CtB Trifecta: Caps, Preview, and Live Thread (or, RICK ROLLING)
2023-01-12Good evening CtB!
Time to clean out the backlog and get back to business! Some random thoughts heading into tonight’s action…
1. Quickcap: Cavs 112, Suns 98 (or, Pro-Caris, Pro-Neto Agendas Victorious)
The story of this game was about the bench gang of Raul Neto, Caris LeVert, and Lamar Stevens clamping the game down on defense and putting away the hospital Phoenix Suns in the Valley of the Sun, 112-98. Those (me) who have been clamoring for Neto backup PG minutes have won the war of ideas. He’s been playing winning basketball for the past couple of weeks, and it would behoove Coach J.B. Bickerstaff to get over his trust issues with Neto and put some respect on the man’s game. Any time the point of attack defense is lacking, Neto should be in the game to change the dynamics.
Even though the counting stats don’t pop off, Caris LeVert may have had his best game as a Cav from an impact standpoint with a +28 plus/minus in 28 minutes off the bench against Phoenix. He’s been trending in the right direction over the past few weeks (Utah notwithstanding) looking more decisive with the ball (6-10 shooting, seven assists to one turnover), and being extremely active on defense (three steals). After some cursory research, Caris is comfortably a top 10 third offensive option in the NBA. This is relevant given all of the trade talk surrounding LeVert. Trying to improve upon LeVert means trying to acquire a player too good to be available for cheap: guys such as Bradley Beal, Jimmy Butler, Malcolm Brogdon, Michael Porter Jr., or CJ McCollum. Given the smoke regarding Tim Hardaway Jr., it’s safe to say any player the Cavs do acquire in a LeVert trade is highly likely to be a lesser player that they’re banking on “fit” to make up for the loss in talent/skill. To that, yours truly says “that’s some bozo shit!”
2. Quickcap: Cavs 114, Jazz 116 (or, Fat Cats, the Sequel)
The Cavs fell into their “fat cats” trap in this game, getting torched on the boards (outrebounded 54-37) and playing selfish basketball (outassisted 21-18). There were bright spots starting off with Donovan Mitchell entertaining the former home crowd with a 40-burger (46 points total). Also, Lamar Stevens had a great game off the bench and guarding Lauri Markkanen. But Cedi Osman was awful off the bench, NBA Champion Kevin Love had an ice cold night shooting, and Caris LeVert got refballed into oblivion. J.B. could’ve helped sticking with some more Love for rebounding and some more Neto for perimeter defense. All in all, it was a game the Cavs deserved to lose and did.
3. RICKY RUBIO IS BACK
ESPN Sources: After a full year of rehabilitating an ACL tear in his left knee, Cavaliers guard Ricky Rubio is targeting a return against the Trail Blazers on Thursday. Rubio will practice today, and if all goes well, play in Portland tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/wB5RzNhRdy
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 11, 2023
WELCOME BACK KING! LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo
4. NBA Champion Kevin Love goes home
The Cavs travel to the City of Roses to take on the Portland Trail Blazers in some late night basketball action. It’s a homecoming game for Love so hopefully he can get his shot going in the friendly confines of Moda Center. This season the Blazers are the poster child of mediocrity. The Cavs need to handle their business and it starts on the defensive end forcing turnovers against the turnover-happy Blazers. Ricky’s back, the squad is deep, it’s time to get excited about the second half of the season, Go Cavs!
great win! had to rely on JA to play 39 minutes because Love has just been in a massive funk recently. Bench played sparingly, I think this is how it’ll go. Cedi, Stevens, and Love will only be getting spot minutes depending on game flow, performance, etc. Caris and Rubio will be the main bench guys and may close out games over Okoro (who has been solid as hell of late)
Both DG and Mobes were terrific in the 4th and Caris came in with about 5 minutes to go and played really solid defense on Dame.
Glad to see I’m not the only one that thought Neto should have gotten some minutes on Dame. It would have made life much more difficult for him.
I wonder if Rubio will play in the next game or if they’ll hold him back as a precaution? It will be a reunion of sorts in Minny.
It isn’t a back to back (for us, anyway, it is for them). I guess we’ll see how cautious we are. Likely will depend on how he feels & how the knee reacts.
Durant is out a month. Brown is gonna miss a week or two with Boston, and the Bucks have been struggling lately without Middleton. We have a tough slate coming up the next two weeks (at Minny, NO, at Grizz, GSW, at NY, at Hou, at OKC) with 5/7 on the road, but we could gain ground.
GOOD “W”—PORTLAND HAS BEEN TOUGH RECENTLY TO GET A WIN——STILL SOME CONCERNS—IS NETO EVER GOING TO GET MIN’S AGAIN—–IS CEDI AGAIN IN THE “JB DOGHOUSE “—-IS KLOVE GOING TO RETURN TO LAST YEARS FORM—-IS DWADE GOING TO GET// STAY HEALTHY—WILL WE EVER SEE ‘GLASS ” WINDLER PUT ON A CAVS UNIFORM // PLAY AGAIN —–WILL OUR 3 PT DEFENSE EVER IMPROVE —–BIGGEST CONCERN —–WILL ” THE MRS NOMADS HONEYDO LIST EVER SHRINK “……..” MORE BEER PLEASE ” !!
It’s posts like this that make you a CTB treasure, Nomad.
1) Neto min? Not many. As I have been saying for months, he’s a capable 3rd PG but not in the rotation once Rubio is back. If we are healthy.
Maybe some brief/niche minutes if we need an on-ball pest or situational D.
2) Cedi dog house? No, he’s just somewhere between 9th-11th in the rotation. With Ricky back, there are not a lot of 2 guard minutes available. Mitchell with DG/Rubio at point. There will be some Rubio + DG minutes. LeVert is rightly ahead of him on the depth chart (better defender, better creator, better 3PT). As is a healthy Wade (better 3PT, better size, better D). At best, he is the #3 SG and #3 SF. And both Okoro & Stevens are better defenders (and younger).
Again, situational minutes when we need offensive spark. DG/DM/EM/JA + RR/CL/DW/KL is our top 8. If healthy, they are gonna play regularly.
IO/LS/CO are more situational/matchup/hot hand dependent. And we are trying to develop Ice. Llama brings toughness and the abilty to defend forwards. Okoro is our best on ball defender vs wings & guards. Cedi the better shooter.
Neto is firmly 12th. Lopez 13th. Theoretical Windler competes with Cedi.
Love? Last year was magical. And started off great before hurting the thumb this year. I hope that is it. Still rebounding well. But it has to get better than this 1 for 20 stretch.
Wade? Am starting to think he just cannot handle big minutes. And has some Windler in him. Still, he cannot be the long term solution at SF (unless he seriously levels up). I think he should be fine in more limited minutes. He and Love can help each other in that regard.
Windler? Sadly, it does not look like it.
DG & Mobley both struggled for much of this game, but their composure in the last was the difference. Add some Mitchell clutch magic and that was that.
Mobley rested a lot through the 1st & 2nd due to foul trouble, so JA soaked up his minutes. DG benefited from Rubio’s minutes. The beauty of a healthy squad.
Typo, Mobley benched 2nd & 3rd, not 1st & 2nd. Too many holiday cocktails, sorry crew.
17 points in 23 minutes, though.
slight setback for Dean:
https://www.cleveland.com/cavs/2023/01/cleveland-cavaliers-dean-wade-suffers-minor-setback-during-rehab-from-shoulder-injury.html
At least it was not related to the shoulder.
He was a week away from returning and twisted his ankle.
Yeah. Possible silver lining is extra time for shoulder.
TNT Crew said Cavs have the best recird in the league when trailing at half, 9-9.
Anyone else were worried everytime Damian had iso on Caris in crutch time.. I was having PTSD from the last game against Clarkson.
I was with you.
Clarkson had his personal ref
The Blazers were a bit 3 happy in the 4th and went 2/11
Thank God.. they were 7/11 (64%) before then… that’s crazy.
Neto gets a DNP. I get rubio is back…but something tells me this win is easier with neto in lillard some of the time. Honestly we could probably relieve the burden on everyone by just using the roster we have normally
I agree.. he always adds value while on the floor, especially on the defensive end.
I’m keeping Caris. EOS
Here here
For the future? How much cap space do you want to give him? He’s at $19 mill this year, doubt he’s taking less on some new deal, more likely $22-25 mill/ year. Keep in mind that he’s not been injured (yet) this season, but he has a huge injury history, all through college, too. (also possibly in HS, I don’t know) He’s also a SG, which the Cavs are fat at. The minutes they’ve played him at the 3 this season were pretty terrible.
Right, but that is another issue.
I was more responding to whoever claims that Caris is unplayable. He has turned into the crunch time stopper, and does a good job at it other than when a ref decides to steal the game.
If the Cavs re-sign Caris I will commit ritual Seppuku. I can’t watch him dribble into a triple team for 23 seconds anymore.
Garland goes into big boy money next season so that’s 90M+ committed to the core 4. Also committed to Okoro, Wade, and Rubio for 20M. Koby will earn his paycheck trying to fill the rest of the roster.
Good win. Nice poise. Washes the taste of last game out of our mouthes. Great poise. Having Allen helps a ton (24/10/6). Mobley with a big 4th to finish 17/9/3. DG with a nice 4th as well, 20 + 20 dimes. Spida being amazing late, 26/5/5.
And Rubio is back!
3 players with 20+ points, all starters in double digits and Rubio almost with 9 pts
Mobley had 17. Almost 4.
We get Wade back and Kev out of the deep freeze and we are in business. Ice with a big 4th quarter triple tonight as well.
Okoro hit our only triple of the 4th.. we went 1-3..
I glad we didn’t just jack them up, we went to the rim..8-11 in the restricted zone.
Got to give Caris some props for making Dame’s crunch time difficult.
Allen gets my JYD for play g almost the whole second half.
love it!
That’s the Cavs I like to see!
I swear victory on the road is so sweet.
Most complete 4th quarter all season.
Better than the big run in Phoenix ?
Yeah cause this Blazers team is much better on offense.
Cavs:
We went 11/18 from the field – 61% in the 4th..
Blazers:
7/19 (37%) from the field
2/11 from 2.. this helped.
Good point.. I mean we did withstand a 50 point game from Dame…
Loving the emotion shown by Donovan.
Just an incredible 4th
Game!
I’m glad I stayed up for this !
This is a lot of fun!
Spida spin!
SPIDA
Wowww !!! I don’t know how Mitchel made that last play.
That’s nice work
Mitchell is brilliant
He really is.. he was 5/8 from the field in that 4th.. real solid.
JB should be putting in Okoro for. Garland here.
Let’s defend..
F@#K YEAH. CARIS REVENGE NO MORE DAME
Mitchell so damned good. Huge rebound and kick. Then just a super athletic finish.
Now if we can just avoid a 7 point play here…..
That was a not a good lob by DG but I was like pls don’t F this easy 2-1 up.
Hell yeah. Nice adjustment Mitch
Nice little run here!
Brilliant!
Nice!
Nice defense … I’m just here screaming YESSS!!!!
Mobley huge this quarter
He’s my JYD.
Garland to Mitchell alley lay up!
Sick. Finish. Mitchell.
That almost trickled jn
Do we ever score after a JB TO?
That 3 almost bounced in.
Eventually
We need to have like 2 scores and 2 stops to build a nice lead
Let’s goooo!!!
Thank god the refs didn’t bite on that Dame bullshit
Won’t get that call. He’s no Jordan Clarkson.
Alright JB. A good TO to give DM a blow.
How about a nice play OOTO?
Don’t tempt fate.
You mean inbounding and doing nothing special? Thats how we roll baby!
Lol 😂
A nice alley oop like the 1st quarter would be nice.
No foul hunting for you, Dame!
I was like … please don’t call a foul on that Damian 3 point attempt.
Caris Karma!
Mobes
Garland with a huge fourth.
Moves with more killer D
Garland heating up
Gotta head off, I’ll watch the last bit on replay later. Good luck all.
How did Garland make that?
Let’s score now
8-2 since the BS overturn.
Nice defense!
Donovan !!!
Cavs playing with a ton of composure here.
Don for the lead
Allen cleaning it up
Feels like the longer this game goes, the better the Cavs will be. Is there enough time to overhaul?
This needs to be a win. Just need two stops in a row and for Nurkic to have to recuse himself with diarrhea
Good drawing the foul DG .. shox
5 on Simons.
This game is stupid.
Nurkic ever get a 3 sec call?