Recap: Cavs 86, Celtics 103
2013-11-290
With the full assortment of Cavs:the Bloggers wrapped up in varieties of travel and holiday festivities, no one volunteered to recap tonight. That is probably for the best. In the first half, the Celtics hit easy shots. In the second half, they hit tough shots. I included their third quarter shot chart above. Of the four three-pointers, two were by Jared Sullinger, and one was banked in by Brandon Bass at the buzzer. Almost everything else was a long two. Sullinger hit four three pointers on the game, adding to his previous ten career bombs from deep.
This was not the Cavs night. Cleveland was frequently a perverse comedy of errors. Players falling down. Airballing three pointers. Banking in three pointers. Throwing the ball to unoccupied space. Fighting each other for rebounds and losing the ball out of bounds.
Cleveland started the game behind on a 22 to 4 run, as the Andrew Bynum thing is not working. He was minus-25 in 15 minutes. The first half highlights involved Kyrie going off for 15 points, and Varejao nearing a double-double with 8 & 10. Cleveland trailed 39 to 55 at the break. The second half included even fewer positives. Dion got aggressive and did some damage, but much of it in relative garbage time, as after Boston scored the first bucket of the third quarter, the deficit never got closer than 18.
Kyrie finished with 17 points on 7 of 16 shooting, with 3 assists and 4 turnovers. Dion tallied 21 points on 7 of 18 shooting, with 6 assists, but also 6 turnovers. Andy finished with 10 & 12 and wins MVP for the night. His energy level was solid, and the Cavs actually outscored Boston by three points during his 26 minutes. No one else did anything noteworthy, at least not in a positive sense.
I don’t know if the plan is to sit Bynum tomorrow against Chicago, but maybe it should be. Until then.
@nate. Ha. That is true. But some of that may just be Brown trying to spin stuff to the media to make it seems like his team is not imploding :)
Big win tonight, though. And Dion was Dioning.
Hot Sauce, the most fascinating aspect of the Lloyd article: “Brown was happy with the ball movement tonight, he liked the pace, he liked the way the Cavs balanced the floor. They simply missed a lot of open shots – an incredulous amount of open shots.” A problem with Mike Brown: he seems to think the looks the Cavs are getting and the shots they’re taking are good ones.
Can anyone tell me if Bennett has dunked this season, not counting pre season?
@Hot Sauce
I started reading that recently, and you’re right about that for sure.
Lloyd really provides astute observations.
A plug (and maybe all of you know this): Jason Loydd’s “Final thoughts” column after each game has become downright Windhorstian – a mix of inside info and intelligent, reasoned, basketball analysis.
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland-cavaliers/cleveland-cavaliers-1.275356/celtics-103-cavs-86-jason-lloyd-s-final-thoughts-1.448781?localLinksEnabled=false&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed
Didn’t get to watch the game, but that box score is a nightmare. Again: Andy needs to start for TT. TT needs to play with Clark or Zeller.
@grover13 That’s why I’m scared that if this team doesn’t turn it around quickly, a lot of people will say “oh well, at least we get another top 5 draft pick this summer”… That will absolutely not work with this roster as constructed. Adding Wiggins or Parker or Randle will not fix the “lack of fit” issues or chemistry issues on this team. Adding a top 5 draft pick does not fix the problem that Kyrie and Dion have no chemistry out there. Adding a top 5 draft pick does not fix the problem that TT is clogging up the… Read more »
Bennett needs to be in the D-league and it isn’t good for him or the team to keep putting him out there to be embarrassed night after night. He obviously has confidence issues, which aren’t helped by the fact that his teammates (rightly) don’t trust him and won’t pass him the ball. Also it can’t be good for morale when it is obvious that other guys should be getting his minutes. If I were Zeller, I’d be pretty annoyed. Clearly there are many other problems with this team but it puts any coach in a tough spot to try to… Read more »
They should trade Kyrie,NOT Dion. Most will not agree,but Dion is having the better the season,and his trade value is lower than Kyrie’s.
Is anyone else getting annoyed with Kyrie’s constant, “I am the leader of this team. This is my fault. I will fix this.” post-game cliches? Being a leader is about what you do on the court, not what you say to the media. It’s like he hired a P.R. guy in the offseason to teach him how to sound like a leader. Kyrie, YOU are the problem ON THE COURT. Play better. That will help you lead.
Look, we would not have won this game anyway BUT in a early season of awful officiating THIS game was the worst I have seen so far. Just awful. Bennett, Andy, and Dion all got shafted more than once. Just terrible officiating…
@zeek- “I really don’t think you just add another top-flight draft pick to this mess without re-assessing completely the actual fit of the pieces.” This is dead on, and why the “we need to tank and get the best draft pick again” philosophy will only add to this epic fail. You throw a Jabari Parker or Julius Randle into this mess, and they’ll just go down with the ship. There is no savior for the roster as it currently exists, save maybe a new coach (next year, not this year). But I fear by that time, we won’t be able… Read more »
This was a really bad Celtics team. Really bad. Did Karasev and Gee really start and only play 12- 15 min? Is anyone enjoying this season? Dion is clearly at his best running around as the one weapon on this headless chicken. Like Lin on NY or Nate Robinson on Chi a couple years back these guys thrive when they are handed the keys and there is no real plan. I say if he keeps this up and teams want to throw players or picks at the Cavs for him, go for it. Otherwise he’ll provide 25% of the Cavs… Read more »
Someone who saw the game, explain, please: Bennett +10 point differential? He had three turnovers and four fouls. Thirteen total team assists–and Irving with 3?! I have only seen the Nets win (seems eons ago) and the Heat game, but this team just. doesn’t. pass. or. move. without. the ball. I am trying not to rely on the tried-and-true “Mike Brown’s offense sucks” tirade, but this IS what much of the bad Cavs games of his first incarnation looked like statistically. I will see them on WGN tomorrow night vs. the Bulls… any chance they improve on a 17-point loss?
Brown is too much of a wimp to do this, but I wish he’d start Delly, Waiters, Karasev, Andy and Zeller/Sims for a few games/ I feel like those guys are the ones who really try when they are out there on the court. Have Kyrie and Bynum sit a night with notebooks and then if they take good notes, they come off the bench. If they show they’ve learned team play concepts and improved basketball IQ’s, they get their starting spots back. Also, didn’t we hire some guy named Igor Kokosov to run the offense, with PnR being his… Read more »
I feel much better, now that I’ve given up all hope.
I don’t want Dion gone from this squad. There’s gotta be another way…. what is the freakin deal with this team?
Pathetic. The entire display was just bad. Fact #1) Clearly, the overall talent level on this team has been vastly overestimated. A lot of players have indeed taken a step back: i.e. Kyrie is not playing at an All-Star level; TT has games where he just really struggles to find his shot, and he looks scared to take shots; Varejao is just not playing anywhere near the level he was pre-injuries when he was a double-double machine in the past. Fact #2) The pieces just don’t fit for whatever reason. This is due to either coaching or just ill-fitting pieces… Read more »
This is a team that lost their coach, point guard, 3 stars in Garnett, Pierce, Terry and had no trouble beating the Cavs. The writing is on the wall Mike Brown has ruin this team and can’t coach a lick of offense. Hpw stupid you were Chris Grant to ever hire him! You both need fired and the sooner the better. There is no excuse for this !