Live Thread: Cavs @ Spurs (#CollisionCourse)
2016-01-14
Aside from maybe Christmas Day (and the upcoming MLK Day matchup with the Warriors)… tonight’s game features one of the more anticipated clashes of the season, as the Cavs make their second stop in Texas to tangle with the San Antonio Spurs. As if this showdown needed more hype, both teams enter with lengthy winning streaks (eight games in a row for the Cavs and nine straight for the Spurs). The Spurs also just happen to be 22-0 at home to start this season (as they chase the all-time Western Conference record of 26-0 set by the Portland Trailblazers in 1977-78), and actually haven’t lost a game at the AT&T Center since the epic overtime thriller won by this Cavalier team last March 12th. In that 128-125 classic collision, the Cavs emerged victorious thanks to a career high 57 points from Kyrie Irving.
Since the last visit by the Cavs, most of the Spurs’ home games haven’t even been close contests. This year, they’re sporting a plus-16.1 points per game differential, just off the all time pace set by the 1995-96 Bulls (17.1). According to ESPN stats, San Antonio’s 93.5 points per 100 possessions allowed are on pace to be the fewest in the league in more than a decade, behind only their own mark of 91.6 set during the 2003-04 season.
Offensively, what makes the Spurs tough to defend is their ability to feature different scoring threats through their established system of sharing the ball. Tim Duncan, Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tony Parker have all taken turns as the high scorer in each of the last four games, and all four can prove to be difficult covers, as the Spurs’ offense flows wherever the team requires it.
The Cavs, meanwhile, have been able to diversify their own scoring lately with the return of a healthy Kyrie Irving. Even though he struggled a bit in his last two games (eight points on 3-of-15 shooting against the Sixers, and a rough shooting start against the Mavs), he came alive in the fourth quarter and overtime in Dallas to end up with 22 points and nine assists, and hit a deep dagger three to help cement the win. With Kyrie, LeBron, Kevin Love and a hot-shooting J.R. Smith, the Cavs have their own scoring threats to counter the Spurs.
With the Dallas victory, the Cavs have won eight consecutive games twice now this season, but they will need their best defensive effort to extend that streak to nine.
The probable starting lineup for the Cavs is: Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, LeBron James, Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson. And for the Spurs: Tony Parker, Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge and Tim Duncan.
The game will be nationally televised at 8pm EST on TNT, and can be heard on WTAM 1100.
This is a hard one to predict, as I think the Spurs, more than any other team, match up really well with the Cavs. I don’t think there will be nearly as much scoring as 10 months ago, but it should still be a very close game. I forecast that the wine & gold will pull this one out in the end 102-100.
ALL ABOARD! And GO CAVS!
I have a feeling I’ll be irate tomorrow night when we play Houston. How many times do you think Harden will flop his way into FT shots?
I saw a hilarious forum comment on ESPN. After everyone was congratzing Harden on 10K it said he probably allowed 100K.
Asking CtB or anyone that remembers that last game a year ago. Were the refs like this last year too? I want to say yes.
Kyrie was getting bullied and when he realized reds were lax shoulda been more shysical on d. Blatt set mos up to fail. Matchips were bad. And that three foul was phantom
Kyrie is coming back from an injury and the last thing we want is a more physical kyrie. He admitted he needed to be smarter about the contact he took. It was just a tough loss against the 2nd toughest team at home in the NBA. They will learn from it and move on.
Still utterly hate how this team uses love, or rather doesn’t use him. He has been money in the post, why not dump the ball down there to him and let him go to work with his hook more. He should be taking the second most shots every game, not our point guard. Really think this team would be much much much better if irving turned himself into a true point and used his ability to get to spots on the floor to set other people up. Sorry, but i want to see progress towards a smarter offensive team.
Yeah I don’t think he got the ball there once in the second half and I don’t even think he touched the ball in the third. But plenty of time to fix it.
I think a lot has to do with Spurs defense.
He also is a player who NEEDS the ball to be more engaged in the game. He’s not like JR who can get hot at any moment – Love needs consistent touches or else will get really passive.
Too many turnovers. And Kevin Love needs to do more, period. These 10 point games are ridiculous. 41% shooting from the field on the season? Wow
True. Cavs have cakewalk to Finals — Chris Broussard
What a JERK! If it’s a cakewalk then why is Eastern Conference leading over West.
Need to consider the bigger picture. 2-3 teams in the West are a threat to a Cavs title. No team in the east is taking 4-7 from them.
My POINT is he is a JERK saying it’s a cake walk. Let’s have a poll right now. Overwhelmingly people think he’s a jerk
Actually the noun would be worse than a jerk. Keeping it PG on here
Chris has his sauces, as long as its not HotSauce we are ok
Mark Cuban certainly would agree…
Chris Broussard loves to stir shit up! It’s why he’s employed.
He’s a jerk because he responded to this tweet. Of course the West teams will have a more difficult journey, but to highlight this is very doucher. Which is to be expected from this clown!
You can’t rely on Kyrie hitting crazy difficult shots to beat the Spurs or Warriors. The 57 point game by Kyrie last year was what it took to steal a game from the Spurs. You can’t rely on that. You have to hang your hat on defense and ball movement.
The ball movement just wasn’t there in the fourth quarter.
Exactly, you are 100% right.
Well guys, great work out there tonight. Despite losing, we come out of it in ok shape. See ya tomorrow for the recap.
And again the Cavs just got 12 points from the bench and the Spurs got 23 from Ginobili and West.
I’m beginning to think Blatt is bad at bench production & development
Stat of the game:
SA 12 turnovers leading to 6 points for Cavs
Cavs 18 turnovers leading to 19 points for Spurs
Really though if we get even just a below average game from Irving we win.
Nope… can’t turn the ball over like that against SA… period.
That is an interesting stat. Just yesterday, Shaq said the winner of this game is who has less turnovers of the two. It will be that much of a difference
A lot of those are poor calls by refs and just tip your hat tremendous team defense by the Spurs. Cavs played great in the first half, maybe their best all around half of the season thus far. Second half seemed like the legs got a bit heavy, the ball started to stick, and I really didn’t understand how Shump wasn’t used on Parker.
But you’re right 18 is too high.
I am not overreacting to this game, but I believe we need another capable body off the bench. Jefferson, as good as he s been, is more or less washed up. Mo provides offense but plays no D whatsoever. I would even go for Morris and have JR mentor him.
I do think we are going to go after someone before the deadline. I just don’t know who’s going to be willing to deal for what we’ve got to offer.
Thunder might give them Dion back…
Morris is very available I believe. If we have astrong enough environment for Jr, then its more than strong for Morris. also, he will be much closer to his brother.
Markieff is not the answer…
He is an answer.
I like morris’s game but having to worry about him AND JR plus whatever is going in with Mo worries me. Will Barton though… talk about scoring off the bench. Hes had a 30 pt game or two this season.
Yeah, but he is not at all available. Not to us.
The Nuggets are going no where fast. But ya, like I mentioned above, not sure what we have to give them at this point.
Plus, from all I have heard and read, JR is nothing but positive as apersonality for us. No bad vibes at all.
Ah, well. Cavs are still a work in progress. Not bad overall.
Irving was terrible. Oh well. He won’t be terrible next time.
Again 2 of our top 3 guys didn’t showed up like they should and the Cavs still had a chance, that’s great BUT it can’t continue to be like that if they want to win it all.
I really don’t care about tomorrow’s game. Rest everyone, no one cares about the stupid Rockets.
Let’s get a 2nd and 3rd motion on this. Rather our guys get rest & get ready for Golden State. Houston is a worthless game
Play Cunningham, R-Jeff, JFJ, AV, and Sasha the whole game.
I agree. Sit the big three. Love looked tired all second half. Let the dirty Rockets go against the B squad. Dont see it happening though. Its really hard to be comfortable doing what Pop does I think.
Rick Carlisle did it too
Here is where Blatt’s coaching comes in. He should rest at least one of the big 3 with Irving being the obvious choice. But I read somewhere that the Cavs said the last back to back was Irvings last mandatory sit. Hopefully common sense prevails.
I know they probably won’t, but I wish they’d go full Pop on the Rockets. Even if they had won this one. Sit every starter.
Well, I’ll say Kyrie’s shooting was off, Love still having trouble scoring, but we were really, really hampered by bad foul calls at bad times. Hard to get going when you get mauled and they call you for looking at them wrong. That being said, the Spurs only beat us by 4 on their home court when Kyrie couldn’t hit a bucket. Im not too upset. Losing still sucks though.
The difference was not the iso offense, because the Spurs did play iso ball all night too, it was Parker outexecuting Irving. I am confident that 5 months from now the opposite will be true, as Kyrie will shake his rust off and TP will wear down.
Sager: “Is it an injustice that the Spurs will probably only have one All Star?”
Tony Parker: “I don’t care about that. I only care about championships.”
Why they have stir stuff up but great remark from Parker
This game is over. I liked how Cavs played 1st half and hung in there in the 3rd. The lop-sided unbalanced officiating got in Cavs head and they fell apart in the end. It is understandable. Cavs learn MUCH from this. I hope these same refs and offensive calls is something Golden State have to contend with when they play them there.
Spurs are a great team. Hope they beat the crap out of the Warriors.
Kyrie played like garbage!
Kyrie is still coming back.
Well duh!!! I know he needs time to fix his broken shot.
He needs to get his legs back. Some off days, for getting in the practice gym and hitting the weights will pay huge dividends.
I’m blaming the new girlfriend. LoL That has to be IT! He hasn’t played great since he announced they were dating.
Bron seems too happy out there congratulating the Spurs…
Think he knows at the end of the day it’s just a regular season game – we got em when it matters most
Yeah Pop is real happy in his win.
He has a lot of respect for Pop and Duncan. And they reciprocate.
Heck with that! I want salty LeBron! ;)
No issue with that. He can respect Duncan/Parker/Ginobli, as TNTs stats illuminate are the winningest trio in NBA history, and Leonard is his toughest individual matchup. Plus, you know he Pop knows the game.
Specifically game planning for GSW/SA, I am wondering if starting Shump over JR would be the right move. We could have used his D against Parker/Green and we would put him on Thompson.
Obviously KI and KLove need to play better but we only have 12 points off the bench and the bench has been struggling to give any output as of late. Hopefully we get Mo back soon as well.
Nah, Mo wouldn’t even be playing.
For those who missed it… yet another Tony Parker jersey grab on Kyrie…
Cavs need to start playing illegal defense like most teams play against them.
Does anyone hate Chris Webber as much as me?
I bet it’s a tie!! This makes us appreciate Fred and AC more all the time.
It’s a good teaching moment for Blatt. The Spurs are a different kind of team in their home environment.
Parker misses both fouls and the give up the board. ..
I have seen nothing that makes me scared and worried that we cant beat them in 7. I think we will continue to get better and they have reached their peak. But of course I am a homer
I agree. Cavs have the talent to beat Spurs (or Warriors) and we only have to beat one.
Couldn’t agree more!
Im happy, of course I wanted the win but I like how we match up and our athletic team in a series of 7. Anyway, sleep good cav fans
Spurs have outscored the Cavs 61-43 since the last minute of the first half…
Not bad for an ‘old and slow’ team…
I cant believe this
Hmm Mosgov should have been in there for that needed rebound
How do you not get the rebound there?
Nice timing to start shooting Kyrie. What about the first 11:45 this quarter???
Well, the Cavs might at least get the cover….
Needed a few of those a little earlier from Kyrie…
Is like they (Spurs) just play so flawless at home. I’m not that mad, the Cavs competed but at the same time is evident that to win this type of games against the Spurs and Warriors KI and KLove need to show up.
KLove: when Duncan has his elbow up around your throat to establish position expecting an entry pass. That’s when you flop, cuz you know once he gets it you are just hoping he misses.
Wow… just too easy on that Ginobili drive…
They realized that Love can’t do much to stop guards. Hopefully Blatt files that away.
Yeah, they pretty much flew by Love all game.
Man, you gotta move the ball. You can beat teams like Toronto, Orlando, Philly, Minnesota, Washington, even Dallas without moving the ball. But you can’t beat SAS or GS.
There bigs are guarding us out to the 3pt line on switches and for some reason we just try and shoot over them. We need to either drive or our bigs need to seal there mismatch especially when were getting bullied dl all game
Good observation. Like us to learn how we can get refs call offensive fouls like this Pivotal tonight
Duncan sealed it.
Unless MFQ shows up.
Love sucks. Can we cut him? So bad on D. Get Varejao out there to man up on Duncan.
Wow really he sucks? no please don’t trade him
Love played him as well as he could have been played. H ejust made a tough shot.
Panic mode!!!! Hahahaha
Need some Steph Curry threes to close the gap… ;)
Down 7, 1:25 to go. I recall a similar situation last time they played here.
Ok, never mind.
Whaat in the world is going on? PASS THE BALL
They are frustrated.
I guess the Spurs just don’t foul people…
Never knew we had a NBA that led in perfection there.
There’s been so many offensive foul calls where we lower a shoulder or push off a guy who is hanging on us. I recall one much earlier where Kyrie supposedly lowered his shoulder and was called for an offensive foul. 20 seconds later at the other end of the flour. Duncan backs down, lowers his shoulder, and the call goes the other way.
WE HAD 6 ASSISTS THAT 1ST QTR WHEN WE GOT OFF TO GREAT START—ONLY 8 SINCE THEN —“23 ” MAGIC NUMBER GUYS
That is just stupid! Offensive foul on Love shooting a 3?
He did kinda stick his leg out…
Yeah, but the guy swept his leg. It wasn’t like he kicked into a guy who was there. He was wide open, kicked his leg out, and a dude came running across the floor and swept his leg out from under him…
Its getting ridiculous now.
Surprise offensive foul
How many is that? It feels like 8 – 10 offensive fouls. Ridiculous. Home court advantage…
I know I have never seen this all season let alone in Finals
We have 14 assists and 16 turnovers. This is on the Cavs offense.
yea, I have no why Shump hasn’t been on Parker.
Again to beat the top teams Kyrie and KLove need to play better. As simple as that.
I agree with Nomad and Phil, think they need to play smarter. Take better shots, move themselves/ball consistently thruout games,, and forget the dribble dribble iso, or spend 10 seconds just trying to get a switch when the spurs are not going to switch. No point. Do not go away from something that works. Their offense is a million times better when they move the ball instead of holding it.
JUST DON’T UNDERSTAND WHY WE CAN HAVE SUCCESS ( LIKE TONIGHT’S START ) WITH BALL MOVEMENT THEN SLOWLY THROUGHOUT THE GAME WE DEVIATE FROM THIS TO DRIBBLE/ ISO AND NON PRODUCTIVE OFFENSE —-DON’T NEED A “PANIC ” BUTTON BUT DO NEED A ” FRUSTRATION ” BUTTON
Cavs need a Reset button for when their offense gets stuck.
They might need a bigger one than that…
I have the same question Nomad. I even ask this on wins..
At what point do we pull everyone and concede this with a back to back against Rockets tomorrow?
Screw that game, I want this game!!
we are not done yet
I say its close. Or you rest guys tomorrow. Blatt’s choice. Whatever it is. This is the toughest road stretch the Cavs have.
No way. Cavs only needed 30 seconds to score six last year!
Maybe some JR Swish magic in this last minute
Ok that was some ridiculous ball movement by the Spurs two possessions ago.
They need to play Shump on Tony Parker!
Love helped nicely on Parker again. He had him contained, and then Love had a brief moment of indecision, turned his back on Parker and that was enough of an opening for Parker to make the shot.
Cavs switched right off of Parker for that mid-ranger… wth?
Well Love has never been known to defend a guard.
How about at least just sort of paying attention?
Give SA credit they have kept TT and the gang off the offensive boards.
I guarantee Cavs beat Spurs at home w/o meddling refs EASY!!
I’d bet so too, but it’s kind of subjective. What constitutes meddling.
Dude don’t want a debate on a game thread. Debate in the recap. Threads are meant to vent / celebrate in moment
I gotta do something during all these timeouts…
I think Love went 42 minutes between made 3s.
Clearly this is why they have won 30 at home, it’s a tough to beat them.
Especially with the their help tonight.
Dayum… that Kawhi putback slam…
For this game anyways Kawai>>>>Lebron
Lebron has been our best player this game.. 20 points on 8-16, only player with a positive +/-
Still outplayed by Leonard
And Leonard has had a better game.
Kyrie needs a shooting coach!
Lebron complained to Ref Delly got tripped. Video showed he was right. Refs are in their heads now. It’s understandable
Score and a stop, let’s get this down to 6
Love has the hardest 3 point shot I’ve ever seen for someone who shoots it so well. Even his makes clang in sometimes.
People are rushing their shots. Even if they’re wide open. It’s an intense game. But they need to just catch their breaths, move the ball, and take open shots.
Can’t go 5 and a half minutes without a bucket in SA and expect to be successful…
Love needs a shooting couch!
Even a shooting hide-a-bed might help…
Like this?