Live Thread: Cavs vs Pelicans
2026-03-21Interesting matchup for the very injured Cavs against the almost healthy Pelicans. Since the return of DeJounte Murray, the Pels are 9-4 (with Murray missing four wins) and have turned positively feisty. I remain vindicated for my “Garland for DeJounte” idea, even if the latter’s injury was unbeknownst to me when I proposed it.
Anyway Cleveland is banged up, and the Pels are only missing Bryce Mcgowans who I’ve never heard of. We get time to spam the Harden/Mobley P/R. Hopefully the Wine and Gold match the Pels size and energy. Go Cavs.
0
UMLAUT—-IS A BIG ? / CONCERN—- HOPING HE / COACHING STAFF CAN BEST FIGURE OUT HOW TO UTILIZE HIM —- HE COULD BE AN “ X FACTOR “
right. so far, has looked bad way too often. but we might really need him, so …
REST OR RUST— ALWAYS A TOUGH DILEMMA/ QUESTION TO ENTERTAIN/ ANSWER
This team certainly canNOT flip the switch and automatically be highly efficient on offense and highly effective on D. Yes deal w injuries, but missed game time for the core group is a loss, esp given that they have not had a ton of time together w the newest rotation guys.
Heading to the arena for the FL trifecta this wk. Any chance JA is back by Friday? Similarly, any update on how serious the Tyson injury is? Thanks
injuries and being worn out at playoff time are usually much bigger concerns than lack of core group playing time. in this case, JA and JH meshed from day 1, so getting JA up to speed the last week would be fine. getting Tyson back to peak form is important so I hope he is ready to go.
I see the biggest issue as figuring out how to get decent minutes from a third guard, presumably the Umlaut.
“ AND THE BEAT GOES ON “. ( injuries )
Orlando riding a five (!) game losing streak into CLE on a road B2B. Heat and Sixers vaporized.
Pete Nance on a standard deal, too.
I don’t want to be too cute or conservative but you could probably go .500 minimum the rest of the way resting Allen and Tyson and that probably gets you the 4 seed.
Which is the plan.
Tyson and Allen out v Orlando
AGREE WITH DASPEC 👍
I rate the Pistons the best, and Celts the worst, second round mathup. Agree? prior to the Cade injury, the Cavs finishing fourth might be the best bet.
however, without Cade, the Pistons are likely to go sub .500 the rest of the way. with about a dozen games to go, the Celts are 4.5, Knicks are 5, and Cavs are 7.5 games behind the Pistons. something near a three way (possibly a four way) tie for first is possible. this makes it hard to figure out the best way to match up with the Pistons in the second round.
I think that in order for the season to be considered a success, we will at some point have to beat the Celtics. Losing to the Pistons or the Knicks would be utter failure in my book.
I think we should try to have home court as much as possible. Especially vs NY or Boston. Who we will have to beat eventually, be it round 2 or ECF or both.
sure, I am all in favor of getting ahead of the Knicks and Celts. it is probably doable if they play Allen and Tyson. but I would keep those guys out until they are 100% or there are only a couple games left.
OUT WITH SOME FRIENDS THE OTHER NIGHT/ DISCUSSING MARRIED LIFE —— “ THE “ MRS NOMAD COMMENTED —- “ I NEVER KNEW WHAT HAPPINESS WAS UNTIL I GOT MARRIED…………..THEN IT WAS TOO LATE “….MAN I LOVE THAT GIRL 🧒
CLARK KELLOG —FORMER BUCKEYE GREAT—— IS A FANTASTIC BASKETBALL ANALYST 👍🏀
WHO SENT YOU GUYS THE PICTURE/ VIDEO OF ME “ THROWING IT DOWN “…………… MUST BE THE PAIN MEDS / NARCOTICS ON OVERDRIVE WITH ME 🤪🤪🤪🤪🤪——— JUST GOT DONE WITH A 45 MINUTE WALK / LAWN WORK——- STARTING TO HIT THE WEIGHT s THIS WEEK————- “ CANT KEEP OL NOMAD DOWN 👍💪👍💪”
Just a kid from Akron.
the GOAT
I didn’t really think the Cavs played that bad in the first three quarters. (Well, the third was bad). But they missed a lot of shots and forgot Zion always goes left. Harden and Mitchell having a hard time with the “your turn, my turn” thing. Also, Schröder has been bad for weeks. Low key worse than Ball in the aggregate with a much worse contract. But he’s not completely incompetent on offense, just very one dimensional and turnover prone right now. The Cavs are gonna struggle when Harden or Mitchell isn’t on because of it. You gotta put some… Read more »
The Matkovic just was stunning, but I did have to smile that it was bookended by 2 Harden threes.
awesome dunk
Schroder (and every backup PG) need Allen’s screening and finishing.
They also do not own their first, so have no reason to tank. They will finish 11th for sure out west.
WOW SAM WITH 10 REBOUNDS 👍💪👍💪👍💪——— FTS REALLY HANDING OUT SOME ROUGH GRADES—PROBABLY DESERVEDLY SO —- LOOKS LIKE THEY ARE IN AGREEMENT WITH ME ON SCHROEDER——-AGAIN I WAS REALLY ANTICIPATING / HOPING MORE FROM HIM
FTS usually has a “bimodal” grade distribution; lot of A’s, lot of F’s.
NICE COMEBACK WIN.— I WOULD BE GIVING SCHROEDER s MINUTES TO TYSON—- REALLY THOUGHT HE WOULD BRING MORE TO THE TABLE—— AM I WRONG— AM I MISSING SOMETHING??
He hasn’t been good, but also the offense doesn’t seem very serving of him. That being said, he was terrible for the Kings too.
I thought he had some good moments, but not lately
Feel like he’s a vet, knows how long the season is and dials his effort in accordingly. I would expect him to be sharper, particularly on ball protection / TOs, come the playoffs.
The issue isn’t the effort, it’s the shooting.
I rarely disagree with the Werthian position. Dennis is not a positive on the offensive end. I don’t expect him to fill it up consistently, would prefer he defers and sets others up to score. At the moment, this is on the coach. Kenny must be aware, he has eyes.
My main issue with him the last few weeks has been his carelessness with the ball – the more urgent the need for ball control, the more he seems to back himself to drive into multiple defenders, high on hopium.
That is the Werthian position
Feel like we are missing each other. The Werthian position is my paragraph one, which I agree with. I’ve not heard Ben talk about Dennis being careless.
Mobley fantastic, +15 on the boards against a much more physical and athletic team (starting 5 plus Messi and Queen is a lot of beef), and perfect 4Q offense.
Hopefully this continues against other opponents w numerous physical bigs
yeah, Mobley didn’t make the instant jump everyone had predicted, but he has been ramping it up. quite possible that Hardin’s example and/or coaching is bringing several player’s game up a notch or two.
It’s just really hard to go from very good to great. The only players from that class or later who have really gotten there are Cade and Wemby
Everyone else – Paolo, Chet, Sengun, Franz, Scottie Barnes – has had trouble adding things
I agree with the assertion in your first sentence, but not the second. Those guys have all expanded their games immensely. And Chet is a top 15 player rn.
None of it happened overnight (nor has Evan’s comparable development), all of it came with peaks and valleys, and Chet is no more a top 15 player this year than Evan was last year.
The analytics say otherwise.
Last second loss by Magic to Lakers
LeBron not getting a whistle on that layup was wild but the basketball gods strike back
laissez les bon temps rouler!
Oui!
One of the best game closes I’ve seen all year. Harden and Mitchell really controlled the game.
I thought just about everyone played well. Merrill, Strus, Mobley, Ellis. Harden has such poise. The pass he coolly threaded through two defenders to DM for the game clinching layup was special (so was the layup).
And 11 and 8 from Bryant in 15 minutes
yeah! with JA out, he should be getting more minutes, and maybe starting?
He isn’t good enough to start on more than a spot basis. The 3 is nice but he’s got worse hands and finishing than Evan and he gets lost on D.
Man, I read the Fear The Sword synopsis. The author said it would have been the worst loss of the year if they didn’t come back…Basically gave everyone not named Merrill C, D, or F grades. I am glad I came here last!
I haven’t looked at that yet, but my impression was that the Cavs offense was pretty good in the first half (the ball was moving) but that the three ball wasn’t falling while the Pelicans were making their shots. The third quarter sucked, but then there was mean reversion and the Cavs’ shots started to fall while the Pels couldn’t buy a bucket. Schroder is the only one who gets an F from me. Now I’ll go check FTS to compare.
Agree with this. I also thought Strus looked a bit out of sorts with his positioning at times, and was late to a few contests that helped the Pels get out to their lead. He rebounded ok though.
To me, that was one of the most satisfying wins of the season.
That is flagrant
Sam!
Inspiring comeback by the Cavs!
Yes! Hopefully can persist when Zion returns
OUCH—— WHO SAID WE HAD AN EASY SCHEDULE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON—— HAVE MAGIC/ HEAT – TWICE—- HAWK s – TWICE ( all fighting for position)
Magic riding a 4 game losing streak and we get them on a B2B.
We should have a healthy respect for those teams but no fear at all.
Caught up to live and Zion is going nuts. Ugh
Wow, you can really see evidence of Donovan’s injured eye from the other day.
WHAT A FINISH KEON ELLIS!
HOW ABOUT THEM “ DUKE s “ CLF —— MAN DID THEY OVERPOWER IN THE 2nd HALF
#GoDuke #TheBrotherhood THEY GOT DAWG NOMAD!!! THEY MIGHT TAKE IT ALL!!
DOUBLE BIG LEAD BACK TO 10
KA s “ BONEHEADED “ DECISION s WILL BE COSTLY COME PLAY OFF s —- HAVE REPEATEDLY POSTED 🤬
NOT THE WAY TO END A QTR 🤬
GET A CLUE KENNY THEY’RE PLAYING TWO BIGS AND YOU’RE PLAYING TWO 6’1″ GUARDS AND STRUS AT PF
Thomas Bryant agenda to the moon!!!! he needs to get 20 mpg
dammit I jinxed him smdh
👍🙏 NATE —— FRIGGIN “ MASH “ CAVS —- GO CAVS 👍💪
Thank you Nate! just got off work, gotta eat I’ll be back!