Recap: Bulls 96, Cavs 83 (Or, You’re still holding the Button Down)
2016-01-24
The Cavs shot 37/16/40. At home. On the day after they fired the coach they didn’t want to play for. That doesn’t happen very often. According to Basketball-Reference it’s only happened TWICE. [Update: Thanks to reader ‘nugget’ for pointing out the error in my original link].
On the same night he vowed to play 10 guys, Tyronn Lue technically played 10 guys. Although Mo Williams only earned three minutes. Possibly because he checked in during the middle of a seven-minute drought and without trying to find a better shot for anyone else he promptly jacked up an off-balance runner from 15 feet that clanged off the iron. The Cavs were destroyed by the Bulls front line, whose shot chart extended well beyond the three point line. Anderson Varejao never saw the court.
The First Quarter:
The Cavs started off well enough and got out to a 12-6 lead on a J.R. Smith triple. On the Cavs next possession, Mozgov had his layup blocked by Pau Gasol. Mozzy scrambled to chase down the ball and had to hoist from the baseline about 17 feet from the hoop to beat the shot clock. He rattled it in and the Cavs looked to be in good shape at 14-8. At the next whistle, Tyronn Lue made his first substitution: James Jones for Kevin Love. It’s worth mentioning that by this juncture, Kevin Love had taken two shots, both 3s, with nary an elbow touch.
The Cavs would not score the rest of the quarter. They succumbed to a seven minute drought. A team with LeBron James, Kevin Love, Kyrie Irving, and J.R. Smith did not score for seven minutes, at home, on the day after they fired the coach they didn’t like playing for. With 4:54 left in the quarter, Ty Lue tried his first Heat Check lineup on for size (none of the Big 3 present on the hardwood). The Bulls played Delly for the oop and his drives into the teeth were ineffective. After two more minutes of futility, Lue put Kevin Love back in, possibly sensing his Heat Check lineup was a mistake. Love attempted one shot the rest of the quarter – another missed 3. Nary an elbow touch. 21-14 Bulls after one.
The Second Quarter:
Kyrie, J.R., Iman, and LeBron started the second quarter by feeding Kevin Love. Love made three straight shots, including a sick turnaround fadeaway from the baseline. Then he missed one hook shot and the Cavs gave “feeding Kevin Love” the hook. He took one more shot in the quarter – another missed 3. Nary an elbow touch. LeBron and J.R. ramped up the aggression and scored the rest of the points in the half. LeBron drove into the teeth and pushed in transition and J.R. scored on an assortment of moves including a tough-man’s layup, a couple deep Js, and a transition dunk when he got out and ran with LeBron. The Cavs cut it to two (41-39) and that would be the closest they ever got. Jimmy Butler splashed a 3 to give the Bulls a five point leading going into halftime.
The rest of the game:
was frustrating as hell. Pau Gasol and Nikola Mirotic splashed threes while Anderson Varejao sat on the bench. The Cavs actually missed their first 10 (non-technical) free throws. TEN FREE THROWS. There’s not much else to say about the game. The Bulls pushed the lead out to 17 before the Cavs mounted a mini-comeback of sorts when LeBron started driving hard into the lane in the 4th quarter. They got it down to single digits with three minutes to go after LBJ completed a 3-point play. But they stalled out. Taj Gibson put them to bed with a 3-point play of his own and an obnoxious 17-footer as the shot clock expired on a broken play.
The Good:
J.R. Smith: If there’s been a bright spot during this dark month it’s been J.R. His stroke looked pure even if he only shot 7-17 tonight, and he played a more complete offensive game than usual, attacking the basket when he wasn’t spotted up to splash. He had 11 rebounds and was diving for loose balls.
Mozgov is ever-so-slightly getting his aggression back and starting to dive to rim with more authority.
When the Cavs got down by double digits, shouts of “Luuuuuuuuuuuue” rained down from the home crowd. What a nice show of support by the Cavalier faithful.
The Bad:
The Cavs Offense..it..looks like the players just met at the Y. I don’t understand why people think they’re getting good looks and just missing. These aren’t good looks. They were 6-24 from 3 and most of them were out of rhythm or if they were in rhythm they were the result of a perimeter pass that did not force the defense to bend at all. Like, when someone on the wing lobs a six foot pass to Kevin Love at the top of the key and he decides to shoot over someone….it’s not a “good look.”
I don’t know what the solution is. Kyrie Irving just wants to freelance, no one knows how to play with him. There was a sequence where he dribbled into a trap in the corner, eventually shot-put a pass to LeBron, who decided instead of clanking a spot 3 he’d rather take a baby step to toe the line and clank the longest of long 2s.
Kevin Love can get buckets but the Cavs don’t trust him and they don’t really utilize his passing in the half court.
Going into the season I thought the Cavs front court was ridiculously talented and deep. There’s just no consistency. You can watch a three or four minute sequence and forget that Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson are on the court. Mozgov has struggled terribly this season, Varejao doesn’t play, LeBron doesn’t want to set up shop on the low block, and James Jones seems utterly ineffective if he’s not splashing 3s. Since December he is shooting under 30% from 3. He didn’t attempt any in seven minutes of action tonight.
Mo Williams may as well be cut at this point. He’s doing none of things that make him valuable and if he’s creating even one iota of a problem in the locker room then it’s time to say goodbye.
82 million dollar contract and Thompson falls for this. Good work, Niko. https://t.co/pNClcHTy8s
— Adam Howes (@Howsito) January 24, 2016
The Ugly:
The Cavs lost by the number of free throws they missed.
CtB’s in-game scout, Elijah Kim, noticed that the Cavs bench wasn’t thrilled with Kevin Love remaining glued to the deck while the Bulls ran the other way for a prolonged 5 on 4 possession.
https://twitter.com/Big_EZK/status/691091930269220864
I don’t know about you, but the report from Windhorst that many of the Cavs thought the team meeting to discuss Blatt’s firing was actually a meeting to inform everyone that Kevin Love had been traded…that opened my eyes to how dire the situation is inside the locker room.
David Griffin made a point to say that the Cavs only rose to the occasion when they faced adversity. That they didn’t handle success or prosperity well. When they were expected to play well they didn’t. Chalk tonight’s loss up to that phenomenon.
To be fair, we can't judge Tyronn Lue until we see how this team handles success.
— Dan Labbe (@dan_labbe) January 24, 2016
OK, but WHAT THE HECK? Why are the Cavs able to dispose of a Clippers team that had won 9 of 10 games but the minute they become double digit Vegas favorites and everyone naturally assumes they are going to just explode on the extremely-banged up Bulls…why this? They missed 10 straight free throws! And it wasn’t like it was all Tristan Thompson. Kevin Love missed free throws! Why is there such a lack of focus? Isn’t this the game where they were finally freed from Blatt’s incompetence and inability to discipline and whatever other grievances they had? He’s gone! Ding dong the wicked witch is dead – now MAKE YOUR FREE THROWS.
Why does Kyrie Irving insist on zig zagging all over the court with his dribble and standing as still as a statue when he’s off the ball? Why do LeBron James/Kevin Love interactions at the top of the key so painfully awkward!? Shouldn’t these long triple threats be devastating in pick and roll/pop situations? Napolean Dynamite’s got more of a 2-man game!
Final Thoughts:
There’s been talk this week about playing at a faster pace. The Cavs certainly seemed more frenetic tonight, and it did nothing to improve the bottom line. After the game, Coach Lue said that the players are not in good enough shape to increase their pace from near-last in the league to something more up-tempo. More great news. And why is playing at faster pace the antidote to this inability to show up for big games? Last I checked, the Cavs beat the Warriors in the finals by dictating a slow-as-molasses tempo.
The Cavs are running out of time.
https://twitter.com/ScottRaab64/status/691107006049034240
No more starting Kevin Love. Bench player for the rest of the year.
Yeah I doubt it and I hope he doesnt get benched. I think he will play more w second unit tho.
Mark Jackson, Jeff Van Gundy Criticize Use Of Unnamed Sources: basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/240550…
James accepted Lue’s assessment.
“Yup, we got to get in better shape,” he said. “Coach wanted to play faster, so we need to start doing stuff on off days, doing stuff at practice, during shootarounds, getting up and down the floor, getting our heart rate going, because he wants to play faster, play with more pace than we’ve done in the past. Try to get up and down the court before the defense is set on us. So we all need to be in better shape.” – espn
At least James is owning the out of shape thing.
The fact that they are admitting it or not is not the point, it’s the fact that it’s an actual issue. And no, they can’t blame Blatt for being out of shape.
Gilbert must be wondering why he’s paying this exorbitant price tag for a bunch of out-of-shape players who don’t show up for big games.
If I were him, I’d be asking why I’m paying this kind of money for a bunch of unprofessional, spoiled brats…
Obviously its more about pace and not shape. They need to adjust. And the fact that a coach said something and Lebron 100% agrees, it’s already a positive step.
Yeah me too! I’m psyched LeBron agrees with his coach. I don’t care about wins just as long as everyone is getting along and happy.
Go ahead and keep panicking because they lost Lue’s first game.
LeBron generally doesn’t disagree publicly. Remember the first training camp under Blatt, where Leb called Blatt’s offense “borderline genius.” And then he proceeded to scrap it entirely by the second week of the season.
That was Mike Miller, who called Blatt’s offense borderline genius.
You’re right. LeBron’s take on the offense was considered positive at the time but looks more ambiguous in hindsight:
“It’s very free flowing and it’s going to be challenging for guys,” James said. “I can see it. Guys are kind of thinking through it a little too much, but I think when we get it there are so many different options. It’s live at every position and there’s a counter to everything a defense can do.”
Anyway, this is about as strongly as LeBron dissents publicly.
. . . but the European players were able to pick up the offense fairly well.
I’m done letting this make me nuts today. Hopefully I can get through Monday without it making me more nuts.
The new emphasis on Love at the elbow is amusing. As if Blatt didn’t know how to do it. For goodness’ sake, running the offense through a big in the high post is a staple of the Princeton offense. When Princeton beat UCLA in the tournament, the game-winning back-door layup came off a feed from center Steve Goodrich at the elbow! https://youtu.be/rYd9Tqiy-z8?t=41 In Blatt’s own playing days, center Rich Simkus played that high-post role. When Princeton almost upset Georgetown in ’89, it was Kit Mueller. So why did the Cavs not do this with Love for the past year and… Read more »
I gotta say I’m surprised by all the negative reaction. Just about every single thing we’d been complaining about before last night had some conscious effort made toward it being addressed. Observe: -we got more effort on defense; our own number of missed shots led to easy scoring chances for the Bulls so the final score isn’t indicative of how well everyone outside of TT and Kyrie played D. We were kind of forced to play small late and that’s when Gasol and Mirotic killed us. -we picked up the pace on offense. Since Day 1 last year we heard… Read more »
I agree with this, thanks I would butcher putting my thoughts into words and you covered most of them. Still see us in the finals. If we play better as an underdog we have surely found ourselves in that position, I am hoping that griffin can weather the storm and not trade any key pieces. The notion of trading Kyrie and or Love seems so crazy and hope they’re is zero validity to those rumors.
I disagree on the Iso’s. Maybe Lebron wasn’t pounding the whole shot clock away, but there were way to many one on ones, including a bunch from JR. I thought the offense was terrible. In addition, Lebron, who we know is a terrible shooter outside the paint in general and behind the arc specifically, decided last night would be a good time to chuck up 8 shots outside the paint, including 5 from 3. Of course he didn’t make any of them. But I go along with your post. We need to give Lue time to implement his ideas and… Read more »
Knicks reserve center Louis Amundson, who spent time with the Cavs last season, in citing a poor locker room atmosphere, wasn’t overly surprised that Cleavland fired coach David Blatt, Marc Berman of the New York Post relays. Amundson said Blatt lacked the experience of coaching in the NBA, which he added is necessary to succeed. The Knicks’ locker room felt more like a team than the Cavs’ to Amundson, Berman writes.
http://www.hoopsrumors.com/2016/01/central-notes-cavs-bulls-pistons.html
Amundson was on the team when they were underachieving, so of course the locker room mood wouldn’t have been so hot. They got much better after they traded him. Anyways, Blatt has about a year and a half more NBA head coaching experience than Ty Lue.
Also, the Knicks’ locker room may have felt more like a team, but they were HORRENDOUS last year under rookie coach Derek Fisher.
this coming from a guy that was on one of the worst teams in the NBA. Incidently, JR and Shump argue that Knicks locker room was pretty toxic. I grant Amundson no points on this.
“Who will rid me of that troublesome priest…” effect??
oops -as in, if Griffin didn’t talk to Lebron (as claimed) he could have picked up rumblings that LBJ wanted Blatt gone when Lebron was only venting.
Cavs are enacting the spirit and pace offense because being top 5 in offense and defensive efficiency is not acceptable #CoachLueBron
Someone on Reddit found this out: a LeBron, Love, Delly, TT lineup only shared the floor for 2 minutes last night.
Yea, that was unbelievable. But hey, at least Mo got his 3 minutes. If Mo was one of the big complainers after the first GS game, as reported, cut him, please. I can’t wait to see him get minutes against the Spurs…although the way Kyrie has been playing, it might be hard to tell any difference…
Yeah, Mo ran up the floor as if thinking, “Now’s my time to shine!” only to immediately brick a contested mid-range shot.
Sigh, I wish Leb and Love weren’t fat and out of shape.
Ty “Cols” Lue sucks! Ugh.
LeBron was interviewed either today or after last nights loss and he seemed happier than in wins. He also said the defense played well!?!?!?!? WTF is he smoking? Coach LueBron is gonna get a quick lesson that coaching ain’t so easy. I think he and the rest of the team needs a tutorial in self realization. Coach LueBron is going to force a Love trade so he and Kyrie can input more of their Le-ISO offense, because it works so well for the Rockets, and definitely can beat the Spurs/GS /s. LueBron is the smartest guy in the room though… Read more »
The defense did play well. The exception was Pau. They held the Bulls to 38% at the half…2% better than the Cavs who didn’t score for 15 minutes at one point.
The defense didn’t play well… D. Rose sucked so bad it kept the Cavs in the game.
Um the Bulls got credit for playing good D because the Cavs couldn’t shoot. So…
Didn’t say the Bulls played good D… So…
Yeah the Bulls shot 40% from 3 and Pau and Rose pretty much got what they wanted.
Rose got whatever he wanted to the tune of 12 points. Prev games were 27 and 29. Some of the Bulls were going to score and Pau did in bunches. But the Cavs held the Bulls to their average Points Against. It wasn’t an awful effort.
Well if you would classify as what they did as good defense, then you must have the bar set much lower than me.
Average defense. Arch was attach a WTF to it. My point is it wasn’t that terrible.
Unthinkable but…
What can we get for Lebron?
A first round playoff exit?
Trade LeBron for Kristaps Portzingas, and fillers.
LeBron for Kristaps straight up. Do it, Phil!
CtB turning into a ghost town?
It was obviously under unusual circumstances, but there were over 1000 posts in the live thread last night. And this recap will have well over 200. I looked back to the year before Lebron came back, and while I couldn’t find any game threads, there was a game recap from Nate on Jan 22, 2014 and this was the headline-
Recap: Chicago 98, Cleveland 87 (or out-coached, out-executed, and out-hustled)
Hmmm, that sounds familiar. There were only 29 posts. That’s what we’d get for Lebron.
Ugh I remember those days. I think we were all as aggravating then as we are the last 2 weeks.
Gotta say, props to all those who carried the torch through those lean years.
AND WE WILL REHASH THE LOVE / WIGGINS TRADE ALL DAY TOMORROW —-THE “WHAT IF’S ” —-AM SURE ALL THE TRADE RUMORS WILL GIVE KEVIN A ” VOTE OF CONFIDENCE ” ( POSSIBLY DEEP DOWN HE MIGHT WANT OUT AND HAS ALREADY EXPRESSED THIS TO GRIFF—GO AHEAD AND PULL THE TRIGGER )
Wiggins has pretty much ended that debate. Of course, he might have been a much better player if he wasn’t on a lame team.
CBS reporting that trading Kevin Love is a “real possibility”.
What else do they say?
Turns out nothing we haven’t heard yet. Probably just more rumor mill BS. I don’t think we could get anyone worth near what he provides. What teams would be looking to make that magnitude of a swap?
With this weeks events I can actually see Kevin Love being traded . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . for Andrew Wiggins.
So, Evil. We’ve had 24-36 hours to gather info, listen to rumors, and so forth. What do YOU think? Chris Fedor ended a story today with this – “Perhaps I’m making too much about references, but I think it helps highlight what General Manager David Griffin pointed to during his Friday press conference. The players, and perhaps even Blatt’s coaches, didn’t connect with him. There’s no guarantee that Lue is the right person for the job. He doesn’t possess some magic potion that can fix the issues and turn the Cavs into the Warriors or Spurs overnight. The Cavs don’t… Read more »
Jeff Van Gundy made a good point last night: every time a coach is fired, stories like these come out–saying he was incompetent, no one on the team trusted him, etc. It’s just the reporters trying to curry favor with the new coach, and the people in the organization who made the decision.
Get real. Did you read Jason Llyod’s 48 points? You think he made that up? Or how about the Brenden Haywood interview? What possible reason would he have to lie?
What it boils down to is everyone who knows what was going on says Blatt couldn’t handle it. All the people who have no knowledge say “they threw the poor guy under a bus”.
You really want to waste a season so that Blatt’s feelings don’t get hurt?
Everyone who’s beholden to the Cavs and needs to have Lue, Griffin, and LBJ happy say Blatt couldn’t handle it. Chris Haynes is basically the PR arm of Klutch Sports. Lloyd and Blatt had an adversarial relationship the entire time he was here anyway.
But, never mind that. Sports journalists *never* spin a story to keep their sources happy, right? And they never have an axe to grind. That’s why the Woj story about LeBron forcing Blatt out is also 100% true….
You really believe Lloyd never has an agenda, and he prints the ‘objective truth’ at all times? You believe everything he wrote because you agree with what he wrote.
I believe Lloyd more than anyone else period. And I don’t trust ANY story from Haynes that uses ‘sources’.
Also, we’ll see if the Cavs have ‘wasted a season’…that is far more likely now than it was before. Lue may be in completely over his head. That would be a ‘waste of a season’.
Hard to disagree with any of this if it’s true that Blatt had lost the players. Rather than rehash everything, my bullet point opinions are as follows: – Firing Blatt may have been the necessary move, but the timing is at best questionable and at worst terrible – Things will be rocky for a while, but I still expect this team will win the EC – The issues with this team go much deeper than coaching – They still have the talent to compete for a championship, but they need the desire and some sort of identity or system –… Read more »
If Lue doesn’t work out, what would entice any quality coach to come here? I mean we go thru them like hotcakes.
All NBA coaches face being fired. I think only 5 current coaches have been with their current team more than 3 years. There are only 30 of these jobs and you jump when you get the opportunity. The problem lies in the fact that coaches that are known to be great generally won’t go to Cleveland no matter what. We have to get these guys on their way up. Lue had the reputation of being one of those guys.
The way Gilbert hands out multi-year deals, any coach would gladly accept millions for 2-3 years of work.
Thanks EG. I agree with the points. “The issues with this team go much deeper than coaching” is key. Is LBJ a Mr. “Can’t live with him, can’t live without him” and part of it? “They need desire” is another big one. You can’t fault Blatt for those two things, so it creates a tendency to defend him. Fedor says, “We don’t know if Lue is the answer.” I agree. “But something had to be done.” This was the thrust of Jason Lloyd’s 48 points article as well. Like you said, “Hard to disagree with any of this if it’s… Read more »
But here’s the thing. It shouldn’t even be *possible* for the coach to lose the players. Could you imagine something like this happening on the Spurs? Even if their coach was Mike Brown or Byron Scott, they would run what they were told to run. If the coaching wasn’t good enough, they would trust the front office to get them a better coach. That’s what it takes to have a championship culture. It’s starting to look pretty clear that we don’t have that in Cleveland. If the Cavs tuned out Blatt, what’s going to stop them from tuning out Lue,… Read more »
The players tune out a coach because he doesn’t know what he is doing, not because they don’t like him. If Pops didn’t know what he was doing, he would have been tuned out in year 1 and would be long forgotten. Pat Riley is a dirtball, I am sure no one actually likes him. But the players don’t tune him out, because he knows what he is doing.
This is not a championship team. Not because of the fact that they fired their coach–there are people who could do better than Blatt did. But because of *how* and *why* they fired the coach, this is clearly not a championship team. I wish I could believe otherwise.
It’s not the players’ job to second-guess the coach. They never ran Blatt’s offense from day one. If they had run it, and it didn’t work, and then Griffin made the decision to fire Blatt? That’s the way a championship organization would have gone about it.
I’m sorry, but Blatt doesn’t suddenly become an idiot because he’s coaching a new team in a new place.
If Pop had had superstar era Lebron, he very likely would have been tuned out in year one, whether he ‘knew what he was doing’, or not. He came close to getting fired as it was. He never would have stood a chance if he had had to deal with a Lebron. After all, he never played in the NBA.
Blatt coached for 20+ years and won national championships…
In Europe.
If you look at their personal backgrounds, Blatt and LeBron couldn’t be more different culturally. Who would you rather bank on “connecting” with your African American superstar players: the Princeton graduate who considers Israel his home or the guy who played with the sport’s two biggest and best egos of the last 20 years and was mentored by a coach who has led contending teams full of their own superstars?
You understand that there are African-Americans that play in the Euro League, which Blatt has coached. Former Cav, Anthony Parker said he was the best coach he ever had. LeBron never bought in, because he prefers coaches who were players apparently, even though a lot of those coaches aren’t very good. N I know it’s not completely fair to judge Lue on this small sample size, but I’m going to, because he looks in over his head and has to deal with a guy who acts like he’s smarter than everyone else, in LeBron. But I’m glad Lue will make… Read more »
The point is that coaching the players of the European teams is nothing like coaching American Millennials. I’m not gonna make up reasons why LeBron did or did not buy in but in retrospect it’s really not hard to see how those two never connected. You can feel free to judge Lue based on one sample size. I don’t know what you are talking about him being in over his head. Are you so quick to forget how Lue had to bail out Blatt by calling a timeout — and that was after nearly a full season of NBA coaching?… Read more »
Well, point is that Blatt did coach American Millenials in Europe. Those Euro teams are not just players from Europe. Blatt also allowed his assistants to do a lot, which is the sign of a good leader. I’m basing my judgement of LeBron with how he has been with coaches his entire career. He’s a jerk and never respects them. Maybe, he will respect Lue, but that doesn’t help Lue strategically take apart the Warriors or Spurs. Maybe Lue will turn out to be a genius coach, but after watching last night performance, he’s got a ways to go. And… Read more »
CtB staff: I think Lloyd’s 48 points is the defining insight into the current situation. Consider doing a recap. Is there any reason to doubt or dispute any of these points?
We don’t typically recap other recaps… we link to them or include excerpts…
Lol, yea that sounds weird to recap a recap, but if you ever do one, this is the piece to do it on.
If you want to get uber-meta, you could do a recap of the comment section!
How do I comment?
I probably have a different take from you, Raoul, and wonder about many of these points. Here is the link, for those who are interested: http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland-cavaliers/cleveland-cavaliers-1.275356/bulls-96-cavs-83-jason-lloyd-s-48-thoughts-on-a-wild-24-hours-lue-s-1st-day-and-blatt-s-last-days-1.656989?localLinksEnabled=false&cache=18961415304345%2Fnews%2Fohio%2Fcss%2Fresults_localLinksEnabled%3Dfalse I will try to keep it short. I am mostly interested in rehashing the past to the extent that it affects the Cavs’ future, but I am also just curious, and much of this does not make sense to me. First of all, as Wray92 points out below, journalists are people, too, with their own agendas, like getting access. TV63 pointed out yesterday that after watching (nearly every) post-game interview in the past 1.5… Read more »
Keep it short: fail.
Nice job. I wasn’t impressed by that article, either, nor am I generally by Lloyd himself. He used to be a regular guest on Bruce Hooley’s show (Hooley is a pretty huge tool himself) here in Columbus, and they’d both spend the segment basically snarking at Tressel and Ohio State…I get why sports beat lifers like Lloyd don’t like Tressel et al, but I don’t give a crap. Who the hell cares about Lloyd? He always came across as a Bruce Hooley clone to me. I think the Cavs are likely done for the year, in the sense that I… Read more »
It’s Lloyd… He has never liked Blatt and I have read almost every Cavs article he has written in the last 2-3 years. Trust me , there is a biased against him . Quick to criticize Blatt in losses and failure to give him credit in wins. However, the rest of his articles concerning players and how the game flow went is always excellent and the best among beat writers. The doubts… everything just fell apart Dec 26th. Really? There were some impressive wins after GS game. If Blatt truly lost the locker room” you always have a stream of… Read more »
If the Cavs can play at the pace that Lue wants to run, I envision the Cavs winning with more..
-Outlet passes from Love, TT, and Mozgov to get the ball down the floor
-Kyrie and Delly facilitating and scoring at a faster pace
-JR getting to the basket as much as he shoots 3s
Then big 3 can do their thing and put the ball in the hoop.
AWESOME –TOTALLY AWESOME EVIL !!!
STUCK IN THE MIDDLE WITH LUE Well I don’t know why I came here tonight, I got the feeling that something ain’t right, I’m so scared these guys are out of shape and too fat, And I’m wondering if they already miss Blatt, Chubs to the left of me, DNP-CDs to the right, here I am, Stuck in the middle with Lue. Yes I’m stuck in the middle with Lue, And I’m wondering what it is I should do, It’s so hard to keep this smile on my face, Losing control, yeah, I’m all over the place, Angry vets to… Read more »
Here’s the original Stealers Wheel song for those that don’t know it…
Kudos! Lue should make the team don Cavs Winter Hats and watch that video to loosen things up in the locker room.
Totally excellent! That was a pretty cool song, great guitar part.
Most classically used in Reservoir Dogs…
Great stuff! Way too much time on your hands, lol. Gerry Rafferty is a fave of mine, especially ‘Baker Street’.
Hilarious EG! This has to win some type of CtB creativity award…Perfect!
LOVE THIS! And it will be so true!
Darth Vader kills Cavaliers Turkish stash Jedi Osman.
https://twitter.com/iamdpick/status/691323224756469761
This is the opitome of the Cavs right now.
That is seriously awesome stuff Arch!
My Turkish is weak, and I had a little trouble understanding what was happening!
Check out my Cleveland Cavaliers tickets for sale on Flash Seats® flashseats.com/r/c4966j/r.asp… — Kenny Roda
Perhaps the only Paul trade that would make sense for both teams is swapping him for Kyrie Irving (and a deep Cleveland reserve, needed to make the trade work financially; see the deal in ESPN’s NBA Trade Machine). That deal would give the Cavaliers a better chance of beating the Golden State Warriors or San Antonio Spurs now and allow the Clippers to wait out this period where those two teams dominate the Western Conference while L.A. develops a younger core of stars. If the two teams are feeling desperate about their current situations, a deal might help both of… Read more »
Does Lue (AKA LeBron) want the Cavs to play like the Warriors? Do they realize that Golden State has two historically great shooters? The Cavs best three point shooter by percentage is Dellavedova who’s not exactly making the same degree of difficulty shots as Curry and Thompson.
If we start playing at the Warriors pace, I’m afraid it just means that *every* game we play with them is going to be a blowout loss.
If they tried to play at the Warriors pace against the Warriors, I think they’d lose every game by 20+…they aren’t beating the Warriors if it comes to that, but if they try to run with them, it will be a biblical beating.
The Twolves better move today if they want Blatt in time for the game. And have enough time to swing trades to get Crabbe, Gumdrop Bear, Felix, and Dion for the ultimate revenge game.
“I said LUE… shook me alllll niiiiight loong!”
THANK YOU ( AS ALWAYS EVIL ) LOOK OUT NEXT SAT VS SPURS —POP MIGHT INITIATE A GOOD OLD FASHION BUTT KICKING IN HONOR OF BLATT—–WHAT I HAVE A DIFFICULT TIME UNDERSTANDING ( NOT BRAGGING ON MYSELF ) IS THAT HIGH SCHOOL COACHES HAVE USALLY 1 ASSISTANT AND WE CAN PLAN/ PRACTICE / IMPLEMENT CHANGES TO COMPETE —-WE HAVE HOW MANY ” BRAIN TRUSTS –ASSISTANT COACHES —YEARS OF EXPERIENCE ” TO IMPLEMENT AN EFFECTIVE OFFENSE AND DEFENSIVE SCHEMES AND ALL YOU CAN COME UP WITH IS ” WE ARE OUT OF SHAPE “–C’MON GUYS —YOU HAVE TO DO BETTER THAN… Read more »
Lloyd’s final thoughts are a must read: http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland-cavaliers/cleveland-cavaliers-1.275356/bulls-96-cavs-83-jason-lloyd-s-48-thoughts-on-a-wild-24-hours-lue-s-1st-day-and-blatt-s-last-days
Wow! Thanks for the pointer Kevin.
This pretty much changes our view on what happened. I had to putz around at ohio.com to find it, and everyone should.
A lot of it is Lloyd’s reasons for not writing that this would happen A MONTH AGO!
In retrospect, Griffin should have made the move much earlier so Lue would have more time to get things ironed out.
Lloyd shows why he is one of the best writers around. I see why Lue said the ‘out of shape’ line now; When all of your big 3 ask out of the game in the first 6 minutes there’s a problem.
I stopped following the Live Thread after the game ended. Just catching up now.
EG – DUDE. What do the kids say these days? Keepin in 100? Savage? Awesome show!
Also loved TV63’s comment about Thibs:
“Hmmm This guy isn’t buying into any “spirit animal” garbage. He eats nails for breakfast and so will Kyrie and Love if he comes to Cleveland.”
ahahahahaha
I kinda lost my damn mind… ;)
EG gave us much comic relief last night. It was hilarious!
“Oh Davy, Lue! Lue got what I nee-eed! But Lue say he’s my coach and not my friend…” -LeBizMarkie
This wins last night’s Lue Pun award.
Tell him what he’s won, Johnny!
An all expense paid trip to the potentially tremendous Waiters Island! http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/2015/04/02/escape-from-dion-waiters-island-part-1/
That sounds AMAZING! I can’t wait to go!
Griff’s playing the long game for Walton.
As long as they have no HC experience they’re on Griff’s radar.
I like it… he has good rotations, runs plays, doesn’t sound like a moran.
GOOD O HAVE YOU BACK COLS ——-HEY EVIL MAYBE YOU SHOULD ADD AN ” OOPS ” BUTTON IN THAT “OOPS ” MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE HIRED GEORGE KARL WAY BACK WHEN …….?—–EVERYONE PREDICTED A TOTAL TRAIN WRECK THIS YEAR AT SACRAMENTO——-SEEMS AS IF KARL HAS ” TAKEN CONTROL—RESTORED ORDER/STABILIUTY –PROFESSIONALISM”—PRETTY SURE THEY ARE ON A 6 GAME WIN STREAK AND BOOGIE ( WHO SACRAMENTO WILL NEVER TRADE CONTRARY TO ALL THE RUMORS ) LOOK LIKE HE HAS ACCEPTED KARL AND LOKS LIKE A HOF —THINK KARL WOULD HAVE STOOD FOR ALL THIS DRAMA/ NONSENSE—–ENGAGE ” OOPS ” BUTTON EVIL
Karl’s a good coach. I just thought rondo would poison the well.
Ask and you shall receive…
Well done recap, Tom! Loved the Napoleon Dynamite reference!
Cavs may need to trade for Uncle Rico.
Top 10 Ty Lue Excuses For Last Night’s Game: 1. These guys are out of shape 2. I really don’t want to coach the All Star Game 3. We missed a lot of shots 4. LeBron texted me a sad face emojii before the game and that threw me off 5. David Blatt put a curse on us 6. The dog ate my rotation chart 7. We also fired the free throw coach 8. It’s really hard for me to be an effective head coach without my signature cornrows 9. Delly brought in doughnuts and coffee for the guys to… Read more »
Mark Jackson prepping to coach the Cavs:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=61kFNY8pRrs
David Griffin watching Tyron Lue’s post game press conference last night.
hahahaha
Nate, Griffin couldn’t possibly be happy with his amateurish comments I imagine? Could he? Wonder what he thought about Lue talking about players on elite teams get injuries? Among many stunning comments, that had to be the worst.
See my comment above.
Did you guys catch the dig after half time from Lue on Griffin? Reporter asked how the mood was in the locker room being down. He said not to worry their spirits are doing good. I had to think for a moment if he was serious and on board with Griffin on all that bizarre talk on spirit connectivity and so on. I remembered this is So Doc Rivers like comment.
Feeling discouraged here. Thoughts on the game: 1) You can’t blame the poor showing on the drama surrounding the coaching change. Before the game we were saying that teams historically succeed in their first game with a new coach. They play higher-energy, harder, more focused…there are a lot of adjectives for the Cavs’ play last night, but (respect to Griffin) “galvanized” is not one of them. We just put up 115 points on the Clippers, and we didn’t even score 85 on the Bulls. 2) The Ty Lue administration will improve in the future (it would be impossible for it… Read more »
Re: #5 – I had a dream that I walked into an interview and told them that I would need a guaranteed 3 year deal before I accepted any job – so the company could prove it’s commitment to me.
I said above that I thought the injury comment was a fumbling dig at the Warriors.
Last point about Gasol: So why not put Andy in? (a point mentioned earlier). Baffling…especially when Andy has looked reasonably healthy and active.
Here is proof that Cols is really running the Cavs:
Tyronn says that the Cavs have got to get in better shape:
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2016/01/tyronn_lue_cleveland_cavaliers.html#incart_2box
Hey Tom, I think you have your 3pt% inequality backwards in the link from the first paragraph. In fact, only two times has a team shot so poorly across the board:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/tgl_finder.cgi?request=1&match=game&lg_id=NBA&year_min=1964&year_max=2016&team_id=&opp_id=&is_playoffs=N&round_id=&best_of=&team_seed_cmp=eq&team_seed=&opp_seed_cmp=eq&opp_seed=&is_range=N&game_num_type=team&game_num_min=&game_num_max=&game_month=&game_location=&game_result=&is_overtime=&c1stat=fg_pct&c1comp=lt&c1val=.372&c2stat=fg3_pct&c2comp=lt&c2val=.167&c3stat=ft_pct&c3comp=lt&c3val=.409&c4stat=&c4comp=gt&c4val=&c5stat=&c5comp=gt&c5val=&order_by=losses
Thanks Nugget. You are correct sir.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gWxHFMog9w#t=45s
Did I read this right? Cavs performance last night was the 3rd worst shooting night in the recorded history of the NBA!!!
That combination of terrible in all 3 shooting categories has only happened twice.
[BREAKING]: Ty Lue introduces new assistant coach…
(and yes… it’s Jillian Michaels from The Biggest Loser)
So one of the things mentioned since the firing is that Blatt would not call LeBron, Love, and Kyrie out when they did things wrong. If they need someone to do that, I would be more than willing to sit on the bench and berate them. Hell I do it from my couch every game. You don’t even have to pay me, I would gladly do it for free.
If I was the coach, I would have everyone shooting free throws all night and then running suicides if they missed.
With current technology, you could do that…and still remain on your couch!
I see panic has returned. Cavs lost Blatts first game too. No problems with last night. They will start to play better starting today.
They didn’t just lose they had total dysfunction. Several people wondered where you were during last night 1000 post thread, and probably 95% were on the panic button for various solid reasons. I said you probaby didn’t comment last night, since your “tooth fairy” vision of the Cavs was blatantly exposed. And yes, they will play better, but they won’t be better than under Blatt now that the inmates are running the asylum. Lue blaming “conditioning” on a poor performance. What? Lue saying the players wanting out early surprised him, and messed up his rotations. What?. The rotations/lineup during the… Read more »
Cols didn’t comment because he was in Cleveland whispering “They’re out of shape” behind Ty Lue… just like that Discount Double Check cheesehead fan does in that commercial…
No panic cols, at least not from me. I am willing to give Lue a shot. I mean we are stuck now aren’t we, no going back, so might as well see what happens. I mean after all he was supposedly in charge of a lot, if not most, of the coaching during the Blatt era anyway. Their effort was certainly amped up last night. I think it was the most effort defensively I have seen from this team since the finals last year. James looked more serious and intense and was trying harder than I have seen all season,… Read more »
By the way, all of what I said above is my impression of LBJ’s cadence when Griffin asked him, “hey, you want blatt gone?” I think James would have responded something like, “you know blatts a good guy but sometimes we disagree 100% of the time. Also sometimes after wins i really feel like we lost and sometimes when blatt doesn’t speak to me I get really happy. Sometimes during practice i feel like we are not on the same page but I would never tell him to his face. Also sometimes i feel like maybe you are not quite… Read more »
You forgot to add “as leader of this team, i feel like these things need to be said. Leaders lead and always like to say they are leaders so other non leaders know where they stand. Don’t want anyone to forget I lead, as the leader of course. The team needs to know who to follow. Blatt never said he was leader of this here team so they were confused. Because I lead and I keep letting them know as leader, they need to listen to their leader who is I. I’ve won in this league and its so hard… Read more »
Lol yep, definitely forgot about process, and i think so did this team.
Right on about being a leader. Hahaha
I tend to agree that most panic here is irrational. But given that Lue has publicly stated he wants to change some fundamental elements of the team strategy, there is now some legitimate uncertainty about how long it will take for the team to gel in the new system.
I think it’s fair to be worried about some short-run struggles, but (like you) I remain optimistic about the long-run performance.
Yes, the Cavs lost Blatt’s first game, too, but expectations for Lue are much higher, because:
-He’s replacing a successful coach with a winning record.
-He’s been there as an assistant coach the whole time and knows all of the players.
-He only has half a season until the playoffs. Less margin for error.
I wonder what Griffin/LeBron think about all the top flight coaches (Pops, Carlisle and Kerr among them) saying glowing things about Blatt, and in some cases incredulous comments about the Cavs decision? LeBron always places Popovich on the highest pedestal, and Pops was very complimentary in his comments on Blatt. Griffin should have had the stone like last January, and told the players Blatt is your coach. Deal with it. That’s basically what Riley told James when he tried to lead a revolt against Spoelstra in his first year. I have totally lost confidence in the character of many of… Read more »
The Cavs should take a page out of the Brown’s playbook and hire Jon Gruden to be the head coach. Offense will be fixed fast with Delly running a couple Z right X over 2 Y alpha slants to LeBron.
/S/
If this doesn’t work out, I don’t see how Jame’s legacy ever recovers. Likewise for this organization’s reputation under Dan Gilbert. My biggest fear with this move has always been the long term. If this doesn’t work out, meaning the cavs do not get back to,the finals or are not remotely competitive, the cavs organization will forever be seen as weak and utterly incompetent to the rest of the league, including prospective coaches, gms, and any free agents/draft picks. By that I mean, no one competent and talented will ever again want to come work for Gilbert no matter how… Read more »
If we are going to become the dysfunction junction again, let’s go all in and bring in the biggest head cases. Well we’ve got Mo, he seems like a certifiable nutt job, plus we all know how LeBron likes to hold franchises hostage, so the two of them can stay. Kyrie is a coach killer, so he can stay. Let’s trade Love, and as many pieces as possible to bring in Boogie, Rondo and any other malcontents from the Kings roster. A chucker like Rudy Gay has a spot on this team. We should become the new era JailBlazers!!!!
Uh. Boogie had one of the greatest regular season games ever last night. He’s not going anywhere.
Yeah… I can’t believe I’m typing this, but the Kings are a paragon of stability and consistency compared to the Cavs of the last two weeks…
Then let’s make a deal with the Suns!!!!!!
Arch – saw your comment about Dayton being Spurs country. It’s pretty hilarious. These two guys Mark and Tom call in every single time and preface their question with “well I’m a Spurs fan…” They’re really good guys and super intelligent callers but it’s just funny that they make sure everyone knows first and foremost that they’re Spurs fans.
It really is amazing. The Cavs seemed to be relatively cruising along until a week ago, then all of a sudden they are exactly what everyone thinks of when they think ‘Kings’. It’s almost unbelievable.
It’s possible that Lue might be able to communicate the need for players to move the ball and play hard, intelligent defense all the time. It’s possible that now that LeBron has his guy, he’ll put his ego aside and stop playing ISO ball. But it strikes me that Love and LeBron (and to a lesser extent – Irving) have been the problem, not Blatt. Now, if you take Blatt out of the equation, maybe all of a sudden the Cavs start playing like Blatt wanted them to? It’s possible, but it seems sort of ridiculous. It’s possible that Blatt’s… Read more »
Pretty much everything I have been thinking, well put.
Very good synopsis. I wrote in another post that Griffin should have acted like a strong GM and told the players that Blatt is their coach….deal with it. The apparent lack of respect he received from many Cavs players was disgraceful, and an obvious indication of their lack of character. JR credited Blatt for making him a better player, and now a very important piece of the Cavs rotation. He had been considered a “throw in” with Shump. I agree with you that the Blatt firing will bite Griffin and Cavs. The ball movement against the Clippers was terrific, and… Read more »
All good points, but let’s see how the team is playing after five or ten games before pronouncing Lue a failure. Blatt was doing an OK job, but it certainly did not look like the team was on a path to win the finals. Rolling the dice on Lue is reasonable if you are in “win it all or bust” mode. Griffin has made mostly smart moves so far in his tenure, so I don’t think he suddenly became an idiot. What I don’t get is the massive swell of “Blatt was thrown under the bus” from everywhere. Blatt got… Read more »
Blatt was given millions of dollars because he has an incredible resume. He is a fantastic coach who was neutered from day one. He’s a reasonable guy who probably couldn’t fathom that LeBron would be such a child. Maybe had he realized that from the beginning, he would have been a tougher character in the locker room and expedited the whole process. Either the team would have followed the real version of Blatt, or they wouldn’t and everyone would have saved time. Blatt didn’t get lucky and fall into a job.He earned the opportunity. The Cavs didn’t come up with… Read more »
Well said, Ben. Blatt is not Pop, and probably never will be…but Pop wasn’t Pop right off the bat, either, and he could easily have been fired very early in his Spurs career. Instead, he was allowed to continue when the Spurs were struggling, and he’s a Hall of Famer. Of course, he never had to put up with trying to coach Lebron.
Agree Ben. Look at the very good coaches who have spoken out in favor of Blatt: Pop, Carlisle, Kerr, Van Gundy among them.
You three are all drinking cool-aid.
Who knows if the other coaches know what is going on or not? Somebody got fired so that they could get their jobs, did they moan about that?
Pop and Kerr have a vested interest in Blatt staying so they can have an easy time in the finals.
And you have blinders on
Doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to say that after he’s fired by that theory – they are saying it knowing they aren’t going to have to face him in the finals, since he’s gone. It says a lot more to me about how Kerr, for example, feels, since he hired him before the Cavs offered him the job. That tells me that Kerr values him as a coach as highly as possible.
You make it seem like Blatt was a saint in all this but when it comes down to it he did enough to get himself fired. It started from Day 1 with his been-there-done-that attitude. You don’t see great college coaches coming into the NBA with that attitude and I would argue people who coach programs like Kentucky and Duke would be equipped to handle a team of superstars than a Princeton grad who’s lived in Europe for the past 20 years. Blatt’s resume before 2014 means nothing to the players. In between then and now you have the timeout… Read more »
David Blatt has had a long career coaching professional MEN. He is not from the college ranks. His teams could have beaten NBA teams on any given night. People in the US simply don’t understand how good the Euro leagues are. Obviously I’m not saying that they are completely analogous to the NBA. But is certainly is a a much higher level than NCAA ball. That being said, if we want to use your point, there is no way that if Coach K came to the NBA that people would be saying he is “rookie” coach. Just because most Americans… Read more »
I understand how impressive it is to be an Israeli/American coach of the Russian team and I get that Europe is a socio-political crucible and the kinds of trials Blatt must have faced in his career overseas. I get that he has led European MEN, and it’s kind of the point. American NBA athletes have mostly been coddled their entire playing lives by coaches and scouts and fans, and they enjoy an entirely different kind of celebrity than their counterparts in Europe do. Half the players in the NBA are really just overgrown, entitled kids still trying to find their… Read more »
NBA teams have an overall record of 73-15 against Euroleague teams. The Euroleague is nothing vaguely close to the quality of the NBA. And it’s a different game over there too.
I blame a lot of their troubles on Kyrie right now. He is definitely struggling majorly from his injury and not back to form. His D is as bad as I have ever seen it. I watched him on the Bulls picks and EVERY time he neither goes under or over but gets utterly stuck like he ran into a wall, taken completely out of the play, and now is trailing his man forcing our bigs to constantly help. His offense is now not even good enough to negate his horrendous shortcomings on the defensive end. He rarely ever looks… Read more »
LISTENING TO LOVE’S POST GAME INTERVIEW —-HE GAVE THE MOST HONEST AND REASSURING COMMENTS THAT AT LEAST GIVE A GLIMMER OF HOPE FOR CAVS FUTURE—–SAD PART ABOUT IT —HE WILL PROBABLY BE TRADED SOON—AGREE WITH TY’S POST GAME COMMENTS—I AM A HIGH SHOOL COACH AND PRIDE MYSELF AT ANSWERING QUESTIONS MORE PROFESSIONALLY THAN TY DID LAST NIGHT —-HE SAID HE LEARNED FROM THE BEST —RIVERS / WEST / JACKSON —CAN’T SEE THEM BEING AMATEURISH AT POST GAME
A surreal experience: watching Joe Banner (yes, former BROWNS President Joe Banner) rip TLue’s press conference on Twitter. Banner hated the way he blamed conditioning for the loss. Amazing. We now have NFL guys ripping us.
Joe Banner hates Cleveland more than Dennis Kucinich.
That is great!
I guess Banner and Kucinich are still alive; we would have heard something if they weren’t.
just like in politics when opposing parties would trash the incumbent or previous president…anytime the Cavs struggle we should all just blame Blatt….#ItsBlattsFault
Lets face it…the players formed a coup let by Lebron to get rid of Blatt and this is the result…I sort of hope they get crushed by the Spurs at home too just to show its more than the coach…also agree that Love will get moved and Mo will get cut..such a weird season…reminds me of mix of 08/09 and 09/10 seasons.
If title isn’t the Cavs this thing will get blown up again
It is pretty despicable, but throwing a former employee under the bus and blaming them for everything…well, I’ve seen that before.
Not sure how much it matters, but I am naturally curious what really happened. Who (besides Lebron) disliked Blatt? Everyone? I can’t tell. And the veracity of the local media might be suspect. Has anyone asked JR Smith to comment? Mozgov? What do Irving and Love think of Blatt? I haven’t heard any player say they missed him, which I find a little surprising. Twitter comments?
That is what is weird. IF he was really despised, why isn’t it getting leaked from any players. Don’t worry they’ll miss him plenty if they lose 1st seed in the Eastern Conference.
What a mess! Let’s face it. The BIG 3 is Lebron, JR and whoever else decides to show up from Kyrie or Love. Blatt was not the problem for this team . The BIG 3 just haven’t been in a very long time. You must have All 3 and the Cavs don’t. No matter how many convoluted line-ups anyone else draws up ; it can’t make up for that deficiency. Blatt tried to hide that with certain players in the rotations. He’s had to do so many alternatives because of injuries all season long but then reality is becoming clearer.… Read more »
EMOTIONS ARE RUNNING HIGH ( MINE IS PEAKING OUT ) AND WE SAY/ COMMENT THINGS THRU OUR EMOTIONS —I KNOW WE ARE ALL CAVS SUPPORTERS ( OR WE WOULDN’T SPEND ” OUR LIVES ” ON THIS BLOG ) AND THAT IS WHY WE BECOME SO EMOTIONALLY ATTACHED/ CONCERNED AT OUR PRESENT STATUS —–WE WANT / HOPE THAT WE ARE CONTENDING FOR A TITLE —-BUT I THINK A LITTLE SELF DOUBT HAS CREPT IN ( HOW MANY EXCUSES CAN WE USE ) THAT QUITE POSSIBLY WE ARE NOT AS GOOD AS WE THOUGHT AND WHATEVER EXCUSE WE GIVE IS ” JUST… Read more »
Where is Andy? Last night Paul was killing the Cavs. TT and Mozgov looked like professional victims on the court last night and Lue was digging deep in to the bench. I even saw a James Jones sighting.
Andy seems to have lost all favor on this team. If this is the case “Trade Him” and get something of value for the 10M you are paying this guy (And package Mo Williams with him)
But last night you needed someone like Andy to cover Gasol (Taller then TT and Faster then K Love and Moz).
Remember when a Blatt defense kept Pau in check consistently and wouldn’t let him hurt us?
Right. Hope for Pau to be injured, and he does not hurt us.
I had the same question. Pau is murdering us but Andy doesn’t play.
Me too. It is possible that Andy is
1. too old to play,
2. secretly injured, or
3. being saved for the playoffs.
He has had some good moments, so 1 and 2 don’t seem likely.
The nine man rotation was 4 guards, 3 bigs, LeBron,and RJ/JFJ. If you go to 10, it is natural to add a big, or maybe both of RJ and JFJ. But Mo? I have no clue if Mo has anything left and/or is causing problems, but he sure has not shown much in months. I also would have Andy in there.
Great recap Tom. That was a difficult game to watch. They looked like they went from running the Wizard of Oz offense Thursday to the Tin Man offense last night. Everything looked difficult and forced, with no fluidity.
I don’t think Blatt was responsible for the poor chemistry. I think these guys gotta put a chip on their shoulders and grow up. If you wanna run, then run. Do it with purpose and as a team. This season is far from lost.
Cavs are winning it all this year. I really believe it. Just gotta get mean.
The only good thing about the game last night was that I’m pretty sure the live blog hit a record high.
DOES ANYONE SEE RAY ALLEN RIDING IN ON HIS WHITE HORSE TO ” RESCUE THIS TEAM “—MIGHT AS WELL REVISIT THAT RUMOR AND GET IT STARTED
ALSO TY SHOULD HAVE TAKEN LESSONS FROM BLATT ON POST GAME INTERVIEWS/ HOW TO ADDRESS —COMMAND THE MEDIA —BLATTT IS WAY AHEAD OF HIM IN THIS FACET
I think Ray Ray might have been sent to the glue factory already… along with his white horse…
YES 3 CHEERS FOR EVIL( AND ALL YOU FELLOW BLOGGERS ) WIN OR LOSE YOU GUYS MAKE IT ENETERTAINING AND MORE BEARABLE IN DEFEAT ( AND PERFORMANCES LIKE LAST NIGHT ) WITHOUT YOU GUYS THE WINS WOULDN’T BE AS ENJOYABLE AND THE LOSSES / PERFORMANCES WOULDN’T BE AS TOLERABLE AND I WOULD PROBABLY BE DIVORCED AND HAVE A DRINKING PROBLEM ——HAS COLS CHECKED OUT –HAVE NOT HEARD FROM HIM —-WE NEED YOU NOW MORE THAN EVER COLS !!!
We haven’t heard from Cols since his belief in the “tooth fairy” version of the Cavs was dramatically exposed last night. What was most stunning to me, other than of course the horrific rotations and sets, was the amateurish comments of Lue. Our high schools coaches in the league I coach are more polished, and would never say conditioning was a reason for poor play. Also, Lue’s comments during the game about other eilite team getting injuries was in poor taste. I need something even more than the panic button.
Might be in poor taste but it was one of the most unintentionally hilarious things I have ever heard come out of an NBA coaches’ mouth. I laughed for a good minute. I am sure he didn’t intend to say that but wowser, that was a bigger flap than any of Blatt’s press flaps including the K Love is not a max player quote. He either needs to get much better speaking to the press or designate an assistant to do so because that was embarrassingly bad. Surprised more of the internet didn’t pick up on it.
The more I think about it, the more I think it was a fumbling dig at Golden state.
Yeah that could be, but if that is true, fumbling is correct choice of terminology to describe it.
Based on the overall feel of the comments on CtB last night, in addition to the panic button, we need an ANGER button (red also, but larger?). Having choices is always a good thing.
How about this?
I like it and am pressing it continually now. Thx
I agree. Btw that anger button is stuck because my hand won’t let it go.LoL
Also found this button which might be even more used than either an anger or panic button…
I am pushing both buttons at the same time. What’s happened the last two days has shaken my confidence on the Cavs. I live about two hrs from Cleveland, and attend about a dozen regular season games and then several playoff games. Often we get home at 1:30 am after the long drive home. I think I am going to put my last four regular seasos games for sale on flash seats.
But then again maybe my problem for being tired the next day after getting to bed at 2:00 am is conditioning.
I am going to give this new coaching arrangement some time, but it is reassuring to know that this exists. :)
If or when this doesn’t work out this chapter of Lebrons career is going to be a stain on his legacy. This is his team and his coach. And yet the team still seems like it has no leader and, if all the reports are to be believed, there are still serious locker room issues. This doesn’t even take into account the on court issues that LeBron exacerbates with his lackadaisical defense and his refusal to run an offense.
Let’s all give a special shoutout to EG for making last night’s thread more entertaining than the game. It was masterful work.
To me, it was the single most entertaining series of posts in CtB history. And it was a necessary comic relief on this very disappointing night. EG, I hope you never have to leave us to go make a blockbuster movie.
He’s the real MVP.
You guys are too kind… humor is my primary defense mechanism… ;)
I’ll say this — it does seem like Lue wants us to do some things very differently. He wants faster pace, which will mean deeper rotations. He also critiqued our ability to attack the “2nd side” after a ball swing, and explicitly wants Love at the elbow. I am unsure if these changes will help. Like Adam D above, I always thought Blatt’s strategy of grinding a slow pace against the W’s was brilliant, and was the reason we had more success against Ws than any other team in the league. But Lue is new (along with Hue) So instead… Read more »
Allstar performance right there.
OK, now you are the poet laureate. We are counting on you to summarize each game with a poem before 9:00 the next day!
A lot of this game is confidence, and that has apparently been shattered by firing the coach and getting overrun by GSW.
Last year Griffin’s moves created confidence and buoyed a struggling team. This year they have shaken them. It’s up to the new coach and the players to respond.
Yep, they looked more rattled than flat last night. The free throw shooting, for instance…
I POSTED A BLOG ON FRI THAT RUMORS ( FRIEND WHO LIVES IN CLEVELAND ) HAD HEARD ABOUT TRADE —LOVE / MOZ / TRADE EXEMPTION/ DRAFT PICK FOR COUSINS AND KOSTAS ( WISH THAT RUMOR IS THE ONE THAT CAME TRUE ) ———OUR WORRIES AT PRESENT SHOULDN’T BE ABOUT FACING THE SPUS/ GOLDEN SATE IN THE FINALS IT BETTER BE REFOCUSED ABOUT SURVIVING IN OUR OWN CONFERENCE—I DON’T THINK TEAMS FEAR US ANYMORE AND OUR PLAYERS KNOW THIS THEMSELVES
Haha. You see boogie’s game last night? He’s not getting traded.
IT IS JANUARY AND WE ARE ” OUT OF SHAPE “—THAT IS THE BEST RESPONSE YOU CAN GIVE US FOR THAT TRAIN WRECK LAST NIGHT —-WITH THAT KIND OF RESPONSE YES KEEP THE HAND ON THE PANIC BUTTON —-LET’S HAVE A TY HAIR COLOR ( PER GAME ) CHANGE METER —–THAT HEAD COACHES SEAT GETS PRETTY HOT DOESN’T IT TY ?
I agree, it doesn’t make any sense to talk about being out of shape now, the ship has sailed on improving conditioning without wearing guys down on the court. Comments like this from the coach baffles me, how can every single player in the rotation be out of shape, and how did this not keep them from going 30-11? Also, wasn’t Lue supposed to already have the ear of all the players since last season? It seems to me if the entire team is in poor conditioning that is just as much on the associate head coach as the head… Read more »
Come on guys, don’t be a bunch of sore Luesers. Cavs will be just fine.
Lue it seems wants us to be able to run at thr Warriors pace. The reason we match up well with them is that we are the only team in the league who can force them to play at our pace. Blatt’s strategy of slow pace plus ultra efficient (plus boards) is our winning formula. Its how we went up 2-1 in the Finals.
To be fair, he hasn’t even been able to run a full practice yet.
Sounds like he wants a faster pace, but I don’t think they’re equipped to play at the Warriors’ pace. I don’t think anyone else in the NBA is, either.
Agree completely.
When the Warriors showed that they had solved the slow-pace strategy in their last game with us, the FO panicked. But I’d rather have Blatt, the guy who came up with the strategy in the first place, figure out the proper response to that.
Nobody is out of shape. They are completely out of excuses. It’s on the players and they aren’t capable of coaching themselves, even if they think they are. I don’t need more time to come to my conclusion on Lue, the head coach. It’s not happening. He’s a favorite big brother, not a head coach. Taj Gibson ran a fastbreak and hit a trailing Pau Gasol for a dunk. When Gibson started the break, Kyrie was ahead of Pau. Kyrie jogged back behind the play and watched Pau dunk. That was clearly because Coach Blatt didn’t get Kyrie into shape.… Read more »
Saw those same plays you mentioned Ben. One of the LBJ plays was especially egregious because he passed up a bunny to give TT a shot that had a degree of difficulty over 100% for a man of his offensive skill set (and I mean “offensive” as in being offended, not the offense/defense connotation). Thing is if Lue or Luebron or Griff or whoever else had all these great ideas for the Cavs and Blatt was holding the team back, why not share them and try them out? Hate to bring our political system into this but this coup reminds… Read more »
Kibitz, good summary. Agree with all your points. I was stunned went RJ when the first sub off the bench, when Love supposedly was winded? I don’t buy that. Love usually played until very late in the first quarter in Blatt’s rotation. Your comment about the team being petty and immature was spot on. And they were joyless to watch. So much so, that I mentioned below I plan on selling my remaining four tickets to the Cavs games on flash seats. I attend about 12 games a year plus several playoff games. This firing and the players immaturity doesn’t… Read more »
Meant to say JFJ as the first sub
That’s not fair to pick out guys’ worst plays of the game and then attribute that to the failings of this coach or the one before them. In general, most of the problems from this game CAN be attributed to exhaustion — the mind and its ability to focus are the first to go as the body gets tired, legs and the jumper are next. I’m not making excuses for any specific plays and Lue wasn’t making excuses either, but it’s a fact that their conditioning held them back from implementing the game plan. A team playing near the bottom… Read more »
You’re right that we’re big and not especially athletic. So what’s the sense of trying to play an up-tempo game?
The Cavs have had the best of both worlds where they can control the tempo and play a physical defensive game, and run when the opportunity presents itself (mainly for LeBron). What Lue wants to do doesn’t seem to play to their strengths.
Being big and not especially athletic just means it will take more effort to get up to a certain conditioning level. I think you’re on the money, it’s an emphasis on running when the opportunity presents itself — we have some of the game’s best rebounders, great outlet passers, and two amazing individual finishers in both LeBron and Kyrie. But running up the pace doesn’t have to mean sprinting four guys up the floor every missed shot by the opponent; it can be as simple as getting the ball back up to the half court a few seconds earlier to… Read more »
Yes. I thought Blatt did a pretty good job crafting a playing style that masked some of the flaws in the roster construction.
How does that Lue comment make any sense whatsoever? And how does the media not call him out on it? After all the crap in media about Blatt after he was fired, and then no challenge to Lue at all, I feel like we live in a world of conspiracy
Seriously, the players are out of shape in the middle of January?!! What have they been doing the past 3 months coach?
Eating their feelings?
Nice job, Tom. I’ll just say some of those floor rotations were terrible (and obviously terrible), and it was probably the worst offense they have played all year. (Setting aside tanked games like the Blazers and possibly the 2nd GS game) It was also the first time I thought they might not even get out of the East.
Then again, they might win Monday, beat the Spurs (heheh), and look back on track. Lue needs and will get time to sort it out…that was a pretty awful debut, though.