Recap: Sixers 86, Cavs 79
2012-11-18
The Cavaliers came up short against the Sixers in a physical affair while Colin McGowan juggled various bootleg streams that provided all the clarity of looking through a beer bottle that’s spent several weeks in a ditch. (In other words, I caught the game in dribs and drabs and in terrible definition. I’m going to keep this one short and let you guys discuss the finer details in the comment section.) Let us recap:
–Tough night for the Cavaliers’ starting backcourt. Nothing was working for Dion Waiters—he struggled both at the rim and from distance—who finished the game with five points on 2-for-13 shooting, no assists, and three turnovers. Byron Scott stressed that he didn’t want to call Saint Weirdo’s return to Philadelphia a “homecoming” for fear of putting undue pressure on the rookie, but one wonders if Waiters was a whit too eager tonight. Kyrie Irving’s night was better in the way a broken ankle is preferable to a punctured lung. Jrue Holliday and the Sixers’ interior defenders did a great job of smothering him when he got to the rim (Philly racked up nine blocks), and Irving’s jumper was uncharacteristically poor. The young tandem also combined for eight turnovers. A night best forgotten.
–Tristan Thompson had his best game of the season. The refs allowed a lot of contact, and he used that to his advantage, throwing his weight around when guards drove into the lane. Both he and Varejao were really active on the boards (28 combined rebounds, 13 of which were offensive), which played a large part in keeping the Cavaliers in the game (they shot only 35.7%). He got a lot of garbage buckets around the rim off put-backs, which are exactly the sorts of high percentage shots you want him to take. This was the sort of game we dream up for TT in our most hopeful moments.
–Tyler Zeller was rock solid off the bench (six points, seven rebounds). Now that he’s back among the living, it’s apparent how sizable the gap between him and the Cavs other substitute big men is. I still want him to hit the weight room, but he’s a pretty good athlete for his size and has a soft touch around the basket. Keep that face intact, Tyler.
–In case you were wondering if C.J. Miles’s waking nightmare concluded tonight, it did not. He had three points on 1-for-8 shooting. He split minutes at the backup small forward spot with Omri Casspi, who was unremarkable but not necessarily bad (I mean, he hit a three and a couple free throws) in 13 minutes of floor-time.
That’s all for me. The Cavs host this same Sixers team on Wednesday. Until tomorrow, friends.
@J Hill: Thanks for the comment. You’re right, it is irrelevent about Kyrie breaking down like D Rose, but I can’t help but wonder if he got a bit more help and wouldn’t have to carry the load so much that he would be healthier. Like this broken finger injury…they’re on a protection plan with him. The kid is fragile and the only way we win games this year is with him 100% committed, and I just don’t see that happening. He’s waiting for Grant and Gilbert to start making moves, but…well, we have absolutely nothing to give except unproven… Read more »
Dion’s defense is ahead of Kyrie’s and most rookie’s, quite frankly. He has apses at times, yes, but he is solid most often…
Sorry, Kevin. I did miss that wrap-up. Colored me surprised by the starters combined +/-, btw. Kinda impressive…
How about hiring Eric Snow as a second string point guard?
In all seriousness though, I agree 100% David. In spite of Byron’s reputation, he just isn’t getting through to the youngsters about defense.
I wonder if Chris Grant and Byron have given some thought to hiring Eric Snow as a coach/consultant for Dion and Kyrie on defense. As I remember, he was a very strong defender and if he’d had even a modicum of their offensive skill he would have been a true beast. If he could pass along some veteran wisdom and work with them on becoming really good defenders, it could be an interesting play, and no offense to him, but I think he’d do a better job at that than the tv stuff he’s been doing. I’ve only seem him… Read more »
“Good defensive game from everyone not named Kyrie. I really hope we don’t coddle him like we did LeBron. He flat-out refuses to recapture his man after a pick and roll and it kills us. He just jogs back. Doesn’t switch, doesn’t hustle back, just lazily jogs toward the play from behind. It is unacceptable.” +1 for Ben That play where he tried to hound the defensive rebound (along with two other Cavs) then never got back on D past the circle, jogging back, and (his man) Jrue Holiday hit a wide open three? That was awesome. This team needs… Read more »
@ P.D. Parr A harder working JJ Hickson would have been a star, a player breaking down like Rose did is always a possibility for any player so that is irrelevant. Anderson Varejao is doing his job. I agree with you on CJ Miles either cut his minutes HARD or just leave him out there the whole game until he learns to play basketball again.
Just a quicky from my usual long-winded self. Alonzo isn’t a great finisher, but when he is getting that side screen from Andy and taking two hard dribbles on his strong hand, he can take 15 shots and it doesn’t bother me. Dion had 3 shots at the end of a shot clock that we was forced to take. Not a good offensive game for him by any means, but his shot selection was as bad as it may seem and he was getting zero love from the refs. In fact, our entire group was the aggressor going hard to… Read more »
Our bench this year is absolutely horrifying. I know we have got to be patient, but it’s abysmal to have to sit through another 20-62ish year. Three straight years of absolute losing. TT seems like a more ambitious JJ. Kyrie, no matter how brilliant he is, is still undersized and I worry he will deteriorate ala D Rose. AV makes everything easier for Kyrie, but it seems like that two man game causes Dion to care about nothing more than being open after the pick and roll is complete. Dion needs to know when to surrender his jump shot and… Read more »
KJ
Yep. This team is really fun to watch when the starters are in. Things are looking up in Cavs land.
Dion follows up what I thought was his BEST overall game with maybe his worst. Oh and I know he’s a rookie and TT is just a 2nd year pro but my god, they CANNOT buy a call!! It’s becoming silly. I get that TT gets his shit blocked a lit and the refs are not inclined to help him out but he is getting mugged time and time again! Dion is just it gonna get a call cuz he’s a rook. I get that… Kevin should really point out, next time he’s writing, about how really good the starters… Read more »
Kj, You must have missed my recap of Saturday’s game. I mentioned the starter’s plus/minus. I even broke out some regularized-adjusted-plus-minus. I was going all-in there. Mallory, In general, I don’t think the Cavs run a very smooth offense. Kyrie stops the ball, Dion stops the ball, Gee stops the ball, Tristan is not an accomplished passer. This needs to (and should) improve as the team grows together. Last night was the first Cavs game of the season I didn’t watch (cable package doesn’t have NBA TV). I watched the Lakers – Rockets game instead (fortunately?). The two teams combined… Read more »
The announcers at the beginning of the Cavs broadcast said Gibson had a wrist injury I think it was. They didn’t have more details other than he wasn’t gonna play tonight.
As I tweeted earlier, I’m not so happy with the Kyrie Irving ISO show. It’s getting old. As Nate then pointed out, he doesn’t really have much of an option. But to me, he’s becoming predictable.
So I’m absolutely advocating from here on out that CJ Miles should not be getting PT unless necessary. Jeremy Pargo absolutely brings more to the table than does Miles.
this was a very sloppy, boring, and slow basketball game.
kyrie’s was showing off his handle tonight as he was trying to break away from holiday, just couldn’t get many layups to fall down the stretch.
i love alonzo gee, absolutely outplaying his contract.
tristan was grabbing everything, but he really needs to learn how to not get blocked on his put-backs. i’m also not very familiar with the offensive 3 seconds rule after grabbing a rebound, but he’s standing down there, hunched over, trying to pump fake people off of his back forever.
I’ve got a reason: team is really, really young and going to struggle greatly this season.
If only Kyrie and Dion had done better; game would have been won. 76’ers were playing horrible. They were giving us a gift and we still managed to blow it. There is just no reason for this, None!
CJ Miles is now shooting 22%. The only thing I can say is, at one point, Deshawn Stevenson was shooting 12% for a season. Now he’s NBA Champion Deshawn Stevenson. So there’s always hope i guess
Is Gibson injured?