Recap: Cavs 127, Wizards 89 (Or, “That was kind of devastating” – John Wall)
2015-02-21
[Editor’s Note] The Cavs went into DC to battle a team they were looking up at in the standings. John Wall apparently called this a “must win” game for the Wizards. The Cavs led by as many as 40. With the win, they leapt over Washington to claim 4th place in the East. The Cavs even dominated garbage time, which never happens. The C:tB crew was inactive tonight (we didn’t perfectly align our all-star break), so we tapped some of the veteran commenters for the recap.
First Half (Brought to you by EvilGenius)
Even though the Cavs were back and raring to go tonight against the Wiz, the regular C:tB crew had their flight delayed on their trip back from the Virgin Islands. (Apparently TT and his girl caught the last seats on the earlier one…)
And so, with no official Live Game Thread at our disposal, our only recourse as the rabid C:tB Commentariat we are was to hijack the previous thread and get the unofficial second half of the season off and running!
This would be a good barometer to see just where the Cavs were at following a long and well deserved All-Star Break. It was a chance to take over sole possession of the fourth seed in the EC, make a statement against a scrappy Wizards team, and get an important win on the road.
It was also, for those of you counting along at home, a chance for the Cavs to surpass last year’s win total for the season… in February.
1st Quarter:
The action started off with a couple of early misses on both ends as the teams sized each other up. Paul Pierce missed the first of many from distance for the Wiz on the night before JR returned the favor.
As Phil Hubbard noted though, there were two good things to start the game… we got the good commentators (Van Gundy and Breen) and we also got our second look at referee Lauren Holtkamp (the Cavs are now 2-0 when she officiates, and as Tom points out, in two blowouts against top-four teams).
Lauren Holtkamp
After John Wall knifed through the Cavs D for the first bucket, the Cavs went into full on “attack the block” mode and took the ball inside early and often against the Wiz. They also shared the ball with gusto as eight of their first nine baskets were assisted. Every Cavs starter scored in this flurry and the ball moved with abandon. There were backdoor cuts, driving layups and lots of movement.
Nene was able to abuse Moz and the Cavs inside initially. The Brazillian is a tougher cover for Moz with the quickness he possesses. The defense in general seemed a little porous to start, although KLove had active hands and tipped away a pass for a long outlet to LeBron. With LBJ and Kyrie on the fast break, it looked like things might go sideways… but Kyrie was able to get up a terrific alley for Bron to OOP the living crap out of…
Moz then made a nice steal off of a bad Paul Pierce pass (say that five times fast…), handed the ball off to KLove who chucked a TD pass to JR. With two defenders in pursuit, JR smartly allowed them to fly over his head (one after the other) and then calmly bank in the easy layup.
A Mozgov jam off an LBJ assist, followed by a sweetly stroked jumper by the King put the Cavs up 21-12 and forced Randy Wittman to bring his troops in for some inspirational words of exhortation… this would not be enough…
As Phil Hubbard said “Cavs on pace to score about 200 points” and Arch Stanton remarked “Cavs looked well-rested and reenergized.”
Out of the timeout, Otto Porter (remember that guy?) hit a 19-footer, but TT also entered the game and brought some defensive energy. The Wiz continued to be cold from the outside (they would only hit 1 of 16 threes in this game for a miniscule 6%).
The Cavs on the other hand got back to back triples from Kyrie and Iman. Around this point in time, I noticed that Shump had clearly let his already super high Kid N’ Play do grow about another 4 inches during the break. If it helps him shoot like he did tonight… he should never cut it again (#Samson).
Bring down the house, Shump
Cavs then got a little three happy (much to the dismay of Gordon, CLF and Arch Stanton since they weren’t getting the ball into an open KLove in the post). In fact, they missed three triples in one possession (including one wide open one from Kyrie that he had time to take a selfie before shooting it…). Oh well, can’t hit em all…
After a John Wall missed three at the other end (Kyrie practically dared him to shoot it…) Blatt smartly called a quick timeout to stop the attempted barrage from deep and remind the guys that they’d had a ton of success attacking the rim earlier.
LBJ and TT hit a couple of shots to push the lead out to 11 before John Wall converted on a couple of free throws to end the scoring for the quarter. Even though the Cavs defense wasn’t as tight as it could have been, they still found themselves up 35-26 after one. It might have been more, but LeBron was forced to take a double-clutching off-balance three with the clock winding down.
At the quarter break, Gordon educated us all on how eerily similar Brad Beal and St. Weirdo are… “It’s almost creepy how identical Beal’s and Waiters’ career stats are. Both at 41.7% shooting for their career. Both 0.3 blocks. Both 1.0 steals. 1.8/1.9 TOs.”
2nd Quarter:
The second quarter started with a LBJ miss and yet another Wiz miss from deep (this one from Martell Webster). Then… something awesome happened… Matthew “Rudy” Dellavedova drove and hit the prettiest tear drop shot ever (okay that’s wild hyperbole, but it was pretty smooth). As I said at the time… it was “no glass… all class…”
LeBron then stole the ball again for an easy bucket in transition. And after a Webster jumper… SHUMP and his wild hair took over! He just kept shooting the rock from deeper and deeper… 20 feet… 23 feet and finally a bomb from 25 feet! This kid is starting to show he’s more than just a defensive presence…
KLove then found Moz with a terrific pass and the big man put the Cavs up by 21. It’s no secret that the Cavs are better with the Iron Curtain on the floor (he was a mind-boggling +42 for the game — for the love of Glasnost and Perestroika!!)
LBJ made another long three, but had to leave the game a short time later with his second personal foul on a somewhat questionable charge call by our supposed friend Lauren. Maybe Gortat got to the spot in time, but it sure looked like he flopped a bit to exaggerate the contact…
After a smooth JR drive and finish at the rim, Shump (and his awesome hair) stole the ball and got it ahead to Kyrie for the breakaway layup. Only John Wall was hot on his heels and looked to have the angle on Kyrie… except something AWESOME happened… Kyrie pulled a SportsCenter Top 10 play with a gravity-defying up and under move… AND got the and-one!
Gordon had this to say: “THAT WAS ONE OF THE DIRTIEST FINISHES I’VE EVER SEEN. Kyrie baited Wall into trying to contest the layup and then finishes it reverse NASTY. And by dirty I mean like, ‘hey John Wall how my noots taste?’ dirty.”
I said something like: “You think Kyrie goes up to Wall and says… “And THAT’s why I played the whole fourth quarter of the All Star Game…”
Phil Hubbard: “Kyrie is just too frickin’ good! It isn’t fair to the rest of the league.”
And believeLAND: “WOW! That Kyrie reverse just blew my mind”
After an official time out (probably to alert SportsCenter and send them the tape of Kyrie’s sick freaking move)… Kyrie hit the and one and it looked like the rout was on in earnest… Not quite yet though…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGdHhNjEwFE&feature=youtu.be#t=1m44s
While JR had a nice block on Pierce and steal from Gortat… he missed two consecutive threes on one possession (after KLove missed one as well for the missed-three trifecta).
Kyrie hit another sweet 22-footer, but then started to get a little sloppy with the ball. Otto Porter stole the ball from Kyrie, then after a smart Delly foul, our old pal Drew Gooden (yes, he’s still in the league and was not one of the old Cavs bretheren who got moved at the trade deadline) turned back the clock and canned an 18 foot jumper. Porter blocked a shot at the rim from Delly, but then Delly found KLove under the hoop for a nifty layup on an in-bounds play.
After another Porter steal (which got stolen back by JR) something truly awful happened… KLove faked a three, found himself wide open for an uncontested drive to the hoop… then got caught somewhere between the moon and New York City (okay, actually between going for the layup or the dunk) and got ignominiously BLOCKED BY THE RIM…
The commentariat had this to say…
Gordon: “I really wish Love didn’t just miss a dunk…”
Arch Stanton: “Man Love… How do you miss that dunk?”
Me: “Oh NO! What happened to Kevin on that dunk try?”
CLF: “Have no idea… the seas parted, and then he was rejected by the rim!”
Scotch: “Is kevin love completely done being athletic?”
Kevin: “That’s a 6′ 10” guy.”
Yes… it was THAT ugly. Another tape will go to SportsCenter for the Not Top 10 Plays…
Paul Pierce took advantage and hit another shot, and then Kyrie’s carelessness in rolling the ball along the floor resulted in a heady John Wall steal and timeout (thus illustrating why rolling the ball like that is just not a good idea).
Wall converted the turnover into an easy bucket to cut the once 22 point Cavs lead down to 14 during the 10-2 run to end the half. And then KLove (in what is becoming a disturbing Cavs tradition) launched and missed a three with a full 11 seconds left on the game clock (instead of the 2.5 it should have been). Ugh.
Fortunately… Paul Pierce decided to jack up a three of his own to end the half which missed terribly… keeping the Wiz a perfect 0-11 from downtown in the first half and prompting my son (who was watching with me and even at his young age has developed enough hatred for Pierce) to shout “The Truth is a LIE!!!” at the screen.
Joey B summed up the prevailing feeling at the end of the half with this comment:
“That was some craptastic end of quarter play right there. GD, that’s infuriating. Its like DeSean Jackson dropping the ball at the one yard line after a 90 yard bomb.”
Still, the good guys were up 65-51 at the half and, despite some of the letdown at the end, played some stellar basketball, and dropped two 30+ point quarters on the hapless Wiz.
Second Half (Brought to you by CLF)
3rd quarter
The first half ended with a Wizards’ run. However, CtBer believeLAND correctly predicted, “Lebron will return in the third and crush these Wizards for good.” To open the 3rd quarter, LBJ promptly threw a bounce pass to the post for K Love for shot in which he was fouled. This set the “business-like” tone for the Cavs for the rest of the game. Nene Hilario was the Wizards’ main offensive threat of the night, besides Wall, and continued to be effective. However, he and Wall had no help and the Cavs began to get the ball rolling. JR Smith started it off with an acrobatic floater, which looked like it was attempted by young J.R. Smith. Then he made a good defensive play to stop a fast break lay up, before draining a 3-pointer assisted by LBJ. J.R. returned the favor and dished consecutive assists to LBJ for two 3-point shots, the last one showing how unselfish J.R. has been while with the Cavs.
LBJ drained both wide open 3s. Kyrie Irving then took over for a few possessions, starting off with a beautiful lob to MOZGOD for a dunk, followed by a nice pull up shot. Kyrie finished the sequence off with a pass to J.R. for a 3-pointer to put the lead back to 21. K Love registered some blue-collar work on the boards and had a great hustle play to track down a loose ball for an easy lay up. LBJ decided to close the quarter out with some enthusiasm.
CtBer U-Dog observed, “LBJ playing within the offense tonight.”
EvilGenius : “LBJ looks SUPER serious right now…” Why do I mention these comments? Because LeBron strapped the team on his back, and drove to the hole with a purpose, scoring on four consecutive possessions with a variety of beautiful shots around the basket.
Phil Hubbard deadpanned, “Lebron with the fadeaway just for the h*** of it.”
EvilGenius marvels at LBJ’s play, “LBJ scoring like it’s nothing… just effortless right now…”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V79maoS9Xgw&feature=youtu.be#t=2m18s
Delly and J.R. deserve a shoutout for the end of the third quarter for their suffocating defense on the perimeter. The troops even finished off the end of the quarter with a forced missed shot despite ceding a 4-on-5 mismatch… leading to a 94-71 lead heading into the fouth.
4th Quarter
To start the fourth quarter… Delly and Kyrie decided to take over the first three minute sequence. Kyrie started it off with a layup+1 off the same inbounds play that K Love burned the Wizards on in the first half. Then, Delly drained an off-the-dribble midrange jumper, and followed that with a 3-point dagger assisted by Kyrie, which forced the Wizards to call the white flag timeout. Kyrie and J.R. proceeded to cut it up and give some props to Delly for his deadly aim.
U-Dog reported that Cavs’ play-by-play voice Fred McLeod delivers the line of the night, “The President was watching and he just turned the channel.” Well said, Fred.
Kyrie took the baton from Delly to ensure the game’s result, and dropped a lob dime to TT for a dunk, and then drilled two free throws. With a 35 point lead after the nine minute mark in the fourth, Blatt called a TO to take Kyrie out for good. Delly ran the offense efficiently for the rest of the quarter. He fed James Jones for three 3-pointers, which seemed to energize Jones, who finished with 10 points. Joe Harris got in the act as well, providing some offense at the end of the game for the third string unit.
Shump deserves a shout-out for his excellent play overall, as well as a great move that almost resulted in a Lebron-esque dunk during the 4th. Lastly, the third string unit deserves praise for their defense, turning in a game-best 18 points allowed for the fourh quarter. Allie Clifton reported during the fourth quarter that the team stayed locked in even though they had an insurmountable lead. It was great to see a complete performance from the whole team.
Likes
[CLF]
1. The DEFENSE! It was progressively better as the game went along. Held the Wiz to 89 points, 44% FG, 6% 3pt FG (!!!), forced 17 TOs, 12(!) steals, and held them to 22 assists. Cleveland bounced back after the Chicago defensive performance.
2. LBJ… 12/21 FG, 3/5 3pt. FG, 6 assists, 2 TOs, in only 25 minutes. He played with a purpose… the guys followed his lead.
3. The Bench… TT, Shump, Delly, kept the ball rolling, didn’t let up… and dominated against the Wizards’ bench.
4. The Offensive efficiency – 51%FG, 42% 3pt FG, went to the line 28 times, 28 assists, only 10 TOs… the result? 127 (!) points.
5. JR Smith – played some great D, played unselfish offense, and drove to the basket several times with success.
6. MOZGOD – infinitely valuable on defense, made Wizards’ shots tough, +42!!! for the game!
[EvilGenius]
1. Everyone came out ready to go and get down to business tonight.
2. Moz-God was an ungodly +42 for the game… +42!!
3. Shump looked like a force to be reckoned with off the bench tonight. His hair grew like four inches over the break and he should let it grow if he continues to play like this…
4. LeBron was a super efficient machine with 28 points in only 25 minutes. He got even more rest than usual due to some early foul trouble, but was all business LeBron on this night. He only had two turnovers, and neither were the sloppy kind…
5. Kyrie was magical and seemingly could do whatever he wanted against Wall… especially that sick gravity-defying move he pulled that will haunt Wall’s nightmares well into the playoffs…
6. KLove didn’t take many shots, and must have been a bit humiliated by the dunk-fail (maybe he didn’t see it clearly as he’s still recovering from the eye abrasion – shoulda worn the eye-patch Kev!), but he still rebounded like a monster and played some solid D…
7. Delly had a very cool moment when he finally got one of his tear drop shots to fall…
8. JR shot well and defended well with another couple of steals…
9. The bench stepped up and even managed to score 31 points in the fourth quarter! And they did it without the Matrix too…
10. Because JAMES FREAKING JONES decided to go nuts and nail three of his four triples…
11. A 38 point victory over the team the Cavs were tied with for the fourth seed, combined with a loss by the Bulls to pull the Cavs within a half game of the third seed…
Dislikes
[CLF]
1. K Love with only 8 attempts… There were times where the ball should’ve gone to him in the half court offense in the post or elbow. Arch Stanton, Gordon, JB225, and Joey B all made the same observation. believeLAND observed that they were playing good post defense against Love… but I’d like to see Kyrie take it upon himself and get the ball to Love. It’s difficult to complain about such a thing when the offense is efficient, however, it is really the last component of the offense that needs to be worked out. How can the Cavs get Love consistent touches in the post/elbow?
2. End of quarter game management. The Cavs allowed a 10-2 run by the Wizards to close the 1st half. Need to be more conscientious of the end of quarter clock management. These two dislikes are definitely nitpicking, but the Cavs may as well strive for perfection.
[EvilGenius]
1. Not a lot of bad stuff tonight. The one REALLY bad thing was more sad than bad… which was KLove’s misadventures with the rim on his ill-fated dunk attempt.
2. It was also kind of annoying to see the Cavs get sloppy (looking at you Kyrie) at the end of the first half to allow the Wiz some hope on a 10-2 run.
3. It’s a nit-pick, but there were also some ill-advised three point chucks in stretches of the first half. Those things aside, this was a fairly error-free evening in the Nation’s Capitol.
[Editor’s Note]: Huge thanks to EvilGenius and CLF for taking the time to do our work for us. I know the Cavs are winning, but even if they weren’t, you guys (and the rest of the commenters) are really making this season special for us.
Great recap guys. I’m 39 years old with a law degree but I’m most proud of being quoted in this article!
Now let’s wreck this league! (did i just jinx us?)
Yikes Joey B!!! Don’t say that!!! (HAHAHAHA I’m just joking, for the most part… ;))
That’s a smart move. I’m not a big perk fan but he gives you another real big if Mozgov gets on foul trouble. Seems like a move made to match up with the Bulls
Apparently it was LeBron who recruited him too.
@royceyoung: Kendrick Perkins will sign with the Cavaliers once he finalizes a buyout with the Jazz, according to a source: http://t.co/AAVW462kFG
u-dog agree with your comments on okc— moves helped Cleveland ( hopefully getting perkins ) more than any trade could have / and we get to retain our assets—-ONCE AGAIN WITH EVIL ” STEPPING UP TO THE PLATE AS THE SUPER SUB ” and all your great blogs —it is a ” sense of brotherhood ” ( even you cols ) to belong to such a GREAT / INTELLIGENT / CLOSE KNIT GROUP —-YOU GUYS ARE MY ” DAILY MEDS “—– evil we have to work on getting some CTB SHIRTS GOING
So how long do you sign Perk for when Varejao comes back next season and TT is part of the long-term core?
They’d only sign Perk for the remainder of the season. I don’t think it would be a multi year deal.
@WojYahooNBA: Doc Rivers still recruiting Kendrick Perkins hard for Clippers, but Cavaliers remain strong favorite to sign him, league sources tell Yahoo.
Just think. People are saying that OKC’s deal for Kanter was one of the best moves at the deadline. I agree . . . for the Cavs. It just helped us pick up the final piece without having to give up anything.
. . . That is, if he signs here.
If he does sign with the Cavs, I think we ought to give him a shot. A lot of nasty things were said about JR Smith when he was acquired. Let’s not do the same to Perkins. In the past, JR was the sixth man of the year. In the past, teammates and coaches loved Perkins for his veteran toughness.
I didn’t realize that Perk was only 30… Dude seems like he’s been around forever…
In basketball years he’s closer to 40. But he can help in limited minutes. They need someone so a couple of bad calls against Moz don’t swing a playoff game.
I know, i had the same reaction. But he came to the NBA straight from high school and fell off a cliff in the last few years. Makes me wonder if/when that happens to LeBron. Not any time soon by the way he looks like right now though.
Sounds like we are getting Perkins. Great pick up by GM of the year.
Yep. More than happy to have him as our 4th big and be the backup plan in case of injury or foul trouble.
Clearly if one of our current 3 go down long term then we’re in trouble – but that’s true of any team and there was no one out there who could realistically fill the void that would cause.
Another thought – Over time it’s becoming less evident that our second team is on the floor. That is, after we transition from the opening “big three” line ups to “big two and others” line ups – all the “big two and others” are beginning to look more and more like a starting lineup. After the starters go off, the only lineup that is concerning is one that doesn’t have Mozgov in it . . . and that’s only in games when the opposing center is a handful for TT. Earlier in the year we cringed when second team lineups… Read more »
Partly that’s another thing to credit Blatt for: He shuffled his substitution patterns to avoid the 5 Hour Energy 2 o’clock feeling at the start of the second quarter. The other big reason is the trades, which gave us more legit rotation pieces.
Great recap, comments, vibe.
Four little notes: I thought KLove was locked in the defensive flow and sharply effective. Early, AC pushed TMoz to be more physical against the cylon Gortat. But, I disagree. TMoz is a disrupter not a bouncer.
During the game, I always look at the difference between Steals+Blocks+Assists – turnovers.
Last night:
Cavs (28+12+4) – 10 = 34
Wiz (22+7+7) – 17 = 19
How improved is TT?!? He is a disciplined panther.
Definitely thought Love’s defense was sharp/smart. And also agree that TT is making some money this season!
Strangely absent from all this commentary is any kudos to Blatt. – The defense and rotations we couldn’t get right year after year after year are now almost as fun to watch as the offense. – Somehow, he has these guys playing more unselfishly every night. I can’t believe the shots JR is passing up for better ones. How unlikely was it to see JR with a huge smiling hugging Delly after a Delly trey?!!! – When you have such talented individuals, it’s very difficult to get them to play “greater than the sum of their parts.” But when you… Read more »
. . . and how is our perimeter shooting defense?
Excellent point and catch there U-Dog… That’s a big miss that you caught. And the one thing that stands out to me about last night’s game is that he is giving more run to Shump and Delly. Delly had one of his best games of the season last night. The most important thing he did was run the 4th quarter well enough so that the starters could stay on the bench. Delly/Shump/JR/Irving played lockdown perimeter defense. There was a sequence at the end of the 3rd where they forced a 24-second violation and a bad perimeter shot, which led to… Read more »
I’m making this up in my head (so that you all know), but perhaps Blatt took Delly aside and said, “Look dude, it’s not good enough for you to just be Delly. You gotta be the one to lead the team in closing out games in the 4th quarter. That’s your job. That’s what you are here for. Get the 2nd & 3rd teamers playing like Cavaliers. Close out games so the starters can rest.”
I’m guessing that it wasn’t only Blatt who’s done this, but also LBJ… just judging by what he’s said to the press re: Delly initiating the offense.
And I should say that Shump had one of his best games… nailing 3s all over the place, and playing suffocating/smart defense.
Fair point U-Dog… I thought Blatt’s use of timeouts last night to course correct was also very savvy. It’s that old adage about when things are clicking and going well… it’s the players and when things are not clicking and going well… blame the coach. Sometimes the best coaching jobs are when you don’t even notice the coaching because it’s seamlessly ingrained into the product on the floor. Blatt deserves not only kudos for how he’s gotten these guys to buy in, but also for weathering the early to mid season storm where people were questioning his approach and ability… Read more »
Very well said, EG… totally agree.
Here’s another amazing factoid from last night’s shellacking of the Wiz…
According to ESPN stats and information…this was the largest rout by a road team over a home team this season. It was the worst home loss by the Wizards since Nov. 22, 1975, when they lost to the Warriors by 40.
Get used to amazing factoids about this team.
. . . although I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t win by 41.
The thing that keeps me shaking my head is every time I take a step back and think of our longer-term future. In my desperate blood-frenzy for success this year, I often forget how bright this team’s future is. Next year we’ll have the same core, galvanized in the playoff kiln, with Varejao sprinkled on top. Beyond next year, we have LeBron surrounded by young, skilled athletes in Kyrie, Mozgov, Shumpert, Thompson, Love. Griffin is building a sustainable core for short-term and long-term success. This team is only going to get better with time, experience, and familiarity, not to mention… Read more »
Agreed Bimmy… will be looking forward to seeing how this team evolves down the road.
Great job Evil Genius & CLF! If I had to choose between reading the write ups here or watching the game . . . it would be a tough choice.
You heard it here first – of all the blogs covering NBA teams, CtB is the best! There’s not even a close second. Both writers and bloggers are the best in the league. Soon, the team we follow, will follow follow suit and sit on top (I said that before Cols could).
Well said U-Dog! The Cavs are a championship caliber team… and C:tB is a championship level TrueHoop Blog!
CtB doubles the fun we’re having this season.
Well done, gents–wildly entertaining, as the game itself was. One elephant in the room for me–becoming more apparent after watching the game last night–is the status of Love’s health. His back isn’t right, and you can tell by the way he runs tall down the court, how he couldn’t gather himself for a dunk, how he passed up a two-foot rebound put-back for someone else’s three-point attempt, and how his shot still looks dead despite a long week off. I only have my eyes as proof, so someone allay my fear that we’re going to play the rest of thee… Read more »
Then we better get Marion more playing time, so he doesn’t get rusty.
I fear you may be correct Chris K. I hope you’re wrong though…
For the Cavs fans that didn’t watch much of Love before this year, your assessment is spot on. His back is clearly tight. His shot doesn’t have arc, he can’t run easily and either he didn’t trust his back or it gave out on him during the dunk. The big question is if it is an injury that can heal with a little rest (it certainly did not seem any better after one week off) or if he will need a whole summer to recover. Anyone with back pain will tell you that it is a hard injury to overcome,… Read more »
The Cleveland Cavaliers have emerged as the strong frontrunners to sign center Kendrick Perkins, league sources told Yahoo Sports. Perkins and the Utah Jazz are proceeding on a contract buyout that could be completed as soon as Saturday, sources said. Perkins is leaning toward signing a deal with the Cavaliers, but has yet to make a final commitment, sources said. Oklahoma City traded Perkins, 30, to the Jazz as part of package that sent Enes Kanter to the Thunder on Thursday. Perkins’ talents have diminished in the past few years, but his toughness and leadership still makes him a valued… Read more »
Much as I think Perk is just an angry and marginally talented thug… I’d rather have him on the Cavs bench than have to face him on another contending team in the playoffs.
Seems likely he’d either sign with the Cavs or the Clips because of Doc. Doubt he would go to Chicago… mostly because of things like this…
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1895913-kendrick-perkins-kicks-joakim-noah-out-of-thunder-locker-room
Perkins would be the final piece to a championship run – as long as the team remains healthy. As much as I disliked his thuggery in the Cavs game, I admired how it kept his teammates competitive. Every team needs an protector/enforcer. I’ve said this before: Teams are going to realize they cannot beat us with skill. They are going to try to get into our heads by beating us up physically. Over time it could take the fight out of some players, or keep players from doing what they would do naturally. I don’t like thugs, but I like… Read more »
Amen U-Dog… it may be necessary to have a goon in residence on this team to protect Kyrie/LBJ/Love.
Love the idea–as I think foul trouble to Moz/Love cause this team to drastically alter its approach, Perkins is a frowny-faced whiner/winner who would steel the Cavs with playoff toughness and veteran depth.
Perkins as a 4th big on a 1 year deal is absolutely perfect
Just think. People are saying that OKC’s deal for Kanter was one of the best moves at the deadline. I agree . . . for the Cavs. It just helped us pick up the final piece without having to give up anything.
Kyrie currently leads the NBA in minutes played. In these blow out losses Blatt should try playing Love (if he’s healthy) w/out Kyrie and LeBron, during the 4th quarter.
Isn’t a lot of that from earlier in the season though, especially when LBJ was out for that stretch? Seems like he’s playing fewer minutes lately. In fact, his minutes average went down from 38.9 in December to 37.4 in January to a season low 35.6 in February…
Before LBJ was out . . . before JR and SHUMP were acquired . . . before Delly had found his place with this group . . . back when the team was struggling to win.
Nonetheless, the dude is in terrific shape. Wall nay be a better athlete, but Kyrie is in such good shape he was able to go at Wall full speed for as long as he wanted.
“The difference between a good athlete and a great athlete is conditioning.”
All good points here, in my opinion re: Kyrie and the gang. I agree Arch, we really haven’t seen Love with the backups, and I’m really curious to see what that would like, because I think it may get him more consistent touches in the offense.
I know EG’s right, the mpg for Kyrie has been coming down over the season… I think underdog’s right that it’s about Delly. They have to trust Delly/Shump backcourt enough to allow that to happen, I’m hoping we see it soon in a game.
Golden state looked awesome last night. This is shaping up to be a fun finals. I think Cavs can take them.
Potential finals preview this coming Thursday at the Q.
I would love it if the teams broke out some unique uni’s for the game… Did anyone else see the nifty Chinese New Year threads the Warriors were sporting last night? I’d love to see the Cavs do more uniform themes like this. Other than the standard yellow (you can’t really call that gold), white and wine jerseys, we’ve only seen the special blue ones once…
I saw them… they were pretty cool. The Cavs need to develop some good karma with the blue unis by wearing them.
What would be the Cleveland equivalent of celebrating a Chinese New Year? Pierogi fest?
Ha! That’s funny. Was thinking something more Rock & Roll HOF inspired or something…
After seeing Lauren Holtkamp for two games, Chris Paul’s comment that “this might not be for her” looks like it couldn’t be more wrong. Not only does she call a good game (I thought she was right on the LeBron charge — Gortat beat him to the spot), but she seems utterly unflappable and unfazed by where she is. She totally looks like she belongs.
I have to agree. At least we now know that she is not afraid of the Lebron James’ and the Chris Paul’s of the NBA. How refreshing is that?!!
I third the motion here… Thought it was a good call as well.
Thanks guys! And genuine thanks to Tom, Nate and the C:tB crew for being awesome and gracious enough to let rabid Cavs live thread degenerates like me and CLF hijack both the game thread and the recap! Apologies for wordiness, but there was a lot to gush about with last night’s dismantling of the Wiz. Also, the game seemed to have a strange abundance of highlight plays (both good and bad) and oddities. From Kyrie’s sick pretzelizing of Wall (can’t believe it was only #9 on SC Top 10 Plays), to the many jailbreak dunks by LBJ, to the Delly… Read more »
Amen, EG… Gotta give props to Tom for those memes of Obama and #Samson!!! Had me laughing all morning/afternoon!
Oh, and probably more importantly, Tom’s editing as well!
Good job, guys. I would have been up all night to produce something half as clever. Also props to everyone for the reader 5 on 5 the other day. (I didn’t see that until the blog had already moved on.) Kyrie’s reverse was the play of the night. Loved the bench reaction, especially LeBron. Gordon and Evil won the live thread with their comments on that. My No. 2 play of the night, because it was Paul Pierce, was when he found himself in a situation where he had nothing, tried to draw a foul and barely grazed the bottom… Read more »
Don’t sell yourself short Phil! You had some terrific comments in the thread last night too!
I’m like a D-Leaguer. The live thread is my ceiling.
Great work, guys. Sorry about not having the live thread up. I thought David was recapping tonight, and by the time that I could fix it it was mid-third-quarter. What was the point?
Fantastic dismantling of the Wiz. It was an interesting night in the NBA. Lots of teams didn’t show up: New Orleans, Toronto, Chicago, Portland… Seems like the Cavs were probably helped out by starting out on the road. They definitely seemed more focused.
No apologies necessary Nate! You guys do so much of the heavy lifting throughout the year and selflessly give us your time away from your regular lives to enrich our reading and Cavs fandom experience. And after all, what good is a fanbase if they can’t help pick up the team every once in a while… ;)
Thanks Nate! Great point about starting on the road… they mentioned that on SC last night.
LBJ also mentioned it in his post-game with Allie, I believe.
That was awesome. I got to watch most of it while in the treadmill. Great recap. The announcers were so so bored. JVG said that Ramon Sessions had never swallowed a pill in his life. Could this be true??
Even delly looked like an nba player last night. How high can Shump grow his hair before the nba does something?
In non related news I tore s ligament in my thumb while MTB last week. So typing sucjs.
I couldn’t believe the Razor Ramon pill swallowing story either! That simply can’t be true… right?
That story is old. They repeated that when he was a Cav a couple years back. He doesn’t have any tats either.
Sorry to hear about your thumb Cols! You’d better rest it up for the playoffs!
Glad you noticed Delly Cols!!! HAHAHA! Get well soon… hope it’s nothing too bad.
Torn thumb ligament, surgery Tuesday. Sucks. But not the end of the world. It’s the end of my ski season though.
I’ll keep a good thought for you on Tuesday for the surgery. Hope it’s a complete recovery!
Don’t panic, Cols. Your thumbs are the best in the league. Only OKC can stop them in the finals.
Cols – hope you have a full and speedy recovery. Hopefully your doctor employs a space and pace operating room.
Nicely done, Evil. (And thought I was wordy….)
The more I watch JR, the more I find him to be an incredibly savvy and heady player. I don’t want Ray Allen more than ever (sorry, Cols), because JR will be the most likely to have his minutes cut.
I was also lamenting KLoves inconsistent touches, not just last night but in general…..but then I heard Van Gundy say something last night: over the Cavs 14-2 run in the last sixteen games, KLove leads the NBA in plus/minus. That’s ASTOUNDING. Is that really true?
I believe it. I know lineups featuring LeBron/Love/Kyrie at the same time have flat out eviscerated the NBA since LBJ came back from injury.
eviscerate –
verb (used with object), eviscerated, eviscerating.
1. to remove the entrails from; disembowel:
as “to eviscerate a chicken.”
. . . had to check on that, Tom. Yep, you’re right.
Been saying it for weeks. Love on the floor makes us better because he does lots of little smart things. The threat of his scoring, plus his ability to draw the foul open up lots of opportunities for two of the best scorers in the league (you know who they are). As long as Love is cool with this role, I’m ok with it.
Still would’ve liked to have seen that dunk work out, tho…
It was just good to see Kev back out there after the eye injury scare… maybe his depth perception is still off which affected his dunk attempt…
Yes, HPBD – We’re just a better team when Love is on the floor. The offense flows better. He’s closing holes that we aren’t even aware of. I think that all fans are patiently waiting until the playoffs arrive and he “bwings out da secwet weopon – his 3 pt shot.
Such great recap work CLF and EG. And way to hijack the forum to save the live-thread tradition. Thanks again to the staff for all the work you put into something that probably keeps you away from family more than it should. We appreciate your efforts always. I could listen to Jeff Van Gundy talk for hours (I suppose I did). He is legit funny and often pointlessly contrary, and has the voice of a disney movie side kick. I could watch Kyrie make high-degree-of-difficulty-layups for hours (I suppose I did). It would be nearly as or more interesting to… Read more »
I think you’re onto something with the layup contest Scotch! I would watch the heck out of that!
Thanks scotch!!! The editors made us look really good! Great assessment on JVG… that’s exactly why I like him too.
evil great recap / I am sure ” love’s rim rejection ” will be the center of the ” lockerroom discussion “–do we call the game against the knicks a ” trap ” game –I would hope not the heat without bosch (GET WELL ) destroyed them by 30 pts—hopefully another game to rest starters and get plenty of bench minutes —-great post all star break start
Thanks nomad! Hard to consider the team formerly known as the Knicks as a trap game… Their remaining star is Lou Amundsen and I think that D Fish may have to suit up just to give them enough guys to field a team…
Hoping MSG provides enough energy to put the Knicks away early.
really glad the guys opened it up for genius and clf to drop some words or many on a game recap. I couldn’t comment last night because my boys trashed the house while I was deep in the routine and their mom was in full recovery mode. So I stood over them while they cleaned up in full Ivan drago mode. Genius: your prose is clever and highly readable on devices. I get way too many articles in my RSS feed that I just glance over but yours I read all the words. Congratulations on keeping my attention. You made… Read more »
You were missed on the thread hijack C6H12O6!
I second what EG said. Thanks for the kindness and positivity! No worries about the absence, the children are our future haha!
Rise up, commentariat! Good recap.
Cavs win by 40. On road. Against good team. In the words of Nick Gilbert, what’s not to like?