Haha to Harbaugh : Ohio State players have some fun
March 24, 2016LeBron James the underdog: While We’re Waiting…
March 25, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers (51-21) 95
Brooklyn Nets (20-51) 104
Box Score
The most famous line from the maudlin 1994 Best Picture winner Forrest Gump (unless you’re partial to “Sorry I had a fight in the middle of your Black Panther party.”) is Forrest’s aphorism (passed on from his Mama), “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” It’s a nice line to slap on a movie poster or an Academy Award highlight reel, but — with no intention of insulting Mr. Gump — it’s a stupid thing to say. It totally negates the role we play in our own lives, especially Forrest’s choices in shaping his own, fascinating, charmed fictional life. Besides, the Whitman’s Sampler has a freaking picture of what chocolate you’re gonna get on the box’s underside.
However, Forrest Gump would have been totally correct had he said, “Watching Cleveland Cavaliers games is like a box of chocolates. One out of every four is going to be a shitty flavor like coconut or cherry cordial.” But I guess a line about the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers would have been really out of place in a movie from 1994 about a man with a serendipitous life and a love of shrimp-boating.1 On the other hand, the Cleveland Cavaliers are a basketball team, and ball is life. So, in a roundabout way, Forrest was probably right about both life and the Cavs.
Meanwhile, after playing entertaining and decent games against the Denver Nuggets on Monday night and the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night, Cavs fans should have expected a distasteful performance against the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday: It was the second night of a back-to-back, third game in four nights, the team’s flight to New York had apparently been delayed several times after Wednesday night’s game, it was against what should have been an overmatched 19-win team, and (as mentioned) the Cavs have to toss in a repugnant one out of every few.
Just like the picture on the box tells you what chocolate you’re going to eat, Cavs fans should have known from the schedule and the opponent that they were about to swallow something gross. And Thursday’s Nets game was another disgusting coconut-flavored chocolate. Let’s quickly spit out the box score and move onto Saturday’s game against the New York Knicks, which will hopefully taste more like chocolate whip or caramel (no coincidence that it involves Carmelo Anthony).
24 – After combining for 40 points, 18 rebounds, and 12 assists on Wednesday night, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love collaborated on a 24 point, 17 rebound, and seven assist effort on Thursday. Some of Kevin Love’s numbers were nothing to wretch at, as he busted his rear on 12 rebounds and moved the ball well to the tune of three assists, a fine number for a power forward. But the shooting and scoring numbers were barfy. The duo managed a measly 24 points on 11-of-36 (30.6 percent) shooting. Irving and Love were also the Cavs’ second and third leading scorers at 13 and 11 points respectively, with no one from the bench stepping up to fill the gaping void they left. Irving and Love/Love and Irving are rightfully expected to produce something worthy of a second and third banana behind LeBron James on a nightly basis, and they simply didn’t score or play well enough on Thursday for the Cavs to have a realistic chance of winning.
13-of-16 – LeBron James finished Thursday night with 30 points on 13-of-16 (81.3 percent) shooting. James made his first 10 baskets of the evening, just hinting … teasing that he might unleash the beast on the Nets and rampage his way to a Cavs win. Then he had a layup go in-and-out on a nice pick-and-roll, one that even featured a nice Irving pass! It was a sign that things were not going to go the Cavaliers way. If you’re really devoted to complaining about James (as is your right as an American), he was shut out in the fourth quarter (0-of-2 on field goals), so go follow your dreams.
Secretly, James has probably been the best player in the NBA over the last month, which seems unfathomable given the season Stephen Curry has had. James could have taken Thursday’s Nets game in another direction were he so inclined to expend that much energy before the playoffs. Over the last four games, James is averaging 28.8/6.5/6.8 on 61.0 percent shooting, and he’s been the one Cavalier in ATTACK Mode every time he touches the basketball, attempting 58 of his 77 field goals in the lane during that span. James also unveiled two of the best in-game dunks of the year in Wednesday’s and Thursday’s games. Here they both are, streaming in all their glory until the internet stops.
https://vine.co/v/ipjUDUAmEmp
https://vine.co/v/ipnQ1hM9m05
10-of-38 – The Cavaliers shot 10-of-38 from three-point land on Thursday, an abysmal 26.3 percent. This was the 23rd game in which the Cavaliers attempted 30 threes and shot below 30.0 percent, but the fifth time in March alone (including Wednesday’s game against the Bucks). This is a disturbing trend, and a uhh poor strategy for winning basketball games. And that poor percentage came despite LeBron James making a rare three, if that’s any indication of how little he had in the way of help on Thursday.
https://vine.co/v/ipj3aDEvYhY
9 – The Cavaliers attempted a minuscule nine free throws on Thursday. Frankly, I didn’t think the officiating was uneven, either — the Non-LeBrons didn’t force the issue, and the Cavs didn’t get the ball in the post enough. This is a recurring issue: the perimeter shots don’t fall or the other team is hot, but the Cavs continue to shoot from afar instead of orienting the offense around scoring down low when generating trips to the line is the best way to climb back into a game. The Cavs are in the bottom third of the league in free throws per game at 21.7, and have 12 games in which they’ve attempted less than 15 freebies (four in March alone), and they’re 5-7 in such games. This was the case against the Miami Heat on Saturday (13 free throw attempts), when the Cavaliers inexplicably remained on the perimeter instead of uglying the game up against the Heat and clawing their way back into it.
4 – Tristan Thompson had an astounding four rebounds in 25 minutes of play, which is not great. The Cavs were only out-rebounded by one against the Nets (45 to 46), but Thompson wasn’t around the ball much, with a rebound rate over 10 percent below his season average. He did have three assists, and actually made some nice interior passes, a rarity for Thompson. So, you know, hooray.
22 & 16 – The Nets beat the Cavs (it still sounds ridiculous when said out loud) primarily behind the efforts of Brook Lopez and Shane Larkin. Lopez (averaging 20 and 8 this season) flashed some great moves and footwork against the Cavs big men. He finished with 22 points and seven rebounds, and though it would have been nice to see Mozzy Bear (highest plus/minus for the Cavs at +4) show more backbone against Lopez, What can one expect? It’s Lopez (he’s going to get his points) and it’s Mozgov (he’s a docile, harmless creature). After playing solid defense against Emmanuel Mudiay on Monday, Irving couldn’t stay in front of third year guard Shane Larkin (16 points on 7-of-10 shooting) to save his life. Larkin and Donald Sloan penetrated the defense all night (Sloan nearly made Dellavedova fall over twice) and by the time Rondae Hollis-Jefferson found his rhythm (eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter) the Cavs had no shot at overcoming their poor shooting and lack of free throws.
Thursday’s Cavaliers loss was a nasty one — maybe they’ll have a tastier treat for fans this upcoming Easter Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
- Yeah, that’s the message I took from Forrest Gump. [↩]
4 Comments
Don’t even really want to think about this game much, and had my back to the TV for most of it, but I am gonna do a little complaining. I can’t remember who wrote the article a couple weeks back (probably Jacob or Kyle) about Lebron not getting his due calls, but there were two over the last two games that were pretty ridic IMO. Against the Bucks, on his dunk in transition over the Greek Freak, Antekowhatever admirably went for the block, but came down across Lebron’s head…no call. Last night, and for those who missed it, I’m sure it will be all over social media and ESPN, Lebron got pretty much posterized by Bojan Bogdatonikukoc, thanks mostly in part to Bojan pushing off with his off arm when they both went up to the rim…no call. Now, I’m not nearly as upset about the second no call as I enjoy a good IN THE FACE as the next guy, and most will say “Lebron’s so strong that he shouldn’t be getting shoved around like that so he didn’t deserve the call” to which I would reply “take the names out of the equation and it’s a freakin offensive foul” but this is all just a long rant to say that I hate NBA officiating, but only slightly less than I’m hating watching the rest of this regular season trickle out.
….they were also out for Kyrie’s birthday the night before. DRAMA.
Also, if I (or LeBron for that matter) never see Timo suit up again it’ll be for the better.
When I looked at the draft of 6568 dollars, I have faith that brother of my friend was like really generating cash in his free time with his PC..ipb His aunt’s neighbor has done this for only 11 months and by now repaid the loan on their home and bought a new Car.
For Details Click Here
df..