Mooooooo
PHEW! What…a…game! MAN is it good to have Kyrie back!
The Cavs came out FIRING in the first half thanks, in large part, to Kyrie’s 7 assists and a crazy first half from Miles, and lead by 15 going into the 3rd quarter. After only scoring 14 (to LA’s 23) in the third, the Cavs held off the comeback, winning the game 100-94.
The Good:
Kyrie Irving – THANK YOU BASKETBALL GODS, FOR RETURNING KYRIE! Kyrie had a ridiculous night – 28 points (on 11-21 shooting, including 4-6 from downtown), 11 Assists, and 6 rebounds, along with a steal. Not only did he clearly not miss a beat during his four weeks off, he looked invigorated and confident. What’s more, Kyrie’s D was actually passable in this game – he still got beat once in a while, but instead of just watching, tried to catch his loose man. Really, Kyrie was playing with more intensity than I’ve ever seen him on the D end. This was probably his best showing of the season. Man am I glad he’s back!
Andy – With all due respect to Kyrie and his absurd game, it was Andy who played the clutch role in the fourth quarter, snagging a beautiful rebound, hitting a clutch 12 footer and sinking two HUGE free throws. He and Kyrie picked up where they left off on the pick and roll and, after a few lackluster games (for him), Andy finally looked back in his comfort zone on O. As always his D was great, getting into Dwight’s head and disrupting all the action under the rim (even causing a bunch of Dwight turnovers.) Unfortunately, Andy fell short of a double double, partially due to the fact that Howard had 20(!) rebounds. Oh yeah, Andy had a RIDICULOUS dunk on Jordan Hill after faking out Dwight Howard. FUN!
CJ Miles – Despite Kyrie’s return and despite Andy’s phenomenal game, the biggest story of the night is probably the fact that Miles absolutely WENT OFF for 28 points (a team high) on 10-18 shooting (including 5-10 from downtown) and chipped in 5 rebounds to boot. If Miles keeps playing like this, we might have ourselves something, here.
Tyler Zeller’s D – I KNOW Tom noticed but, did anyone else? Zeller was disrupting an inordinate number of Dwight Howard shots. He was physical and fearless in defending someone much bigger and stronger than he. His long twos weren’t falling, but it didn’t matter, Zeller’s impact on D was enough to make him very valuable in this game.
The Bad:
Alonzo Gee – Yeah, he had 17 points (on 6-14 shooting, which isn’t great) and yeah he was playing a Kobe Bryant who was clearly channeling his younger self, but it’s not supposed to look this bad. While Kobe’s shooting was absurd, Gee got beat far too many times, missed some key switches (letting Kyrie pick up Kobe far too much) and bit on pretty much all of Kobe’s fakes. He’s allowed to have off nights, but to the tune of 42 points? When he’s our best defender? C’mon!
Jeremy Pargo – OUCH. Seriously…Ouch. We may have spoken too soon on the Pargo = backup discussion. Keep an eye on this in the future. (Side note: Pargo was the only Cavalier who was – in +/-)
The Cavs Bench in General, Minus Tyler Zeller – I mean…Minus Zeller, they didn’t score a point.
The Rest:
The Lakers Traveling Plans – Apparently extensive. I definitely saw them walk more than a few times (so did the refs). What’s up with that?
Andy’s Rebounding – Obviously Dwight played a huge role in Andy’s ability to rebound, but isn’t it amazing how Kryie’s impact on dictating offense leads to better scoring, which, in turn leads to fewer Andy rebounds? Varejao only had 2 O boards, by far his lowest since we lost Kyrie to injury. Hmmmm….
Note how I didn’t mention Tristan? That’s because he was a complete non-factor, minus some very good rebounding numbers. He looked fine and all, but definitely didn’t wow anyone. And 1 point? Really?
Tomorrow the Cavs face off against the Pacers @ Indianapolis. After tonight, there’s hope again. As always…GO CAVS!
hidden good: every Laker loss improves the value of our Heat/Lakers pick
Andy and Kyrie with HUUUUUGE 4th quarters!!! and CJ MILES EXPLOSION!
Kyrie was awesome
Gee was pretty good.
Miles was pretty good.
Thompson had a bunch of rebounds
Andy continued to play like a different player than he was in previous seasons
Zeller continued to look solid.
We are well set up going forward.
I’d say CJ Miles was awesome. 28 points on 18 shots? I actually saw Zeller body up Howard, and force him into a missed shot. Haven’t seen anything like that from him this season. VERY encouraging
Wait, do I detect…..optimism?
Where’s KJ when I need him/her.
Highly enjoyed getting to watch the Cavs on television for once instead on a quasi legal probably illegal internet feed. The Lakers commentators were really impressed with Kyrie and Andy. They obviously don’t know much about the Cavs because they repeatedly talked about how CJ Miles is a deadly shooter. Jameson gushed about Kyrie in his post game interview.
Great win and a real reason for optimism. Still a deep lottery team and there will be some ugly nights to come, but it’s gems like these that offer a glimpse of what should be a bright future in the land of burning rivers, grey skies and RTA bus drivers who will uppercut the shit out of you if you get mouthy.
*Note-Cleveland is on a three game winning streak against Los Angeles this year. The Cavs are 2-0 against the Lakers and Clippers and Slyman’s Deli defeated Canter’s Deli (my employer…I bartend at the Jewish Deli’s Kibitz Room) in a corned beef throw down on the Steve Harvey Show. Cleveland does indeed rock LA.
if you cant appreciate what Tristan did tonite, I don’t know what to tell you. Complete non-factor is missing an entire half of the basketball game.
David – i didn’t miss when the bottom of the rim blocked his shot. What did you see from TT tonight?
SLYMAN’S IS THE BEST.
Corey – you get +10 for comments today. Loved your Phil Jackson at the dinner table comment.
Kobe just dropped an f bomb in the post game interview…Loves it.
Tom, I saw him guard 3 entirely different types of player. Jordan Hill, Jamison, and Howard all have differing levels of skill but they all do different things offensively. Tristan held his own with each. How many 6 8 power forwards can guard Howard straight up? Tristan did it at least three times tonite and got stops without even sending Dwight to the line. How many PF’s are athletic enough to step out and put a hand in Jamison’s face? I readily admit Jamison sucks, but the fact that Tristan is that versatile is pretty nice. Unless you don’t care about defense. Then it probably isn’t that exciting
David – that’s awesome. I’m glad he’s making a difference at that end of the court. I didn’t really get to watch much of the first half. Thanks for filling me in.
I mean I know he isn’t a great offensive force, and maybe he never will be. But there is value in a 21 year old who plays 30+ minutes in a win against the Lakers and rebounds and plays defense. thats my point.
you mean basketball players do positive things that don’t show up in the box score?
Dion Waiters made the best “that is one bad man” head shake after Kyrie hit that insane step back 3 in the 2nd quarter
@David – I trust you. I’m just glad someone is noticing positive things from Tristan.
Roy – yeah Varejao’s been doing it for a decade.
Thanks. I get my hair cut at Legend’s Black Barbershop on Fairfax and they are all delusional Fakers fans. Can’t wait to remind them that the Lakers are garbage and that I called it before the season. Never thought it was gonna be this bad though.
Mike Brown is cackling rolling Nutter Butters in banana pudding and watching reruns of Moesha.
@ Tom/Mallory-TT played totally passable defense on an admittedly struggling former all-star Howard when Andy wasn’t in the game. He fouled effectively, got in the lane a few times to disrupt penetration, and yes, found a fun way to get blocked by an inanimate object. But to negate his contribution and rebounding as ho-hum is ridiculous. He wasn’t an all star, but he had a definite impact on winning the game. He even boxed out twice until he grabbed the rebound, instead of jumping wildly into the air.
Miles emersion could be a big deal, if he keeps that confidence up. With Casspi replacing him on the second unit, we could have a passable set of small forwards WITH SIZE to play offense and defense with marginal effectiveness.
Also, someone MUST malign Dwight’s vaunted defensive prowess. The guy is lost in this system. Yes, it’s Dantoni. But he is NOT the defensive problem he was in Orlando. Some credit needs to immediately run toward Van Gundy for the DPY Award(s). rewatch this game alone and you’ll see he is a relative non-factor by comparison.
I said that C.J. Miles ought to be starting after the first preseason game. Some players are just better as starters (see Pargo, Jeremy). Who else forgot how good KI is? And I 100% agree with you. He got beat, but was actually trying to recover, and stole the ball once when he did.
I actually thought Gee had a pretty good game. Kobe put up a ridiculous amount of shots, and some of them were incredibly difficult makes (how about that fadeaway 3 in the corner to cut it to 3?). Yeah, Gee lost focus in transition a couple times, but he also had to play almost every minute Kobe was out, in a game where Kobe was dead set on showing up Kyrie. To chip in 17/3/5 while having to defend Kobe all night, isn’t too bad. Gee was a part of that awesome run in the 2nd quarter.
Andy was awesome in stretches, but I wish he had more confidence walking into that elbow jumper. I think he needs to get to where he’s comfortable walking straight into that shot so people have to play him straight up out there which will open up his drive game. And did I ever miss the KIAV pick and roll. I was very bummed his double digit rebound streak had to end.
TT played some gritty defense in spurts, but you know his offensive game is bad when AC and Fred McLeod are talking about the running one handers from the free throw line that have been almost going in for the last few games. Really? His best offensive play was on a foul on the floor after which he flipped the ball up and in on an easy reverse. There was no 5 second gather!
The Lakers are a mess, but I thought the Cavs played really disciplined defense: they made Kobe beat us, collapsed on Howard, and gave the Lakers absolutely no dunks.
Bizzare game with only 1 point coming from anyone outside of the top 5 scorers. How much did I love seeing Kobe flip out in the locker room?
@Tom- I know, it was sarcastic….. aaaaaaannnnnd I’m going back to other Cavs blog.
S87Twist – agreed on Howard. Andy pump faked him into the air, and then drove by him for the FACIAL! And Howard was lost helping multiple times on the PnR. I honestly didn’t notice TT much on the court tonight. I noticed him fumble away an entry pass, and get blocked by the rim. I’m not dismissing his defensive prowess – I just didn’t see it tonight. I only caught about 1/3 of the game. He wasn’t on the court much during that time. I only saw about 10 of CJ Miles 28 points too.
@tom-gotcha. if you caught andy’s stuff, you caught the whole game. that was basically the attitude they all took. One big “suck it” to the whole laker’s squad. it was marvelous.
S87 and David – I noted he had a good rebounding game. And yeah, his D was passable and he did it against a bunch of different positions, but there’s a reason why Zeller played down the stretch.
And Nate, I forgot to mention that Austin Carr thing about TT’s hook/one hander shot. What a joke.
Tom sort of summed up TT for me as well – The only notable things that I really saw were the missed hook/floater/shot thing, his blocked shot, and a TO under the basket. I watched the whole thing, but he didn’t exactly make a statement….that’s really why I didn’t put him in good OR bad. It’s not like he blew the game, but he didn’t exactly blow our minds either.
@Roy – I’m so sorry bro. Please stay. You add way too much value we can’t afford to lose you. Also, this is going to affect my commission.
But enough of the negative. MILES MILES MILES!
Good point Mallory. Zeller’s a high bball IQ guy. I guess when you’re praising TT’s passable defense, it’s as bad a praising is after the whistle flip up and in. he was a top 5 pick after all.
Can I talk about one thing I’ve noticed about the Cavs the last few games? The plus minus on Cavs when it comes to pump fakes has to average around -6 per game. As in, everyone fakes the Cavs out and then jumps into the Cavs players when they fly at them and draw fouls, and NO ONE on the Cavs pump fakes and then jumps into their defender when the defender is on a wild closeout. I swear I scream “DON’T JUMP!” 3 times a game, and scream “JUMP!” at least twice. The NBA has let this crap get out of hand again, where guys are jumping sideways into players after a pump fake (that happened to Gee, tonight), but someone on the Cavs needs to coach guys like Casspi to pump fake and go straight up into the guy flying at him to draw fouls because the point differential is getting ridiculous.
Totally agree, Nate. To add to it, what is it with refs deliberately not calling blatant fouls on Andy? It’s driving me insane.
I know what you mean, Mal714. Andy got absolutely mugged on that dunk. Zeller had a total brick in the 3rd that I yelled at him for till I saw the replay and realized that Howard just reached out and smacked him in the face. The Cavs need a vet on the floor to work the refs.
s87twist – CJ Miles looked like a different player tonight. He stepped into some shots with serious confidence. Love watching andy finish PnR and not just launching 18 footers. This was a huge game for the cavs.
@Tom- ok im back. Sorry I was rude, that was uncalled for. I will continue to visit C:tb on occasion, it is more than worthy of my attention.
@Roy – I feel like the Dad in the parable of the Prodigal son! Quick, someone slaughter that fattened clip-art calf. Get him the finest robe and sandals! Here is a ring! Commenters, your brother was lost and now he is found! Let’s celebrate!
Hooray. But srsly, isn’t andy verajao much more fun to watch than his replacement will be if we trade him?
plus, has anyone heard Hubie Brown commentate a cavs game? his verajao comments are gold.
s87twist – yeah I couldn’t bear to not watch varejao nightly. He makes the game so much fun. And I love me some Hubie Brown. He makes some great calls.
Yeah, funny how Howard had a shot blocked by the rim too…however, he was bailed out by a late whistle. Something TT NEVER gets. Oh and Scott mentioned TT right after Kyrie in his post-game comments tonight. But I’m sure Byron is wrong to mention such a “non-factor.”
This is why I have been staying away. I keep thinking people might actually learn something from posts/comments and watching the games and amend their opinions but then Mallory proves with this re-cap that is clearly not true. TT rebounded better than Andy, played good D on Jamison, who is a tough cover for traditional 4′s like TT and just played tough and physical. Things winning teams need…
Also, the ridiculousness of people thinking Zeller was subbed in for TT due to his superior…I dunno…SOMETHNG, rather than the fact that the Lakers were likely to foul and Zeller is a far better FT shooter than TT, well…
Andy’s Dunk leads the midnight SportsCenter! Kobe’s talking about Phil. D’Antoni is getting pissed at reporters. I love it! We might’ve just cost ourselves a 15th pick!
I love the pick situation. Makes this and the next lakers’ game fun. As for TT/Zeller discrepancy, they accomplish different things on the court and are both valuable to this current roster. However, as the next couple years wear on, Zeller seems to have placed himself in a position where he could make $1-5 million off someone’s bench, whereas TT has found himself in the high draft pick and not panning out situation. Team defense is a real thing. Ask Kobe after tonight’s debacle. He’d definitely rather have Pau out there right now…no doubt about it.
KJ – yeah I think the only reason Zeller is on the floor instead of TT at the end of games is because of FT shooting. What else would it be? Tristan is better at rebounding and defense and the offense is going to go through Kyrie in end of game stuff. Get me on your level so I can get in the argument you are trying to start.
I noticed Andy get WHACKED a bunch of times (notably that dumb play where Gee didn’t just dunk the ball – andy got TACKLED) and not get the calls. Cavs FT disparity is partially style, but the refs sure don’t respect them much.
KJ seriously I don’t know about the other guys but I’ve missed you. Don’t stay away. We can’t let Cols run the show around here
s87 – how crazy would it be if the Lakers really don’t right this ship. I’ll say this, D’Antoni does not have a history of getting teams to play defense and that’s what they are struggling with most. Did you see Kobe’s comment tonight on how he’s the fastest guy on the team and he’s “like 50″. LMAO
HAHA YES! I loved it. What’s silly about that comment is that Dwight seems to genuinely dislike Kobe’s 1000 shots per game attitude. It takes a special group to play with a guy like Kobe Bryant/michael Jordan/carmelo Anthony/Lebron James. I almost didn’t throw Lebron in there cuz he’s a totally different player than they were/are, but what the hell. He left like a turd.
But what I mean is that if there were some way the Lakers could get rid of Howard and keep Gasol…I think they might do it. The only thing they have to wait for is to see if Steve Nash really is a hall of famer. Cuz is he IS a hall of famer, he will be the guy to keep Kobe’s usage high, and also find a way to integrate Dwight’s need for ball movement to get quality looks. If it doesn’t work, it will be sort of sickly fun to watch them implode, although it would be sad to end Kobe’s career that way. But if Nash can somehow keep kobe happy and invigorate Dwight, they might never lose another game and it will still be fun to watch!
Sorry..didnt’ explain myself well in the first paragraph. I think it is silly that Kobe seems not to notice how his playing style really really grates on Dwight Howard.
s87 – it could be a SPECTACULAR implosion. I’m trying to envision how they are going to do it. The pieces don’t fit with each other or the coach. I really don’t think the Lakers can win if the offense is Kobe-centric. It’s going to have to go through Gasol with Howard crashing the glass and Kobe initiating the offense. no idea where that leaves Nash, but if they continue to pretend like Gasol sucks it’s could be a really long season. Mike Brown was so the guy to get that team to play defense. they could have punted on offense and just stayed close enough for Kobe to take over close games. Now they can’t stop anyone and DAntoni+Nash will exacerbate that.
I totally agree about Mike Brown. He really was their guy. After the Celtics threesome championship ’08, it is almost as if teams think they can all-star their way to the title in a year. The only time that has happened is the Celtics. I don’t count the heat because they didn’t do it in a year, and they also made legit changes to the way they played in order to get it done.
The players vs. owners spat is soooo intriguing in the NBA right now. In the NFL it is just silly, and in the NHL it is new. But in the NBA, it is legitimately interesting, since players have a little more sway as there are fewer per roster and they have more impact on the game etc, etc.
I really think the Lakers are going to be a great example of how the players miscalculated. In any case, I think you are right. Spectacular implosion. Unless Steve Nash. But he’s so old, right? He couldn’t make them a running team at his age, right? Except he and Dwight…ha it will be so fun.
excuse me to anyone who is an NHL fan…the spat is not new…just new to me because I don’t follow the league. It seems to me that the NHL and NBA spat are similar…now that I consider it. I apologize.
The Lakers situation is soo incredibly dumb because Mike Brown really wasn’t the problem. The fact that Kobe got what he wanted (Mike Brown fired), puts a lot of this on him. The Princeton offense was really ideal for Gasol (look how well Andy shines in it in Cleveland), but it wasn’t ideal for iso-Kobe, so Kobe got pissed and impatient. Now the Lakers are an even bigger mess, but the entire problem is the front office. THE LAKERS CAN’T STOP QUICK GUARDS. They’ve done nothing to fix this problem since last year, in fact it might be worse since they signed Nash. I’d love to see D’Antoni fired and Phil brought in. It would be absolutely comical.
CJ Miles before tonight has been utterly terrible. CJ Miles was amazing tonight. Was it a 1 game wonder or does he excel in a starting role next to KI2? I might give him the run with the first unit to find out, and let Waiters come off the bench like he did in college as a chucker…ahem I mean volume shooter.
I saw TT tonight get passed the basketball with nobody within 5 feet of him right underneath the basket. What does he do? He looks down and ponders “what is this round orange thing?”. Then he shuffles his feet, gathers himself, pats the round orange thing to make sure it hasn’t flown away, gets a drink of water, calls his mom, ponders who he is going to play hopscotch with tomorrow, then jumps off 2 feet and gets STUFFED by the bottom of a stationary rim.
When we drafted him I worried about teams playing hack a Tristan with his 40% FT shooting but after watching him play there’s no point in teams even fouling him…his offense is THAT bad. Put it this way, if he was undrafted and playing with the 2nd unit…I’d be right with the TT lovers saying he’s young just give him time to see if he eventually becomes something useful, but he’s not. He’s a #4 pick who is starting and playing 30+ minutes a night. Ouch.
Honestly I hope we go after Milsap and move TT to the bench and let him either “develop” or fade into the abyss from there.
I agree that it was nice to get KI2 back. When he’s healthy (not often) the kid is like really REALLY good. I still don’t buy into the fact that you can build a championship winning team around a PG no matter how good he is (CP3 = 0 ships, DRose = 0 ships, Rondo = 0 ships), but that’s not his fault. He’s a stud and worthy of being talked about in the same sentence as those other PG I listed…..well for the 50 games a year he’ll actually suit up.
As for tonight’s win? Was it awesome? Absolutely. Did we play well? Absolutely. Did it feel good? Absolutely. But this Lakers team is reeling….and the sun shines on a dog’s butt ever once in awhile. I mean I’ve watched a wretched Cleveland Browns team beat the New England Patriots. It didn’t mean that Browns team was any good. So the question is, will tonight be a 1 game aberration that we all forget about a month or so from now, or the start of something good? I tend to think it will be the former but we shall see….
Absolutely fantastic comment, Wes. Sums up my feelings completely. Tomorrow will be an interesting game, for sure.
Regarding Miles, his shot selection actually was good – most of his 3s were smart, open shots, and he drove to the rim with authority. Lets hope he’s finally clicking.