Recap and Podcast 57: Hawks 109 Cavs 101 (Or, moral victories may not be anything but they sure beat the hell out of getting embarrassed)
2014-12-31
Check out the podcast that Nate and I recorded tonight. It’s available at Soundcloud , and iTunes. (CtB Episode 57!) Here’s a short and sweet recap to supplement your insatiable desire for Cavs analysis. The Cavs moved the ball well in the first quarter and played the Hawks to a draw. They completely choked when the Hawks turned up the intensity in the second quarter and then Kevin Love left the game with back spasms. The Cavs, without LeBron, Love, or Marion, started the second half by watching Kyle Korver drain a couple of threes to push the lead to 17. It looked like the Cavs were going to get blown out of the gym. But they fought back behind the wizardry of Kyrie Irving, the power and relentlessness of Tristan Thompson, and some gutsy-if-not-quite-effective defense throughout the contest. They were within striking distance throughout the fourth quarter in a back and fourth affair where they cut the deficit three on three different occasions, and to two with 4:43 left. The Hawks absorbed the blows and settled into some two-man action between Jeff Teague and Paul Millsap, eventually putting the Cavs away.
Kyrie Irving finished with 35 points and nine assists (and almost none of his shots were easy looks) but he coughed it up eight times in a game where the referees refused the blow their whistles for three quarters without a coroner on the scene and flipped the switch in the fourth – needing little more than pantomime routines to stop the action. Irving looked a lot like he did last year – dribbling through double teams, taking a lot of those “why not” 3s from five feet behind the line, and of course, finishing at the rim from impossible angles.
Tristan Thompson had a really nice game. His energy, offensive rebounding, and finishing abilities infected the Cavs in the 3rd and 4th quarters. His alley-oop execution of Jeff Teague was a sight to behold. He finished with 18 points on 12 shots and 13 rebounds. He was old-man-at-the-gym’d by Paul Millsap all night long with the help of the referees, but he played a valiant game.
Dion Waiters and Kevin Love didn’t show up, figuratively speaking, and since LeBron James and Shawn Marion literally didn’t show up this game tested the Cavs’ depth. Joe Harris was 3/4 from beyond the arc and had a few heady plays (and a gut-wrenching layup attempt that licked every inch of the rim before willing itself out).
Someone put on James Jones’ jersey and a Mission Impossible 2 mask because at least three times I had to double take “wait…James JONES just rejected Paul Millsap at the rack!?” He missed a bunch of wide open 3s and was supremely active on defense. Not your mother’s James Jones. Over/under on the number of days until JJ has three steals and two blocks again? I’m going infinity days.
All in all it was nice to see the Cavs dig deep when the dam was about to burst and make a game of it. The Hawks are a really good team and will be a formidable playoff foe. Their offensive talent was too much for the Cavs to stop in the waning moments of the game. Ultimately the Cavs need to play like this every night (a scrambling defensive effort for 48 minutes) and at full strength they will win more than they lose.
Heh. The Live Thread is up, Genius.
Thanks Nate. My live thread addiction is well documented.
HAYWOOD WITH A BLOCK… and then a pass to the Bucks. I’ll still take it.
At least the Kyrie and TT two man game is working. and Miller hit a three
More of the same from the Cavs. Missed shots, sloppy ball handling and getting murdered from the perimeter.
And HE WON THE TIP!
WOW! Brendan Haywood getting the start! First start in over 2 years!
I’m at the game. I’ll see if I can get LeBron to open up about his cryptic message to DWade.
all we ask for whoever is wearing a cavs uniform is effort for 48 minutes
Sounds like LBJ def not playing against the Bucks tonight. Matrix and KLove hovering between questionable and doubtful. Might be another real lean bench game tonight. Get ready, you might even see another JAMES FREAKING JONES block or two.
It’s amazing how much is being reported about LeBron wanting out of Cle. But Screaming A Smith was saying this after the first two weeks of play.
LeBron’s body language and effort have often made it look like he doesn’t want to be here. At best, I think, he has mixed feelings about returning and still hasn’t decided whether he made a mistake.
Read McMenanim’s twitter. Six minutes ago lebron quoted saying he is here to build something in the present and the future. He ain’t going anywhere.
But of course that’s what he’s going to say for public consumption. His actions are more ambiguous.
and we thought we had drama the last time with LeBron / the decision—–everyone needs to be like the weather outside AND CHILL A LITTLE WITH ALL THE RUMORS—–HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL YOU FELLOW BLOGGERS–LET’S HOPE IT IS A GOOD ONE ——START IT EARLY WITH A WIN TONIGHT !!!
Kyrie Irrrrrr-ving – The Barry Sanders of the NBA. Now playing defense boys and girls. Enjoy it while it lasts!
Apparently LeBron told Wade they’d reunite next year https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/2qxt0i/listen_to_this_link_carefully_did_lebron_say_to/?sort=top
Quick. Trade him to a New York team for a post, a starter, and two #1’s. Throw in Johnny Manziel.
Does that mean that Griff is going to trade Dion and picks for DWade?
If there’s any truth to this then they should trade him and Love otherwise they will be screwed for years to come.
@ChrisBHaynes: LeBron James says exchange with Dwyane Wade on Christmas was about doing something off court. Says had nothing to do with leaving Cleveland.
Someone let me know if this podcast is basically Nate bashing the Cavs and braggin how he could’ve got us better returns on trades. Because I’d rather not kill myself tonight after listening to this.
come on Cols – i need you to live-comment it. It could be your christmas present to me.
Haha. If it wasn’t my birthday eve Id do it. Can it wait until Sunday or Monday? Maybe next podcast.
I would like the local media in general to be more informative on the Cavs shooting woes than the ole standby, “It’s Dion’s fault the team lost because he stinks at the 3” No, no my friends , it’s much more systemic than that. DId some digging on our shooters and it’s disheartening to see that it’s an overall problem that is getting worse with each game. Source: basketball reference.com Most of these players(exception is Kyrie) are shooting horribly compared to years past & that includes Lebron James declining stats as well. According to basketball reference .com, here is a… Read more »
Thanks for the research, as depressing as it is. My immediate thought is does this just sort itself out and is it a consequence of lack of continuity and not getting into a rythm but I saw many good, easy shots not go in. Shooting practice all around.
Thanks for the stats rundown, but the next time a coach makes a shot for a player will be the first. If anything, Blatt’s system has gotten way more open shots for all of these guys than anything Grumpy or Dopey trotted out. Making open shots is ALL on these players. They’re the ones getting paid millions of dollars a year to make open shots. It shouldn’t be that hard.
Agree completely with this. Blatt’s offense consistently gets guys in open positions, and has already shown more brilliance out of timeouts than anything brown could muster in five years. Guys just aren’t hitting open shots.
If not for the off-season nonsense surrounding the Atlanta front office, the they would have been considered a top 4 favorite going into the season. National pundits just assumed that the noise would undermine the on-court production. Instead, the team has performed up to their post playoff appearance potential. The Hawks are amazing underrated on the defensive end. Paul Millsap continues to be one of the most valuable players in the league. The East should be afraid of the Hawks. The Cavaliers have no shot at going deep into the playoffs unless a trade is made. They will still likely… Read more »
Against sending two players who have been horrible this year for Love? Wiggins and Bennett have sucked hard all year long.
I agree that he can do better. 16 double doubles isn’t that bad tho. He has shown signs of improving his defensive effort and I don’t see us utilizing him on offense as much as we can and not in the ideal spots. not making excuses or glamorizing but if we didn’t have him our offense would be worse, Bennett offers nothing and Wiggins is still too new to tell but not going to create a threat like Love has.
Yep. We would be much worse without Love. The Wiggins/Bennett/Jack/Zeller dead enders are the most annoying people on Cavs blogs.
Much? About the same. And Wiggins is better from three. He’s an order of magnitude better on D.
Wiggins would be a nice athletic 3 and D player on this team. Love is still better for the team in the immediate future, but I think Wiggins would be good too, especially long term.
It is getting to the point that the Cavs will have no choice but to pay TT whatever it is he demands next off season. He is, by far, their most active big man, especially on the defensive end. He also is developing a solid offensive game.
Reports were he turned down 4 years, $50 million. If true, he is probably going to get at least that much next offseason.
Even before this latest string of performances, I felt like Rich Paul was probably going to try and get $15M per for TT. His play so far this year will back that up.
That would be dumb. I love TT but you can’t overpay for rebounding specialists. Lavoy allen could get you the same for a fourth of that price. Check Zach Lowe’s latest.
Have you ever watched Lavoy Allen play? Come on man, at least pick someone who plays with half the energy TT does.
pistons have now won 3 in a row post josh smith ( so they might have righted their ship / bulls get trounced by the nets / wizards are hammered by the mavs ( 30 pts ) so yes maybe we here in Cleveland have a tendency to overreact ——- BUT A WIN AGAINST THE BUCKS TONIGHT WOULD BE GREAT / IS WHAT WE NEED !!!
Yeah, Pistons have looked like a different team since they dumped Josh Smith. Addition by subtraction with more touches for their more talented players like Drummond.
They will most likely climb out of the depths of the east to just 8ish games short of playoffs. Too well coached not to
Dion had 9 points on 10 shots, 4 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals and played solid defense in 25 minutes. Yet he didn’t show up?
Maybe if you guys stop reporting games where Kyrie takes 27 shots and has 8 turnovers as wizadry, more people would “show up.”
Not for nothing but Mike Miller played along side KI for 19 minutes and didn’t have a single field goal attempt playing next to the wizard.
The juxtaposition between local reporting on Kyrie’s hero games and national reporting on the same is pretty stark.
Kyrie was 13-27 from the field which is, you know, significantly better than Dion’s 3-10 outing. 8 turnovers is bad. 9 assists and 6 rebounds is good. Not sure why it always devolves into a Kyrie vs. Dion debate. Regardless, Kyrie played well last night, notwithstanding the turnovers. Similarly, thought Dion didn’t shoot well but was certainly active on defense.
The Cavs really needed Dion to score well tonight. He certainly didn’t show up in the when the Cavs needed an offensive spark. Nate thought he had a decent game and mentioned as much in the podcast – I can remember two plays in particular where Dion was fantastic. So maybe it wasn’t the whole story to say he “didn’t show up”. But on a night where so many high-usage players were missing, Dion needed to do a lot more than 9 points on 10 shots and 4 assists to 4 turnovers. Kyrie had a lot of turnovers but the… Read more »
Dude needs to stop jacking midrangers early in the shotclock. He is awful at them. Yet he keeps taking them. Also the defense tonight wasn’t great as a team. Teague lit up Cleveland. Korver got loose. Dion wasn’t awful but to say he’s some untradeable core piece is folly.
Dion certainly didn’t pass the eye test last night. Every time they needed him to step up and either score or make the right pass, he did neither. Yes he scrapped on D, but so did everyone else in the second half. I’m a Dion fan and want him to do well, but he was frustrating last night. You can’t just base everything on stats.
I hope they get to play without LeBron for the next 7-8 games. It’ll be good for them. Great effort coach! Keep it up!
No. Playing without your best Player sucjs. Stop it.
Kyrie played…
Yeah, the 3rd best player on the team.
Not these days. He’s at least the second