Live Thread: Cavs Vs. Bucks
2014-12-31
Happy New Year, Cavs fans. The good guys take on Jason Kidd’s Bucks tonight sans Kevin Love, LeBron James, and Shawn Marion. Let’s hope Kyrie Irving and company are up to the task. It’s going to be a little daunting. Nevertheless, a continuation of last night’s nonstop effort would be a welcome sight. Go Cavs!
That was rough. Griff stocked this team with over the hill players and young scrubs.
i mean yes he did, but also that isn’t all that different from the rest of the league. On the one hand, we have a very ill-fitting roster with the current injuries. On the other hand, we are literally in the middle of historic shooting slumps by about 2/3 of our roster. I don’t want to make excuses for losses, but the bucks aren’t pushovers and Detroit probably won’t lose for a few more games…we are just undermanned and in a slump. Were any of our lockdown spot up shooters shooting well, we wouldn’t have a loss since November. We… Read more »
Did anyone last summer suspect how bad things might get?
If we think through “best that might now happen” and “worst that might now happen” scenarios, the best is that the Cavs get home advantage in the first round of the playoffs. What is the worst?
Someone see if Cols can send us some the the stuff he is smoking. We need it.
good pt evil—-just checked golden state’s box score—how/ why did we let speights / Livingston go—talk about bench strength—I have the best wife ever—-she haD bough me a case of Christmas ale and hid it until I ran out —- I AM A LUCKY GUY !!
Well that was ugly. Bucks were also down three key rotation players and won pretty easily on the road. Really shows the Cavs’ lack of bench talent and depth even compared to a pretty average team. If you have some length and a couple of three point shooters, you can give this Cavs team a game, even when they have Lebron and K-Love. It’s up to Blatt to figure out how to make it work, think about Thibs and the Bulls or Carlisle and the Mavs . . . a coach with a good scheme and his team’s ear doesn’t… Read more »
Fair point, although that 7 point third quarter was an aberration. If that’s just a normal low quarter, it’s a pretty competitive game. And it’s not like the Bucks’ missing rotation players are the same caliber as the Cavs missing guys.
I agree nobody on the Bucks is a Lebron or Love, but that is kind of the point isn’t it? The Bucks are a mediocre, young team, so their being down two starters and a rotation player should still mean something when you are playing them. I know you watched the game carefully and respectfully posit that I had a slightly different take on how “competitive” it was — the Bucks withstood a couple of runs by the Cavs, shot pretty poorly themselves other than a few spurts, and still won pretty easily on the Cavs home floor. The game… Read more »
And while I don’t disagree it wasn’t all that competitive after the historically abysmal third quarter, I would argue that it was competitive in the first half. Cavs had a great 6 minute run to end the first half where they cut the lead from 17 to 5 at half. I would also agree that they are not a good team without LBJ, Love, Andy and Marion. Any team that has to play guys like Amundsen, Haywood (although he wasn’t that bad), James Jones and Joe Harris for extended minutes is not a good team.
evil –you are ” on fire ” with your comments—good way to end the new year—going to finish off ” my last Christmas ales “–oh shit the way the cavs have ben playing I must have polished them off earlier in the week–oh well –HERE IS ALL TO YOU FAITHFUL BROTHERS/ BLOGGERS—-IT WELL BE A BETTER NEW YEAR !!
As sad as this game was, running out of Christmas Ale is worse by far. Happy New Year Nomad!
Goodbye 2014! Cavs got their work cut out for them in 2015. I’d love to see Nate’s take on each Cav’s New Year’s Resolutions.
Things I hope LBJ got for his birthday:
1) Some stickum
2) Some energy bars and red bull
3) A chip on his shoulder
4) Some well needed rest for his knee
5) An “off switch” for his chill mode
Captain Kirk with some garbage time
I can’t even get excited about that last Delly Trey. Hope 2015 is a fresh start for this team.
And good Knight! That three was the dagger.
Man, 33 percent from the floor. Yikes! If Cavs had a half decent shooting night, they’d be winning this game easily. They’re actually doing a pretty good job on Bucks in the second half defensively.
Miller couldn’t have been more wide open on that straight on miss.
Where is this Dudley rebounding coming from? That’s twice he got a rebound in a sea of 4 Cavs. Ah the drawbacks of having so few big men.
JAMES FREAKING JONES cuts it to 11
James Jones was open! Down to 11.
Just not meant to be. Cavs have at least a dozen shots that looked like they were going down rim out…
Gotta say, I’d be tempted to take back Lance Stephenson to get Biyombo. Heck, Lance might even give the Cavs some edge.
And then a really bad shot by Kyrie that last time down the floor.
If Kyrie would have made that falling out of bounds three pointer where he got fouled, that would have been amazing and maybe even worth the price of admission.
Hey, they cut the lead to 17 again.
James Jones can hit the three most of the time if he’s open. He’s just usually not open.
Ugh. I had to turn it off. So bad. It’s like the 2010-2011 Cavs with a worse bench.
Looks like Kyrie is still fully engaged even with the bad shooting night. Just saw him give Dion an encouraging high five on the bench. They both need to be aggressive if there’s any chance of them getting back in this one.
i feel bad for people that paid to go see this game.
Yeah, Arch Stanton said he was there. I wonder if he stayed?
I didn’t actually pay for the tickets, but left part way through the 4th.
Is this the lowest scoring quarter in Cavalier history???
No, but it was close. They had a 5-point quarter against the Bulls in December 1990 (Daugherty-Nance-Ehlo plus Darnell Valentine and Gerald Paddio; that might have been soon after Mark Price tore his ACL) and a 4-point quarter against Boston in November 2000 (Z, Andre Miller and a bunch of people we’d rather forget).
Got to make the Bucks put it on the floor and drive
That was like a soccer ref taking his good ol’ time before settling on TT for the foul.
Was it the yellow card or the red?
Getting outscored 19-4 to start the third is probably not a good way to win the game.
This is eerily similar to the end of the first quarter.
Man Antekundumpokenao has loooooonnnnnnngggggg arms.
Cavs just settling for outside contested jumpers on offense, and over-helping on D and leaving shooters wide open. Really wish they’d stop doing that and just play guys straight up. The over-help D has been a disaster.
They have to allow more open 3’s than any team in the league. It usually starts with bad pick-and-roll defense or overhelping.
Nah, just late coming back from halftime
Apparently the live thread has been stunned into an ‘Oh no here we go again’ silence.
Good balanced scoring. Shots not falling like they need to, but at least they’ve minimized the turnovers so far.
Cavs are in a good place. They should pull this out
Great 6 minute run to end half. I love that we have no one in double digits and are only down 5
Delly with the Craig Ehlo inbound and cut.
Such a slick inbounds play
Great playcall by Blatt on the in bounds.
Dion being aggressive like he was in the Miami game. Good to see!
U certainly can’t say that Blatt won’t try new things. Starting Haywood was a wrinkle I’m sure even the Bucks didn’t expect and it has gotten him into a decent defensive rhythm where he is reading things better and making an impact. He is too big not to cause problems at the rim of he can get some time to follow the normal flow of the bucks’ offense
Kinda wished he would have tried starting Haywood earlier in the season.
Can’t lose track of Knight like that. He can go off if they let him.
Scrappy Cavs ball letting them make this big run.
BLOCKED BY HAYWOOD!!!
If he’d had that put-back dunk, I might have yelled!
yeah even the miss took my breath away
HAYWOOD LOOKING LIKE SECOND COMING OF LEW ALCINDOR RIGHT NOW!
Okay, that’s wild hyperbole, but ANYTIME a big man on the Cavs can do something positive to score like that, it’s impressive.
Fred made me laugh out loud with that “need a black and white tv” comment about Kendall Marshall’s shot
That made me chuckle too. Fred’s had some good zingers this year.
FINALLY some closeouts on three point shooters!
Kyrie with an UNBELIEVABLE move. Arch, did he travel on that one? I couldn’t tell, but it sure looked like he took like 5 steps.
Delly finally found a TREY!
Haywood with a SICK jump hook!
Hate to say it, but Cavs aren’t even a .500 team without LBJ and KLove. They may not even be as good as last year’s team.
I think that goes without saying considering the portion of our offense that runs through those two borders on 50%. On the other hand, without Lebron this is the type of talent Blatt won euro championships with. I like that he gets the chance to coach a lebron less cavs team for a few games
If this gets out of hand I might leave at half time.
I might have left already, so you’re doing admirably so far.
I really hate watching Amundon. He can’t make a lay up.
How has Amundsen made it this far as an actual player in the NBA?
This is a game where Dion needs to score 20 or more.
Or at least 15 with some good passing
Kyrie’s shot is just way off
Not able to watch. Is it Brendan Yay-wood or Brendan Nay-wood?
It’s about 50/50 so far. 6 minutes with a rebound, a block, a turnover and a foul. Highlights were that he won the opening tip and had a nice aggressive block. Lowlight was that he passed the ball off of the block/rebound right to a Buck.
NO EXCUSE FOR ALLOWING THAT THREE AT THE END OF THE QUARTER
This is a fugly game!
Sorry you paid to see this one Arch
Guys just aren’t communicating on the switches on the perimeter. Dudley was wide open on that three. I could have made that three if I was that wide open.
That’s like the third straight layup that’s rimmed out for Cavs already.
Is there a better offensive rebounder/tip out possession extender than TT right now?
Hard to score when you have a lineup that features Amundsen, Delly and James Jones. Going to be a LOT of Kyrie and Dion dribbling around and TT might need some oxygen at halftime.
Lou Amundson is a waste of a roster spot.
Nice to see Haywood get some run. He’s not in good shape, but he had a nice block.
Nice to see the refs already in good form. Is it just me, or is the officiating this year really lacking and uneven?
I would have thought so, but after watching FIBA, this is a relief.
Yeah, but you expect it from FIBA refs
Cavs have gotten shredded by the refs. They should shoot 35% more free throws with how often they get hammered at the rim