Podcast Episode 118: Brooklyn Brooklyn (Recap) and Kyle Korver Dreamin’

Podcast Episode 118: Brooklyn Brooklyn (Recap) and Kyle Korver Dreamin’

2017-01-07 Off By Nate Smith

Recap: Cleveland 116, Brooklyn 108

With the Big Three finally healthy, the Cavs traveled to Brooklyn to face the league’s worst squad. Cleveland handled their business for three quarters and then kept letting their foot off the gas, before popping the clutch into neutral as the Nets scored 40 in the fourth and kept the game interesting enough that the Big Three had to keep them at bay during garbage time.

LeBron led Cleveland with an uber-efficient 36 on 14-20 shooting to go with nine rebounds, six assists, five turnovers, and +19 in his 35 minutes. Kyrie Irving struggled early but scored 16 in the fourth to notch 32 on 10-27 shooting and 9-9 at the line with four dimes. Kevin Love struggled with his shot too (5-17), but got it going late with a couple threes to finish with 17 points and a game high 13 rebounds. Unfortunately, the big three played a lot of red carpet defense as Boban Bogdonovic dropped 23, Caris Levert, 19, Trevor Booker, 13, and Brook Lopez, 17 – mostly against LeBron, Kyrie, Love, and Thompson respectively. There was lots of halfhearted D followed by more intense D to extend the lead, followed by halfhearted D. The only consistently decent defender was DeAndre Liggins who was +17 in 18 minutes despite only scoring 5 points.

Brooklyn’s “big four” went a combined 27-45 (60%). Fortunately, they threw away more balls away than RGIII, as Cleveland pilfered fourteen steals. Also fortunately, Brooklyn had some real bricklayers including former Cav, Joe “1-9” Harris. Ultimately, the only conclusions worth drawing were that Brooklyn stinks, Kay Felder and LeBron are no good together, the Big Three are healthy again, Jordan McRae can’t shoot (0-5), and that Liggins might be better than Shump.

Post-game, Evil Genius and I got in the podcast booth to talk about the game, Kyle Korver, trade possibilities, the playoff picture, David Griffin’s genius, the coming road trip, and so much more. You can listen above, on the Allmighty Baller Podcast Network, and on iTunes. If you’re interested, check out ABPN’s main page for more entertaniing NBA audio.

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