Live Thread: Cavs at Grizzlies
2016-12-14
How about the poor Cavs fans that missed out on seeing Marc Gasol last night? Only chance to see him!
— Bobby Na©hos (@BobbyNachos) December 14, 2016
There’s been an inordinate amount of talk about “Do the Cavs need a backup point guard?” or “How is Shumpert, er J.R. Smith, er DeAndre Liggins, er Kay Felder doing as the backup point guard?” The reality is the Cavs have played very few non-Garbage-time minutes without either LeBron James or Kyrie Irving on the court. Tonight might be a bad time to analyze much of anything about the Cavs, with the news that Coach Lue told the Big 3 to stay home, as in, don’t even travel with the team. (That’s a bold move.) But if you want to look out for one thing, try to determine how much more difficult it is for the Cavs spot-up 3 point shooters to get any good looks. I predict an awful lot of forced 3s from Channing Frye and J.R. Smith with Richard Jefferson trying to put the ball on the deck to be a drive-and-kick guy.
Still, it’s a chance for the guys vying for a spot in the regular rotation to show something against the tenacious defense of the Grizzlies. Former CtB Editor Colin McGowan wrote an amazing piece on the state of the Grizzlies. [Click anywhere on that last sentence for the link to Colin’s piece] I recommend reading it in full, but here is my favorite excerpt:
If there’s one advantage to using fringe NBA talent as opposed to established players, it’s that guys on meager deals and their fourth team in two years will do anything you tell them to do. Steph Curry, or even Brandon Knight, can get away with some defensive loafing or launching a couple ill-advised pull-ups. Andrew Harrison, who was drafted 44th overall by the Suns in 2015 and played in Iowa last season, doesn’t have that kind of freedom. He needs to heed David Fizdale’s instructions as if his NBA career depended upon it, because it does.
Indeed. The Cavs enter the Grindhouse and I think they’re gonna have a bad time.
TT was doing so well earlier this season on his FTs… last couple of games have been rough tho… Hey, he made two in a row
Great way to start the 3rd!
We need another Life Is Good meme
Like the energy to start the third.
Nice steal LIG!
If the FT shooting wasn’t horrid (9-17) and the guys you’d expect to score gave us a little more (JR 1-8 for 2 pts, Frye 0 pts, Shump 3 pts) we are sort of in it.
I used to wonder why JR was never a superstar at some point. Coming out of high school, he was one of the most athletic guys in his class. He was the first NBA player to do a behind the back dunk and the first to do a 360 alley oop in a game. Additionally, he has always had a very good stroke. His shot selection was never great, but he always seemed to be able to hit crazy shots. I also thought at one point he was a decent slasher, but maybe not as I cannot remember if he… Read more »
He just had a pretty good steal and run out…
He has always has good hands. Just cannot remember if he was ever a good slasher. More academic curiosity than anything else.
The play where everyone took off before Dunleavy’s last free throw pretty much symbolizes the evening.
Everything is still awesome though.
Whew. That was rough wanna see some more special Kay. The JFJ/ Felder pick and pop is the key to the second half.
If he can find him… I’ve actually been really impressed with Lig’s drives to the rack too…
https://twitter.com/CavsJoeG/status/809220295093522433
Much more impressive for Griz fans than the Big Three. There are five plates in the air !!
Pacers/Heat is a good game… 88-85 with under 5 to go…
If JR was just 4-8 with two more threes instead of 1-8, then this game is tied. We needed JR to be hot to have any chance to stay close. Although down 9 is I guess close
“Down 11.” Typo
Unfortunately, JR is only one game removed from his deep slump… and his second half of the last game wasn’t all that hot…
Kinda surprised Cavs are only down by 11 at the half…
The role players don’t have any real idea where to be or move to without Ky or LBJ as usually we have a spread offense where most of the time our role players are standing on the perimeter waiting for kick outs. We also don’t have another ball handler besides Ky or James, which means there is no one to create something out of nothing for others. Additionally, without isolating Love in the post there is no safety valve like there is sometimes in non-lbj/ky lineups.
If Orange Julius wasn’t so inept, his type of ISO ball would be welcome at this point…
Actually, yeah you are right. He can at least dribble. Too bad he can’t finish around the rim or make shots.
Wow… Memphis keeping Cavs in range by missing a lot of point blankers…
He made it but http://www.pleasestopdribblingTT.com
LIG!!
http://p8.hostingprod.com/@allthingsjeep.com/yswimages/lif-mtjbbqsh.jpg
TT with the dribble drive… that’s not something I Imagined typing…
I remember the Cavs scored just 61 points in a playoff loss to the Pistons in 2006… this game might beat that…
I wonder how many playoff games the Cavs will lose due to Hack a Tristan
Probably zero…
He really hasn’t been playing as much as Frye and Love in the late going
Frye can’t be used against GSW. They made him irrelevant last year!
Then it’ll be that LBJ at the 5 lineup anyway…
Our starting guards are 1-13. A team brick fest except JFJ
Or close out on Toney Douglas apparently…
TT can’t make anything…
Man… I wish Dunleavy was better…
His back is supposedly healed, but he sure seems a step slower than with the Bulls and of course more tentative
I thought there was a glimmer of hope when he made that three earlier, but he’s reverted back to insignificance…
Stink. Stank stunk? How’s that??!!
Sure, if you’re Dr. Seuss…
Nice play by JFJ to get another shot at it…
Hey only down 5
Defensive intensity and hustle has increased…
JR with the nifty And One…
This is why LeBron is MVP
Cavs minus LeBron suck.
Do you own a Thesaurus? There have to be other words you can use… C’mon man… challenge yourself…
Cavs completely built as all James teams have been to revolve around his orbit. Even in Miami, their offense, role players, even to some extent Wade and Bosh completely adopted a style of offense that is utterly Lebron centric. As a result, when you remove him from the equation, the offense and players have no real idea what to do. It has always been this way. They don’t have entirely terrible players, but they have very few non-lebron centric offensive sets. None of this is bad. It won us a championship. It just is.
Excellent points
Better defense with Lig and TT back out there…
Wow the Griz foul a lot. Bonus already
Nice ups from KShrimp for that board…
This is a glimpse into the future we had without LeBron. I’m so glad he came back
Not really… they’d still have Kyrie, Wiggins and probably at least one big man from the draft…
Wiggins still sucks.
Not really tho…
Felder going to have to make those 18 footers
Come on JR show some leadership now
That’s a tall order for JR…
I don’t understand why the Cavs can’t set decent screens and get some decent looks.
Troy Williams just heaved that ball up…
Felder is the only one with the quicks and ball handling to get people open shots. Just put him in the p and r constantly and let him create. None of our other guys can really dribble.
Except his go to guy so far is Birdman… who’s not going to shoot well…
Except for that beauty of a drive and kick for Jefferson who had about 5 seconds to shoot.
True… He needs to find JFJ tho…
James Freaking Jones! 13-16 from three now…
https://twitter.com/cavs/status/809211831738843136
I mean, aside from Gasol and Z-Bo, this is essentially a backup team for the Grizz as well… Cavs should be competing better than this on D…
Could be big garbage time the entire second half. I hoped JR would have put in 6-7 threes, but he looked disinterested.
This is an entire game of garbage time…
HEY! KShrimp got a call!
Gotta make your throws kid…
It’s a whole different game when the threes are contested…
Well the Cavs began the game with right energy on defense but as soon as they began to miss shots the effort went down.
Birdman shouldn’t have passed that… could have gotten a couple of shots…
Well, Kay was definitely fouled on that last one… but he’s not going to get that call…
12-15 from downtown this year for JFJ…
James Freaking Jones!!
Do the Cavs break 50?
Just barely I think…
Tony Douglas….sure.
Got to be a better option than a Birdman deep two with the shot clock running down… right?
Right?
Shump breaks the drought….
Man… this is tough to watch…
” 3 ” BALL WILL BE OUR PRIMARY OFFENSIVE WEAPON TONIGHT—-NOT GOING TO BE TOO MUCH OFFENSIVE FLOW / RHYTHM
Too much ISO being played by guys who aren’t capable… Cavs only chance is to keep the ball moving…
Toney Douglas playing like he’s mad the Cavs didn’t let him stick around…
THE ” GRINDFATHER ” SHOWING UP TONIGHT ITH ALOT OF ENERGY AND FIGHT
Dunleavy taking a lot of threes…
Channing does not box out well…
Gasol probably has replaced Dirk as the premiere Euro big man in the League…
Good D after those first two possessions…
Who took the fork out of Dunleavy?
I would expect a lot of threes…
Looking forward to not hearing “Fizdale” again after tonight.
http://www.gannett-cdn.com/-mm-/29cfdeb571e367d2149dfe21c5f204a9912a2a99/c=41-0-2290-1691&r=x404&c=534×401/local/-/media/2016/05/26/USATODAY/USATODAY/635998650500897380-AP-Grizzlies-Fizdale-Basketball.jpg
He can go back to being J.B. Smoove
This it the next best thing to reducing the number of games:
https://twitter.com/WojVerticalNBA/status/809201489801609216
ACTUALLY SIT BACK AND ENJOY —-BE A GM COLS –WHO STAYS —WHO GOES
This game is going to suck.
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_hf_4qD2x0uc/SnstDZlmh7I/AAAAAAAAAAU/8SWGkyXpq0w/s400/herewego.jpg
Nice! Thanks for including my tweet, Tom! It’ll be interesting to see how the team plays without Love/James/Irving. I don’t expect much, but I like the call to let the guys rest. A back to back vs Memphis is BRUTAL- depleted or not