Recap: Cleveland 129, Charlotte 90 (Witness The Power of This FULLY OPERATIONAL Battle Station!)
2015-01-24
This game was an evisceration, a deconstruction, an immolation, a validation. Cleveland came out engulfed in flames on offense and defense, and eliminated any chance of Charlotte winning by midway through the second quarter. As Phil Hubbard noted, “The JR half-court lob to LeBron for a 60-27 lead with 4 or 5 minutes left in the second quarter was probably the earliest dagger in NBA history.” It happened at less than six minutes in, Phil. Unfortunately, no CtBers were available to watch all of the first half, and thus we had to rely on some of our most dedicated readers to help us recap this one. Just a warning, we might go a little long, tonight. We want to savor every second of this game.
1st Quarter (brought to you by EvilGenius)
Charlotte came to town winners of 8 of their last 9, and without allowing a team to drop a hundo on them since the calendar turned 2015. They were looking to provide the Cavs with the “inevitable trap game” but the Cavs were having none of that from the jump. Even though Mozilla lost the opening tip to Bismack Biyombo, that would be the LAST thing the Cavs would lose on this long, glorious, jailbreak of a night at the Q.
After Gerald Henderson bricked a 17-footer, Kyrie snagged the rebound and set the early tone, pushing the tempo up the floor until LBJ hit KLove for a quick two to break the seal. The next Cavs possession came on the heels of the inevitable MKG misfire. Even though MKG hustled down to block LBJ’s shot, LBJ was able to snag the rebound and fire it out to JR Swish for what would be the first of a barrage of threes.
You could just tell that JR was going to be on again, and I for one am glad I was wrong about this cat. He just fires daggers like a blindfolded knife-thrower at the circus who never nicks his assistant on the spinning wheel.
Kemba went on a quick mini-run to tie the game at 5 off of a KLove miss and turnover (KLove’s shot still hasn’t quite recovered, just 3-7 tonight, but he’s still looking to do the little things that help), and then JR struck again from downtown and Mozilla had a dunk off a pretty LBJ assist (his fourth of the game already!) that made me sit up straight in my chair. It’s lucky that no Hornets were under the hoop on that crush because they may have had their skull caved in…
— FearTheSword (@FearTheSword) January 24, 2015
Blatt decided to take it a little easier on the Hornets and swapped out Moz for TT, but there would be no quarter in this quarter (or the rest of the game) for the pitiful wasps.
MKG actually made a nice 18-footer (Mark Price is earning his money with the work he’s doing with him), but Kyrie came back with a magical drive through the Hornets porous D and got the harm from Biyombo. After giving up a rare dunk to Henderson, KLove canned a nice jumper and Cavs super-aggressive defense forced Henderson into a travel.
Out of a Cavs timeout, the floodgates well and truly opened with silky threes from Kyrie and JR (who’s hand had fully caught fire at this point). Then, after TT put on a one-man rebounding show and finally tipped the ball in to give the Cavs a 24-9 advantage, Steve Clifford took a rage timeout to try and stop the bleeding. Unfortunately for Clifford, the rest of this would turn out to be the equivalent of an aortic rupture.
After another garbageman putback from TT, it was the moment Cavs fans had been waiting nearly three weeks for… Iman Shumpert checked into the game for KLove. In limited time (10 minutes) Iman looked about as good as we could rightfully expect a guy who’d missed the last 6 weeks of play could.
LBJ got hacked on a pass that he made look like a three point shot and after 15 minutes of replay consultation by the officials (okay it was only 30 seconds, but man these guys make NFL refs look fast), and ACTUALLY MADE ALL THREE FOUL SHOTS… IN A ROW! (I did hear rumors that the King had an “awesome practice” of his free throw shooting today, so…)
Meanwhile, the Cavs swarming D helds the Hornets to just FOUR points in the last 6:35 of the quarter. LeBron finished out the scoring with a nifty driving jumper and the Cavs ended the quarter up by 20: 33-13 and the massacre was only just beginning…
2nd Quarter (brought to you by Tom Pestak)
As if the Cavs didn’t have enough good things happening, Iman Shumpert drilled his first shot attempt as a Cavalier – a rhythm 3 from the left wing that was set up because Mozilla rolled to the rim and drew Shump’s defender. Moz followed that up with an crushing alley-oop from LeBron, despite the packed paint. Delly added a runner (although Delly haters will point out it was already garbage time) and then the AussBoss tossed ANOTHER alley-oop to LOBZGOV!!! At this point I just imagine David Griffin sitting down for the first time since last February when he assumed the position and taking a sip of some green tea or something (and then smirking to himself and raising his pinky up). The early returns on the 3-team trade couldn’t have looked better.
That’s when LeBron decided to put on a show – reminding everyone that he’s BACK, baby. First he he converted an assortment of dribble drives, including a runner, a power fingeroll off an in-bounds outlet pass from K-Love, a power layup where LeBron cut from the perimeter (harkening back to the Mo Williams KRAKKEN play of aught-9), some freebies, and then this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9uVenCu0AU#t=2m58s
LeBron takes the pick to the house and adds a left-handed windmill for effect. This is not your 2014 Holiday season LeBron. At this point the Cavs bench was probably wondering why they were even given chairs for this game. Keep watching the above video for the alley-oop of the year. The play starts with a great deflection and tip from Kyrie, and a full-court pass from J.R. Smith to a streaking LeBron for the alleyoop. This is two straight games where Kyrie’s long arms broke up a pass and J.R. Smith hauled in the deflection and kicked off an explosive play. The Cavs bench lost its collective mind. LeBron cracked an exhausted smile at J.R. and received a chest bump that would have sent an average human sprawling. It reminded me of the Tractor Traylor low-five and chest bump from aught-5. REMEMBER THAT, D-JONES!? The Hornets called timeout and the faithful celebrated. But it was more of the same out of the timeout. On the very next possession the Cavs got off to the races again and LeBron hit K-Love for a alley-layup. On the next possession, the Hornets got FIVE shots at the basket. [Miss-Miss-Miss-Blocked by LeBron-Blocked By The Iron Curtain] The Cavs trotted down the court and Kyrie buried a transition 3.
That was pretty much all she wrote, but the Cavs continued to turn in some impressive play from Shumpert, J.R. Smith, and even a spry-looking Shawn Marion. The Cavs went into the locker room ahead 75-40, the largest halftime differential in franchise history.
Hornets have held each of last 10 opponents to less than 100 points. Cavs have 75 at half. Yes, 75. (Lead 75-40). LeBron 19 pts, 6 ast.
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 24, 2015
3rd Quarter (brought to you by Nate Smith)
Sat through halftime seething at my Hopper, which somehow decided that I didn’t need to see the first half. Dish Network is great, but its handling of regional sports channels is a debacle, especially with DVR. It’s a crap shoot whether your game is going to air (they often don’t when there’s a national feed), whether it’s going to be in HD, and whether it’s going to record. [Editor’s Note: the observations are merely the personal opinions of Nate Smith — don’t sue anyone associated with this blog, especially Nate]. Anyway, I fully expected a bit of a letdown for the Cavs after the scintillating first half, and I was ticked for missing some of the awesomeness, but Mozzy was balling.
First, he grabbed an offensive rebound, which led to a LeBron reload triple. Then he made a diagonal cut, stopped on a dime, pump faked, got Biyambo into the air, and drew a foul. Nicely done. Then the first “Uh, oh,” J.R. play of the season: a flagrant foul on Biyambo. It was shortly forgotten as Kyrie hit a layup off a two man weave and then a minute or two later got the first technical of his career after arguing with the ref about Kemba Walker’s handsy defense. The fact that Kyrie and J.R. were that fiery with the Cavs up 35 says volumes.
After Mozzilla dropped in two more freebies off a nice dive and a pass from the King, the fire started raining from the sky. Bron hit a three, Kyrie hit a pull-up, and J.R. Smith said “FLAME ON!” and hit two straight threeteors from the right wing. Sure there were some Hornet layups sandwiched in between these shots, but it was had to get too upset. The energy did start sapping when when LeBron missed a layup and stayed on the offensive end of the floor jawing at the ref. Charlotte hit a five-on-four three. “Goodnight, LeBron!” I said as he headed for the bench.
In the last two minutes, Marion scored on an old school drop step move over Lance Stephenson from the left block. Bismack scored six points as Kevin Love and TT didn’t want to play defense any more, and the J.R. Smith threeteor shower continued. Earl hit off a wide open look from Delly, and then he closed out the quarter by drilling a 27-footer with two Hornets within inches of him. In the words of Fantastic Four Pinball: “THAT’S A FLAMING SKILL SHOT!” Cavs up 40, 103-63. Nothing like Chalupas in the third quarter.
4th Quarter (brought to you by the interwebs)
Delly, Miller, Marion, TT, and Shump started the quarter, and I loved the way they were flying around on D, and how they forced a Lance Stephenson miss. Then, Delly ran the motion offense, settled into a pick and roll with T.T. drove hard and found Shawn Marion with an absolutely ridiculous lob pass and an even better flush! THE MATRIX WAS JUST RELOADED! In the words of Neo, “Whoa.”
Here’s some garbage time comments of joy from the live thread…
EvilGenius: I LOVE seeing all the bench guys play and have fun in a blowout. Even Miller hit a three!
Phil Hubbard: And they force a shot-clock violation, followed by a steal. They might keep Charlotte under 80.
U-Dog: Up by 46 and still playing D? That’s sick.
SHUMP! (Gotta spell SHUMP with all caps -Nomad has to spell it in all lower case)
Arch Stanton: The Cavs should start pulling people from the stands to sub in. Almost over 50 point lead.
… after a Miller Three, a couple joe Joe Harris buckets, an actual made layup by Delly (I know, right?)…
Looks like Brendan Haywood gets to play tonight!
— Adam Wheeler (@adam_c_wheeler) January 24, 2015
Brendan Haywood is the only Cav yet to score, and I think he knows it. Just drove from 20 feet out to attempt a layup
— FearTheSword (@FearTheSword) January 24, 2015
Cavs just ISOing Brendan Haywood in the post to troll the Hornets
— Trevor Magnotti (@Tmagnotti) January 24, 2015
Haywood its just terrible. Thank god his contract isn’t.
— realcavsfans.com (@realcavsfans) January 24, 2015
U-Dog: Jefferson’s in the game with 1:00 left?
And with one minute left, Delly drove, and hit Brendan Haywod who apparently got mad at his tool belt because he threw a hammer down. Great moment for a still pretty packed Q, who acknowledged the moment when every Cavalier scored. That was an epic win. 129-90: largest victory in 21 years.
Evil Genius’s Likes:
The short answer… EVERYTHING
Pre-game since Allie was out sick, Fred said he interviewed Moz and asked him what the Russian word for “dunk” was. Moz reportedly replied… “dunk.”
The greatest thing other than the fact that this was a massive blowout from the start, was the WAY that the Cavs executed it. Their offensive efficiency was OFF THE CHARTS good! LBJ: 25 points in 27 minutes; Kyrie 18 points in 28 minutes; Moz with 14 in 21 mins; JR with 21 in 29 minutes; and even though KLove didn’t quite make double digits, he still was a +33 in 30 minutes. All the starters were at least +29.
The speed! It was like Blatt turned the team over to Mike D’Antoni for the night. It seemed like they were playing on a 10 second shot clock at times.
Cleveland played defense like they were demonically possessed. At one point it seemed like there was a Cav with his hands on the ball tipping it away from a Hornet on literally every play.
Mozilla continues to be a beast inside, who can surprisingly run the floor like an oversized gazelle. TT contributed to the block party, and Kyrie continued his inspired run against the top PGs in the league, dominating poor Kemba Walker.
LBJ made everything look easy and there was nary an ISO play in sight. He got four quick assists and then got pretty much whatever he wanted driving inside with layups and nifty short floaters at the rim.
The Matrix even got Reloaded tonight with an AWESOME slam. It was great to see him look years younger (maybe he should have declared his retirement sooner!)
So good to finally see Shump on the floor, and all things considered, his 10 minutes on the court made Griffin look even more like a genius for pulling off that trade. You can just tell once he’s up to full strength, he is going to be a huge addition to this lineup. He wound up hitting all three of his shots (2-2 from three) and had two boards and two assists. He looked active and quick even though he probably is still learning the sets on the fly.
Evil Genius Didn’t Likes:
The short answer… NOTHING
Okay, it would be nice to see KLove’s shot finally get back to normal, and this was ostensibly a game where he could have sat out or gotten more rest than he did for his back, but it was still great to see him out there trying on D.
I also would have loved to see them get the hat-trick of all five starters scoring at least 15 points for the third game in a row, but that’s just rich people problems…
Next up… will it be Saint Weirdo strikes back? Or will OKC be the next victim of the Cavaliers Revenge Tour 2015? My vote would be for the latter…
Final Thoughts (from Tom Pestak)
This is the team we envisioned back in the summer – fast break juggernaut coupled with splashy 3-point shooting, overwhelming rebounding, and The Real LeBron. So far this season it’s been mostly NONE of this. I’ve labeled them Small, Slow, and Soft. The trade for Smith, Shump, and Moz corrected the “Small”, at least on paper, but this game showed how dominant the Cavs can get when they disrupt on defense. This is the kind of “easy win” we expected the Cavs to have every now and then. Their momentum is building.
I just want to thank all you guys that write the recaps for CtB. I think all you’re writings are creative, insightful, and entertaining . . . and could even be writers for Cleveland.com or some other outlet. In fact, after I read your write ups, I don’t feel a need to go elsewhere to read about how the game went.
I know it takes a lot of time and effort to put out a story . . . and you do it several nights a week. Thanks guys.
Here here! At this point, your recaps and the debates in this comment section are my sole source of Cavs talk.
Seconded! Tough to find many Cavs fans in person in LA to rap with about the team, so it’s an awesome thing to have this blog and all of the commenters on it for a daily fix of dialogue on all things Cavalier
Thanks guys, it means a lot. In a lot of ways, I feel like we’re liberated here by not having to conform to “newspaper” style, or micropost content farming. We also don’t have the deadlines those guys do. I don’t feel like we’re “better” than all those guys (though I do feel like we’re better than some), but I’m constantly impressed with the quality and dedication of everyone at CtB. I do have to say that a guy I really respect is Jason Lloyd. He does the the whole game, livetweets, interviews, recaps, and then puts up a “Final Thoughts”… Read more »
Predictions for Saint Weirdo in his return?
That’s the thing. Saint Weirdo is like a box of chocolates.
A week ago I was thinking he’d go off but he’s come back to earth. If it’s a blowout in the Cavs favor (and they quit on D) he drops 10+, maybe 20. If it’s tight I’m thinking he’s single digits. Few of Dion’s drives will convert with Moz down there.
I’d say under normal circumstances, OKC might try and feed him the ball a bit more and let him try and go off a bit, but after the loss to ATL, they desperately need a win to gain ground on the Suns for the 8th spot out west. I think there will be at least a couple patented off-balance-step-back-deep-twos that go in for Saint Weirdo, but most of his minutes will be either against a defensively improved Kyrie, or a taller guard like JR or Shump. And no amount of “AND ONE!” shouting will help him against Mount Mozgov. The… Read more »
Cavs players take it upon themselves to shut Dion down — Kyrie and Delly, specifically. Push him left, don’t get sloppy with the dribble around him, and make him take long twos. I’d want to make him go 1-12. Of course, that’s probably what OKC wants: get distracted by Dion while Westbrook and Durant slice them up. I am super psyched about this game. My aunt and uncle live in OKC, and I always call the team the Tacoma City Plunder. (The Sonics thing was a big deal to me, because growing up in Alaska, the Sonics were the only… Read more »
Loved the Lenny Wilkens-era Sonics. Gus Williams was so silky smooth, especially in the open court.
I never understood what was so bad about Key Arena. I mean they had renovated it only 10 years before the move. Always just seemed like Clay Bennett was just hell-bent on moving the team to OKC. After going through the pain of what happened to the Browns, I sympathized with the Sonics fans. They had their team ripped away for no good reason. But man, they had some awesome teams in the mid-90s. That 95-96 team that took two games from the historic Bulls (after being down 3-0) was an amazingly good team. They just had the misfortune of… Read more »
This reveals my politics a little, but Clay Benett is one of my least favorite people in America, and that is if Sonicsgate had never happened. The way the whole Sonics thing went down was beyond scummy, and one of the blacker marks on Stern’s legacy. I really felt like the city should have made it incredibly difficult for him to leave and financially painful. Sadly, they caved as most cities seem to do to pro sports teams. I grew up watching those mid 90s teams along with the Celtics, Rockets, Cavs, and Bulls. Gary Payton was one of the… Read more »
I would like to submit The Flushin’ Russian for Mozgov nickname consideration. #TeamTimo
I vote for this!
Man, what is up with the achilles injuries this year? Looks like Detroit just took a massive hit with Brandon Jennings going down…
excellant recap once again.
I thought delly had a good game, he tried getting brendan haywood open to give him some points.
I don’t think we need a back up pg. When delly’s in his role he thrives. We have enough ball handlers to leave him in his role in case kyrie gets injured.
The delly hate on twitter is very infuriating. I should stop searching his name during games. Clueless idiots who think if you can;t dunk, you cant be in the nba. Those types of idiots.
Totally agree David P… Delly is a great glue guy. Only improvement I’d like to see from him is being more aggressive offensively because teams know he likes to pass the ball. His defensive toughness and his willingness to pass is essential for the offense when Lebron isn’t in the game, facilitating.
While I still like Dion the person and root for him to succeed (except when playing the Cavs), I don’t remember him being this bad of an interview… (lifted from McMenamin’s piece today about whether or not he thinks he was a scapegoat for the early problems with Cavs this season): “I ain’t really care what nobody say. It ain’t affect me. I slept good every night. I slept good every night. So, I mean, that’s what comes with the territory. That’s what comes with it when you got somebody like LeBron who brings all that attention around the team… Read more »
I am curious why you think this is bad? I feel like this is classic Dion – a bizarre combination of humility and arrogance, sprinkled with a “telling like it is” edge.
I just felt like it was out of sorts, even for Dion. He not only seemed a bit more eloquent to me when he did interviews here, but he also seems to just talk in circles on this take “over here it’s still the same situation, but it’s different” I’m not really sure where he was going with any of this…
“A bizarre combination of humility and arrogance.” A great statement . . . but coming from the streets of Philly it’s nice to see he has been able to develop the humility part. Without the arrogance he probably wouldn’t be in the NBA. “It’s the same situation, but different.” Actually, it is the same, but different. Unfortunately, OKC is deeper than the Cavs at his position and if he doesn’t start to fill his role and play in the team concept – or find more consistency with his stroke – he might find himself on the bench more than he… Read more »
Dion was an insomniac over the summer. Few can contradict themselves as much as he does in interviews. I found it endearing in a way. Best of luck to him, but this is a much better fit. The draft redo’s really don’t matter at this point. Once they get Love into his comfort zone, they will be a witch to take out in the playoffs.
Yes, best of luck to Dion – a very unique individual. He’s the type of guy you see an ESPN 30-30 episode 10 years after the end of his career. I hope it turns out well.
It’s funny – we all really love and root for Dion. Despite all of his quirks, he is truly likable.
That nails it. He is like an old friend that is always doing goofy stuff, but is basically a good guy.
Manny Ramirez was a bit like that, although his talent was over the top. I don’t know how much he hurt his career by being a clown, but probably some, maybe a lot. And of course it ended ugly. If he had the attitude of, say, a Micheal Brantly, he might be in the conversation with Ted Williams now.
I bet you guys that when Shumpert gets completely healthy Shawn Marion will get benched.
Good test tomorrow against Okc, let’s see how it goes. Go Cavs!!
Schumpert should start with JR on the bench. Really, I don’t care as long as they keep playing for each other and the win.
I think Delly may be the odd man out. Yesterday in the 1st Q Blatt pulled LBJ early for Marion, and then re-inserted LBJ for Kyrie later in the quarter. LBJ then played with Shump, Marion, TT, and Mozgov. When Shump’s minutes restrictions is pulled, I am curious if we see Blatt go to more lineups where LBJ is the backup PG. Delly will still get some run, but probably less.
If they play like they did yesterday, there won’t be any odd men out because Blatt will be able to expand his rotation (especially against the non-playoff teams) and keep the big three comfortably in the 35 minute range average. With starting lineup of LBJ, Kyrie, KLove, Moz and JR/Shump, you then have Matrix, TT, Shump/JR and Delly for a nine man rotation. Occasionally, you can situationally pepper in Miller, Jones and whoever they fill the last space on the roster with (Ray, another PG or another big). Although if it’s Ray or some other vet like Ray then that… Read more »
Agreed EvilGenius… 9 man rotation looks really good.
Yes, a nine man rotation with 35 minute averages works. There’s a place for Delly. He pushes the ball up the court and brings defensive energy. In games where he’s overmatched by someone’s athleticism we have Shumpert to play those minutes. But the athletic mismatch will have to sit at times and you can bring Delly iin then.
If either James or Miller find their stroke there will be times for them to see the floor as well If James or Miller find their stroke – THEN we’ll be a complete team.
Marion’s not getting benched… he’s a great team player who can score when he attacks and plays good to great defense.
The Wall Street Journal sports columnist (yes, they have one) tweets:
Jason Gay @jasonWSJ Just as everyone envisioned before season began: LeBron James and JR Smith, dominating the NBA together.
I really don’t want to get carried away, but, man, we haven’t seen the best from this team. How freaking scary/exciting is that?
While there may still be some bumps in the road, they most likely won’t be the potholes that existed in the first half (like the season ending injury for Andy and LBJ just not being right physically, etc.). Agree it’s scary just how good they can be when they’re healthy and engaged. Shump is still probably at least a few games away from being comfortable, but it’s really obvious that guys are starting to fully thrive in their respective roles.
Its exciting. I never thought I would be this excited about the CAVS again. I am going to enjoy this. Come playoff time, it will be agonizing. I will need an IV of alcohol. Go CAVS.
This game was such a high, the OKC game might now be kind of a trap game. Can the Cavs come back with good energy? It will be a good measuring stick of where they are. I have to think a Kevin Love breakout scoring game is coming soon. More of his shot are coming in the flow of the offense now, and the way the team is playing should take some pressure off him. He has to be relieved that he can leave most rim-protecting responsibilities to Moz. It goes without saying that was a role he wasn’t suited… Read more »
yeah, he definitely influenced the game more than his stat line showed. I would like to see more off-ball movement when we give him the ball in the post/elbow/wherever, he’s a REALLY good passer, and we should take advantage, it will also force the defenders to account for that as well as his shot, making it easier for him to get better looks. Aside from that, LBJ/Kyrie cutting off the ball and getting the ball when Love has already made the defense warp towards him will be utterly ridiculous. There was a play in the second quarter where LBJ got… Read more »
Great point, Phil. Love shared the top +/- for the game with JR; good things happen with Love on the court. I know his shooting hasn’t been as strong, but I noticed he was up against Biyombo in the post a lot and that’s not easy to overcome. Also, JR has been getting lots of Love’s threes. I have no problem with that–maybe we can actually start getting Love going at the elbow and not just in the low post.
Agreed with all of you… when the game slows down is the perfect time to go to Love on the post/elbow. Love is playing much better recently, it all started with taking that crucial charge in LA against the Lakers. He’s doing dirty work now, and passing really well. Only thing left is the shot to come around. They have got to get him some elbow/post touches.
Great recap by all. Really like the different voices per quarter.
Griffin really should be given a raise for the job he’s done. I think he had Shump, JR and Mozgov in mind and had to wait until their teams got desperate enough to deal them before he was able to make his move.
What’s this team’s record when LeBron plays? I think it’s pretty great. I think what was obvious before is even more obvious now. No team can take us down in a 7 game series in the East. And now with Mozzy and JR, I don’t know if anyone can beat us in a series.
(Except maybe OKC).
Really excited about mañana’s game. OKC is goint to get Cleveland steam(er) rolled. I also have been noticing JRs hard fouls, I love it. Mozgov and JR was exactly what this team needs. If I was Blatt, I would tell Love to go out and get a flagrant. Be a man for God sake.
Agree, tomorrow should be epic!
I don’t know if JR was a targeted pick up. But he should have been with how he’s playing. Defensive effort, heads up playmaking and deadly shooting. He’s becoming a fan favorite ala Delonte.
Moz too. He’s so much better than I thought. Much better than Hibbert or others.
I couldn’t stand Delonte and Mo Williams. Both were overachieving bums. KI, JR, Schumpert, Thompson, and even Love are all talented individuals. JR is 6’6. Waiters and Delonte were 6’3. They couldn’t shoot over anyone.
Yep. This is by far the most talented Cavs team in our lives. Actually the most talented Cavs team ever.
Hard not to agree with Cols on this one but the Mark Price era, and 2008-09 Cavs may rival this team. The conference is definitely tougher than years past so I don’t see any easy path to the finals.
The Mark Price era, maybe, but LeBron is so good that this team is better. That 2008-2009 team, no way. They didn’t have the talent that this team has. JR Smith would’ve been the 2nd best player on that team.
Hard to choose ANY Cavs team over this one just because LBJ is on it. My favorite true Cavs team before this would have been the 91-92 Cavs. Starting lineup was Price, Ehlo, Nance, Sanders and Daugherty and they had Hot Rod, Kerr, Ferry, Bennett and tough as nails John Battle off the bench. Plus they had two of my favorite rookie Cavs in Terrell Brandon and Bobby Phills.
That was the team that took down Bird and the Celtics in an epic EC Semi-Finals round 4-3 before finally succumbing to the Jordan Bulls in the ECF 4-2.
These wins always seem to happen on Fridays and don’t get much attention from the national media. Of course, it makes sense that Klay Thompson’s insane night and the Hawks continued streak are getting all the buzz. They deserve it.
I’ve noticed that Moz and Smith have helped so much to erase mistakes and keep the energy going, when the team of one month ago would always run out of steam or get discouraged after a bad play or two. Great debut by Shumpert, too.
I say good. I want to fly under the radar. The rest of country still probably doesn’t know how hot the CAVS are. They keep playing like this, we will be soon have that target on our backs. And yes, I said “we”.
The Hornets had won 8 out of their lasr 9. Good win. I didn’t think Moz was this good offensively. He knows where to be to help the team. It should only get better, I mean he has been here a week. Schumpert looked athletic, I knew he was talented, but I thought he looked damn good on the floor. I am still wondering about a Love for Bledsoe/Len…. I know its a pipe dream. Love ain’t getting max money and the CAVS will probably just let him walk. I feel good about this team considering they have been playing… Read more »
The Cavs won’t let Love walk (nor should they), and he’s getting max money.
I disagree. He sucks really can’t get his own shot. He is a sunk cost. Trade him or let him walk this offseason. I would be shocked if anyone gave him max dollars. I would take Gasol over him right now easy.
If you haven’t seen it, today’s Pluto article on what Mozgov has meant, not only to Cavs on the court but Blatt off the court is a really good and interesting read…
Good read. “Getting rid of the guy who did not want to be here and bringing 3 in” is what I gathered.
And this is a good point on JR that probably surprised most of us: “Unlike Waiters who likes to dribble the ball, Smith either quickly shoots it or passes it.” Yes — the ball does not stick. Ball movement was instantly better when JR arrived.
Pace, baby!
It may be the case with the current Cavs that the D starts with O, instead of the other way around. The hyper transitions discombobulated the Hornets within ten minutes.
Sunday should be like a playoff game, vibe-wise.
Man, that was FUN! Big thanks to Nate and Tom for letting me help out on the recap. I have a new appreciation for how much work it takes to put out a report on a given game. You guys are awesome for doing it 82 times a year (plus the playoffs now too!).
And you always miss/forget something… I forgot to mention the awesome Wallenda Brothers (as Fred deemed it) tightrope act that Kyrie and LBJ pulled off in saving that possession prior to the Mozgov skullcrushing dunk. That play really seemed to energize the whole team, crowd and bench…
Excellent narrative. Seamless transition from the regular CtB writers and their creativity. I re-enjoyed several observations. Remembered the five missed shot possession by Charlotte followed by the Kyrie three.
JR “just fires daggers like a blindfolded knife-thrower at the circus who never nicks his assistant on the spinning wheel.”
I’m sure it’s a lot of work.
Can’t believe Cols missed his chance to recap a game – this would have been the perfect one for him too
Haha. Yeah. Except I didn’t get to watch it at all.
Cols is just biding his time for the commenter 5 on 5…
I’m really looking forward to that.
GoT t H e HiNt EvIl OnE—-good recap always enjoy your writing —–how are those ctb’s shirts coming
Thanks Nomad! Still working on those t-shirts…