Live Thread: Rockets @ Cavs (Part Deux)
2025-01-25Good evening CtB!
The Cavs took the red-eye from the City of Brotherly of Love to the shores of Lake Erie to welcome the Houston Rockets for a Saturday night Finals Preview(?) special. The Cavs will have revenge on their mind as they lost an intense, playoff-like battle against Houston Wednesday night 108-107. Somehow, the Cavs and the Rockets are in fact actually rivals as the newly minted Kelly Olynyk Asshole of the Year award goes to Alperen Sengun, starting power forward/center for the Rockets who did his best Donkey Green impression and sadly the Cavs weren’t able to respond in that game. Hopefully they come out with a physical, competitive edge and dominate this team and put them in their place. Unfortunately, it will be difficult task with the Cavs’ best three wing players out in Caris LeVert, Dean Wade, and Isaac Okoro. HEY COACH UNLEASH JAYLEN TYSON!!! THE AGENDA STARTS NOW!
Tip off is scheduled for 7:30PM Eastern time and will be broadcasted live on Fanduel Sports Network, Go Cavs!
Let’s hope the Cavs change their rotations tonight. I’m not holding my breath.
yeah, it is totally time for KA to get some minutes for Tyson and maybe Luke. coaches tend to be conservative about who they play, especially when the game goes down to the wire. but I agree the time for using more guys is now.
I don’t know: Tyson’s recent shifts have really been bad, he’s still very much feeling his way, Luke isn’t really an NBA player as far as I can see, and Thor I want to like but haven’t seen much to show he’s a plus defender in any given shift. The “anybody’s better than the current doghouse guy” (usually Niang, sometimes Ice, last year DG) mentality is a little off. This is the NBA, one bad shift from Tyson where he gets pounded by Beef Stew and/or loses Fontecchio a few times and it’s a 10-0 run with no countervailing offensive… Read more »
Thought Strus rebounded well last game. Niang was cheeks defensively again. It’s telling that he played an almost perfect game offensively and was still -1. I would like to see some Thor tonight and at some point could Koby go find another big?
My gut is they let it ride until ASB and make a considered choice for a ten day right after unless there’s a guy on the street they absolutely love. Schedule isn’t too bad
Detroit 2x
Miami (no Jimmy)
Atlanta (ZR, Johnson, and maybe Trae out)
Dallas (hospital squad esp if no Kyrie)
Boston
Minnesota
Washington
Toronto
Wade/LeVert/Okoro out tonight.
The Cavaliers’ defensive rating in January is 118.9, which ranks 29th in the league, ahead of only the 6-38 Wizards.
PISTONS/ JB COMING IN TO TOWN READY “ TO SEND CAVS / KOBY / ETC A MESSAGE “ AM SURE JB WILL HAVE PISTON s READY TO GO HARD ——REALIZING WE HAVE BEEN HIT WITH INJURIES—- BUT ALSO “ THE TARGET “ I OFTEN POST IS NOT GOING ANYWHERE/ OR GET ANY LIGTER —— EMBRACE IT —- GROW FROM IT !!!
In the most recent ten games:
This suggests Strus may be hurting them even worse than Niang defensively. And since Strus has been in the starting lineup since first Mobley and then Wade got hurt, that could explain why they’ve outscored opponents in the “Strus on/Niang off” minutes despite allowing a high true shooting percentage.
Question is whether this is just a slow readjustment for Strus after missing almost half the season, or more of a longer term issue for the season.
yes, it is totally shocking that all of the Cavs are not in the top 20 players in the league. trading Niang and Strus for Bill Russell and Jerry West would be the smart way to fix this glaring issue!
Did I suggest trading anyone? Maybe you’re responding to someone else’s post? Not every critical observation is alarmism.
It’s not overreacting to acknowledge that the Cavs’ defense, to this point, is really subpar. Their offense is functioning at historically great levels of efficiency, but they do have some issues to fix on the defensive side if they hope to advance further than last year’s playoff run.
Issues fix themselves with health. Not having defenders for half a month and playing a lot of games in a relatively short period against a good schedule hurts the defense
Generally that should be the case. The one thing that is different about Strus is, he was not actually on the floor for most of the season’s first half when the Cavs were getting out to the great start and things seemed to function so well at both ends of the court. Hitting a losing streak midseason in a tough part of the schedule, is normal even after that great start. But, it remains to be seen how everything will fit best when (knocking on wood). all the players are healthy.
Won’t be for a while I think. Wade has a knee sprain
bummer
JUST AS I BRAG TOMLIN UP — HE GETS IN FOUL TROUBLE— 15 MINUTES—- 6/6 ——- “ MORE THOR “ RESPONDED. 25/ 12 ——— DBROWN —— ALOT OF YOU LIKED HIM/ SUMMER LEAGUE——- 33/7 —— 8/10 FROM 3’s ——- WITH HIS PERFORMANCE— COULD THE CAVS POSSIBLY ADD IN CPJ IN A TRADE PACKAGE
I think Donovan might need to recognize just how freaking clutch Garland can be and play decoy late in the next close game and get Darius the ball. Garland was nails tonight
Amen Thompson stat line was gaudy. He is exactly the piece we don’t have.
He was a lotto pick for a reason. Tyson should develop into a similar player albeit without nutso athleticism
Tyson should. Yes. But he didn’t play tonight for some reason. I think we all felt he would have been useful. Although we had enough open shots to win and bricked a ton of them so maybe it’s just a night where we didn’t hit shots.
Giving up 30+ in every quarter is unacceptable. Without 3 wings or not…we didn’t make it tough on them until q4 AGAIN. They’d have scored under 30 if we weren’t fouling late to save time. Gotta fix this.
Yeah with this many wings on the sidelines and a need for help on the boards, it seems like a good time to let Tyson grow and play through mistakes. Also happy to see CPJ get at least a short rotation. He might warrant some of Merrill’s minutes the way Merrill’s shooting this year, at least depending on defensive matchups.
Tyson is indecisive on the floor, it’s death against a.ballhawking defense
That’s a ridiculous assertion. Tyson is a nice player. The Thompson twins look like generational athletes. Amen Thompson is the closest thing I’ve seen to Scottie pippen since Scottie pippen.
Losing three one possession games in a row (Mitchell had the open 3 down 3 with under 30 seconds) is really frustrating work, but it was a five in seven stretch.
The Philly game stunk but we fought hard in all three.
Hoping for some get right games next week.
We have given up so many paint points it’s not even funny..
Its happening a lot
Didn’t happen yesterday
REBOUND THE FUCKING BALL 4 STRAIGHT POSSESSIONS FOR HOUSTON
WHEN ARE WE GOING TO COVER FRED VAN VLEET HE’S A MIDGET THAT CAN ONLY SHOOT 3s
So frustrating!!
GET YOUR HEAD IN THE GAME ALLEN
LETS GOOOOOO SPIDA TIME!
Gravy boat with the whiff
Just look gassed now. No legs. I’ll be shocked if we don’t lose by double digits
It was a great comeback!
It was! Thoroughly enjoyed it.
We are screwed unless this lineup can drop 3s every possession or the refs help us out
Need stops. They are vulnerable here and we can get the crowd back into it.
Tristan has 6 fouls to give. Let’s go.
CALL THE FUCKING CHICKEN WING REF JESUS HE’S NOTHING BUT AN ELBOW MERCHANT CALL THE DAMN FOUL
Sengun is mobley with about 6 more years of good coaching.
WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT ALLEN??? QUIT GETTING CAUGHT UP IN HIS ANTICS!
our defense is garbage without Wade, simple as.
and Caris too
GREAT PASSING MAKE A RUN
We are playing exactly the way they want us to. Lots of two point shots, lots of dribbling, and player movement slowed to a crawl in the 2nd.
yup slow paced iso ball
Strus has been an abject disaster.
Who hasn’t?
CPJ, JA, and funny enough Niang in this game.
I’ll give you George but Allen has 2 rebounds. Certainly hope for some Tyson mins
Not the ideal team to be playing down 3 wings
not playing Tyson who can run with Houston is dumb.
And rebound
yup, great point
Maybe he is a little banged up. Seems unlikely for him to be in the dog house
I think KA’s just scared cuz this is a high intensity game.
He’s not great offensively. Doesn’t know what to do yet
Well Niang has 3 treys
We need to figure out a way to resign Jerome
I hate this fucking team
Niang…grrr …
Can’t let Van Flop shoot open 3s
Some more crappy officiating
WHAT THE HELL WERE THOSE TWO CALLS??????? TONY BROTHERS FOR PRISON
ShenGOON shenanigans
SPIDA MVP LET EM KNOW
Let’s get it Cavs! No excuses!
Mobley’s back eh?
Thumbs up for the KOA 🥇
🫡
And Sengun did earn it.