Live Thread: Cavs @ Blazers

The Cavs hope that the second game of the Kyle Korver era goes more smoothly than the first. Somehow, adding one of the best marksmen of all-time tightened up the Wine and Gold into one of their worst shooting games of the past few seasons. The Blazers may be the perfect team to get Cleveland back on track. With Damian Lillard back from his two week absence, Portland is again a complete and utter sieve on defense. Despite having adequate defensive bigmen in Ed Davis and Meyers Leonard, the Trail Blazers are third to last in defensive efficiency. It might have to do with the fact that Mr. Lillard is 80th out of 85 point guards in defensive RPM. RPM isn’t an infallible metric, but it passes the ole’ smell test on Lillard. By all accounts, Damien is an incredible leader and exceptional teammate. People simply love the dude. Great. That is also incredibly important as actual people play in the NBA and the human element matters. But sweet baby basketball, is Lillard horrific on defense. Look for the Cavs to repeatedly get into the paint. Add a little winter wonderland to the mix, and the Cavs should be back to scorching the nets.

Against the Jazz, the Cavs threw Korver out there with some weak lineups. Kyle should play with at least one, if not two, of the big three at all times. He needs to get used to being a complementary piece and not the primary focus of the offense. Some standstill catch and shoot three point attempts coming off strong side LeBron/Kyrie PnR action should help Korver get his rhythm. It won’t take much. The dude is a flat stud shooting the ball. I expect the Cavs to hit 20 plus threes in this one. Law of averages will swing in Cleveland’s favor. Sound off.