Live Thread: Cavs vs. Hornets (#ItStings)
2018-11-13
The pungent stench on the Cavs’ season hasn’t yet reached Sex Panther levels… but it certainly seems to be trending in that general direction. After a close loss to their fellow Lottery scratchers, the Chicago Bulls, the Cavs return home winners of just one of their first dozen games. To add stinging injury to insult, Kyle Korver (foot/possible trade) will now join Kevin Love (toe surgery), George Hill (right shoulder sprain), Sam Dekker (left ankle sprain), Cedi Osman (lower back spasms) and possibly JR Smith (illness) on the shelf. This leaves Larry Drew with about 8-9 healthy bodies to throw at the Hornets when they visit the Q tonight (unless they call a guy or two up from the Charge).
Charlotte already ended it’s nine game losing streak against Cleveland 10 days ago in a 126-94 blowout, and they’ll look to end their seven game road losing streak against the short-handed Cavs. The Stingers are a one point OT loss to the Sixers away from being on a four game win streak, and have looked impressive and energized lately behind their PG tandem of Kemba Walker and Tony Parker.
Meanwhile, it’s not all bad for the Cavs, as ownership has gotten what it wants (due to injury) with all the young dudes (minus Cedi) logging heavy minutes. Collin Sexton has looked somewhat improved in his starting role since Hill went down, as he and Rodney Hood both went for 20 on Saturday night. One of the older dudes, Tristan Thompson, has also been pulling his weight with three consecutive double doubles, logging 51 points and 43 boards over that stretch. Still, starting TT next to Larry Nance, Jr. is a floor clogging accident waiting to happen. Anyone else think mixing in Ante Zizic or Channing Frye at the 5 a bit more might help?
Oh, the Cavs also premiere their new Cleveland City uniforms and home floor tonight. Nothing like a new look to take away the sting of those drab, grey… oh, wait…
Probably the less said about that, the better… where are my Tide Pods…
Prediction: The Cavs continue to look better against better competition, but run out of bodies and get stung by the Hornets 119-109.
Catch all the action (checks to see if Duke is playing… nope, not until tomorrow night) starting at 7pm EST on NBATV and Fox Sports Ohio. And, of course, chime in/commiserate here…
Great win! Love Frye topping it off with that trey!
Surprised Frye doesn’t get more run? I would figure Frye has been on board with almost zero playing time?
The spacing may come into effect at some point against some teams, but if Tt and Nance can dominate the o boards like they did tonight they it might not be an issue. Also their combined length and relative mobility really seems to bother teams on defense. It might get exposed against great shooting three point teams though. Charlotte was cold as ice tonight from the perimeter and had their fair share of open looks and Chicago only shot 18 threes. Can’t remember if we did an excellent job forcing them off the line. OKC and the magic are bad… Read more »
I take it back. Went back and watched every Sexton defensive possession up to 5:45 in the fourth. Was great on ball. Really bothered Kemba. Got stuck on some picks, but made an effort to try to get to the shooter to contest. Maybe Kemba normally makes some of those pull-ups but Sexton was within proximity when he was trailing. Sexton only got blown by a couple times. Believe one was against Parker in the first half. In an ISO Kemba torched him in the third for a drive. Actually Walker may have been better served without the screens. Gotta… Read more »
He has a rep as a hard worker and a willing learner. I wish we didnt need to sell Korver so early in the season cuz he could teach Sexton so much about how to watch film and learn angles.
For sure. Korver has great defensive positioning and footwork fundamentals and great off ball awareness even though he doesn’t have a ton of lateral mobility anymore.
Co-sign…. thought Sexton was great on defense tonight… drew a crucial offensive foul just by fighting thru screen action at the top of the key.
Yeah, and I think (could be wrong) that one was a double screen where he could have given up on chasing. He really made an effort to fight through and around screens. Was usually close on the heals of Kemba and I think along with the excellent footwork by the bigs, helped funnel Kemba into tough shots or at least midrangers, a lot of which a defender was in proximity to. He also made life difficult off ball for Kemba and did his best to contest js even when he might not have been in perfect position either trailing the… Read more »
Yup thats the one. Exactly what I thought was the key the whole night…. the Cavs just brought energy and forced the Hornets into bad shots.
Are these these basically the Cavs Poop Emoji Jerseys?
:)
LOOKS LIKE A “MIDNIGHT ” RECAP GAME FOR ME —-GO GRAB A FEW COLD ONES / SETTLE IN AND ENJOY !!!!
I’m on my second Xmas Ale. The bad news is I only have 3 total.
I just finished listening to last weeks pod. And I have also like the idea of the Korver-Delly trade.
Also yes on Mark Price as HC next year.
NICK GIMME SOME OF WHATEVER YOU ARE DRINKING : )—–YEAH JERSEY’S / COURT KINDA GROW ON YOU ——–MAYBE WE START A 2 GAME WIN STREAK TOMORROW VS THE WIZ—–HOWARD MIGHT BE A LOAD FOR T.T. / NANCE TO HANDLE
He’s a load of something.
Nwaba is my new favorite Cav!!!!
Man those jerseys along with the court looks awesome. Prolly in the minority with that, but I stand by it. I’m diggin’ em.
Nwaba is my new favorite Cav!
I’m not against it LOL…. worlds better than those grey ones!!!
I’m in the minority of liking last years version.
You’re weird Arch!!! LMAO…
I’ll take that as a compliment I guess 😂
Please do lmao!!!
I love the jerseys! So aggressively garish!
I am so so. They sort of look like something Miami should be wearing. But hey, keep wearing them until we have a clunker of a game in them. Sports are the only time I feel superstitious. Not sure why because I generally disregard luck and that sort of thing in everything else.
I was thinking Phoenix
Or them. They sort of give me an 80s beach vibe. I think the espn uni watch column may have mentioned Miami Vice. Maybe that is where I am getting that impression.
YEAH AS A TEAM –NEED TO CLEAN UP THE T.O.’S –BUT HEY “W” # 2 FEELS SOOOOOOO GOOD !!
Missed this game, look fwd to the recap! Go you good things.
TT, Clarkson, & Nwaba were off the charts good tonight. Hood & Sexton were very good. Nance & JR good.
Still too many TOs & had 2nd quarter fould issues.
I like the colors, but dislike the uniforms
Oh boy, I didn’t know about this Draymond drama.
Those jerseys look like someone created them in 5 minutes on NBA2K
Glad they got the win. Haven’t watched it yet, but checking it out now.
https://twitter.com/ZiggyOfAk/status/1062459729425915904?s=19
Go Cavs! What would your grade be for Sexton tonight ? In first half I would say A-; in second half: D+ (lost on D, TOs, and poor shooting). With a 19 year old, all you can ask for is flashes.
Pretty fair grades. He still has a long way to go, especially on d and in his decision making. But he has shown some flashes recently. Had some nice kickouts. He really is a novice at running p and r. He did have that nice oop to TT in garbage time.
One to Nance as well.
Yep my bad. That was what I was to referring to.
Disagree on D. Was denying Walker the ball 40 feet from the basket.
He is pretty awful in the half court. He plays with effort, but that isn’t translating much on that end in my opinion. He makes Clarkson look like a 1st team defender in navigating screens and in simply staying in front of his man. He really needs to work on fundental footwork.
fundamental
No way in the d+ grade in the 2nd half, they were absolutely lost without him in the 2nd half…. More like b.. B- if you wanna grade hard.
Feel like that was partially due to Harrison’s minutes when he was out. Harrison makes Sexton look great by comparison. Harrison is just awful.
In fairness, hard to watch him without the bias of “this is what we got for Kyrie” in the back of my head. I loved Kevin OConnors piece today about year 2 of Daaron Fox and how Sexton started out similarly. As much as we want to understand this now, it just ain’t fair. Loved what I saw in the first half.
Fox is a great comparison… I’m not saying anything about him in a pro-Sexton bias… I was on record wanting SGA and I still think Trae Young is far superior. But I’m not afraid to admit now I get what people see in Sexton… competitive desire, great defense, elite athleticism, ability to get to the paint…. it’s all there and his jumper is not as bad as it was feared…. better shot selection and decision making could easily improve his percentage. Also his vision is not as bad as feared, but probably needs the most work in terms of shot… Read more »
TT and Nance combine for 33 boards and the Cavs have 60 total. Wowser.
My first guess on why Bray got suspended was the right one.
https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-warriors-expected-sit-draymond-green-confrontation-kevin-durant-223801633.html
Hahaha. Trouble in paradise. There is one thing that can beat the warriors going forward. Themselves. If they start suddenly having locker room issues they could be vulnerable. I fully expect this to blow over. But hey if discord continues they lose some more games they shouldn’t…..
If Kyrie & Love are healthy we win the first series. If CP3 does not get hurt last year, the Rockets beat them. The year before that, Spurs were up 20+ before Kawhi got Zaza’d.
They have always been vulnerable.
Agree in 2015. Not sure the warriors don’t make adjustments in the other two series. The warriors did play like idiots and very sloppily during much of the Houston series in my opinion.
Well, Braymond ain’t wrong on this one.
Refreshing to see another team deal.with drama and the media speculation around it. Watch him go to LA. Ugh.