Live Thread: Cavs @ Hawks
2017-11-30
It’s been good times rolling for the Cavs lately. Winners of nine straight, the Wine & Gold will look to extend their winning streak to double digits on the road against the Atlanta Hawks. Last outing versus the Hawks didn’t go so well, as the Cavs were handed one of their more embarrassing losses of the LeBron 2.0 era (which is saying something). On November 5th, the Hawks came into Cleveland losers of eight in a row, with seemingly half their roster out injured, and stunned the Cavs in a two-point loss for the home team. Ever since that fateful day, however, things have looked a lot different in The Land.
The Cavs followed up the heartburn-inducing “Mylanta in Atlanta” disaster with a big win over the up-and-coming Bucks and very narrow loss in Houston to arguably the best team of the 2017 season. Since then it’s been nothing but W’s for the Cavs. Interestingly, Cleveland hasn’t enjoyed a regular season winning streak this long since running off 12 straight in 2015. Defense has been the key, as the Cavs have been holding opponents to 99.8 points per game during the streak, which would be good for sixth overall in the NBA if extrapolated across the full season.
Will the Cavaliers take care of business and make it 10 straight? Or will focus issues creep back onto the court as Cleveland overlooks a bottom feeding squad? Atlanta has had a five-day break without basketball to contemplate a blowout loss to the Raptors, so expect the Hawks to come out guns a-blazin’. If the Cavs win, they’ll continue to be the hottest team in basketball as they soar up the Eastern Conference standings.
I’d put my money on a 10-point victory for the Wine & Gold tonight. A loss here could only be explained by the Cavs purposefully tanking the game in order to boost Atlanta’s chance of catching Brooklyn in the standings. #ConspiracyTheoryThursdays
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The recap is up everyone.
So, let’s rewind the signings sans the Irving deal. Korver. No brainer re-signing. Korver was leading the league in ORtg & True Shooting% prior to the ATL game. He has been awesome. Grade: A+. Calderon: not totally useless. Can give us competent offensive PG minutes. Struggles to defend quicker PGs (duh). Totally fine as a 3rd PG. His decent minutes are making me feel a tad better about letting RJ go. Still sad about it. Grade C. Green. Has brought good defensive versatility. Aside from the first 10 games & garbage time, has stayed in his lane well on offense.… Read more »
yeah it’s been quite the turnaround. Really, the one that I’m shocked by is Green. I was 95% sure I was going to hate Wade but I knew there was a chance he could still ball and be effective, especially given his defensive instincts. Did not anticipate the hustle, disruption, passing, spacing, know when to be Vintage-Wade, know when you defer. But Green I’m honestly shocked by. I keep waiting for someone to pop my balloon. Maybe I spent too much time looking through stats and blog posts and not enough time actually watching him. Or maybe he’s finally (after… Read more »
Agree with Jason and Tom.
Jason Lloyd via KJG:
Meh non-story. Brown wanted his buddy to hang. Wade got signed. James feelings got hurt from the reaction. James gets over it or we see more personnel turnover.
agreed. total non story
I didn’t catch the second half nor the post interviews. Any links to the Cedi “cold blooded” comment?
No link but my takeaway from it: The comment in no way shape or form fit the tone of the interview. It’s obvious he isn’t fluent in English but just good enough to be dangerous. He was answering with positive, humble, “I’m just so excited to be here and I don’t care if all they want me to do is take out the trash, as long as I’m helping them win”-type answers. Then Fred said something like “one of the many things Coach Lue likes about you is that you don’t seem afraid of the moment. Tell us about that?”… Read more »
That is awesome. I hope the rest of the team is rooting for him and this statement of his turns into a locker room mantra.
I posted it below…
I am so impressed with DWade. His play has been up and down (which is to be expected at this stage in his career) but he has said and done ALL the tight things thus far. Great poise on the move to the bench, great veteran statement to the starters when they were underperforming, great attitude during the losing and great composure/comments/play during the winning streak. All the veteran things I didn’t see from him in Chicago he is doing in spades now. His signing was “Eh” originally, but I am so glad his is on this team now.
Agree 100%. He has been an even bigger revelation than Jeff Green.
Cedi is not a “give him the ball & get out of the way” type of player. But he is long, pretty athletic, disruptive on D, hustles, rebounds, has a decent feel for the game, is pretty good in the open court. If he can knock down some open shots, we are in business.
With Rose & Shump both out, he should play.
FWIW, Bron & JR are the only guys over 30 mpg. Very Spursian.
Get Cedi 1000 minutes of playing time before April and we’ll have that defender that can stop Livingston or Thompson in June. Green, Wade, and Osman can be the missing defenders with offensive skills to be able to stop Houston or GS. No Jose, Iman, DRose, and less TT. If we can swap Shump for Delly, giving a 2nd rounder if needed, then we should be able to look forward to June.
If one does a deep dive unto the lineups on 82 games, some of the dinobot #s are eye popping.
Found another interesting net rating stat of Dinobots + LBJ
The Cavaliers’ Wade/James/Kyle Korver/Jeff Green/Channing Frye lineup boasts an incomprehensible net rating of +26.8, making it the league’s third-deadliest five-man unit featuring at least four reserves (minimum: 30 minutes on the floor together), per NBA.com.
That’s so awesome. Also explains why they’ve been so fun to watch lately!
Not to be a Debbie Downer but “league’s third-deadliest five-man unit featuring at least four reserves (minimum: 30 minutes on the floor together)” is a Harry Doyle stat if I’ve ever heard one.
Any background on what that means?
It’s like saying you’re the third most athletic kid at fat camp.
Bwhahhaahaa!!!! Wow that is a hilariously perfect analogy. Comment of the day.
not when you consider the Cavs starters outscored the Warriors starters in the Finals.
Vastly improved bench lineups can tip the scales in our favor.
We don’t have the same starters. I am happy that IT is coming back but I expect any lineup he is in against gs to likely have a net negative rating. Just an awful matchup. He may help against the east, but that gs length….
I just don’t care that much about the line of thinking “so and so is unplayable” against this particular team, particularly when he is an all-star against every other team. Everyone is unplayable against the Warriors, just like everyone was unplayable against Shaq. You find ways to get it done. We’ve gone back and forth on our front court here. “Tristan Thompson is unplayable against the Warriors” “Tristan Thompson is necessary to deal with all the switching against the Warriors.” “Kevin Love is unplayable against the Warriors.” “The Warriors secretly are happy Kevin Love is healthy because now the Cavs… Read more »
Unplayable only applies if you have a better option/matchup at a particular position. The cavs don’t. IT is better than Rose, Calderon, and shumpert so he is playable. He won’t have as much success offensively as Kyrie did at times against the warriors for the simple fact that Kyrie could get his shot off nearly all of the time at the perimeter and much of the time at the basket. IT won’t likely be able to get the same quality of looks. He certainly hasn’t against the cavs in the playoffs. Therefore, I find it unlikely he will be near… Read more »
Also I don’t have a crystal ball. Just what I expect based off watching IT and Irving in the playoffs. My expectations are tempered though and I would find it a huge success if the cavs win 2 games against gs with our current personnel. More than that I would be ecstatic.
cedi is getting better without shump…He gave positive energy to team and fans
CBC
LOL “I was always cold blooded” – Cedi.
HELL YEAH
Said Shump never is his life
https://twitter.com/isaiahthomas/status/936440364910764032
Cavs executed really well in the 4th – just missed a lot of wide open right-corner 3s. also some poor officiating
Winning is a lot more fun to watch but these games don’t matter much.
What does matter is that in the 384 minutes Wade and Korver have shared this season the Cavs defensive rating is 96.7.
Wade, Korver & Frye is outscoring opponents by 22.6 per 100 possessions.
based on plus minus data Korver is the Cavs best defensive player
Zach Lowe dropped on his pod today that Korver + Wade on the court are a +137 I believe….just insane.
Entering last night, Korver was leading the league on ORtg and True Shooting %.
James is amazing analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of any player he is asked about.
Tim Misney “Make Em Pay Moment!”
PERFECT
Ty likes that Cedi isn’t scared
All 10 guys played at least 10 minutes tonight…
That’s got to be a Lue record in a close game
Looking smooth. The end is near
Looking good.
with shump out this is the time for cedi to get playing time —-hope he makes the most of it—one thing he will bring every game is– ENERGY !!
I think he’s ready. He looked ready against the Hawks.
klove looking like “timberwolve ” klove —LOVING IT !!
How about Hang Ten, EG ?
http://s3.amazonaws.com/cloud.scoutmob.com/shoppe/products/10372/original/_0024_HANG10_art_copy.jpg
Nice
should do a 5 minute segment of I.T. ‘”cheerleading in the bench —can’t wait until he dresses and brings that energy on the floor
Oh, I agree! He has been more excited from the bench than any non-playing star I’ve ever seen. And on social media! He is going to bring it when he finally gets on the court…his energy /excitement alone will win a few games!
Cavs 10-0 when Crowder scores in double digits…
30 assists!
Bron, Wade and Love were all awesome again… Crowder decent and Green as well… Cedi with terrific hustle!
dwade such a great interview —STAY HEALTHY “YOUNG FELLA “
He seems to have fun talking with Allie…
I’ll be at the rubber match of Cavs vs Hawks in December 12!
I’m really digging Wade as a Cavalier!
http://www.gr8.si/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/10-razlogov.jpg
http://res.freestockphotos.biz/pictures/15/15708-illustration-of-a-ten-of-hearts-playing-card-pv.png
Screw that team, glad to get the win.
TEN WINS
Noticed this moment & loved it.
10th straight!!!!!!!!!!
I just noticed JR and Wades coordinated hand shake includes a golf swing!!!
10 in a row!
10 Games!
Another BLOCK by Vintage Wade!
http://tfwiki.net/mediawiki/images2/thumb/7/75/AOE_Grimlock_concept.jpg/400px-AOE_Grimlock_concept.jpg
I hope Ben saw that block
I honestly wish we had picture in picture of just Isaiah Thomas reactions during the game. He’s hysterical
IT has the potential to get us back to Peak Joy: http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/cavaliers-team-photo.jpg
I think the Cavs have missed the 1st free throw and made the second on like the last 10 times at the line
Cavs dropping off a little on the FT line…
Eatitasova Denis Schroder!
DELETED!!!!
If the Hawks are gonna foul, then get the ball to KK
Umlaut wasted a lot of time there…
LeBron with the solid D onSchroder turned this one around
is that a flagrant? I feel like it’s probably a flagrant if Lebron overreacted but he didn’t. Such bullshitake mushrooms
Would love to see LeBron accidentally run full speed into a referee
Sorry ATL no Chick-Falet for you!
Man what a great couple of plays by LeBron and Wade
Literally had Bron in a chokehold in the air… no flagrant…
Finally! A rim run with Collins out. We gonna escape. Whew!
Ye of little faith…
Jason you to read some Dale Carnegie man :)
So you can hang onto LeBrons neck now?!?!
http://papers.co/wallpaper/papers.co-hc84-dwyane-wade-dunk-nba-flash-sports-23-wallpaper.jpg