DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Cavaliers ....

So, the Cavs lose by 55 last month against the Lakers on the road last month.....and then beat those same Lakers by 5 at home tonight? Huh?

Decent revenge.

Just got home from the game. Man, the atmosphere was simply incredible.

Holy %&@! We Beat the LAKERS!?!?!

Way to Go Cavs and Sessions!


Cavaliers avenge 55-point defeat against Lakers
By TOM WITHERS, AP Sports Writer 9 minutes ago

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CLEVELAND (AP)—The Lakers hit the All-Star break broken.

Looking nothing like two-time defending NBA champions, they dropped their third straight game, a stunning 104-99 loss Wednesday night to the Cleveland Cavaliers—the league’s worst team, which avenged a 55-point embarrassment against Los Angeles last month.

Ramon Sessions(notes) came off the bench and scored a season-high 32 points for the Cavs, who were beaten 112-57 by the Lakers on Jan. 11. That loss was No. 11 in a league-record streak that eventually reached 26 before Cleveland ended it last week with an overtime win against L.A.’s less-heralded squad, the Clippers.
Los Angeles Lakers ' Kobe Bryant chews his jersey late in the fourth quarter of the Lakers' 104-99 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers in an NBA basketball game in Cleveland on Wednesday, Feb. 16, 2011.


Pau Gasol(notes) had 30 points and 20 rebounds for the Lakers.

Playing the finale of a seven-game road trip, the Lakers spent much of the night looking as if they were already on vacation. They threw errant passes, forced outside shots and couldn’t catch the Cavs down the stretch despite a frantic comeback.

“It’s back to the drawing board,” said Lamar Odom(notes), who was asked what’s at the top of the team’s to-do list. “Defense. Cohesiveness. Our chemistry on offense. I’m not that worried. I think it’s things we can fix.”

Kobe Bryant(notes) finished with 17 points on 8-of-25 shooting. Derek Fisher(notes) had 19 for the Lakers, who committed 19 turnovers and enraged Phil Jackson, their normally tranquil coach, who screamed at them during timeouts after inexcusable defensive lapses.

Losing in Orlando on Sunday was hardly reason for much concern. But a 20-point setback in Charlotte on Monday left both Jackson and Bryant speechless. They expect more from the Lakers, and they’re not seeing it.

But as poorly as they played, the Lakers did cut a 10-point lead to two in the final minute. But Anthony Parker(notes) and Sessions made two free throws apiece in the last 17.9 seconds.

After the final horn, the Lakers walked slowly toward their locker room and a trip home not knowing what might happen next. With the trading deadline just a week away, the rumors involving Denver star Carmelo Anthony(notes) will likely heat up.

This much is clear: Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak needs to do something to awaken his team.

The Cavs, on the other hand, reached the season’s unofficial midpoint on a high.

This was their best effort of the season. They played with the energy coach Byron Scott wants every night, and they gave their dedicated fans a taste of what could be ahead.

Bryant’s 3-pointer helped the Lakers trim a 12-point deficit to three late in the third, but Cavs rookie forward Christian Eyenga(notes) followed with a dunk that had Cleveland fans instantly texting “OMG” to friends and one that is among the league’s best this season.

Eyenga blew past Bryant on the baseline, reared back with his right hand and smashed the ball through as Gasol made a halfhearted block attempt. Cleveland’s bench erupted at a dunk not scene around here since LeBron James(notes) delivered them on an almost nightly basis.

Jackson appears to have lost patience with his star-studded team, which seemed road-weary and disinterested.

In the second half, the Zen Master yelled at Gasol during two separate timeouts and the 11-time champion coach was animated while showing the Lakers what they were doing wrong on his erasable clipboard.

Parker’s jumper to end the first half capped an 8-0 spurt by the Cavs.

As his players left the floor, Jackson remained seated in his orthopedic high chair, stunned by his team’s shocking ineptitude.

Bryant didn’t take the loss in Charlotte well, and he was still in a surly mood following the Lakers’ morning shootaround. Maybe it didn’t help that he had to spend two days in chilly Cleveland, but Bryant was clearly not over L.A.’s poor performance on Wednesday.

“Next game,” he snapped.

Bryant, who was bothered by flu-like symptoms earlier in the week, refused to discuss what happened against the Bobcats or if he and his teammates worked on anything in particular.

Things didn’t start well for the champions. Bryant picked up his second foul with 5:37 left in the first quarter, and on his way to the bench he said something to referee Kane Fitzgerald and was slapped with a technical. With Bryant out, the Cavs went on an 11-2 run and opened a 10-point lead.

The Lakers were out of sync, and their sloppy play was perhaps best shown during a second-quarter possession when Gasol turned and fired a pass to where he expected a teammate to be. No one was there and the ball skipped into the feet of Los Angeles’ coaches.

Notes: Bryant credits Scott with being his mentor when he joined the NBA. The two remain close friends. Bryant sympathizes with what Scott has endured during a trying first season with Cleveland. “This is tough for him,” Bryant said. “He’s competitive. It’s killing him.” … Following shootaround, Jackson and Odom stood behind the glass and watched a few minutes of the Lake Erie Monsters’ hockey game. … Browns players Joshua Cribbs and Joe Haden were in attendance. … Cavs G Mo Williams(notes), who recently returned after missing 13 games with a hip flexor, started but played just 3 minutes. The team said he wasn’t re-injured.


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Just unbelievable!

I can't wait to watch the highlights on the NBA channel on my Roku.

What happened to Sessions? Man, he was just out of his mind tonight. Nice to see that he didn't react badly to Mo coming back and potentially taking his job. He looks like he isn't going to give up his minutes easily.

Watching the 4th quarter, I was just amazed tonight. The Cavs have played 3 solid quarters quite a few times this year - but I just assumed they'd play it tough and lose late tonight... then when the Lakers tied it up with about 6 minutes I thought here we go... then I took brief tour around cabletown and came back to a JJ slam +1 that would put the Cavs up by 11. Amazing!

I honestly thought the Cavs would lose by 20 tonight at least. Better than the last game against them, but with LA getting drilled the other night heading into the break I thought they'd bring it... they didn't.

Well played Cavs, well played.

Skyenga got hops

LOL Charles Barkley was on the Tonight Show ... and he had nice things to say about Cleveland ...... but then he said: "Come on Cavs, get it together ..... they just won't do it tonight. Against the Lakers? No chance".

Wonder if Jay brings that clip up on tomorrow's show?

Ron Artest tweeted and tried to promote his mixtape after the game

Hope tonight was a good practice for the Lakers.

sessions was good yesterday. i like the guy. i think under coach scott, he can flourish. he can be part of this future for sure. bench rotation backup pg worst case scenario. best case scenario is that he develops into a really really good point guard, kinda how chauncey billups did. billups wasn't a lottery pick like rose, paul, or williams and was just good right away. it took him some time and a few different teams to become an all star. i think sessions could be that guy. no guarantees or anything but i like what i see.

plus, if jared sullinger ends up being the guy (because chris grant says he's the best guy out there) then you have yourself a good frontcourt player and a good point guard, and you have somewhat assembled yourself the the start of a core.

although if the best guy is a point guard, you take him anyways, even if you have sessions blossoming.

my hat is off to the fans. friday night was like a playoff game, and last night they were incredibly loud. you wouldn't get that in many other cities.

If only we only played teams from LA, we'd have a winning record.

one of the guys on NBATV last night said the following:

"the Cavs started the season beating the Celtics and end before the break beating the Lakers. if you didn't know what happened between those games, you'd think this was last year's Cavaliers."



I didn't get the game, but watched the Nuggets v. Bucks game and it was hilarious as Jon Barry spent the whole 2nd half talking about how horrible the Cavs are and how this had to be the worst loss in NBA history for the Lakers and lots of other hyperbole associated.

What's sad is the bottom half of the NBA looks like this...

New Jersey 17 Wins
Washington 15 Wins
Toronto 15 Wins
Minnesota 13 Wins
Sacramento 13 Wins
Cleveland 10 Wins

We're only 7 games worse than New Jersey, and this is AFTER a 26 game losing streak... But somehow, we're the only horrible team in the leauge? Ok then...

the streak magnified things, which is fine. we are going to likely be the first team in NBA history to go from 1st overall record to worst overall record in a year as well, which further magnifies things.

this team is not nearly as bad as those 76er, Nets, and the year-before-LeBron Cavs teams of recent past. but, we live in an age when people like hyperbole, and we have things that make it easy to believe on the surface, so be it.

bottom line: we will have a high lottery pick (which is good) and likely another one next year (also good). we can start building this team and hopefully not draft any dejuan wagner types

everyone knows jon barry has a tent in his pants over the lakers..

this team is bad, we all know that, but in history? no. guaranteed that they play a bit better in the 2nd half. they might even end up being better than the infamous 03 cavs.

honestly if they get the top overall pick and that guy pans out, whomever it may be, combined with sessions, eyenga, hickson. they actually aren't all that far away from competing in the east again. as far as being a playoff 6-8 seed.

i would rather them get a few lotto picks. i'd like to see 2 solid lotto picks that turn out to be really really good players and then somehow get one more lotto pick who turns into a power player. that way we can give him a situation where he has the talent around him. so many things need to go our way with both the skill of the cavs scouting and some like. but like i said a while back. if you're bad, stay down, and stay down for a while.

i know that it's absolutely killing dan gilbert though. he's about as competitve as it gets for guys that aren't athletes. and he's taking a ton of criticism both about lebrona and about this team. i bet he has rough drafts every night about more letters he'd like to send out to the media. lol

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We're only 7 games worse than New Jersey, and this is AFTER a 26 game losing streak... But somehow, we're the only horrible team in the leauge? Ok then...

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Who said we are the only horrible team in the league? We are the main story when it comes to horrible teams because we have had much more recent success than any of those other teams AND we were the big off-season story with LeBron leaving AND we had the losing streak AND we are Cleveland and ... well people just like to kick Cleveland when they are down.

do you guys find it funny that the top 3 teams (arguably) were all put together by lopsided trades?

lakers had the gasol trade which was a complete joke and an embarassment to the league.

the celtics tried tanking their season a few years ago to get greg oden, only to come out it with kevin garnett, ray allen, and glen davis while giving up al jefferson and few picks.

and the heat, well we all know what happened there.

completely shady. i think stern has a gigantic problem on his hands.

honestly, if you took those 3 teams out of the league, the nba would be fun as hell. it'd be like the nhl, where all the teams in the playoffs would have a shot.

but i guess that's what happens when the league is set up for fairness with strict rules and stipulations and certain teams and players cheat the system, which in turn will ruin the entire product.

Yeah ... for a commissioner that's supposively so hard-butt when it comes to collusion. He'll fine Steve Kerr $50k for jokingly saying in a radio interview that he'd take Lebron if he came over for the league minimum ... but hey, if Memphis gifts Paul Gasol to former gm Jerry West, Kevin McHale gifts Kevin Garnett to his former team, and Lebron and Bosh join up with buddy Wade in Miami, who mysteriously had enough cap room to sign them ... then hey! look over there! butterflies!

pretty much. he picks and chooses his battles. i do think he has somewhat of a problem with what happened with these teams, but there isn't much he can do. i do know when the next cba is up, that the owners are going to have a field day.

windy was on wknr the other day and said the players are having fun right now, but at some point the hammer is going to be thrown down.

i think a franchise tag similiar to the nfl would be great. except that player is forced to stay home.

i think what is happening with carmelo is an absolute joke. it makes lebron look good, because at least lebron waited until the season was over (at least most of it, oops) i think what gets lost in all of that mess is that denver is a pretty solid team. it was only 2 years ago where they had the lakers against the ropes. they were incredibly physical with them.

but it just sours me on the whole league, even more than the lbj stuff. he's ruining an entire franchise's season. he's basically flipping off his fans mid-season.

i love the nba, but i won't watch if this stuff continues, if the knicks get amare, paul, and melo, and the lakers end up probably stealing dwight howard or someone else's player, then what's the point?

kinda sucks. you're a cleveland sports fan, and 2 of your teams aren't allowed to compete. the other is the cleveland browns. seriously.

See, that's why I gave up the NBA. It's a joke. Go look at the list of teams that have won titles recently....it's like 9 teams in 25 years. And people give MLB a hard time for lack of parity.

I follow the NFL, NCAA's, NHL, EPL, & MLB (in that order).

Stern wants 4-5 Super Teams, the rest are just fodder until the playoffs. So, I quit.

It was good to see the Cavs win last night though. I bet they set a record for biggest differential in two games where each team won. -57 then +5 - that's 62 points.

This is funny

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a78/nursetpd/TSB/A_Tale_of_Two_Cities.gif

I love sticking it to the Lakers as much as anyone, but come on guys, knock it off! We need as many lottery balls as we can get

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Problem is (I think at least) that a lot of league people have talked themselves into the idea that the reason the NBA was so popular in the 80s was because there were a few really stacked teams. They would flip your statement and say if you took the bottom three teams out of the league it would somehow be less "watered down."

It's bunk, of course, but it seems they're intent on learning that the hard way.

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Perhaps people could understand a few stacked teams dominating the league all of the time if it wasn't always the same teams... just sayin'...

Then you clearly don't enjoy sticking it to the Lakers as much as many people.

J/C

Found an interesting trade article at www.ohio.com:


Homepage > Sports >
Cavs might end up involved in reported Anthony trade to Nets
By Jason Lloyd
Beacon Journal sports writer

POSTED: 02:46 p.m. EST, Feb 18, 2011

As the New Jersey Nets continue to work feverishly for a deal involving Denver Nuggets superstar Carmelo Anthony, the Cavaliers are waiting for the phone to ring.

The Nets and Nuggets agreed to terms on a deal that would send Anthony to the Nets, according to The (Bergen County) Record, but the deal is contingent on two things: Anthony agreeing to a contract extension with the Nets and a third team willing to take on Troy Murphy's $12 million expiring contract for a draft pick or two.

At one time, the Cavaliers thought they were close to a similar three-team deal, but it fell apart, a league source said. The Cavaliers have not been contacted by either the Nuggets or Nets in recent days, a league source said, but are still open to taking on Murphy — if the compensation is right.

In the deal reported by The Record, the Nets would receive Anthony, Chauncey Billups, Sheldon Williams, Melvin Ely and Renaldo Balkman from the Nuggets. In exchange, the Nets would send Murphy, Devin Harris, Derrick Favors, Ben Uzoh and four first-round picks to Denver.

The Nuggets have no interest in keeping Murphy and need another place to ship him, which is where the Cavs and their $14.5 million trade exception come in.

One of the picks the Nuggets would acquire is the Los Angeles Lakers' first rounder this season. The Cavs won't take Murphy for just that pick, a source said, since they will already have a high second-round pick this summer. The Cavs, in essence, could be picking back-to-back in that scenario at the bottom of the first round and the beginning of the second.

They don't have much interest in that scenario, and would either have to have a second pick added to the deal or receive a different pick.

The pick the Cavs have more interest in, a league source said, is the Golden State Warriors' partially-protected first-round pick next season. That pick is protected through the top seven, meaning it cannot be traded if the Warriors are selecting in the top seven of the draft. Otherwise, it's fair game.

It's unclear at this point if the Nuggets would be willing to let go of that pick simply to unload Murphy.

Jason Lloyd can be reached at jlloyd@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at http://www.cavs.ohio.com.

Celtics and Bulls both interested in Parker?


http://espn.go.com/blog/TrueHoop/post/_/id/24951/celtics-join-bulls-in-anthony-parker-hunt


Celtics join Bulls in Anthony Parker hunt

Anyone up for some non-Melo trade chatter?

Thought so.

We’ll fire in the tidbits as we get them leading up to Thursday’s 3 p.m. ET trade buzzer:

Celtics president of basketball operations Danny Ainge wasn’t kidding with his recent proclamation that the Celtics want to make a deal before the deadline.

The Celts, according to sources briefed on Boston's thinking, have joined their conference rivals from Chicago in pursuit of Cavaliers swingman Anthony Parker.

The Celts covet an extra playoff-tested shooter/defender as much as the Bulls, with Marquis Daniels out indefinitely and Delonte West missing much of the season so far. Yet it remains to be seen whether either of the two teams is willing to meet Cleveland's asking price.

The Cavs are seeking a quality draft pick or a young big man with promise in exchange for Parker, who’s averaging 11.5 points and shooting 47 percent on 3-pointers in February.

I would also add that the Cavaliers will be in good shape next year if they can keep Jamison healthy .... because his expiring contract should be very valuable at that point.

I find it hard to believe that the Cavs will get "a young big man with promise" for Parker. I'd be glad if they got extra chalupa vouchers for the fans.

But, if Parker can in some way help any team to beat the Heat in the playoffs, then hey, good luck Anthony!

J/C

Was just starting Bill Simmons' latest Trade Value column, an annual favorite, and he paid homage to the 2000 NBA Draft. Good lord it's bad:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/draft/NBA_2000.html

Look at that. The only guys who have ever even made any kind of waves in the NBA are Kenyon Martin (overall 1), Mike Miller (5), Jamal Crawford (8), Hedo Turkoglu (16), Quentin Richardson (18), Eddie House (37), and Michael Redd (43).


Is that the worst draft crop ever? If not, what is?

i love espn's argument about how melo is doing denver a favor by pulling this...

really? like by ruining their whole year? what, they can't get what they'd get now, after the season?

trading melo now or signing and trading him (which is what will happen) won't net you anything different, no team wanting melo is gonna give up anyone good, so all you're getting is an exception and end of the first round draft picks.

i love how rah-rah espn is over this. they can't wait for melo to be a knick, and either cp3 or deron williams to follow suit.

nevermind the rest of the league. espn won't point out that problem. they'll whine about the bcs like little babies, but you never hear them complain about the obvious problem in baseball.

the nfl doesn't really count, the only thing with them they get is monday night football. but with the nba they do 8 or 9 games per week plus playoff games, and with baseball they do 2-3 games per week including sunday nights.

what a joke.

Melo has all the leverage here. If he was smart he would wait until the summer and do a sign n trade to the nets or knicks like lebron did. I see no reason why you would gut the team you're going to when you don't have to. The only reason I could see him forcing a trade now, is to cash in on the extension before the cba runs out, and salaries may go down with the new agreement.

I seen Sacramento is thinking about relocating to anaheim?? The nba is going down the gutter. Just wait until cp3 leaves new orleans. that will be another team on the move.

While getting ready for work I had the ESPN2 simulcast of the Mike&Mike show on. Greeny was discussing how the NBA is becoming a lot like MLB, teams that are contending and teams that have no shot. And he mentioned that David Stern is watching and isn't happy (which is horsebleep). He said Stern will push to have a franchise-like tag in the NBA to preserve the small-market teams ability to hold onto their stars.

I'm not buying it at all. As much as it hurt a small market and made a star look negative, the NBA made a huge uptick in ratings with lebron leaving. And with Melo leaving/being traded to X team, it will draw a ton of extra interest. It's not even about screwing the small market, people don't really care if X superstar re-signs to his current team....except his current team. But when someone is leaving, more people tune in.

I don't think Stern really cares if the Knicks are in the playoffs over the Cavs, he cares about how good the ratings are, period. And letting the players build super teams will draw a ton of interest, spark conversation, and build ratings. So, I don't see them trying to implement a franchise-like tag.