Live Thread: Cavs vs. Lakers (#TheBigShortage)

On Sustainability Awareness Night at the Q, the Cavs will get their first idea of whether or not their big man situation is sustainable. With the season (career?) ending ACL injury to backup paint patroller Chris “Birdman” Andersen, the Cavaliers are now about as thin at the five as they are at the one. Sure, they’ve got plenty of options given the small-ball lineups they can run with, and there’s still decent rotation of big bodies (TT, CFrye and KLove in a pinch) they can throw out there. Fortunately, they also have the NBA equivalent of a Swiss Army knife in LeBron James who can play the five just as well as the one (and everything in between), serving as the ultimate safety net. Still, the team’s adventures with backup PG experiments will likely now also extend to backup C scenarios until David Griffin can devise another alternative.

Speaking of big men, their opponent tonight features an old familiar face at the five… the Russian Bear, Timofey Mozgov. The former Cavs center returns to Cleveland with his new team, the Los Angeles Lakers, and is having a decent year for the purple and gold averaging 8.5 points, 5.0 rebounds and 0.5 blocks in 21.6 minutes per game. Before the game, the Cavs will take a special moment to award Mozzy his NBA Championship ring for his contributions to last year’s team. Ty Lue, for one, sounds like he misses having the big fella around…

“He’s one of my favorite guys,” Tyronn Lue said following Friday’s team practice. “For a guy to be a starter and play such a big role and have an impact on our team the way he did two years ago and then in the playoffs last year not being able to play, but he was the first guy off the bench cheering, running onto the floor, jumping up and down when guys hit threes, you just love to have guys on your team like that. We miss him around here.”

Other familiar faces with the Lakers are former Herculoid (and interim Golden State head coach) Luke Walton, and local product (and son of legendary Cav Larry Nance) Larry Nance, Jr. Walton has the Lakers back in the realm of respectability this season, and even got them out to a 10-10 start before struggling through an eight game losing streak. They turned things around last night against the Sixers, but that might make for some weary legs in a back-to-back against an extremely well rested Cavs team (looking at you Kyrie). Nance Jr. has also found a resurgence in his game of late, now that he’s healthy. He had 11 boards against Philly last night, and had possibly the dunk of the year so far in his previous game against the Nets…

The Dunk of the Year from every angle #LakeShow pic.twitter.com/OQOUNsHbld

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) December 15, 2016

As mentioned, the Cavs should be incredibly ready for this game. They haven’t played since Wednesday, but LeBron James and Kevin Love haven’t since Tuesday. And, Kyrie has had an entire week off (practice notwithstanding), having not played since the win over Charlotte last Saturday. Despite the loss of Birdman in practice, the Cavs will have their full complement of other players available. It’s possible in the short term that the team could call up C Eric Moreland from the Canton Charge, especially on the heels of the block party he threw last night against the 87ers…

The Cavs have won their last four meetings with the Lakers (every game in the LeBron 2.0 era), and this will be the first time they’ll be seeing them in the post-Kobe era. One thing to watch for is whether LBJ will vault past Moses Malone into 8th place on the NBA’s all time scoring list. He needs 28 more points to do so.

Probable starting lineup for the Cavs: Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, LeBron James, Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson. And for the Lakers: D’Angelo Russell, Nick Young, Luol Deng, Julius Randle, Timofey Mozgov.

Prediction: The rested Cavs get up big on the weary Lakers and roll 117-105.

Catch all the action starting at 7:30 on Fox Sports Ohio.