Live Thread: Cavs vs. Wizards (#LueAgain)
2018-04-05
With just four games remaining in the regular season, the Cavaliers welcome back Head Coach Tyronn Lue after a nine game absence for health reasons. The team went 8-1 under interim Coach Larry Drew, but it has been reported that he was following the script laid out by Lue before he left. Ty has also been present for practices and shoot-arounds here and there over the past week.
Now that they have their coach back, all the Cavs are missing are their point guards. George Hill is still out with an ankle sprain, and now Jose Calderon will miss at least tonight’s game with some hamstring soreness. In response, Lue is inserting rookie Cedi Osman into the starting lineup. He’s also keeping Jeff Green as a starter, which will apparently be the case from here on out… even into the post-season.
Tyronn Lue says Cedi Osman will start tonight with Hill and Calderon out (meaning LeBron James will have plenty of ball handling duties vs WAS). He also said he plans to go with a starting front court of LeBron, Kevin Love and Jeff Green when the playoffs open up.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 5, 2018
Obviously, there will be some dissenting views on whether or not this is a good idea. However, the Cavs are still 7-3 when Green starts, and he does have a knack for guarding star players well (i.e. DeMar DeRozan twice recently). Still, I hope Green starting does not mean he has a green light to shoot more threes…
The Wizards are struggling mightily, having lost six of their last eight games to fall to the 7th seed (if the playoffs started today). They did get John Wall back three games ago, yet they lost the last two contests, with Wall shooting just 9-27 from the field since he returned. The Cavs should be able to take advantage of Wall’s rustiness, although it may be a sloppy game without Hill or Calderon to keep order on the offensive side.
Prediction: The Cavs eek out a win in Lue’s first game back… edging the Wiz in an ugly game 95-89.
Catch all the action starting in just a few minutes (8pm EST) on TNT… and as always, chime in below.
great mood going into the playoffs
Switched over to watch the OT of the Jackets/Penguins game when things looked grim. That did not end well. Still, CBJ clinched a PO spot.
Watched the last 6 min on DVR. Wow, impressive comeback. I thought we were done for.
Ty is gonna stick with Green based on that showing. TT played 10 min and had all zeros save for a foul. If we are looking to reduce the rotation, I would start there.
See below. Apparently Lue said after the game he is still trying to decide who to go with between Nance and Tt and that one of them will have their minutes cut. If that is for real he really has always been in way over his head since he has been hired.
Yeah there really isn’t a comparison to be madem Nance isnt just a little better at a lot of things. He is a lot better at most. Rebounding is TT’s only elite skill. Nance won that battle 10-0 tonight. I genuinely think Lue was protecting TT’s ego. If we are going to trade him next year…we need him to show up at least
Definitely protecting TT. That’s fine, but makes him look disingenuous to not acknowledge the reality of the situation.
Still a stupid way to go about it. Don’t play them at the same time.
Play 1 with the starters to start. The other for the 3rd quarter. Whomever does the best closes. Or do the same thing on the second unit. They should never be out there together.
Whoops, posted this in wrong thread.
Weird fact about Mike Scott after his offseason troubles in Lowe’s Walton all stars.
Out of the league, Scott stopped working out and eating right. He ballooned to almost 280 pounds. Crazy. 280 pounds.
https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/982100029803556865
Brooks did himself no favors either. Some of his lineup decisions were just as bad as lue’s.
Don’t think he had Oubre out there the last couple of minutes, did he? He was killing the Cavs in 2nd half…
Gortat wasn’t in during the LBJ layup line either until the very end I think.
Looks at a Wizards game thread and the last 5 minutes are cursing out Brooks on that.
Quote of the night
With some of those coaching decisions, I am surprised that isn’t a quote from LBJ on Lue.
Green is our Iguodala: As the Action Network recently pointed out, James has a net rating of plus 6.9 in 1,034 minutes with Green on the court this season and a net rating of minus 2.2 in 1,862 minutes with Green off the court.
I’d venture to say there are more in depth ways of finding out why that stat exists. Green had a fantastic first 4 months with the team…but there are other cofactors that unlock lebron. Green’s terrible 3pt percentage for the last 2 months is telling.
Haha this is funny. And probably correct. The thing that could elevate Hood is rotation regularity plus actual playcalling. He seems to be a guy who likes to shoot the same shot every time. He is like a skinny, less motivated Paul Pierce. Put him in the same spot time and again where he can hit his shooting motion over and over…he will give you 15-20 points. Put him in Jordan Clarkson’s shoes? He will have nights where he can’t hit the rim
https://twitter.com/SportsNom/status/982086569120149504
So…if the nuggets win tonight they are tied with the twelve and could potentially steal the 8th spot. Do the nuggets present more of an issue to Houston than Minnesota? Or to the warriors?
I think Minny with Butler gives them a much tougher fight, but still, should not trouble either of them much…