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Another great win. Were getting better.

I loved the minutes for Cam. Hoping we can sneak in some minutes for Sharpe too soon.

Such a joy to see Cam uncork. Love to see the smiles and the chirping from the bench. Our vet depth coming in big. Feel bad for Blake. He's doing everything he can to be viable, he just can't buy one. At this point you've gotta get him some different looks, especially with Bruce out. Defenses are giving him a paddock and he's still shooting 16% from 3.

LOUiS-D wrote:Such a joy to see Cam uncork. Love to see the smiles and the chirping from the bench. Our vet depth coming in big. Feel bad for Blake. He's doing everything he can to be viable, he just can't buy one. At this point you've gotta get him some different looks, especially with Bruce out. Defenses are giving him a paddock and he's still shooting 16% from 3.

I'm guessing Blake and the staff know what's wrong, but unless I missed something, there's been no hints given as to why his jumpers are so off this season. Maybe some kind of muscle strain, tendinitis, etc that doesn't need to be explicitly rested but is still enough to throw off his shot. Going from 38% from three all the way to 16% is something the likes of which I can't remember seeing before.

Shooting slumps and loss of confidence in one's shot is pretty normal for a lot of players, but I'm thinking / guessing that there's at least an organic cause, as well.


I live in the CLE area these days, and the Cavs have been a pleasant surprise around here. Their defense has been a real problem for other teams, and I actually count -seven- of their players who can play center in various lineups, led by Fro & Mobley. But other than Tacko I guess, their centers seem to be a pretty nimble, mobile bunch. Kinda scary, really.

Plus, having Richard Blond (Ricky Rubio, heh) to settle their offense has been a big boost. They're arguably better without Sexton, so I'm not sure if that injury doesn't wind up perversely helping them.

LOUiS-D wrote:Such a joy to see Cam uncork. Love to see the smiles and the chirping from the bench. Our vet depth coming in big. Feel bad for Blake. He's doing everything he can to be viable, he just can't buy one. At this point you've gotta get him some different looks, especially with Bruce out. Defenses are giving him a paddock and he's still shooting 16% from 3.

I like that he’s shouting to try and find his rhythm back but when games are close, he needs to do what he has done to score, get into the paint and lay it in or dunk it. He has way to much talent to not be efficient. We can’t give up on Griffin. That second half was a thing of beauty watching the team come together and KD is still bothered by that shoulder. You can tell he sort of backed out some possessions and Harden created opportunities for others and they stepped up.

shooting aside i thought blake has been terrific. #1 in the league in charges. thats as good/better then a blocked shot

Cam gave us quality minutes last night, I’m not sure what he could be but the sky’s the limit. James Johnson gave us some solid minutes. Aldridge and Mills continue to provide energy and scoring off the bench. Blake didn’t play the entire 2nd half which was interesting.

Terrific is a stretch but I'll give him a pass for last night. His legs were gone from the start. He clearly needed the 2nd half rest. I don't even think it was a punishment or anything.

I'm glad we made some real real adjustments in the 2nd half. It's the easiest thing to pick at coaches for because most adjustments are subtle. These weren't. Benched Blake + Carter. Started LMA. Used Millsap as backup C. Put KD on JA so he could switch PNRs with Garland. Put LMA on Okoro.

My takeaways from this:

1. Cam looked great. If Joe's out, he needs to play. With no Kyrie in the mix, his development is important for us. His spot up 3s have looked good. He's a skilled player. He's not good defensively but he's competing. His all out effort really made up for some mistakes. He had some wild closeouts. He's a little stronger / bigger than you would think too.

2. The offensive flow with KD + Harden on the floor needs to improve. Badly. That's priority one. Right now, their +/- on the floor together is negative. Last year, they were really good together. Part of that is definitely Nash just throwing in defensive minded players and non-shooters and letting Harden/KD iso as the whole offense. The other part is the ball isn't really moving when Harden's on the floor with KD. The 2 guys clearly respect each other but they're not consistently making the other guy better. Lots of stagnant offense.

3. I saw a tweet that perfectly described my thoughts on the team right now. This was a hard fought win. A good win. Not mad at it at all. This team still hasn't shown that it can be special outside of KD going god mode. You don't win the chip in November - so I'm not worried. We're showing really good signs but we need to start getting up for these big games. Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, New York will be good tests.

MGrand15 wrote:Terrific is a stretch but I'll give him a pass for last night. His legs were gone from the start. He clearly needed the 2nd half rest. I don't even think it was a punishment or anything.

I'm glad we made some real real adjustments in the 2nd half. It's the easiest thing to pick at coaches for because most adjustments are subtle. These weren't. Benched Blake + Carter. Started LMA. Used Millsap as backup C. Put KD on JA so he could switch PNRs with Garland. Put LMA on Okoro.

My takeaways from this:

1. Cam looked great. If Joe's out, he needs to play. With no Kyrie in the mix, his development is important for us. His spot up 3s have looked good. He's a skilled player. He's not good defensively but he's competing. His all out effort really made up for some mistakes. He had some wild closeouts. He's a little stronger / bigger than you would think too.

2. The offensive flow with KD + Harden on the floor needs to improve. Badly. That's priority one. Right now, their +/- on the floor together is negative. Last year, they were really good together. Part of that is definitely Nash just throwing in defensive minded players and non-shooters and letting Harden/KD iso as the whole offense. The other part is the ball isn't really moving when Harden's on the floor with KD. The 2 guys clearly respect each other but they're not consistently making the other guy better. Lots of stagnant offense.

3. I saw a tweet that perfectly described my thoughts on the team right now. This was a hard fought win. A good win. Not mad at it at all. This team still hasn't shown that it can be special outside of KD going god mode. You don't win the chip in November - so I'm not worried. We're showing really good signs but we need to start getting up for these big games. Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, New York will be good tests.

The offensive system that we run is just not as crisp as it was last year. I think KD needs to make better passes in general (he makes some really dumb turnovers), but I'm not sure what Harden can really do to make KD even better than he is now since dude is gonna score if he gets any space in on the arc or in the mid range.

Right now our offense is rated 11th and we are 9th defensively. if we can maintain a top 10 defense and get our offense efficient enough to where we creep back into the top 6 we should be okay.

Of course, if Kyrie decides that he's proven his point and gets his shot, then all of this is moot because our offense will just be unstoppable

NetsJets wrote:Cam gave us quality minutes last night, I’m not sure what he could be but the sky’s the limit. James Johnson gave us some solid minutes. Aldridge and Mills continue to provide energy and scoring off the bench. Blake didn’t play the entire 2nd half which was interesting.

We need James Johnson to continue to play like this. I don't expect a double double every night, but if he can protect the defensive glass and provide that defense when his number is called, all will be good.