Podcap: Atlanta 126, Cleveland 125 (OT) (or, Failing at Failing)

https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/episode-132-failing-at-failing

This game was insane: bonkers, nuts, maddening, infurating, exasperating, hilariously insane. Cleveland blew a 26 point fourth quarter lead and then lost in overtime to a healthy Hawks squad. In one of the biggest collapses in NBA regular season history, Cleveland committed eight turnovers in the final 12 and gave up a 44-18 fourth. This comeback/collapse had it all: listless play, YOLO threes, turnovers, stupid shots, a “never give up” attitude by the victor, and absolutely incompetent officiating.

Despite 88 points from the big three, 19-46 shooting at the line, a 53-45 rebound advantage, and 16-20 at the line (including 9-10 from LeBron!), and dominating every facet of the game for three quarters, the Cavs found a way to lose. As Tom noted on the podcast, if the Cavs had run the shot clock down to one and jacked up a three every possession in the fourth, they would have won this game. Instead, they took bad shots early in the shot clock, got into “peacock” mode, stopped passing, stopped defending, and put themselves in a position to get beat by a hungry opponent and officials caught up in the moment of the comeback.

Kobe Irving dropped 45 and 9 dimes on 30 shots. LeBron had a triple double with 32, 16, and 10 dimes. K-Love added 11, 16, and five dimes, while Korver added 11, and Fry another 12 . Still, it wasn’t enough as the Hawks got every call and went to the line a mind boggling 37 times. And we can count the bad calls. Despite the Cavs’ play, they wouldn’t have won without a pathetic showing by Leroy Richardson and Co. First, and most egregiously, there was the blown jump ball call at the end of regulation when LeBron threw the inbound, and Kyrie got trapped. Despite both Hawks standing out of bounds, Richardson failed to give the Cavs a timeout and called a jump ball between Irving and Bazemore, which Kyrie lost before the ball magically found it’s way to Paul Millsap who hit a baseliner to put it into overtime.

Then there was a J.R. Smith all ball block that was called a foul, and LeBron’s “foul” of Millsap’s three-pointer. And then the play LeBron fouled out on, possibly the single worst loose ball foul I’ve ever seen.

The King and Uncle Drew were none too pleased postgame.

So after all this, Nate Smith, Tom Pestak, and Samuel Meyer trudged to the podcast booth to cathartically rant about this insane game, the Cavs’ bizarre decision to cut DeAndre Liggins and sign Dahntay Jones, Ty Lue and his inability to manage minutes, why the Cavs aren’t just resting guys, the ridiculously bad officiating, the Cavs’ amazing ability to screw this one up, and so much more. Most importantly, they discussed why the Cavs are playing these guys when they’re losing anyway. They can’t even fail right.

As always, we can be found above on Soundcloud, iTunes, and Google Play.