And lo on Sunday, the twenty fourth day of February in the year of two thousand thirteen, the faithful struggled to defeat the firey Heat of Miami. Led by the the righteous baller Kyrie Irving, and the prodigal slasher Dion Waiters, the Cavaliers of Cleveland fell to the army of King James, and Dwayne of Wade, whose game was dirty as the floors of a stable… Inspired by the marksmanship of Calvin Andre Miles, the Cavaliers twice fought back from the precipice of oblivion and overcame a score of points to stand poised to take victory. But nay, the young defenders of Cleveland could not overcome.
So it might read in the history books if this battle were really as epic as it felt. Gone is much of the acrimony of earlier battles with King LeGone, but the tension in games against Miami is always palpable. The Heat seemed focused and determined at the start and came out of the locker room with a frenetic energy that stifled Cleveland’s offense. A pitched back and forth game ensued with runs and momentum swings that seemed insurmountable, yet were countered by surpassing surges of will and coordination. This game felt like it was four hours long.
1st Quarter: Kicked off by an LBJ dunk twelve seconds into the game, Miami flew around the court on offense: the players a whirr like the never stopping parts of a complex machine, pausing only but to catch the ball, pass, move on and then score with precision. On defense they attacked the Cavaliers: aggressively double teaming everyone who touched the ball, overplaying every passing angle. Cleveland did jump out 8-2 early, but they soon wilted. Miami forced Cleveland into seven turnovers and turned that into crisp passes and four 3-pointers. Due to some timely long range shooting by Waiters and Irving, Cleveland was lucky to score twenty. Cleveland 20, Miami 33.
2nd Quarter: Marreese Speights scored the first six points on free throws and twin twenty footers for Cleveland, who could not defend Wade and Allen. Ellington picked up a couple of very timely free throws to stem the tide, and C.J. Miles scored a quick five (but not his quickest five), to cut it to thirteen, and then the Dion and Tristan show started. Dion fed TT for a dunk from the left baseline, and then scored high off the right glass on what might’ve been the prettiest move of his young career, then Tristan bulled over a flopping Bosh for a rightie layup. Dion then went behind the back on Wade and Haslem and ducked under LeBron for a reverse layup with perfect english. Check it out here. Then he got an and1 off a quick post-up and a nice pass by Walton. But they were all just traded baskets and the lead was still ten. Then endemically, Cleveland gave up a 12-2 run over the last three minutes of the quarter, nine of them generated by the form of LeBron who cut through the field of gold like a gleaming crimson scimitar. Cleveland 46, Miami 64
3rd Quarter: Cleveland gave up four and then mounted a quick 10-0 run off some very nice distribution by Kyrie. LeBron fed his jumpshooters for an 8-4 counter. And Kyrie started attacking, looking like Tim Hardaway with his handle. Dion attacked too, getting buckets, and Iverson assists. Then C.J. Miles happened. 1:35 left in the quarter, with the Cavs down ten C.J. hit three straight triples: left wing, right wing, and then KI cut in front of him on the break and bounced passed backward between the legs, to hit Miles perfectly. Swish…, FOUL! Plus, Spolstra got T-ed up for incessant whining! Miles: FIVE POINT PLAY. Eleven points in 1:04. Somehow, Cleveland 82, Miami 81.
4th Quarter: Herculoids time: Ellington, pullup deuce; Speights, driving layup on Chis “Birdman” Anderson; Mo from Zo — threw down an absolutely freak nasty dunk on Allen who fouled him (but no whistle). Then Miles gave up an absolutely awful layup to Wade where he literally cleared out and gave him the entire left side of the lane, which Dwayne gladly took. One of the worst plays of the game there. Miles giveth, and Miles taketh away.
Crunch Time: 6:46 left. St. Weirdo followed the benevolent light that shone down from the rafters and beat the Birdman to the rack for quick layup off the right square. 92-85, Cleveland. Out of a timeout, Wade fell down on a drive, avoiding what would have been a traveling call in any other arena in the world. From the ground, he shuffled the ball to Battier in the corner for a gut punch three. Ugh. But hope remained: Speights threw up a miracle J, then C.J. canned another three on the left wing. 97-89, Clevleand.
Some weird mixture of fear and confidence emanated from television. I knew the Cavs had been in this situation before. But, this wasn’t the same Cavs team. Then Dwayne Wade posted up Dion Waiters; hooked Waiters for a second and then hit a turnaround 12 footer from below the free throw line. Uh oh. Dion made the elbow/hook gesture to the ref, and spent half the next possession making that gesture and barking at Ed Malloy. Dion spent the rest of that possession standing thirty feet from the basket doing nothing. Considering most of that possession had the Cavs best two offensive players thirty and forty five feet from the basket, it naturally ended up a turnover. Then Waiters, obviously still steamed, didn’t even bother to pick up Wade on defense. He just milled around in the key, unsure of who he was supposed to guard, and then Wade ended up isolated on Speights which he promptly turned into an and1. After, a spectacular quick step runner by Kyrie for two, Waiters decided to wander into the paint to help on a Chalmers drive, but not really help. He just stood there, as Speights was forced to foul. Suddenly, it was 99-96, Cleveland.
I'm buying one of these and wearing it to a game. Don't think I won't.
Kyrie bricked a pullup three off a left wing P/R, continuing a trend of low percentage looks in late close game situations. Then Waiters stood in the key doing nothing (half double team?) on a LeBron post-up of Kyrie from the right block. Waiters was completely unsure of what he was supposed to do and somehow he bodied up… Bosh? Even though Bosh’s defender, TT, was right there…? Wade cut behind Dion for an easy layup. Oy. Miles tried to go one on two and got blocked. Wade came down and crossed up Dion, and scored two more when he should have been fouled. Ugh. 99-100, Miami. Waiters called for a post-up on Chalmers, got the ball, pulled up on a long step back two with six second left. NO NO NO – YES!. Cavs regained the lead. Missed Battier 3! Missed Kyrie layup :(. Kyrie jogged down after the miss. It wasn’t really a jog so much as a leisurely shuffle behind every single player on the floor. I’m pretty sure Gheorghe Muresan would’ve beat Uncle Drew down the floor on that breakout. Battier got wide open three from the left corner. Ugh. 101-103, Miami. 1:30 left.
So Cleveland’s offense was basically: flatten out, leave KI and Dion on the wings; TT, in the middle; Gee and Miles in the corners. Let the wings iso, and if they’re doubled, kick it to the other wing. Waiters isolated Chalmers on the right wing. His neon-ness pulled up for a twenty three foot air ball with eight seconds left on the shot clock. The acolyte pleaded for a foul, but Monsignor Malloy had not forgotten the rebuke of three minutes prior. His whistle did not blow. Gee rebounded, and after a shot clock kerfuffle Irving missed a runner, and Wade shoved poor Tristan out of bounds for the rebound.
Miami ran that beautiful high pick and roll with LeBron and Wade on the next possession, yet somehow LeBron missed a gimme at the bucket after some ponderous Cleveland defense, but Miami got the rebound, and ran it again. Then Waiters who was guarding Wade, and Gee who was on LeBron, paused confusedly and Wade simply went by Gee while Waiters sort of chased him after taking the very long way around the screen. Then Dwayne Wade dunked the ever loving snot out of the ball. 101-105 Miami, 24 seconds left. Waiters made a very nice driving lefty on the next play to cut it to two, but free throws were made, and a Kyrie pullup three while isolated on LeBron was a failure. The day was lost.
Conclusions: In the post game interview, Byron Scott mentioned that the Cavs were told to switch every single pick at the end. The Miami play was designed so that LeBron and Bosh both came up to the top of the key and Wade could go off either screen. It put mass confusion into the defense. On the first iteration, Wade paused and went left off Jame’s pick. LeBron cut to the hole and Bosh’s man, Speights, went with LeBron. Waiters and Gee went with Wade. Bosh was wide open, and when Speights tried to recover, Bosh hit LeBron under the bucket, but he missed it. The Heat rebounded and ran it again. So on the first try, if the coach said to switch, Waiters screwed up and didn’t switch. He should’ve rolled with LeBron. On the second iteration, Gee probably didn’t switch because Waiters didn’t do what he was supposed to do the time before, so Waiters was forced to chase from way behind. The worst part? The fact that no one fouled Wade with twenty four seconds left in a two point game on a dunk attempt… That’s losing basketball.
It’s tough to know whether “blame” lies with the player or the coach in this situation. One can blame the coach for not calling plays that are effective, but if the players can’t execute the plays he calls, it’s hard to blame him, and certainly “switch every pick” is not an overly complicated defensive strategy. Defensively, the blame probably falls with the players, but that three man play with Battier and Chalmers at the corners is probably as brutally and elegantly effective of a play as there is in basketball, given that the players Miami has fit into it like Swiss made gears. That play is the Kobayashi Maru for NBA defenses. I’d love to see the Cavs run a version of it.
On offense, the Cavaliers fail to get high percentage looks in late game situations off of anything other than isloations and dribble penetrations. There is rarely any off ball pick and roll action, or an attempt to move Waiters or Kyrie without the ball and there is little attempt to run a play other than a simple wing screen for a shooter who scored eleven points in one minute and four seconds. Yes the Cavs hung with the defending champs, but until they devise plans to score and defend in late game situations and execute those plans, they won’t beat good teams. There are other players on the team besides the two starting guards. If the Cavs want to win close games against good defenses, they’ll need to find ways to get those players involved on offense the way teams like Miami do.
Everyone played well at times in this game, but most everyone had strange mistakes that hurt the team. If Scott wanted to win, he probably would’ve been better off putting Ellington in for Waiters, but he wanted to teach. I’m ok with that, and I have been all year. Personally, I think Waiters would be better served contemplating his mistakes from the bench, and taking a vow of silence when it comes to officiating. Dion Waiters is truly an enigma. He can make brilliant plays followed by jaw dropping losses of composure. Saint Weirdo is the patron saint gorgeous layups, bad jump shots, and swallowed whistles. Let us pray he meditates on these matters and finds some enlightenment.
“Yes the Cavs hung with the defending champs, but until they devise plans to score and defend in late game situations and execute those plans, they won’t beat good teams.”
This won’t happen until they get older. It’s really that simple. With age comes composure. With composure comes good decision making. And with good decision making comes better looks late in games.
“If Scott wanted to win, he probably would’ve been better off putting Ellington in for Waiters, but he wanted to teach.”
Totally do NOT agree. For as much as he struggled at times on D, it is almost never because of lack of effort like my Kyrie’s gentle jog after his missed shot.
With LeBron on Kyrie, Dion was the only real offensive weapon at the end of the game. As much as Ellington’s D may helped, Dion was our best shot. The only thing I don’t really understand is why he tried to initiate the offense going right, when he is MUCH better going from the left. He drills that step back jumper from his left drive ALL day and finishes with strength from that side as well. He tries the same stepback on the right, but he can never get his shoulders all the way rotated. I have brought this up many times before. It wasn’t as though the Heat D forced him to his right or anything…
There were many encouraging things about this game, though. Defensively, we saw that on an athletic level, one on one, we match up as well with those guys as can be asked. Dion did a great job head up on Wade, Gee did a solid job on Bron for the most part and watching Kyrie actually care on a possession in which he had to guard Bron was absolutely enlightening. Kyrie got down into a real defensive stance, forced LeBron left and anticipated his jumper to help force a miss. I squealed in delight because now I know he CAN do it, he just needs to WANT to. Between my confidence that Dion’s off ball D will improve like practically every rookie’s ever, and Kyrie’s actual defensive stance, we should expect our D to become something resembling solid in the not too distant future.
More than anything, Kyrie and Dion aren’t afraid of Wade and Bron. We came back from 20 down TWICE and not just because they got lazy.
Our team WILL make the playoffs next year. Just a question of what seed.
Granted, I don’t keep that good of an eye on Dion when I watch. However, unless the TV announcers are wrong, they mentioned how Dion does not drive to the left side and use his left hand often, right after he dropped a nice layup in the fourth. I do agree with Kyrie and his defense. He is not that much different than LeBron in how he plays defense. Young LeBron would have spurts where it looked like he cared on defense and we all (at least me) generally ripped on him for poor effort the first few years int eh league. Then, something went off, he cared, and the rest is history.
I agree with both of your assessments. As bleak as this game looked at times they didn’t give up. They were on the road on the back end of road back to backs and kept fighting. I actually like that Scott is trying to teach the kids to win on their own. They have grown as the year has gone on and this is the good part of being an irrational fan.
Kyrie is the superstar, but Dion is my favorite Cav. It’s his swagger. It’s that he’s engaged with his fan base. It’s because he’s an irrational confidence guy who actually has a game. He wasn’t a reach at all and was the perfect pick for the Cavs at 4 last year. The NBA is no longer ruled by dominant big men, but by players who can beat their man off the dribble and create for themselves and others. The Cavs have two of them. I always took the Wade comparisons as a body type comparison, but both players bread and butter is getting to the rack and drawing contact. Waiters isn’t getting the calls yet. Once he does he should be good for 20 a night on a solid true shooting percentage. They will make the playoffs next year.
I think this belongs in the running for C:tB’s Top Recap of the Year (this is not an actual award); a solid ratio of quality basketball content to filler. Obviously everyone can find something to dispute about 2000 words likely written in two hours.
Alonzo Gee is averaging 12 points per game on 70% true shooting in the last six games. He had been in a serious funk for a month prior to that (6 ppg on 45% TS over 11 games), so it’s nice to see him have a strong stretch of play.
God, we just need a 3 guard who can score a little bit, defend, pass, rebound and has a pretty stroke…maybe with the 5th pick?
I take fan points away from myself for turning this game off in disgust after the first half… I just assumed we were going to get blown out, and a “Block” on Tristen by Bosh at the end of the half that lead to a LeBron break out dunk on replay showed that Bosh never even touched the ball, literally just grabbed Tristen’s wrist he was shooting with and pulled it out of the way. I hate so many of the Heat its not healthy but I really dislike his personality the most, then when I saw they had taken the lead before the end of the third I was shocked and mad at myself for leaving…
Otto Porter… it would be nice if we could make a team pay for taking their SF and put him on our PG in crunch time, it would
Dion’s defense is in part a result of going to Syracuse… A very successful program but that 3-2 Zone is about as far away from a, “Switch every pick on a pick and roll” man to man defense as you can get. I feel bad for people coming out of that scheme that attempt to play defense in the NBA right away, its gonna take time
Negative Nancy Nate! You did a wonderful job breaking down this game but the overall tone was ridiculously negative. Announcers from NBATV were more impressed with these young CAvs than you were! TO come back from a 20 point deficit and be ahead up to the last minute was IMPRESSIVE against the NBA champs. That’s hard work both physically and mentally!! THey DIDN”T give up facing that huge hole. Like Steve Smith said they are not afraid to come to play the best of the best. He then gave credit to Bryon Scott. And Nate THEY HAVE BEAT GOOD TEAMS. You did a good job pointing out Dion’s struggles especailly his anger on no calls. He did allow it to spill over into defensive mistakes that turned costly. But that’s just it; mistakes were typical from this team across the board because they are a young team. BUt I’ll take this young team over any other young team in the NBA!! They will get better and better. What I loved the most about this game…….. Heat thought all they had to do was double team Kyrie all night for an easy win. Not SOOOOOO.. Lol We got some guys that can score. They suprise in their eyes on Miles was priceless. It was anything but an easy win and Wade himself admitted that.
Waiters reminds me more and more of Russell Westbrook by the day.
I was just thinking of a different, now former, Oklahoma City Thunder, Harden?
Waiters is awesome. They almost beat the Heat without Irving playing great. This team is going places.
My DVR crapped out for the 4th quarter, so I missed it, but I was very impressed with the comebacks and making it a game. Dion was huge offensively and played decent man on man D minus the picks. I loved his game through 3 quarters. We made Miami work in Miami. I’ll take the performance and the better draft odds. After the last few weeks of play, we’ll need all the losses we can get. I’m thinking pretty near .500 ball from here on out.
Man Kevin beat me to it. I actually didn’t watch the game yesterday. This is the best NBA recap I’ve read maybe ever?
Well done, Nate.
Re: Wade hooking: Did anyone see the photo of Wade that was on the front page of NBA.com SHOWING him gratuitously hooking his defender? It was up yesterday. Obviously it wasn’t the point of the piece, but it made me laugh that they were trying to show a picture of Wade in action and it’s like “um, that’s is a blatant offensive foul”.
Wade’s been getting away with highway robbery since 2006. Honestly, for all the talk about what Waiters can become – he’ll never be anything close to Wade unless he can generate the surreal amount of whistles/no calls that Wade does. I really do like watching Waiters play. Also, C.J. Miles and Wayne Ellington are very solid role players that the Cavs should look to lock up.
Agreed with Adam and playing zone at Syracuse really hurts those players attempting to adjust to the NBA. Waiters is still a rookie and he is making rookie mental mistakes. He has proven though that he has the skill set to play in this league. We have to be happy about that, considering all the players in the draft that just don’t do anything these days. Most of the complaints on DW, are things that can be fixed with good coaching. This team whole team makes a lot of defensive mistakes and that is because of the youth. We have to be happy that they are staying in these games and that says something about this teams future. Most of these young teams are not even playing teams like the Spurs and Heat close. Irving went 6-16 from the field, and we still had a chance to win on the road against the Heat.
I agree with what Scott did and not put Ellington in. DW needs to play in these situations to learn and I believe he will. This team is very young and they are growing every day. Dion is a competitor and he is going to do what it takes to get better IMO. I think that the worse thing that happened to Dion was the Clippers game at the beginning of the year. He got hot from 3 and after that, tried to be someone he is not. He has corrected those issues and is attacking the rim. He is going to fix these defensive issues that he has having. I think we need to look at last night as a positive for many reasons. We lost to the best team in the East on the road because of mental mistakes and not for talent reasons. That is a big step going forward for this team because you can fix mental mistakes easier than losing by 30 because of a talent gap.
For a better recap of this game, go see Terry Pluto
http://www.cleveland.com/pluto/blog/index.ssf/2013/02/terry_pluto_sports_blog_the_re.html
The only part I disgaree with is where he says that the Cavs took a major risk by selecting Waiters with the 4th pick like it’s a true statement that everyone agrees with.
It only looked risky because no one was talking about Waiters before the draft. But the teams that did their homework apparently had him highly rated.
And the St. Weirdo nickname is still extremely stupid and disrespectful.
As my dad used to say, almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
Or horse grenades if you’re Andy Dwyer.
Ben, my point about Waiters was that with an 8 point lead, defense was more important than offense. I doubt that Ellington would’ve lost Wade four times on defense the way Waiters did, but like I said. I’m ok with teaching over winning.
And, yes, Adam, I skipped the Bosh foul: an oversight on my part, but it was one of many bad calls non/calls in that game. However… Teams like the Cavs aren’t going to get calls in the defending champs’ building. It’s just not going to happen, especially with that crew.
Tom: part of the reason Wade gets away with murder is that he can work the refs. Dion isn’t going to be able to play like him until he stops glaring them down and trying to show them up.
I watch Dion and Kyrie and think a lot of what Mallory says. In the NBA, the scoring wing (small forward) is the most important position. Yes, Cory, the NBA is built on speed and ability of players to get past their man and set up themselves and others… BUT, there needs to be size to go along with that speed, to give the table setters high percentage options around the basket and shooting to give them high percentage outlets. The Spurs, Heat, Knicks, and Thunder master this balance and do it with more size on the wing than the Cavs, and higher percentage options in the middle. The Cavs must acquire these pieces and learn how to get them the ball when primary options are taken, especially in late game situations. Just having the speedy guards is not enough.
You mean Bert Macklin FBI
Also, for the record, we should not rely on 11 unanswered points in a minute to regularly help the Cavs tie up deficits going forward. I enjoyed this game as much as anyone, but the Cavs didn’t really claw their way back into the game – ThreeJ Miles got absurdly hot.
That being said, it was a fun game.
MF
Give us a break would you? Yes the Cavs did claw their way back. That’s what happens when your players get hot, they come back in the game. Every single shot cannot be at the rim. If a player is making threes that counts just as much.
It was a great game. There is no reason. Absolutely none to be down today or be mad that they lost. This is actually the perfect result. Compete until the end against a great team and then lose. It’s great.
Why can’t you see this? What is preventing you to see that we have a great young team that keeps improving? What makes you wake up with utter negativity every day?
Man, getting tired of in constant conplaining about Waiters. Dude put in 26 as a rookie against the best team in the NBA (Spurs maybe) but you decide to pick on the handful of plays on defense he could have done better. Sorry but I haven’t been impressed with the last handful of blog entries. For a team that is now 9 out of the last 15 but started the year 9-32 there is a lot of negativity.
Fun game to watch. Lots of stuff in the recap that I agreed with and just a few points:
Was not a fan of Scott waiting until just under four minutes left in the 4th to bring TT back. Entirely too much Walton last night. Every once in awhile he has a real Zen like facilitator presence. Alas, he is Luke “not his daddy Bill” Walton. Just too many unproductive minutes against an athletic team. Would have played TT and Speights together before removing Speights to go small down the stretch.
Dion complained too much early in the year about calls. Even though he has been better, that griping continues to bite him at times. He actually got a few calls last night but there is no consistency. Violet Palmer makes me want to say sexist things out of anger that I don’t really feel in my heart. Her and that crew last night literally swallowed their whistles on a half dozen plays at the rim.
Slightly off game for Kyrie. Agree with the author in that we play too much hero ball at the end of games. If that is the called offense, I would have let Dion do it last night. LBJ was a wet blanket on Kyrie. Let Dion, who was getting to the rim at will, initiate and perhaps drive/kick/swing the ball and maybe catch the Heat in a rotation for a better look. Maybe Kyrie or CJ could have gotte an open look with their feet set?
Lastly, what an atrocious lack of effort on Kyrie’s part after the missed shot and ensuing runout that led to the Battier 3 that finally put the Heat up by two. Look, the elephant in the room is this. The talent on hand is capable of being an 8 seed. That talent will win more games through natural progression. However, it’s all fools gold until Kyrie cares about Attempting to get in a defensive stance for 75% of an actual NBA game. Byron can preach all he wants. We can all longingly dream about LBJ coming back and being the magic elixir. If he comes back then so be it. Until then I am plowing ahead under the auspice that it will be Kyrie, Dion, TT, and the 2013 lottery pick (please Shabazz…or Alex Len). The team WILL NOT adopt a meaningful, winning defensive mindset until its star player can be bothered to care. Period. The only thing I care about in the next 25 games is to see Kyrie begin to care. We’ve seen it before with LBJ. The wins will follow if it happens. I’d show him that play every day. I’d explain that is a losing basketball play. I’d tell him that he is 20 years old and not a kid. I’d then show him the possession where he accepted the challenge and manned up on LBJ. That’s a winning basketball play. If you want to be a superstar and winning basketball team, you need to forget the former and embrace the latter. From this point forward he shouldn’t have to be bothered to care on defense. The frustration with losing starts and ends right there.
Not devastated that they lost, but a win would’ve been nice only because the national media would’ve had to give more attention to Waiters’ efficient game and Miles’ insane Tracy McGrady like comeback. Instead, the official story is about how the Heat continue to be awesome, and LeBron might join the Cavs in 2014, etc.
Waiters gets no calls because HE”S A ROOKIE who was not hyped by the media at all.
No need to read anymore into it. As he gains the refs respect the calls will come.
BBQ Daddy, yep, Kyrie needs to compete defensively. It was nice to see for sure what we all suspected, that he is capable of it on the one on one with Lebron. While I think Scott and Co. and the fans should definitely be in his ear about it, I’m also confidant with experience and more at stake that it will come for him. His D has been improving, although it’s still very lackluster, it is not close to “worst in the league by a decent margin” like it was last year. Overall, its definitely a focus point for needs-improvement, but I’m not too worried that he won’t get better.
And Dion has been a revelation these last 10 games. Keep on Keeping on man. If he finds that 3 pointer he started the year with I could definitely see a few all star games in his future. Now him and Kyrie need to consistently be on there games on the same nights (Kyrie’s last two were duds by his lofty standards).
Agreed, St Weirdo nickname sucks. Bet you wouldn’t say it to his face
Nate: nice write up, but TERRIBLE nickname for Dion (looks like several folks have said the same thing for quite awhile now….how about a new nickname contest?
Dion “Freon” Waiters, dudes got ice water pumping through his veins and he’s hazardous to your health
Agree with the last couple posts. St Weirdo is a dumb, disrespectful nickname.
I came up with Freon, Peter. Check my twitter and start sending royalties
I’m down with Freon. Good job Tom. Tom, have you ever considered just writing your own blog? All the good ideas seem to be yours.
Great minds Tom, great minds… I’ll have to have my friend at Dupont check on the legality of claiming royalties
And of course, when he get’s hot from outside it’s THREEON. But I haven’t called him that in a while. 3J Miles is a alive and well though
Not sure if this was posted yet, but a new podcast by Brian Windhorst, and Jason Lloyd.
http://www.stationcaster.com/player_skinned.php?s=70&c=476&f=1106311
Unfortunately, I can’t listen to either at the moment. My XP machine crashed and I got upgraded to 7. Which is fine, except I’m no longer an admin on my own computer, so I can’t do any installs. Which means I can’t get the plugins to run it.
…not that you care.
thanks Scuzz!
Terry Pluto sucks. He knows nothing about the NBA or the NFL because he’s too busy writing skirt faith articles about coping with the lose of a pet.
Nice recap Nate.
Cory
Did you read the article? Pluto is one of the better writers over at the PD. But whatever. You probably think Mallory is wise.
On the verge of deleting this site from bookmarks because of the tiresome persistence of this “Saint Weirdo” idiocy. He doesn’t need a nickname, much less an atrocious one. Nicknames are for players who aren’t memorable otherwise. Dion Waiters is an interesting young player that needs no such crutch. Give it up.
Jean-Christian
It does seem like this website has gone completely off the rails since he was drafted. It’s a shame. Fear the Sword is still a good site though.
I rarely go to cleveland.com for Cavs coverage. The Cavs always been their third priority. I just finished Pluto’s article, and it was exactly what I would have expected and I’ll be a bitter old man when I reflect on those three minutes of my youth that I lost.. Pluto really does have a knack for highlighting other peoples analysis, because he does none on his own. Do I think Mallory or any of the other bloggers here follow the Cavs closer than Pluto? Yeah, all of them. Do I think the bloggers here offer a more unique and thorough critique of the Cavs than Pluto or Mary Schmitt Boyer? Yeah, all of them. I’m sure Pluto is a nice guy, but he’s a jack of(f) all trades and a master of none. He’s a freshman in college writing a research paper with wikipedia, rather than doing his own analysis. Go back and read his draft coverage. He’s spread too thin between his book writing, the Indians, Browns, faith columns and the Cavs…And the Cavs are clearly last on his priority list. For those of you who lambast the CtB podcast give Fear the Sword’s podcast a listen, if you have sleep apnea it will cure it better than Ambien, but sadly you won’t get those trippy Ambien dreams.
More Tom articles please!!!
In fairness that was Fear the Swords first podcast so it will get better. It took the CtB one almost 20 episodes to hit its stride. Plus Conrad is fantastic. Don’t diss.
Can I also request that we drop St Weirdo. I get it’s an anagram but beyond that it makes little sense. It feels like your ripping on one of our best players for no good reason. If he was McGee like I’d get but he seems like a grounded kid with a solid IQ. Having the occasional bad shot selection does not make him a freak.
While I find the traditional Cavs print coverage lacking, we are fortunate as a fan base to have terrific online options unlike many teams. Fear the Sword is an excellent blog along with this site and Stepien Rules (when they actually post something). The comment section on Fear the Sword is an intellectual crawl just above Bleacher Reports or what you can see written in marker in any dive bar bathroom.
I get it was their first podcast. It seemed to lack focus. Did they have a rundown or just hit record? They probably should have ventured into that medium a bit sooner. The world is changing. We want more of what we want and we want it now. Everyone has a smart phone and soon every car new car will have the internet. Podcasts are going to explode in the next few years and terrestrial radio is going to die. Audience reach will be limited but it will be better for advertisers because you’ll only be marketing to your target audience.
st wierdo = dumb name = will never stick = try again
The anagram idea is just a bad approach… here are other Dion Waiters anagrams: Answer Idiot, Asteroid Win, Stain Weirdo, Satin Weirdo, Anti Weirdos
Yeah let’s get the Hamburger Feet bandwagon rolling here