Podcap: Cavs 119, Wizards 115 (or, Bebop and Rocksteady Get Foiled Again…)
2018-04-06https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/episode-166-beebop-and-rocksteady
For those of you who didn’t follow the 1987 animated Teenage Mutant Ninja series… or the later feature film incarnation of the same, Bebop and Rocksteady were the guys who were always so close to defeating the Turtles… talked plenty of smack while doing it… but always found a way to lose in the end. And, as Tom Pestak puts it on this edition of Cavs: The Podcap… they are the perfect comp for the Washington Wizards.
The Wizards once again found a way to lose to the Cavaliers tonight, this time by choking away a 16 point lead in the final six minutes of the game. To put that in proper perspective… teams this year that had similarly trailed by at least 16 points with that much time remaining in a game had gone 2-461. Make that three now.
After the Cavs blew a sizable lead themselves (they were up 39-26 after one), they mounted a furious rally against the bumbling underlings of the Foot Clan… er, John Wall, Brad Beal and the Wiz. LeBron James went full mutant ninja, scoring or assisting on 23 of the Cavs’ final 32 points, and really just ran roughshod over his longtime “nemesis.” It really has to be in quotes given how he’s abused what seems like three different generations of Wizards teams going all the way back to the days of DeShawn “Soulja Boy” Stevenson and Gilbert “Agent Zero” Arenas.
To break down this comeback masterpiece, Tom, Nate and EG hopped in the booth for an extended rap session. Beyond the game, they examined Ty Lue’s return to the sidelines, extrapolated potential playoff matchups, and touched on the injured elephant in the room.
As always, you can listen above, on Sound Cloud, Apple Podcasts or Google Play.
wow nets very easily could win out –3-0 remaining games—-looks like 9th spot—“-HAVE FAITH IN THE BALLS “
jose / hill probably both out tonight —LeBron at pt gd again—does a loss to the sixers give them 1/2 game lead on us ?
Cavs will be half game ahead if those to 76ers today.
I think cavs might ‘tank ” against the knick that last game —but who knows –depends on our spot at the time —-could be a game of “tankless futility “
expect the bulls to “TANK” AGAINST the nets tying them in win column
OK, depressing Nets update. Teams above the line cannot catch the Nets. Wins:
20 = Suns
21 = Grizz
22 = Hawks
——————-
24 = Mavs, Magic
25 = Kings
26 = Nets
27 = Knicks, Bulls
Tonight:
Mavs at Pistons
Hornets at Magic
Bulls at Celtics
Heat at Knicks
Kings at Grizz
I tried to temper your expectations. It was never going to be top 5. Even bad teams win when playing against teams losing on purpose.
SUCKS THAT THE NETS WON LAST NIGHT—LOOKING LIKE THE # 8 PICK
Or 9th. They could win out, easy. The wins in Miami & Milwaukee really sucked. Without them, they are on 24, tied with Mavs & Magic for 4th. If they win out they finish with 29.
Oh, well, maybe we get lucky with the ping pong balls. Or maybe some tankers win vs teams resting players. But with everything so jumbled there just aren’t very many teams resting guys.
here is the thing that is very CONCERNING about ty—especially come playoff time —-IN GAME ADJUSTMENTS BECOME VERY CRUCIAL//AND HAPPEN MORE OFTEN/ QUICKER —–you make a bone headed adjustment / or are late to adjust / to stubborn to adjust —-you have a very good chance of losing —-ONE OF TY’S BIGGEST WEAKNESS——IS- IN GAME ADJUSTMENTS—–YOU CAN’T WAIT ” TO VIEW THE FILM “—-YOU HAVE TO REACT / ADJUST —-NOW !!!——this is why I doubt if ty is “calling the shots ‘ I have doubts we get past 2nd round—-he will be too stupid / stubborn –all the above to… Read more »
bailed out last night after 3 qtrs. / couldn’t stomach ty ‘s coaching—-missed a great game —-didn’t miss any GREAT COACHING —which was re-established by ty’s comments -“-we have to choose / make a decision between T.T. / NANCE “——IS HE ARROGANT / STUPID / JUST WANT TO KEEP PEOPLE IN SUSPENSE OR JUST PLAIN WANT TO PISS US OFF ALL THE TIME ——–WHICH HE IS VERY GOOD AT ——-with ty back at the helm—I have strong doubts we advance beyond 2 rounds ——-sorry I CANNOT support his coaching ———-and yes JRL —” no friggin ante “—next time we see… Read more »
No Ante huh???
Jeezzzz…
We won despite Lue. Awesome!
Seriously, is Lue not the worst head coach in the NBA? Why on earth would you play TT and Nance together? Why play TT at all – but thanks to Lue’s awful rotations, we blew a nice lead.
Honestly, Lue is the only thing that can prevent us from making the Finals, barring injury.
I have when people say, “But he coached us a ring.”. Ahhhh, what?
*hate
You can hate it all you want…it still happened. He did put Mo William’s in and it paid off with a huge bucket. He did put Dahntay Jones in and it paid off in a huge foul on draymond.
I think Lue has been awful this year. He is still the only coach cleveland ever had who pushed the right buttons at the right time.
I don’t think he did much of anything to “Win” us a ring. As much as I enjoyed the ’16 finals/championship, a LOT of things happened that helped the Cavs win.
Lue is a subpar coach at best. He/we were just extremely lucky.
Don’t forget that he changed the Cavs style of play tremendously that season – we went from medium paced/grind it down if necessary with Blatt to a much higher pace with shooting more 3s. He challenged Kyrie to be more aggressive and play quicker, which paid off in Games 5-7 when Kyrie went off. To me, Lue’s fault is that he had success with that particular style and is now trying to repeat it over and over no matter who the personnel is. He is very poor at making adjustments. So yes, I agree that is he is subpar, but… Read more »
THere was a really good nugget on Lowe podcast – he asked all his advanced stat friends on various NBA teams to look at the metrics and see how bad LBJ’s defense is during the regular season. Answer according to all the advanced metrics? He’s actually still a statistically good defender even in the regular season. Crazy
that makes no sense to me. how can LeBron be statistically fine defensively in the regular season if both of these things are true:
LeBron plays the majority of every regular season game.
The Cavs are awful defensively in the regular season.
the answer can only be:
they are analyzing his iso defense and nothing else
the Cavs defense is so bad in the 10 minutes a game LeBron sits that they go from average to worst in the league
What they do is compare the expected FG% of shots taken by players vs the defender (based on nba averages from those locations) to what actually gets made.
If the number is under the expected number, then you are a good defender.
Of course, it ignores whom you are guarding. If you are guarding the least gifted offense players most nights (like regular season LeBron does most times), then you would expect the # to be lower than the average.
Just a guess on my part.
Love only getting 10 shots was silly last night. Especially after the hot start. Hood, Green & Clarkson has as many or more. Kev has to be option #2. Though he did make some boneheaded passes/forces last night.
He needs some time at the 4 each game. I’d prefer to start that way (with Nance) but if not then, with Larry & the second unit in the early second quarter/early 4th. Use him as the fulcrum of the offense so Clarkson doesn’t screw things up so bad.
I thought Love got too much run in the 4th quarter. He was having one of those low energy KLove games that drive me up a wall where his defense is just terrible. I think he was still spacing the floor which is why he stayed out there and maybe that was the right thing, but I wasn’t super impressed with his game in the second half. He needs to be assertive and earn the ball on offense based on an active defense and floor running. He wasn’t getting foul call so he just started pouting and not asserting himself
Sometimes I imagine you guys as one guy with multiple personality disorder. It is oddly entertaining
Hahaha, that would be phenomenal.
Maybe we’re one multidimensional being connected through different realities through the tether of this message board?
?
Now THAT is something…
Love can’t pass himself the ball. He gets missed a lot when LeBron is the only passer on the team. When Hill, and especially Calderon, come back, these types of games will be less frequent.
Great cap, save for Tom’s giant memory hole of Wiz playoff victories (they are the new Hawks) and his irrational hatred for John Oliver & ignorance of the evil empire of Sinclair broadcasting.
As for Lue. Rue the Lue.
Any word on Hill/Jose tonight?
I have a very rational annoyance of John Oliver. I am glad that America is suddenly upset by a homogenously partisan media.
The Wiz haven’t won anything near their amount of posturing every time they square up with the Cavs.
I didn’t realize we talked about Cedi that much… seems to be the hot topic of the day…
Haha that’s my fault. Cedi was not discussed that much. Last night was the first time in a long time Lue made defense for offense subs instead of just riding with a group…just hope cedi earned playoff mins
Good piece that breaks down the defensive difference between regular season LeBron and playoff LeBron…
http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/23027889/playoff-impact-lebron-james-felt-mainly-defense-nba
Wide ranging podcast for sure. I am in the camp that says James stays with the Cavs, and if he does leave it would to Philly. I put the odds at 70/30 James stays. Regarding the rotation discussion, the maddening thing about Lue is that last night was the first time TT and Nance played together at the same time. Like ever. That is why I found the rotation with those two and Korver, Smith and Green inexcusable while keeping Love on the bench. You just don’t do that when the third seed is in play. Plus Lue needs to… Read more »
Someone needs to take Lue to that same mountain top before he can justify taking anyone else there…
This was a GREAT pod. One day, I hope to make the Pestak macbook birthday calendar!
LOL at John Wall
https://mobile.twitter.com/HoopDistrictDC/status/982098534584463361
First, it’s hilarious that he says “why put yourself in that situation” but then goes ahead and puts himself in the situation haha. Second, anyone who think LeBron gets calls on his drives more than any other star is just speaking from straight bias. That’s all.
The Wiz won a PO series last year. With Wall. Boston was round 2.
I have no idea Cedi’s ceiling. I think Manu comparisons are a bit heady. Manu is a playmaker, Cedi ain’t on that level at the moment.
Still, a 6’8″/9″ guy who can certainly guard 2 positions, and can also check small PFs or non-ultra quick PGs is valuable. Plus his motor, understanding, and he is shooting around 40% on triples. That FT% has to improve. He is rotation level right now.
C’mon he hit two clutch FT – he’s just suffering from low sample size because cLUEless never plays the young stud
I love Cedi. I love Manu. I can see where comparisons are coming. Foreigner, unorthodox style, bball iq.. but nope. Manu is on a different level and I doubt Cedi will be as good as him and I’m fine with it. I’m on 100 believing Cedi will be a very good player. Something like a jack of al trades master of none type. Not elite, but like an impactful player on the bench for good length in his career.
Yeah I probably had a beer too many. But I still think he is criminally underused. Jeremy friggin Lin was an all star under dantoni. Cedi is better at almost everything
Highlight of pod: Nate saying “interesting” while yawning and listening to EG. I can only assume EG didn’t hear it. (I know you guys record late evening, no judgements from me).
Completely unintentional. Sorry EG!
It was late!
Not a surprise… I am pretty boring with my stories sometimes… ;)
Once Kyrie split his kneecap, it was unlikely he was going to play another uninterrupted season. You are in the lap of the gods (ie the surgeons) as to whether the knee will be fully functional again. His stop/start style, lateral speed etc puts enormous load on the kneecap. It was the only reason I was (somewhat) okay with him leaving the Cavs.
So…once again…after finishing this podcast…which was amazing and funny…cedi osman has the potential to be a perennial all star. I’m not backing down here. Somebody tell me what skill he lacks that a mike dantoni or a Greg popovich couldn’t expand and highlight…
Cedi will be great in Cleveland or he will be a trade asset to remember. He is a 6’8″ guard with defensive skills and doesn’t miss transition layups…if you dont think we have struck gold you’re dreaming.
Could not agree more, just hope the organisation does the right thing & nurtures his potential.
I dont see the ability to consistently create for himself or for others – much easier right now with LeBron running the offense, but I would foresee him struggling more if defenses game planned for him. However, he has a good stroke, tremendous basketball IQ and great motor.
I think a good comp would be Danny Green – underutilized as a Cavalier and then potential unleashed under Popovich.
I am like 30 minutes into the podcast. Basically all I take from the game aside from lebron is a monster most players forget exists until the playoffs, and cedi Osman is an opportunity I pray the cavs dont mess up. Cedi isnt Manu Ginobili, which if he was would be awesome. But he has the potential to be Kawhi Leonard. I’m not being silly. He is insanely intelligent, insanely fast, and could develop a 3pt shot that would open up his drive game like crazy. Seriously…there is a reason Pop is crazy high on Cedi.
As a rookie he is already fouling guys in the open court to stop the break.
even nance couldnt get that move right when he fouled wall when wiz in the bonus
I haven’t listened yet, but I do think Cedi could eventually be a non superstar version of Manu. Because Manu was/ is a superstar, make no mistake. Practice those threes until you have supreme considence shooting them, Cedi. Cedi is still in ‘I’m just happy to be here’ mode. If Lebron sticks around, it will be fascinating to see Cedi’s ceiling, whatever it is.
I think you are confusing cedi’s ceiling under Tye Lue with his actual potential. The dude already can shoot the 3 above average. Up his free throw percentage and up his minutes…he is a 15+ per game scorer easily. But put him in a starter’s role? With a good coach? I think he is a perennial all star.
I don’t think he’ll be a perennial all star…if he were 19 right now with his current skills, that might be something to hope for. I’d be happy with a good rotation player who can be a dependable defender.
Somehow his athletic ability will put a cap on your hopes.
I’m not downing on Cedi, but let’s take the homer glasses off. Perennial all star is a bit much. He’ll be a very good impact guy for his career tho.
A very good 20-25 minute rotational player is Cedi’s ceiling. I would be very surprised if he ever became an all star. Hope I am wrong.