Cavaliers vs Magic Behind the Box Score: Baby Steps
November 24, 2014Tashaun Gipson’s loss leaves a big gap in the Browns defense
November 25, 2014Happy Tuesday WFNY!
I can already smell the turkey, and the dressing, and the potatoes and gravy, and the ham, and the pie. I love Thanksgiving! It’s truly the best. You get together with family, friends, and loved ones and together you prepare a massive feast and you share in some good food, good conversation, and laughs. And then you sit down to watch some football for as long as you can hold off the tryptophan1 and enter that beautiful Thursday afternoon football nap. And then you wake up and you eat a little more.
So yes, I love Thanksgiving. I love getting back together with my parents and siblings, seeing my nieces and nephew, and getting together with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. But this year, I will take a second to appreciate all of my blessings a little bit more. If by some chance you missed TD’s piece yesterday on his father, please do TD, myself, and yourself a favor and go back and read it.
Life is precious, and life is fragile. We tend to get so wrapped up in our day to day lives, worrying about jobs and bills, thinking about what Black Friday deals we need to make sure we hit up. But life is really about the relationships within our lives. The bonds between fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, fathers and daughters, mothers and sons.
Beyond just our family, we have extended relationships across all walks of life. We have childhood friends, college buddies, our inner circle of friends whom we explicitly trust, and work associates and friends. My favorite thing about WFNY is that relationships are at the core of this site. I truly appreciate and care about every single person who writes for this site. I’ve developed immensely meaningful friendships with so many of the guys who wear or have worn the WFNY badge. And I also cherish the relationship with those of you who choose to take time out of your day to comment on this site and to give us feedback and engage us in discourse on the topics of the day. We may not always see eye to eye on everything, but I mean it when I say that I appreciate each and every one of you. And those who faithfully and dutifully read this site every day but don’t comment on the articles, I see you too. You show up on our radar every day when we look at site statistic reports and I thank each and every one of you for your continued support.
So thank you. Each and every one of you. If you are reading this, I consider you a friend and I wish nothing but health and happiness for you and your loved ones as you enjoy this holiday weekend!
*****
What’s up with the Cavaliers?
I’m feeling off. It’s weird, the Browns are 7-4, the Cavaliers have LeBron James back along with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, and the Indians just put together consecutive winning seasons. As Cleveland sports fan, it rarely gets much better than this. Yet while Cleveland sports teams are riding high, I’m in a bit of a valley as a fan. I’ve had a lot going on in my day to day life that has occupied a lot of my thoughts lately, and sports are being squeezed out. And I hate it.
So I’m making a conscious effort to get back into just enjoying sports for what they are a little more. As a Cavs fan, it’s easy to be frustrated and angry right now. But I find myself feeling more confused than anything else right now. I have no logical explanation for what I’ve seen so far out of this team.
We knew the Cavaliers would be a good offensive team, right? They are 6th in Offensive Efficiency, which is pretty good obviously. But they are 12th in points per game. They are 9th in 3P%, but 20th in overall FG%. They are 17th in 3-Point Attempt Rate. They are 16th in eFG% (a stat which gives weight to the fact that 3-Point shots are worth one more point). They are playing at a staggeringly slow pace, 20th in the league.
All of this tells me a couple of things. First of all, they’re not running an offense right now. They aren’t generating enough 3-Point shots and they aren’t using enough ball movement and off-ball cuts to create easy baskets. These are very fixable problems. This tells me that the offense will be ok in the end. There’s just too much talent here. Once they start to trust each other and get more comfortable with each other, the movement will increase, the pace will pick up, and defenses will start to move to try to adjust, which will open up more easy baskets.
The defense, on the other hand, is another story. And this is where the real problem with this team lies. In a game like last night, where the Cavaliers were getting blocks and steals and forcing their opponent into tough shots and misses, it was opening up the offense for everyone. Good offense doesn’t always lead to good defense in basketball, but it usually works pretty well in the other direction. The Cavaliers need to get stops to keep up their energy on offense. Because when this team is engaged, they are next to impossible to stop.
*****
Between the short week and covering the Cavaliers game last night, this is going to be a short WWW today. But I want to end today’s edition by reiterating to everyone how thankful all of us here at WFNY are to you guys for reading this site. It means a lot to us and it allows us to continue down this journey, which is truly a labor of love and passion. So thank you.
Be safe out there this weekend. If you are travelling, please have a safe journey. If you are hosting, please have fun. And in general, I truly hope everyone has the best Thanksgiving ever! Until next week, have a great one!
- And before a bunch of Web MD doctors and Snopes sleuths come running in here, yes, I know that tryptophan in turkey isn’t the reason we’re tired after Thanksgiving feast. It’s from engorging ourselves with so much food that our body needs to go into overtime to digest everything. And the alcohol doesn’t hurt, either. [↩]
7 Comments
I’m very thankful for WFNY. It helps get me through my workday, and while I don’t always share my comments for one reason or another, I’m here reading every (non-OSU) article and all the comments. Thanks for creating this community, and thanks to all – writers and commenters – who make it what it is.
Happy Thanksgiving to all!
I haven’t been able to comment as much lately thanks to a new baby girl and increased responsibilities at work, but I still check in at WFNY as much as possible to see what’s going on in Cleveland sports. It’s always my first stop. Thanks for the time that you guys give to make sure everyone else stays in the know… it’s greatly appreciated!
Congrats Pat!
WFNY is not just my first stop for Cleveland sports news, it is my only stop. Thanks for making it easy to stay up on the teams, especially the last couple years when things were pretty bleak.
Have a good holiday all!
http://i.giphy.com/PjYfyarIEsNGM.gif
Jurassic World trailer…
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😀
You’re all welcome.