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And just like that, IT is smacking down 3’s.

That one looked nice too.

Teams do whatever they want against the Cavs.

Their pick and roll defense is atrcious.

Lebron is not getting ANY calls. Thie blazers are committing domestic violence on Lebron, yet no calls.

It's been that way for about 6 straight games.

The Cavs still play no D.

The Cavs are awful.

Who teaches these guys defense?

Love's flashes do nothing.

No effort on D. That’s on Lue

Portland, a terrible percentage team, is shooting their best of the season.

Having love play the 5 is wreaking havoc on defenses.

How did crowder make that shot lolololol

Are we getting killed?

No it’s 80-79 Cavs

Do you have cable?

He doesn’t live in Ohio

Neither do I.

Its on NBAtv.

IT with another 3. He’s back

Ooo I didn’t know. I just keep it on fox sports Ohio. Mr cavalier!!

Cavs making the Blazers look like an offensive powerhouse.

Lot of missed free throws.

TT looks better off the bench

If they would stop with their defensive strategy of doubling the ball handler on pick and rolls, I'd say it's a no brainer to keep Love at the 5. But this defensive strategy is driving me insane. It's a guaranteed 2 pts for Loves guy.

Drives me insane.

We do have Direct TV, but for some reason, since we moved, we don't have NBA TV. We have things like Big 10 Network, but not NBA TV.

We dropped NBA League Pass when we moved.

IT looked really good tonight.

Very encouraging.

Different player than Kyrie.

I think Kyrie is the better player but I wonder if Thomas will be better on the Cavs. I wonder if the Cavs will actually be a better team with Thomas instead of Irving.

IT was supposed to play 8-12 minutes.

He played 19, and had 17 points on 50% shooting.

That's really good to hear. Those extra points will really help down the stretch.

I hate to ask this, but will he get abused on D like Frye against the warriors?

Kyrie got abused on D against the warriors, so i expect nothing from IT on D.

but he gives us just as good - if not better - scoring. and the argument could be made he's more consistent than Kyrie on offense.

IT plays w/a chip on his shoulder. He has "little man's disease." And LOL............I swear that is not an insult. The Cavs need some "tude."

Thanks for the reply. Those Cavs/Celts playoff games are going to be fun.

IT is going to change how we play on both ends...we aren't going to be able to blitz like we have on defense...he's sooo tiny, going to have to hide him somehow, but on offense, he's going to get his. Kyrie can put guys on skates better, but I think IT is quicker to the basket, it doesn't take that much for him to break the defense down where Kyrie has to rely on his handles more than quickness...IT should average 7-8 assists on this team while still getting his. I think things will come easier than he had in boston with much better offense around him. The key is if he can stay healthy. I think he should, he never really had an injury history. The hip injury was a freak thing that someone landed on him and he played through instead of getting treated. But dude has been pretty steady. Looks promising.

Just got home from the game tonight. The Q was going nuts for IT tonight. He received several standing ovations.

As for IT's minutes, they did mention shortly before the game that Lue was targeting 18-22 minutes tonight for him. I had heard 7-12 mins earlier in day as well. It's a good sign that he was able to go that long.

I hope he can stay healthy.

j/c:

Just saw a recap of the game. Wow!

This is very exciting. IT is going to be a great fit w/the Cavs. The combo of him, LeBron, DWade, Love, Crowder, etc is fairly dynamic.

I think we can win it all this year!

It's great that we finally have a ball handler not named LeBron or one that played played SG for their entire career. I hope this allows us to manage LeBron's minutes better.

Not to mention LeBron is a turnover machine when he's handling the ball too much.

OK, so it's not just me. I have Direct TV and when I lived in Miami, I got NBA TV. Since moving to Orlando, I lost it and MLB Network. I called them up and they were able to get me MLB Network back but not NBA TV.

Great post. IT is a different animal altogether. Just watching him yesterday you see his innate ability to break down a defense by coming up the floor with pace and purpose. Kyrie lost a lot of that because he relies on his ability to beat someone off the dribble... Yes, he's the best in the game when it comes to that, but it doesn't do much for "team basketball". ITs 25 minutes per game will be a larger +/- on the scoreboard than Kyries 35 imo. IT won't be in a situation where he has to carry a team in Cleveland and I think we will really get to see him shine as more of a prototypical PG. Kyrie never had to carry this team either, he just chose to because he felt he could.

Agree with what you guys are saying. I don't want to sound all "sour grapes" on Kyrie, but I think we might just be better off with IT.

Kyrie is probably the best 1-on-1 guy in the world. But I think he finds having 4 other guys on the floor with him a nuisance. His assists were usually due to passing it to a guy that happened to hit a shot right after or some sort of set play design. It usually wasn't because he broke a defense down and threaded a pass to an open guy that he was able to pick out.

When he would run a pick-and-roll, he would look as the roll-man as nothing more than a guy to screen off his first defender. There were countless examples where he would take the pick, and then cut back inside, right in front of the roll-man ... effectively removing him from the play. If you watched Delly run the P&R, it was the exact opposite. He would take the pick, draw his new guy away from the rim and then hesitate long enough for the roll guy to come under so he could lob it to him. He almost never wanted to take the shot and was looking for that roll pass. Kyrie would take the pick and treat his roll guy like a folding chair after that.

I think IT sees the defense a little better than Kyrie. He might play more like a true point. He might not wow a crowd or put a guy in a blender like Kyrie, but he might be better in a 5-on-5 game.

Damn, what could have been...

Kyrie+Frye in a 3-way for Bledsoe+George Rumor

Removing the Kyrie-They-Didn't-Want-Me narrative from the story, we could have had Bledsoe+George instead of IT+Crowder+NetsPick and Irving would be in the west on a stinky Suns team. I like our team as is, but that would have been a lot better. I bet the Suns regret canning that trade with Bledsoe now gone and Josh Jackson playing from the bench.

Honestly the Nets pick is so underrated. Both Marvin Bagley III and Trae Young are so fun to watch. Exactly what you want want to see if you're possibly picking in the top 3. Luka Doncic is also another spectacular player. If Bron were to leave this season, I wouldn't even be mad knowing that we have a chance at 1 of those three players.

AD to Boston picking up steam