Live Thread: Nuggets @ Cavs
2023-02-23Good evening CtB!
The Cavs welcome the Denver Nuggets to the shores of Lake Erie for a potential NBA Finals preview as two of the best teams in the Association square off. This is another measuring stick game, which the Cavs desperately need as they need as many reps against top competition as they can get heading into their first playoff appearance since the LeBron Era. Denver is trying to maintain their stranglehold on the top seed in the West heading into the playoffs. Also, for those who think big men have died out, this game is the ultimate treat as MVP candidate Nikola Jokic takes on Tower City.
On the injury front, the Nuggets will be without the resurgent Aaron Gordon, and the Cavs will be without Ricky Rubio. This is also the first game without NBA champion Kevin Love, so hopefully the good guys are ready to make a statement about moving forward without the future HOFer.
What do stats say about the Nuggets? Well, they are the best offense in the Association, the best passing team in the Association, and the most efficient scoring team in the Association. If the Cavs have any designs on winning, they will have to bring their A-game on defense. The Nuggets are turnover prone and do not like to run, the Cavs would do well to disrupt passing lanes and get out on the break for easy buckets. The Nuggets are also not a lockdown defensive team, so the Cavs need to stay patient on offense and they will generate good shots. Denver rebounds the basketball very well, so second chance opportunities will probably be rare.
Tip off is scheduled for 7:00PM Eastern time and will be broadcasted live on Bally Sports Ohio, Go Cavs!
LT up
Just watched the game now. Not gonna put that loss all on JB — poor showing in the bball IQ department by Darius and Spida — but man is JB a headscratcher when it comes to rotations. As noted, the lack of Dean Wade minutes are baffling, but the one that sticks out for me is when Stevens makes that HUGE dunk over Jokic late in the 4th and momentum turns. So what does JB do? Immediately benches him for Ice, who played terribly all night (even his defense) and the Nuggets go on the 8-0 run that puts them… Read more »
Hawks 1.5 point favorites tonight
Gotta like the Cavs with that line – is someone out for Cavs?
Nope. But I expect a 9-man rotation with Rubio back.
This is interesting. As the first African American owner of a Daytona 500 winning team, Brad Daugherty is poised to absolutely rake in the cash. My guess is whoever ends up broadcasting the Cavs won’t be able to pay him enough for it to be worth his time to take over announcing duties for AC.
why would he want to? he is doing what he loves.
I noticed Deandre Jordan didn’t play in this one. I’ll assume the buyout demand is coming.
It’s always funny to me see so many people talking about the big “problems” in the NBA like load management and player movement. It’s obvious the biggest problem in the NBA has always been the night-in/night-out atrocious officiating that made the beginning of this game completely unwatchable.
It’s hard to understand objectively how this could be, given that the NBA has so much more investment in refereeing than they used to. They have a replay center, constantly evaluate refs, and spend much more money than they used to. Refs train more, and are in better shape than ever. Michael Lewis take on this: Maybe one factor is that the relationship between players and refs has changed with all the protections for players leading to endless working of the refs. When refs were fairly hands off then players had to kind of work things out between themselves (sometimes… Read more »
It’s hard to watch.I understand we have the benefit of replay from different angles, but they’re wrong a lot.
It seems like Cavs’ games always go the same way. The officials are horribly one-sided in the first half, and the free throw discrepancy is, like, 17-3. Then things even out in the second half. But why is it consistently that way?
CLF—YOU NEED TO ” DEFEND YOUR HONOR”—-KJG// FANSIDED HAVE RECENTLY BEEN TRASHING CARIS ——OF COURSE IT IS JUST TRASH TRYING TO CREATE TRASH
I occasionally read KJG, and sometimes it has something good. But most of the time it seems like someone has a deadline to submit a bunch of words, so they just yammer on and maybe try to stir up an argument.
Caris was the best guard on the floor last night, DG and Spida should’ve been more unselfish like him, we would’ve won!!!
Seems like Caris was making a concerted effort to never settle for the short J and take it all the way to the rim every time he didn’t pass the rock. I realize there was a strategy to exploit the Nuggets’ weak rim protection, but he should “always” do that.
KJG is utter trash.
agree with Arch
AGREE—-HAS BEEN MENTIONED BEFORE—NETO SHOULD GET 6-8 ” PIT BULL ” MIN’S // GAME JUST TO BE DISRUPTIVE // CHANGE THE DEFENSIVE TONE
NEED TO GET A ‘W ‘ TONIGHT—-DO NOT WANT TO START POST ALL STAR BREAK 0-2 ——VISIONS OF LAST YEAR
MOBES MUST HAVE WORKED ON HIS JUMPER DURING ALL STAR BREAK—-GETTING MORE LEGS/// AIR /TRAJECTORY ON HIS 3 PT SHOT/// LOOKS MORE FLUID —–KID IS REALLY STARTING TO ‘ SCRATCH THE SURFACE ‘ ON HIS POTENTIAL ——LOOK OUT NBA
And we got front row seats. Awesome to witness.
U did?!
Less arm way out in front, more wrist flex, and “quieter” mechanics.
He looked so good with Josh Giddey in the rising stars game. What a combo.
YEP WE ARE 0-1 ” POST KLOVE ” A FRANCHISE HEADED FOR DESMISE —SARCASM
Cavs were warm and defeated.
IYKYK.
LMFAO
The reason for the loss:
– the guards stunk it up with hero ball
– Mobley didn’t touch the ball in the 4th, despite being the best player on the court
– JB didn’t play Neto or much of Wade
– Denver is really good
Hey, I’m just sitting down to the replay, no plot spoils! /s
Cavs also gave up too many wide open corner threes off of drives, too, which has been far too common this season.
That too.
you see a lot of those in every NBA game. I am guessing they are effective because they are hard to defend. are the Cavs giving up more than their share?
Yup, good point
Excellent recap Arch! LMFAO and they didn’t have AG last night either who’s been probably their 2nd best player this season. Think Denver might just break through to the Finals this year.
Yep, I think if they had AG Mobley wouldn’t had as much success in the first 3 quarters.
Mobes was on 🔥 the whole night, yet somehow I knew he’d be frozen out in the 4th. 😕
Why did we not play Neto at all?!? Barely had an 8 man rotation and starting backcourt sucked
We’ve been asking the same questions? Especially with Rubio out. JB loves to run his players into the ground, then throw them out of the rotation, unless you’re a Llama.
#FREENETO
lotta close games tonight
The play where Mobley took 2 steps through 3 defenders from the free throw line was nutty. He is gonna be unguardable with his length.
So exciting. The growth in Mobes is what I’ll remember this season for most (Unless they go ahead and get the chip obvs).
I would count getting to the second round and close to the third a decent outcome.
Just finished the replay. Hard fought game against the no.1 team in the west, no.1 offense in the league. It’s hard to close games for veteran teams, for the young ones (21,22,23,24,26) it’s another learning experience. Played Philly and Denver close without Rubio. Those could likely be wins with Ricky running the bench.
23% from 3 and DG/DM needing 42 shots to get 44 pts is the whole story. Way too inefficient against an elite team. Gotta live w a lot of 3’s being made, at least when Jolie on floor.
Great to see Evan going thermonuclear, and being usefully assertive. PA announcer now having a lot of fun saying “Mobley”.
Interesting, only Cavs warming up 30-40 min before game time were DM and RoLo. And RoLo only working on 3’s.
John Michael recognized for his 1000th game announced. And Brad Daugherty recognized as first black owner of a Daytona 500 winner.
Jokic
CONGRATS TO BRAD DAUGHERTY
Anyone know why Rubio is out?
He was sick for the Philly game, perhaps he’s still recovering.
load management b2b
haha! I thought he didn’t play against Philly?
actually that is probably a good idea if RR is only going to play 1 of the first 2. beating Denver will be hard no matter what.
Atlanta is a conference game with tiebreaker implications.
oh, good observation
Philly came back and beat the Grizz
Such a weird box score for dg. -12 on the game, but didn’t look we could get into sets at times without him. Rubio, where art thou?
This was a another worryingly bad game by Garland. He just has these games where his basketball iq plummets and he convinces himself that he’s a one man wrecking machine. Those games are the worst.
Is there someone in management who could maybe advise him on this issue. Maybe its someone who could involve his teammates in the discussion…someone with a supervisory role in all their careers.
Oy. Ive had too much sarcastic whiskey.
Better than ironic bourbon.
Rimshot lol
Caris had 9 assist off the bench, moved the ball well.
He is a stud when he doesnt overshoot from mid range while off balance. His defense has been so surprisingly solid
Denver was 5/8 from 3 in the 4th… they hit 9 3’s in the second half to our 3.. ..
We had 68 points in the paint…
37/63 (59% from 2)
(6/26) (23% from 3)
Nuggets:
22/48 (45% from 2)
17/36 (47% from 3)
Just a frustrating loss.. felt it was our lack of defense rebounding and open 3’s.
Looks like Love wasn’t the only one giving up open threes…
That narrative was tired a day after it was born
WHAT DOES OKORO DO BESIDES CARDIO?????
I have a feeling we didnt release Love to get Wade more mins…i think we did it to find out if Okoro can play small ball 4
My evidence is…i dont know…the first game out of the all star break.
LMFAOOO Oh brother
Cut the crap.
They released Love because he wanted to try to get some minutes. Everybody knows that except the far “Hate Kobe/Hate JB” wing.
Let’s not have another round of debates.
try reading the Fedor article before you get all self-righteous jesus christ it’s insufferable.
100% shot selection, shooting, defensive rebounds, turnovers.
Kevin Love should get the JYD award
THATS RIGHT TALK TO EM!
The game ended fittingly.. with another offensive rebound by Denver… such a big game that could have helped us pick up a potential game on Sixers if they lost to Memphis tonight..
Gotta beat the Hawks tomorrow. If we don’t JB should ride his Llama to the fishing boat.
WHERE ARE YOU JB DEFENDERS, DEFEND NOT PLAYING DEAN WADE?????????
This is what I have feared will get them beat in the playoffs. Just not enough three point firepower. They really need to address it in the offseason.
Do you mean players? Cuz we could just play the guys that actually can shoot. And rest the guys who is a lightning rod once his thumb heals.
But I feel the offensive rebounds and second chance points hurt us a lot.. and again giving up wide open 3’s don’t help..
JB played one of our best spot up shooters this season 8 fucking minutes
THE REASON WE BENCHED AND BOUGHT OUT LOVE WAS TO PLAY WADE AND HE HASNT PLAYED A SECOND HALF IN THREE STRAIGHT GAMES
No. The readon we benched Love was because he played like crap for a month. He cannot guard anyone and couldn’t make a shot.
Wade is an average to below average bench player.
I will admit, I’d like to see him play more with JA & Mobes.
Literally remember this forever, Jason. Dean Wade has been an above average defender since his 2nd year…and given mins and touches he is a very competitive option at SF in nearly every category on offense.
He’s just saying bullshit pay no mind LMFAOOO
He deserves an award of some kind…something like the junkyard dog’s arch nemesis…the junk yard electric fence.
Game over. Not making shots.
Whelp
Cavs deserve to lose, can’t buy a bucket
Still in it. Two possessions. Gotta get DG or Mitchell a shot or get them to create something easy.
Oh look our end of game execution is still terrible even with rest. Call me when JB has help. We are gonna get beat in the first round
Preach!
Our two best offensive players are guards. Small ones. No one else can score consistently. Or shoot from distance consistently.
It isn’t JB, the team just is not elite. We are good. Solid. But against legit contenders (Boston, Milwaukee, Philly, Denver, Suns), we are gonna lose most often.
Those teams are more talented offensively, play good D (save for Denver), and have better team chemistry and more experience.
Lol dude I hope you are right. But evidence is piling up on the other side. We are elite as a roster until 3 mins to go in the game. It aint likely cuz we lack tall scorers.
In “this” game, though, Mobley was on his way to a career high 40 if his teammates remembered to get him the ball. Denver could not stop him, and at least on this night he was the superior scoring option to both DG and Donovan. That is where offensive coaching in game could have helped.
They’ve gotta try something different with Porter getting all these open looks
That was a dirty screen by one of Denver pale tall dudes on that last MPJ triple.
17 big offensive rebounds by Denver and 16 3’s to our 6 made 3’s is the game..
Another open 3 for Porter
After Cavs went up 105-101… Denver has gone on a 13-4 run with 3 3’s and 2 layups.. can’t win games like that…
Yeah JB is a bottom 5 coach!
BINGO 6TH WORST RECORD AMONG ACTIVE COACHES…. RICK PITINO HAS A BETTER NBA RECORD
This going to be the refrain after every loss?! Sheesh Nugs are the #1 team in the West full of vets and the two time MVP
What’s wrong with the facts? He’s gonna catch slander when he wants to dole out make a wish minutes to non-shooters in big games.
Who you talking about? Ice? Maybe, but dude is just scared to shoot. Lamar won’t shoot but he was great in the 4th. We weren’t hitting g shots in the 4th and Jokic was picking us apart. Just wondering if it’s on the players if we win but on JB if we lose
OK so he gave a shit ton of minutes to non-shooters, benched the only good spot up shooter and they lost…. sounds like we’re on the same page!
It’s not like Wade is sone high volume sniper, this is just who the Cavs are I’m afraid. Played Caris a ton that 4th. I agree Wade should be getting minutes!!! But I don’t think he is the missing link somehow
For sure, but he’s in a completely different stratosphere of spot up shooting than Cedi, Stevens, and Ice…. KEEP POSTING WADE PROPAGANDA DANK!!!!!
Lol I’m saying he should be playing!!!! Still think our players were shit in the 4th irrespective of JBs lineups
Gravity matters, Dan. Our best players arent good with Stevens and okoro in the corner at the end of games on offense cuz defense doesnt nees to defend them
Sick move Darius