Cavs lose 17th Game…
2012-12-08
It appears the Cleveland Cavaliers will have to aim for 65 wins following yet another loss, this time to Detroit. This one was pretty entertaining, surprisingly, although the “Cavs lost a close one despite a spirited comeback” storyline seems a little more forced against the Pistons. Anyways, I’ll be writing this recap much like I watched the game: one eye on the real game, one eye on the alternate reality in which we have our starting backcourt running the pick ‘n roll with Andy.
First Half:
It was nice to see the Cavs have a decent first quarter, for once, ending it down 25-22. Andy started out hot, dominating the boards and scoring as usual. Tyler Zeller didn’t look so bad either, though his interior defense is still pretty awful. Zeller’s career is going to look less promising each time he gets shoved around under the hoop, then victimized for a layup or free throws. The second quarter went well also, surprisingly. C.J. Miles balled out, and Jeremy Pargo was on. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what the Cavs did wrong on defense to let the Pistons score 49 in the half. The Pistons aren’t all that good, and Corey Maggette shouldn’t really ever be effective. But the post defense was pretty awful all in all. While Anderson Varejao has been producing at an All-Star level, he’s clearly lost a step on D. He simply doesn’t have the foot speed and coordination these days to keep Brandon Knight and Andre Drummond in line.
Second Half:
First of all, Alonzo Gee EVISCERATED Kyle Singler right at the start of the 3rd. Boobie fed him on a baseline cut, and he simply posterized the hell out of Singler. Alonzo’s made this into a nightly occurrence, and it’s beautiful to see. The NBA probably won’t put a Cavalier in the Dunk Contest, but given the travesty it is now, that may not be the worst thing ever. As for the rest of the half, well…Jeremy Pargo ain’t half bad, but Brandon Knight is more than half good. When he’s hitting threes, he can be nearly as good as Kyrie. Regarding Rodney Stuckey: a lot of people have compared Dion Waiters to him. I sincerely hope that’s not a very good comparison. Stuckey is fairly limited offensively despite his size and shooting ability, and is a bit of a ball-dominator. Well, back to the game. The game was back-and-forth until the middle of the fourth, when the Pistons started to pull away. The Cavs and Pargo made a final run, but it seemed doomed to failure. Maybe it’s just me, but I have no faith in the Cavs pulling out close wins without Kyrie. It’s hard for me to visualize. And, unsurprisingly, this one ended up like all the others. We lost 101-97.
Highlights:
The Alonzo hammer over Kyle Singler was pretty sweet. Pargo played well. I can’t wait to see what he can do with 25 minutes off the bench behind Uncle Drew. He’s definitely our new backup point guard. Andy started another double-double streak. The man’s a machine. Why do all the Cavs fans want to trade him? Jokes! That’s just me. C.J. Miles and Tyler Zeller both played well. Zeller put up 13 and 8. I would be more inclined to call it a breakout game if he hadn’t been abused on the block all game on defense.
Negatives:
Daniel Gibson sucked. 2-11 from the field, 2-9 from three point land. Unexciting, ineffective. Also, Cavs point guards had trouble closing out on Brandon all Knight. 5-6 from three? Come on.
Completely Neutral:
Tristan Thompson.
Oh Bacon like what all the 15 year old white kids whose parents don’t love them talk about on Reddit. Its the inside joke that everyone has to pretend they were a part of to fit in.
DDL is Daily Dime Live. What BaconMan is doing is being a bigshot. It’s like if you’re from New York City and you go to small town Ohio and tell everyone that you’re from NY to impress them. In other words, he’s a really cool guy and we should be impressed that he came to Cavs the Blog to insult us.
Also, he calls himself BaconMan because everyone on DDL likes to talk about bacon. So, as well as being a really cool guy who likes to troll Internet comment sections, he’s also really original.
@Rodneymac Where is this located at? RealGM, and Prosportstransactions.com says it’s top 14 protected but hoopsworld says the Cavs just have the right to swap the picks. Either way the Lakers will make the playoffs. They are a mess and I doubt they’ll be a top four seed but they will make the playoffs.
A little good news for you all. Contrary to many reports there is no protection on the lakers pick from the Sessions trade. So if by some miracle Howard or Kobe breaks and the Lakers somehow miss the playoffs we get more ping pong balls
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=DDL
Daniel Day Lewis? What the heck?! Why is he talking about us?
What the heck is DDL?
@Issac – when Kyrie and Dion get back I think the Cavs will be electric
Two slightly off-topic points: First, When starting, Jeremy Pargo is averaging 14.5 pts and 4.5 asts, on 41% shooting. Which is around the same as Brandon Jenning’s second year (16points, 4.8 asts, 39%). I think we should be a little bit, tentatively excited about Pargo as a backup point guard. I think having starters minutes has given him confidence, and hopefully that will stay with him. Second, thank god for Alonzo Gee. When a team is losing a lot, my theory is that it helps mentally enormously if there is something they can feel good about, or a good buzz… Read more »
Nathan, that’s a great point. I hadn’t thought of that. Is every game an advertisement for Andy?
I have to say, I think the Cavs might be trying pretty hard to trade Andy right now. It’s the only explanation I can come up with for why he’s playing over 38 minutes per game in the Cavs’ current 5 game losing streak. I mean, why else would you have a center on the wrong side of 30, and not a particularly durable center at that, playing huge minutes in games that you don’t even really want to win?
I just wanted to let all of you know that I’ve been reading through a lot of the comments on this blog, and you all are just as funny as the good folks over at DDL say you are.
That wasn’t a compliment by the way.
BaconMan,
Do people still DDL?
We closed out Atlanta in a close game without Kyrie, Verajoa hasn’t lost a step at all (he was never that “fast” on Defense), he’s playing with perhaps the worst defensive unit he’s ever had to play with. Compensating for the rest of the team can have a major effect on his defense, because he is constantly searching for position for rebounds. When Kyrie comes back, watch how quickly the andy d-rebound to kyrie outlet leads to fast breaks. No one is pushing the ball right now for the cavs except Miles, and he isn’t the finisher/passer that Irving is.… Read more »
While Zeller gets abused in post up situations, I think his rebounding is improving. He’s up to 34th of 49 centers for rebounding rate according to Hollinger’s list. I also think Tyler plays decent team defense, particularly for a rookie. Of Centers playing 10 or more games, he’s drawn the fifth most charges. I liked his team defense at UNC, too, so I’m hopeful there. He is improving as the season goes on, which was one of the ‘memes’ on him out of UNC, that he showed significant improvement every year. He’s still 22, so hopefully with three more years… Read more »