Live Thread: Cavs @ Heat
2016-03-19Welcome to Miami, Cavs fans. Everyone is available to play tonight for Cleveland, according to Coach Lue and the training staff. Chris Bosh remains absent, as does guard, Tyler Johnson.
In Bosh’s absence, the Heat have been playing lots of small ball, with Deng and Joe Johnson as dual combo forwards. Johnson has been particularly scorching as of late, scoring 17 a game, with 53%/52%/83% shooting splits over his last five.
Deng is no slouch either, averaging a whopping 19.6 and shooting 54%/38%/94% over his last five games. Add in the eight rebounds, and it’s clear, Deng may get paid this summer as a small ball four.
Fortunately, the increased scoring hasn’t resulted in wins for Miami, just going 2-3 over the last five, and giving up 112 points per game. Be prepared for fireworks tonight as these two offensive powerhouses who are defense averse square off.
Man…..
…if only we still had Kendrick Perkins.
This is not a knee jerk reaction to last night’s game. I’ve been sensing this since the firing of Blatt. I don’t think LBJ will be back next year . . . on two fronts. I don’t think he wants to come back. And I don’t think that Gilbert will have him back. So obviously, despite his immense talent, I think that LBJ is the source of the funk this team is in. The roster is going to look very different next year. I think the only “safe” player is Kyrie. (Also, TT’s contract makes it difficult to trade him.)… Read more »
The roster might look drastically different but LeBron ain’t going anywhere. He has his flaws but I truly believe the only goal he has left in his career is to win a ring for CLE. Don’t forget he’s the sole reason we’re competing for a title right now.
But yeah I’ve never followed a team like this. They certainly aren’t much fun to root for with so many of these lay-down games in them.
Yea, I’d prefer to pretend last night didn’t happen for the Cavs. ***Closing my eyes and saying everything is awesome, everything is awesome***
No recap? See, that game never really happened after all. Whew!
The Cavs didn’t want to play last night. That could suffice as the recap.
Heat 122, Cavs 101; Jason Lloyd’s 23 thoughts on South Beach woes, defensive issues, playoff concern:
MIA… bit.ly/1VprtII
My comment below was posted in Lloyds thoughts.
Cavs’ slippage defensively is alarming. Since Mike Longabardi was hired to take over the defense, the Cavs are 21st in defensive field-goal percentage – the standard most coaches use to gauge defensive performance. When Lue was in charge as David Blatt’s defensive coordinator, the Cavs ranked 10th.
Luke Walton needed to put Kerr in a straight jacket to contain him tonight.
Just watching a re-run of SAS/GSW…. IN the beginning of the game, they dump it to Diaw in the post 3 times in a row… 3 buckets in a row. Spurs don’t overthink things… Diaw has mismatch, keep giving ball to Diaw.
They listen their hall of fame coach. The players on our team believe they’re smarter than the coach. And they may be with Lue coaching this team.
LOL… I know, sad isn’t it??? And it’s not like basketball is rocket science… move the ball on offense, effort on defense.
If the Cavs are bored, then we are in more trouble than I originally anticipated.
LOL… Yeah, saying the Cavs are bored is the dumbest excuse I’ve ever heard for poor play.
I still believe the Cavs have the highest ceiling of all the teams in the NBA… they can be a juggernaut, but they have NEVER used KLOVE well enough on offense…. and they have never consistently communicated and rotated well on defense with exception to last year’s playoffs… and even then it wasn’t sustained for as long as it needed to be.
They are just a model franchise, from the ownership to the front office to the coaches and players. Just think how different things would be for them if Pop had gotten canned early on, when he was under heavy pressure. I’m nearly certain that Durant isn’t going anywhere this summer, but where would be a better place to go than SA, if he did move on. They just have a great culture there, and they have a good chance to maintain it even after Pop retires, whenever that is, because they will probably bring in someone from Pop’s tree to… Read more »
They have a Euro coach as an assistant. I think he is as respected as Blatt.
Definitely…. there was a great article about them recently and it mentioned two important things:
1. When they were recruiting LMA, basically Popovich said that the organization doesn’t make any decision unless Popovich, their GM, and owner all agree…. essentially there’s no individual agendas that dictate decision making.
2. David West said that Popovich doesn’t scout other teams in-depth. Most of their scouting is self-scouting… all of their information is focused on themselves. The only exception to Popovich’s “no scouting” rule is GSW…. for the obvious reasons.
Pop was the guy who fired a winning coach in order to get the job, man! There’s more than one way to skin a cat, but if you’re really so into the Spurs the good news is we are following their blueprint. Fire a solid coach, Lebron plays David robinson’s role, we’ll draft Tim Duncan in a couple seasons, and be golden for twenty years!
Well played Scotch! LOLOLOLOL
Well Duncan, Manu, and Parker have declined and the Spurs continue to find ways to reinvent themselves. They turn cast offs into great rotational players. Yes the Spurs got lucky, but so did the Cavs. They don’t know how to run a basketball team.
He did….did I say somehow that he didn’t? It turned out to be a great move for the organization, too, didn’t it? A lot of franchises have drafted an all time great player, and didn’t build a great organization by doing so. (hey, that was the Cavs blueprint, right? What happened??)
Yeah so what I’m saying is the Cavs are starting this year where the Spurs were the year pop took over. It was a bit tongue in cheek but the Spurs didn’t win until they tanked for a year to get Timmy.
Well, the Cavs are behind the curve, because they have tanked more than the Spurs ever did (perhaps not as intentionally), and they don’t have as much to show for it. Duncan is great, but if he weren’t with the Spurs under Pop, I don’t think he would have had nearly as great a career.
Well said MikeO… also, I think Scotch was joking LOL… but I definitely agree with you.
This season was pretty much over when the players bailed on Blatt during the MLK massacre. Now we have a CLUEless coach and even more clueless organization. I expect massive changes this offseason. Probably back to the lotto days!!! Cavs seem just as dysfunctional as the Browns. They just have a lot of talent to cover up mistakes. Don’t see a Gilbert run franchise getting it done ever.
Mis-management is the biggest impediment to organizational success. Mis-management within the Cavs’ organization became apparent with the Blatt firing.
Dan Gilbert is an impatient owner. I’m sure Griffin was trying anything to keep his job. It was a panic move. But we shouldn’t panic because clearly the organization isn’t.
Except I thought the rumors at the time of Blatt’s firing was that Gilbert wanted to keep Blatt and it was Griffin who wanted to make a change, and Gilbert let him as an exercise of trust.
True, but it still doesn’t mean that Griffin felt pressure from Gilbert. Blatt was the fall guy. Plus the players hated him apparently, so it was made pretty easy.
I’ll be honest, my favorite thing about Blatt were his press conferences. He had a lot of talent that played stifling defense. He maybe was able to get more out of Mozgov than anyone, but there’s not a ton of difference btw he and Lue besides that, except the team seems less stressed.
Blatt was better with his rotations, and matching up also. Lue trots out different line ups each game. There doesn’t seem to be much consistency. And like you noted the slipping defense is a huge concern.
Another issue that is more an indictment on the organization is the all time lows in shooting for LeBron and Love. Don’t they think that should be addressed?
Agree with this too.
I agree… but I also liked how he coached in terms of protecting the players unless he was making a calculated statement.
And when LBJ, Delly, or Irving would actually run an effing play, it usually worked.
Right… and if Gilbert was turning up the heat like that, it was an impatient move on his part.
Firing Blatt wasn’t mismanagement. If the team had truly tuned him out he had to go regardless of record. If or when the Cavs don’t win the title I put this squarely on the players.