Live Thread: Cavs @ Knicks

After falling apart in the fourth quarter against the Nets, Thursday, the Cavs travel across the bridge to Manhattan to take on the Knickerbockers. Out tonight will be Kyrie Irving, and returning may be Mo Williams who hasn’t played since February 10th. Mo has been nursing “knee soreness” throughout the season. For the Knicks, Lance Thomas should be out, but they should be able to play the rest of their contingent.

For the Cavs, the key to stopping New York will be not letting both Carmelo Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis go off. Melo has been very solid lately, posting 22 points 5.8 boards, and five dimes over his last four contests, while shooting 45%/48%/83%. Porzingis has averaged just over 20 in his last four contests, with 8 boards and two blocks, while shooting 44%/35%/80%. Closing the space and not giving him space to cut will be key to stopping the Zinger.

The Knicks have won their last two contests, both against Chicago, and a key to stopping them will be getting good bench production, because the Knicks’ sixth man Aaron Afflalo keys their second unit. With no Kyrie, I hope to see more of what Jordan McRae can do, and not as much of what Mo Williams can do, but I hope Mo gives them something.

After the lackluster performance against the Nets, LeBron declared the Cavs ready to make a run…

Focused! Let’s make this run boys #TheLand#StriveForGreatness

— LeBron James (@KingJames) March 26, 2016

As he told Cleveland.com’s Joe Vardon, “I feel like we’re ready to make a championship run,” James said Saturday morning, ahead of Cleveland’s shootaround at Madison Square Garden in preparation to play the Knicks. “I’m confident in this team and I know we can make a championship run, and that’s all you can ask for.” James certainly walked the walk last game, scoring on a scintillating series of drives to the basket, and not missing a bucket till the late third quarter, but as we all know, Cleveland must start defending, and even LeBron must start boxing out, if they want to match their feats of last summer.

Terry Pluto had a very nice Q and A with himself on this subject, and had some good ideas, which included sending J.R. to the bench and starting Shumpert (not as a punishment to J.R., but to put more scoring with the second unit, and more defense with the first). He concluded nicely.

Let’s get real. LeBron has some problems with getting distracted, but he’s not the problem. He’s the reason they are a contender. He knows what it takes to advance in the playoffs. The real problem is that some others, such as Love and Irving, don’t know it yet. And they didn’t learn it last season because they were hurt. Their real tests are coming, and they need to use the last few weeks of the season to do some serious preparation.

Lets hope that starts tonight.