Live Thread: Cavs vs. Thunder
2018-11-07
Buckle up, Cavs fans. On paper, this looks like another winnable game against an ailing squad. Do-everything guard, Russell Westbrook is out with a bum ankle, and noted Cavs killer, Dennis Schröeder looks to start for OKC. The umlaut is also known as Schroeder’s cat around these parts, because he only seems to play well when we’re looking. The rest of the time, he stinks.
In other news, the Cavs roll out a new starting lineup in the absence of Sam Dekker who’s out 2-4 weeks with his own ankle sprain. According to FSO’s Fred McLeod, Cedi Osman will move to the power forward spot, and J.R. Smith will start at the two. Now if only the Cavs could start Nwaba instead of Hood, we could really have something.
OKC is coming off five straight wins after losing their first four. They’ve beaten solid teams in that stretch too, with victories over the Clippers, Hornets, and Pelicans.
The Thunder start Paul George, Steven Adams, Jerami Grant, and second year man Terrance Ferguson. Grant is playing the best ball of his career, averaging 11 and 5, and he will block some shots. Key to stopping him? Make him a three point shooter where he’s averaging just 25%.
Of course, perennial all-star, Paul George will lead the way for them, with splits of 23/7/4, along with a whopping 2.6 steals per game, which helps OKC rank eighth in NBA defense. Steven Adams and substitute Nerlens Noel will kill the Cavs on the o-boards if Cleveland lets them. Those two are averaging seven offensive rebounds a game. With a smaller Cavs lineup, boxing out will be key.
Stopping Patrick Patterson (41%)Â and Alex Abrines (35%)Â from getting hot from three off the bench will be the next challenge.
Cavs have a shot if they make it hard for George and not too easy for the umlaut and the shooters. They also must take care of the ball, which terrifies me a little with George guarding Cedi.
Let’s hope TT continues his stellar play and JR keeps balling out for a trade. Go Cavs.
Dear God this ESPN studio show is just idiotic.
Tyson Chandler paying immediate dividends with tip backs at the end of the game.
I would not be happy if I were paying Wiggins the max. At all. They should have let him walk.
WTF got into Derrick Rose. His shooting is insane. How did the Cavs get him a year too… early?
Read my mind.
Playing at an insanely high level in this game and recently.
I expect his shooting to tank, since he’s never shot threes well. When it does tank, he’ll be back to poison to an offense.
Derrick Rose is clearly the only team player and leader of the team. KAT and Wiggins only pass to each other, and Butler and Gibson only pass to each other…. it’s pathetic to see grown men acting like this.
Can’t wait till Mark Jackson is coaching this Lakers’ team
He is a good defensive coach. However the lakers were something like 12th in d efficiency last year under Walton. A caveat to that was that they had Lopez and Randle all year, and nance for much of it. That helped I think, though McGee has been great defensively for them. Other than that they still have Lonzo, KCP, Ingram, Kuzma, and Hart. Maybe Rondo, Lance, and Beasley have been terrible defenders. LBJ is going to coast of course. But I thought they would be better than this defensively. Dunno. Haven’t watched much of them, but would be interested to… Read more »
Definitely happy with what Sexton did tonight…. there were rookie mistakes, but his ability to finish around the rim was so much better tonight.
Biggest flaw I saw tonight was his inability to move the ball in rhythm when they trap the pick. It also doesn’t help that TT is the roll man most of the time, but he’s gotta just let it go in rhythm and let the 4 on 3s work.
He got swallowed by Adams a few times, missed a layup in transition, had some pretty costly turnovers, and took some quick midrangers that clanked bad late. But he has seemed to improve somewhat on finishing. He is definitely very fast. Needs to tighten the handle and maybe learn some hesitation moves, but I agree there has been some progress. He did get utterly torched by Schroeder and like Mike noted below he doesn’t know how to slide over screens, but most rookies don’t. He also doesn’t have great footwork on man to man d yet. Sort of negates his… Read more »
I read around 13 negative statements in your post about his play…. it didn’t sound negative, it was negative LOL.
Ha. Fair. I mean he was better tonight. Think maybe he needs to continue to start. Though if Clarkson actually looks for people like tonight maybe that pairing with Sexton is less problematic.
anyone watching the coming of age of leVert on brooklyn.. a 20th pick in 1st round 3 yrs ago.. another little gem just waiting to be discovered.. why do the cavs never have such a nice surprise in any of their picks?
8.2.. 12.2.. 20 pts/gm
anyone think young bull can follow suit?
Wiggins became Love in 2015. Good. I do wonder if they would have thought they had zero shot at LBJ whether they would have picked Embiid and kept him. I know they were high on him, but he was a huge risk. That in itself would have likely precluded LBJ as Embiid didn’t have as much value as a more safe pick in Wiggins. LBJ would know that and would know it would likely be more difficult to trade him for a star. Likely would mean no love. Before that, Kyrie was a hit. Waiters was a miss, but they… Read more »
Basically you can’t find gems if you don’t have picks. Second rounders do hit, but it seems rare (based on how many second rounders are picked every year versus how many become players for long term in the NBA) to find one outside the early second. And we traded away our fair share of second rounders during the James years too.
Drafted him late in fantasy. He’s a stud.
https://twitter.com/SpinDavies/status/1060361765006032901?s=20
He’s an offensive system unto himself. Just dump it to him and play off of him…. especially with the 2nd team.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..!! love that big guy..
soft hands.. good closer.. makes his FTs..
Cleans up the defensive glass.
Really really really sucks this is the year the draft odds change.
Oladipo is so sick.
Sexton is very very raw…and doesn’t appear he has an outside shot outside of 18 feet which is weird for a point guard or even two guard. Clarkson is solid but tries to do way too much. JR is who he is…same with Korver…think Cavs need to develop plays and rotations highlighting players strengths, whatever those may be. It was exciting for few minutes there but team still doesn’t know how to close.
He is better on js when set I think or when stopping his forward momentum in a straight line. Think the way he brings the ball up causes him trouble when moving sideways and pulling up. May throw off his aim and rhythm. But yeah he is real raw on both sides of the ball.
The second part of your comment is what I have been frustrated with. Not sure what the coaching staff spent their summer doing, but it didn’t seem to be designing an offense.
I think rather than just setting a predictable pin down for Korver or jr we need to use their gravity more. For instance maybe fake a double pindown and have one of the players slip the second screen so that when Korver gets the ball he has a roller to throw a bullet pass to on the way to the hoop or hit the roller instead of kk. Or have a weakside cutter while that action is happening so that while the d is focused on the place where ball is presumably going you might catch them off guard with… Read more »
Multiple actions off a set leading to second and third options!? You’re nucking futs!
I mean if we can imagine these things….. why can’t, nevermind. But you really have to install and practice things like that in the off-season. Precise execution of screens, timing, and cutting with purpose is crucial in actions like that. Tough to implement in the middle of a season.
I do wonder though. Remember that quote from an anonymous source inside the Cavs lockerroom years back, maybe in 2015 that said a lot of the personnel on this team literally can’t remember plays?
Actually nevermind. That was dumb. Almost nobody from then is on this team anymore.
They definitely have the pick man dive off of that action you’re describing…. sometimes they hit the roll man, sometimes they don’t. something weak side would be nice as a reaction to the roll man receiving the pass and drawing the weakside help would be cool, but then you’re asking a big man to make a difficult pass to a cut man.
Nance is capable. Love obviously is. Not sure about zizic or tt.
Off pindowns? Huh, guess I haven’t noticed that a ton, but maybe because they rarely get a pass quick enough. Of course like you say adding motion weakside would help since rolls can be shut down. Often it looks to me like we have strong side action and then rarely anything going on weakside. Certainly we have few set actions that actually flow into set secondaries or set tertiary actions if the initial option is stopped. Really why at the beginning of the season I thought we might struggle to generate a lot of easy shots if we didn’t have… Read more »
They hit it tonight. They also missed it tonight late… Korver missed TT on the dive.
Good to know. Think it likely is tough to pull off that type of action consistently without either a lot of continuity between players and/or a great passing team/lineup 1-5. Sort of have to know where guys will be and what they are going to do to get the timing right. Not sure these guys know each other that well.
Exactly… a lot of mistakes are based on lack of chemistry, rather than lack of skill or any perceived “selfishness”…. granted there’s some of that too.
That’s exactly my position…. they don’t know each other at all…. thrown together at the last minutes last year, and a completely different system with no LBJ. It’s just gonna be ugly for awhile, but hopefully professional pride will allow them to work through it.
AGREE WITH YOU BUCK ——LIKE YOUR SAYING ABOUT “ZZ”———“THROW HIM THE DEEP END –HE CAN SWIM “—–HOPE THIS OPENED THE COACHES EYES –( SHOULD HAVE ALREADY BEEN OPENED )—
Necessity will be the mother of Zizic’s invention: we are down two bigs, and the two others are garbage men with one move between them. Zizic has GOT to play. Unless he ate Drew’s dog or tried to date his daughter, he has to be the next man up…right?
i would strongly suggest they try to win at least 1 of the next 3 games.. after that it’s a very ugly gauntlet till xmas…
not a horendous showing, however.. let the big Z loose.. he can play
Yes. At minimum he is very useful against a team like okc. One that maybe doesn’t have great shooters and plays a traditional big. He should play alot in those matchups.
Yes. That would be ideal.
LAST 2 GAMES THE CAVS HAVE COMPETED –GOTTEN BETTER—I AM NOT COMPLAINING– COMPARED TO THE OTHER RECENT GARBAGE WE WITNESSED
SEXTON IS 19—-ONLY 10 GAMES INTO NBA ——THERE WILL BE MANY “BUMPS ” ——HOPE DREW KEEPS HIM IN THE STARTING ROLE
Well they made it competitive. Sexton had some moments in the first half but he was abused by Schroeder, had some costly turnovers, and Clarkson was much better at finidng people without slowing down the offense. Some of those Sexton midrangers in the fourth were brutal.
Man…. Good fight… Rookie mistakes, injuries, lack of chemistry just too much to overcome against a great team.
YOU BEAT ME TO IT NATE
Clarkson with an awesome game. Near triple double.
1-9 from three though. Yikes.
At least he was shooting them? I dunno. He definitely forced a few. But he really was looking for people tonight and not just as a bailout. It actually paid off a few times.
How did he get eight assists? Were they legit? Was that a career high?
Yes they were. Drove and dished. Drove and kicked out. Think he hit some rollers. They weren’t just his typical last minute bailout passes. He appeared to be looking for people. His shooting notwithstanding, I would be very very happy if he continued to look for people like he did this game, especially because he is really the only guy on the cavs that can frequently get deep into the paint without a ton of help or spacing. Sexton is showing some of that too, but he doesn’t have the wiggle or hesitation game Clarkson has yet. Dunno if it… Read more »
https://twitter.com/MZavagno11/status/1060357007646093312
I agree with Nate. Clarkson actually had a decent floor game.
JR was a killer…5-17, 3-11 from three, 4 turnovers…
I don’t disagree. He had a bizarre and awful first half. Provided a brief spark in the fourth and then chucked up some bad shots on nearly back to back two point possessions.
Man sexton just doesn’t know what to do sometimes
Yeah. I think it would have really helped his development had we installed an offensive system in the off-season. I just don’t think you can ask him to run whatever you would call what we’re running.
We really don’t seem to have much of acny actions save for single high pick and rolls, the intial action of high horns double screen, and the occasional basic pindown for Korver. While these things are going on, there is literally nothing else going on. Usually if that initial screen doesn’t do anything, there are no further set actions. Just improv.
Not sure we needed that quick a three by Clarkson. That goaltend will do it
Clarkson just shoot it!!!
Yeah would rather he just drive if he is going to hesitate. The hesitation and pullup seemed forced
Two possession game. It is technically possible
Clarkson anither dime.
they seem to be playing a bit less poorly.. not a terrible performance against a decent team that has won 5 straight
Without their best player.
Reach in not called I Adams. Agree with Carr, pass to Korver in the corner get the ball back
19 Cav turnovers so far…that ain’t going to cut it…
Zizic the best cav tonight
Aside from Magic Clarkson
Oh Sexton. That may just about do it
Sexton gets picked way, way, way too much…
Dumb foul jr sexton and jr screwed up this run.
Jr giveth and jr taketh away. We have seen that a few times before in some very painful situations
Korver wide open 3 miss
Damn really needed that kk trey. Danger.time
Don’t love that jr three. Sexton with a drive he needs to finish
Didn’t love that three by JR…nobody anywhere near the basket…
Dang Sexton blew by and couldn’t finish
Great drive jc. Once he is turning the corner he is going all the way.
Clarkson finish!!!!
Jr chucking again… :(
Nice thought by JC but that pass was a bit much for zizic in traffic.
That call on JC on the phantom Schroeder foul was one of the worst calls I have seen this season. That was legit awful. Unfortunately officials call that more often than not because it is so close to contact they can’t actually see. So easy for offensive player to flip and kick their legs out. Smart play by Schroeder. Bad call by the officials. Unfortunate for us.
Thats why you fall in them and plant your elbow in their belly every time they do it.
Get a flagrant 2 for that these days
Nah just a flagrant 1.
Umlaut flop
If cavs wanna win this, the should bench sexton.
JR bad shot
Heat check
MAYBE DREW HAS MADE SOME PROGRESS WITH THE MATURATION OF CLARKSON —LET’S HOPE SO
I think he needed to get away from the Lakers so He Could Learn How To Win. Now he knows, time for his triumphant return…
Clarkson finish!!!! But Sexton misses swing pass
Adams pushed him into him Schroder!