Recap: Cavs 96, Nets 99
2012-01-28
Gosh I wish I could forget that game. Really, the score doesn’t do justice to just how badly outplayed the Cavs were. There were some things to like (Irving’s offense) and some things to hate (Irving defense) but in general, it was an utterly uninspired performance and one I’d like to spend little time remembering.
The Good
Kyrie Irving’s offense – If there was one bright spot in this loss, it’s definitely Irving’s offensive game. 32 points (career high!) on 12-20 shooting is insane. Irving was able to drive inside and get some really impressive shots off against a top tier He added 2 assists to boot, and even had four rebounds on offense. Irving scored 21 points in the last 7 minutes, and 17 in the last 3! That’s a heck of a game. I wish he had dished the ball a little more, but I’ll obviously take 32 efficient points. Still, the biggest highlight to me is that Irving only had one turnover even though he clearly had a high usage for the game. One last thing – consider that he did all this in just 31 minutes. He probably could’ve gone to 40+ if he had played a little more. AWESOME!
Ramon Sessions’ offense – One game after I criticized him for his inefficiency, he had a nice game. 11 points on 5-8 with 2 assists. Really nothing to hate there.
Antawn Jamison’s offense – 8-18 shooting. 20 points. Not amazing, but from Jamison, we’ll take it.
Gee’s dunk – 3 games with 3 awesome dunks! God I missed the NBA.
The Bad
Pretty much everyone’s defense, minus Andy – Really, it was bad. It’s not that the Nets shot amazingly, because they didn’t, but they had WAY too many open looks. But even worse…
The Cavs’ Guard D – It was ugly. They continuously allowed Williams and Marrow inside and let them post up! How do you let those guys drive so easily.
The Rest
Cavs turnovers – The Cavs turned the ball over just 16 times, which is pretty good for them – they’ve been averaging in the 20s.
Really, this game never felt all that close, and it was utterly forgettable.
Until next time…Enjoy!
I’m not all that concerned about Irving’s assist total, and I’m sure that when Coach Scott watches the tape he’ll think the same. I lost track of how many wide open looks he dished out just to see the resulting shots clank of the basket (or not even draw iron!). I’m guessing that if a normal percentage of the looks he gave people in the first half went down that he would have been closer to the 5-7 assist range. And there were a lot of times where he drove in and made the correct pass, which led to another… Read more »
1) The Cavs aren’t a playoff team yet. There are a lot of L’s on the menu in the coming weeks… the schedule gets a lot tougher (they’ll be heavy underdogs in 12 of their next 16). It might be high drama for the Cavs to somehow sneak into the 8th seed and get Miami in the first round (a game 3 win at the Q to make game 4 mean something would be fun), but it’s better for long-term rebuilding to get another high lottery pick. 2) Ramon Sessions might be the first pro-basketball PG in the history of… Read more »
If Jamison had made the gimme with 4 minutes to go (off a nice look from Kyrie) and if the refs called the basket interference on Humphries near the end…the Cavs almost could have pulled a win out.
And then this would have been the epic “remember Kyrie’s rookie year, when he scored 10 points in the last minute to beat the Nets” game.
Nice recap. Things looked way to easy for the Nets on offense most of the game. Too many open looks from mid-range and 3. 22 of their 25 field goals outside of the rim area were assisted.
It was an uninspiring game, and then…BAM!! Kyrie Irving scoring machine! They should beat the Nets at home, but anytime Kyrie scores 17 points in 3 minutes…I guess I’ll take that this year.
Of course I turned the game off at the timeout before Irving came in and dropped a billion points.
If the Cavs were playing any better this year they’d be an imminent threat to grab the 7th or 8th seed. With that in mind, our rebuilding is unfolding at a pretty acceptable rate, in my opinion.
first of all, the nets “shot amazingly” from 3-point land and furthermore, the dribble penetration wasn’t actually all that bad (considering how bad the cavs can be at that) and you have to expect 6’7″ morrow to post up gibson when boobie’s in the game. not much ya can do there…