Live Thread: Cavs at Celtics (7:30 tip)
2015-12-15Avery Bradley has been “a nice piece” for going on five years. During that time, as Danny Ainge has hoarded power forwards and point guards, it hasn’t always been clear where Bradley fit into the rebuild. Was Ainge waiting for Bradley’s trade value to ascend to a level that could net more draft picks? Was Bradley the future point guard after the Celtics dealt Rajon Rondo? (That Rondo trade by Dallas was positively Welschian)
Bradley comes into tonight’s contest shooting a career high 43% from 3-point land. He remains a shooting guard in a point guard’s body with a poor assist to turnover ratio, on a team that nevertheless generates a lot of assists. Both Evan Turner and Isaiah Thomas far outpace him in dishing out the dimes. (Even the Celtics bigs, David Lee and Jared Sullinger, have better passing stats). Keep an eye on Bradley as the season progresses. He’s on a very reasonable contract for the “new CBA” that everyone keeps predicting. And with the way he’s playing right now, his value may never be higher.
The Celtics have blown a lot of teams out, and have been blown out a few times. They’re a strange team without a superstar to provide a stable offensive output. As we saw in last year’s playoff – Isaiah Thomas can be a frightening offensive live wire or he can sabotage his team’s offense with bad shots. They’re 4th in SRS (Cavs are currently 7th) because they play great defense and when their offense clicks, it’s high octane. They’re not great shooters so they’re a bit awkward in the Houston Rocket mold. Their style of play is very dissimilar from the Cavaliers – who rely on superstar play, slow pace, and outstanding outside shooting (Cavs are 4th in TS% – without Kyrie Irving – while the Celtics are 20th)
As for tonight’s contest, I fully expect the Bean Town crowd to boo Kevin Love because…Boston. And Jae Crowder apparently has an axe to grind with J.R. Smith. Count me in as one that would love to see the rise of a new Eastern Conference villain for LeBron to vanquish. I miss the days of Arenas, Sheed, and the thug offices of Stevenson and Stephenson. With Joakhim Noah and Derrick Rose looking nursing home bound, and the remaining Heatles staying friendly with LeBron, I hereby pass the torch on to Crowder and Co. If last season’s playoff was any indication, the Celtics are going to play as rotten as the referees will allow. And don’t be fooled by Brad Stevens’ choir boy face – he’s got his fingerprints all over this team’s style of play. He also works for Danny Ainge.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN1gfT2IUuo#t=1m
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SV1KIkaElvg
Love burns KO with the up-and-under.
We Need to move the damn ball, bout LEbron ISO
Fred just said Love handles!!!
I so hate that shot..
After lots of good passing in the second half
Cavs seem to be having a difficult time corralling rebounds…
Delly in for Mo. Good move by Blatt.
At this point they keep Mo in early in the 4th so Delly is rested for the end of the game.
Sounds like Shump went back to the lockerroom…
Please be ok please be ok..
For a star of his caliber, Lebron ALWAYS complains on almost every call or non call my gosh.
Same with his brother Dwade, and those wade stares haha..
Shump is now going to the locker. Damn it!
WHy is Shump out? I missed that
It’s early but whoever posted that first to 80 points win is commenter of the day to me ;)
Great strip of Thomas by Shump!
Flashback to when Shump was getting strips in da playoffs, shows how I’ve missed his defense
So is KLove not going to play on the 4th again??
Ok after this timeout the next 5 mins is crucial if we want to rest our starters early
Cavs keep up this intensity for another couple of minutes and Brad will wave the white flag…
Or envoke his thug play.
We have 14 assists. Doing better there
Yeah, only five in the first half…
Shump is back….to back…threes!
That was a nice move by James on the cut. Lets Go CAVS!
that lefty lay-in by LeBron was so sick. i jumped outta my couch
Aaaiiiirrr Baaaallll (that was for Kelly)
Welcome back Shump !
He looks really good in that spot!
Celtics getting way too many offensive rebounds off of all their bricks.
They have 11. I was surprised by that
Shump-tastic!
YOu got to defend him
The refs just stares at RJ
Great quarter by the Cavs!
Great last two games by Timo too.
Mo making up for his mistake! Is Shump OK?
What makes you ask?
Cavs are 100% at free throw line. Of course only 8 times .
LOL at Celtics’ transition D. Let’s finish this and move on so Celtics fans can continue with their miserable lives.
That’s at least a no call.
RJ hit one!
We are so much better when we move the ball
Not exactly a great 3 attempt there, Mo….
Nice block Love rJ!!!
Damn it! Bradley
I like that they are beating them up inside with Mozzy…
Mozgov having an up and down game but I’d say a net positive. Good sign
They didn’t look for him much in the first half… but they seemed to prioritize getting the ball inside to him in the second. His D has been pretty good all game…
Finally Mo finally!
Moz is rolling.
Mo has got to hit those wide open threes when he’s got like five seconds to set up for them… smh…
He heard you! lol
Good to see… I want Mo to succeed…
Too bad that pass didn’t lead Olynyk into the basket support.
Indeed…
Great turnaround J by Moz…
WOW Mosgov playing some defense
Please bench Mo. He stinks!
NicE!!!! JR So hilarious Crowder failed to copy that shot. Getting a rhythm now.
JR SWISH!!
Nice little run here!
I don’t know if playing this slow is part of the game plan for the Cavs but it kind of plays into their hands.
All they want to do is to keep it close and try to pull it out at then end.
But I still think that the Cavs can play faster.
I think you have a point. Even GS doesn’t kick it into gear until mid 3rd quarter and go nuclear late 4th quarter
Nice FU dunk from Lebron
Crowder might have had a beef on the bump. But HA FRICKIN’ HA.
Hit a couple more now, JR
Uh-oh. Stevens just called an anger timeout. (He’s too calm for rage TO’s.) Cavs should be sure to hold onto their limbs for the next several minutes.
LOL… exactly what I was thinking Phil…
Much needed three from KLove…
AC needs to hang it up. The synapses aren’t firing like they used to.
//banned//
Cavs sure don’t look angry…
How many offensive fouls does this midget Thomas get away with?
Their entire team gets away with a lot of chippy crap. Hilarious that their homer announcers always accuse the opponents of fouling.
Crowder is a sneaky good actor
Dray Green is the most unlikable player in league history, but this Celtics team is overall the most unlikable in the league.
Can’t make difficult passes to Moz.
Way too ambitious a touchdown attempt to Moz
We are getting beat by Thomas? Seriously?
Like the inside game between Love and Moz… more please!
So let’s back up and give Crowder more room to shoot?
After listening to Fred and AC so much, and then having to listen to Heinsohn and ?? (doesn’t matter), it shows how much better our guys are.
Instead of lie detectors… authorities should just be able to rent out Will Smith as that African doctor… “Tell de truth! TELL DE TRUTH!!!”
That accent is horrible… cannot take him seriously with that.
Finally Moz converts one!
It’s not often someone gets the bounce on a dunk attempt.
Pretty high bounce!
CLE with 9 TOs in the 1st half. LBJ with 4 of them.
CLE playing great defense, but giving up offensive rebounds to BOS.
But, as they mentioned in the broadcast, the Celtics have only converted for two points (that bucket at the end by Thomas) off of those turnovers…
Everyone else not named Lebron or Love playing horribly and not productive. No excuse. Andy has the 3rd highest in pts and that is 4 points.
Andy has a couple of buckets and rebounds… just needs to play better D on Lee… Also, Moz has 5 boards and two blocked shots in limited minutes… they haven’t really gotten the ball to him like they did in Orlando…
You do realize I was not ripping on Andy at all?. 2 pts a player for starters isn’t going to cut it. It’s a fair criticism
I know… just pointing out that not everyone is playing horribly…
I respectfully disagree after viewing box score. Lebron and Love need more help offensively. That’s ok though. Not always going to agree 100% of the time.
Box score doesn’t tell the whole story… they’ve been playing some great D on the Celtics as well… Just don’t think it’s fair to paint them with the horrible brush…
Also, Cavs just 1-8 from three… not all contested…
Be nice for the Cavs to get JR going… only 2 shots for him in 15 minutes on the court.
Maybe he shoulda apologized to Chowdah… jk…
LOL… we do know that JR can succumb to the Jedi mind tricks!
Cavs not moving the ball as well, but Celtics are playing the passing lanes tough…
Okay. I’m going home. My prediction: Cavs win the third quarter by 8 plus and win the game by 10.
Also, Jae Crowder will poop his pants while being fouled by Delly.
Good call JoeyB… I’ll subscribe to all of it…
It’s funny how Delly has this national media rep as ‘reckless’ (code for ‘dirty’). Crowder deserves that rep more than Delly, can’t stand that guy.
True. Delly is more higher attention due to he is on the Eastern Conference Champions team and Crowder is not
Sloppy end to the half… what else is new?