Live Thread: Cavs @ Heat
2015-03-16
Tonight, the Cleveland Cavaliers are taking their talents to South Beach for the second time this season, though LeBron is a “maybe.” After tweaking his knee against the Magic last night, LeBron received treatment today, and I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if David Blatt rests him. It wouldn’t be a bad time to tune up the K-Love/Kyrie two man game, and I’m quite sure the Heat hope the King’s a scratch. Miami is currently a half game out of the playoffs behind Charlotte and tied with the suddenly hot Celtics. They’re 5-5 in their last ten, and are only hanging around because Dwyane Wade has been off the charts lately, averaging 29, 4.8 assists, and 3.5 boards with 53%/40%/82% shooting splits in his last four games.
The Heat have been seriously banged up, and have been forced to start Henry Walker (formerly Billy, formerly Bill, formerly William) at forward. Miami’s also seen Hassan Whiteside’s dark side, as a recent flagrant foul against Kelly Olynyk drew a suspension for Hassan. Still, I wouldn’t sleep on this Heat team. They’re desperately fighting to make the second season, and they’re always jonesing for a chance to punk the Cavs. D-Wade and Dragic have been Cavs killers in the past. Stopping those two and smart play by Mozzy to keep Whiteside off the O-boards and to counter his physicality will be key. I’m betting this one’s chippy. Wear your mouth guard and your scowl, Perk. Let’s go Cavs.
Speaking of Simmons and his one-man Kevin Love to the Celtics meme, it amuses me what a complete homer he is given his supposed basketball expertise. Like he’s always proposing some kind of trade for superstar where the Celtics give up Avery Bradley, Kelly Olynyk and Jared Sullinger. If those guys were any good, why wouldn’t the Celtics keep them? “Not good enough for my team, but hey you should trade your superstar for them!” is such low-level fan thinking not worthy of a sportwriter with millions of readers.
Pop wouldn’t have played Lebron 35 minutes in a game like this.
Also, I understand Lebron is a nice guy, but do we really need the hugs and kisses with his buddies on the Heat after he and his team completely crapped the bed?
YW Bron probably dictated his minutes. Maybe in 20 years blatt can do that.
It’s hard to give Blatt too much credit, positive or negative, for his coaching when his stars basically dictate who plays and how.
Is this a statement by Blatt?
Why? What do you mean?
That all the starters save bron were out late.
Good point and observation. I guess coach was really mad at the overall effort of the team.
They covered DWade well there… right up until he cut through the entire defense for the easy layup…
Cavs should have been intentionally fouling whiteside before 2 minut mark.
Facts IMO that influenced this game:
1) The Heat needed this win more than the Cavs since they are trying to make the playoffs.
2) the Cavs are playing the second game of a back to back.
3) And the most important is the fact that the Cavs know that they have another game against them at the Q.
And I’m sure Wade will rest his little girl legs when they play them at the Q.
Exactly and I forgot to add that this was the last game of the Cavs 4 game win streak and teams usually struggle on these type of games.
But I bet the Cavs will rout them at the Q.
4 game road trip ****lol
Too little too late King….
Twice the Heat took away easy rebounds from the Cavs there… just awful effort
Hubie just said “LeBron looks a little old out there tonight…”
True, but it’s ironic that Hubie is calling ANYONE old…
Didn’t he kill Noah on The Waking Dead last night? Thought I saw him in there.
Hubie still calling JFJ “Jimmie Jones” Well, he is sort of playing more like “Jimmie” tonight. From now on, bad JFJ will be referred to as “Jimmie”
When will Joey Crawford retire? I think he’s due.
Beyond due… like five years overdue…
“Better Call Saul” is on.
Oh thank God! Something to look forward to on my DVR…
Really hard to believe this is the same team that dropped 120+ in their last three games…
Should’ve rested all the starters tonight just to piss off Riley. I don’t know if it would actually piss him off or not, but I like to imagine things that could piss him off. Same goes for Mickey Mouse Arison.
Cavs might lose this by 40 now…
Kinda wish the Orlando and Miami games were reversed… Think it would have made a difference
Just no need for this… All we can hope is that none of the Cavs key guys get injured.
Ahh, Celtics smoking the Sixers warms the cockles of my heart. The problem with the Hinkie “tank to win” plan is that it seems to assume that nobody else is trying to get better and nobody else is trying to hire competent coaches. It’s a good plan in a vacuum but there are 29 other teams.
Hoping to publish part 1 on the hinkie letters tmrw
Hey, fans have been wondering why Mozgov doesnt play in the 4th. Wonder no more, Blatt has put him back into the rotation.
Jeez these refs are the worst I’ve seen all year.
Joey Crawford is always bad IMHO…
Bron can’t even make a layup right now… Heat are in his head…
Mozgov suxks tonight.
Shocked Bron is back out there… shocked…
Miami’s Whiteside addition makes me hate them all the more.
Just imagine if LBJ had stayed there and they’d picked up Whiteside…
Then Wade could’ve disappeared in the playoffs again.
He’s only good when playing against LeBron apparently…
If the bonus happens, hack-a-hassan?
I would think they’d want to just get it over with as quickly as possible…
Never.
Better quarter overall, but Cavs just seem to have abandoned any sort of game plan. Can’t imagine Blatt puts LBJ back out there in the fourth…
Imagine it baby! Blatt deserves his critics after this game.
Well just get the bench guys in and rest the starters.
On the bright side, they’ve cut it to 20.
At least there was some fight there.
What a flop from Whiteside… jeez…
When was the last time LBJ had zero rebounds in a game?
Was just going to post that!!
Ugh. That call…
So Chalmers runs into JFJ in the open court, and naturally it’s a foul on Jones, just when the Cavs might be gaining a speck of momentum.
Kyrie trying his best.
They’ve been putting longer guys on him like Deng
Offensive foul on the guy trailing the play? JFJ
That was a pretty weak call.
This ref looks like he’s taking WAY too much joy in calling fouls on the Cavs… wonder how much he’s getting paid?
Jesus. Do they even call traveling any more?
Not on Dwayne! He walks on water and on hardwood too.
Actually it was that reverse spin by whiteside. 4 steps.
Miami knows every Cavs tendency. That doesn’t help.
I’m sure Riley gave the order for no mercy. You’re right Nate, he knows how to get inside LBJ’s dome and set up residence…
I’ll never understand why basketball losses feel so much worse than other sports. Is it because you have to suffer through two and half hours of crap expecting the team to pick up the effort? Like in baseball, if the pitcher gives up 7 runs in the first inning, you turn it off and wait until the next day. I don’t get it.
You are right on point lol. But this one is over.
I think it’s because basketball has the fewest amount of players and gets scrutinized so closely. With Baseball and Football, you’ve got lots of different guys who can step up from game to game.
That’s why I avoid the media when the team gets undressed. Not worth feeding your doubts!
I think it’s because it’s a team sport where the better team pretty much wins every time if the effort and execution are there, so when a clearly superior team gets creamed there aren’t a lot of excuses.
It seems like when the 3 is not falling, they have nothing to go to except iso. When the 3 is falling, it masks a lot of offensive and defensive lapses this team has.
I’m done watching this one. My anger is just percolating.
Nuce walk dwyane.
Cavs just cold from the field. Heat hitting every shot they take. Another case of a team playing their best game of the season against the Cavs.
Keep the head up.
Miami would be 82-0 if they played Cavs every game and had Wade available for all of them. We get swept if we meet them in the playoffs.
Its an empty arena too and the Heat aren’t feeding off the crowd, its all their own intensity.
That might be exaggeration… but only slight…
Eh, I’ll give you that lol. You hope Cavs can match their intensity in the playoffs but LBJ has a mental block against them and Wade lifts that team to unreal heights against us.
So much for LBJ getting upset/inspired by Riles’ comments… He’s a game worst -20…
Get ya hands up, JR!
Will the Cavs sit LeBron? That will end his streak of 10 or more points at (i don’t even remember).
This game is over…
Deng hits ridiculous three… JR misses his… game already out of reach?
Whiteside in the lane for ten seconds there.
Maybe this is an exercise for the Cavs to see how far they can get down in a game and still come back… but probably not…
The Mozgov pick n roll defense has been really in the last few games.
Really bad?
Exactly, sorry!!!
Agreed. And teams are going to exploit it until it tightens up.
GOALTEND!!!
Nothing has changed this half. Goin’ to bed gentlemen.
JR! Ok, six more of those and we’ll be back in it.
Cracked this open for good luck, and as if on cue…
I’d like a case of those please!
The Heat is rotating their players effectively and keeping the pressure on defense all the time.
I am not sure the Cavs will be able to pull this one.
would give the 1st unit 5 minutes of 3rd qtr to cut into the lead or ” chuck it in ” and rest them—-believe if this was a playoff game there would be more of a sense ” of urgency ” and we would see a different performance—am not going to get to emotionally unravelled with this game
Yes, it was an ugly half, but we had so many shots at the rim that went in and out, and the Heat will not shoot 60% the whole game. But good God, I want to hide my eyes.
Rather Lebron sat at this point.
And Kyrie and Mozgov and Jones. They all could use the extra rest.
100% yes. He’s not effective anyway. Give Blatt’s a chance to try to win a different way than ISO.
If he was planning on playing like this (scared, weird or lackluster) then he should have sat from the start…
Cavs allowing Heat to shoot 64%… Cavs at 35%… Cavs also getting CRUSHED again on the boards 25-12… Guess they might need that Love guy…
JFJ played at least 10 minutes that half. He can’t rebound.
Even when Love doesn’t get the rebound he takes at least 1 person to box him out every single time. And he fights for it. So many intangibles involved in Love’s rebound game alone.
Heat shooting 64%… smh…
Don’t get why people are surprised by this. James gets weird against this team. Also, yes, JR clearly fouled Wade on the underside of the forearm .
Why wasn’t James like this when he played the Cavs? He effing killed us and rubbed our faces in it his first time back. Guess we should’ve done a video tribute.
Cause Wade and Riley are mindf***ers.
I’m surprised by the general lack of energy and effort (Shump notwithstanding). LBJ should be over this by now… it ain’t Christmas. He’s had a game to get this out of his system. And it was not a blatant foul…
Cavs v. Miami (Or, the time the Cavs starting resting for the playoffs with 15 games left in the season)
We will have to come back within the first few minutes of the third or the bench will clear I’m sure
Fitting end to the half…
Its like when I’m at work while the Cavs are playing. I’m sitting at my desk, but really, I’m not doing my job at all. Me = Cavs on second night of back to back.
Cheating. Just cheating for wade right there. Jr anticipated that turn around perfectly and shut up humid brown that wasn’t on the wrist
Wow Kyrie geta a deflection and everyone stares at the loose ball. Wade goes to line…
Yeah, just no desire at all to go after loose balls it seems…
What a HORRIBLE call on JR… Just STOOPID…