Spurs’ Rules: Cavs vs. Spurs Behind the Box Score
November 20, 2014Josh Gordon on a pitch count against Falcons
November 20, 2014Today should be a good day at WFNY, folks. We’ve got some of the new kids and infrequent writers in charge with Craig on vacation and Scott on a work trip. Hope you can put up with us for the day.
Assorted Cavs-Spurs thoughts:
The Cavs, a currently mediocre team, lost by two points to the defending champions last night. That’s pretty much what I would focus on with any recap. There’s not that much to say, in my mind. I’d have trouble writing much more than just a few sentences.
The Cavs are flawed right now. LeBron James had some boneheaded offensive plays. Kevin Love’s shooting is off and he needs more touches. This is a bad defensive team that was mostly OK yesterday in that department. All things considered, there were some positives.
For more takes besides just that abbreviated commentary, here are some links from around the web about last night’s affairs:
“At the beginning of the second half, Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called a timeout after just one possession, 19 seconds in. The message? This one matters. Ultimately, it won’t matter anymore than any of the other 82 games. But the world champion San Antonio Spurs wanted this one, and the Cavaliers hung tough.” – Fear the Sword’s David Zavac
“Sometimes, the difference between where two teams stand can’t be captured accurately by the scoreboard or even the standings. Sometimes, it’s about the expectations. It’s about what each side perceives as a sign of success, and what isn’t even the slightest bit satisfying.” – Bleacher Report’s Ethan Skolnick
“It is inherently unfair to compare what has been, for the past half-decade or so, the best pure offensive system in the league, run by coaches and players that have been in San Antonio together for years and years, to the Cavs’ system, which is helmed by a brand-new coach and players who are just getting to know each other.” – Cavs: The Blog’s John Krolik
“A big part of the reason the Spurs were able to pull off this road victory was the play of their frontcourt. … This is pretty much where you have to hurt the Cavs if you’re going to beat them. They have talent in the frontcourt but they can’t exactly play together just quite yet. They’re still working on forming a chemistry and trust with each other. You don’t really have that luxury of patience against the Spurs’ frontcourt.” – CBS Sports’ Zach Harper
“It’s no surprise that Anderson Varejao led the Cavs in scoring as much of their offense serves to open up shoots for the big guys after screening and rolling, plus tip-ins.” – BBall Breakdown’s Coach Nick
Assorted other non-Cavs sports links:
— August Fagerstrom, a friend of the site and occasional Akron Beacon Journal writer, wrote at FanGraphs about how the Indians are baseball’s most “valuable” team. He showed that their starting rotation, perhaps the best in the game, is one-third the price of any other team’s rotation.
— Great feature from ESPN’s Pat McManamon on the made-for-Cleveland Joe Thomas. With Alex Mack’s injury, Thomas has been that much more important for the Browns. I know he’s only in his eighth season and the Browns are the Browns … but he seems like he’s on his way to a Hall of Fame career, no?
— USA Today’s Nicole Auerbach shared that the college basketball world is looking at the hype of the College Football Playoff weekly rankings with envy. Would this be something exciting to you if the tournament committee released updates throughout the year? I wouldn’t be necessarily opposed to it. Although the Twitter debate wouldn’t be too much fun.
— I’ve shared before that I’m a huge fan of Fox Sports’ Katie Nolan, who does her No Filer skits. There’s a great interview with her in Sports Illustrated this week, with Jack Dickey. The fact that Nolan wants to be the Jon Stewart of the sports world is really, really awesome. You should be following her.
— On the personal side of things, I wrote at the Oregon MBA blog about why studying math is sexy. I wrote at the Sports Analytics Blog with my usual analytics roundup. And I wrote at the Nylon Calculus site about why the Milwaukee Bucks are surprisingly good. It’s been a busy week of blogging, folks.
— Finally, I’ll end with some positive thoughts for Tallahassee, Florida today. They had a very stressful and chaotic night yesterday with a reported shooter on campus. Hoping that campus can find peace in the coming days.
Wednesday’s top Cavs tweets:
As usual, I like to end WWW on some tweets that I liked for various reasons. Let’s go back to yesterday’s Cavs day for more.
https://twitter.com/CTowersCBS/status/535171361174732800
https://twitter.com/BenAxelrod/status/535219455262195715
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE https://t.co/CWgV5AWP44
— SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) November 20, 2014
Give Kevin Love the ball
Cavs not looking for him at all
Hes just too good, use him we should
His usage makes me want to bawl— LimrickyDavis (@LimrickyDavis) November 20, 2014
The Cavs PA announcer sounds like Satan
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) November 20, 2014
A true #ObscureJersey sighting. This guy at #SunsAtPistons wearing the ugliest Cavs jersey of all-time. #The90s pic.twitter.com/MW0LIisF6S
— Espo (@Espo) November 20, 2014
Mark Jackson steady auditioning for that Cavs job.
— myles brown (@mdotbrown) November 20, 2014
Cavs? Worst team this year or worst team of all time?
— Cavs Win Title Now (@IGOHARDNOW) November 20, 2014
Cavs gotta go back to the Bron 1.0 unis. These McDonalds French fry cartons are Bron's 45 jersey.
— America Is Musty (@DragonflyJonez) November 20, 2014
That moment you realize the Cavs are chasing the Bucks in the standings.
— Machine Pun Kelly (@KellyScaletta) November 20, 2014
https://twitter.com/WFNYKirk/status/535261632960950275
LeBron's going to get killed for that play and Love going 4-12 is going to get buried in the 8th paragraph of the game recap.
— Scoops (@ejmaroun) November 20, 2014
Through 10 games Kyrie Irving shooting 46/46/88, averaging 5 assists, 1.8 turnovers, 1.6 steals.
— David Zavac (@DavidZavac) November 20, 2014
The Cavs are 5-5 after 10 games. In NFL terms, they'd be 1-1. R-E-L-A-X.
— conrad kaz (@conradkaz) November 20, 2014
Shake it off, Cavs.https://t.co/voUqNCvzWB
— Kristen Ledlow (@KristenLedlow) November 20, 2014
Speaking of home attendance, right now #Blazers rank 8th (19,319).. #Bulls 1st (22,094), #Cavs 2nd (20,562) …
— Jabari Young (@JabariJYoung) November 20, 2014
65 Comments
Seriously. I don’t even know what the original thread was about – and I’m not about to even scroll up there to find out!
We already see this, and that’s not how it’s working. Alabama pulls in 25 (or 28 depending on how they can bend the rules) top kids every year that could go start at any number of other programs that could win a championship. These kids know a large number of them are going to have to sit but could start, and shine, elsewhere. But they’re all convinced it’s the kid next to him that is going to sit, not them.
Sure, I thought we were talking about a team that has a claim on the title of best team though.
We’re not breaking any ground by saying that teams on the outside would like to be on the inside. But the point shouldn’t be to make as many teams happy as you can.
if you sit on the bench for 2 years while waiting your turn to be in the spotlight for 1-2 years, then you definitely can get to the NFL.
I would be pretty surprised if any more than a random few of these kids would look at BG getting to get blown out by Florida State in a bowl game as a reason to not go to a Big10 school instead.
Sure, it’s feasible, but I don’t think the point is who has a reasonable shot in a given week, but who demonstrates over the course of the year that they can lay claim to being the best team.
Except, I still don’t think the point is finding “the best team.” I think it’s about finding the “best champion.” I don’t care one lick for making everyone happy. I just like the idea of giving conference champions a shot at proving that they can beat all of the other conference champions.
A lot of coulds here Garry, and not a lot of examples that things would actually change.
Texas A&M and Missouri would have had a great shot at a national title as conference champ of the Big 12. West Virginia almost went as a Big East champ. But they got bigger paydays to go to bigger conferences, and there never was a doubt about what they were going to do.
I think you would be surprised.
“I still don’t think the point is finding “the best team.””
Right. Like I said both yesterday and today, we’re not going to find common ground on this one.
As well as already having been over the conference championship bit. Even still, I don’t see why “best champion” makes any sense, when the number two team in a conference is very likely to be better than the number one in many others.
“The worlds of exploration and change are built upon dreams of what could be.”
– G.O.
Fair enough. We’re at opposite ends of an impasse. And my fingertips are getting tired.
the “Best Team Championship.”
Book it.
Frank Clark finally managed to get himself kicked off the team.
He was the best DL on the squad.
I haven’t watched much Maryland, but I’m not expecting a win.
Hoke can stand his headsetless butt on the sidelines, cross his arms, and take it like a man.
Next year’s coach will have some decent talent to work with, but that’s next year…
I going with Brevin Knight.
Bobby Phills memorial jersey?