DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavs Preseason

Something tells me Kyrie is better to have in crunch time than Delly.

Play better than refs ref.

Refs stink in every sport. Can't let them "decide" the game.

glad to see that the refs are still worst in the world. I'm concerned how bad we look from scheme...still not sold on blatt but man, how bad can we possibly shoot. I think they need to shut Mosgov down for a month, he's absolutely garbage right now...his knee obviously isn't good yet. Lebron looks about 50 years old, that's concerning. But I think we knew it was going to be ugly early. Nice to see Mo be able to pick up his game, I thought Blatt's rotations were a bit erratic tonight. Lebron getting destroyed by Gasol is something you never see...Lebron didn't have any explosion. That call on JR might have been the worst call I've ever seen..i was like wow...Got another tough one tomorrow with Memphis. Blatt better figure out the bigs rotation. Oh well, still better than anything we've watched on sundays. The journey begins.

I'd take kyrie in crunch time over every single player on the cavs including lebron

Back up the truck, this season is over. Fire Blatt and Griffin. Gilbert should sell. We should play Joe Harris to see what we have in him...

well, we took it to them with 2 starters missing. it's one game of 82. whatever.

however, my personal favorite player Love continues to get bodied up in the paint. he needs to show some grown man strength.

Very pleased with what I saw tonight. Would have liked the win, but the refs were terrified of Obama being in the stands.

Agree with you completely. That was some atrocious officiating, yet we were still in it till the last shot err, possession. Just wish we could executed a lot better there.

Despite having two starters sitting, two starters coming off summer surgery, the other starter getting his back worked on half the game and the other team got three extra players, I thought we did alright. We pretty much looked in "pre-season" form for most the game, but came back strong when the game mattered. I'm not sure Blatt's rotations/scheme was really the problem. We were getting open shots, they were just missing them.

I was screaming for Love to get the final possession. He was the hot hand.

I do hope the free throw shooting gets worked on however.

It was weird that they tried to force LeBron the ball. They had like ten seconds. They could have passed it in to someone else and then get it to LeBron (or Love).

I think we are seeing the main weakness in AD's game right now. He is not good at creating for himself in isolation situationss. He's not a guy you can just dump it down to and let him go to work.

I am not watching the game (baseball). Are the dumping the ball to him in the post or his he being asked to create in isolation?

If they are dumping it to him how fast does help come? If isolation, where on the court is the help coming from?

1. Yes
2. Help comes only if he's in a pick and roll.
3. Golden State switches so much that I need you to be more specific about where the help comes from.



AD is just a pick and pop player on offense right now. He needs to continue to get stronger.

Touched on this before, but here's a more recent article on ESPNs struggles

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/espn-made-two-critical-mistakes-132855270.html

jc:

The start of the NBA season is kinda hard for me to watch. It's almost like the games are meaningless early in the year. There is a lack of intensity and urgency. It's due to it being such a long season and staying healthy for the post-season. I understand that.......I just don't like it.

Yeah, I've seen a couple of articles like this in the past few weeks. It's almost worth it's own thread. ESPN is in some trouble.

The only play I can remember is when Kevin was wide open setting up for a three, when he started to get on fire, and stepped out of bounds. That play there could have been the difference from opening with a win instead of a loss.

Nothing to get down on though.

Especially if you are behind and playing for the win... if you are ahead and playing to hold on Delly is probably more effective.

Cavs look like a completely different team tonight.

Cavs up 30 in the 4th. LeBron should be done for the night.

What a great bounce-back game. If I told you that one team was going to win by 30 points, and your choices were the home team playing their season opener or the visiting team, coming off a traveling back-to-back and nursing a bunch of injuries, who would you of picked?

Some fun stats from the game:
- Lebron was matched or out-scored by 4 teammates: Love you'd expect with 17 points, but the others were Richard Jefferson (14), Delly (12), and Cunningham (12).

- The bench scored 50 points. Granted, there was quite a bit of garbage time, but still ... there is night and day difference between last year's bench and this year's.

- Delly was +29 for the game! In fact the entire second unit almost looked Spurs'ian at times. Lots of good ball movement and the second team was actually extending the lead rather than watching it evaporate in 2 minutes.

- Love had a double-double by halftime.

Yeah

It's why I'm not gonna freak out when they have off nights. The Cavs are a championship caliber team.

yeah if this is even a glimpse of how good we will be its scary..the bench group is soooo good. Theres not a player on the bench that can't contribute, unlike last year. Hell the one guy who guy big minutes last year barely plays (jones). If there was one negative tonight it was playing lebron when we were up 30 in the 3rd/4th... I think possibly they wanted to see if he could get himself goin.. but man, just rest the dude and take advantage of games like this.. Love looks like a man possessed, but the biggest thing i noticed about him is how much more engaged and comfortable he looks. He's smiling getting involved from the bench..all good things for Cavs. The passing tonight was unreal and I loved seeing JR put it on the floor..that will be huge if he continues to do that because he's actually really good with the ball. I like the lineup with TT/Andy/Delly/JR/Jefferson on the floor. Thats alot of hustle. Not sure what lebron's +/- was but I think we were better tonight when he was off the floor. When's the last time we've ever said that. Miami game is a big one.. kinda set the stage for the early part of the season

Lebron's +/- was +10.

The best was Delly, who was a staggering +29.

Pelicans gave up 48 points in the first quarter to the Blazers.

I agree, although I think it was Love at one point instead of TT. The offensive movement was some of the best I've seen from this team, and that was the bench! Lebron, Mozgov and someone else came back into the game, and we gave up 7 straight points.

Even the garbage, garbage crew was holding their own. Last year, when we would toss in Miller, Marion and company, we'd give up 15 straight in 2 minutes.

Cunningham, a guy not even expected to have a spot on this roster, had 12 points on 4-5 shooting. (IIRC) If he keeps this up, he will force his way into longer term plans for the team. (as far as maybe the rest of the season)

I am so impressed at how the depth of the team has been built. Man, we have, on our bench, (right now) Jefferson, Thompson, Andy, Sasha, James Jones, Delly, Harris, and Cunningham. When we get Kyrie and Shumpert back, we will bump Mo and JR back to backup duty. Man, the backup unit of Andy, Thompson, Jefferson. Mo, and JR might be as good as a couple of teams starting units. Then we'll be able to plug in guys like Delly, Kaun, Cunningham, Jones, and Harris.

It also looks like the cavaliers are buying into ball movement, even with their backups playing significant minutes. I read something, maybe here, that the Cavaliers have 55 assists on something like 78 made FG so far this season. That is just incredible! I love it when a team takes the mindset that an extra pass that gets a teammate an open look is better than throwing up a poor shot. I think that it what Blatt has been trying to out in place since he got here, and it looks like the team is really getting it.

Wait .... I mean .... we stink! I cannot believe that Blatt hasn't been fired yet! Yeah, that's what I mean!

Outside of AD the Pelicans suck. It's why I predict the Kings will replace them in the playoffs.

I didn't get to see the game down here is SC. Glad to hear they played well.

A couple of questions:

--Did Cunningham get any time in the regular rotation or was it all during garbage time? If he did get earlier time, how did he look?

--How was Moz tonight? Is he moving okay?

--Did Love get his points both inside and out?

--How is our tempo w/Mo at the point?

--Were we running more of Blatt's offense or was it ISO?

Didn't Curry have 24 himself in the first quarter against the Pelicans the other night?

Most of it was garbage time, but he did get some regular minutes with the second team. He's already easily ahead of Sasha Kaun and Joe Harris on the bench order, and possibly James Jones.


He looked slightly better, but he's still struggling to get his legs back I think. I seem to remember him out muscling Gasol at one point for a bucket. It's going to be a few weeks for him I think, so I wouldn't worry too much.


Yes, although he only went 2/7 from 3. He looked great inside though. He had something like 8 rebounds by the early 2nd quarter.


We ran a lot more ball movement last night. Lebron still likes his occasional ISO though. Mo was doing fine last night as well. They played up tempo for the most part and really railroaded Memphis from the get-go.

Although, it was the second unit that really looked fantastic. It was usually some combination of Delly, Andy, Jefferson with Smith/Cunningham and Love/Thompson. The ball just constantly moved. It was really fun to watch.

By the way, I think NBA Team Pass is having a free trial until November 3rd, so you can pick up the non-Network broadcasts online. They also have a "one-team" package this year, which I think is only $125 or something. Well worth the money, considering it's something like $300 to watch the Browns suck for 16 games.

yea he looked good inside the paint last night.

glad he remembered he's 6-10.

Oklahoma City Thunder
6th in Western Conference
NBA
Yesterday, 7:00 PM
Chesapeake Energy Arena

Spurs 106 - 112 Thunder
(0-1) Final (1-0)

1 2 3 4 Total
Spurs 27 28 28 23 106
Thunder 29 21 29 33 112


Go Thunder!

J/C .....

LeBron James, Cavs liking what they're seeing from Kevin Love - CBSSports.com
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-bask...from-kevin-love

It's a big year for Kevin Love, and LeBron James knows it. The Cleveland Cavaliers never quite got the most out of Love in their first season together, and this year James has promised that things will be different. It's still an open question how things will work when Kyrie Irving returns to the lineup, but Love had team highs of 17 points and 13 rebounds in the Cavs' 106-76 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday.

James told reporters that Love will be "the focal point" for Cleveland on offense, via ESPN's Dave McMenamin:

"We'll use Kevin however he wants to be used," James said after Love led Cleveland with 17 points and 13 rebounds in the Cavs' 106-76 win over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday. "I told you Kevin is going to be our main focus. He's going to have a hell of a season. He's going to get back to that All-Star status."

…

"He's the focal point of us offensively," James said. "I know I can go out and get mine when I need it. But I need Kev to be as aggressive as he was tonight, and when he rebounds at the level he did tonight, the shots will automatically fall for him."

James said he knew Love would "be sharp" after their poolside meeting in Los Angeles this past summer. Love said he feels "a lot, lot better" and James already knew that he could do more than what he showed last year. That was obvious to anybody who watched Love with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

It's great that these two seem far away from the fit-in-or-fit-out fiasco and the frustration of last year, both reported and on the record, that came along with Love trying to deal with a smaller role. Prior to the big game in Memphis, Love opened the season with 18 points and eight boards against the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday. Despite the fact he's coming off shoulder surgery and only played two preseason games, he is in excellent condition and has had an encouraging start.

A couple of notable numbers: James has scored 37 points on 35 field goal attempts through two games. Love has scored 35 points on 31 field goal attempts. If they continue to have similar numbers in those categories, that will represent a drastic shift in how Cleveland gets its offense. And yes, Love will surely be back in the All-Star Game.

Kevin and Kyrie should be the focal points of our offense for the next 80'ish games (well, whenever Kyrie gets back on the floor). We need Lebron to take it easy during the regular season. Heck, I'd be okay if Lebron takes another 2 week "vacation" like he did last year.

Cavs looked awesome last night.

I really like what Mo Williams can bring. He's a pretty good fit, maybe an even better one than the 2009 team that won all those games.

Can't wait for the home opener tomorrow

That's awesome information. Thanks, I really appreciate it.

We all have our guys, and perhaps Cunningham is mine, but I really liked his game in preseason.

Glad to hear Love is scoring inside. I think that is important.

We have depth inside, so we can bring Moz along slowly.

Good to hear Mo is getting us into our sets quickly. I have worried about that w/him. I'm rooting for the guy. He's class.

Glad to hear we had more ball movement. There is a time and place for Iso, but I prefer ball movement, especially w/our inside/outside scorers.

I used to have NBA League Pass, but cancelled it after LeBron left. Got kinda upset w/the whole NBA thing. Might have to talk the wife into getting it again. LOL

Thanks again, that was good information.

Oh......forgot to mention the second unit. Love hearing what you had to say about them. I think the second unit could make a big difference for us this year. There is a lot of versatility w/that unit. I think that instead of hoping they don't blow things, that instead, this unit can actually extend leads and even cut into deficits. We're pretty deep and we have a nice blend of inside/outside guys. We have rebounders, shooters, defenders.

Another thing.............one more thing I wanna see this year:

Do you remember all the great outlet passes that Love had in Minni? We haven't seen that in Cleveland. We have a few sprinters. I would love to see us take advantage of Love's prowess as an outlet passer.

He's already done it a few times these past two games, so it looks to be something he's aiming to do. It's probably harder for a Cavs team like this to pull off because most teams don't sleepwalk against us like they would against Minnesota.

Exactly.

Nobody is stupid enough to take their eyes off of Lebron or Kyrie in a situation like that.

Not sure about this one.

I watched them last year and we rarely had guys sprinting in transition after grabbing a rebound. Instead, we slowed it down and ran a lot of Iso.