Recap: Magic 114, Cavs 93 (Or, Sometimes A Loss Is Just A Loss)
2017-10-22https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcs3j8qc5SI
The Magic showed up to embarrass the Cavs in Cleveland tonight. They raced out to a 15-4 lead in the span of about five minutes, and the Cavs just couldn’t do anything to get back on track all night. Orlando canned 17 3s and Cleveland hit just seven. And, of those seven, four came in complete and utter garbage time.
Cleveland also turned the ball over 16 times to the Magic’s 12, giving up just 12 points somehow. The score could have been much worse. The Cavs were playing so bad they had Austin Carr flashing back to the dark days ranting: “The Cavs just need to cut the lead down to 12 in the next eight minutes, and then 10 before the half, and they’ll have a chance.” That’s not the exact quote, but you get the gist of it.
Thankfully, the season is young. It’s only game three for the Wine & Gold. Sigmund Freud once said, “A cigar is a just a cigar.” Well, sometimes, a loss is just a loss. There is no way the team can play without effort the whole season. There is no way the defense is broken. There is no way they’ll let another team shoot 48.6% from deep this season. Right? There is no way they’ll play one-on-one basketball with little to zero movement coming from the weak side all season. Right?
The Magic were led by Nikola Vucevic and D.J. Augustin. Vucci Mane put up 28 points on 11-16 shooting to go with five assists and seven boards. D.J. Augustin put up a highly efficient 12 points. He hit 3-4 from deep and dished out ten assists. He was a big reason the Magic had 28 assists on 40 buckets.
The Cavs had some players show up. The King was very good as usual. He scored 22 points on 8-15 shooting and had 14 of the Cavs’ 18 first quarter points. Towards the end of the first quarter LeBron had two +1s for six total points to keep the Cavs from being down even more than 18.
Kevin Love also had a decent evening after shooting 0-4 in the first quarter. He finished the game 8-17 for 19 points. He also grabbed nine boards. Tristan Thompson grabbed nine boards too, but scored only four points.
The Cavs started the night out slowly. Dwyane Wade and Jose Calderon were unable to contain any dribble penetration; the Magic feasted by getting deep into the paint and finding wide open guys. Wade was switching haphazardly, often without talking, and two guys were often staring at a guard dribbling deep into the paint. That forced a third Cav to come over from the weak side leaving a 3-point shooter from the Magic open in the corner. The result was not pretty as Orlando shot 50% on 12 shots and went 3-5 from downtown in the first six minutes of action. Meanwhile, the Cavs opened up the first six minutes going 2-13 from the floor.
During the second quarter, the Cavs continued their weak showing. About a minute in, the Wine & Gold forgot to box out and Bismack Biyombo snagged an offensive board and put the ball back to push the Magic’s lead to 22! Love started to get a little hot though, which kept the Magic’s lead from growing. Love scored eight in a row, including a beautiful dive down the lane where LeBron found him for a nice finish to cut the Magic’s lead to just 15 with 6:09 in the quarter. He ultimately shot 6-9 for 13 points in the quarter.
Love also had a nice dime to a cutting LeBron and showed some serious grit after bricking a 3-pointer and going super hard after the board, which Cleveland ultimately recoverd. The Cavs truly showed a little more effort and outscored the Magic 27-20, but entered the locker room down 56-45. Their extremely simple offense that essentially featured two guys attempting to move while the Magic suffocated zombie like weak side players wasn’t world beating.
It would be natural to assume the Cavs would come out firing on all cylinders to start the third, since a young unproven team had humiliated them for about 18 minutes in the first half, but that was just not the case. LeBron started the quarter missing an alley-oop and the Magic then turned the ball over. Rather than making up some ground, Jae Crowder got called for a charge and gave the ball right back.
The Cavs went on a mini 8-0 run during the middle of the quarter to cut the Magic’s lead to seven. It started with the King hitting a 3 over Evan Fournier. Then Love hit a running floater off a Wade pass. LeBron sparked a Wade 3-pointer in semi-transition after blocking DJ Augustin during a fastbreak to end the run.
🙌 @DwyaneWade#CavsMagic https://t.co/ZPogS1p1UQ
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 22, 2017
The Magic roared right back though and held the Cavs scoreless for 3:14 and entered the fourth quarter up huge, 88-65.
The fourth quarter was no better for Cleveland. The Cavs starters stayed in for the first five minutes and gave up an 11-2 run to end the night. The reserves got to play a lot led by Iman Shumpert.
Gripes
- This was a bizarro game. I’m going to stand by that. Every thing in this recap should be reversed. The Magic should be the Cavs, and the Cavs the Magic at all points.
- The Cavalier guard play was horrendous. Jose Calderon and Dwyane Wade went 3-11 for just seven points and six assists. I might have to order a box of forks for this season, because their defensive and shooting inabilities at this point are signifying forked status. Forks will be mentioned a lot this year and not because those two are eating with them, but because they’re just sticking out of their backs.
- Iman Shumpert had 21 points on 5-14 shooting and just two assists. Tyronn Lue left him out with the scrubs during garbage time, and he dominated the ball. He took eight of the Cavs’ 20 shots in the fourth going 3-8 for 15 points. Lue needs to not give Shump any thoughts that he is a scorer or ball handler. Any confidence boost for Shump is only going to result in more off-balance 15 footers and Vine (RIP) length dribbling sequences.
- Someone needs to tell Shump it’s not 1997 anymore. Look at this shot chart.
- Jeff Green also needs to get this news.
- Defensively, the Cavs need to come up with a more conservative defense. They’re switching far too much and having Love come up to the level of screens. He can’t recover fast enough, and when the Cavs switch, it happens so slowly that other guys are having to help over until the switch is completed. This results in open shots for opponents.
- My final gripe of the night has to do with Channing Frye. Why did he only get to play in garbage time? The Cavs shot an abysmal 7-25 from 3-point land. Frye could have surely helped that.
- Having a tinsy bit of off-ball movement probably would have helped their 3-point numbers too. Guys on the weak side weren’t moving at all. The Cavs need to start setting some flare screens for guys like Kyle Korver who was only able to get off two 3s, both of which he missed.
Hypes
- LeBron and Love didn’t give up all evening despite the poor showing from the rest of the team. If they hadn’t each had their respective runs in the first and second quarters the Cavs could have lost by as many fifty points.
- It’s one game and the Cavs aren’t going to shoot this poorly from 3-land all season. And, defensively Lue will probably figure it out.
- He can scream “ICE” right?
- He needs to watch some videos of Tom Thibodeau right now.
The Cavs host Chicago on Tuesday, let’s hope things go better.
https://twitter.com/MikeAScotto/status/922530261644070916
Seems pretty underwhelming:
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=y8m6n7nm
I expect the Suns to end up with Shump, because that’s how this works.
I expect the Thunder to end up with Bledsoe because that’s how this works.
How what works?
Stacked teams get more stacked players I think is the point. And I agree. In today’s world of superteams, I don’t see him going to some nobody. He’s going to go to a very good team IMO.
https://twitter.com/abc15sports/status/922525050099482624
https://twitter.com/NBATV/status/922526788173123585
DWade did the same thing in the 2008 Olympics- offer to come off the bench. He wound up leading the team in scoring and was arguably the best player of Team USA. It could work again because just like in the Olympics, he’ll be up mostly against reserves where he should have an advantage despite his 35 year old body. He can essay the Andre Iguodala role in the Cavs bench.
https://twitter.com/TheSteinLine/status/922525667371245569
Not sure what the Bucks would offer for Bledsoe, other than Delly and a pick.
And Delly sucks and is on a terrible contract.
The only way we get bledsoe is if we give up Cavs first rounder + Cedi or something like that. Even then we could be easily outbid.
If the Suns want to give us Booker and Bledsoe, I’d happily give up the Brooklyn pick.
I would take that
https://twitter.com/HowardBeck/status/922525397031546881
Do not give up the Nets pick for Bledsoe.
Corby’s gonna do it. Nets pick and Shump.
Where can I get a shirt that reads “Cols Loves Corby”?
https://twitter.com/EBled2/status/922512031902703616
https://twitter.com/Tri_Offense/status/922520657367269378
https://twitter.com/HoopsRumors/status/922520655735685120
The Knicks don’t have an exciting player like Iman Shumpert to offer…they have no chance…
https://twitter.com/ChrisBHaynes/status/922519378914050048
https://twitter.com/wojespn/status/922513369416044544
Beat me to it.
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/922515412989960194
https://twitter.com/mcten/status/922514896016871424
Lue great ego management.
He’s gotta be dealt. Let’s make this happen Corby:
https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/922511364165337089
Now, opposing GMs who have spoken with the Cavs say the price for the Nets pick is extremely high. One said the idea of the Suns being able to acquire the pick in a deal for just Bledsoe and another older player “doesn’t seem likely to me.”
http://amicohoops.net/nba-rumors-phoenix-suns-cleveland-cavaliers-brooklyn-nets-nba-draft-eric-bledsoe/
If we’re giving the Brooklyn pick then I want Jackson or Booker plus Bledsoe. Otherwise, then can have our own in a deal for Bledsoe/pieces.
No way do you give up the BKN pick for Bledsoe this early. Up the price, for sure. It’ll be a game though because every win the Nets get decreases the picks value. You’re on the clock Koby.
For sure. They give up the pick I want more than bledsoe
I was reading the Suns board, and some of them were discussing the Nets pick for Bledsoe, along with another Cavs piece or two. Because of course they were. They are going to get a lesson on tanking value. Even so, I’d trade them Shump as a valuable mentor to their kids.
It’s cool that Wade requested this:
https://twitter.com/joevardon/status/922505691864199169
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/922508608637755397
I am cool with him using a bunch of high screens to drive/kick out
Took Ty a week to figure out what was obvious to rest of world. However, maybe he had to let Wade fail.
This is perfect ego management. Lue is smarter than you think.
Might be true. Lue is very hard to figure out. Sometimes he looks like super smart, and other times like a doofus. Always possible that the doofus thing is an act.
I wonder how long he would have taken had Wade not gone to Lue to request the move to the bench.
Yep. Perhaps Cols has the right of it. Better to let him try & fail first. Good for Wade. When IT gets back, it may get reshuffled again.
I still don’t think Bledsoe is likely. We would want to move him for Calderon + Shump + our first. Plus perhaps Frye/Dudley. They want the Nets pick. We’d want Bledsoe + Booker/Jackson for that.
You’d have to wait until mid-December to move Calderon, which is fine with me.
https://twitter.com/JasonLloydNBA/status/922503578589294592
AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JR has been named starting SG again. Smart move by Lue. Actually this worked out perfectly. Wade got to start and come to the realization himself that he shouldn’t start. This is great ego management by our coach.
Good news. Surprised it got done so early.
DWade reportedly now coming off Bench and JR pleading not guilty to reckless driving.
Shouldn’t have made him come off the bench:
https://twitter.com/joevardon/status/922464346239832069
Given his criminal history this is not good. He may still be on probation in Color ado.
I wish to believe that after everything JR and his family has gone through, in regards to their baby, that becoming the 6th man on this team isn’t a mental breaker.
Let’s hope it was a temporary lapse of thinking.
Hope he wears a long sleeve shirt in court. Actually, I hope he wears a shirt!
Nate, if we take your trade from below and move Frye, Shump, Cedi, and Zizic for Dudley and Bledsoe. JOHN B was worried about being thin at the four or five. What if we call up the wonderful Knicks and see what we can get O’Quinn for. Wouldn’t NY like to have IT as their shiny new PG? He is small but I get the feeling he loves the big stage. Seems like it would be a good fit. Check it out, I managed to reduce your projected -52 wins to -41!
http://www.espn.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=yaulvz9o
Not bad. Always liked O’Quinn’s game.
I think that gives us a defender and a shooter at every position without letting rebounding suffer.
All shooter lineup of Bledsoe, JR, Bron, Crowder, Love. All defense of Bledsoe, Dudley, Bron, Crowder, TT/O’Quinn. Mix and match as you see fit. Man, if CtB could run the Cavs…
We could have a starting lineup of Bledsoe, Wade/JR, Bron, Crowder, Love. Reserves of Rose, TT, Wade/JR, Dudley, O’Quinn, and Korver when we need more shooting. We push Green out of the rotation, don’t have the unfortunately wasted roster spot of Frye, we have offensive playmaking ability for the second unit and a couple of great defenders and rebounders in our second unit. We lack a little shooting in the second unit but I can at least stomach a token start for Wade and bringing JR off the bench if we have Bledsoe in place of Rose in the starting… Read more »
Small sample size but ouch
Yep, small sample. Let’s be a little scientific about this. He’s never been under season average of 40% FGA in his entire career. Give him a chance.
But D-Wade as a starter….? Lue’s got an interesting few months ahead.
He is going to score a 50 in next game like the Wade of Miami and that should cover those %ages.
So…im very interested in Lue’s allusion to an offense that wade isng used to…like…as if there is an offense in place to get used to. From my vantage point…there really isnt much of anything systemetized going on. Can someone shed some light on this? Is there really something designed going on or is wade just used to having the ball instead of spotting up?
Cant really shed light, just my thoughts. I don’t KNOW any of this, just my feels & hopes. I feel like, given the late arrival of many players to this team, their age & the odd injury, Lue is content to see how form develops for a while, since he knows the season is long. I don’t think he is concerned about missing the playoffs, and thinks he’s got time to work “The Process”. Why build a system until you know who you have that can ball…apart from LBJ/Love, who should he build it around? Rose, Wade….Thomas? It’s gonna be… Read more »
Wow, exciting finish to Wolves-Thunder
https://twitter.com/World_Wide_Wob/status/922272753390153728
HaHaHa!!
Waitup! Wiggins forgot to call “Bank”!
Pelicans are shutting out the Lakers!
The Lakers haven’t scored?
It was 6 – 0 Pels. Now it is 117 – 110, so the Pels have pulled away by one more point in 46 minutes!
Final: 119 – 112. What’s his name had a -24. Can’t wait until helicopter dad holds his press conference.
Hmm:
20. I asked a couple of players in the Cavs locker room what they thought about the whole incident. The consensus: Now you’re seeing the real Kyrie Irving.
Woke af.
Cavs play the Bulls on Tuesday. I’d like to think it’s a guaranteed win, but it will depend on how much of a leash Lue gives to Shump. I could see Shump eventually getting Lue fired.
We all thought that yesterday, too.
Mirotic won’t be there to hit 8 threes due to a broken face.
YOU GOT KNOCKED THE F*** OUT!
Might be the worst one-two punch at PG:
15. Rose was certainly missed against the Magic. Jose Calderon started in his place and lasted just five minutes. Iman Shumpert started at point guard in place of Calderon to begin the third quarter, and Calderon did not reappear until garbage time.
Steph Curry and Durant are punks. No doubt
Looks like someone else has maturity issues too:
19. “Hell no,” Irving said. “(The fan) was man enough to record it on video, then that’s all him. I’m glad he got his name out there and then kind of five seconds of fame and it going viral. That’s the social media platform we live on. I take full responsibility what I said and excuse the kids at home and you move on.”
Ugh teams are gonna line up for Bledsoe now. and we cant trade Darik Rose till December.
The Suns will need defense back if Bledsoe wants out. Ok Shump
WAS GOING TO SAY THE SAME ABOUT THE MAGIC (CAVS )—–LET ME THROW THIS OUT THERE FOR SOME REASON THE NETS KEEP ” PLAYIN OUT OF THEIR ASS ” AND BY TRADE DEADLINE THAT ” PROJECTED ” LOTTERY PICK NO LONGER EXISTS —DO WE LOOK TO TRADE AND UPGRADE FOR PLAYOFFS ?
Yeah, probably, though looking at their roster it will likely take a minor miracle for them to be that good.
I don’t get this opinion. They have a lot of guys who were in bad situations and are just waiting for a chance to be in the right one:
Ronde Hollis-Jefferson, De’Angelo Russell, Caris Levert, DeMarre Carroll, Allen Crabbe, Trevor Booker… Also, you notice? It’s the new NBA style: versatile combo players who can guard a lot of positions. I’m telling you, the Celtics pick could be worse than the Nets.
The only guy that could turn out to be a consistent number one option for them is Russell. I don’t see him being efficient. They have some ok rotation players but unless they turn into the Hawks of the last few years minus Teague, Korver, and Milsap, in other words guys that are above average borderline all stars at times, I don’t see how they do that well. The reason I make the comparison to the Hawks is because the Hawks had no star or guy that could carry them. Neither do the nets. Russel isn’t that guy. That is… Read more »
The Nets have beaten the Magic without Gordon & the Hawks. Both at home. If they win a road game, then I’ll start to worry.
More worried about us. If Wade is still starting & Shump is getting PG minutes after 20 games, Lue should be fired.
MAN THAT IS A “DOWNER ” EVIL
Still way too early to be a downer… and the wins were against Hawks and Magic which are supposed to be as bad as them… although don’t tell the Cavs that…
Don’t look now… but Nets are 2-1 and winners of two straight…
Is this faster than Mike Brown’s exit from the Lakers?
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/21118483/phoenix-suns-fire-head-coach-earl-watson
Is JFJ gonna be the interim coach?
Triano I believe.
Surely is.
WHAT POSITION DOES JAMES JONES HAVE WITH THE SUNS —-G.M. ?—-GIVE HIM A CALL —-A LITTLE HELP FOR YOUR OLD TEAM / IMPROVE YOUR NEW TEAM AT THE SAME TIME——HOPE YOU WEREN’T REFERRING TO THE BROOKLYN PICK ( ALONG WITH SHUMP / CEDI / FREY / ANTE ) —THAT IS A LITTLE STEEP !!
Cavs pick would mean our pick believe. Bledsoe isn’t quite worth the Brooklyn pick considering the glut of guards we already have.
https://twitter.com/oldseaminer/status/922233191083147265
-52 wins??? You villain!
I broke the trade machine.
The only thing I worry about is how thin we would be at the four and five. I mean we would have Kev, LBJ, TT, Green right? Really we would only have two true bigs in Kev and TT. Somebody goes down for a little while that would be a tough couple weeks for the other three guys. I also wonder about the pg situation. Obviously Bledsoe starts for now. Rose moves to the bench. What happens when IT comes back though. Clearly he would start. Does Bledsoe move to the bench with Rose? That would be a bit difficult… Read more »
Can sign some end of roster bigs for the two open roster spots.
Derrick Williams and someone else?
And Perk…
Probably would work for the bigs. Definitely would need at least one true big banger/rebounder in case Love or Tt went down for a time. I feel like balancing the minutes for the guards would become problematic for chemistry and egos. You have four big egos with Wade, IT, Rose, and Bledsoe, and our most important bench shooter/defender in JR. IT and Bledsoe clearly would need to play big minutes to be happy. So that leaves JR, Rose, and Wade. Wade isn’t going anywhere and probably isn’t getting his minutes cut unfortunately, even though he is the worst of the… Read more »
Totally think that’s true. I actually wanted to put in IT for Frye for that reason.
Well…I kind of figured as much. That would be one way to do it. However, that might not work considering the history there. Dunno if either party agrees to that, not that IT has any leverage other than not resigning.
Also I would feel terrible for IT. Seems like a good dude and has been unfairly jerked around this whole offseason. Unfortunate situation really. I would be interested to see how IT plays in a cavs uniform. I don’t know. Tough call, both if it got done with IT or without. Too bad we can’t trade Wade and/or Rose.
IMO, it might work out for him as they’d probably buy him out and he’d be free to sign with whoever he wants this season.
Get this in front of the Suns front office right now. Shump is clearly worth 52 wins.
HATS OFF TO “IRON MAN ” JOE THOMAS WHOSE COSECUTIVE SNAPS STREAK ENDED TODAY —–YOU ARE —————–THE MAN !!!
Suns fire their head coach. Maybe the new coach will really want Shump?
Bledsoe wants out. Clearly was tanking his play the first three games. Probably could be had if we wanted him. Frye and some other trade bait?
And by the way that comes from Bledsoe himself who said earlier this morning on twitter, “I don’t want to be here.” Supposedly he was infuriated with the suns benching him to tank last year. Probably got his hopes up this summer and asked out privately and now thinks he has to challenge the FO publicly after the suns wouldn’t do Jackson and Bledsoe to the cavs.
https://twitter.com/EBled2/status/922201984211369984
They should hire Shump’s HS coach…
They should hire Shump’s dad.
Are we sure his dad would want him hijacking his offense?
Kyrie fined $25 K for his language towards a fan.
Draymond could have been tossed too in the GS game — he got in the ref’s face with mock applause after the other ejections.
He gets his own level of favoritism from the refs called chronic jackass treatment.
GOOD IDEA PHIL ON JOHN FARRELL (BRINGING HIM HOME )
Would be great if he’s willing. But he’s probably thinking 1) manager or front office role, 2) TV, or 3) a year off.
For connoisseurs of schadenfreude, the GS-Memphis game is in the latter part of the 4th quarter right now on NBA TV.
Could be worse. We could be 1-2 like the frauds.
Corby Altman for GM of the year /s
Also as Jason Lloyd noted Corby is really Dan.
DO WE STILL HAVE THE “MIDGET ” —-LAGERBURGERBASKETS AS OUR DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR—IF SO—WHY ??————CONGRATS TO MICKEY—THAT IS A HUGE HOLE FOR THE TRIBE TO FILL
I’m glad the Yankees lost.
Hallelujah! For all the usual reasons, plus it would have been too much if they had ridden a suddenly 2007-vintage Sabathia to a title.
Yeah I’m glad the Chubby Choker wasn’t given another shot at a title.
Mickey Callaway, Tribes pitching coach, will be the new Mets manager. Congrats to him, huge loss for the Tribe.
Bring John Farrell home! Though he’ll probably get a manager or TV job somewhere.
THOMAS has said he will be fine. Cleveland doctors think so too. I don’t know why people think he’s going to be hampered by this injury all year.
Hey, JR was fine after he came back last season, right? (No he was not.)
The hip thing is a more ambiguous injury than most. Counting on Thomas is foolish until he proves otherwise.
Hey if he can kick like that his hip is probably fully healed right?!
Once IT comes back in January all fit problems are solved.
Right because a guy, with a bum hip, whose never played with most of these players, will magically solve all these issues.
The one thing it will do is push another player out of the rotation, which means coach cLUEless will probably take out Korver, and play more scrubs like Shump/Green.
If we’re counting on a guy who may mot be physically right all season, it may be a long season.
Love as starting center has worked out great so far though. I hope they don’t abandon that.
They literally can’t if they want any shooting at all in the starting lineup. If TT goes back to starting then Crowder moves to the bench and you end up with one guy that can hit threes at an above 35% rate. That would be even worse spacing than our already abysmal starting lineup spacing. Teams wouldn’t have to defend the three point line at all except for love.
Why? Just jive LeBron to guard
So bench Rose? I mean that could work. I kind of like Rose in the starting lineup though.
If you restart TT at center Lue would be pressed to bring JR back in for Wade. That will work.
IF LEBRON /WADE ARE THAT CLOSE AND HAVE MUTUAL RESPECT FOR EACH OTHER THEN DWADE SHOULD REALIZE ” FATHER TIME ” HAS CAUGHT UP TO HIM AS A VIABLE STARTER —-BENCH PLAYER ( 13-17 MINUTES / GAME ) YES —-ALSO HOW SOON CAN WE JUST EAT JOSE’S CONTRACT AND GET A YOUNG PT GD IN HERE / OR YOUNG SERVICEIABLE PLAYER —-OUCH HURTS TO WATCH — AND LLOYD’S ARTICLE DOES MAKE ALOT OF SENSE—–WE WILL SEE IF PRIDE (TY / WADE ) STAND IN THE WAY TO MAKE THE CORRECT CHANGES
My guess is that LeBron loves winning more than he loves Wade. If so, I hope he brings influence to finding a more realistic role for Wade.
Would be nice but I am skeptical of it happening this soon.
Jason Lloyd wrote about the domino effect of having Wade on the roster, and re-iterated it in his Final Thoughts column last night: “Wade’s arrival on the team negatively five other players. JR Smith lost his starting job, Kevin Love was pushed to center, which cost Tristan Thompson his starting job, which pushed Channing Frye out of the rotation, which pushed Richard Jefferson off the team.” I wish Wade didn’t get bought out until later in the year, so we could have seen this team without the required changes Lloyd documents. As others have stated, Lue needs the balls to… Read more »
Having the core of the starters removed from their positions is starting to show . That is a very interesting point you made from Lloyd’s article. There is continuation or a chemistry when those 3 are on the floor together the same time with Lebron. There is a momentum that you can see when Love and Tristan are together. JR just hasn’t been consistent for awhile even towards last season. He looks like he is still trying to find where he belongs. Same is kinda true with Wade.
Completely agree. I’m less thrilled about Wade, then I previously was.
Not impressed with SHump at all. Most of his points were in the 4th in garbage time. Even then, he played selfish basketball by not passing the ball in order to pad his stats . Yes, you are absolutely right on Channing Frye. Dude is reliable on his 3. That far behind and you still make him rot? Just stupid. I ‘m perplexed on what Wade is to be doing. Is he deferring , playmaking ? or what is the story?
Mother of Jesus I hate the Warriors. Bunch of crybabies.
I’m still laughing at the dumb warrriors melting down. What a bunch of frauds. Curry has now thrown his mouthpiece twice, Bray is constantly yelling at the refs, and Durant makes up fake twitter accounts to talk about how great Durant is. Maybe these guys are not nice people but actual real life d bags. I’m so glad I wasn’t born a warriors fan.
I watched the back to back games and the game against Boston sporadically. First of all, we are a completely different team than last season. We are way more athletic, a little better on defense with room to become way better and much worse at shooting. I cannot remember a Finals participant change more rapidly, except for the champion Mavs. I also don’t have a clue what Lue wants to do with this team and I fear he doesn’t have a clue either. What is the identity of this team? The past two years we were an ultra modern team… Read more »
I think they realized they were too one dimensional last year. So they got some new guys to slash and cut while still maintaining all the shooters on the team. We didn’t shed any shooting from last year. We lost Irving but brought in THOMAS. That’s fine.
Really? We didn’t lose any shooting? The 10 players on the Cavs rotation are Lebron (not much of a threat), Love (a great 3 point shooter for a big man), Rose (nuff said), D Wade (lol), Crowder (an only decent 3 point shooter), Jeff Green (he doesn’t even take 3 point shots), JR Smith (great), TT (nope), KK (all-time great) and Shump (the best pull 20-foot shooter in the league /s). So tell me, are we a great 3 point shooting team this year? 6 of the 10 rotation players don’t even take 3s, which is more important than actually… Read more »
We still have Frye but he is out of the rotation. Crowder was a 40 percent shooter last year but tended to get way more wide open in Boston and needs time to shoot. Our team doesn’t really run stuff to get people a ton of time to shoot. They might be open but not wide open. That doesn’t matter as much for guys like Korver, Smith, and Frye, but it does for most three point shooters. Differences in quality of shot, specifically with regards of how much time someone has to get a three off and how much actual… Read more »
One pass one shot actions I should say, those of the pin down screens or skip passes
Frye is here only for garbage time. I don’t understand why he can’t get 10 minutes of meaningful playing time. Hopefully that happens going forward, but I doubt it. I respectfully disagree about the quality of the shots that Lebron’s skip passes create. His passes are extremely fast, always where the shooter wants it and he is thinking one step ahead of the D and keeps it off balance, thus if the shooter is ready to shoot, as KK, JR and Frye always are, the shots are great. If the shooter hesitate even a bit then the window is closed.… Read more »
Depends on their release time. Those three guys have super quick releases. Most guys including Crowder and Love don’t. By the time the pass gets there the defense is already charging the line because they know exactly where the pass is going and have more time because of the length of the pass to get there. Most guys don’t have that quick of a release. If they have more time they shoot a high percentage. Less time they become average. Smith, Frye, and Korver are not your typical rotation player in terms of their ability to get accurate threes off… Read more »
And I agree he is the best crosscourt passer in history, but your typical three point shooter doesn’t have a quick enough release to take full advantage of it. There aren’t that many guys that do relative to the number of guys that can shoot high percentages given a bit more time.
They need to run some stuff that actually utilizes their skills then. Wade isn’t an iso player anymore and probably shouldn’t be in lineups with Rose. Green should really only be cutting. Thomas benefitted hugely from p and RS and Stevens motion offense.
(Continuing from above) … and that is good, but what else is there to do? Jeff Green and D Wade have about 10 feet of airspace when they are at the three point line so it much easier to get a head start and cut efficiently. The offense has zero continuity most of the time and we have seen more midrange shots these 3 games than half of last season, save for the Kyrie pull ups. Don’t get me wrong, the team will still be great, any team with Lebron would. He is just that good. But that is not… Read more »
Amen, brother. I saw the Wade issue coming months ago…having him as a 20 minute bench guy on the cheap is fine, but that ignores the fact that Wade is (was) a HoFer, and probably isn’t going to settle for that. In some respects this year’s team is ‘better’ than last year’s, but last years was better put together to play with Lebron. If they could put Beverley or Bledsoe on this team in place of Wade or Rose, it would look a lot better.
Double Amen!
from Lue and James comments it sounds like they are still working on integrating all the new pieces. As far as Wade, he’s not even close to the reason we lost yesterday. He sounds like he’s still feeling it out. Knowing that dudes track record I think he deserves more time to get it together.
Counting on the track record of an over the hill player does not make a lot of sense.
You people don’t get it. We lost on purpose. There is a plan. We are going to lose to all the terrible teams except the Nets, so that the pick will be more valuable. Trust the process.
Hmm that’s a great conspiracy theory.
At least the Dubs lost.
Can I say that Lue sucks? Wade starting to talk about being a player who needs more shots.
Can we talk about Steph throwing his binky and KD giving fans the ring finger?
Also time to fire Longbardi – his defense is bad
Yes we can. Best thing to happen in NBA Land yesterday.
Durant having multiple Twitter accounts to “defend” himself against online criticism is the ultimate sign that he’s mentally weak. Why not defend yourself, oh let me see, as yourself? Such a b….
Further – the previous play saw Curry flop when he ran into the screen, and Dray castigating the ref after he was called for an obvious reaching foul. Commentator: “Golden State barking at the referees, as they have all night”.
Stay classy.
Durant is acting in a more childish way than even Kyrie. To be a multimillionaire, an adored by millions basketball player, a former MVP, a reigning Finals MVP and finally a champion, even taking the easiest way out in the history of basketball, and to still feel the need to create fake accounts to defend yourself on Twitter, shows how immature and how unfulfilled that person really is. In my professional opinion, I think he understands that he made a coward move by joining the team that beat him and that the championship doesn’t hold much value, compared say with… Read more »
Durant is human. I am assuming everyone here is successful in life, but still come on this forum and in many ways act like children.
First, success is a very relative term. Secondly, I am not judging Durant’s need to defend his choices – not that he has to, but anyway. I am judging that he has to hide behind anonymity to do it and not being man enough to adress his issues as Kevin Durant. And also, that he had to do all that after what seemed like the most successful season in his career.
Also, on this blog, the comment are of the highest level when it comes to sports blogs. Not a lot of people being childish on this blog.
Perhaps Durant isn’t as manly as you, and perhaps you would handle the pressures of success more like “a man.”
Kevin is that you again?
In seriousness now, I am not talking about man in a masculine or macho way, but more as a person who can own up his failures so that he can savour his accomplishments. Anyway, this exchange has gotten too long. Be well.
Good point! Debating our favorite sports teams definitely brings out some childish attitudes leading to unfortunate postings. I have certainly wished I could delete some comments I made.
Success has gone to his head and he’s a terrible winner. I don’t ever remember him being so arrogant, demeaning and cocky like this. He’s downright unlikeable. He use to have a humble side to him. That’s gone. The he said something really stupid after the game about it to the reporters. His race had nothing to do with how it would be reported on his ejection. But he went there anyways.
Agree on the needless switching. We used to complain about Irving needlessly switching but it was never limited to just him. Could be a scheme thing and if it is that needs to change for most teams they play. This team doesn’t really have the personnel to get away with switching. Also agree with the assessment of the offense tonight. Lots of stagnant action with little movement away from the strong side. Also, wish they would leverage Korver’s and to a lesser degree smith’s gravity more. When they are on out on the floor together I seem to recall a… Read more »
And the Suns lost by 42 to the freaking Clippers…they need someone like Shump, BADLY…
Unfortunately, I have a feeling Lue will be telling Shump, “yeah, that’s what we need from you!”. Agree that Frye not getting in earlier is hard to understand.
Nice write up, David.