Live Thread: Cavs vs. Wizards (#LueAgain)

With just four games remaining in the regular season, the Cavaliers welcome back Head Coach Tyronn Lue after a nine game absence for health reasons. The team went 8-1 under interim Coach Larry Drew, but it has been reported that he was following the script laid out by Lue before he left. Ty has also been present for practices and shoot-arounds here and there over the past week.

Now that they have their coach back, all the Cavs are missing are their point guards. George Hill is still out with an ankle sprain, and now Jose Calderon will miss at least tonight’s game with some hamstring soreness. In response, Lue is inserting rookie Cedi Osman into the starting lineup. He’s also keeping Jeff Green as a starter, which will apparently be the case from here on out… even into the post-season.

Tyronn Lue says Cedi Osman will start tonight with Hill and Calderon out (meaning LeBron James will have plenty of ball handling duties vs WAS). He also said he plans to go with a starting front court of LeBron, Kevin Love and Jeff Green when the playoffs open up.

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 5, 2018

Obviously, there will be some dissenting views on whether or not this is a good idea. However, the Cavs are still 7-3 when Green starts, and he does have a knack for guarding star players well (i.e. DeMar DeRozan twice recently). Still, I hope Green starting does not mean he has a green light to shoot more threes…

The Wizards are struggling mightily, having lost six of their last eight games to fall to the 7th seed (if the playoffs started today). They did get John Wall back three games ago, yet they lost the last two contests, with Wall shooting just 9-27 from the field since he returned. The Cavs should be able to take advantage of Wall’s rustiness, although it may be a sloppy game without Hill or Calderon to keep order on the offensive side.

Prediction: The Cavs eek out a win in Lue’s first game back… edging the Wiz in an ugly game 95-89.

Catch all the action starting in just a few minutes (8pm EST) on TNT… and as always, chime in below.