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.
Hey writers, stop responding to people who post only negative comments. You guys want to have constructive conversations that are never going to happen. So stop having the conversations. Know the phrase “dignifying it with a response?” Yeah.
Kevin I definitely did not find the article negative, and my comment about why the thread shouldn’t be negative were about the commenters complaining.
I agree that Tristan has been significantly better over the last month, but i don’t think it is “out of nowhere” or that it was “out of the blue”. And the fact that people kept trying to call him Tyrus Thomas, or ask him to average a double double immediately or project 15-12 as a career best for him is part of my point. For a 21 year old project big, looking for good things, looking for warning signs was always the most prudent option. You took that option. Some people didn’t. I think its an unfair get out of jail free card to say someone is going to fail, have other preach for patience, point out concrete reasons why, be told its bullshit, and then when the player starts to work out act like the people asking for patience never existed.
I know, Scott. Typically I am the one preaching that message. Today, I got roped in. Really, it was just one negative comment that I should have deleted that started the whole thing. There were a couple people that inclined that either A) everyone at Cavs the Blog said Tristan was a bust, or B) Colin over-reacted to the Waiters pick. I though both of those ideas were distortions and I tried to clarify this. Those two commenters are not “people who post only negative comments”, so a response wasn’t particularly unwarranted.
Eventually demands for letters of apology from everyone at Cavs:the Blog started coming in, and here we are.
Hopefully I have learned a lesson today.
Instead of just popping up and leaving snide comments when it pleases him, I want Cols to write a blog so that he is held accountable for all of his opinions. Then we can hold congressional hearings every time we think he’s made a mistake or phrased something in a way that displeases us.
Jon
My opinion since the beginning of the year has been that the Cavs are heading in the right direction. That Chris Grant has drafted well and will probably make some trades and sign some free agents after the season to get even better next year.
I’ve been saying this since the beginning.
From the looks of things I have the better argument than the CTB (or some writers named Mallory) argument that we are doomed.
David,
Ok, we disagree on the suddenness of the change. In the last ten years, the guys to average 15 & 12 and 50% fg are Duncan, Garnett, Howard, Blake Griffin and Zach Randolph (once). In my mind, to reach that level of performance at age 21 is undoubtedly sudden. Were there a lot of people acting like this was an immediate possibility, or that peak performance significantly better than this was likely?
Again, I am not sure if you are using “you” to mean everyone at Cavs:the Blog. My basic point is that “Tristan will fail” was not an over-arching theme. Obviously, that Mallory related him to Tyrus Thomas is well documented in the comment pages here. In the immediate post-draft timeframe, Colin said he could become like “Tyrus Thomas, if Tyrus Thomas was like, good”; that isn’t really negative though. I’m not sure anyone asked for a double-double right away. I projected him at a 11 & 9 in my pre-season predictions (apparently that isn’t outlandish though…others expected 15 & 12). Nate re-sent a spreadsheet that several of us filled in prior to the season; TT’s average expected field goal percentage was 47.5% and 2/3 of us picked him as the Cavs Most Improved. Again, I just don’t think a programmatic “Tristan will fail” theme existed. There were obviously concerns expressed, but I think you are perpetuating the exaggeration that I was trying to defend against earlier.
David
You are right. Kevin, you are wrong. There was definitely a Tristan will fail theme here. There was also a Cavs are failing theme here. It’s in the tone of nearly every post from November and December.
Accountability. It’s a thing.
Cols,
I searched every post in December. I’ll try November next. Fail was used in the context of “failed to execute” and “a comeback being doomed to fail without Kyrie”. Bust was never used as a description of a player.
As the team struggled to a 5 and 23 start, we wrote about things that are happening on your typical 5 and 23 team. Some articles or ideas were probably overboard, but much of the content dealt with the battles of a bad team.
In November, Colin referred to the failures of the middling castoffs on the team. That was the random older guys, not the youngsters though. The 26 point lead that was blown against the Suns was called a failure. Using Walton was described as a failure. Bust again never showed up as it relates to any of the youngsters. I didn’t search the comments.
Again, I am not arguing that there was not negativity…there certainly was, just that the depth and breadth of that negativity is exaggerated. I do believe that.
I will start the accountability though. I predicted that Tristan would average 11 & 9 this year with 47% field goal shooting and 57% free throws. I was wrong…it is 11 & 9 on 49 and 62. I do hope his current play continues, so that I am waaaay wrong by the end of the season.
Whether or not you said what you say you said. Its nice to see people fighting to get to the front of the band wagon which I never left (not saying anyone here did). But I have to say I’m starting to get a nauseous feeling in my stomach like Cols could be right about LBJ coming back in 2014. It makes too much sense and I learned today that Gilbert would take him back. I’ll never root for the cavs again if this happens
Thanks for filling in for me today, Kevin.
Good lord. I really wish there was a thumbs up/down option for comments. Since there is not, I will say I agree with scott wholeheartedly. And that I am getting tired of immature commenters who can’t let things go.
With all the back and forth on this, I guess there was no time for a new C:tb entry on what Lord Byron’s substitution patterns might resemble with the new guys in the fold Friday. Have we seen the last of Laidback Luke? Will Duke Ellington steal away minutes from Miles? Will Casspi finally take the job as the dude in the Moondog suit?
Kevin,
Please stop taking my posts as a personal attack. My comments (although moderated and reviewed more closely by the writers) are more of a comment on ALL posters (and fans), not just the writers. The comments are not always replies directly to the author, but they may be a bit ambiguous at times. For the record, you are my second favorite writer behind Krolik’s initial work, so now can we all be friends? We’ll leave it at that.
And, I am not right all the time (and no one ever is)… I admit that I thought (and I think I posted a long time ago) that I thought Derrick Williams / Brandon Knight was a better combo than what we picked. I still shudder at that, although Knight has been a productive player for the most part. I also wanted big-V initially because of all the hype that seemed to surround him. And, I even choose the onion hot dog at Tribe games when I just KNOW that ketchup is going to win. Can’t win ‘em all.
I do agree that the “riders” comment was disingenuous and should have no place here. I am sure it is very tough to see critical comments, some more degrading than others, and it’s not an easy job. Some wise person once told me it’s lonely to be on the top before I succeeded rather well in my career and wouldn’t you know, it’s true. And I am sure you know this by now – enjoy the fact that people care for the content enough to disagree and state their opinion. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be back to post more. However, let’s all hope it becomes more constructive in the future.
Write on!
And go Cavs!
Dan,
I never took your posts as a personal attack. We’re friends. I was just trying to untangle a web that I think occassionally presents itself. Just as C:tB occassionally distorted the meaning of the outcome of various early season games / sequences, I think the extent of that negativity has become distorted at this point.
Thanks for commenting. Go Cavs!
“I hate what Gee has done/become.”
…huh?
Cols, you can take your commenting elsewhere. I have no interest in personal mea culpa’s for completely rational thoughts. Really, the CavsTheBlog writers think that a 11 and 34 team is failing? OMG! How Dare they! They didn’t simply KNOW that Tristan would go from a 10/8 on 44%/60% to a 15/12 on 50%/68% when Andy went out? What morons! In fact, they are so stupid you should probably not pay any attention to them and stop reading this blog, so that more intelligent writers can be graced with your “everything is going perfectly all the time” nuances.
seriously though, I think Mallory is a little more negative than he needs to be, but its not exactly like we are out of the woods yet, and in Cleveland, its good to have a little perspective of negativity to keep expectations in check. The rest of the writers and even Mallory certainly see a lot of promise in our rebuilding efforts, but rather than wax about how good everyone will be in 4 years, they are talking about whats actually happening on the court and concerns they rightfully have about an 11-34 team.
I always pick Onion too. Gotta root for the underdog
Swirving I started tearing up reading your comment when I got to the part about “whats actually happening on the court” . :)
Tom,
I went to Tribefest with the kids this weekend and have pictures of my kids with both onion and ketchup. Onion is always underrated…
KyrieSwIrving,
I agree with Tom *tearing up* – what is on the court is not pretty, although there is definite potential. There is a delicate balance between the two – reality is most games are tough to watch, although you watch a few runs up and down and see some really great positives.
Dan – that’s awesome. This world would be an infinitely better place if more fathers took their kids to sporting events.
Tom – And, off to the Monsters game tonight with my family. Last time we went, my (at the time) 5-yr old was asked to ride the Zamboni and was too scared! Maybe the cheerleader in skimpy clothes was a bit intimidating too………
I always try to watch the Cleveland sports teams on the TV with the kids. My 6-yr old always seems to want to know who our 1st best, 2nd best, etc, etc player is. Maybe I should teach him how to post on forums, as he is a whiz at the internet (scary in its own right…)
Dan – haha I’m looking forward to these kinds of experiences. And coaching.
When I was that age I always enjoyed the players with the skillsets that I thought I could mimic. I think that’s a big reason why I was such a big Mark Price fan. It was like – hey I’m the smallest kid in school but I can shoot foul shots all day (7 foot rim at the time). i remember growing up loving Jeff Treadway and then Omar Vizquel because I had an awesome glove but no stick. maybe gives too much insight into why I enjoy watching Luke Walton play today.