Let's go Cavs, right?
Toronto 113
Cleveland 99
Well, tonight was more of the same: Cavs play well for much of game, then give it away in the 4th. The Cavs started out like gangbusters, and played well for a while. But the Raptors matched them most of the way, and Alan Anderson (who?) came up with enough big plays for Toronto to pull it out. The Cavs featured some truly horrendous defense in this one, especially down the stretch.
Highlights:
- Even though they weren’t really matched up for most of the game, Tristan Thompson actually kind of outplayed Jonas Valanciunas. This made me very happy. Tristan was active as usual on the boards, grabbing seven offensive big ones. Even better, he shot 5-8 from the field for an efficient 10 points. It was nice to see TT playing so well against Valanciunas (looked like he was playing JV!), although the Lithuanian still showed great off-the-ball movement and a real ability to run on the break.
- Kyrie Irving is an otherworldly offensive talent, in case you forgot. 9-16 from the field for 23 points and 7 assists. He carved up the Toronto defense, and was the only reason we didn’t end the game down by 25.
- C.J. Miles continues to shoot well and play well. He has a ton of confidence right now and is looking great. Pretty much all the bench guys played well tonight, actually. Miles, Boobie, Zeller…hell, even Luke Walton threw a sick assist.
- Anderson Varejao took a big spill tonight, but got back up and had another all-star performance. 22 and 10. #VoteAndy.
- Dion Waiters had a solid first game back. He didn’t shoot particularly well from the field, but distributed the ball well and played in control. I know some people think C.J. Miles should’ve gotten the nod, but I’m glad Byron Scott started Dion. It’s always good to keep your rooks confident, and he had one hell of a dunk on a feed from Gee.
Lowlights:
- Team defense, or lack thereof. The defensive effort here was pathetic, in short. In long, the Cavs didn’t close out on shooters, didn’t box anyone out, and consistently got confused on switches and traps, leading to several wide-open layups. There were two especially egregious plays in the fourth, back to back. Both times, Andy doubled a ball handler with Kyrie on the perimeter, leading to an easy pass to Amir Johnson in the high post, and then an easier past to a Raptor under the hoop for a layup. It was disappointing, to say the least, to see Andy mess up two plays in a row.
- A lot of people will be castigating Kyrie Irving for his defensive performance against Toronto, especially against Jose Calderon, who dropped a wildly efficient 23. But while I’ve never been one to try to defend Kyrie’s defensive effort, I didn’t think he was all that bad tonight. Calderon has been scorching recently, and playing well against everyone. Kyrie tried the whole game, at least, and I loved his tight man coverage in the last minute and a half, when the game was well out of reach. It was a little too late, but I appreciate that kind of stuff.
- Alan Anderson straight lit us up, and I’m still not sure how. It’s tempting to go ahead and blame it on the guys defending him (Gee and Waiters, mostly), but he simply played out of his mind. 5-7 on three pointers? Come on. Also, I cannot stand how John Lucas plays basketball. He’s a less fun Nate Robinson: a more dirty player who can’t jump as high. Also, 6-7 shooting for Amir Johnson, for 17 points with 6 boards and 5 assists? You know you’re in trouble when Amir Johnson is putting up Aaron Afflalo stat lines.
- Byron Scott’s rotations continue to amaze and befuddle me. Mostly, his insistence on keeping Kyrie out of the first five or so minutes of the 4th quarter, no matter the game situation. I’m not going to advocate for playing our point guard 45 minutes a game, but there are ways to stagger the minutes of our best player so that he’s in when we need him. Recently a recurring phenomenon has cropped up. It’s a close game into the 4th, Kyrie isn’t out there, the Cavs go down by 12, and we rely on Kyrie heroics. It just simply is not a winning formula.
Final:
The Cavs shot 51% from the field, 44% from three, and lost. That’s called awful defense, folks. It’s another loss, but hey- tonight was a good time. I think Kyrie’s better with a mask.
Tags: alan anderson, jose calderon, Kyrie Irving, toronto raptors
Way to note the Luke Walton assist. If we’re going to play someone terrible at least twice a game (a la pargo/sloan/walton), I’d rather it be Walton only because he moves the ball without dribbling…something our offense needs a jolt of.
The Kyrie sitting until we’re way down in the 4th is a disturbing trend. Gunning for a lottery pick is nice, but phoning it in to build losing into the brains of all these young guys is borderline sinful. Kyrie can play 45 minutes every once in a while. Doesn’t it seem as though his stat line would look like 33pts-10ast at the end of this game if he’s in there beginning the 4th? Rest Andy…but give Kyrie opportunities to realize his potential in manageable situations.
Ugh. The rotations are messy. But I actually didn’t mind Kyrie sitting that much at the beginning of the fourth. The Cavs defense is really what bothered me. Especially the hero line-up at the end of the game featuring Varejao, Miles, Gee, Waiters, and Irving. I’ve never seen such a unit be so incompetent at both interior and perimeter defense. I’ve never rooted so much for Tristan Thompson to be put in the game.
I also want to see more of Casspi and maybe some Pargo at times for crying out loud. I think Casspi’s floor stretching would’ve helped our offense a bit down the stretch, because it stalled hard in the 4th as the Cavs started trying to play hero ball.
Also, the Toronto color commentators are strangely entertaining. Talking quietly for maybe 75% of the time, and then random, out of the blue yelling and enthusiasm coming from nowhere.
I also had a good time with toronto guys…although i couldn’t believe how one of them pronounced andy’s last name.
DRIBBLING…dribbling….firing fadeaways from 26 feet… = bad basketball.
In fact, it was terrible basketball.
S87tiwst is exactly right when he notes that.
Dreamer is right when he asks for Pargo & Casspi, but Samardo should have also played.
The Rappers are a dirty, unskilled team who beat us up in this game, and we did not fight back.
Pargo, Ommri, & Samuels might have put up a fight like Tristan & Andy did.
You got to make the defense move!
Lebron James dribbling, dribbling, dribbling & nobody moving…Deja Vu!
You cannot consistently win unless you move the ball and the defense.
This might have been the most disappointing loss of the year. The Cavs were fairly rested, at home, and against a team they could beat. I would love to see a time out called once in a while when the other team goes on a run.
Mike,
I agree with you, except I don’t know that the team is fairly rested. That won’t happen until after Saturday. THis was still a 5th game in eight nights for a team whom only two NBA squads have played more games.
Dani,
I think your post is too POSITIVE. You were at the game, right? The at-game experience was probably more fun than the on-couch experience. Like Mike said, I thought this was a depressing loss. All the Cavs starters were healthy. It was at home. Toronto was missing Bargnani and Kyle Lowry, arguably their two best players. And Cleveland lost by double digits.
I thought the rookies looked rough. That will happen with rookies, but except for the first three minutes of the fourth quarter, Dion really wasn’t attacking effectively. It’s either him or the offense (probably both), but he doesn’t do much without the ball. Alot of times, he still gravitates to a spot thirty-feet from the basket. His shooting has been really rough.
Tonight was a big regression for Zeller, too. I thought he looked increasingly effective and aggressive as the season wore on. Last night, he looked confused and timid again.
I’m ready to forget last night.
Agree with Fighting Dreamer. I too was rooting for TT to come back in. Varejao was clearly hurt and needed help with the big men on defense and getting more rebounds. If you see TT close up in the games; he’s a hell of a fighter on defense. He doesn’t back down and our defense was lacking. But who do you take out? MIle, Gee or Waiters? Agree on Casspi and Pargo. we desperately needed a bench last night. I seriously do not understand Scott’s attitude against Pargo now benched for 4 games. You got to get over disappointments and move on from the Laker game with him. He is capable of lighting it up again more than Sloan has ever done. Scott’s long grudges hurts this team. I can’t beleive we are worse than last year!
Games like this are why you need a skilled vet or two off the bench – someone who can be consistent when youngsters lose their head. Someone who can refocus a team. I don’t even mean this for winning’s sake, more to instill habitual effort.
TV63 -
The problem with Pargo is he’s incredibly streak – some games he drives effectively and it opens up his jumper, sometimes he just steps back and lets the shot fly – my guess is Scott is trying to go with the more consistent guy.
Whether or not that’s the right choice is the question
Thank you for pointing out how comically bad the Toronto announce team was, especially the nimrod color guy who couldn’t pronounce anyone’s name right. He also pointed out that “Gee is not a very effective one-on-one defender” a couple of times and I wanted to snap (although Gee wasn’t very Gee-like on D last night). If you’re blessed enough to get paid to watch/analyze basketball for a living, take the job seriously and do some homework before you make asinine statements.
B-Ry,
You mean it’s not Vare-jay-ow?
The Cavs’ Offensive Rating was 116 pts/100 possessions in this game, which is pretty great.
Their Defensive Rating was 132 pts/100 possessions. I’m not sure who to blame. Kyrie seems ok man-man but he gets totally demolished by most screens.
Argh. Have to disagree, Dani. K.I. spent the first half of the game not trying on defense. No-D Kyrie was back, trailing pick and roll plays by ten feet, guarding no one. He has to be the worst pick and roll defender in the NBA at the guard spot. Also, he plays lazy passing lane defense, instead of staying on his man and denying him the ball. He cheats WAY too much. Gee was horrifically bad on DeRozan: absolutely getting smoked on simple drives where he wasn’t guarding DeMar on his strong side. I knew the game was over when Walton wasn’t playing instead of Casspi. Our rebound problems came partially because Casspi wasn’t chipping in his normal 5 boards, and C.J. and Luke were watching the ball go over their heads.
No way that Samardo should have played. Tristan Thompson should’ve been playing in the 4th quarter much more than he was. He was far and away the best Cavs defender last night, and he got sat so we could play the KI, St. Weirdo, C.J, Gee, Andy lineup so that we could match up with Linus Kleiza, stretch 4. UGH. Kleiza? Plus, TT has looked, dare I say, competent offensively on the block the last two games. He’s not dropping the ball below his chest when he gathers, and as a result is able to get up much more quickly and use some of that athleticism. He should have been playing down the stretch as he was owning the boards in the 3rd, and when he wasn’t having to guard two guys because of No-D Kyrie, he was playing good D.
How about we make teams adjust to us for once, Byron? If Toronto throws out Kleiza at the 4, then throw it to TT on the block and exploit the mismatch. If he can’t do it, then put Zeller in and see if he can. The hotseat just got set to simmer for Byron Scott, because the team looked incompetent last night, with absolutely no sense of what they were supposed to be doing on offense or defense. That half-baked zone they were playing for a while? What was that?
Also, the Cavs need an enforcer. They need their own Amir Johnson. They got out-toughed by freaking Toronto last night. They absolutely abused Andy, and no one had his back, and the Cavs played soft for the rest of the game.
Now that Dion is back, can we send him to the bench, not because C.J. is that much better, but because Dion was 1-10 on non-dunks last night, and horrifically bad on defense? He was a game low -17 and there’s not much noise in that stat.
Lots of Kyrie love: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=8763683
Guys I thought that CJ played an awful game except shooting. Turnovers, terrible rotations, failed to boxout numerous times costing us 2 rebounds in the final minutes, his man defense was poor as well. In the final period him and Zeller I thought were the two worst.
There is actually alot of good insight here from everyone. All they do is swear at everyone on “Fear the sword” blog . Alot of talk here about TT. I thought he held his own against Boston taking Andy’s spot on defense. Agree with Nate Smith on wishing Scott would adjust his rotation to the here and now of the game. But i would like to see Scott give Pargo another chance. Her had several games he had 16 plus points (high 28) and Sloan has never come close to that. It would make a huge difference in close games.
@TV63
Swearing really isn’t that common on FTS. What’s your specific complaint?