Kyrie loves playing against Boston; 40 points, including 11 in the last 2.5 minutes? All in a day's work.
Big day for the Cavaliers. First they trade a waiver-wire pickup for the entire Grizzlies bench PLUS a first round draft pick, then they pummel a reigning Eastern Conference Finalist. Also, based on post-game chatter, this game rates highly among Cavs:the Bloggers. I watched with company, so hopefully my attentiveness and recollection do this justice.
Cleveland sprinted off on a 31 to 27 first quarter lead. Kyrie was RIDICULOUS; 19 points on 8 of 10 from the field. Circus shots at the rim, pull-ups from mid-range, threes from deeeeep; Kyrie displayed the whole arsenal. The league’s soon-to-be undisputed best passing front court mesmerized with pinpoint dimes; Walton, Zeller and Thompson combined for eight first quarter assists.
Walton perpetuated his point-forwarding in the second quarter, including a set-up for a monstrous Tristan dunk. Luke registered five assists in his first seven minutes of play; remember, he’s a free agent this offseason, so the team better maintain cap space. Otherwise the quarter started poorly, as Waiters attacked but could not finish, and also rimmed-out an open three. Cleveland’s six points in the first six minutes allowed Boston to mount a 37 to 41 lead. Tristan Thompson scored eight of his twelve second-quarter points in the final six minutes though, to navigate the team to a 54 to 53 half time lead. He finished with 16 for the half; Kevin Garnett was jealous of how smooth Tristan’s shooting has become.
As usual, Cleveland limped out for the third quarter. Boston fueled an early run behind Jeff Green and Avery Bradley three pointers. They built a seven-point lead until Alonzo Gee decimated the Boston defense with filthy drive & dunk. Cleveland embarked on a 7 – 0 run, including an out-of-bounds play drawn up for their go-to-guy: with three seconds on the shot clock, the pass went to Tristan, who left Garnett grasping at air, and threw the hammer down! Cleveland trailed heading into the fourth by a score of 70 to 73.
The first nine minutes of the fourth seesawed back-and-forth, as neither team gained more than a three point lead. Then, the magic started. Kyrie drove and finished to give the Cavs an 84 to 83 lead. Next, Rajon Rondo inexplicably chased down an errant pass and saved the ball to Kyrie alone under the basket: 86 to 83 Cleveland. Kevin Garnett hit two free throws, but then off a Waiters assist, Alonzo Gee pump-faked and dunked to restore the three-point margin. On the ensuing Boston possession, Garnett received a veteran-vs-rookie phantom call, with Tyler Zeller’s clean block ruled a foul. Garnett hit both freebies and Zeller fouled out, replaced by super-sub Luke Walton.
The teams traded misses, until TT grabbed a d-board, handed it to Kyrie…and Irving went coast-to-coast! 90 to 87! On Boston’s possession, Rajon Rondo attempted to one-up his young counter-part, but missed…the ball was tipped, then tipped again, and Luke Walton snagged the clutch rebound! That man is everywhere!
What’s next? Of course, a Kyrie and-one; put this game on ice, tonight’s baddest man alive says the game is over. Cleveland leads by six with twenty-seconds to go and the rest is a formality.
A nice win for the team. Kyrie finished with 40 points on 74% true shooting, including 15 in the fourth quarter. Tristan finished with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists worth of buttery-slickness. Walton tallied seven assists as the team piled-up 28 on 37 field goals.
Good game. Cavs rule. Celtics stink. Onto some notes:
- Kevin Durant still plays tonight, but Kyrie may very well end up the NBA’s best player today. That happens a few times per season, and is amazing for a twenty year old. With solid defense, what is his ceiling? Top-three NBA player?
- Waiters had an off-night, shooting 3 of 12. Five of his shots were at the rim, though obviously he couldn’t finish. He missed an open three and dished three assists with zero turnovers. One aspect of Dion’s role in the offense that frustrates me, is that when off the ball, he meanders away from the play. He is frequently 30 to 35 feet from the basket when someone else has the ball. The game turns into 4 on 5. He needs to learn / be taught about some action to perform when off-the-ball.
- Zeller played a relatively feisty game, featuring 10 boards, 3 blocks, 4 assists and plus-5 in 38 minutes.
- Did you know that Luke Walton’s effective field goal percentage is 47% in the first half and 32% in the second half? No? Just something I noticed.
- Did you know that in the last 17 games, Tristan has attempted 3.5 shots per first quarter, only been assisted on 29% of his makes, and converts at 42% effective field goal shooting? In the other three quarters, he averages 2.4 shots and is assisted on 46% of his makes with 55% eFG. You hadn’t noticed that? What game are you watching?
- Daniel Gibson returned to the line-up, but ummm, didn’t really do anything.
- Ohio State alum Jared Sullinger posted a double-double, his third in January.
Yay! Great win. Whew! I don’t normally do this but I did check out Celtics blog . The commnets on our players were very interesting. They love Kyrie, impressed on TT’s improvement and worried on Gee’s defense against them. But the most intriguing series was Luke Walton . Ha HA. The were bewildered, somewhat angry and disgusted on the effectivness of his play against them. And for most of the time (if we’re really honest) Cav fans kinda have the same feelings. Lol But it was different this time. And after reading the rants; I appreciated Walton much more.
Shout out to Dion for a key play…he stuck his nose in there and battled two C’s to tip a crucial defensive board to TT, who dished it out to Irving in those closing minutes. Good defense by Gee on that lst shot also…had he put a hand up PP would have gotten that foul call. Great game by the beloved hometowners.
That was such an awesome game. Great team defense and the offense looked great all night
This was a good a$$ game, to anyone that got the chance to watch it…. TT was on his game (needs to take notes on how he played tonight). Irving….. Did his clutch Irving takeover, like he does (wish he didn’t have to, but it sure is fun to watch). Dion, kinda his regular type of night (not as good as he has been, not as bad as he has been)….. I know I mentioned TT already, but dang, he was getting at it tonight, and thought it was worth another shout out.
Funniest Box Score Sats of the evening….. Walton dishing out 7 assists… Ha… Whatever, I’ll take it.
LLLUUUUUUKKKKKKKEEEEEEEEEEE….
PS. Absolutely still love the trade that went down. GRANT for POTUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TT needs to take notes on how he played tonight? Like have some of you totally missed the Cavs the last month+? This is how he’s been playing every night.
Where do Tristan’s quarterly stats come from?
R,
I sorted using basketball reference:
http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/plus/shot_finder.cgi?player_id=thomptr01
Rich, he has been playing great all month, but I saw him having more willingness to put the ball on the floor last night than he has most nights. It seems to work for him.
Kyrie = Ridiculousness
Went to the game…had a frigging blast! Nothing better than see all of those Celtics fans leaving with a sad look on their faces! Luke was AWESOME! Tristan is definitely developing into a good ballplayer…not trying to do too much, hitting the boards, playing defense, and taking whatever the other team gives him. Cannot believe how much his offensive play in the paint has improved in the last month! Good times are definitely ahead for this squad. Cannot wait!
Cavs are 6-9 in their last 15, and 10 of those games were on the road. I know 6-9 is not going to blow anyone away, but for a team this young with such little depth, it is pretty impressive.
If Speights can give us some minutes, I think we could end up playing close to .500 for the rest of the year (we have a ton of home games left). That is not good news for our draft position, but I think it is great news for the development of the players currently on the team.
Admittedly, I have not watched much in the last month, but what I saw int eh first half from TT was not what I had seen the previous year. He moved while dribbling! He created his own baby hook shots, moving TO the rim! He looked like a completely different player. Don’t give up on him… It seems most people have been pro-TT in the last month here, but prior to that, everyone called him a bust. I by no way am saying he’s anything like Dwight Howard, but other good players who play PF/C do not seem to develop as quickly as guards (see Kyrie, Rose, etc.) for whatever reason.
The only ones down on TT’s game were the lame bloggers here at CtB….Now they are all dick riding, no suprise there!
Longtime Cavs fan here but since moving from Cleveland have not been able to watch many games. However, got to watch last night a couple observations/questions:
Zeller: was he able to make the 15-18 footer at UNC? Seems like he is able to get that shot in our system, yet I think he was 0-3 or 0-4 last night? If he can’t make that shot with consistency (a la Z) I am not sure how he can be a productive player…
Livingston: just 1 game sample size, but really liked how the offense looked when he was on the floor. Great court vision and better ball movement than the Sloan/Pargo duo. Also, his length helps bother shots. Was this game an outlier?
Tristan: The offensive uptick has been widely discussed, but loved his defense on KG down the strecth.
Love the blog, keep up the good work!
Dan,
How many times did someone call Tristan a bust at C:tB?
Based on similar accusations earlier this season, I searched a month of content (not comments, that would have been exhaustive) and found zero instances. Obviously writers have expressed concern about various aspects of his game, but I don’t know that anyone gave up on him (i.e. bust).
NotAFan,
We can keep things civil, right? I haven’t read the entire internet, but I assume that other people also expressed concerns about Tristan. I don’t recall many predictions of 21, 9 & 5 games being on the immediate horizon for Tristan. The sudden improvement is amazing. As far as your second accusation, when I called Tristan the team’s go-to guy and described his play as “buttery slickness”, that was playful exaggeration. I did not intend to confuse you.
Occassionally some readers indicate that C:tB has a narrative. This always seems silly to me, as I am almost sure a variety of opinions get expressed. We probably publish 50000 words a month, from six writers.
I think some readers have developed a “C:tB narrative” in their heads…that we all thought Tristan would be in Europe next year, the Dion pick was stupid, the re-build is a disaster, etc. These supposed themes get exaggerated, while frequently various shades of the discussion were detailed.
TT looked very comfortable in space last night. Even dribbling between his legs a couple of times. Garnett was really playing off of him. If only he had a 10-15 ft jumper….not complaining though!!!! It did look like he touched the ball less in the second half. Partly because Kyrie took over in the 4th. But also because of the recurring 3rd quarter stalls. Are they because of Byron’s coaching? Personally, I think it’s because the players have trouble adjusting on the fly, due to inexperience.
Did anyone else notice Shaun Livingston getting a few minutes at SF? I wonder if we’ll see that again.
Nice to see Kevin Jones back. I thought it was fishy that he was sent to Canton. Hopefully he can get a few minutes.
One instance I can think of is Cols always refers to Colin saying on draft day, after the Cavs picked Dion, that “the world disintegrates like a cookie beneath the rump of corpulent eight-year old.” But by September, Colin declared Dion as likely to be his favorite player. Each of us says alot of things, with developing opinions over time.
Rob-
You are right, Zeller has not been able to hit that outside shot- but I think it will come. He looks very smooth in shooting it with a quick release off the catch. Your comparison to big Z is a viable one, but remember….Ilgaskus didn’t really hit that shot with any consistency until his 5th or 6th year. Give it a little time.
I also echo your comment on TT’s defense on Garnett, who ended up shooting 5-of-13 from the field for the game. You can credit Zeller with some of that defense as well.
TT’s improvement and Zeller’s failings as a shooter are intertwined. TT has a hard time shooting because he is completely opposed to putting the ball on the floor. Because of this, opposing defenders can close out with no worry of a pump fake and drive. TT, while he is absolutely no threat to shoot, will put the ball on the floor and get to the rim, thus forcing opposing teams to guard him out to 18 feet. Additionally, his passing continues to grow by leaps and bounds each game. He can even drive and dish.
My favorite play of the game: The Gee windmill dunk. Where does this rank on the Gee pantheon of dunks? It’s got to be up towards the top. It completely energized the team in what had been a listless third quarter.
My least favorite play of the game: Kyrie in the mid fourth leaves Rondo under the basket to try a sneaky steal 20 feet away at the top of the key. Celtics pass inside without hesitation. Layup, Rondo.
Kevin –
The example of Colin over-reacting to Waiters and then evolving his opinion is an instructive one. While its true his opinion has evolved, it remains true that his initial opinion was really really really silly (btw, I am the one who dug up the quote on this one and pointed it out ;)).
I think one thing you guys under-estimate is that your silly opinions detract from your more nuanced opinions, and they tend to linger in the readers’ minds. This is not unreasonable. The fact that Colin reacted in such a silly way to Waiters’ pick is something I take into account when he makes new opinions. If you are evaluating the Sports Guy’s opinions, or Steven A’s, or Wilbon’s, you probably give a lot of weight to the unreasonable opinions they had in the past, as those opinions give you a broad sense of how their mind works. Or, to use a political example, a lot of people discount everything George W says because he has made enough ludicrous statements over the years to call into question his judgment. Even if he says something reasonable, people take it with a grain of salt because he has said enough silly things in the past.
Creating credibility is about what your readers think of you not about what you think of yourselves. As a fan of the blog who appreciates all of you work, I think the way to avoid these conflicts is to be a bit more tempered in some of your opinions. And if you do over-react to something, own it the next day and admit that Opinion X was silly or emotional.
Go Cavs!
Kevin,
I am not attacking C:tB writers, I am sorry you took it that way, but you have to admit that the comments when he was drafted when it seemed like everyone here wanted anyone BUT TT (especially big-V) takes away from any fact that anyone here supported/defended him for a long time. And, that continued mostly up through this year when Andy went down with injury. And, this is also directed at the posters, not necessarily always the writers. Although, Hot Sauce makes a good point, that the “silly” comments/opinions do detract from some of the excellent content and analysis. I still come back to read here one way or the other. When Krolik wrote about his love of Terrence Kinsey, he always admitted that it was entirely unfounded and ridiculous. It was almost to the point that he should have had a disclaimer on the web page header, but he’d admit it nonetheless.
Hot Sauce,
Colin’s initial opinion was literally 15 words. Plus it was barely an opinion; cookie, rump, corpulent eight year old. It’s not like the 15 words were, “This is a horrible outcome and the entire management should be immediately tarred and feathered.” That night, him and I posted like 2000 words discussing a variety of in and outs on the evening’s draft, but the one-liner about a cookie gets mentioned at least once a month.
If relative non-opinions like this linger for months and define the blog’s credibility, that’s harsh. I know this is just one random example that I brought up, and I really don’t want to engage in a defense of the 1,000,000 words published at C:tB…so I should probably leave it at that.
Thanks for reading and Go Cavs
one of the best aspects of last nights game, for those of you watching it on TV, was that the loud, typical annoying celtics fan next to fred and AC, being SHUT UP by our victory! i wanted to rub it in his face so badly, i hope those at the game made him eat his words
Dan,
I didn’t take anything as an attack (ok, may NotAFan’s comment). Regarding the immediate aftermath of Tristan’s selection, my reaction piece ended with a paranthetical: “Welcome to Cleveland, Tristan. Hopefully any doubts only drive you to become a better player.” The day after that, I posted a “glass half full reflection” that discussed what Tristan did bring to the table. Three days after the draft, Colin wrote an article that wasn’t purely critical of the pick. I can’t find it right now, but I recall that after a few games into last season, John Krolik ran a recap with a picture of a crow, accounting for his eating some on the TT pick.
Just don’t remember only the things that fit your narrative (this sentence isn’t specifically to you). Maybe like HotSauce indicates, these reactions (in the Tristan case, there was one…not so sure for Dion) damage credibility, but I think any over-reactions have typically been owned up to fairly quickly.
Kevin, you conveniently ignore what is said in the podcasts, and do you think we make this stuff up? CTB lost their shite over the Dion pick. You and i were about the only new defending it early on. Mallory said TT was Tyrus Thomas.
Hot Sauce, as always (damn yr a good poster), gets it right. Furthermore, Kevin, you know it is a FACT that people on other Cavs blogs have commented how negative the tone of CTB was/is. So, do not try and paint this as just a few weirdos on this comment board…
Btw, I am no homer. I cautioned against people getting too excited about Zeller after the draft. I hate what Gee has done/become. Always thought Boobie was useless. I could go on. But I have always defended TT and Dion because I used my damn eyes AND advanced stats to form the opinion that GIVEN SOME TIME they could be great picks. Why was that so hard for CTB writers NOT named Kevin Hetrick to do?
GUYS TRISTAN’S PER IS ABOVE 15 FINALLY WE’RE ALLOWED TO LIKE HIM
Kj,
I don’t conveniently ignore podcasts, I just can not “Control F” them and search for “bust”. If the blog lost it over the Dion pick, I guess it was in the comments. In order to make whatever case I am making here, I don’t want to re-read 172 comments. Within two hours after the draft, an article was posted supportive of the picks.
I understand there was “negativity” and it was not well received by all, but I do think that as a whole, the depth and breadth of the negativity does get exaggerated.
To detract from my content (and your last sentence), I have never argued that Tristan was a great pick. I thought he was fine, but he is certainly exceeding my expectations…and that’s awesome.
This is why the negativity of the blog early on this year was so stupid. Overreacting to early games and the first so many games of Tristan’s and Dion’s career.
Kj,
When you say you hate what Gee has done/become, are you focusing on his offense? Because his defense seems as good as ever.
“When… your gravity fails and negativity don’t pull you through. Don’t put on any airs when you’re down on Rue Morgue avenue. They got some hungry women there, and they really make a mess out of you.”
Really good game… I just wish they would’ve played Casspi more. You never know, he could make a great 8th man one day
Bill: look for Casspi to post a 16.5 PER for the next 3 years in San Antonio. I’ve never seen a more tragically misused player.
Nate
Nice Bob Dylan lyric. In other news, no one cares about Casspi.
KJ -
Early on in the season Tristan wasn’t much better than Tyrus Thomas. I don’t really know why everyone on here is playing the “I told you so” game. No one wanted him to be bad – we’re all absurdly happy he’s suddenly turned it on. Be happy too, and move on.
In other news, thanks to several awful airlines, I missed the entire game last night (and spent at least 5 hours at the airport!) I would miss one of the best games of the year.
Nate,
I think it’s more likely we’ll be looking at his PER on the San Isidro Spanish league team. He could be the third best player on their team
Mallory
Take ownership of your failure for once. You were wrong about the team, especially Thompson, but probably also Waiters and Chris Grant overall. You and Scott Raab had an entire crybaby podcast where you discussed how everything sucks. It’s OK, you were wrong. No big deal.
And that is the point. STILL you writers make excuses instead of owning up to it; maybe even poke some fun at yourselves about it, we all laugh and move on in the optimistic glow of what we are seeing. Instead, you keep digging in trying to prove that somehow what nearly everyone was saying wasn’t true or using the most crass of rationalizations.
We understand from game-to-game there will be teeth gnashing and some over-exuberance. But context was lost far too many times and that was/is a problem. Yet, this is not really about us; it is about you at CTB. Something I still think you guys are failing to recognize…
The Cavs beat an exhausted Portland team coming off of an overtime game the night before and a Celtics team that is in free fall and can’t get back on defense. Why the C’s didn’t take the ball out of Kyrie’s hands at the end of the game was beyond me. It was really terrible offense and defense by the Celtics who didn’t defend, rebound, or shoot worth a darn. Let’s not start licking each others’ oblong frozen desserts just yet.
8th seed here we come!
just kidding ;)
Kj,
Which rationalization was most crass? Technically, I’m not sure who you’re talking to. We do this alot though. On a certain post, I am the writer doing most of the commenting, then you make a critique that isn’t particularly addressed to anyone, then I respond, then you say, “it’s not you, you’re cool”.
And then a couple of weeks later, we do it again, because you address your comment to everyone and reference general ideas, and I think “is he talking to me? Should I respond? Maybe the comment is directed to me. This is confusing.” If you’re talking to me, address me. If you’re talking to Mallory, address Mallory. It’s just easier that way. You don’t leave an email address, so I can’t even send you a nice offline message.
Probably my favorite thing about this blog, and what I think sets it apart from other cavs blogs out there is the intelligent discussion that normally takes place in the comment section.
However, over the past 1 to 2 months, a few bad (read ignorant/obtuse/shallow and selfish) eggs have turned reading the comments into a game of Russian Roulette.
We get it guys, the writers were wrong about everything, they generally suck ass, and you hate them. The horse you’ve beaten is no longer recognizable. You win. Please exercise your economic vote and take your web traffic elsewhere.
Thanks Richard.
I was going to say something similar. As general ground rules:
If a reader doesn’t like one writer, they can choose not to read that writer. Our names are at the top of every post we publish. If you don’t like all of us, well I don’t know what you are doing here. You are a masochist.
If you disagree with any writers opinions, obviously argue your counterpoint, but keep the commenting civil. Spirited discourse is what makes the comment sections worthwhile. At some point, it is fine to disagree though. Discussions & debates can be left at disagreement.
I have been lenient about the Blog’s comment policy, but if people come on here and swear (as a reference to a writer or commenter) or generally trash someone’s character, it is time to start deleting comments. None of this NBA discussion is serious enough that we need to be mean to each other. That is crass.
It would be great if 100% of our content can make 100% of the people happy. It never will though, and if it did, it probably would mean that what we were writing wasn’t very thought provoking.
Guys, calm down. It’s pretty clear that Mallory stole Kj’s girlfriend or something, right? It can’t possibly be about basketball-related topics; no one hates anyone THAT much.
And Kj, I wasn’t talking about your comment as delete worthy. When people come on and call Mallory a valley-girl though, or all of our writers dick-riders (like a comment earlier in that post), that is completely unneeded.
My disappointment stemmed from when I wrote an article on FtS on November 21 calling TT’s advanced statistical numbers numbers the best surprise of the season. I wrote about 800 words talking about things I saw that TT had improved on, using both stats and my eyes. I have tried really, really hard to go back and find the post on here that had the comments about that article, but Mallory basically called it bullshit. He was specifically referencing my article, he pointed out Tristan’s PER at the time, said TT hadn’t improved AT ALL, didn’t address the substance of what I had written, etc. Again, I can’t find the post on here that the comments happened on, so I can’t point to anything concretely.
BUT, I respect the writing that everyone on this blog does, i think different opinions on players are to be celebrated as long as it is done respectfully, and I enjoy coming here. I don’t think saying I told you so is something that needs to happen after every freaking game. That being said, while I wholeheartedly admit Tristan has shown some things in the last month we weren’t getting consistently I ALSO get annoyed when people act like this is totally sudden. Because, I was writing on November 21 that the improvement was there. At that point, his FG% was up, his FT shooting was up, his defense had been really good, etc. So the alternate history that Tristan sort of turned this corner isn’t 100% accurate in my mind.
For example: yesterday was the best day to be a Cavs fan in awhile. There is just no reason for this thread to be negative. not one.
David,
I disagree and think it is relatively sudden. In November, Tristan averaged 9 & 8 on 44 / 58 shooting. In January, it’s 15 & 12 on 51 / 65. To argue that is not sudden strikes me as odd. Incremental improvement was there in November, but 15 & 12 on 51 / 65? That’s not a dramatic change? Six weeks ago that is pretty much a really good case scenario from Tristan in him prime, right?
KJ
Yep. If the writers would just own up to the fact that their early season negativity was wrong this would be a better place. Instead we keep getting excuses.
Just say it, we were wrong about the Cavs. We were way wrong about Tristan Thompson. Go on, do it and then we can move on. Until that happens though why should we read opinions of people who were wrong?
David,
As far as the negativity of this thread; the article offered only excitement about the game. The first ten or so comments were similarly positive. Then someone called all the writers dick-riders, I defended us, and things sort of degenerated. I am going to start deleting those comments instead.
I do have a pet peeve when all of Cavs:the Blog is lumped into a single entity. To some extent I have lost track of who people are arguing with.