Cleveland State’s spirited comeback falls short as Vikings lose fourth straight
January 9, 2016The return of GOOD Fridays: While We’re Waiting…
January 11, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers (26-9) 95
Philadelphia 76ers (4-36) 85
Box Score
His Cavs won their seventh straight game and he played wonderfully, but LeBron James’ Sunday night in Philadelphia did not begin on such auspicious terms. Rarely one to be made a fool of, the King caught a ball in the face during pregame warmups. Like, right smack in the face. There is a beautiful moment right before impact when he realizes that there is no way to prevent what’s about to happen, which I thought humanizing considering that he generally looks superhuman.
(Anderson Varejao was revealed to be the culprit. LeBron was totally fine, and Jared Cunningham got to literally look down upon him for the first and only moment of his life.)
It is distinctly possible that LeBron’s depth perception was thrown off because the roof on the Wells Fargo Center was just darn too low. That turned out to be a temporary problem for which he had the solution. James created plenty of highlights in Philly — and showed that his newfound affinity for raising the roof is not going away just yet.
Perhaps understanding that most of America’s eyes would be watching the NFL playoffs, the Cavs didn’t overexert themselves in the name of creating must-see TV as they took on the 76ers. LeBron James was great and both Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson were good, but as a whole the Cavs couldn’t assemble a prolonged, whole-team stretch good enough to break the Sixers’ will — at least not until LeBron took over in the fourth quarter. He led the Cavs to a lead of as many as 16 points, and the wine and gold finished with a double-digit win.
37, 7, 9 — LeBron James was at his best Sunday night, registering 37 points, 7 rebounds, and 9 assists in 37 minutes. The minute total was higher than one would like against the Sixers, but somebody had to put this thing out of reach. James entered the fourth quarter with 7:31 remaining and the Cavs holding an 81-79 advantage. He scored 12 points during a 14-0 run that gave the Cavs their biggest lead of the game. The Cavs scored 12 of those 14 points in just three and a half minutes.
Everything worked for LeBron offensively, including his jumper. He knocked down 3-of-5 from beyond the arc — and a handful more from just inside it. He was perfect at the rim, and got some of those chances thanks to smart off-ball cuts. Most fun of all were his dunks in transition off of Kevin Love outlet passes.
15, 15, 7 — Speaking of Love, he had a fine game against Philly: 15 points, 15 rebounds, 7 assists. He was frustrated with the officials for much of the evening and had a shot or three swatted away, but he kept at it and turned in a nice performance. He owned a game-high plus-18 rating and added a couple steals in 37 minutes.
9-of-19; 19 into 29 — The Sixers shot 46 percent (35-of-77) from the field against the Cavs. That’s pretty good. They shot 47 percent (9-of-19) from the free throw line. That’s not good. They also committed 19 turnovers, which resulted in 29 Cleveland points. Philly did some good things — Ish Smith has added some teeth to the offense, Jahlil Okafor can really work inside, and Nerlens Noel blocked three shots — but the 76ers are still a young team bursting with mistakes. Were it not for those, they might have put even more of a scare into the Cavs.
11-of-46 — A banner night this was not for the Cavaliers backcourt. Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, Matthew Dellavedova, and Iman Shumpert combined to shoot 11-of-46 from the field en route to 28 total points. Each player had moments where he forced the action, with Irving the biggest offender. He opened the game with some nice passing and movement, but things devolved from there. He finished 3-of-15 from the field and forced more than a couple shots. J.R. Smith shot a similarly bad 5-of-18, but many of his attempts were wide-open looks. He just didn’t make ’em.
Delly spoke after the game about what the Cavs need to do when their shots aren’t dropping.
What do you do when the ball isn’t falling like most nights for @cavs? @matthewdelly answers. https://t.co/CCD9qldSbB
— FOX Sports Ohio (@FOXSportsOH) January 11, 2016
3 — The Cavs’ next three games are in the state of Texas. They play the Dallas Mavericks next Tuesday, the San Antonio Spurs Thursday, and the Houston Rockets Friday. Suffice to say that those opponents represent a slight step up from the Sixers.
16 Comments
Was at the game, and although there was some booing, a lot of the philly fans paid Bron some respect by imitating his raise the roof gesture. Was kinda cool.
Of course, with as dismal as the Sixers are, it was a packed house for once, and we all know why.
Can someone much cooler than me decode what the metaphor of “raising the roof” means?
I also saw some raising of the roof (mocking LeBron) on Nerlens Noel’s big dunk. And to that, I also give a thumbs up. If you’re going to have a signature move after your dunks, then you’re also open to being mocked for your signature move. Either way, I thought it was fun and I hope he keeps rolling with it.
Philly’s game is so horrible that it brings down the game of those trying to play them. It’s unreal.
Also, Mozgov is officially on notice.
I need Kevin Love to start hitting open threes again. He’s doing a lot of things well right now, including playing some pretty good defense, but his three point shot feels like it rarely ever goes in anymore.
Mozzy was BAD. I don’t know what’s going on with that guy, but I honestly feel like we’d get better minutes out of Sasha Kaun right now.
His hands have always been bad but his lack of attention to anything is now frustrating his teammates as well. JR and LeBron lit him up yesterday both publicly and privately.
He’s got 0 strength to the basket and total lack of focus. I know there were rumblings about still recovering from injury which maybe true but his game is totally out of whack.
Tristan is taking everything to the hoop with authority. Even if he knows he has no chance to dunk it, he’s still drawing the contact foul and making his money.
Exactly. We’ve always known that the hands are bad and he’s going to let some great passes slip through, but his inability to finish around the rim given his massive size is mind-boggling. If the problem is injury, then Blatt needs to shut him down for however long it takes before he is well. It’s not like we can’t get by with Andy and Sasha for a month. Trotting out this version of Mozgov does more harm than good.
I highly suspect the Nerdlucks are behind this. We desperately need Bugs and Daffy to get on this…
This week against the Spurs is his ultimate test and the only reason he’s got value with us right now.
Guess we’ll see how that goes.
I don’t mind LBJ or Cavs being booed.
it’s was very mixed. and yeah, just like Johnny… if you have a signature move, expect to be mocked for it. Lebron gets booed everywhere. Biggest boos in this game were from foul calls, actually, not his dunks/gestures.
my mom was wiht me at the game. She asked when he was being traded. LOL.
He’s so soft and when lacking confidence, he’s a drain on the team.
thought the same thing last night.
I griped quite a lot at the beginning of the game on the lack of second chance points/offensive rebounds. NO ONE at the rim on open shots. I think that was a main reason the game was as close as it was.
Moz was such a perfect compliment to lineups with Kyrie and Love last year, so it would be great having him playing at the level he was playing last year. He’s capable of taking a lot of pressure off our guards by defending the rim. At the same time, he hasn’t been good this year, and has been a liability on the floor. I would definitely be in favor of sitting him for however long it takes to feel healthy again. The Cavs could use the opportunity to get as much small ball experience as possible, which could be a really good thing.