Cleveland teams mostly clear from “paid patriotism” issue
November 4, 2015Let’s talk about everything but the Browns: While We’re Waiting…
November 5, 2015New York Knicks (2-3) 86
Cleveland Cavaliers (4-1) 96
The Cleveland Cavaliers started slowly on Wednesday night, making it two straight games in which they were less than magnificent in the first quarter after sleepwalking through Monday’s first quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers. The New York Knicks jumped to an 11-2 lead, looking like the only of the two teams interested in playing basketball for a national television audience in the early going.
The Cavs, on the other hand, looked spectacularly bored. They were shooting miserably and settling for jumpers, failing to move the ball with the same vivaciousness they had against the Miami Heat and Memphis Grizzlies last week, and were lackadaisical on defense. Then with 3:43 left in the first quarter, LeBron James stole the ball on an errant Knicks pass and took it all the way in for an easy dunk. Then he ripped his sleeves, because WTF ARE THESE SLEEVES DOIN’ ON LEBRON JAMES’ BASKETBALL JERSEY anyway? The Cavs clamped down on defense against the lowly Knicks, and escaped with a victory despite not shooting terribly well, starting a four-game home stand in the win column. But let’s take a peek behind the box score and see jus’ how they did it on Wednesday night.
LeBron just killed his sleeved jersey. pic.twitter.com/Zv0omKVekf
— Shahbaz Khan (@ShahbazMKhan) November 5, 2015
32-18 – Wednesday marks consecutive opening quarters in which the Cavs were largely inert. Allowing the Knicks to take an 32-18 lead on your team in the first quarter is … well, it’s less than ideal. It’s also the identical score the Cavs went down by on Monday night. The team looked bored and annoyed early, which I partially understand because they were being forced to play with sleeves for the sole purpose of selling more merchandise to fans who don’t believe in showing off their guns at all times. Imagine if your boss changed your Wednesday work uniform to make your job six percent more difficult. If my boss told me I had to wear a tie tomorrow just because I would probably quit. I also lost my ChapStick this evening during the game and I nearly lost the will to continue living. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I’m an extremely irritable person, I could understand if the Cavs were unenthusiastic about playing in sleeves, sleeves have no damn place on basketball jerseys, and I hope slow starts aren’t a season-long trend.1
37-52 – After the uninspired first quarter, the Cavs pulled themselves together and outscored the Knicks 52 to 37 in the second and third quarters. Over the last two games, the Cavs have outscored their opponents a stupid 116 to 77 in the middle quarters, which is pretty good. One would prefer not to be outdone 64 to 36 in the opening frames, but at least the Cavs are showing resolve not to lose these games after starting poorly. In fact, if it means that they’ll outscore their opponent by 20 points over the next two quarters, I suggest that LeBron James rip his jersey every game. Maybe if he goes full Hulk Hogan and tears his shirt in half the Cavs will go +40 over quarters two and three. It’s just an idea there are no bad ideas in a brainstorm.
22 – Mo Williams scored 22 points for the Cavs on Wednesday night, raising his average to 15.4 points per game. With J.R. Smith out a few games with a knee contusion, the Cavs backcourt is thinner than Saran wrap, meaning that Williams’ scoring is essential. His six points in the first quarter kept the Cavs afloat as the Knicks poured on the points. Though he’s responsible for some terrible possessions dribbling away the entire shot clock, Mo needs to remain aggressive and productive until Smith, Iman Shumpert, and J.R. Smith return — a role he’s been up for so far. Mo and James rediscovered the telepathic connection they have from playing together for years in the late 2000s on this awesome drive-cut-jam in the fourth quarter.
7 – Matthew Dellavedova added seven assists against the Knicks, meaning that as of late Wednesday night Delly was ninth in the NBA with 33 assists. He’s also third in the league with 9.4 assists per 36 minutes.2 Amazingly, Delly has the highest plus/minus on the Cavs with a +74 through five games, which is even more remarkable given that he’s played less minutes than the likes of Kevin Love and LeBron James. Delly’s grown into a shockingly reliable backup point guard. Tristan Thompson is basically worthless offensively without Dellavedova to set him up with their inevitable lobs. Delly is operating the offense efficiently despite his limited abilities, and — at this point — he’s indispensable to the Cavs’ success. It’s hard not to be impressed with the Saucy Aussie’s development at this point.
13 – Kristaps Porzingis Porzingis Porzingis. That’s not an echo; I was practicing spelling his name so I will hopefully remember it. (I’m still working on Giannis Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo Antetokounmpo.) Porzingis is the Knicks rookie power forward, and was the only bright spot on what is a very not good team on Wednesday. He’s offensively skilled, and was giving Kevin Love fits on both offense and defense with his tricky game. Putting him alongside Robin Lopez will cause a lot of matchup problems, as it did for Love and the Cavs. Love does admirably on defense against guys his size that aren’t too much stronger than him. But Porzingis is a skilled 7-3 power forward who can shoot over Love and grab rebounds above him, such as when Porzingis dunked on Love’s head in the middle of the game. Had Porzingis not gotten his fourth foul early in the third quarter, the Cavs may have had a harder time taking the lead.
7-of-27 – The Cavs won despite shooting 7-of-27 on three-point field goals. They’re now shooting only 32.6 percent on three-pointers this season, compared to 36.7 percent last season. Cavs fans are almost upset when LeBron James makes a three (now a dreadful 2-of-18 on the season) because it only encourages him to keep shooting them. With James’ minutes load down, you would expect that his shooting stroke would revive on open looks (he shot 37.5 percent on three-point field goals from 2010-15), but his slump from the Finals has continued. But any game that the Cavs win despite shooting 25.9 percent on threes is a blessing.
24-to-0 – The only reason the Cavs won on Wednesday was their dominance on the fast break, outscoring the Knicks a whopping 24 to ZERO in fast break points. Good grief, Knicks — how do you allow your team to be outclassed that thoroughly in such an important statistical category? (Someone wake up Derek Fisher and ask him.) Before the season began, I talked about how the Cavs would be better served to play a more uptempo style, and have long advocated for them to avail themselves of the fast break weapons they have at their disposal. Wednesday’s game is the first time we’ve seen a game decided by the Cavs’ proficiency in transition. That’s how they won a game in which James was mortal and Kevin Love had his least impactful game of the season. James scored 10 fast break points on his own, thanks to some errant passes he gobbled up. Now that the Cavs have seen how nice it is to get those free points before the defense sets itself, perhaps they’ll continue to be hungry on the break.
85 – The number of times I laughed at Hubie Brown calling James Jones Jimmy John’s in the second quarter. (I swear this happened.) How about we get Hubie a Gargantuan sub to quell his appetite so he doesn’t mistakenly call Cavs players gourmet sandwich chains during broadcasts.
25 Comments
You get Hubie. We get Jeff, Campy, Allie, Austin and Fred. And Kyrie! as a bonus throughout the 2nd quarter, Sooooo much better. I actually *love* the Cav’s FSO broadcast team. They’re really terrific,
Flub aside, there’s Hubie Brown and then the rest.
Hard to believe turds like Reggie Miller or JVG are considered his peers.
Lebron looks so small compared to last year. My wife does not watch a ton of basketball but she was surprised as well how thin he looked. Should lengthen his career a bit and allow him to be a little quicker, faster, and probably be a bit more conditioned. I don’t think he needs the size that he had a few years ago. Plenty of bigger bodies to guard bigger guys. So funny last night when he ripped his sleeves and then carmelo was complaining to the refs about it.
what a difference between the Cavs and the Browns. I was darting between the Cavs and “the warriors” for the first 1/2 and I thought “Good lord, just get this over with LeBron”. It never occurred to me that the Cavs would actually lose. Also, as with so many memories of my past, I kept expecting “The Warriors” to be a really bad movie that I just remembered to be good. It’s been a few years and my memory has never been good so I was somewhat surprised that I still find the movie enjoyable. Certainly good enough that I had no interest in watching the Cavs sleep walk through the first half.
I will say that Porzingis is legit. He will cause problems for a lot of people. I also liked the comment from the ESPN broadcast team (don’t know who said it) “His biggest advantage is that he has no idea who he is playing against – he fears no one”. Good lord this Cav’s team is beyond talented. If they get to 100% for the Playoffs it will be a cake walk. (yes, I said it!)
” … failing to move the ball with the same vivaciousness …” Kyle, dude, brother, please keep this gig. Please keep doing what you’re doing, making recaps a total pleasure to read and whatnot.
Re Hubie, what CB Everett said. He’s a living, opinionated James Freakin’ Naismith. He’s the yoda Phil Jackson and Pat Riley turn to when they’re stuck. When I’m 82 like Hubie I hope someone can drag my wrinkled behind into an arena now and again without the cheerleaders giving me a stroke, never mind blurting out the correct names of each player flying by.
also, duh, LeBron is so smart. The way he explodes to the basket on Mo’s drive the moment Porzingis Porzingis starts turning his back to him. He’s in the waning days of playing above the rim, but this stuff is why I think he can be star, in a different form, deep into his 30s. Much how Magic still directed traffic and imposed his will after his illness and after his body thickened and slowed.
Agree that it was funny, but in all honesty I was worried they were going to make him come off until he fixed it somehow. Maybe I’m making this up, but I thought the refs can remove a player for “jersey malfunctions.”
-THE RETURN OF THE KRAKEN! (trademark CtB)
-“Mo needs to remain aggressive and productive until Smith, Iman Shumpert, and J.R. Smith return.” I always knew JR had a split personality. I kid, I kid…
-I know, one game and all and he has been playing rather well to this point, but man was KLove missing shots last night. The end of the first half ended with him missing 2 good looks and a free throw, while the Knicks scored on at least 2 if not all 3 of those possessions. Frustrating.
-Mo has been a breath of fresh air. He has kept the team afloat when others have struggled. When everyone is healthy, we are going to have a gluttony of guards…a very good problem to have.
-Delly-to-TT oops should be worth 3 points. Because if a team can’t stop it at this point, they deserve to be punished.
-“Cavs fans are almost upset when LeBron James makes a three…because it only encourages him to keep shooting them.” (remembers thinking this EXACT thing last night, nods head in a agreement)
I am quite certain there is something on the books there, and it was my first thought seeing it this morning as well. With those being the special alternates, would the Cavs have even had a backup jersey for him to put on if needed?
I will forever miss Scrabble on the Indians. Learning Rzepczynski was a skill worth acquiring.
The first thought that crossed my mind as well. I think the jersey malfunction has something to do with safety and the ability to see the number on the jersey. Could be way off though
They were at home. I am sure they could have wrangled one up from the team shop if necessary. The sleeves did look tight and short only going down half of the shoulder. Looked like they were wearing SMedium shirts.
Remember the Knicks fans booing when they drafted that guy?
I would have so enjoyed the vision of LeBron tearing up through the aisle of fans to get to the team shop to see if they had any LeBron sleeved jerseys left in stock 🙂
(yes, I know the Cavs would have sent an errand-boy, but it is funnier my way)
Or…he points to a fan and says “Switch me”
The jerseys looked like something I would get from joining a rec league. I like the depth on the team this year. They can swap around lineups and give their stars rest. What I didn’t like is the low percentage free throw shooting and settling for a 20+ foot jumper after one pass. I like Mo on the floor and it will be fun to watch the combo of Kyrie/Shumpert/Mo run the backcourt.
I think the Cavs are in a different era. This whole season will be focused on the care and feeding of the playoffs, meaning there will be November and December games against bad teams where they come out bored and jacking bad jumpers until the opponent snaps them out of it. Between 2010-2013 there were so many nights when that team would jump on a great opponent in the first half and then get cuffed around like a mouse in the second. We’re the bullies now, November games against the Sixers and Knicks mean nothing, it’ll be fine.
I watched a little of both about 90% Cavs broadcast team especially when KI joined for the second quarter.
There is a clip of a NY fan unleashing an expletive laden rant on Twitter which is kind of funny considering he can’t pronounce Porzingis or Latvia.
Like KI said in the second quarter I don’t think we’ll be seeing those jerseys again and I am all in on that one!
Another win in another way it wasn’t pretty at all on either end but once we got down to money time the Cavs showed the defense they developed in last years playoffs and sealed the deal.
This used to happen with the Heat from 2010 through 2014. They would play poorly against bad opponents for 3 quarters and then end up with a comfortable win by the conclusion of the game.
I groaned when I saw the stupid sleeved jersey’s. I’m glad to know Lebron will be lobbying for them not to be used again.
Also, I watched mostly the ESPN broadcast because I enjoy Hubie Brown. (and because I’ll hear Fred/Austin talking about pressure causing the pipe to burst at least 60 more times this season anyway) I always appreciate his analysis and candor, even if he sometimes has a severe craving for a sandwich.
They’re good, right?
I still miss Reghi but Fred is growing on me.