This one opened up late. The Cavaliers had a great first eight minutes, then spent the majority of the game battling a five-to-ten point deficit. It was by no means a drubbing, but the Cavs rarely threatened to take the lead. Let us recap:
–I expected to spend a bullet point admonishing Kyrie Irving’s defense on Russell Westbrook, but Westbrook’s phenomenal night wasn’t really Irving’s fault. The bulk of Westbrook’s points came either against the Cavaliers’ backup brigade and/or via his uncharacteristically hot shooting from beyond the arc, where he was 4-for-6 (including one at the end of the third quarter from 30 feet out). Not that Irving’s defense was particularly good: a number of times, Westbrook was able to blow past Kyrie with hesitation moves, crossovers, and great bursts of speed. To be fair, Irving did the same sorts of things to Russ. One of the reasons the development of Tristan Thompson the Shot-Blocker is so crucial is because it would do a lot to meliorate the effects of Irving’s lacking perimeter defense. It would make the job of someone like Westbrook more difficult if, once he got past Kyrie, he had to worry about getting his ensuing lay-in swatted away.
–Irving does a great job of collapsing the defense with his driving ability, then finding an open man at the three-point line, but that open man at the three-point line is often Alonzo Gee, who’s not entirely comfortable shooting (open or otherwise) from beyond the arc. I like Gee a lot, and he played pretty well tonight—18 points on 7-for-17 shooting, although he should probably never take more than 10 shots in a game—but he desperately needs to improve his range. He shot just 32% on triples last season. I’m aware improving one’s jumper is easier said than done, but the Cavs would benefit handsomely from Gee locking himself in the gym with a rack of basketballs and trying to become a Jared Dudley type.
–Boobie Gibson took a bunch of Dion Waiters’s minutes in this one, not because Dion played particularly poorly, but because Gibson was a revelation off the bench. Bizarre game for Boobie: he was 1-for-5 from three-point land, but he ended the game 6-for-12 from the field (some of those shots were just barely two-pointers) with five rebounds. Waiters finished with a solid first quarter (seven of his eight points) and just 21 minutes. One note on Waiters: the officiating was a whit soft in this game, but he needs to control his foul count, especially early in the game. He had some momentum going in the first quarter, then landed himself on the bench after picking up his second foul with 5:07 to go.
–I’m always hesitant to criticize rotations (it’s rather like criticizing playcalling in football) because I don’t know what Byron Scott is trying to accomplish with this second unit, but, um, what is Byron Scott trying to accomplish with this second unit? Donald Sloan can’t run the offense when the only decent scorer on the floor is Boobie Gibson. I don’t know if this scares Scott or what, but it’s time to give the Irving-absent keys to Saint Weirdo and just let him do whatever he wants.
–I don’t know that it would have made a huge difference in this one, but here’s hoping Tyler Zeller recovers from his concussion soon. (I’m glad the Cavs are being cautious, by the way. You don’t mess around with head injuries.) He helps the second unit in terms of shouldering some of the scoring load, and he’s the only big man on the team who can knock down a 15-footer with some consistency. Varejao, bless his heart, took a few open jumpers from the elbow off of some pick-and-pop sets with Irving, but that’s not his game.
–10:30-ish in the second quarter: Casspi clanks an open three, then lets Kevin Martin blow by him in transition. Casspi hacks him, and Martin lays it in anyway. Then Casspi dribbles the ball off his knee on the next possession. I’m rooting for the Israeli, but he’s having a rough time of it so far this season.
–One last thing: Irving made a terrific 3/4 court pass to Gee midway through the third when the OKC defense was lazy getting back. I don’t know who coached him to do this, but he gets his head up the second he receives the ball, which makes plays like that possible.
The Cavs travel to Brooklyn Tuesday to take on the Nets. Until tomorrow, friends.
UPDATE: Well, maybe Gibson getting burn over Waiters was partially Waiters’s fault. Jason Lloyd reports that Byron Scott was a little miffed with Waiters’s performance, though he won’t elaborate.
I thought I heard Fred McLoed say that Waiters had a thigh injury that held his minutes in check, but I could be making that up.
I love Gee’s game so far this season. I love that he’s being aggressive, and I love that he doesn’t back down any challenge (from CP3 to Durant.) I just wish he would hit his open three pointers. The first quarter he received a few passes where he was wide open on the wing but didn’t have the confidence to jack them up, instead he’d attack the basket and leave me hoping he wouldn’t dribble the ball off his foot. I kept thinking that someone like Dorrell Wright would be really nice to have in those moments.
Entertaining game otherwise. The refs were a little Thunder friendly in my opinion, and the blocks were infuriating, but I felt like the game was much closer than the 17 point (or w/e) deficit we had when Scott finally yanked Kyrie. Hard to win when your opponent shoots 55% from the floor and 47% from deep
This bench is so indescribably bad. Just the worst. There can’t be a team with a more useless pair of wing players on its bench than this one. This is why I can’t and won’t judge Scott. He tries to play CJ Miles. Miles proceeds to be the worst player I’ve ever seen in a short amount of time. He goes to Omri Casspi a couple of games later. Omri proceeds to somehow, miraculously, be as bad, if not worse, than Miles was. It’s just like…what are you supposed to do with this?
At this point I wouldn’t mind losing a little cap to a guy like Pietrus, I’m tired of watching C.J.’s one man show “Crazy: If I Shoot Enough…”, and Casspi is… well Casspi, great in theory but a nightmare in reality.
Yeah, it will be interesting to see if Byron says any more about why he is upset with Dion. Things looked fine to me; Dion got to the basket, drew a couple of fouls, knocked down some crazy jumpers. The team was on-fire when he played. Also, didn’t he have a steal? I swear he did, but the box score shows zero.
Any word on Zeller returning? It would be nice to have another professional basketball player for the second unit.
Getting Tristan to block more shots is probably a terrible idea. He’s quick to a spot but not the quickest off the floor. He’s not blessed with the same length but it seems that the best bet would be to lock him in the film room with Tyson Chandler tapes. Chandler isn’t going to block more than 2 shots a game but his ability to be In position with arms up and not fouling alters so many shots. This comes at a lower risk rate and if TT is on the floor with frontcourt mates who rebound at a high rate that could keep the cavs out of the bonus and prove more effective as a larger strategy.
So, do we take McAdoo or Shabazz as our top 3 pick next draft?
I still think Scott ought to try putting Casspi in the starting line-up, where he can benefit from open looks provided by Kyrie’s drive-and-dish skills.
That would also put Gee with the second unit, giving it a boost that it definitely needs.
CJ Miles can stay tethered to the bench for a while, as far as I’m concerned. All he does is shoot…and miss.
Warren- I’d go Shabazz, but I’m still hoping the Cavs make the playoffs. But then again, I’m hopeless- I still think the Browns have a shot at a wild card.
Dani
The Cavs aren’t going to come close to making the playoffs. Which is fine. The key is that it looks like they’ve hit the jackpot with both Irving and Waiters. As long as those two continue to be awesome, then this season is a success.
Yeah, I hate to write them off already myself. Watching these games gives me glimmers of hope, but this bench is horrible. Hopefully Zeller heals up soon, and isn’t too timid coming back from getting knocked. He seems to be a real solid player that should be able to help a lot. I am real happy with how Waiters has turned out so far, but man, is there still a lot of work to be done before playoffs can be mentioned….. There is no way the starters can get any rest without knowing that when they are on the bench the other team is going to dominate our bench. Hopefully the rebuild works out, and we can start spending money on some great players.
Casspi came around towards the end of the second half, and unlike Miles, at least he rebounds. I just want him to get a couple games to figure it out. As bad as he played, he was STILL better than Miles. As for Irving’s defense, it was horrible in the first half: halfhearted attempts to get over the pick and roll; getting picked and then just standing at the free throw line doing nothing, watching both players go to the basket; lazy closeouts; etc. It got better in the 2nd half, but by that time Westbrook was absolutely on fire. That shot to end the third was epic. The replay they showed from the sideline… I think he was going glass the whole time.
Am I the only one who thinks that TT might’ve put on too much weight? He is definitely thicker, but doesn’t seem as explosive, and nearly the shotblocker he was last year, and he’s not nearly as spry on the o-boards. His rebounding is better though, and he had a solid game. Liked his finishing around the basket: wasted little time and got the ball up quickly. I have my doubts on whether he can do it in a crowd, but how about 4-4 from the line?
The Waiters thing was weird. Yes Boobie was red hot, but he was getting killed on the defensive end, and i knew it was a matter of time before he shot them out of it (he did). Waiters should’ve gone back in (he was +9 for the game).
Andy has fallen in love with that free throw line shot… but he hasn’t hit it the last two games.
Irving was playing point guard better last year. He’s been turning it over way too much this year.
Jon Leuer didn’t look great, but neither did Samardo.
Donald Sloan has the strangest jump shot of any guard in the league…
Ultimately the Cavs were overmatched in this, but the defense has got to get better.
@ Warren we will have to get really lucky (clippers pick style) to get a top 3. I picking us between 8-11 unless andy or KI get hurt which seems very likely so maybe its not that far out. I don’t like Mcadoo that much he seems like a John Henson type that really doesn’t have a position. SF or a huge drummondesque center is what I want. 3rd option being a sizable 2 and Dioncan be the 6th man.
The bench is really impossibly bad. If you took Irving, Waiters, Zeller, TT and AV off the team how many college teams could beat us. I think Indiana could. Zeller would just dominate our bigs on offense being the key. I think OSU could because I think Aaron craft would just dominate Sloan. No one could stop Haraway on Mighigan. MAybe they wouldn’t win but those games would seriously be close. And the Big ten all-stars with 2 weeks of practice could actually beat us our bench
Ok different topic. I know a lot of you have gotten past rooting against the Heat. But for those who haven’t I’m kinda glad that the east finally seems like its improved. I was worried that we were going to see a 72 win team his year at the start of the season. The knicks a still a fake contender but are actually decent. The key is the east getting healthy. The 76ers are almost built to beat the heat. With Bynum and Hawes the Heat won’t be able to play small ball or Bosh will be forced to guard one of them. I haven’t seen much of them but They could probably come close to matching up physically with Turner at guard and Thaddeus young at SF or PF depending how they play. The Bulls could face them in rd 2 if Rose gets healthy and beat them. Boston I think will be playing for the 8th seed intentionally. Stay healthy (not play every game) and they want another crack at the heat. I don’t think they can beat them but having Jeff Green will help keep grandpa Pierce fresh. And if they force 7 games it helps. round 2 and three Bulls, Knicks or 76ers with an outside chance of Indy or Brooklyn all of which are better than last year. Either way hopefully its not the cake walk of cake walks they had last year with a bad Philly team, a young soft and injured Indy team and the old crappy injured celts.
Rodney Mac
Um no, even without those players, no college teams could be us.
I´m still rooting against the Heat, particularly because we own their draft pick. I´m also rooting for the Kings, but I don´t think we´ll see their pick this year (top 13 protected). Eventually, we should be able to draft replacements for the Donald Sloan/CJ Miles types.
I’m not rooting against the Heat. Too much hate was thrown on them for really no good reason. Three guys decided they wanted to play together to win championships. Normally we applaud this sort of thing. But because LeBron acted like such an asshole people decided to hate the Heat.
I hope America is over it and just enjoys watching one of the better teams we’ve seen in a while.
Applaud collusion?
HAHA, Bravo Heat…. Good job putting the best players together on a team to make the point of winning a championship less meaningful. 3 cheers for Cols714 and the Heat….. HA.
@rodneymac This bench was built to give them one more trip to the lottery. 5-8th worst record in the league seems likely to me and that’s if they stay healthy. The starters will hold their own but the bench will cost them A TON of games. I thought they got a lot of wins thanks to their opponents being tired and the Cavs were the most rested team in the first half of the year (why they had so many games late in the year).
Still really early in the NCAA and others will emerge but I like your wish list. Have you checked out Alex Len or Rudy Gobert? Gobert has a 7’9” wingspan!?!?! Rail think but he seems to be an explosive player around the rim. He’ll probably be soft but he can board and is a Euro so he’ll probably be well rounded (ball handling/passing/shooting). I kind of like Alex Poythress too. An athletic wing defender who can finish above the rim. 2013 is the jump year. This is our last year of rebuilding. Looking forward to it.
Rody Gobert burst on the scene at last years euro tourneys. He absolutely destroyed whenever he was playing. I don’t know what nbadraft.net is thinking, but he is a borderline #1. IMO the 2013 draft is top end loaded. Shabazz Mohammed, Nerlens Noel, Gobert, and McAdoo are borderline franchise guys.
I agree Nate and Chris Grant probably does too. I can’t find enough videos of Gobert. There aren’t a ton of guys who are freaks of nature and his length qualifies. He has like a 9’3” standing reach. Len destroyed Noel in that first matchup.
We need desperate help with the bench. I just don’t get Sloan?? There’s got to be someone out there as a decent point guard.