There’s really not much to say about this game – it was clear we were missing a lot (Andy, Booby, Parker) and that we were completely over matched. This is easily the worst I have felt about this team all season. I’m going to forgo my usual good, bad, and rest, and keep it simple tonight. This one really, really, REALLY hurt. The Heat started insanely fast, and after the first quarter it was over.
Our D was terrible. Bosh started ridiculously hot (we really missed Andy here) and once he cooled, Lebron took over. Wade even hit his first three of the season. It was just ugly. I guess you could say that Tristan Thompson had an OK game on D, and Hollins was able to draw a nice challenge, but for the most part the defense was uninspired and dreadfully disappointing.
On offense it wasn’t much better. The Cavs shot 39.5 from the field, and that was aided by the fact that the Heat coasted the last two quarters. Irving was probably the brightest spot – he had a couple of nice drives to the rim (including a beautiful fake-out layup) but it was, on the whole, pretty awful.
Gee clearly forgot his O and D at home tonight. If he wants to take it to the next level, he can’t have games like this.
I could go on, but it would be mostly redundant. All we can do is turn off the TV, and pray for a better showing on Sunday. Sacramento should be just the cure we’re looking for (I hope).
Look on the bright side – there’s no way we’re losing 26 in a row this year. Just try to smile and get through the night. It’ll hurt less tomorrow. Until next time….
After the first quarter i felt really awful. Then by the end of the third, i decided i will not. Miami has been playing really well the past few weeks. And besides the fact that we were missing one of our best interior and outside defenders in Andy and Boobie, no amount of fight and hustle would make up for a extremely talented team that has had 2 days of rest. And so i remind myself this was one really bad game. We will have more of those in the weeks to come. Ofcourse it came against the one team i would rather not have against but it did. We wipe off the experience and all the garbage it came with it the past few days and we move on. The Cavs had a horrible game. They are not a horrible team. Unless they go on a post Dec 2nd tailspin in which case i will have to ammend that statement.
Keep your heads held high guys. We will have better days to come.
One more thing. The idea of wearing road jerseys at home disgusts me beyond relief.Nobody especially not the Heat should be allowed to wear their home whites on our floor. Shouldnt happen.
ok byron scott is a horrible coach…play your best players!!! sessions is very good, freaking sit casspi, start tristan give tristan, sessions, jamison, and irving all bulk of time, all should have at least 30 mins each….we need to have them playing more because they can keep us in games if given the opportunity, i absolutely hate byron scotts scheme and how he coaches!!
Jamison played spectacular ball for the first two and a half minutes. 2 bricked shots, a turnover, and a complete disregard for contesting any of Bosh’s jumpers (all of which he swished). By the time he realized it was a real basketball game, the Cavs were down 9-0 and the game was over.
At some point, the writers of this blog will have to full on admit that Omri Casspi stinks to high heaven. Look at his box score. 1-4 from the field, and not one single offensive board, steal, or block. What is the point of having him out there? He can’t score, he can’t rebound, and he can’t guard. He doesn’t provide any leadership, he doesn’t direct traffic… he can’t even get inside the head of the guy he is guarding. He has 0 noticeable impact on the game. Can anybody even envision him scoring 20+ in an NBADL game?
I’m so disappointed with Omri Casspi – I thought he was going to be a great pickup but he’s one of those guys that could probably be a great role player on a 50 win team, but clearly struggles to motivate himself when he’s not on a contender, or isn’t surrounded by players better than him. And that isn’t what the Cavs need, at all.
Ugh, I hate losses like this, mostly for the insane reactions that follow them. We lost to a team that was clearly better, rested, and motivated while the Cavs had injuries to some of their best players. If anyone here was truly expecting a win, you need to adjust your expectations. Yes, it would have been nice to keep the game competitive, but it wasn’t.
@cincykid: You named 4 players that should be getting PT and they all play either the PG or PF position. Who plays the other 3 positions? Even if you have those 4 play together, there (unfortunately) still needs to be a guy like Casspi, Erden, or Hollins playing. And do you really want your best players to tire themselves out/risk injury in a game in which they’re losing by 34?
@Jarrod: I can’t remember any of the writers mentioning Casspi as a piece of the Cavs’ future. Kevin just wrote a piece that named their assets for the future as “Irving, Thompson, Gee, Varejao, future draft picks and cap flexibility”. I think it’s pretty obvious he isn’t good at basketball and I doubt he will play much once the Cavs draft a wing this year.
true, but its always wishful thinking lol…our team honestly blows…we have maybe 6-7 players that are worth having on our team…the rest should be on d-league haha..i hope we use our draft picks we have collected wisely this yr. PLEASE FIRE BYRON SCOTT THOUGH, PLEASE. I’m not wanting to tire our best players out, but thats the only thing we could do in order to win more games than what we have haha…everyone else minus our good injured players, suck lol
Based on the posts Casspi lost the game while the others were fighting for the win. Casspi’s 1 of 4 were all from 3p range. Casspi had 5 rebounds, second only to Tristan (6). Casspi (and Erden!!) had 2 assists which matched Kyrie Irving. Try a little honesty. Kyrie and Tristan were the pre-season published hopes for the team. Byron Scott made a mistake (and he does not make many) by putting Kyrie as a starter. Sessions would have done a much better job in running the starters as a team. Kyrie would have had better space for his solo style with the second unit.
Super overreactions to 1 game against possibly the NBA’s best team when two of our better players were hurt and did not play. There is NO WAY Coach Scott should be fired. I think he has done a tremendous job getting the most out of this talent-challenged roster. He is known for being a great coach for PGs and we have a stud rookie PG that needs helped being groomed into one of the league’s best. I agree that Tristan should get more PT to help him develop, but he did just miss a lot of time with injury, he is a rookie used to a college schedule, and this is a seriously condensed NBA schedule. I’d rather not run him into the ground, hurt his confidence, risk serious injury, etc. It’s ridiculous to say that Kyrie shouldn’t be the starter at PG either. He is playing extremely well for a rookie PG, he doesn’t have much else to work with (especially with Andy injured), and he is the future of the franchise. He is more than likely going to be ROY. Keep your heads, people. I do agree that Casspi has been a major disappointment though. I think he was better his rookie year on the Kings then he is now with the Cavs.
Agree with Ross that Byron Scott is fantastic coach. A brilliant man in the right place (in Cavs). I still think the PG should be judged primarily on how he makes his team play, not how he finishes at the rim (which, I agree, Kyrie is quite phenomenal).
Casspi was not a top draft pick (late first round). He came to Sacramento in the shade of Tyreke Evans (4th pick). However, the chemistry between Evans and Casspi was good and Casspi got to the rookie All Star team. Casspi’s play (and Sacramento’s for that matter) was hurt primarily by Westphal’s unending rotation changes.
The offensive balance between PF and SF in the Cav’s now is totally on PF. What Casspi will be and become in the team is totally dependent of who will replace Jamison. If it is Varejao, Tristan or somebody playing that kind of offensive, Casspi’s numbers will soar. Actually I think they could play great together even today. If the future PF is a $15 mil superstar, Casspi will remain in his supporting cast function. I think Cav’s need a good center and Varejao at PF.
There is absolutely no way you can let a game like this be cause for ANY changes. Everyone played equally bad and should shoulder this loss. I think Scott is a great coach, but we were simply too outmatched for the Heat and no amount of good coaching was going to change that. Like I said above, just smile and move on. We still have a bright future. This game was just clearly not in the cards.
Didn’t Miami put the same whooping on Indiana just a few days before? People, this isn’t ’08-’10–the Cavs are going to lose to great teams. It’s just the way it goes right now.
Miami didn’t break any major records on their way to victory, so just forget about it and move on to the next one. If you’re someone hoping we get a playoff spot, this was a game we were almost certain to lose at the beginning of the season, so we’re in about the same shape after the game as we were before. Also, the rookies played reasonably well. No complaints here.
One small bright spot. Semih Erden has committed 5 fouls in his last 46ish mins of play which is 1 every 9 minutes on the court. A huge improvement over 1 every 4.5 mins he was averaging going into those two games. He’s also 10/11 from the field in those games.
Wow, some of the stupidest comments I’ve seen on this blog in about a year. Esp. love the stuff about Scott! Hularious stuff, guys…
On the positive side of the ledger, at least the names “Mo Williams” and “Baron Davis” did not scar this particular post.
I loved the title but it would be nice not to have to go Google the actual final score; maybe a link to a summary or something could be inserted next time?
Three good questions to ask at some point beyond the bellyaching:
- What is it that Antwon Jamieson actually provides to the Cavs, and how are the Cavs going to get it once his contract expires?
- Why couldn’t you at least tear up Brian Windhorst’s writing a little more? He could really use some improvment of his craft; he’s gotten soft since hitting Miami.
- Would it be possible to use more Cleveland-based imagery in the summaries? “He stood as still as a statue on the Lorain Ave. bridge” or “the Cavs bench is as depleted as an empty LTV Steel warehouse” or “the Cavs only hope now is to once again use Mike Brown’s wiles to their advantage by taking Metta World Peace and promising him that he can be King of the Flats at the veteran minimum” etc.?
Just a few thoughts. I was hoping for some more pizazz from this entry.
I just want to comment on Casspi. He has had a really bad year. I feel that not having a training camp is still hurting him. All of his percentages went up from year 1 to year 2. For some reason in year 3 he has dropped across the board. He could still hold potential relative to his contract as a bench player.
FanSaloon NBA Daily Fantasy Rewind
Friday night was a very very productive night for daily fantasy NBA. We had several high scoring nights which meant good high scoring games at FanSaloon.com. Kobe Bryant put up a ridiculous 58 daily fantasy points last night. On most nights that is enough to carry a daily fantasy team to victory, but not on Friday. Read More – http://blog.fansaloon.com/2012/02/fansaloon-nba-daily-fantasy-rewind/
As per Scott’s coaching, there is method to his madness. The Cavs could play this team 20 times with last night’s lineup, and might win one of those games. Scott is not necessarily coaching to win, and it used to drive me nuts. He is coaching to develop players. Guys are getting the same run every night. The minutes distributions, outside of injury compensation, is very consistent. He’s trying to get the players to know their role, know when they’re going to be playing, and expecting them to produce in the amount of minutes he gives them. You’ll notice in his rotation of big men, before Andy got hurt, he was giving the bulk of bench minutes to two guys, and then Hollins, Erden, and/or Smardo. Would be sitting for 3-4 game stretches. This lets them get into a rhythm in the game, and learn how to play in a game without being afraid they’re going to be jerked out for making mistakes, or for matchups. If they win the game, great, but if not they’ve developed as players.
This is a very Euro approach to the game, and an approach you rarely see in HS, College, or even the NBA. This is usually reserved for developmental leagues in the U.S. I have been very impressed with the envelopment of some young players. This approach also gives an unbiased view with a large sample size of what players’ strengths and weaknesses are. In the Cavs’ case, it’s very obvious that their bigs are BAD, and their wings are BAD. Outside of Irving and Jamison, and to some extent Gee, this is still a bad team, and they’re going to get waxed by the Heat most nights. Best not lose too much sleep over it.
BR Windhorst’s ESPN piece on this game was atrocious! “LeBron James does not come a la carte.” What? A buffet reference, a verb that is both weak and possibly puerile, and a failure to use proper French accents all in one sentence! And that’s just the first sentence!
Forget the matchups and Scott’s coaching madness/tactics; when the Heat come to town, target #1 needs to be sloppy prose from the pudgy fingers of one BR Windhorst!
BTW is anyone in Cleveland following Kyrie Irving with the same Windhorst-like stalking tactics? Because I don’t think in-depth reportage on Ryan Hollins is going to get one anywhere.
Final BTW — do you think Antwon Jamieson and Anthony Parker ever get together to complain about how much they don’t miss Mike Brown? Or how they never won the Eastern Conference championship? (Yup, Boobie has got that on them!)