The Hornets defeated the Cavs in an utter rock fight.
–Don’t let the scoreline fool you: this game was a mess for both teams. The Hornets shot just 40% from the field and led for the duration of the game. This is because the Cavs shot a paltry 32%, including a 6-27 performance from behind the stripe.
–Irving had his worst night as a professional, shooting 2-13 from the field. He did have a career-high 11 assists, but his wayward shot overshadowed his court vision tonight.
–Marco Belinelli looked great tonight. He was 8-13, including a dagger three with a minute left. Marco Belinelli.
–If Cavs fans are to take any sort of silver lining from this game, it’s indication that Tristan Thompson might have the Andy Varejao rebounding gene. TT had an ugly game (like almost every player on the floor tonight), but he grabbed six offensive boards (ten total) in just sixteen minutes of action.
–I would be remiss if I didn’t give Antawn Jamison some more much-deserved credit. He wasn’t as efficient as last night (8-22 from the floor), but on a night when Irving didn’t have it, Jamison kept the Cavaliers in the ballgame. Way to raise that trade stock, ‘Tawn.
–Chris Kaman shot the ball 25 times in this game, and would have led all scorers if Antawn Jamison hadn’t dropped in a couple garbage time buckets. That’s as good a summary as I can offer.
The Cavs have almost a week off before the Celtics come to town on Tuesday. Time to rest legs that look incredibly weary. Until tomorrow, friends.
I’m giving Antawn no credit. His .439 TS% was god-awful, yes he grabbed quite a few boards, but so did Gustavo Ayon, and Jamison’s defense was, as is typical, underwhelming. Just because most of the team played even worse doesn’t mean that Jamison’s play was even acceptable.
Eh. This team does not know how to play back to backs, and Scott doesn’t know how to coach them. What’s the point of having Manny Harris on the team if you’re not going to play him? That 7 minutes 0-5 Luke Harangody stretch was… Ugh. I feel for the kid. Never understood why Scott didn’t just put Gee at the 4, and Harris at the 3, and try to run the Hornets out of the gym. That’s gotta be a better option than Harangody, right?
And cut Jamison some slack. That guy shouldn’t be playing nearly that many minutes on the back end of back to backs.
Jamison didn’t score any “garbage time buckets.” His last FG came at 3:22, his only 2 points in the 4th quarter… it cut the lead to 74-72.
Jamison was clutch down the stretch, though. With 1:30 to and the Cavs down two, Jamison gave up an offensive rebound on one of the most piss-poor box outs I’ve ever seen… he just stood next to Ayon and the ball flew right by his head like he had no clue what was going on. Ayon then promptly blew right by him on the same possession in what lead to an uncontested dunk by Kaman. Jamison then tossed up a contested 3 point brick with 12 seconds still on the shot clock. The next time down, NO hit a 3 and pushed the lead to 7 with little under a minute to play… putting the game out of reach.
“What’s the point of having Manny Harris on the team if you’re not going to play him?”
He’s a rookie, and CP3 is the only young player that B.S. has ever actually developed.
the change in tone in these comments following a loss compared to a win is incredible. The Cavs are going to fail to show up from time to time, its a young developing team. And we are developing at a faster rate than i think anyone anticipated. This is still the same team who beat the Knicks, Mavericks, and Clippers each of those on the tail end of back2back games. I’m sure Manny Harris has a few things to prove to Byron Scott during practive before he gets any minutes in a game, regardless of how good he looked in the NBDL.
Let’s all just cross our fingers that the next game the Cavs play will be without Sessions and Jamison and we will have a few more draft picks in our back pocket.
This should just go to show everyone why they shouldn’t get worked up about the Cavs getting a couple close wins. At the beginning of the year, myself and many other posters here said the Cavs would be picking around #8, and nothing this year has given me a reason to expect different.
This is a young team that has been playing large minutes due to injuries to key rotation players (TT, Boobie, Parker, Andy). They are gaining some valuable experience even though the results are wildly unpredictable.
And if Jamison keeps this up, he’ll be on a contender within a month.
I don’t know about you guys, but this loss was a lot more painful to me than the Miami game…just thoroughly bad basketball here.
RYAN HOLLINS!!!! I don’t know if Byron just found out that Ryan is his biological son and is making up for lost time, or if he has a bet with Lawrence Frank: “I’m gonna play Ryan Hollins 30 minutes tomorrow” “Yeah right” “20 bucks?” “You’re on!” Or maybe Chris Grant is dangling him as trade bait? All I do know is I just spent good money last night to watch 29 minutes of Ryan Hollins, and I did not like it.
Ron: Mannie Harris is in his second year. As for young players that BS developed, you’re forgetting David West, who Scott got in West’s 2nd year, and who he helped turn into a 20 ppg scorer in his prime.. Also J.R. Smith, Brandon Bass (both of whom got better after they left Scott, but I’m arguing causality), Rasual Butler, Tyson Chandler (who got significantly better under BS), and Kyrie Irving.
Time to send Harangody on his way…anywhere. He’s shooting only 25% from the field, and 14% on 3-pointers this season, which are down from his career marks of 36% and 23%. Like the hustle, but he’s a tweener who can’t seem to put the ball in the hoop. Time to cut bait!
Likewise, despite his size, Hollins is a career 2.2 rpg guy, and he hasn’t even matched that this year, averaging a very poor 1.9 rpg. In my best Austin Carr voice……: “Get that weak stuff out of here…” !!!!!
Anytime Kyrie get double digit assit, I’m pleased. All shooters have off nights, and I don’t mind this from Kyrie on occassion. But, what I want to see from him is more asst on a regular basis. On a night when his shot wasn’t falling, it’s nice that he was able to get others good looks.
I like Jamison, not always very efficient, but I’ll live with 44% TS from him. He shouldn’t be playing this many minutes in a single game let alone on back to backs, and since he’s our only true scoreer (outside of Kyrie who really needs to be more of a facillitator), I think Jamsion is playing quite well. He takes some illadvised shots at times, but for the most part he get’s good looks and generally speaking I’d rather have him taking the shot versus anyone else on the team with the exception of Boobie.
I don’t understand whey Manny isn’t being used. He’s only on a 10 day contract with a big break in between, so I would think that BS would want to get him minimally 5-10 game time minutes. The major advantage of an NBA team owning their own D-league team is that they can run the same systems, use the same terminology and have more of a direct line of input/feedback about player development etc. So, I’m really confused why we called him up at this timing to just not use him.
In terms of BS ‘developing’ a lot of players, I’m not sure how true/false that is. It’s easy to point to CP3 and say that BS developed him, but it could be that CP3 was just a good player that BS happened to coach, just like he happened to coach Jason Kidd and Baron Davis and he happened to play with Magic Johnson. I can’t say who he has/not developed, but IF he is a development coach, I’m waiting to see the development in Eyenga and Manny. IF Kyrie becomes the star that many fans pray he becomes, I don’t think that will be enough to ‘prove’ BS knows how to develop players, it’s not that difficult with a #1 overall pick.
^Why does Kyrie need to be more of a facilitator? He has a pure jump shot and can penetrate at will. I’m fine with him getting us points by any means available.
Nupe,
Couldn’t you technically say that about any coach? Phil Jackson was only good because he got to coach some of the most talented players ever to play basketball (MJ, Pippen, Kobe, Shaq). Coaching is also about putting your players in the best possible situation to succeed. Did BS put Paul in a great position to succeed? I say yes, otherwise he wouldn’t be the best PG in the league. Is he doing the same with Irving? I’m leaning towards yes on that, too.
LA seems like an ideal landing spot for Sessions, but what do the Cavs get for him? A late 1st and 2nd rounder? Do you really see them adding a backup PG that late in the draft that adds as much value as Sessions does? He’s not an all-star, but as far as backup PG’s go, he’s pretty damn good. They’ll be rolling the dice with him leaving after this season, but hopefully Grant and co. are seeing where his head is at. He might be comfortable in Cleveland and willing to back-up Irving for the next 3-4 years if he gets enough money. Teams aren’t going to throw a lot of money at him because A) most teams who currently think they have a shot at winning the title already have a good PG, and 2) a rebuilding team won’t pay a huge amount to a backup. There is a price to pay for a solid backup PG, especially one who can create offense. He’s young, too! If the Cavs are serious about rebuilding, he’s a piece you might want to keep around.