Live Thread: Cavs vs Hornets

Good Evening, Cavalier faithful. It’s a beautiful spring evening in the Great Lakes. After a loss that few would dispute was their worst of the season, the wine and gold return to the shores of Lake Erie to try to redeem yesterday’s listless 121-84 collapse against Miami. Yes, the Cavaliers were out-schemed and out-executed by the Heat, as many have noted. From Miami’s full court press, to their 2-3 zone, Cleveland had few answers scheme-wise when it came to what Miami threw at them, but many of the their mistakes came from lack of movement, lack of any physicality, and a complete lack of shit-giving.

Cleveland started out the third quarter down 60-40, and then after an 11-4 run to start the quarter, JB sent the starters to the bench, but it was too late. The game was over. At one point in the third, Cleveland trailed by 40, and in the fourth, 45. This one didn’t start great, the wheels fell off in the third, and the Cavs’ starters quit. It led to a lot of soul searching by the Cavs and their followers, and a lot of excuse making by the team’s water carriers like Chris Fedor.

#Cavs knew when the schedule was released that March was going to be relentless & unforgiving. And that was before a pile of injuries to some of their most important players. These aren’t excuses. They are explanations for a stretch of inconsistent ball.https://t.co/TgIe1rOEG3

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 25, 2024

After remarking that every team in the association had brutal sections of their schedule like this, I was reminded that due to their Paris trip, only the Nets have had to compress their later season schedule the way the Cavs have. And of course, the Cavs are missing three of their top players by advanced analytics, which I often tout. Of course, it would be more valid to use these things as excuses if they were abnormal, but the Cavs have endured brutal injury stretches and an inability to keep players on the floor as the season wore on the last few seasons. That’s kind of the point. The Cavs should expect to go through these kinds of stretches and have a plan for how they’re going to manage and get through them.

I remain baffled at how the Cavs manage injuries both in-game and between games. I was yelling at the TV last week when Donovan Mitchell was sitting there with what was clearly a broken nose with the Cavs down 20+, and they SENT HIM BACK IN THE GAME! My wife, who has 20 years of ER, Surgery, and primary care experience and said, “oh yeah. That’s broken.” Sending DM back into an unwinnable game was one of the dumbest things I’ve ever seen watched the Cavs do. It would be more forgivable if they hadn’t sent hurt players back into games like they did with Kevin Love’s Achilles, Kevin Love’s Hand, Larry Nance’s hand, Darius Garland’s jaw, etc. The Cavs are terrible at protecting players from themselves and their coaching staff.

So of course they should expect to have a contingent of injured players by March, and I’m saying they have to win in stretches like these, but they can’t lie down on the court and pretend to die. I asked the question about how many games the Cavs have won that start before 7:00 EST, and my bet is not many, especially on a Sunday afternoon. It almost makes one wonder what they’re doing on Saturday nights that makes them so incapable of mustering the energy to play competitive games early Sunday evening.

I’m frustrated because we saw John Blair Bickerstaff’s squad exposed as immature and unable to adjust against New York last April, and after watching the Cavs quit instead of adjusting on Sunday, it pisses me off that they wasted an entire year on a coach who hasn’t shown any ability to win an important game in the spring. It leaves us in the position of having to hope with our hearts that the team we love can overcome their own bad habits and ineptitude, when we see with our eyes and our minds that the feats seem very unlikely. Such is the burden of fandom.

Back to the game at hand, the Cavs remain without Mitchell, Wade, Strus, and Ty Jerome. The Hornets will be without LaMelo Ball, Mark Williams, Seth Curry, Bryce McGowens, and Cody Martin. It remains to be seen if Darius Garland and Co. can play a better brand of basketball. Go Cavs.