follow.
JR SWISH!
That was a great board by Moz and showed why it’s a good thing to have him in late in games…
Cavs are moving the ball, just not taking good shots, or having some bad luck on the decent ones…
Why did Kyrie even throw him the ball there?
Kyrie didn’t realize Love was hurting. Love had to reach for the pass and may have aggravated whatever was already hurting.
But why would you even throw the ball to him when he’s standing where he was just past half court?
Uh-oh. Love is listing to starboard and heading back to port (the locker room). Could be the back acting up.
He looked in a hurry. I was confused. Have the game on mute and I have no idea what happened.
Def looked like a back issue…
That was the oddest play I have seen all year. What’s going on?
What just happened with Love?
LBJ one bucket away from #20
KLove and Moz both playing in the fourth quarter… wonder of wonders
Delly the master of the tactical open-court foul. Only Mike Miller does it better.
Just wish they didn’t need him to do it so often… at least Delly realizes how badly the Cavs seem to get beat on transition D so often…
LBJ was lining up that chase down block. I’d rather he have just sprinted to the paint on this one.
Henry Sims with the uncontested rebound and putback…
MAYBE I HAVE BEEN SPOILED BY THE WAY THEY HAVE PLAYED FOR THE LAST 3 MONTHS—MAYBE THERE IS CONCERN BY HOW THEY ARE PLAYING THE LAST 2 GAMES —BUT HOW DO THEY LET A “D” LEAGUE PLAYER LIKE “FURKAN ALDEMIR ” LOOK LIKE AN ALL STAR —-THERE NEEDS TO BE A CERTAIN AMOUNT OF PRIDE OF WHO YOU ARE PLAYING AGAINST !!
Cavs often play down to their opponents. Really aggravating to watch, unfortunately.
Good to see Marion getting some playing time. Got to prep him for the playoffs.
Cavs with more turnovers (7) than baskets (6) that quarter… ugly…
It seems like KI doesn’t pass enough to Love when he is wide open
Sixers actually have some good players. They just need some leadership.
Kyrie! With the difficult and one!
Cavs letting inferior team hang around by committing careless mistakes… how did LBJ just let that ball drift out of bounds?
Sixers really seem to play the passing lanes well…
why do we let these guys hang around and make our starters play huge minutes —–falling back to earlier season mistakes / habits —-C’MON CAVS !!
I just yelled “Furkan Aldemir!” at my screen…
Furkan Aldemir might be my new favorite fake curse phrase…
Like that Cavs aren’t just jacking up threes, and are making a conscious effort to get the ball inside…
I’ve just realized that EG and PH are both doing the play-by-play. It’s like color commentary, except not!
Ha! Sorry Gordo… will try to be more colorful, but it is a Sunday game against the Sixers…;)
Sixers doing just enough to hang around. Cavs by 8 at the half.
LeBron nice feed to Moz in transition for the layup.
LBJ with an awesome no-look to Moz for the dunk
Moz with a nifty move inside
Cavs turning up the D
Aldemir just got Mozgoved!
Shump gets blocked by the rim for the third time this season…
Shump great steal but misses the dunk.
How do you miss a wide open dunk, Shump? That’s embarrassing.
I don’t understand why the Cavs don’t put this team away early.
Moz-Love inside out for the Love 3.
The Sixers offense is dribble to the 3 point line and let it fly lol.
They’ve had some success with it so far
Exactly they have nothing to lose so if they hit a few they can stay in the game.
LeBron dribbles into the clear and, as he does occasionally, goes with the fadeaway just for the heck of it. And makes it.
Delly and TT starting to get a really good communication down on the alley oops!
How in the world did TT get that dunk to go down? He was almost sideways…
Sick finish. Shoulda been a foul. He had to go acrobatic because he was being undercut.
Half of the Sixers scoring has come on the break. Cavs cut down on mistakes late in the quarter to take the lead.
Well, at least they closed the quarter on a 10-0 run…
Love with at least a couple turnovers in the post, struggling to get shots off before the defense disrupts him. But LeBron finds him so open underneath that he has time to follow his own miss.
Yeah… at least they’re trying to get him the ball down low… but you’re right, he’s lost the ball a couple of times down there…
SHUMP is ON from three!
Mbah-A-Moute deciding to showcase his inability to hit threes…
Moz with a big dunk to bail Cavs out after second straight near-lost possession…
Kyrie and JR both shooting well out of the gate.
LBJ with the thunder dunk!
Love over Noel for the first hoop of the game.
In honor of his bobble-head night… they go inside to KLove right away…
LBJ could pass Patrick Ewing with 22 points today…
Sounds like from all reports, Coach Blatt not looking to rest anybody for this game…
If all goes well, the starters will be able to rest for most of the 4th quarter.
Probably doesn’t feel like he needs to with the three day rest before Thurs.