Live Thread: Cavs at Raptors
2015-11-25
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Skinny Kyle Lowry is as good as chubby Kyle Lowry. It doesn’t really matter how cut up the nine year veteran is as long as he is healthy. After Lowry’s 2014 playoff performance, the gritty point guard led the Raptors to a very strong start of the 2014-2015 season before he and his team lost steam. When Lowry is right, the Raptors are a tough-nosed defensive squad with a giant heart. When he is off, the Raptors are a soft, perimeter oriented team that is as fuzzy as the picture above.
So far, Lowry is right and that in tandem with a bit of effective DeMar DeRozan is enough for a decent start. Unfortunately for the Drakes(Zach Lowe, we miss you), DeMarre Carroll hasn’t quite found his Canadian groove, Jonas Valanciunas hasn’t quite made the leap, and superstar Anthony Bennett hasn’t … ok, forgot I mentioned our dear Gum Drop Bear. A favorite of Nate and mine, James Johnson has strangely gotten very little burn. As one of the few guys in the league who can physically matchup with LeBron, that could change tonight.
Kevin Love and the Cavaliers cross Lake Erie with more confidence than they have ever had as a single unit. Since Kevin’s rough shooting night in New York, the Cavalier bigman has averaged nearly 25 points per contest. He is doing damage on early seal post-ups and three point bombs. All of Blatt’s men are feeding Love the rock and it has worked beautifully. With Mathew Dellavedova questionable with a balky calf, the Cavs will welcome Mo Williams back into the fray after his three game absence.
Whether you are watching with old high school friends at your hometown bar, with your family while prebaking pumpkin pie, or hiding from said family in an attempt to stay sane, enjoy the game.
Kyle Lowery is another guy I can’t stand. He’s a total flopping/whiner. He’s got one of the most punchable faces in the NBA. Too bad the cRaptors can’t get out f the first round.
Also, I though the refs were really biased with their Biyombo calls tonight. That hack jumps into a play and somehow gets calls.
Cavs only have themselves to blame for this loss, since the cRaptors missed half their FT’s.
I think with Delly in the line up we win. Hope he’s back soon.
I think if we had Delly playing, the result would’ve been different. Oh well, can’t win them all. I remembered why I hated Lowery too. He’s a bit of a whining flopper.
NBATV throwing some shade Cavs way. Ouch!
Those guys barely matter… they are the JV team compared to ESPN and TNT…
They must be playing pocket pool, while watching Draymond Green throw illegal screens for crybaby Steph.
I so do not like Drake! We just ran out of healthy bodies (AGAIN). When your shot isn’t falling; this team needs their gritty defense more than anything. Delly could have made a big difference in that dept. Lowry with 27 pts??
RJ, Jared and Andy just didn’t help much tonight.
Andy’s literal only stat was taking that charge. How does he end up with zero rebounds, assists, points, blocks, steals, etc.
I know and that made me sad :(
RJ and Andy weren’t great, but JC definitely helped on D in the first half… then barely played in the second. Unfortunately, his lack of finishing skill (and also not being able to buy a foul) made him a liability on offense, and led to Blatt going with Mo in crunch time… Mo was the only guy really hitting any shots in the late third and fourth, but his D struggles were obvious against Lowry…
Eventhough the Cavs lost, my consolation prize is that Heat, and ATL lost tonight and we are still #1 in the East
I’m glad they lost but the Heat and Hawks aren’t the barometer. I hope the Heat miss the playoffs again.
From the pregame:
The Cavaliers just wanted to get on with the hoops but nope, first there must be dancing:
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2015/11/25/9802944/cavs-cheeerleaders-raptors-lebron-james-dancers
Wish I could post the gif, which makes the item.
I think I had a seizure watching that.
WE HAVE LOST 4 ROAD GAMES BY WHAT—TOTAL OF 10-12 PTS WITH 3-4 STARTERS NOT PLAYING —-UNDERSTAND AS A CAVS FAN WE HATE TO LOSE BUT THINK LONG TERM ( BARRING ANY MAJOR INJURIES ) WE WILL BE WATCHING THE CAVS PLAY IN JUNE —–ALL OF YOU HAVE A GREAT TURKEY DAY !!
Jason Lloyd @JasonLloydABJ 31m31 minutes ago
LeBron, Love only players to shoot free throws tonight for #Cavs. Some others have gotten to rim, haven’t gotten the calls
Whistles pretty much got blown 1 way.
EG, I would probably take the bet too. Who do you have finishing ahead of them besides the cavs?
Bulls, Hawks, possibly Heat and Pistons also…
Gonna be Raps and Wiz fighting it out for the 4-5 spot again… Wiz don’t have the Truth to punk “The North” anymore, so maybe they survive that…
I only see the Bulls threatening them for second place. Wiz I have no confidence in anymore…the heat won’t stay healthy enough, the Pistons don’t have the depth, and the Hawks have been scouted by everyone in the league after we dismantled them with barely half a roster last year. They don’t confuse anyone anymore and I think they gave up their glue guy in carroll
Will wager you a C:tB shirt at the end of the year if you win… If I win, all you have to do is say I was right… ;)
You’re on. Happy Thanksgiving bud. :)
Happy TG!
Btw, Hawks going to lose to Minnesota tonight.
It happens… Minny bench went off tonight…
UNDERSTAND THE INJURY FACTOR WITH THE CAVS —STILL NEED TO GET A ROAD WIN VS CHARLOTTE —OTHERWISE YOU START TO DEVELOP A WE CAN’T ” WIN ON THE ROAD ” MENTALITY
They had the opportunity at the end again but like in the last 2 games before this one they came up short because they couldn’t get the stops. Maybe coach Blatt needs to insert more guys into the rotation and try to keep the intensity up.
They also couldn’t hit shots… They only had 13 points in the fourth until JR hit those last two meaningless threes…
Exactly but I still can’t understand how the Cavs got a time out right after one of Biyombo’s dunk and then allowed another on the very next play.
I agree there was many cuestionable calls but me personally I like to pay attention on how hard the team is playing and neither LeBron or JR were trying to stop Biyombo at the rim.
To me the Cavs are not playing with the right intensity on the road.
I think LeBron knew they didn’t have it in the fourth quarter… they didn’t even try and foul the Raps on that second to last possession… Gonna be a few more of these kinds of games I think… Team needs to learn how to win tough games on road again… and it starts with winning the ends of quarters…
Insert who exactly? We are thin as paper right now.
The only DNPs were Kaun and Harris.
You have a point but against Biyombo they can use Sasha and another thing I didn’t understood in this game was why KLove and TT were coming outside to the perimeter to defend Biyombo when the guy can’t hit a jump shot even if his life depended on it. Why not just sit back in the lane and wait for the driving guard to come to them.
Because neither KLove nor TT seemed all that interested in taking him on in the paint tonight… and they were probably more trying to deny him from getting too deep…
Agree with Scotch… who else should he have played? Only Sasha and Joe Harris on the bench…
If MDN had more seasoning, he might have been a good play defensively in the fourth, but Mo was one of the only guys hitting shots despite his bad D…
Regardless of who’s out there though… Cavs need to toughen up and make guys pay for driving into the paint… Certainly would help to have Moz out there, but Cavs might need another banger with the BHTE…