Links to the Present: 3/30 Keeping joy and responsibility
2017-03-30
Kyrie Irving holds himself accountable for Cavs slide | ESPN
Irving opened up and said that he had to “face the music”. Kyrie looks to demand more of himself going forward.
Irving frustrated by Cavs poor month | Cleveland Plain Dealer
Says he is not the type of player to be complacent and be happy with just one championship.
WARNING: NSFW
Cowherd: ‘Cavs better off as not being the one seed’ | Fox Sports
Colin Cowherd (admittingly a huge LeBron fan) says the Cavs are better off as the two seed because LeBron is 4-0 as the two seed and they avoid the hottest team in the NBA, the Miami Heat.
It doesn't matter what seed the Cavs get. They're still going to the Finals. pic.twitter.com/RBq4eJyVQT
— Herd w/Colin Cowherd (@TheHerd) March 29, 2017
NBA Finals sleepers | SI.com
Who could stop the third consecutive Warriors – Cavs Finals? Perhaps the Spurs or Celtics?
Iman Shumpert to return in Chicago, RJ misses practice with knee tendinitis | Cleveland Plain Dealer
Iman Shumpert set to return in game against the Bulls.
Cavs expect to have Iman Shumpert back for tomorrow's game at Chicago. Shumpert went through full practice today with no issues, Ty Lue said
— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) March 29, 2017
Cavs hold rare practice in Chicago | Cavs.com
Coach Lue says the Cavs are fully aware that they need to play better and are capable of doing so.
"We know we gotta play better and we know we can."
– Coach Lue after practice in Chi-Town
Watch 📹: https://t.co/9OkupKBrgi https://t.co/3wGch9epvD
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 29, 2017
Curious to see what tonight brings. I don’t expect a switch to be flipped, but perhaps we’ll see more intensity or better execution, or something?
While you are at doing round up, Kevin Pelton wrote an insider article comparing Cavs team to other teams that apparently tried the ‘switch’ method. Here is concluding paragraph. — You’ll recall 2002-03 as the season when Shaquille O’Neal famously declared — after winning three titles in a row — “I got hurt on company time, so I’ll rehab on company time.” O’Neal delayed surgery on his injured toe until just before training camp and missed the season’s first 12 games as the Lakers started 3-9. Having finished seventh in defensive rating in 2001-02, the Lakers dropped back to 19th… Read more »
Saw this article. Will be interesting for sure.
However, the optimism case was the Lakers team from 01-02 that had Penworthy playing heavy minutes with D Fisher out. The Cavs gave a lot of minutes to Liggins and Felder and those two will not see the court in the playoffs so there is some similarity there. Granted, the Cavs were 10th LY and not 1st like the 00-01 Lakers were but this is just the Cavs optimist advocate speaking.
Cavs does have one thing going for them, they will not face a strong team like spurs that Lakers lost to. So, they will have another series or two to get back to championship form. I don’t know but I think Lebron and Kyrie’s D regressed and team kind of take the character of their leaders. I am with Lebron on taking games off for long season but you should give it all when you are on the floor.
If Toronto gets Lowry back, I’d argue the Toronto is sneakily on par with the Clippers or Jazz as the winner of the 4/5 matchup.
Last year, I think I was pessimistic and that was with a 10th ranked defense against Warriors, this year I should be even more pessimistic but for some reason, I’m not (probably irrationally).
You have that championship glow, I think. I guess if last year showed us anything it’s that who knows what’s going to happen. Literally anything can happen. Like coming back from a 3-1 deficit and winning a game with a super human block and the biggest 3-point shot in history…
If we aren’t optimistic or hoping they CAN switch despite whether or not we think they can, then what’s the point? If we don’t, at the very least, hope then we should all just turn off our TVs and sell our tickets…
lol. I think we can watch playoffs for if that is the game the ‘switch’ will be on or off.
https://youtu.be/bzY9xOxltSs
And neither Laker team of course had LeBron James. If it wasn’t for #23, I would be more pessismistic than I am.
It has Shaq though, Kobe was the the only thing that stopped Shaq at the time, aside from his own laziness.
The 2002-2003 lakers are a comparison I have made repeatedly in the past month on this blog, mostly because I still remember the consternation about how the Lakers wasted a year by what most saw to be vastly underachieving for a team with that much top heavy talent. However, looking at that roster, that team’s bench was near non-existent. The cavs are much deeper, perhaps the deepest in the league, and if utilized correctly, the bench could provide huge benefits in the early rounds. Certainly their bench, minus the center position is vastly stronger on paper than last year. The… Read more »
Well, I suppose tonight we will find out if the Cavs have pulled their heads from their you-know-whats…
Only time will tell.. We can hope and pray!
First link broken
Thanks. Fixed it now!