Live Thread: Cavs at Celtics
2014-11-14
The Cavs are Boston tonight to take on the Celtics. It feels like a lifetime ago that LeBron took off his jersey in the tunnel and left a crater in his wake. And when I say crater I really mean a Death Star->Alderaan level impact.
Brad Stevens was enjoying a showering of Atta-boys after he barely missed winning the NCAA Championship.
Rajon Rondo was just a pup…you get the point, it was a long time ago.
The Cavs have historically been terrible at the New Garden (have lost 16 of 20), let’s hope tonight is the beginning of a new era.
Dion Waiters is listed as probable. Joe Harris’ ‘stache continues to develop.
Predictions?
WOe Woe. Very harsh and too premature to say that on Dion. Settle down a little. Remember, Blatt said he was only 80% and they are on a back to back. He probably limited his mins. He didn’t play atrocious last night at all. He played 17 mins. His fg% & ft% were 50%. Made his 3 pointer. Had 3 rebs,1 assist, 1 steal. Note : he didn’t play a lot of mins with starters like Joe Harris did. The big problem on this team is getting the right mixology of a productive bench. Miller, Dion , Marion is like… Read more »
Did you see his demeanor on the bench in the 2nd half? I was actually only looking for him every time there was a timeout and the camera went to the bench. The bench guys were excited and happy as the comeback was occurring, offering support, encouragement and high-fives to the guys on the court. Well, all except Mr. Waiters. He’d still be seated or not visible at all. A couple of times he did stand but hung back with no emotion on his face. Like he had tuned out and had no stake in this game from a win-lose… Read more »
After the buzzer sounded the players ran to the court. Dion walked on with a gray t-shirt on – right after the buzzer. Everybody else had their Cavs jerseys on. Hmmmmmm.
Again, he’s an immense talent and will make a lot of money over the course of his career – on losing teams. I really enjoyed watching Dion when we were losing. Now that the goal is to win I can say that he’s earned his spot on the bench.
Joe Harris is not better than Dion Waiters. It’s not even close. However, when Joe Harris is on the court the Cavs are better.
This was a watershed game in my mind with respect to Dion. I’ve been a big supporter, thinking he his immensely talented but needing to learn and grow and find his place in terms of fit. He has enough talent be a top 5 two guard and to warrant having patience in him. I don’t think that anymore. I think he’s selfish. I don’t think he’s smart enough to be a top player. I think he’ll always mess up team chemistry (which is what is needed most by the Cavs). I think he’s a “coach killer” – too good to… Read more »
100% agree. Coming in to this season I was just wanting signs of our youngsters “getting it”. Understanding their roles. Kyrie is virtually unguardable one-on-one but has been way more intelligent running the offense than I thought he would be this early. He picks his spots, has gotten better passing and has been giving energy defensively. He forced a number of turnovers tonight by himself. He still makes mistakes but he’s looked like he’s bought in to his role Tristan too has been a pleasant surprise. I was all for shopping him (and still would if the trade off is… Read more »
turned this game on when team was down 19 so saw all good parts of the game including the comeback. the teams defense is clearly an issue that will need to be fixed throughout the season but if things fall into place when it matters then everything will be okay read from Jason Lloyds article that sources he talked to within Cavs org that Joe Harris could possibly be in starting lineup very soon and that Cavs brass is very impressed with the rook so far this season. wouldn’t mind that at all as guy plays smart doesn’t over think… Read more »
Joe Harris is so much better than Delly. Just way more athletic, better dribbler, shooter and defender. Waiters looked good.
After 7 games you’ve determined this? Sounds like you just like to bash Delly.
Can’t wait for Delly to return. People forget just how good he is in play making, defense & energy. There’s a lot of truth to the productive chemistry Delly & Dion have together. Look no further than player line-ups on http://www.basketball-reference.com/players/d/dellama01/lineups/2014/ Miller & Dion, Marion is just mud. Delly, Dion, ANdy is amazing.
Yeah I like Delly but also really like Harris and feel he is a better fit with the starting unit. Let Delly come in and give us some energy off the bench. Him and Dion had really good chemistry last year. Marion is not an answer in the starting unit but I have liked seeing him get more minutes as I think he clearly has a lot left to offer us going forward. Disagree with Dion though. -14 for the game and just appears to be giving so little effort at all times. When we were a lottery team I… Read more »
He shot 4-8 and had 10 points. That ‘s fine.
It is . When people quote Dion was -14; do they also believe Harris who was +24 (with starters) is actually better than Lebron too? Lebron was +10.
No but +/- is a good indicator of how well the team played with a certain player on the floor. Harris was our highest +/- player last game too I believe.
good pt evil—-kyrie is playing like an all star pt gd—-taking care of the ball / distributing/ scoring when needed—hope they get love more post touches—–we all want and are waiting for dion to succeed but I am sute the patience is going to be running thin by trade deadline ( possibly sooner )—if LeBron can’t make a change in his attitude / decisions —-then I think the handwriting is on the wall——would a trade involving dion/ and draft picks for noel be a good trade ?—don’t want to make dion out to be the ” whipping boy “—this seems… Read more »
I would love someone like Hibbert / Noel who can defend the paint. I’m not someone who thinks you need a rim protector to win but I think it would certainly cover for our pretty awful perimeter defense. I reckon Philly may bite as they already have Embiid who can do what Noel does. Only issue is who loses minutes in our front court? Even though he’s playing well it would have to be Tristan. I reckon a Dion, Tristan and Picks deal could get us either one. Noel would be preferential due to cap implications as we are going… Read more »
Looks like it was another good game on the turnover end of things. Man, when was the last time Kyrie had one? He’s really taking care of the ball well.
Wow, I’m afraid to ask how in the heck they gave up a 42 point quarter to the C’s. I mean 101 points in three quarters?? Yikes!
Just got off the plane, checked my phone and saw the eye-popping 122-121 final score. Got to watch the tape/dvr but I’m going to assume from the score and a cursory scan of the thread that there was very little defense played on either side tonight. Probably won’t be the last time Cavs will have to just outscore an inferior team on the road.
They’ll get better on D, they can’t get much worse. The O is clicking. 3 in a row is a streak.
someone mentioned earlier in the week about going after shawn Livingston—I would be ALL IN for that—-the guy can play ( both ends ) at 4 different positions—–team player —consummate professional—great locker room guy —would be a huge plus —give us a lot of flexibility on the bench—-should never had let him get away
could be a good bench addition but I think they need more athletes
I’m happy for the win and I’ll take it, but it took some crazy hero ball from Kyrie (3 straight threes) and LeBron. Cavs haven’t won any game by a significant margin yet.
yeah that 3rd quarter was terribly frustrating.
Cavs go through spurts of no energy
Eh. Worrying about defense is stupid when you can score 122 points in a game when kevin love wasn’t good.
I’d agree with you if they blew out the Celtics instead of just barely winning.
believe everyone is concerned about the cavs “D ” or lack of—–7 games into the season is not reason to panic— CONCERNED –YES —–Blattt might be the head coach but there are other coaches on the staff able to make suggestions/ changes—Lue came here with the reputation as a defensive guru–so it doesn’t fall only on blatt’s shoulders—-harris had more minutes than dion—anything to read into that—-still think we need to find some players to give us better bench strength —again we are a month into the season and have not seen anything in miller yet—–and LeBron / kyrie /… Read more »
In the short term, we know what Waiters is–he’s a dice roll. He will come in and create some baskets on his own. He will brick some long twos that shouldn’t be attempted. He doesn’t integrate into the offense very well. Defensively, I don’t think he’s terrible, but you aren’t going to leave him on the court due to his defensive prowess. Blatt might as well see what he has in Harris. Before we write off Dion, Manu Ginobli has made a career out of being San Antonio’s wild card. He might go 8/11 and score 30. He might go… Read more »
I think in a best case scenario, Dion can be a chaos factor. However, he’s no where near Ginobili in terms of defense, passing, and overall scoring ability.
Also, Manu has never had more than 7 turnovers in a game (happened 3 times in his career).
He’s had 7 games where he went 8/11 from the field.
We don’t need Dion to score. The heat have shown you can win the title with three legit stars (when Wade had knees) and a bunch of people who buy into their roles. Dion thinks he is a great scorer – and he is. But he’s not a better scorer than Kyrie, James or Love. We need him to play defense, move without the ball and get 10-15 a game on spot up shots and driving opportunities which the team creates him. Delly and Harris know their roles. So does Tristan. I want Dion to succeed but will be gone… Read more »
His fg%,ft% were 50%. played 17 mins. Had only 1 TO. Lebron had 3 TO, Joe Harris had 2 TO.
You don’t have many turn overs if you don’t pass. TOs are a weird statistic because they tend to be too heavily influenced by how much a player touches a ball – as opposed to how likely a player is to make a mistake. Not always but can be.
Delly over Waiters
Harris over Waiters
Waiters can’t be trusted. You never know what he’ll do.
@George… HARRIS over Waiters. Give Blatt a break.
What did he do alone in this game that you believe he made things so much worse? He played 17 mins both fg%,FT% were 50%. He made his 3 pointer, Had 3 rebs, 1 assist, 1 steal. Sure Harris was +24 with the starters. But even Lebron was +10 and I doubt anyone would say Harris is better than Lebron but a lot of people are quoting that stat in regards to Dion. DOn’t you think this more has to do with Blatt’s ugly mixology of DIon, Miller , Marion on the floor at the same time? Blatt is struggling… Read more »
Hopefully the Cavs can figure out their defensive scheme within the next month, because they blow on D.
Agreed. They played much better defense at the end, though. Kyrie has spurts where he’s very aggressive on D and makes tremendous plays. And I liked seeing LeBron throw a fit when (I think) TT didn’t rotate and the Celtics got an easy lay up.
Love didn’t have a good game. I think his adjustment is going to be the most difficult… well after Waiters.
Cavs rule! This team is so ephing fun and great
Fun yes ,great not yet. That was a terrible defensive performance tonight. They are going to have to defend better to go far in the playoffs.
What a comeback. wow. great d by Marion.
that was great D by Marion.
Some props to Joe Harris who started that play on Rondo before the switch. The crafty PG wasn’t able to set up what he planned to do.
Still, the overall defensive effort was astonishingly bad. Everything good we do happens in spurts.
Think for a moment. Seven seconds left in the game . . . the players step onto the floor . . . and the Cavs say to Joe Harris – “you got Rondo.”
I don’t know how to interpret that. I don’t know how to interpret Harris being on the floor in that moment. And even though Rondo isn’t known as being a great shooter one would think that the Celtics were licking their chops.
Great point. Not sure what the strategy was. Confuse Rondo?
Still, it freaking worked.
Never a doubt!
Seriously – this is fun to watch. You can see how much potential this team has. They have spurts of insanely high-level b-ball. But you can also tell that, collectively, they just don’t have the wisdom, toughness, chemistry yet.
I loved those double pick and rolls at the end with KI and KL picking sequentially for LBJ. Kind of unstoppable.
Thank you Rondo!
Ouch that hurts
That looks more like the LeBron we remember!
No layups…there is no way you let any player drive to the basket like that…make him shot free throws
Wtf is Harris doing on the floor at this point of the game???these are the questionable coaching decisions that I have a big problem with David Blatt…on a game to game basis…this is why he is being constantly out coached frequently
Errr. Maybe because he ended +24!!!!!! in 19 minutes and Dion ended -14.
Chill out!
I wondered the same thing and would like a productive and noninsulting dialogue about it. It’s a fair question. Both Miller and Dion had mins cut. If you remember, Blatt did say Dion was 80%. He could have been limiting his mins. Or we are missing something we just can’t see in Joe Harris. Is he playing some great defense far better than Dion or Miller? This is the only thing that makes sense. But I will say having Miller & Marion in at the same time was awful. It hasn’t bee pretty in the last 3 games when they… Read more »
Can’t believe the 3rd quarter. No reason the Cavs should lose to this team
Very poor bench play this evening…even worst team defensive effort overall
There is no way you can let players drive to the basket in the forth quarter…this is the type of thing
i was talking about…no interior defense and no perimeter defense…no defense period
I’ve said from day one if defense (and a coach who knew how to coach defense)was the number one priority(ala Tom Thibodeau).These are the type of coaches that get the most out of their players…even those who are average defenders…that is the big difference between winning and losing.You either know how to teach defense or you don’t plan and simple
Defense is mainly effort. When we put that in we’ll be an average defensive team – which is all we’ll need to be.
In fairness to the Cavs the Celtics are a lot better this season than expected, but after four days off I expected a lot more energy from this team . . . they are so flat
If things don’t change by mid season I say salvage the season and go out and get a “real” coach…this guy flat out can’t coach
LeBron is putting up numbers but his body language is so weird
It isn’t the defensive scheme. There are not many good defenders on the Cavs. Outside of LeBron who has been passive on defense all year, there are no good perimeter defenders.
You can teach a ham sandwich how to play defense…any player on this team can be taught a defensive scheme…there are plenty of teams that don’t have good perimeter defensive players who buy into a good defensive scheme…sounds like you’ve never played basketball
No defense!!!!Damn…if a player isn’t willing to play both ends of the floor let them ride the bench
Wow relax @Geroge everthing will be alrite with the defence. The coach is good.
Blatt’s defense makes average players look like superstars…once more Dan Gilbert makes a poor choice in picking a coach…Mark Jackson was a no-brainier… but this idiot goes out and picks a coach who never coached a NBA game in his life(or played one for that matter)
As long as the Cavs refuse to play defense they will not win too many games…What is so hard about teaching these professional players a solid defensive scheme???David Blatt doesn’t seem to be the right coach to accomplish this
nice hussle by Irving. did not give up on D
59 all at the half. Avery Bradley can’t miss
Man Avery Bradley jumpers…who knew?
Apparently I don’t get fox hd. Just went thru my entire cable lineup and nada. Maybe if the jackets lose 10 in a row or are eliminated by thanksgiving, they’ll be banished from tv.
Thanks for the info Tom.
waiters just loves is long 2, you can’t coach him out of it. is sad
that’s a PnR by irving
Cavs have gotten lazy here in the last 2 minutes – allowing the Celtics to score at will in transition and no longer moving the ball on offense.
Looks like Blue Jackets on FoxSports. Cavs on FoxSports HD
Is this game not televised in Columbus? Anyone know?