Recap: Cleveland 92, Detroit 115
2013-12-23
The Eastern Conference playoff picture is a mess. Three teams are above five-hundred. Cleveland, at 10 and 16, resides one-half game from the eighth seed. The Cavs look much stronger lately, winning six of ten, with two narrow losses against Miami and Portland. While Cleveland builds toward a better record than their current 31 win pace, several other Eastern Conference foes look poised to improve also. Many of the assumed contenders remain on the outside looking in; Chicago, New York and Brooklyn all face varied messes. Can the Gotham City teams stay this bad for 82 games? Can a Bulls squad paced by Noah, Deng and Boozer really miss the playoffs in the East? Other challengers for the final seeds in the East are hitting their stride. Toronto won 5 of 7 since trading Rudy Gay, including two straight road victories against Dallas and Oklahoma City. Washington emerged with three wins in a row, and sits amidst a 10 wins and 6 losses stretch.
And tonight’s opponent, Central Division rival Detroit, has won half their games since a dreadful 2 and 5 start. Many of these teams will move towards the middle over the course of 82 games. Tonight, at home, it would be delightful for the Cavs to build on recent successes, and forget the relatively awful outcomes of this past weekend. Piling up victories in games like tonight will go a long ways in determining if the Wine & Gold head to the second season, or back to the lottery.
That said, hopefully you weren’t gearing up for an extensive recap tonight. It’s a busy time of year. So, here is a quick and dirty look at tonight’s action.
No more talk about playoffs until further notice. I can’t let this ruin my holidays, so real quick, let’s hit the downsides: No Dion Waiters for a third straight game; Andrew Bynum shot 0 for 11, as he, Clark, Miles and Jack combined to shoot 4 for 37; the Pistons scored 115 points on 48 / 42/ 72 shooting, out-rebounded the Cavs by 11 and committed 5 less turnovers. That is a lot of suck from the Wine & Gold, and there will be no wins for Christmas when playing like that.
For bright-ish sides, Tristan looked good, scoring 17 on 61% true shooting, along with seven rebounds. Kyrie’s scoring was on point, with 21 points in 29 minutes on 67% true shooting. Matt Dellavedova pitched in 10 points on 4 of 6 shooting, with 6 assists and a steal. Plus, he’s just a lot of fun. Finally, although largely in garbage time, Tyler Zeller scored 13 points on 6 of 7 shooting, with 4 rebounds in 14 minutes; sometimes it is forgotten that the Cavs have a recent 17th-pick, seven-footer sitting at the end of the bench. The guy runs the court pretty well and flashed a deft touch around the basket at UNC.
That’s it for tonight. This season continues to be fairly nonsensical. As soon as the team started to turn a corner, three miserable performances in four nights send them into a short holiday break looking as dysfunctional as ever.
Merry Christmas!
Look at the heat. They have the best team chemistry in the league. Every story is how the heat did thanksgiving or secret Santa together. Does anyone know of anyone on the cavs actually likes each other outside the locker room. This rampant team chemistry isn’t the only way for it to work either. Look at the spurs, outside basketball they don’t seem like buddies, but when they show up to work it’s no nonsense.
KJ, totally agree about the locker room. The team clearly has SOME talent – blow out losses come from a lack of discipline, something common among teams with bad locker rooms and inexperienced players. The problem is that issue won’t necessarily correct itself. It’s not a given that patience will yield success. That’s a phrase that’s been WAY overused the last few years.
Last I checked the Cavs have a better record than the Nets and Lopez is out fir the year. Yet Pierce wouldn’t want to play here? With a young team one or two pieces (and some veteran leadership) away from a 5th seed in this year’s East? Yeah, ok… Again, you all are under-estimating locker room culture, attitude and winning players being on a team. Kyrie has known individual success while losing at historical levels. You think that’s not a factor currently? Really? Go read the Bleacher Report profile of Aldridge today, where he talks about his mental attitude being… Read more »
Something I think we need more than a 3, is more physical players. You can be young and able to run all day but if the other team is more physical – it wears you down. We’re a different team when Bynum knocks people around. You can see the look on other teams faces when he does. That’s why I liked the Bennett pick. I remember the preseason games when he threw his body around. He hasn’t done that at all since the season started. If Bennett knocked 3 guys down and grab 6 rebounds and scored 4 points (and… Read more »
It seems that every night some NBA team gets blown out. It’s a strange year. Sometimes the Cavs are hard to watch. If they are on a particular night – turn off the tv. Agree we need a leader. Disagree Pierce and Perkins would be a leader “on any team.” Pierce would merely be extending his career and drawing a paycheck if he was on the Cavs. But maybe Shaq can come back and play one more year. I never liked Zeller . . . but he’s growing on me. Hope he can aspire to what “Z” became. Until he… Read more »
The problem with Pierce aside from being 90 years old is he would command the ball to do what he does well, KJ. We already have trouble moving it. Think Paul Pierce is going to help that?
As for Perkins, he has never needed to be THE leader on a young team. He’s always had someone else play that role while he plays the bruiser henchman.
KJ – in the flaming mess that is the east, the Cavs are sitting outside the playoffs looking in. For the time being, it’s fair to call them part of that flaming mess.
Glad TZ is proving me wrong, but it sort of feels like we’re grasping at straws here. At what point does everyone/anyone involved start to feel serious pressure? 10-17, no matter how you slice it, is not good. Moral victories are useless at this point.
As I expected, you guys are taking about Perkins and Pierce as players first when I am trying to tell you we need veteran leadership more than anything! You can pretend it’s fantasy basketball (like so many of you do. Look at the current Zeller love as an example. He plays well twice in garbage time. Now people want him to start over Bynum. Really?) all you like with PER and production per 36 minutes but this is a game where people and attitudes matter. Perkins is ABSOLUTELY a leader. On any team. The things scotch said bout Pierce are… Read more »
Kj,
I always liked Zeller.
Bennett’s not a bust stop being so F#@%ING lame. You guys sound like ignorant grade schoolers when you say stupid stuff like that. The only writing on the wall is that the Cavs have alot of ignorant and impetuous fans who act like spoiled brats. “Donkey Kong sucks!” “Yeah, well YOU SUCK!”
I’m consistently confused by the comments’ section. Kyrie is a score-first point guard, and still gets about 6 assists per game while passing to a bunch of guys who can’t shoot. Give him a friggin break with the passing. Who the heck’s he got to pass to? We cannot use Perkins. He’s an asset on a good team, not a leader on a bad team. He doesn’t lift guys up, he lays em out. Pierce would just confuse our team. He’s going to retire too late and he doesn’t have a pass-first PG to work with. What makes you think… Read more »
Sorry I can’t see anything positive about Bennett. The writing is on the wall. He’s a bust. He looks like the cowardly lion from OZ. Time to move on from him. Get Zeller someway somehow in the rotation. He’s productive and he is playing like he wants to be out there.
In keeping with the seasonal theme. This team is a collection of Misfit Toys. The Point Guard that won’t pass. (Kyrie) The Center that has no knees. (Bynum) The Power forward with no power (Thompson) The oversized small forward (Clark) The no shot, no guard… Shooting Guard (Gee). “Now with kung fu grip!” Thanks goodness for SuperDova and Varejao or there would be nothing to watch. Grant has been like that grandmother that gave you a gameboy with a lot of lame games. And her feeling are hurt if she does not see you play “Saga’s Battle of the Math… Read more »
Perkins, oh my goodness no!
Maybe Pierce depending on who we are sending to BKN, but he has been pretty awful this year.
GDB is looking a lot slimmer than earlier this year and less awkward on the court.
Tyler Zeller’s PER skyrocketed to 17 after last night. That’s second on the team. His Win Shares per 48 minutes are best on the team. I completely realize these are in limited minutes, frequently garbage time, but how can the team find Zeller more minutes? See if he is improved from last season.
My suggestion is start periodically sitting Bynum and Varejao, especially on back-to-backs. Let Tyler get the run at backup center during those games.
Kevin, Bennett didn’t get a shoutout? His body language was COMPLETELY different in this game than any other he has played so far in his pro career. Even his 3 misses in the first half were all good shots! He showed all the skills that are so tantalizing: inside-outside offense with genuine range. Long arms that allow dunks in traffic. Pretty good hands. Again, the talent is clearly there and it seems like he is finally finding his sea legs… Man, do we miss Dion. Btw, I agree 100% with Rodney that we lack leadership. Or rather, veteran leadership. If… Read more »
On the bright side Zeller looked great and he looked like he did before he had surgery in the pre-season. Hopefully he can get some run. Maybe next to Bynum since Brown refuses to play Clark with Bynum and we need a 4 who can pass and shoot to play with Bynum and TT can’t do either. Or put AV in the starting line up next to Bynum and play Zeller and TT on the second team. At least Andy can pass and he has to be closed out on at 15-17 feet. That would take Clark out though which… Read more »
That was awful. I don’t think Brown is the answer but putting this on him is not fair as much as I want to. I don’t like Brown per se but its a really young team that is going to look awful some nights. Brown to me has a ceiling of average. There are about 10 coaches that he’ll never be better than and about 20 that are better than him right now. But he’s not a train wreck and he’s certainly good enough to make an average team average which is what we hope to be this year. This… Read more »