Live Thread: Hawks @ Cavs, Play-In Tournament
2022-04-15Tonight along the shores of Lake Erie, the Cavs welcome the Atlanta Hawks to a do or die game for the right to the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. It is another “game of the year” for the young Cavs, who have been under playoff race pressure since the All-Star Break. The Cavs have a chance to keep a magical season going, or could be left dazed and confused wondering what happened to the magic. To add to the tension and drama, major breaking news:
Cavaliers All-Star center Jarrett Allen plans to go through pre-game warmups with the intention of playing vs. Atlanta in the Play-In Tournament tonight, but will make a final decision at gametime, sources tell ESPN. He’s been out since early March with a fractured finger.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 15, 2022
It looks like the Cavs are doing everything possible to keep playing, including giving Jarrett Allen a shot, which wouldn’t happen if there were a long term risk to his injury. It seems to be a matter of pain tolerance and conditioning as to whether Allen will play and how much.
From a basketball standpoint, there is plenty of intrigue about this game as a classic “strength vs. strength” battle between the Cavs’ defense and Hawks’ offense. The Hawks come in with one of the best offenses in the NBA, and the Cavs have consistently been a top defense, though everyone is well aware of the post-Rubio/post-Allen drop off. The obvious question of the night: How will the Cavs scheme for Trae Young? Will they blitz the pick and roll? or will they drop and force Trae to go for 40 or 50, of which he’s entirely capable. Conventional wisdom would dictate that you’d rather force Trae Young to score than pass, but who knows how Coach J.B. Bickerstaff will play it.
From a statistical standpoint, it’s actually interesting how these teams mirror each other with exception of one important category: turnovers. The real question for the Cavs is overcoming their youth and lack of experience.The Cavs have no playoff experience outside of their veteran role players. It will be an enormous mental and emotional challenge for the Cavs to stay positive in the face of mistakes and adversity. If the Cavs are to compete and win, Rajon Rondo, Kevin Love, and Caris LeVert will have to do some heavy lifting in order to ballast all of the youth and inexperience.The Cavs are going to make mistakes, they need their junkyard dawg mentality for 48+ minutes.
Tip off is scheduled for 7:30PM ET and will be broadcasted live on ESPN, Go Cavs!
Recap up!
FWIW, I am not uoset about not having CJ McCollum. Yes, he is better than Levert. But he was 9-24 and 1-7 from deep last night. Meanwhile, LNJ 14 /16/4 in 24 mins on 7-8 FGs.
Cavs lost because they didn’t get enough vet action…their head coach panicked and didn’t coach and adjust when it mattered and young guys didn’t have the experience to understand…..the hawks did the opposite even with their injuries….lot of lessons learned and Cavs need to upgrade schemes on offense and determine throughout next season if JB is still the right coach for this team and core
Whoever JB’s agent is played it right with his mid-season contract extension…. still under contract for 4 more seasons lol. Not that that means much with CavsDan.
Good for LNJ!
So btw…JB made it abysmally clear that we could have sent kevin love’s contract, cedi, stevens, and a draft pick and more for CJ McCollum this season and the only thing we would have lost out on was 10 kevin love mins.
Think about that while Levert dribbles out the clock in your head.
I gotta say, no Stevens or Cedi tonight really pissed me off.
If JB gets canned, I would not be upset.
yeah, especially when it was clear Okoro and Rondo didn’t have it.
Exactly. He made up his mind to go with 8 and could not adjust.
whereas I’m watching Ty Lue put on a master class…. crazy how things work LMFAOOOO
i mean…fine…but they’re playing the clippers b team. no one expected those guys to have a winning record…but also no one would expect them to outperform that record in a high pressure situation. Whereas the Pelicans have 3 or 4 guys with playoff experience. the result made sense.
The lack of adjustment I found incredible – and yet I wasn’t surprised. I like JB, I think he’s been good for team culture on the whole but yeah – minutes management has been the big issue for me.
Allen was rusty. JB is not a great XO’s guy. DG was below par and has little dependable scoring help.
Great improvement this year. DG & Allen made all-star leaps and Mobley looks like he could be a unicorn. Could have been a great year if YB & Rubio hadn’t gotten hurt.
Still, keeping our lottery pick is the best thing going forward. We have holes on the wing, at backup PG, and backup C. Maybe the lotto gods give us good luck to balance out the bad luck dealt us by the injury gods.
Lol yeah. Or maybe we get zilch in the draft and end up paying levert or sexton way too much and we suck the middle for 6 years. Neither scenario is more probable than the other. This year was a waste of possible playoff experience.
Hopefully Koby sees that the team needs wings/shooters that compliment DG, Mobley, Allen. I actually see a lot of similarities to the Hawks roster.
Trae -> DG
Capela -> Allen
Collins -> Mobley
Gallinari -> Love
Need more 3 and D guys like Huerter, Bogdanovic, Hunter. How the team can upgrade from LeVert, Sexton, Okoro, Cedi, and Windler will determine if we’re in playoff purgatory or actually can contend.
Factually, we have a first round pick now we did not have before. That is a fact. We cannot get zilch. Zilch is what we had before.
The two play-in games are functionally PO games/experience. If we’d have been 6th, the Bucks would have swept us. Ditto Heat/Celts. I am not going to sweat 2 playoff beatdowns as some Holy Grail of playoff experience we missed out on. The Nets & Hawks taught us plenty.
agree. Scotch needs a couple days to calm down.
Time to blow the team up. Few dogs, true competitors. There’s obviously a few keepers but not many. Gotta do it through the draft as NO ONE wants to sign with the Cavs
Gtfoh
Gtfo your feelings, you obviously casual
Lol just looking at your name and comment who’s more casual than a troll like you?
Regular as clockwork, trolls come knocking during the big games. Lazy AF “supporters”.
Lolol I’d never support this team. Y’all trash poverty franchise that lucked into an all-time great being born near you and entered the draft when you had a high pick. Otherwise, your city wouldn’t have a single winner/championship in ANY sport.
Definition of a poverty franchise.
Lol blow it up usually means getting rid of the higher salary stars. This team doesnt have more than 1 healthy one…So im guessing you mean get rid of the role players?
Don’t mind this guy.
*doesn’t have one
There, fixed that for you. All-star replacements aren’t Allstars
Markkanen was great tonight.
DG, Markkanen, Mobley, & Allen are all keepers. I think Stevens & Wade are as well, at least short term/next season. Okoro is still very young and under contract.
That’s 7. YB is a tough choice. Love eas good most of the year and is likely untradeable. Cedi is what he is.
Rondo, Levert, and JB can go.
Guess ATL should have something besides dirty stank ass shitty strip clubs and second rate southern cuisine. I mean New Orleans, Charleston, Savannah: awesome southern cities. Awesome legit cuisine. Hell Memphis and Nashville got a ton of character and identity. Ashville super fun and hip. ATL is sweaty balls, bland, and a metro hellish malaise with shit traffic. Good tax breaks for Hollywood though. Hollywood of the south. Unfortunate. Probably why so many productions have zero character these days. Can’t put lipstick on a pig’s but*ho*& and make it an appealing or interesting setting for a movie or tv show.… Read more »
Someone butt hurt about basketball but instead takes a shot at a city that does the same exact thing as you, Cleveland: supports their local team. I hope all Cleveland fans aren’t like you, as you set a bad example for what it means to be a fan. Yeah, you’re upset about the game, which is understandable, but what did Atlanta do to you personally? Your team is in a great position to do well in the future, and I hope again that you can realize that success doesn’t come overnight, but with experience. And that’s exactly what the Cavs… Read more »
Yeah that guy is clearly a troll. Not representative of the vast majority of Cavs fans that frequent this blog.
don’t argue with idiots
Don’t mind them, they’re ALL up in their feelings after losing 2 straight “post season” loses lolol
Delon Wright was +24 in 21 mins. He only scored 2 points.
Basically we let one guy hound garland and never adjusted.
Okongwu was +21 in 29 mins. He only scored 2 points.
Its pretty clear the cavs got punked in the 2nd half (most of their mins) and never found a ways to counter those two. No post game. And no body movement for the most part. 40 points in the 2nd half. Coach crapped the bed.
Larry Nance balling, hometown kid doing us proud!
Funny how people assumed he got the sh1t end of the stick when he was traded to the Pels. Now he’s on a team that can make some noise.
Would be genuinely silly if they make the playoffs with 8 fewer wins
Or they deserve it more than these chokers
lol yes…they definitely deserve to be rewarded with money and tv time for sucking at not only trading but drafting a massive overweight asswhipe who cant commit to a diet and needs his hand held every 5 mins of every day to stay in game shape. oh wait also you failed to mention who choked. It certainly wasn’t the 7 players that got bogged down by the end of this game. Maybe you mean JB? or Altman for getting Levert to play scapegoat? or maybe you mean you haven’t watched a single game this year and don’t know what you’re… Read more »
Tough tough loss. JB didn’t push the right buttons, for sure. DG didn’t play quite like an all star and Allen was rusty. He hasn’t played that much with LeVert this season, either. Still, a wonderful season — so much better than we expected. I had so much fun watching this team, and my wife was completely charmed by the young core and together we watched almost every game after the first month. I hope Okoro can take a step up next year, they can get an upgrade on the wing, and Rubio heals up and can be convinced to… Read more »
Getting to watch a fun young team with a partner who is bought in is awesome. My wife was pregnant during the 2016 Indians run and on maternity leave for the best parts. It was a time we will never forget.
Hook me up with some of that copium
Tough way to end. Although this was the most fun I have had watching a Cavs regular season since the 66 win 08-09 team. Sucks we have to wait 6 months to watch Evan Mobley year 2, really looking forward to it.
Gonna be a longggg wait. Advice on how to handle this dry spell might should be included in the next podcast.
Great and fun season Cavs fans!!! Now excuse me while I go into withdrawal for several weeks on end
I don’t even want to go on the espn home page…or even YouTube..
This reminds me when Cavs lost in the finals and I refused to watch espn or any nba related news.
Atleast I’ll be rooting for the pelicans to win so we don’t get LA in the playoffs. Another team I don’t like.
Hartenstein could be starting for a good team…
The FO made some debatable decisions this year, but not tendering HR is the only obviously bad decision all year. A pretty good, low cost player.
Hell of a season, guys. It was a pleasure to share it with you.
I’ll be here for DG’s first All NBA season next year.
Absolutely. God willing we will all meet again in Cavs-balls 2…the search for more of CavsDan’s money lol
Thanks Nate and Ctb fam!
Thanks guys for amazing content throughout the year!
Can’t wait for 22-23!
The injuries absolutely killed us this season…losing jarett allen cost us the 5 or 6 seed and losing Rubio cost us a shot at really making some noise as a threat in the playoffs
It sucked. All one can do is hope for better fortune next year. But, yes, it totally sucked.
Yeah it was a shame….I guess the silver lining at this point is we weren’t winning the chip this year and a lottery pick can end up a solid young player or a great trade chip to package with players for a difference maker…
We need to talk about the lottery and why the Cavs need to take Sochan if they get lucky with ping pong balls…
The bench had 9 points total. That’s where the game was lost.
Why didn’t JB run the game like we did this season with utilizing the bench? He did a bad job managing minutes.
Not a great game from JB…
Imagine giving fully 1/3 of your bench mins to 36 year old Rajon Rondo, almost 1/2 of those mins to Isaac Okoro…and the other 1/5 to kevin love and expecting more than 9 points from them.
No seriously.
get his ass Scotch!!!! LMFAOOOO
Love wasn’t super playable with Young on the court…not saying his lineup choices were great, because they weren’t, but Young was going to bbq Love every time he saw him…
Way would you assume he would see Love? I mean besides the fact that he kept seeing Lauri lol. But give me 10 more mins of Love and yeah I think we score 9 more points
You guys talked about it in the podcast. Would the Cavs have enough gas at the end. Answer was an emphatic no. JB just has no sense of how to manage minutes, adjust to what the other team is taking advantage of, or how to get the ball in the best player’s hands at the end of the game.
JB’s decisions off the bench was a disasterclass for sure.
Such a frustrating game to watch the terrible coaching in this game. Awful lack of substitution, out of time out has sucked, and inability to put consistent defense on the perimeter with trae. And what the heck is Levert getting so much playing time?!?!?
Switched the channel…cannot listen to them slurp the most annoying douche in the league any longer…
Is there a reason the offense didn’t run through the post once capela went out?
Yes. That reason is kevin love only played 10 mins
good point.
great question
This lowered Levert’s value and added some to Sexton.
He’s been pretty disappointing. I’d look to trade him, if possible.
I don’t mind getting nothing from him. I’ve seen enough. He’s just a taller Sexton.
Sexton is a better scorer.
Bottom line both will not move the needle for us from this point forward. We need a legit two-way wing. Or at least someone who’s a sniper from 3 that gets hot majority of the time.
Taller Sexton with a much looser handle, slightly better vision, and a much worse shot…
no way, LeVert played well.
Eh? Too much hero ball. Mediocre efficiency and defense.
I just disagree with the idea this performance hurts Caris in any way.. if anything, I’d say it was one of his best Cavs’ performances.
I agree with you. And yet…i was still pining for less ball stopping. He dribbled us into multiple shot clock violations in the second half. He made rollers useless by not hitting them in stride but throwing gross bounce passes behind them. And bonus…we found out yet again he doesnt actually have spots he gets to in order to score. He has any amazing attitude and probably better passing ability than even he knows…but he is still far more raw than professional.
he’s definitely raw, but I’m convinced he’s less of a ball stopper than Sexton.
So if it’s a choice between the two, I’d take Caris.
Totally fair conclusion
Offensive rebounds in the first half that kept them in the game, no offense from cavs in the 2nd half, turnovers when it mattered most.. just sigh… really sucks when you are fan and your team loose and you invest so much time and care into them.
Feel you, I’m gutted despite trying to temper my expectations.
This. Exactly this.
Because as much as we know the Cavs roster has limitations at this point, we also know they were perfectly capable of winning this game.
This was a great microcosm of the whole season…hot start with an abysmal finish
ain’t that the truth!
Yeah. After the all-star it’s all been down hill from there.
That’s why I didn’t want to get to high until the game ended.
Losing Rubio was really the start, he was the heart of everything we had going on. We’ll be back. ATL is a good team. Next year will be fun.
I mean we’re not getting Rubio back… Cavs are gonna have to figure out what they’re doing with LeVert, Sexton, Cedi, and Okoro. There’s a huge leap the team has to take to compete in the East.
The injuries absolutely killed us…losing jarett allen cost us the 5 or 6 seed and losing Rubio cost us a shot at really making some noise as a threat in the playoffs
Truly hope the Heat sweep this team…really cannot stand them…
Cedi DNP…Stevens DNP…love played 10 mins…effing Rondo got 15 mins. The most punchable face on the court is Bickerstaffs
He literally let LeVert piss the game away. And then repeatedly left Lauri on an island against Trae.
How do you not play Stevens? Wasted opportunity!
Surreal Cavs are out.. This is what I was afraid of.. we were 8th seed and would be in otherwise and then get kicked out and don’t reach the playoffs because of the playin.
Its a kick in the balls to Rubio’s early season efforts honestly
Lack of defensive adjustments cost us…continuing to play the same switching defense for so long while trae was just destroying it cost them the game…
jb calling timeout to draw up the 7 point play . brilliant!
Season over. It was a great ride everyone. Appreciate being able to share the Cavs love out here in California. Thanks CtB. Next year!
Cavs just not good enough, let Trae beat them. Offense pathetic second half