Game 67 : Cleveland Cavaliers (21-45) @ Dallas Mavericks (38-28) - 8:30PM
Posted: Fri May 7, 2021 7:55 pm
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jbk1234 wrote:This game was unwatchable. I bailed at halftime.
We're not a better defensive team without Garland. Garland at least goes over the pick and defends against the three point shot. Three beats two every time and that's the Cavs fundamental problem.JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:This game was unwatchable. I bailed at halftime.
I didn't make it even that far before I started fast forwarding.
We shouldn't have played Love in back to back games. If we knew he wanted to play in Portland we should have sat him against Phoenix. Now his knee is acting up if we can believe the injury report.
I guess I don't understand the Mavs roster and why we can't compete with them. It's not like Doncic was torching us. Props to Carlisle I guess.
We weren't able to get Allen involved offensively. I guess I missed when Willie Caulie-Stein became a defensive juggernaut, and meanwhile Hartenstein has done that thing that new Cavs seem to do looking like Jokic-lite at first and then as he learns our system ends up looking like what I expect from Caulie-Stein.
Hard to find any good news here from the game flows. Collin got to the line alot and kept his efficiency up by scoring 27 on 18 shots (we would have needed a 50pt outburst from him to stay in this one). Isaac was 2 for 4 on his 3pters in a road game where he'd been shooting close to 20%.
We ended up shooting 6-28 on 3pters as a team getting up nearly as many of them as Dallas ... which just goes to show, for most of these guys it's not about the volume. It's that we have inconsistent shooters who struggle on the road and need to be set up for an open shot.
Per usual it's difficult to separate the talent from the coaching and for anybody who felt at least our defense would be better without Garland and Love ... well ... maybe it is? But ... we *only* gave up an offensive rating of 118 to the Mavericks who only had to lean on Luka for 23 minutes before garbage time started. That 118 figure is what the #1 offensive team in the league averages
That short period of time we were one of the best defensive teams is looking more and more like a gimmick fueled by turnovers created by Drummond and Nance, and Allen playing .vs. backups.
So, the tank is on! yay tank ... but the team looks terrible, the coaching looks terrible, and it's hard to believe heads won't roll this Summer.
jbk1234 wrote:We're not a better defensive team without Garland. Garland at least goes over the pick and defends against the three point shot. Three beats two every time and that's the Cavs fundamental problem.JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:This game was unwatchable. I bailed at halftime.
I didn't make it even that far before I started fast forwarding.
We shouldn't have played Love in back to back games. If we knew he wanted to play in Portland we should have sat him against Phoenix. Now his knee is acting up if we can believe the injury report.
I guess I don't understand the Mavs roster and why we can't compete with them. It's not like Doncic was torching us. Props to Carlisle I guess.
We weren't able to get Allen involved offensively. I guess I missed when Willie Caulie-Stein became a defensive juggernaut, and meanwhile Hartenstein has done that thing that new Cavs seem to do looking like Jokic-lite at first and then as he learns our system ends up looking like what I expect from Caulie-Stein.
Hard to find any good news here from the game flows. Collin got to the line alot and kept his efficiency up by scoring 27 on 18 shots (we would have needed a 50pt outburst from him to stay in this one). Isaac was 2 for 4 on his 3pters in a road game where he'd been shooting close to 20%.
We ended up shooting 6-28 on 3pters as a team getting up nearly as many of them as Dallas ... which just goes to show, for most of these guys it's not about the volume. It's that we have inconsistent shooters who struggle on the road and need to be set up for an open shot.
Per usual it's difficult to separate the talent from the coaching and for anybody who felt at least our defense would be better without Garland and Love ... well ... maybe it is? But ... we *only* gave up an offensive rating of 118 to the Mavericks who only had to lean on Luka for 23 minutes before garbage time started. That 118 figure is what the #1 offensive team in the league averages
That short period of time we were one of the best defensive teams is looking more and more like a gimmick fueled by turnovers created by Drummond and Nance, and Allen playing .vs. backups.
So, the tank is on! yay tank ... but the team looks terrible, the coaching looks terrible, and it's hard to believe heads won't roll this Summer.
I mean if the point is that Love, Garland, and Sexton is one, or even two, too many bad defenders in a starting unit, then you'll get no argument from me. But Garland is best defender of the three and it's not particularly close.JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:We're not a better defensive team without Garland. Garland at least goes over the pick and defends against the three point shot. Three beats two every time and that's the Cavs fundamental problem.JonFromVA wrote:
I didn't make it even that far before I started fast forwarding.
We shouldn't have played Love in back to back games. If we knew he wanted to play in Portland we should have sat him against Phoenix. Now his knee is acting up if we can believe the injury report.
I guess I don't understand the Mavs roster and why we can't compete with them. It's not like Doncic was torching us. Props to Carlisle I guess.
We weren't able to get Allen involved offensively. I guess I missed when Willie Caulie-Stein became a defensive juggernaut, and meanwhile Hartenstein has done that thing that new Cavs seem to do looking like Jokic-lite at first and then as he learns our system ends up looking like what I expect from Caulie-Stein.
Hard to find any good news here from the game flows. Collin got to the line alot and kept his efficiency up by scoring 27 on 18 shots (we would have needed a 50pt outburst from him to stay in this one). Isaac was 2 for 4 on his 3pters in a road game where he'd been shooting close to 20%.
We ended up shooting 6-28 on 3pters as a team getting up nearly as many of them as Dallas ... which just goes to show, for most of these guys it's not about the volume. It's that we have inconsistent shooters who struggle on the road and need to be set up for an open shot.
Per usual it's difficult to separate the talent from the coaching and for anybody who felt at least our defense would be better without Garland and Love ... well ... maybe it is? But ... we *only* gave up an offensive rating of 118 to the Mavericks who only had to lean on Luka for 23 minutes before garbage time started. That 118 figure is what the #1 offensive team in the league averages
That short period of time we were one of the best defensive teams is looking more and more like a gimmick fueled by turnovers created by Drummond and Nance, and Allen playing .vs. backups.
So, the tank is on! yay tank ... but the team looks terrible, the coaching looks terrible, and it's hard to believe heads won't roll this Summer.
Garland tries and may eventually hold his own or better defensively, but obviously we have a taller/stronger lineup without him and a more active lineup without Kevin; but fighting through screens is old school and likely to get our guard's worn down and hurt. Opponents will adjust to a team that's going for steals and exploit the aggressiveness.
Defensive gimmicks
If we had a system it should have held up with players out. Perhaps a casualty of the lack of practice time, but tbd if JBB gets a Covid mulligan.
jbk1234 wrote:I mean if the point is that Love, Garland, and Sexton is one, or even two, too many bad defenders in a starting unit, then you'll get no argument from me. But Garland is best defender of the three and it's not particularly close.JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:We're not a better defensive team without Garland. Garland at least goes over the pick and defends against the three point shot. Three beats two every time and that's the Cavs fundamental problem.
Garland tries and may eventually hold his own or better defensively, but obviously we have a taller/stronger lineup without him and a more active lineup without Kevin; but fighting through screens is old school and likely to get our guard's worn down and hurt. Opponents will adjust to a team that's going for steals and exploit the aggressiveness.
Defensive gimmicks
If we had a system it should have held up with players out. Perhaps a casualty of the lack of practice time, but tbd if JBB gets a Covid mulligan.
JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:I mean if the point is that Love, Garland, and Sexton is one, or even two, too many bad defenders in a starting unit, then you'll get no argument from me. But Garland is best defender of the three and it's not particularly close.JonFromVA wrote:
Garland tries and may eventually hold his own or better defensively, but obviously we have a taller/stronger lineup without him and a more active lineup without Kevin; but fighting through screens is old school and likely to get our guard's worn down and hurt. Opponents will adjust to a team that's going for steals and exploit the aggressiveness.
Defensive gimmicks
If we had a system it should have held up with players out. Perhaps a casualty of the lack of practice time, but tbd if JBB gets a Covid mulligan.
My point is our defensive problems have little to do with starting a pair of 6'2" guards, and mostly to do with a whole lot of other things; and unfortunately putting a 7-footer who can block and contest shots in the middle and adding a defensive wing doesn't solve all those other problems.
At this point, the Cavs net rating as a team (-8.7) is actually worse than last season.
jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:I mean if the point is that Love, Garland, and Sexton is one, or even two, too many bad defenders in a starting unit, then you'll get no argument from me. But Garland is best defender of the three and it's not particularly close.
My point is our defensive problems have little to do with starting a pair of 6'2" guards, and mostly to do with a whole lot of other things; and unfortunately putting a 7-footer who can block and contest shots in the middle and adding a defensive wing doesn't solve all those other problems.
At this point, the Cavs net rating as a team (-8.7) is actually worse than last season.
I strongly disagree with this. The Cavs are second to last in opponents 3point % in the NBA (which pairs nicely with our second to last status in terms of made threes). The problem is we're not contesting on the perimeter. Now there are things you can't control, like height or standing reach, and there are things you can control like going over picks, rotating over to the open shooter (if you've just given up defending the PNR once the roll man gets the ball), or getting your lazy *** out there to contest. Also, in terms of team defense, you can stop fake "showing" off a shooter when you're not really "helping" double a guy anyway. Sexton and Love are awful at all of these things.
JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:
My point is our defensive problems have little to do with starting a pair of 6'2" guards, and mostly to do with a whole lot of other things; and unfortunately putting a 7-footer who can block and contest shots in the middle and adding a defensive wing doesn't solve all those other problems.
At this point, the Cavs net rating as a team (-8.7) is actually worse than last season.
I strongly disagree with this. The Cavs are second to last in opponents 3point % in the NBA (which pairs nicely with our second to last status in terms of made threes). The problem is we're not contesting on the perimeter. Now there are things you can't control, like height or standing reach, and there are things you can control like going over picks, rotating over to the open shooter (if you've just given up defending the PNR once the roll man gets the ball), or getting your lazy *** out there to contest. Also, in terms of team defense, you can stop fake "showing" off a shooter when you're not really "helping" double a guy anyway. Sexton and Love are awful at all of these things.
That sounds like a whole lot of "other things" you brought up.