Live Thread: Cavs vs. Nuggets
2018-11-01
The Nuggets are in the Q tonight, and you know what that means: one of Cleveland’s favorite sons is back in town. That’s right, Mark Price returns to town as a Nuggets assistant. With Mark in the ranks, is it any wonder that Denver at 6-1 is one of the biggest early season surprises in the NBA.
The Nuggets are coming off a last second overtime win in Chicago last night, so the Cavs do have the schedule makers on their side in this one. Denver won when no one boxed out Paul Millsap and he put back a Jokic miss to put Denver up 107-106.
Denver is potent for sure with Jokic playing like the NBA’s best center with averages of 22/11/7, and Gary Harris averaging 19. The Nuggets are 13th in offense, and a surprising 4th in defense, so getting going early against them will be key.
For Cleveland, expect J.R. Smith to sit out as well as Kevin Love. Denver’s missing Will Barton, Isaiah Thomas, Jarred Vanderbilt, and (of course) Michael Porter Jr.
In other news…
Join us on @FOXSportsOH for @Cavs and Nuggets and Adam Silver will join us as well! pic.twitter.com/RZXZbllsME
— Fred McLeod (@CavsFredMcLeod) November 1, 2018
Cleveland has a chance because of the scheduling Gods. Running early and often will be key. Let’s go, Wine and Gold.
btw…Zizic isn’t slow in relation to the other big guys on the team. It’s posture bias. He just needs to learn/know where to be. If he were slower than the other centers he would have the same trouble with the pick n roll…but he doesn’t. He’s a fantastic roller. The slowness impression comes from his running posture being a little hunchback-ish. But I really think it’s just an impression. There’s a reason he destroyed the G-League…and it wasn’t because he’s slow but skilled. Speed isn’t his issue, We just don’t have a defensive identity for him to fit into yet.
The FO s decision to play Sexton more is a precursor to how bad the Cas looled against Demver. Might have been his worst game, and they have GOT to stop playing him with Clarkson.
He is a great guard to play with Korver at the 2, then Cedi, Love, and Nance. He is not in a position to facilitate without 3 legit shooters on the floor. The problem with getting rid of our veterans asap as opposed to nearer the deadline is we have no one to fill their skillsets this year to help the young guys grow. It’s really rare for a team to develop young talent absent of good veterans for those young guys to work with and model. San Antonio is probably the best model of player development in the league,… Read more »
Front Office? What front office?
https://twitter.com/joevardon/status/1058164983194882048?s=20
Disingenuous on the part of Vardon. I am sure he is well aware the Atlanta game likely had more to do with that. Also this is the best team we have played. They are 7-1 and have beaten the warriors and NO. Their d is much improved and it was legit very good tonight. The cavs weren’t just playing dumb. Denver was all over the place and their rotations were pretty crisp. Even Jokic literally shut down Sexton and Hill on switches. What did people expect?
Vardon is an a%$hat. We just shredded the Hawks who had destroyed us previously and we weren’t expected to compete at all this game. We are missing Kevin Love…we’re gonna have to shoot more threes at a higher percentage to compete with the top 40% of the league, and Denver is in the top 10% as of now
Maybe. His overall point, that this team is really bad, is hard to refute, though. They beat the Hawks, yes, but the Hawks are one of the worst teams in the league.
3-40 by around feb1..
https://twitter.com/ChrisFedor/status/1058180992865890304?s=20
https://twitter.com/DavidZavac/status/1058174977386708992?s=20
Giannis is ridic. Just clowns anyone and everyone in the paint one on one.
Any good Euros to start scouting for the 2019 draft?
Surprise team so far. Kings. They are about to be 7-3. Granted they have lost to every good team they have faced. But they have beaten other bad to mediocre teams and occasionally crushed them.
Fox is taking a leap, Hield coming into his own, Bagley and Jackson coming off the bench…. there’s talent there.
Don’t forget shump. Actually he is shooting 48% from 3 on 4.2 attempts per game. Haven’t watched them, but Hield looks like he is having himself a year. Bagley apparently has been way better than he looked over the summer/preseason.
well, i said 20, and probably 30.. 21 it is.. i will continue to keep you folks posted
Thanks.
20 pt loss to follow against charlotte.. just sayn what im seein
I’d bet on a single digit loss or a single digit win, but glad you’re here to make sure we all have fun lol.
Charlotte has beaten the magic, the heat 2x, and the bulls. They aren’t good. We shoot decent from 3 and shoot enough 3s, and we’ll be in the game at the end.
i hope you are right.. but i wouldn’t place a nickel bet on that outcome..
I plan to have few gripes as the rebuild will be televised–and sorry if this was said already–but as the team attempts to develop talent, the leader in minutes tonight is… Sam Dekker?!
Forgot to mention, he played 35 minutes… of five more than Cedi, sixteen more than Nance, twenty-five more than Nwaba, and thirty more than Zizic…
Tt definitely probably needs to get his minutes cut. But Jokic and milsap are big dudes so I sort of get why he played a lot. Plus sort of need quickness to deal with their ball movement so zizic might be an issue. Nance should have probably played more. I really do want to see nwaba to get some run just to see I feel something is there.
I see Nance had four fouls…maybe that was the reason he lost minutes early?
Yeah I think so. At times I was only catching moments of the second q because I was cooking. Think the cavs were definitely frustrated with some officiating. But we got away with a lot of contact in the first two qtrs two. Denver just had a better offense and locked down defensively in that second qtr. That was where the game turned. They continued their d into the third and we may have been a little gassed. Didn’t seem like we were able to scramble as much. But I skipped the last 3 minutes of the third to go… Read more »
too
It is tough without love. Hard to play nance and tt, or either of those guys and zizic together. Maybe they should have gone small more. However, Denver has milsap and Jokic who abuse smalls in the paint.
Good point. Without seeing the game, I cannot guess the matchups… but Dekker’s low ceiling doesn’t merit extensive floor time now, does it? Go small and pull Millsap out if we can…
No for sure it doesn’t, but Milsap is pretty mobile for a big though. But yeah I might have tried Cedi or Korver at the four. Think we might get abused by Milsap and Jokic on the other end.
Actually their may have been a moment where they did that in garbage time. Not sure was doing dishes at that point
It’s cause Korby wasn’t smart enough to pick up a backup PF.
Yeah that seems problematic. We could really use another stretch 4. I would say frye, but then you have the same defensive issues.
Preston?
Can he shoot? Didn’t get to watch much of him in preseason. But athletically he would seemingly fit the bill. Colson could have been maybe better than Dekker.
He’s nowhere near ready to play in the NBA.
agreed. Richaun holmes would’ve been nice.
Well that was fun in the first quarter. Denver’s superior chemistry, ball movement, and defense won out in the end.
Yeah. Always fun to watch them on offense, and knew they had gotten better on d, but they really shut us down and bottled up our ball handlers. They recover well. Seemingly run people of the line (we don’t do ourselves any favors), and Jokic has become a passable defender. Think I counted around three times where he literally shut down a small matched onto him and forced a long contested two or a very tough drive to the bucket.
Goodnight Cleveland. Sam Dekker, Tristan Thompson, and Collin Sexton were the weak links. Why in God’s name the Cavs don’t run plays for Korver is a freaking mystery.
Tough to play any of our centers without Love or another stretch four. Just kills our spacing and we don’t have the penetrators to make up for it.
Sexton with the 3!
Sexton finish and 1!!!!!
I also think the cavs sort of got gassed in the third and definitely the fourth. We weren’t scrambling quite as much.
Nice drive and finish Nwaba
I forgot Nwaba was on the team
Denver moves the ball so well. They could surprise some people this year. And I don’t mean just making the playoffs, but I think they could win two rounds depending on who they face. Their d sort of smothered us in certain scenarios. Helped the refs held their whistles for contact inside.
Nice nice zizic!
Well skipped ahead past the end of the 3rd to about 2 minutes into the fourth. That got out of hand quickly. Denver is good. I think their d is pretty good this year. Their trapping the ball handler on pick and rolls is pretty effective, at least against us. They also seem to recover pretty well. Jokic has moved his feet well on switches tonight covering up their main issue.
I wish I were at the game tonight so I could raise concern over the empty box giveaway with the commissioner
Where’s Jason? I need to know where we stand with the pick?
O man nice pass Sexton but Nance gets stuffed
Nice basket at the buzzer for Sexton!
If the Cavs hire Avery, I may have to take a sibatical from this team.
How much longer do we have on Clarkson’s contract?
Two years I think
That’s a long prison sentence for us.