Game 44: Cavs @ 76ers 1/24/2025

[ijspeelman]

last thought before I hop off

Mitchell was on one tonight, but he took some tough threes in the clutch. One to bolster the lead and one to try to get us back in. He's been hero balling in the clutch lately and I for one would like it to stop. It looks great when it goes in, but otherwise its a waste of those god given 24 seconds we get to find a better shot

don't want to complain too much bc this team is legit and losses happen, but these things need to be cleaned up

[toooskies]

Hard to play good perimeter defense when all the good perimeter defenders are out. But we lost because of late mistakes and not the defense.

[ijspeelman]

That Niang pass pisses me off to no end. Totally pointless; 0% chance of anything happening off that. Better off taking a clean 3/4ths-court heave.

6ers left Jerome pretty open and he may even have been able to lead him so Jerome could have gotten off a half court heave. I agree... didn't love it. If you make that pass, it almost has to be a bullet so players can't just track the ball and make it impossible

[jbk1234]

That Niang pass pisses me off to no end. Totally pointless; 0% chance of anything happening off that. Better off taking a clean 3/4ths-court heave.

Niang was -30 in 14 minutes against OKC. He was - 12 against the Rockets. He was -17 tonight. This is untenable.

[JujitsuFlip]

How the Cavs gonna get 33 from TJ and lose, hate it.

[jbk1234]

Hard to play good perimeter defense when all the good perimeter defenders are out. But we lost because of late mistakes and not the defense.

A team that averages 108 ppg dropped 132 on us. Strus and Tyson could've easily played more minutes. We absolutely lost because of our defense.

If Ty Jerome didn't play out of his mind, we're not even in this game.

[mcfly1204]

Allen should feast tonight. Outside of that, would be nice to see if we can slow down Maxey.

Whoops...

[jbk1234]

Allen should feast tonight. Outside of that, would be nice to see if we can slow down Maxey.

Whoops...

This is the other problem with our backup big man situation: Allen gets worn down when Mobley gets injured. The other team throws multiple bodies at him on the boards. He's the only rim protection on the floor, and we apparently don't have any type of drop coverage scheme in the playbook, so he has to cover all kinds of distance on defense.

Tyson is a better rebounder than Niang. The amount of effort that Niang puts into rebounding is shameless. He doesn't follow his shot on corner threes. He only bothers to get a body on someone half the time. He doesn't consistently fight for position. If the ball doesn't bounce off the rim directly towards him, he's not getting it.

This has gone from a minor cut to a gaping wound and Altman has to do something to help address the delta between Mobley and Niang. Kenny exacerbates it with some of these no defense lineups he puts out there, but the fundamental problem is that Niang is unplayable in certain matchups and we keep playing him extended minutes.

[cavs4872]

That Niang pass pisses me off to no end. Totally pointless; 0% chance of anything happening off that. Better off taking a clean 3/4ths-court heave.

6ers left Jerome pretty open and he may even have been able to lead him so Jerome could have gotten off a half court heave. I agree... didn't love it. If you make that pass, it almost has to be a bullet so players can't just track the ball and make it impossible

And then if they catch it they have to turn around and by some miracle get a shot off anyway in such a short time. It's a miracle Mitchell got an attempt off.

Would've been better off with TJ taking a 3/4ths skyhook lol.

This is the other problem with our backup big man situation: Allen gets worn down when Mobley gets injured. The other team throws multiple bodies at him on the boards. He's the only rim protection on the floor, and we apparently don't have any type of drop coverage scheme in the playbook, so he has to cover all kinds of distance on defense.

Tyson is a better rebounder than Niang. The amount of effort that Niang puts into rebounding is shameless. He doesn't follow his shot on corner threes. He only bothers to get a body on someone half the time. He doesn't consistently fight for position. If the ball doesn't bounce off the rim directly towards him, he's not getting it.

This has gone from a minor cut to a gaping wound and Altman has to do something to help address the delta between Mobley and Niang. Kenny exacerbates it with some of these no defense lineups he puts out there, but the fundamental problem is that Niang is unplayable in certain matchups and we keep playing him extended minutes.

This has been a problem since we've had this core and offseason after offseason it does not get addressed and I think many people do not understand how much of an issue it is. We are missing a Steven Adams/Hartenstein/Drummond/etc. In the past we had guys like Tacko or Robin we just did not play, but now we don't even have any options haha.