Live Thread: Cavs at Nuggets
2014-11-07
The Cavs travel to the Mile-High City tonight to take on the Denver Nuggets. The game starts at 10:30 p.m. Eastern time and is being shown on ESPN.
Denver is using an 11 man roster right now. Seriously, 11 guys on their team are averaging more than ten minutes a game, and they are trying to run their way through a mountain with fresh legs to find wins. They have the second fastest pace in the league behind the Warriors, which makes perfect sense since their thin air tires teams. Are the Cavs up for this matchup?
LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Dion Waiters have all been standing around on defense these past few games. The Wine & Gold are giving up 101.5 points a game; that’s bottom ten defense. Maybe they’ll have extra energy to hang in with the Nuggets from their lack of defensive movement. They also aren’t moving the ball on offensive. The King’s Men are 30th in the league for assists so far this season. There has to be some bottled up energy in their legs, I hope.
David Blatt has been playing his starters crazy minutes going into this game, so don’t be surprised if you see the bench get a lot more run tonight. The Denver air will seek out any tired players like Russell Westbrook seeks out the best outfits of the 22nd century (not a typo, Westbrook is just so far beyond everybody as far as fashion goes).
The Nugget’s top scorer is Ty Lawson who is averaging 12.5 points a game, but if I’m being honest with myself, I am only interested in seeing the G-Man, Alonzo Gee. Gee, who is a Cavs alumnus, is averaging just four points a game and no longer being blamed for his team’s poor performances. I miss you Alonzo. The only man I have to blame on the Cavs at the small forward spot now is LeBron James. Gee better not have poisoned that position for the Cavs organization indefinitely. I’m getting frustrated already, I feel like he’s back on the team.
The Nuggets also have a bizarre shot blocker named JaVale McGee.
Mustaches mean blocking.
Despite playing just 14 minutes a game, he is averaging over two blocks a night. This is bad news for LeBron who is shooting a career worst 44.7 percent in the paint. Tom Haberstroh explained this striking number in a video yesterday. He has soothing music playing in the background to lessen the sadness of Clevelanders. The Cavs do not have a shot blocker as Kevin Pelton explained today.
Post your thoughts and predictions during the game here. This is the battle of the 1-3 teams. Which team leaves 2-3?
I’m predicting the Cavs lose this one, 95-109.
Good win. All is well again for a day.
COLS POST GAME REPORT
Tries to croak “told you so!” but no sound comes out after screaming for Dion all fourth quarter. Raises arms in victory, then passes out in a heap.
Nate doesn’t smile, I don’t think.
But it’s nice to win a game we didn’t finish well instead of lose it. The nuggets got sickeningly hot from distance for a while there, and were able to turn that into some energy points toward the end. Glad we didn’t panic and just kept running SET PLAYS to get points instead of chucking.
It was still the Nuggets, but definitely good to get the win and show some grit in the end.
Good win. Nice to see LeBron with the most endurance at the end.
It was night and day with his energy tonight
I was pretty close with the estimate on this one. 112-99 vs. 110-101
yeah you’re gonna win tonight’s prediction
Do I win Cols recipe for humble pie?
Dion needs to shoot.
That should do it!
STAY ON FOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
How does Kyrie not break his arm every time he falls down under the hoop after those ridiculous drives? Just sounds painful
Did Gee just drive by Bron??
yeah Dion saved the Cavs from a dangerous situation there.
Seems like the Cavs bench could be an achilles heel all year
Twice he saved them
Dion is the most frustratingly beautiful player I’ve seen in a while.
Gotta love the effort on D from Love tonight. Even Nate would begrudgingly smile I think…
I guess every great team needs a Jason Terry-esque guy to bring off the bench when you need instant offense…it’s just that Dion is often more J.R. Smith than Jason Terry.
Cols must be absolutely BESIDE HIMSELF! He’s probably gone hoarse screaming for Dion!
No, no, no, no…. YES!!
bahahahahaha Dion is sealing the game lol
DION! Sooooo CLUTCH!
Great steal by Dion! Almost looked surprised he came away with it
At least Dion didn’t force up a bad shot
Lebron…what did we say about catch and shoot threes?
Also…Foye for MVP. He’s unbelievable.
Kevin Love got super pumped after getting fouled just now. That guy wants to play meaningful basketball games so badly. I love it. He might be more excited about winning than anyone else on the team
Agree. He looks energized. Sucks they called him for that last foul. He played good D and it looked like Chandler travelled
Need a good possession here
Mike Miller CONTINUES TO SUCK
We are scoring soooo well in the Post. How often has that been the case for a Cavs team like…since 1992?
Randy Foye apparently CANNOT BE STOPPED!!!
Great give and go with Andy and Kyrie!
Who is this Erik Green character?
STOP SHOOTING KICKOUT THREES!
ha how the crap are they on fire on long contested shots all of a sudden?
Even Nate would have to agree that last stop by Love was a good one
Thank God for scotch! The commenter AND the drink
And now I’m talking to myself again. This is what it must feel like to be Terry Pluto…
ouch. TP is the man.
I say it with love. I always read TP’s column first on-line
Miller…good lord. Nobody on this team seems to be able to hit a three unless it’s off their own dang dribble. What’s the deal with that?
If Miller can’t hit wide open shots, he shouldn’t be on this team
Mike Miller is like 0 for the season
GEE on the board!
COLS THIRD QUARTER REPORT
Holds a giant smiley face sign in front of own face. Tears off Panic At The Blog Tee and underneath has homemade St. Weirdo for Life Tee. Sticks another safety pin in his Delly voodoo doll.
Anti-Dellyism is spreading…
WHO IS GUARDING FOYE?????
21 assists compared to 4 turnovers. Awesome!
Cavs an Uncle Drew bucket away from having all five starters in double figures (as well as two bench guys). This is how you share the ball guys!
Good to see LBJ hustling back on D and then trucking Gallo for an and-1
Dion with absolutely no interest in even looking for a player to pass it to and just chucks it up
Dion is a cancer
Thought he was a gemini. But seriously, not so much a cancer as just super hard headed
ya, he’s incredibly frustrating
Jesus, Kyrie’s handle is incredible. That was such a tight needle to thread.
It’s almost like Dion doesn’t know how to use the glass. Like at all
or finish in general
Top 10 play from Kyrie!
Holy crap that basket was sick by Kyrie
Nice to see Love go to the inside game since the outside isn’t working tonight
that was a great pass to Varejao. He had one of those in the 1st half too.
Really excited about the energy the Matrix is showing tonight
yeah he’s playing smart ball too
Kyrie really feeling it on the assists. Seeing the floor terrifically
Yeah but that K Love backdown jump hook was sweet.
Nice to have that ability.
More post ups from KLove please!
GREAT find by Kyrie to Love. KLove’s shot just not going down tonight
Kyrie heating up! Next one sets the net on fire…