This trio combined for 78 points tonight.
The Cleveland Cavaliers played an intensely ugly game of basketball tonight against the Golden State Warriors. The Warriors shot 53.6% from the field, the Cavaliers 42.9%. The Warriors shot 68.8% from three, the Cavaliers 22.2%. Those are the only numbers you really need to know. Golden State actually turned the ball over two more times than the Cavs, and had less points in the paint. But this is one of the best shooting teams in the NBA, and when you don’t play anything resembling team defense, as the Cavs are wont to do, games can get out of control. This wasn’t a fun game of basketball to watch. The Cavs seemed to be perpetually losing by twenty (no matter the actual deficit), and the whole event was rather low-energy; it basically consisted of Illness-Ridden Kyrie Irving and Co. clanking jumpers while Klay Thompson turned into Reggie Miller circa 1990. Still gotta pay the rent, though, so let’s go ahead and take a look at this game.
First Half:
The Warriors ran out to an early 13-4 lead. The Cavs did not look sharp early. But the Warriors were missing Stephen Curry, and Klay Thompson hadn’t yet discovered that he’s the world’s greatest three-point shooter, and Tristan Thompson is decent at basketball, so the Cavs managed clawed their way back to a 23-23 tie by the end of the first. The second quarter, however was when Golden State Klay and the Warriors started making every shot they took. The Cavs continued their mediocre play, but it stopped being enough to keep the game tight. This one could have gotten out of hand if Dion Waiters didn’t play the role of Kyrie Irving tonight; at the end of the second, he started driving and scoring and dishing and scoring and dishing again. At the end of the half, the Cavs were down 11, 55-44.
Second Half:
In a surprising but not altogether unwelcome turn of events, Tyler Zeller started out the second half matching the Warriors jumper for jumper. But the third quarter was not pretty. Now, Kyrie Irving and Dion Waiters deserve a lot of grief for not sticking on Klay Thompson. He was left standing alone far too often. But it wasn’t just Klay Thompson. In the third the Warriors just started dropping buckets. Draymond Green, Jarrett Jack, hell, even Kent Bazemore got into it at the end of the quarter. Kyrie remained as off-kilter as he did the rest of the game, and the quarter ended with the Cavs down 16, 84-68. In the fourth quarter, it seemed like the Cavs might threaten a comeback, as they seem to have made a habit of recently. The Warriors cooled down, and the Cavs were only one Kyrie Irving explosion away from making this one a legitimate game. Sadly, that explosion never came. Jarrett Jack and Klay Thompson scored a few more times apiece to end it, and the Cavs lost 108-95.
Notes:
- Kyrie was really awful tonight. The Warriors played a zone defense that he just couldn’t drive through and around. This, combined with the fact that his jumper was off (wayyyy off) made tonight an ugly one scoring-wise. But he didn’t really adjust to the way the game was going, ending up with only four assists and getting torn apart by everyone he tried to defend. Let’s write this one off as flu-related.
- Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller were pretty much the only Cleveland players capable of scoring tonight (18 for Dion and 16 for Zeller), and yet both of them got ravaged by whoever they were guarding, on any given play. Dion floated off his man all game, which is always bad but especially egregious when your man is Klay Thompson and he can’t miss. Zeller was just abused in the post all game by David Lee and pretty much every other big man on the Golden State roster.
- Tristan Thompson was a dominant force on offense, and a disappointment on defense. He finished powerfully all game, and ended up with 18 and 11 on 8-14 shooting. But he could not do a single thing to stop the Warriors front line. Sure, David Lee? David Lee’s an All-star. But Festus Ezeli is not, and even he got a few easy points.
Tags: dion waiters, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Warriors
Hideous game. Kyrie probably should have just sat out the second half. As bad as Dion looked on D, he was much more effective on facilitating the offense than Kyrie tonight. Didn’t understand him sitting so much of the second half.
David Lee isn’t just an all-star, but probably the second best PF in the league right now (not counting LeBron or Carmelo).
Not trying to defend Dion cuz everybody was terrible on defense tonight but he was hardly on Thompson at all tonight. It was Kyrie and Gee, then some Livingston and Ellington. Ellington did the best job but by then it was too late.
Btw, something has to ge done about Gee. He CANNOT start or get starter’s minutes anymore. I say we start Ellington at the 3 unless we’re facing Carmelo or LBJ, then Gee can start. I like what Ellington brings defensively and as a 3-point threat with Kyrie and Dion on the floor.
I kind of love that the Knicks let Lee walk and are paying Amare $20 million more than Lee, who’s the vastly superior player.
I keep hearing about how “this time it’s different” wrt to the luxury tax. But the Knicks certainly don’t seem to care. Current payroll at 80 mil. And that’s with like 7 guys on their team making the vet minimum.
Well, Tom, I guess the thought is when the luxury tax penalty is like 3 to 1, it will be different. We’ll see.
And yea, I’m with KJ. Gee has been AWFUL for about two weeks now. He’s made 2 threes in his last 9 games. For the love, we need someone at that position who is ok with standing in the corner and making 3s. I’m ok with Ellington starting there.
And please, no more Miles. Get healthy Boobie/Walton. We need you to take this bums minutes.
I’ve been off the Gee wagon for awhile now too. He always drives baseline and can’t even hit the 3 ball anyone we play 4 on 5 on offense with him. Livingston/Ellington must replace him. Let Miles come off the bench bc all he wants to do is chuck. That second team moves the ball a lot more and should be able to get him open looks to do so. Love out BiG rotation now with Zeller/TT/Speights.
If you’re going to diss Kyrie; you have a responsibility to tell all the factors about his game. It’s called objective reporting. He did have the stomach flu that day and was questionable all day. You haphazardly glossed over that little tid-bit . Have you Dani Socher ever tried to go to work, run up and down a court feeling like you’re going to barf . You may be let’s say less than productive. He should have stayed home in bed so that you could rake more of the players over the coals.
Kyrie is not some untouchable god. He will have bad games and it can be pointed out without the world ending. Kyrie was healthy enough to play and it was stated his bad game was flu related in the notes. Calling out a writer for not being able to do what Kyrie or any pro star does is childish. We all know none of us can play out there but we can make assessments of their play in a blog(it’s America!). If you guys hate CtB writing so much, please leave.
TV63-
I criticized his play, as it sucked, but I also said “Lets write this one off as flu related.”
Pretty sure that most anyone could see this loss coming a mile away. Dion just isnt skilled in NBA defensive rotations yet and that in-season teaching rarely takes hold as dramatically as fans would like. (more reason to laud TT’s improvement.) He’s going to get fried by a lot of smart off-ball movement and this Warriors team is extremely well coached. Mike Malone’s on that bench and he’s really doing a great job in helping Jax get the defensive philosophies set. He’s doing the same work he was doing in 05 with the Cavs when the defense here started to become top 10 and better.
I think you’re really off-base in the TT defensive criticism. David Lee is a horrible matchup for anyone and he just hit his pts/rebounds averages. No huge deal there. The biggest problem is that TT has to both play his man and make the backline rotations to prevent penetration or bother weakside cutting. That’s difficult enough as is but when you add the fact that your guards are getting TORCHED on the majority of possessions it’s impossible. The D is on a string and the play of the backcourt leaves Zeller and TT scrambling between their responsibilities and help. Zeller gets murdered on this all the time.
Even with everyone missing for GSW they outmanned the cavs AND they exploited all the failings in this team’s D.
I have to say that I’m pleased with Dion’s progress in the past month though. The heatcheck “philly rock” isos are slowly falling and he’s picking his spots better. It’s good for him to see that he can get 13-15 shots in the flow. Year 2 is going to be fascinating to see for him. His understanding of what to do in college during that same freshman>sophomore transition leads me to believe that he’ll come back pretty damn strong with a year of testing his limits.
The Cavs NEED to draft Nerlens Noel. PERIOD! Trade any future draft picks (not our own) from the Memphis, Miami, Sacramento #1′s to move up and secure we draft him. He will be an absolute difference maker down low, and we need his shot blocking prowess alongside TT, Andy, and Zeller.
Dion was awesome in this game.
It’s getting harder to defend Byron Scott after this game. Yes, Kyrie was ill and Klay Thompson caught fire. But the Cavs continue to be very bad at guarding the perimeter and defensive rotations. They act as if they’ve never seen a pick-n-roll. They have no idea how to defend a catch and shoot and there’s no help when someone cuts to the basket. That’s more about discipline and communication than individual talent. That falls on the coach. It needs to get better as the season progresses. If it doesn’t, it won’t matter who they draft or bring in as a FA. The team won’t improve.
Looks like we ran into an offensive-minded team on a hot shooting night when our star player was off. Only solution is to fire Byron, drop Kyrie, and give Casspi the star role on the team. Seriously though, it was a bad night for a young team. It happens.
Waiters was awful off the ball, not just on defense, but on offense too. The Cavs are guilty of over-helping and not staying at home on defense, and then not rotating, but last night was particularly bad. Dion was lazy on his closeouts and half committed on double teams. You either double team or you don’t. Going halfway leads to nothing but open shots and layups. On offense. Ugh. He does not know how to cut without the ball. I saw the Cavs blow at least four fast breaks last night because of Dion and Gee not filling the lanes. With their ability to finish around the basket and their deficiencies shooting, they should NEVER head to the corner on a 3 on 2. Part of this problem is that KI can get a little selfish with the ball on the fast break and people are reluctant to fill the lane when he’s running the break, but that’s no excuse not to do it.
One play that stood out too me was a 2 on 3 break Dion and Kyrie were both coming down, with KI cutting over from the right wing to the left side. Dion was running the left side and just STOPPED at the left wing. If Dion trails across to the right lane, that’s a dunk. Instead, lazy offense, Kyrie 1 on 3 fail. The trailers should be the guys getting to the wings, and the guys on the break should run the lanes and THEN run to the corners to get open looks out of the secondary break. The Cavs need some fast break drills like crazy.
With that zone that the Warriors were running there were so many opportunities to cut baseline from the corner, and it NEVER happened. I like Kyrie a lot, but he seems to pad his scoring average against bad teams, and seems stymied whenever good teams scheme to stop him. He also misses wide open guys under the basket more often than he should… He plays hero ball too much. He and Waiters shoot so much, then that sometimes the other guys on offense don’t see the ball coming, like that horrible pick and roll where Zeller wasn’t even watching for the ball and Waiters threw it off his hands.
Demetrius: I really like Mike Malone too. Would love to see him steering the Cavs some day.
Kyrie was awful on defense this game: lazy rotations, and one time just completely going “el toro” on Jack who left him about 10 feet behind on his way to the rim.
I agree with you, Cody, the Cavs defense and offense were terribly undisciplined this game. They actually missed Walton on both sides of the ball (ducking from lightning hitting me).
@ Bill
Unfortunately, it goes deeper than that. Last season the Cavs defense ranked 27th in terms of opponent fg%. This season, they are last. Orlando is ranked 18th, and their roster isn’t loaded with stars. It may be a young roster, but Byron has to be held somewhat accountable for it.
Bill
What people around here have trouble understanding is that this Cavs team is extremely young. Their best players, Irving, Waiters, Thompson are very young. Those types of players don’t usually come in and play good defense right away. It takes time to learn.
That being said, I have my doubts about Scott as well. But I’m willing to see what happens next year before we decide he’s awful. The team has looked good lately.
I never knew Alonzo Gee had a wagon for a his fan club. I figured it was just one guy on a unicycle from Alabama. He has been terrible lately and his reputation for tough D is vastly overstated. He can give smaller players fits at times, but he has trouble with the premiere wings in the league. Gee always having the green light on offense bothers me. He’s a ball stomper.
Gee has been awful in my mind for close to 6 weeks. Its just the last 3 weeks that his D has been awful as well as his overall play. He had some of the worst close out attempts I’ve ever seen last night.
@Cody notice that Orlando also has several veteran players and is winning too many games to get better without some really good luck
Also I haven’t seen a ton of either but I’m starting to think Alex Len could end up being better on both ends than Noel.
I still love the way Gee attacks the basket. Not many guys his size go to the hoop so relentlessly.
@ southwest Fl
Would love to see Noel on the Cavs too, even if it means trading picks to move up. Looks like a Deandre Jordan clone to me and we desperately need a guy like that going forward.