Live Thread: Cavs vs Celtics
2017-10-17
We circled today’s date exactly eight weeks ago: as soon as word leaked of Kyrie Irving’s impending trade to the Boston Celtics for Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, and Ante Zizic. Now Boston comes to town starting Jaelyn Brown, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Gordon Hayward, and a “real grown up,” Kyrie Irving.
For the Cavs, LeBron James is a game time decision, but guys like J.R. Smith expect him to play. No word on who’ll start in his place if he sits. Joining LeBron or LeSub will be Derrick Rose, Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder, and Kevin Love as starters. It will be interesting to see if Rose’s hot preseason play continues and if Kyrie Irving can keep up with him. Further, it will be fascinating to see how the Cavs defend Irving, Hayward, and Co.
Speaking of Hayward, how much will he see the rock? If I’m the Cavs I’m making Jaylen Brown, Al Horford, and Jayson Tatum beat me before I back the pressure off Uncle Drew. For Cleveland, establishing the inside presence and pummeling the Celtics on the boards will also be key, as will limiting turnovers. Look for Wade to establish himself against some eager young defenders with lots of pump fakes and trips to the line.
The Cavs bench looks to go rockete league with the offensive pace they set at times during the preseason. There should be plenty of opportunies to launch for Korver and JR in that lineup and plenty of rebounds for Tristan Thompson.
It should be a fun one. Go Cavs.
I like the defensive additions by the Rockets….this is why Morey made the moves….its going to be a GREAT SEASON!!!
Recap Up.
Takes notes league…golden state is super soft at the rim (if green is on the bench or guarding the three point line)
How the eff did Houston win this game?
They drove the ball every time they should have except when harden had curry on him and should have…then got lucky
Bray being out down the stretch helped. They are beatable without Bray, Durant, or Curry.
That was…so so dumb. So much stupid at the end of a good game. At least durant’s Shot won’t count
Won’t count!!
Aaannnddd harden out stupids them
Paul sitting for Hou in crunch time. Lue would never have the guts to do that.
And they’re well on they’re way to stupiding themselves out of game 1 as well
1 pt game with 2 mimutes left. Of course, GSW got blown out opening night last year.
When Green is out, they struggle a bit.
i Can’t quite tell if I think the warriors as a team have more talent than brains and get away with it. I get the sense that they have just enough basketball iq between draymond, Kerr, and guys like Livingston and David west, that they can get away with being really really careless because of their otherworldly talent. And that’s really the way the cavs stole a championship from them is they forced them to play smart and they just couldn’t.
They live on the edge. I think you have to to be truly great at times.
Until IT gets back, Love should be taking the 2nd most shots, not the 5th most.
He actually should take the 1st most I think
Ref’s botched another call that turned into a warriors three. Ugh. Why even play the season if they are just allowed to hack
Unreal…red fives warriors a break on a foul call they should have received…warrior nearest red goes and breaks the ref’s rib
warriors are kinda bad at defense without green. That’s nice to see
Houston looks like a souped up version of hornacek’s three guard team of a couple years ago with knight and Gordon and I forget who. I suppose they are bigger guards but still. They’re gonna have to score like 120 points a game to have a good enough record for a top 4 seed in the West. Not that that will be a problem under dantoni
I think they are one of the very few teams that can compete with the Warriors…by ‘compete with’, I don’t mean beat them in a best of 7. They are not in the same class, but they can sure fill the hoop…
Yeah, had a feeling they’d be in a position to give GSW trouble this year. Like you say, not ultimately beat them, but all I want is a team to beat GSW around a bit in the playoffs.
Bell is playing a lot of minutes for GS…excellent job, Bulls…
Geeze…you’d think clevelanders were hungry for more sports after the Indians debacle…778 posts and counting on day one!
Well, if Hayward only broke one bone in his ankle, instead of both, then that is good news. Better if the break is above the ankle.
https://twitter.com/threekola/status/492056554745913344
The Bulls are a disaster.
Saw this at another blog RE Hayward. Not sure if it’s accurate or not?
“Word is there is no ligament damage/nerve damage. Dislocated ankle with fractured tibia. Possible return of March/April. Start rehab after 6-8 weeks”
Heard about the diagnosis, not the prognosis.
I’d think they need an MRI to tell about ligament damage, which he won’t have until tomorrow. But it’s good they were able to reset the dislocation quiclly.
Nick Young on the Warriors makes me hate the Warriors that much more.
Yeah, this is what I was expecting…on that team, a crappy NBA player who can shoot is going to get a lot of easy threes…
https://twitter.com/ConradKaz/status/920482917310173190
Oh this is superb.
Well then, we better hurry up and lose some games. /s Don’t want to repeat history after all.
Is Conrad writing anywhere anymore?
Don’t know if he has a regular gig. His Twitter bio doesn’t mention anything.
Zavac just got hired by the athletic.
So the Warriors play their second round pick Jordan’s Bell, but Lue can’t give any minutes to Cedi/Zizik. I’m sending Lue a copy of “Basketball for Dummy’s.”
Bell is getting destroyed so far.
Nick Young had 20 at half. They scored 71. We gave up 61 in the 2nd half to the Celtics.
His first NBA game, looks pretty impressive. And the Bulls gifted him to the Dubs.
Some of us were happy to get a win tonight. Have you read this book?
The warriors take so many bad shots. They are just great shooters.
Ergo, they aren’t bad shots.
Irving looked rather ordinary.
22 points, 10 assists, and three steals is a line that is preferable from your point guard and would put him into top 5 pg in the league conversation if he did it over a season.
I bet Kyrie is happy that Jaylen Brown is getting 25 shots a game.
Yeah the chances of continuing to pass like that are probably slim.
Update on Hayward – dislocated ankle & fractured tibia.
Probably better than fractured ankle.
Most definitely.
Man. If they looked this good against their supposed rivals in the first game….I’m super pumped. The
The Celtics??
They Looked awful. They should’ve won by 20+
Report by Vardon that several Cavs players were upset about the planned video tribute to KI, Main reason it was scrapped
Makes sense.
Why would they be upset?
Glad the best blog in the business is still at it. Also glad the Cavs are back at it, should be a fun season.
glad to have you as part of it, Tim! Cheers to a great season ahead
Likewise, Tim. CtB is just an awesome platform
New season, new players, LBJ still the man at 60% effort.
I would say 85% tonight
President Stevens is now 166-163 as a head coach… scintillating…
I guess… Celtics have rookies and a bunch of under-25s in key roles, lost their second best player and almost won.
O-V-E-R-R-A-T-E-D
YESSSSSS mooooooore
Hahahahahahaha.
LeBron in the post game interview: “I’m out of shape”
Says the dude who just posted 29/16/9 in 41 minutes… he’s just not human…
OK am I doing the math right here. LeBron before tonight was 9600 points away from Kareem. Excluding tonight, LeBron could score 9600 points by playing another 8 years in the league (taking him to 40) and averaging 1200 points a season. If he averaged 60 games a season and scored 20 points a game that is 1200 a season.
That record is totally in reach and LeBron is gunning for it.
Especially if he makes the finals each year.
it’s a regular season record
Gotchya, thought 60 games/year was low.
it is low – I was conservative with the points per game and the number of games and liberal with the number of years – although I believe LeBron could definitely play until he’s 40
He’s also likely to end up somewhere from No. 3 to No. 6 all-time in assists.
If Bron gets 40k points , 10K assists, 10 rebounds at the end of his career, he can make a very compelling case as GOAT. In the playoffs career totals, he is already the all time leader in scoring, about to become the all time leader in steals, third in assist with a chance to get second place and top10-20 in rebounds and block.
As discussed in the last podcast, I think Lue is giving Shump a chance to prove himself. I do have to wonder how long Lue will tolerate him though, he was clearly pissed with Shump after that last foul.
One game into the season and I’m already hating Coach Lue. His decision making in this game were horrid, specially when it came to Shump’s minutes, Love and JR’s set plays and pulling KK because Smart got the best of him twice.
I feel like it’s going to be a looooong season.
I was hoping to see a bunch of new stuff. We will see. I would be fine with finding someone else at the end of the season if the offense looks the way it does the previous years and if his rotations are nonsensical again.
Don’t let Cols take all the meds, guys.
It is perfectly reasonable to expect some evolution on the offensive end in a coaches third year. We will see what happens. I want to see an offense that doesn’t rely on one guy to get every single other person on the team open, every time down the floor. That usually amounts to just having an nba offense installed.
Crowded was the best pickup we’ve gotten Since Lebron came back. He is a very very good basketball player. Does lots of little things and understands spacing and cutting like a younger Richard Jefferson.
Kyrie looked like he was really trying to pass. I doubt he’s able to hold back for too long.
If he can, they will be ok even without Hayward.
Vegas is smart. Had the Cavs a 4 pt favorite. Of course with GH in the lineup