Indians avoid arbitration with Carrasco, Rzepczynski and Chisenhall
January 15, 2015
Browns playoffs, Cloud Nothings, and ear plugs… While We’re Waiting
January 16, 2015
Cleveland Cavaliers (20-20) 109
Los Angeles Lakers (12-28) 102
Whooooo! Rejoice, the streak is over! Ready to do some jumping jacks and run a 5K now you’ve had that massive weight lifted off your shoulder? The streak is over! The Cleveland Cavaliers ended their six game losing streak with a 109-102 victory over the pitiful Los Angeles Lakers Thursday night on the West Coast. But a win is a win! Still jubilant from Ohio State’s championship victory on Monday night, I channeled my inner OSU student and set 19 dumpster fires throughout Southern California while drinking a 30-pack of Natural Light.
So the Cavs won, but what to make of the victory? Let’s go behind the box score.
13 – It had been 13 days since the Cavs last victory, making Thursday night’s victory over the Lakers only their second victory of the calendar year. Since the six game losing streak began on January 4th against the Dallas Mavericks, the Cavs lost each game by an average score of 92-105, they made two significant trades, I wrote a poem about the departed Dion Waiters, and the internet tried to kill Coach David Blatt. Thursday night’s win was J.R. Smith’s first in a game in which he played since November 22, which is actually quite impressive.
75.0 percent – While LeBron James scored 36 points, 75.0 percent of his field goals were unassisted. This isn’t an unusually high percentage of unassisted field goals, but is indicative of LeBron’s dominance over the offense. A lot of LeBron’s points came from mostly unwatchable isolation basketball. LeBron’s 37.0 usage percentage was the highest in the game, with a significant edge over Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and even Kobe Bryant. In the end it was effective, as a 36 point, five rebound, five assist stat line is hard to gripe about. But the fact remains that the Cavs’ primary tension on offense is between its need for LeBron to generate points and assists, and his ball-dominance stagnating what sometimes is a great offense when everyone touches the ball. An inability to consistently achieve the proper balance is drastically holding the team back.
5 – Tristan Thompson had 11 rebounds in Thursday’s contest, five of which came on the offensive glass. All of his offensive rebounds were meaningful, and two resulted in dunks. In the fourth quarter alone, Thompson had all five of his points, seven rebounds, and four offensive rebounds, keeping the Cavs ahead in a game they seemed desperate to blow. Thompson’s effort on the offensive glass has been the one constantly refreshing thing the Cavs have seen night after night. He’s also done pretty well switching onto smaller guards, even if Kobe Bryant did coldly drill a three right in his face in the second half. So cruel, Kobe.
4 of 12 – Kevin Love didn’t have a great shooting night, only hitting four of his 12 field goal attempts, the lowest shooting percentage for the Cavs on the night. He was one of six from three point range, but was able to muster 17 points by making eight of nine at the free throw line. He was clearly hobbled, as Rachel Nichols reported that he was experiencing back spasms during halftime on the TNT broadcast. In fact, he was struggling to move so much in the third quarter that I found the decision to keep him in the game the most indefensible thing Coach Blatt has done all season. But he appeared to want to play, and the charge he took in the fourth quarter that put him in obvious pain was one of the gutsiest things I’ve ever seen Love do on a basketball court. It’s effort plays like Love’s taken charge that this Cavs team needs to unite them.
17 – The Cavaliers allowed Lakers guard Kobe Bryant to abuse them with 17 assists, a career high. Yes, Kobe Black Mamba Ball Hog Turnaround Jumper Jellybean Bryant had 17 assists. He only averages 5.7 10 assist games per season. Entering Thursday, Kobe had only one 15 assist game in his entire career—in 2002. And the Cavs allowed him to earn a career high as he yucked it up with LeBron all game. Most of Kobe’s assists seemed to go to Jordan Hill, who made 10 of 14 field goal attempts, most of which came on uncontested jumpers trying to drag Timofey Mozgov away from under the basket.
485 to 2 – The approximate disparity between the number of appearances for Cavs coach David Blatt and appearances for Lakers coach Byron Scott on TNT’s broadcast. Did you know there were rumblings this week about Coach Blatt’s future with the Cavs? Did you? Did you know? Didyouknow DIDYOUKNOWDIDYOUKNOW????
2 – The number of times play-by-play announcer Kevin Harlan tried to convince the audience that he didn’t mistakenly say Jack Nicklaus instead of Jack Nicholson, the longtime Lakers fan. He totally said Jack Nicklaus.
29 Comments
Small sample sizes and all that, and obviously his final line IS hard to gripe about as Kyle pointed out, but I saw a couple vines of Lebron on Twitter from last night’s game – an apathetic turnaround J and a complete ignoral of his man on D – that were the most pathetic displays of effort I’ve ever seen. If they were anyone else, they would have been benched immediately (hi Dion! I miss you…kinda). But I doubt anyone will even bring it up to Lebron, let alone full out call him out on it.
Most pathetic ever? I take it you’ve never watched James Harden play defense?
The majority of this game felt like an All-Star game, especially for Kobe and LeBron. One-on-one, iso-ball on the offensive end and pitiful displays on defense (until the 4th quarter when it was time to turn up the D for the cameras and the celebrities in the crowd). LeBron had this obnoxious self-awareness playing in front of that Hollywood crowd. I was convinced that the Cavs were somehow going to blow it against these pitiful Lakers.
I will say this though… I was surprised to find out that Jordan Hill didn’t shoot 100% in that game. He made a ridiculous 15-foot fall-away jumper and seems to have ate whatever Markieff Morris was eating two days before. Jeremy Lin hit two shots with a man right up in his grill. I forgot how frustrating it can be for the Cavs to get everyone’s best shot in every single game. Every team feels like they have something to prove against the Cavs.
Watch the vines… there’s a play where LeBron is supposed to be guarding the 3-point shooter in the corner and he basically just looks at the guy (Wesley Johnson maybe?) as he’s shooting the ball. Doesn’t even make an effort to get a hand up. If that’s not the most pathetic defense ever caught on camera, then it’s a tie.
I don’t know. This is one of my alltime favorites and it is tough to beat.
http://terezowens-com-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/2013/11/AMARE-LOL.gif
google “gif Harden no defense” and there are quite a few gems
That’s pretty awful. Here’s the LeBron one for side-by-side comparison.
https://vine.co/v/OjWd5XXFFFm
the full back turn that Amare does allowing for an even higher percentage shot would still push the vote to him from me. but, the lack of arms going up along with the full slow trot back to offense as he’s shooting is pretty dang bad too.
The Cavs have some major issues. First, Lebron just doesn’t seem happy. When he wants to be, he is the best player in the world. But one of the main reasons he was so good was because of his unselfishness. He could be unselfish and score 30, while dealing out 7 assists and pulling down 7 rebounds while being the best defender on the floor. He was unbelievably good at making up for his teammates deficiencies, and getting the most out of his role players in his first stint in Cleveland. Now, he seems to be lacking effort at times, and I think this lack of effort effects the way others on the team have played. Its reminiscent of Game 6 in Boston in 2010. The problem is that he knows, more than ever now after sitting out, that he is the ultimate X factor. He knows that they are a playoff team with him, and might not be a playoff team without him, even in the lowly Eastern Conference. And there’s no doubt that they’re not a contender without him. I’m not sure if there are locker room issues, or if its David Blatt, but there is definitely some problems with this team. We all know that he can get his numbers whether he cares or doesn’t care, but he has to be fully invested in winning more than anything, which I think is in doubt right now.
Second, I think they could really use Shump right now to take JRs spot in the lineup. Even though JR has scored points, it doesn’t seem like they are a better team when he is in the game. He reminds me wayyyy to much of Dion. He scores well in isolation, but the Cavs don’t score efficiently when he is in the game. If you look at the Cav’s points per 100 possessions when he is in the game, and when Dion played for the Cavs, they are almost identical, and they are near the bottom on the team. And he takes shots away from Kyrie, who I think can fit better in our offense than JR can (and its not like JR is adding much defensively). Kyrie breaks down defenders and gets to the basket more easily, which I think is more likely to lead to kick outs for open shots, and offensive rebounds. Kyrie’s strength is his offense, and JR does very few things to compliment Kyrie in a way that helps his game out. I would rather rely primarily on Kyrie, Lebron and Love to score, and have to complimentary guys (Shump and Mozgov) doing things that make the Big 3 better. Hopefully, JR can fit in better when he is on the bench, and take his shots when Kyrie, Lebron, and Love are not in the game.
Third, the Cavs need to figure out how to fix things defensively. I think this starts with Lebron. Has Lebron been the biggest problem defensively on this team? Of course not, but I think his body language indicates that he has become frustrated with Kevin Love and Kyrie’s defensive issues, and his frustration is helping no one. Kevin Love is terrible when he is isolated with another post on defense. But these situations can be avoided, especially with a guy like Lebron, and hopefully Shump back soon. Good ball pressure and wing defense can decrease the number of times Love is put in these situations. I think Lebron has to accept that Love is bad when he is put in certain situations, and do whatever he can to avoid these situations. If you put him in these situations, he will fail.
And everyone has complained about Love’s defense, but I think other players have been a bigger issue defensively, mainly Delly, Kyrie, Mike Miller, and James Jones. If your backcourt is being beaten off the ball, or giving up passes too easily, everything is thrown off. If the other team knows it can get the ball in certain spots without any issues, its bad news. All four of these players have awful numbers when you look at the how easily opponents score when they are a part of the lineup. And this is coming from a guy who loves some of these guys for their unselfishness. They are towards the bottom in points given up per 100 possessions when they are on the floor. And, ironically, Kevin Love is one of the better players on the team when it comes to this stat. I don’t know if this stat is skewed for some reason (possibly because Kevin Love is placed in lineups with the team’s best defenders i.e. Lebron?), but his would indicate that he isn’t his team’s biggest problem on defense. If anything, I would think that this stat would disfavor his primary defensive strength (defensive rebounding), but I am not entirely sure how this stat may not be indicative of his worth (or lack thereof) on defense. In summary, I am really excited to see how Shump fits into this team, and how he can compliment everyone’s game. I hope his return will lead to less minutes for Delly, James Jones, and Mike Miller, which will lead to using them in more effective ways. And I hope his return will lead to a more effective Kyrie.
See… for me the LeBron “defense” is worse because Amare just seems to have gotten himself confused… falls more into the “moron” category than the “purposefully bad” category, which LeBron absolutely falls into.
Was it a withering glance? Maybe he was playing psychological defense.
Now that LeBron is back, the offense will run through either him or Kyrie, which puts Delly in a much better position to succeed. He’s not a point guard and the less we see him dribbling around trying to create for others and trying to guard the fastest players in the league, the better his numbers will be.
Nothing like using the fake box out to lock down an opponent. Wow. He even used the wrong thing to pretend to do.
Really? Seemed to me to be a conscious effort by Amare to give up on defending the shot and sort of look to see if the rebound might possible come his way (w/o boxing out or attacking the rim).
Kyrie’s PnR defense is more the confusion type:
http://cdn1.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/2374018/roserev.0.0.gif
I can definitely see that now with Stoudemire. But hey, at least he is semi-trying to get into a bad position to rebound the basketball. LeBron just looks back as he’s trotting down to the other end of the court.
Delly goes back to the bench thankfully as soon as Shumpert is ready and I won’t mind a bit. OIC does someone like Delly get any notice. He’s a bench player period.
He’s back to the bench now. J.R. Smith has been starting at SG. Players who play hard are popular with their team’s fans in every city. People in Memphis love Tony Allen.
I wonder if there will be as much coverage of Kevin Love sitting out down the stretch last night as there was against Phoenix. Of course they won’t mention the fact that Love is injured, again. I hate to say it but perhaps Love should not play for a week a la LBJ and get these issues addressed. It will once again kill any continuity but you watch him shoot and his shot is straight on there’s no arc, no lift.
Delly still comes in to spot KI I mean the end of the bench where he only plays if a blowout or injury.
I agree… the back issues won’t go away while he’s playing. He needs to rest for a couple weeks.
That won’t change with Shumpert… Delly would still be KI’s sub because even though he’s not great as a ball-handler, he’s the best the Cavs have behind Irving and LeBron. And besides that, coaches love him. He’ll drop down to around 10 minutes per game, which I think is a good plan for him given the talent on the team at this point.
Frontpage on ESPN Today:
“Trade Love: Time to Give Up on Love”
Oooof, is that true? I missed that. Shameful.
yes, quite true. apparently, we should trade him to Phoenix.
hmmmm… Bledsoe as the backup PG and Len as the backup (or starting?) center does sound more tempting than I care to admit. I still think Love is the best option to help the team win right now though. And Mozgov & Len might put each other in the hospital in practice (that whole Ukraine v. Russia thing).
I agree with Pat Leonard. Delly’s strength will be spelling some of the other guards for 10-15 minutes a game. He can bring the ball up the court, hand it off to Kyrie, Lebron, or JR and let them go to work. Once he gets past half court, he can essentially function as a shooting guard and work the ball around. He’s one of my favorite players but he definitely has his limitations.
Worst sports network out there. They have become the E! or Bravo of sports journalism.
I’d hate to see KLove go, but you could see how this could work out. But I’d want to wait around and see how this team changes when Shump is thrown in the lineup before I make any major changes. Even with Shump, unless Lebron wants to try to become the DPOY (which he is capable of but I don’t see happening), I don’t see this team winning it all. Kevin Love is awesome and I love his attitude, but I hate seeing him play when he’s not at his best and is not being used to the best of his abilities.
Len would be great for a number of reasons. He can protect the rim, and, from the limited amount of times I’ve seen him play, I think he is capable of hitting 15 footers on pick and rolls with some consistency. He plays a lot like Z did when he was younger. You wouldn’t have to worry about running a lot of plays through him for him to be effective. Would have been nice if the Cavs had picked him instead of Bennett.
And Bledsoe would provide the on the ball defense that the Cavs lack right now. Their lack of a good on-the-ball defender, not their lack of a post presence, has been their biggest downfall. Shump may be able to be that guy once he is back without this trade. I hope so, because I hate to see Klove go.
Luckily for Harden he has Dwight Howard, one of the best defensive players in the league, on his team.