Grizzlies 106, Cavs 103 (or, who needs talent when you have The Grindfather?)
2016-03-07
On the surface, the Cleveland Cavaliers hosting the Memphis Grizzlies would seem like a fairly big game. After all, the Grizzlies came into the game with a very respectable record of 37-25, which would be good enough for third in the Eastern Conference. Alas, the Cavaliers didn’t so much play the Memphis Grizzlies as they did the Memphis Leftovers. With Marc Gasol, Mike Conley, Zach Randolph, Matt Barnes, Chris Andersen, and Brandan Wright all out with injuries, the Grizzlies went with the immortal starting lineup of Mario Chalmers, Tony Allen, P.J. Hairston, JaMychal Green, and Ryan Hollins. This did not work too well… for the Cavs.
First Quarter
With their backs against the wall, the Grizzlies came out with much more energy than the Cavaliers and took the early lead. The Cavaliers were sluggish, particularly on the offensive end, and before they knew what was happening, the Grizzlies led 11-4. The Cavaliers closed the gap, but Memphis continued to be the more aggressive team, pushing the pace while LeBron James continuously walked the ball up the floor. James had nine points in the first quarter, but forced up several shots instead of passing out of the double team. J.R. Smith, Timofey Mozgov, and Kyrie Irving were a combined 1-for-8 to start the game, while the Grizzlies shot 62% and led 33-25 after one. At this point a certain blogger whose wife and kids were out of the house let loose with several expletives regarding his favorite team’s effort.
Second Quarter
The Cavaliers started the second quarter with a lineup of Dellavedova, Irving, Shumpert, Thompson, and Frye. This group picked it up defensively and scored the first seven points of the quarter to cut the Grizzlies’ lead to one. Channing Frye had a nice spurt, including a block on Green followed by a midrange jumper after being run off the line. The Cavaliers kept it close in the middle of the quarter, but weren’t able to quite get over the hump and take the lead due to a combination of the Grizzlies’ continued aggression and the Cavaliers’ poor execution on both ends of the floor. The Cavaliers finished the half with a whopping 13 turnovers while shooting 39% from the floor, allowing the Grizzlies to pull away again, and go into the half leading 58-49 after being up by as many as 13.
Third Quarter
The Cavaliers went small to start the second half with Irving, Dellavedova, Smith, James, and Love. Smith quickly hit a three, and then was dropped by a shot to the face from Tony Allen. The Grizzlies continued to crash the boards and the Cavaliers kept turning the ball over. At this point I just stared blankly at the television as I couldn’t believe my eyes. This game was a train wreck that was beyond comprehension. The Cavaliers couldn’t get out of their own way. They just kept fouling and turning the ball over on what seemed like every possession. When they did show energy, they took bad shots, often in isolation. At this point, Fred and A.C. were both in shock due to the team’s play, and I was in shock when I looked at the seats and saw most of the crowd was still there. JaMychal Green (“Who he play for?”) tip-dunked in a miss after no Cavalier put a body on him. A.C. was incredulous: “Who’s guy is that?” The Grizzlies pushed the lead to 14 before the Cavs clawed their way back to single digits before the quarter ended. The Cavs had eight more turnovers, couldn’t hit an outside shot to save their lives, and the Grizzlies went into the 4th ahead 82-74.
Fourth Quarter
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the Cavaliers came out with some energy to start the quarter and were able to cut the Grizzlies’ lead to four. Kyrie then turned the ball over trying to force the issue (dribbling into a triple team) and the Grizzlies scored six quick points to push the lead back to ten. When Tony Allen responded to a Kyrie Irving three with one of his own (as LeBron stared at him from six feet away), I asked my wife to hit me over the head with something to end the game for me. Unfortunately, she didn’t understand my pain and play continued.
Arguably the worst part was that Memphis never quite pulled away enough to make you think the Cavaliers couldn’t come back. Kyrie scored seven quick points to pull the Cavaliers to within three, but Lance Stephenson bulldozed his way to the hoop to keep Memphis up by five with less than four minutes left. At this point, the Cavaliers finally seemed engaged, and took their first lead of the night with 2:38 left after a Memphis turnover led to a Kyrie Irving layup. The teams then exchanged the lead until a Mario Chalmers mid-range floater gave the Grizzlies the lead with 25 seconds left. LeBron tried to get to the basket, but Tony Allen forced a jump ball that the Grizzlies recovered after Lance Stephenson tackled Dellavedova.
Delly responded with a holding foul before the ball was inbounded, giving the Grizzlies a free throw and the ball. Vince Carter made that and two more free throws to put the Grizzlies up four. LeBron hit a three to prolong the agony, but Carter hit another pair of freebees and Kyrie back-ironed a three at the buzzer (a clean look) and the Cavalier fell 106-103.
Don’t Poke the Bear:
Tony Allen, and, to a lesser extent: Lance Stephenson/Mario Chalmers just landed repeated body blows to the Cavs defense. Trick or Treat Tony basically has one offensive skill: a straight-line right handed layup. (The Antonio Daniels Special, if you will) Tonight, the Grindfather (seriously Tony Allen, one dude, has two of the top 5 nicknames in the NBA) was 11-17 (LOL?) with five steals. Here’s his shot chart:
That rhythm 3 is the product of EIGHT layups. Obviously some of those were in transition, but some weren’t!
Chalmers slashed into the teeth at will in the first half and Stephenson played like a man possessed in the second half, frequently taking it right at the Cavs (including one where he embarrassed The King on a simple tough guy drive to the rack).
The Grizzlies can’t really shoot, so they just worked to get layups and putbacks. It’s simple: they outworked the Cavs in every facet to overcame a phenomenal talent disparity. Kudos to them.
What I Know
The Cavaliers continue to lack a killer instinct, which manifests most notably when they play down to the level of their opponents. Forget the stuff about tweets, brands or anything else, this is by far their worst trait. They had a chance to build a three-and-a-half game lead over the Toronto Raptors in the Eastern Conference and, instead of coming out with energy and focus, they proceeded to play one of their worst games of the season. The officiating may have been shaky at times, but it was shaky on both ends of the court. Twenty-five turnovers, each one more absurd than the one before. I’ve been as much of an optimist as nearly any Cavs fan out there, but a night like this makes me wonder why I care so much about this team.
lol Cavs you can't subtweet each other when Tony Allen gives y'all 26 points. either name names or keep quiet.
— myles brown (@mdotbrown) March 8, 2016
Mathematically the Cavs could go 10-10 and the Celts would have to go 17-3 to pass them. So #2 is almost a lock.
It’s a bit early but just about every time CLE drops a stunner, TOR does nothing to take advantage. Losing by 15 to BKN
Well I guess that didn’t happen.
In terms of trading Love and KI I think everything should always be on the table. That’s how you get on top and stay there. Having said that I think you do have to weigh the options of simply being the best you can year in and year out, and chasing some particular team as the team to beat. I remember the Knicks and Cavs in the Jordan years always seemed to be making moves to beat the previous year’s Bulls and it never quite worked out. Likewise all the teams in the West that have spent the last five… Read more »
My intuition tells me when you build bad habits, they don’t turn off with the swiftness of a flip of the switch. They become part of who you are.
Tom Haberstroh was actually arguing that there is no correlation between how hot or cold a team is heading into the playoffs and how they actually fare in the playoffs. This was completely contrary to my intuition and so it seems that I’m the one who knows nothing about NBA basketball.
Waiting until playoffs is all we have left now. Unfortunately, the team seems ardent on making the wait nearly insufferable.
Lebron James doesn’t agree with Tom Haberstroh, since he just said the cavs are not ready for the playoffs. Considering his usual lassiez-faire attitude towards many regular season games, I would say this admission from him means the cavs have a long way to go to make the progress they need to hold the O’brien trophy.
So who should we trade Kyrie or Love?
Love for Crowder, Bradley?
I feel like Crowder hates Lebron and the Cavs tho. I feel like a lot of players around the league wouldn’t really want to play with Lebron. Which would be crazy to think two years ago when he could call anyone up and they’d come running.
Please stop with this Simmons dream trade. I know PER isn’t everything but Bradley and Crowder barely add up to Love and the salaries don’t work at all. Where are those two guys playing with Kyrie/Lebron still on the team? Love should ONLY be traded if a stud is coming back.
Crowder would fit perfectly for a small ball line up with Lebron at the four. Crowder could even guard the opposing team’s four on the defensive side of the ball.
I heard on the radio that we signed McCrae for the rest of the season. I wonder if Cols picked up his jersey yet?
Incredibly worrisome that we can simply get out worked by a team like Memphis, down 4/5 of their starters with only 8 others suited up. It clearly goes toward this team’s mentality, and that mentality is not great right now.
Chris Haynes of the PD many think has been so pro-Cavs/Klutch than he could be in the Cavs pr department. I don’t think he is total homer, but he is rarely hyper-critical. Here is what he just wrote in today’s column: “The longer bad habits persist, the harder they are to rectify. The longer they keep it up; eventually it becomes who they are. The Cavaliers carry a swagger largely undeserved; an arrogance that’s premature. James said they aren’t ready for the playoffs, but that’s stating the obvious. Right now, they aren’t ready for the regular season.” Quite damning from… Read more »
Yep. I don’t know what’s going on in that locker room, but I’m very worried. I just don’t understand why we continue to do things that lose us games. What are we practicing? Do players just not care? This is atrocious.
Pressure builds diamonds. Or brittle graphite pencils…
Right now, we know what the Cavs are…
I go back to the firing of Blatt, which I still believe was a mistake. Griffin misunderstood the problem in the locker room. It wasn’t Blatt. In fact, Blatt was the guy who was taking the heat for his players, defending them in the media, and giving the media someone to hate. Kyrie played defense for the first time in his life under Blatt. J.R. completely loved Blatt. Mozgov played his best ball under Blatt. And he was confident enough to let his assistant coaches help him, take responsibility, and be an ear to players that didn’t trust/know him. The… Read more »
Well said and I agree with your viewpoint.
I’ve had this nagging thought since game 3 of the NBA finals last year: “is it really safe to assume that playing Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving would have increased the Cavs odds against the Warriors”? The last time the Warriors lost at home was June 7th. The Cavs held them to 87 points in regulation and squeezed by them in OT. Delly played 43 minutes. The time before that? Tony Allen played a game high 37 minutes at the Grindfather led the Grizzlies Grit Squad to a 97-90 victory. Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that the ONLY… Read more »
A good take and you could be right about Cavs’ best way to beat the Warriors. If we don’t win the finals, I think Love would get moved for the more athleticism that you reference. Interestingly, Haynes/Lloyd thought KI could get traded instead if we don’t win; but either way we just have to get better versus dribble penetration. KI has obviously been a relative sieve, and Love just hasn’t provided the rim protection, but then he didn’t in Minnesota either. KI is a more consistent offensive threat, so I think KLove could be the odd man out. And yes,… Read more »
Love to the Kings for Cousins.
If the Cavs don’t win the championship this year (in my mind, it’s a supreme longshot), you may see this kind of trade this summer. I liked some of the trades proposed in trade deadline column you guys posted…I just don’t think those type trades are realistic for a team which is trying to win a title this year. Bringing in like 3 new players, trading KI/ Love, etc. i don’t think a team can do those transformational trades midseason. There is just no time to get it together before the playoffs. The most annoying offcourt game this summer if… Read more »
I think people dismiss the idea because there is tons of evidence that we are much better with KI and Love than without. You raise a good question about the SPECIFIC match up with the Ws. I think your analysis focuses too much on the one game we won in Oracle and ignores a couple of other informative games. Last year in the regular season the Cavs dominated the Ws from start to finish with both KI and Love. They put Love and LBJ on the block a lot, and KI did a good enough job on D. We slowed… Read more »
Well, yeah, like I said there isn’t enough of a sample size to say with any certainty: Here’s how you beat the Warriors. I’m not even advocating for any action. I’m saying, A POSSIBILITY is that the blueprint (which no one can be sure of at this time) is to slow the game down, make it a grind fest, and hold on for dear life. If that is the case, then I don’t think kyrie/Love are nearly as valuable as they may be in a vacuum. Especially not a team with a LeBron that always wants to do everything when… Read more »
The Cavs have 4 games in which KI and/or Love played the Ws in the past 2 years. In 3 of those games we successfully followed the blueprint you are talking about. One game was a dominant win at home (the only win we have had against Ws where we dominated) and the other 2 were close losses on road. So what is your evidence that the Cavs can’t follow that blueprint with KI and Love? The 30 point disaster game this year? Given how bad that game was, and given that it was the most recent, it is not… Read more »
The key consideration should be if it is a good trade for the Cavs. Either or both are worth several good players and picks.
Still not ready to give up on either. But they both have to make serious progress in the next few months. Love definitely needs to bulk up. He has completely lost his ability to finish inside. That is bad because he was never a great finisher through contact even in Minny. Love will always be problematic against certain opponents because he just doesn’t have the physical tools to guard anyone in space or finish against hyper-athletic bigger guys down low. Irving has looked much better in running the p and r in the last few games, but if his defense… Read more »
I have always believed that they would have increased the odds BUT not in the way most people think.
I think having Love and Irving as an offensive weapon at times would have been better. IE, having Love in for Mozgov to play d on Iguodala when the Warriors went to the lineup of death or Kyrie to make corner threes vs Shump…
However, I don’t dismiss the idea either. If you trade Love for a package including maybe Serge/Roberson/Payne it would REALLY perk my interest…..
LBJ is just a terrible terrible leader. He is a great player. A brilliant player. But a terrible leader. It is not a coincidence that he became a better player and won championships when he was on a team that didn’t give a crap about his “leadership.” Expecting him to be a leader here was a big mistake. We should have tried to sign KG or Paul Pierce. LBJ is worse than a quiet leader who just leads by example. He actually makes the team worse when he tries to be a leader. Every once in a while I feel… Read more »
Terrible leader who gets his team to the Finals every year.
Men lie, women lie, playoffs don’t.
Playoffs don’t lie. That is my new mantra.
His leadership isn’t what gets his teams to the finals, its his incredible talent. If anything, his shortcomings in leadership make his talent even more amazing, because he has to overcome his deficiencies as a leader.
Twenty-odd years from now, someone like David Maraniss is going to write a really interesting biography of LeBron. He is a complicated, talented, admirable and flawed character. Rich material for a good writer. I don’t really mind that he doesn’t play hard all the time. It’s a long season, and he isn’t as pathologically competitive as Jordan. And that’s ok — he’s probably a better person for it away from the game. But that makes it hard to call out his teammates without pissing them off. He has been at his best and least exasperating, as you suggested, where he… Read more »
I agree with this. And I think his teammates might be over the constant talking to the media about effort and how we’re not ready and how this and that. Kyrie, Love, and the other guys are probably tired of the constant babble from LeBron.
Love him as a player, but just wish he’d shut up and lead by example.
This kind of stuff cracks me up. It reads like a computer-generated article that auto-searched ESPN archives for every cliche’d false narrative about the Cavs, and then slapped them together into one weightless thesis, culminating with the amazing conclusion that the Raptors and Celtics are scary. Nate would love it. The parallels to the Atlanta narrative from last year are great.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/cavaliers–lebron-running-out-of-time-to-figure-things-out-144215880.html
“Maddeningly inconsistent” . . . not to sound like Cols but they are 44-18. The Bulls are “maddeningly inconsistent”, the Cavs have had some head-scratching hiccups but generally play well.
The Cavs to me are maddeningly inconsistent for a team picked in pre-season to win the NBA Championship. No one picked the Bulls to do that. We have played too poorly against so many inferior opponents…..and that is the definition of maddenly inconsistent for a team with title aspirations. Can’t just turn it on half way through the fourth quarter. As noted above by Phil Hubbard, the players are out of excuses since they have their own coach, so look in the mirror and man up. Or else as AC brutally said last night, “The Cavs just showed the rest… Read more »
Right. I don’t understand why the large (justified) expectations placed on this team aren considered unfair to some fans? When we say things like “Anthony Bennett sucks” – we mean, of course “relative to the expectations placed on him”. Which was, #1 overall pick in the NBA draft. Players like that are supposed to be in the upper echelon of NBA players. Yesterday, friend of the blog Elijah Kim, was talking to me about the best asian players in the Dayton area. And sent me a pic of a guy that was 5’7″ and could dunk. One of the best… Read more »
Likewise, it’s the same reason there were basically no expectations for the Cavs last year after Kevin Love went down (and eventually Kyrie) No one ragged on LeBron that the Cavs lost the finals. In fact, many considered him to be the MVP of the series. Non one ragged on any of the players, or David Blatt. It was all gravy. They lost and they were treated to months of “what ifs” while the Warriors, who WON, were treated to “they were lucky”s. One team set out to prove it wasn’t a fluke. The other team didn’t take it personally… Read more »
I’m betting LeBron took it personally. No one works harder to get better than that guy. Nothing has been proven yet. Cavs still have a great shot of winning it all.
Cols. Did you watch the game?
While Fred McLeod was commenting on how you just KNOW the Cavs are upset with themselves, the camera panned to LeBron who was laughing and hugging some grizzlies players.
Tom – You raise an interesting point. I agree that making statements relative to expectations should not be controversial. My view, however, is that people tend to conflate two separate issues: how good is a team relative to expectations and how good is a team on an absolute scale. I see lots of people make arguments that are implicitly RELATIVE arguments about a team/player but then reach conclusions that are more absolute. That is something I try to highlight because its just bad logic – conclusion not supported by argument. In terms of your claim that the Cavs have disappointed… Read more »
Yep. They are totally able to win the title this year. And they’ve been very fun for much of the year.
Whew. You fixed ColsBot3000.
Thanks.
Haha. I try my best.
The 5’7″ playground guy would probably be a better NBA player than Bennet….only half kidding.
He at least would have the mentality that he is better than Bennett :D
It’s all a matter of opinion obviously. I just mean “maddeningly inconsistent” seems a bit harsh, “concerningly inconsistent” maybe.
Also I am pretty sure there is no need to qualify “Anthony Bennett sucks” by draft position or any other criteria…
Halloween Theme Night at the Q:
Trick or Treat Cavaliers tricked by Grizzlies’ surprise starting lineup and treated to big night from Tony Allen, aka the original Trick or Treat Tony himself.
(at least this is more along the lines of how I was hoping the intro to the AP game summary would sound)
Cavs have reportedly signed Jordan McRae for the rest of the season…
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2016/03/sources_cleveland_cavaliers_to.html
What. the. actual. heck.
Might as well, I guess, since they have the roster space.
This is a good read.
http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/2016/03/08/who-is-craig-ehlo-a-90s-cleveland-childhood-without-the-cavaliers/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
Do you guys and girls ever wonder if I’m wrong? Like, what if this team isn’t just coasting until the playoffs but there are legitimate problems with the team.
It just occurred to me that this could be the case.
This is the written equivalent of Cols on the floor in a fetal position sobbing…
Yeah.
Wow.
Did we jump from Colscon 4 to Colscon 2 in one day?
A reminder:
COLSCON 5: The Cavs are young and all young players get better / The Cavs have LeBron and can’t be stopped / I Love Chris Grant
COLSCON 4: Can we please be good on defense again? Still making the Finals. / I Love David Griffin
COLSCON 3: OK. The Warriors are pretty good. I guess Curry is OK. But Draymond still sucks. Varejao too.
COLSCON 2: [Fetal position / having a Smeagol/Gollum conversation about possibly trading Kyrie]
COLSCON 1: THERMO-NUCLEAR HOLOCAUST
Nah, I’m at Colscon 4. I would like to see Irving play better defense, but otherwise I still think we have the Finals in the bag.
I wouldn’t say I “wonder” per se.
To paraphrase Jack Buck, I can’t believe what I just read.
Welcome to the dark side!
You weren’t wrong last year Cols. That gives me confidence.
Last year was almost the same, but worse. Everyone thought the sky was falling. But a small number of us kept saying, “But we have LBJ, and he has been to the Finals 4 straight years, and KI and Love are great, and ATL is clearly playing over their heads, etc..” And we were all right! Same thing this year. We will be right – i.e. Cavs will be in Finals and Finals will be closely fought.
Last year Cols predicted 70 wins.
That is true, Phil. He was wrong there. But he was right more generally about the Cavs cruising to the Finals and the Hawks/Bulls, etc. not being a serious threat.
Last season’s first-half, 19-20 Cavs weren’t a contender. Anyone who thought they were was crazy.
By March, after Griffin’s roster reset and a couple months of high-level play, I think most people here were on board that they were legit.
This season, there’s been no arc of improvement and no extended run of dominance. They won 3 in a row last week! Yippee! Then they follow that up with one of the most embarrassing losses of the season for any team.
Yes. We were saying that. In fact it was way worse than this year – where most of us are just annoyed and scared of the Warriors
But the thing is, that team exhibited a large stretch of dominance against all foes: weak and strong.
This team is all over the place.
Good point. The collective madness by supposedly smart people over the Hawks last year was the funniest thing ever.
Things we know
1. Leb, Kyrie, and Love are awesome
2. JR, TT, are really good
3. Shump and Delly are pretty OK
4. RJ is good enough
5. Moz sucks
I’ll send you a six pack of Nitro Milk Stout and a box of goldfish if you can go a week without using the words “awesome” and “sucks” in your posts…
Deal. Starting today at 10:54 in the am. But who knows what time that is in whatever time zone you reside in.
So next Tueaday at 10:54 am or whatever time it is where you are, you can send me out some yummer stuff. Can I get the coffee porter instead? I think it’s called hard wired.
Sure, but if you want the coffee porter, you also have to refrain from disparaging Nate (which you should do on general principal anyway)… ;)
OK, although the next time he fawns over some not good player is going to test my will powers
Cavs have lost to Charlotte without Kemba Walker, Portland without Damian Lillard and Memphis without Mike Conley… I’m sensing a pattern here… Maybe Kyrie is only capable of gameplanning for starting PGs… /s
Just saw this quote from Lue in regards to the LeBron 3 near the end of the game: “The shot by LeBron, you don’t ever want to question his shot,” Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue said. “But if we’re in transition, I think he thought because he wasn’t getting a lot of calls when he was driving to the basket, they were swatting down and he didn’t get the calls, so maybe he thought that if he drove to the basket, he probably wouldn’t get a call anyway.” Ugh. The coach won’t point out when LeBron makes a bad decision, but… Read more »
Accountability at its finest… /s
My only (small) hope is that he’s choosing to hold him accountable in private rather than in public. I mean he did take frustration timeout the immediate next offensive play to ensure that nonsense didn’t happen again.
Why is this bad? He’s explaining why LeBron did what he did.
It’s better that than a cliche answer.
Its bad because explaining why you did something stupid is called an “excuse.” Admitting that it was something stupid and that you shouldn’t have done it is called “accountability.”
Its the difference between enabling and correcting. Lue chose the wrong one.
He should have set Kyrie up for a play. Feed the hot hand.
Blatt sittin pretty. That is all.
What is this supposed to mean?
Blatt was an arrogant coach who couldn’t connect with the players at all who almost blew the Bulls series.
oh yeah, and he was 19-20 in his first few months of his NBA career.
And then Blatt remade the team on the fly several different times from midseason through the playoffs with great success, despite the players’ supposed hurt fee-fees.
The more times the Cavs poop the bed, in Nate’s wonderful phrase, the more likely it is that Griffin fired Blatt to give the players a kick in the butt (no more excuses) than because he thought Lue would be a better coach.
This. I think you’ve got it.
That foul on the jump ball was nuts. Delly got mauled.
The Cavs strategy: Our turnovers are our fast break defense is our offense.
Since Moz had decided to suck at basketball, I propose giving his minutes to Frye.
Cause Frye is so good at basketball? C’mon man…
I mean, he’s probably a better bet than Moz is at this point.
Let me use your typical response to respond… Nope. He sucks.
Ha. OK. I just don’t see how he can suck more than Moz right now.
Exceot Moz has been playing better lately and was sick last night.
Mozzy was fantastic against the Wiz all of four days ago . . .
If I consider what Lue said that they want to lock up the 1st seed early to be able to rest players I would take this as an important game, a needed win something like that. The 1 seed is important to them. An opportunity missed.
Good recap to what sounded like a frustrating game, Mike. Probably should have seen this coming, what with six Grizzlies out including their top three stars, them being on the second night of a back-to-back after getting punked by the lowly Suns, and with the game being at the Q in advance of the Cavs heading out for 6-7 games on the road… This set back won’t ultimately matter, but it continues to shine the light on the lack of focus and attention to detail this team currently has. There is really no reason for losing last night that doesn’t… Read more »
Trajan Langdon leaves the Cavs front office to become the Nets assistant GM.
They definitely have a problem with toughness. Maybe that’s part of the impetus for LeBron’s strange “enforcer” comment. But they have some other problems too. I’ve seen some nice 2-man action lately and I almost cried tears of joy last night when Mozgov flared to the ft line to receive a pass from LeBron so he could act as the pass repeater to feed K Love after Love’s defender successfully denied the entry pass. It was simple, Spursian, and the kind of chemistry they need to be developing. That said, the weak side guys still rarely know how to contribute… Read more »
W/R to execution. Kyrie noted in the post game interview that he and the team needs to do a better job of game planning. Because he had prepared to play against Conley, but of course Conley didn’t even play. So he basically alluded that he was thrown off by having to guard Chalmers. Seems like a pretty big excuse train to me, but okay.
WTF? Did Kyrie really said that?
LOL… “Failed to gameplan for Chalmers” sounds like a pretty good epitaph for this game…
Lebron’s eager to add a clutch basket to his resume that’s what’s happening with all this crunch time isos.. But with brick after brick he really needs to put it to rest this year and either attack the rim or facilitate in this situations.
Speaking of clutch, there’s no doubt Kyrie is one. But he’s been like Tazmanian Devil at times. He’s wrecking havoc definitely but it messes up a scene too which costs us sometimes. He needs to clean up his execution I agree.
I agree that the isolated plays you highlight involved KI and LBJ making mistakes. But KI had a series of steals down the stretch that were critical to us being in position to win, and KI’s and LBJ’s insane offensive efficiency were the reason we had any chance at all to win. So, overall, I agree that KI and LBJ made a few mistakes (KI on D and LBJ on O) in the last 2 minutes. And I also agree that if, ON TOP of shooting 78% TS from the field, having 10 A, 11 REBs, and 5 Steals, they… Read more »
I’m just pointing out trends, Hot Sauce. Not looking to dole out the most perfectly fair grading system. Without LBJ and Kyrie, the team probably loses this game by a ton of points. It doesn’t mean their decision making and Kyrie’s terrible defense aren’t factoring into these losses. I’m not arguing that Delly/JR/Moz etc played well. I’m not saying they didn’t do things that hurt them down the stretch (Delly fouling Carter before the inbounds). But those aren’t really trends. Kyrie’s inability (and Delly’s to a lesser extent) to stop dribble penetration is almost always the culprit when the Cavs… Read more »
That ONE in the 1 for 19 came last night, by the way.
Which will now inspire him to take 19 more.
Every player in every game has good and bad. When you try to figure out which players are causing a team to play poorly, you need to account for the WHOLE effect of that player. LBJ can improve upon his decision-making with threes. That is a weakness in his game. I agree. But every player has weaknesses in their games, and LBJ’s weaknesses are generally the smallest. Your stat on Losses proves my point: LBJ is so important that when he plays bad we tend to lose. That doesn’t mean LBJ is the problem. It means that the rest of… Read more »
The Grizz played without their top four players and aren’t that great to begin with. I wouldn’t say “without LBJ and Kyrie the Cavs would have gotten killed” is exactly a ringing endorsement about the Cavs in general.
100% agree Mac. The game was really really a bad look for all Cavs not named KI/LBJ. The whole team was collectively as bad as I had seen them, except for LBJ/KI, who were generally very good.
You can’t have as many turnovers and play as much weak defense as Irving and LeBron did and have it be considered a good game.
This is all evil genius’s fault for living on pacific time or whatever and scheduling meetings when he’s supposed to be patrolling the game thread.
You suck EG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Still the same team back in November…
This is about all I can say about last night’s game (having not watched it)…
I hate watermarks.
Fixed!
The Grizz exposed the Cavs biggest flaw…Not trying until theres 5 minutes left…This team constantly comes out flat and unenergetic…They play lazy for huge stretches of games especially against inferior opponents…For a guy who supposedly is one of the hardest workers in the NBA LBJ has been incredibly lazy in games this year…When they gave a full effort with 5 minutes left they erased a 10 pt deficit in 2 minutes and then LBJ hucks up his typical lazy 3 in a crucial possession…If they had played with that energy in the first half all the starters would have sat… Read more »
Yes, and since this is the biggest problem, energy/focus, that will be easily solved when the games matter.
As it is, for all the panic! in the comment section last night, this team still has the 3rd best record in the NBA, behind only the record setting paces of the Spurs and Warriros.
Actually, their biggest flaw right now is toughness… both mental and physical…
I don’t know about that. LeBron, TT, Shump, JR, are all pretty freaking tough. I really think their biggest problem is that they just don’t get up for games against teams that suck.
Which is a problem, but I’m not so sure it will matter in the long run. At least, I guess I hope it doesn’t.
Did I just read you making second thoughts? Man there is hope. I’m happy already.
I would classify not getting up for games against “teams that suck” as you so insightfully put it, as being mentally weak…
It’s more boredom/lack of focus than “weak.” Weak to me means you fold when things are tough. We are actually at our best in those situations. Where we play bad is when things are too easy.
But this is mostly just semantics.
Yep. Boredom not weak. There’s a tremendous difference.
Semantics, sure… but weak minds are easily bored/lack focus…
The cure for boredom? Play hard from the start. Jump on the other team, put them away early, and you can rest in the 4th and daydream about your clothing line or next tweet.
Yes. LeBron definitely was not “great” much less “awesome” last night 7 awful turnovers never moved once off ball on offense. Only moves when theres a wide open dunk for him. Do u realize that if LeBron moved as disciplined as Curry off the ball, he would have the same gravity as Steph and we would be on our way to 70 wins too never was in a defensive stance when someone other than his man had the ball barely ever boxes out is a very lazy defender when hi s man does have the ball LeBron is awesome when… Read more »
Don’t get me wrong. The other players played awful too. Maybe even worse than James. But LeBron is the most overrated leader ever
What exactly do you want a leader to do?
I like leaders who LEAD their teams to the Finals. LeBron is pretty awesome at that.
Maybe you’d like a leader who does something other than win, but I’m not sure what.
Talk is cheap, results matter.
If talk is cheap… how much to Tweets cost? And is there a surcharge for sub-Tweets?
The good thing is that this is an effort/focus thing. Which is a much better problem than a talent thing. The ceiling for this team is still NBA Champs. I trust that they will solve the effort/focus stuff when it matters.
He’s been playing better lately but not last night. Coach said he was sick
Whoops meant to post above to your comment about Mozzy. But yes nowhere to go but up which isn’t necessarily a good thing to be saying at this point.
Would have been a good game to rest im. Considering what the other team was doing.
I think we are finding out that 2014-2015 Moz is not coming back. The dude wearing his jersey looks terrible this year.
He looked good the last few games… as Gregg said below, he was apparently sick last night…
THAT IS THE BIGGEST CONCERN THE CONSTANT EXCUSES ……AND THE LACK OF TIME TO CORRECT THE ” SO CALLED EXCUSES “——-YES ARCH WE HAVE BLOGGED FREQUENTLY ABOUT FRYE ( AND HIS ROLE/ LACK OF PLAYING TIME ) THEY COULD HAVE PICKED UP SOME D-LEAGUE / CHINA LEAGUE PLAYER TO FILL THE SAME ROLE AND NOT GIVEN UP ANYTHING —MAYBE IT DID COME DOWN TO JUST GETTING RID OF ANDY’S CONTRACT —–NOT LIKE GRIFF WILL EVER ADMIT TO THAT
Literally the most frustrating game to watch as Tony Allen/Lance Stephenson/Mario Chalmers and 6 Fringe D-League/NBA players came in and beat up the Cavs.
Kyrie said he was thrown off guard that Z-Bo and Conley didn’t play. Really? You are going to get soooo thrown off that you throw away the ball 7 times? So thrown off guard that you let Mario Chalmers outplay you?
So many excuses and so little time.
Yuk, that sounded like a horrible thing to watch, thanks Mike for the recap and I am sure if I watched this I would of been screaming like you and others. This morning after watching the replay of the the last few possessions I am screaming. I know we shouldn’t of been in that position but come on Delly was tackled and held at same time and then to get the foul at the other end as Carter is holding him with other arm. Ugly. Regardless bad loss for us and at same time still don’t see us losing a… Read more »
I’m glad they gave up that first round pick for Frye. Running out of time to figure out what we are….
There is no confusion to what Frye’s role is. They just paid a very high price to get him.
That’s quite a price for a bench warmer. Griffin is GM of the year /s
No argument with that.
I wish we gave up a first for frye. We gave up a first to dump Varejao.
It’s a theme that anything that goes wrong is attributed to the Big 3. They by no means were great on D (they were on O) but JR, Moz, and Delly were putrid on both sides. How a guy plays 11 minutes and helps the team to a -12 is astounding. If JR or Delly do anything on O, its going to OT or a close win. Anyways tough loss, move on to the next game.
Agree. If the Big 3 are less than perfect, people shred them. If any of the role players do even 1 or 2 great things people act like they are the 2nd coming.
Yes. JR, Delly, and especially Moz were terrible.
Delly’s been bad for a decent stretch lately. Maybe he started eating donuts again?
A recent stretch as in one game?
Well if you call LeBron turning it over 7 times, Kyrie playing ZERO defense on Chalmers, and Love continuing to brick shots, as less than perfect, then I do not want to know your definition of atrocious
People here have been fair on praise and criticism for everyone on the team almost 100% of the time. No one has been off the hook. Stop inventing narratives..
Except Delly is only mentioned at the end stages of the 4th. Nothing says JR went 2-11. Nothing says Delly and Moz put up mind numbing plus/minus numbers. I love Delly but he stunk that game. Love JR, same. Just be fair.
I disagree with that. Take Arch’s post above. It points out negatives about LBJ and KI without any recognition that LBJ and KI were why we were even in the game. The points he makes are accurate, but his conclusion is overstated because he ignores the amazing things that LBJ/KI did. LBJ + KI: 55 pts, on 35 shots (78% TS, 20-35, including 5-11 from deep, 10-12 from line), 11 REBs, 10 ASS, 5 Steals!?!?!?!?! If you can’t understand that those are incredible numbers and need to be accounted for when discussing LBJ and KI’s overall impact on the game,… Read more »
I am pointing out your comment about how the Big 3 are “less than perfect.”
Aren’t you one of those that screamed “loaded wombat” with us? Are we really comparing Delly with Kyrie? JR with Lebron?
It’s been documented how much we hate JR’s brain fart. Or Moz’ butter hands. Just like how are we on LeIso and Kyrie vision etc. Those never vanished win or lose.
The Big 3 are the stars of the team that’s supposed to lead the other guys everytime down the floor. But then they’re also the frontliners of our flaws. It’s natural to be this critical on them and crown them kings every basket they make .
@Arch – I think “less than perfect” is a completely fair characterization of KI and LBJ. 55 pts on 78% TS with combined 11 REBs, 10 A, 5 StL is pretty much perfect. But they also made a few mistakes, so its “less than perfect.” I took your comment to mean that you thought they didn’t play a very good game. If that isn’t what you meant, then I apologize for talking past you. But that is how I read it. @Running – I am not sure I follow your comment. I agree that people criticize role players when they… Read more »
@Hot Sauce, you think that Kyrie and LeBron had good games? Are you considering defense in these evaluations? Or just looking at box scores? Few mistakes? They combined for 11 TO’s and couldn’t defend a chair.
Yes. I watched the whole game. I thought they were fantastic overall, but had several mistakes. So, on net, I thought they were great and by far the best two player son the Cavs. I thought the reason we lost was because of how bad the rest of the team played. LBJ/KI had 55 points on 35 shots. Rest of the team had 48 points on 45 shots. Delly and Love had 8 TO in 59 minutes, and were also terrible on O. JR was off. Just one of those games where all of the other guys played really bad… Read more »
Well I disagree. I thought the whole team played poorly, and that includes LBJ/KI, and that is why we lost.
@ Arch: Fair enough. Proof that great minds don’t always think alike!
Theme of what?
Not the recap.
It didn’t belabor any individual player or exonerate JR or Moz or Delly. Are you preemptively guarding against comments that haven’t been posted yet?
It’s all about the mental side with this team. They just don’t get up for every game. They dominated the final stretch of the 4th when they were engaged, but they waited too long to bring that intensity.
The good news is that I don’t see this being an issue in the playoffs — they will be up for those games. I just hope these types of brain farts don’t cost us the #1 seed in the East.
That game sucked. Oh well. Hopefully Irving gets better at defense. At least LeBron was awesome. Still #1 seed. Still the only team with a chance to knock off the Warriors. We shall see.
Lebron’s offense was very good/great but his overall game last night wasn’t “awesome.” His defense was terrible. He spent much of the night on Allen and/or Stevenson both of whom torched the Cavs. At one point in the fourth quarter Stevenson went right at Lebron and scored on two or three straight possessions. That cannot happen and it should not happen. He simply was not engaged on the defensive end.
Cols does not subscribe to defense…
LOVE THE SHIRT (HATE LAST NIGHTS GAME )—–I AM GOING TO HATE BLOGGING THIS —-I REALLY LIKE THIS PLAYER/ SUPPORT HIM 100%—BUT I AM HAVING DOUBTS IF KEV IS GOING TO FIT IN HERE —-DON’T THINK SINCE HE HAS BEEN HERE THAT HE HAS EVER PUT TOGETHER AN IMPRESIVE 10 GAME STRETCH —-HIS SHOT LOOKS BROKEN / LOW POST PHYSICALITY HAS ABANDONED HIM / DOESN’T PLAY WITH THE CONFIDENCE THAT INTICED EVERYONE WHEN HE WAS AT MINNESOTA —-AND IF YOU TRADE HIM YOU ARE NOT GETTING THE TRUE VALUE BACK—-THERE I SAID IT —-HOPE I EAT MY WORDS —–KEV GO… Read more »