Game 5: Cavs @ Celtics 10/29/2025

[ijspeelman]

[ijspeelman]

#Cavs list Sam Merrill (right hip contusion) as OUT for tomorrow’s game against the Celtics.

Darius Garland and Max Strus remain out.
https://bsky.app/profile/dannycunningham.bsky.social/post/3m4buxv53hs2t

[ijspeelman]

I'll be at the game today!

[JujitsuFlip]

I'll be at the game today!

Stay safe and have fun!

Celtics always seem to play us a little tougher.

[JujitsuFlip]

https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/basketball/news/cavaliers-donovan-mitchell-questionable-for-wednesday-501277/

Mitchell is now questionable.

Garland was recalled from the Charge but is still out for this game.

[jbk1234]

This is a game where Allen and Mobley should feast inside, but with Garland, Merrill, and Strus all out, we need Hunter, Ball and Nance to step up/help with spacing, and thus far it's not happening.

[jbk1234]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

[JujitsuFlip]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

Why Bryant? Looks like he only played 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

[JonFromVA]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about Mobley not living up to all the hype he'd been getting, but then I remembered 3 games in 4 nights (4 in 6) is pretty brutal even more so this early in the season.

[jbk1234]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

Why Bryant? Looks like he only played 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

We got shoved around all game, he came in ,got shoved in the back by Queto after the whistle, did nothing, and chuckled up a 3 rather than mix it up.

[jbk1234]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about Mobley not living up to all the hype he'd been getting, but then I remembered 3 games in 4 nights (4 in 6) is pretty brutal even more so this early in the season.

What Mobley needs to understand is that he can not respond to physical play by settling for bad shots, or all he'll see from teams like the Celtics is physical play. I was encouraged by the Pistons game, but last night was two steps back.

[toooskies]

Missing Garland, Strus, Merrill. Mitchell played despite the hamstring but he was a decoy-- 3 shots that weren't threes in 32 minutes. So Mobley and Hunter put it on themselves to create for themselves, usually one-on-one, and they chucked.

Lonzo helped when he was on the court, but I feel like Lonzo is a month or two away from being totally comfortable and in sync out there.

The thing I noticed early is that the Celtics shoot their 3s with a lot more arc than the Cavs do, and that leads to two things: when they miss, they usually miss long, and when there's a rebound, it bounces far away from the hoop which gives the offense a better chance to rebound.

We started 8/10 from three followed that up with 9/42. You're not going to beat Boston playing their game very often.

Tyson probably played his best game of the year.

If you count Mitchell, we are down the best versions of 6 guys from last year's team (Mitchell, Garland, Strus, Merrill, Okoro, Jerome) and added two medium pieces (Ball, Nance) and a smaller piece (Proctor) while Boston is down 5 (Tatum, Porzingis, Holiday, Horford, Kornet) with 1 bigger addition (Simons) and 2 smaller additions (Minott, Garza). Boston was probably closer to their last year's team than we were.

We still shouldn't have gotten embarrassed like that.

[jbk1234]

Missing Garland, Strus, Merrill. Mitchell played despite the hamstring but he was a decoy-- 3 shots that weren't threes in 32 minutes. So Mobley and Hunter put it on themselves to create for themselves, usually one-on-one, and they chucked.

Lonzo helped when he was on the court, but I feel like Lonzo is a month or two away from being totally comfortable and in sync out there.

The thing I noticed early is that the Celtics shoot their 3s with a lot more arc than the Cavs do, and that leads to two things: when they miss, they usually miss long, and when there's a rebound, it bounces far away from the hoop which gives the offense a better chance to rebound.

We started 8/10 from three followed that up with 9/42. You're not going to beat Boston playing their game very often.

Tyson probably played his best game of the year.

If you count Mitchell, we are down the best versions of 6 guys from last year's team (Mitchell, Garland, Strus, Merrill, Okoro, Jerome) and added two medium pieces (Ball, Nance) and a smaller piece (Proctor) while Boston is down 5 (Tatum, Porzingis, Holiday, Horford, Kornet) with 1 bigger addition (Simons) and 2 smaller additions (Minott, Garza). Boston was probably closer to their last year's team than we were.

We still shouldn't have gotten embarrassed like that.

Part of the reason Mobley chucks is that he doesn't fight to get to his spots hard enough. He was the tallest guy on the court for the majority of the game and settling for 3s in the second half. For all the grief Allen gets, he played much harder, and should've played more.

[JonFromVA]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

Yeah, I wanted to talk about Mobley not living up to all the hype he'd been getting, but then I remembered 3 games in 4 nights (4 in 6) is pretty brutal even more so this early in the season.

What Mobley needs to understand is that he can not respond to physical play by settling for bad shots, or all he'll see from teams like the Celtics is physical play. I was encouraged by the Pistons game, but last night was two steps back.

Agreed. I wanted to see him pushing the Celtics bigs around - not them pushing him around - but I'll give him a pass for now. I've seen a lot of players struggle with effort in a stretch like this, bad enough some players are still getting their sea legs after barely getting any minutes in pre-season.

That being said, it would help if Evan would stop bringing the ball low where opponents can swipe at him.

Presumably some combination of his hamstring and fatigue hammered Mitchell too.

[JujitsuFlip]

People who should be embarrassed: 1) Mobley; 2) the officials; 3) Atkinson; and 4) Bryant. We got punked tonight.

Tyson, Mitchell, and Strus are the only three players on the roster who are willing to play physically and force the issue with the officials.

Why Bryant? Looks like he only played 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

We got shoved around all game, he came in ,got shoved in the back by Queto after the whistle, did nothing, and chuckled up a 3 rather than mix it up.

The Cavs were down 15 points with 2 minutes and change to play. Ya gotta pick your battles.

If anything, blame Kenny for not subbing him in sooner.

[jbk1234]

Why Bryant? Looks like he only played 2 minutes and 47 seconds.

We got shoved around all game, he came in ,got shoved in the back by Queto after the whistle, did nothing, and chuckled up a 3 rather than mix it up.

The Cavs were down 15 points with 2 minutes and change to play. Ya gotta pick your battles.

If anything, blame Kenny for not subbing him in .

Nah, Queto and Tyson were getting into it right before Bryant got subbed in, and the very next thing that happened was Bryant got shoved in the back after the whistle. Bryant did nothing. He didn't even turn around to put pressure on the officials. Other teams don't respect us. The officials don't respect us. If that back third of the bench is going to be soft as well, they can get gone.

[JujitsuFlip]

We got shoved around all game, he came in ,got shoved in the back by Queto after the whistle, did nothing, and chuckled up a 3 rather than mix it up.

The Cavs were down 15 points with 2 minutes and change to play. Ya gotta pick your battles.

If anything, blame Kenny for not subbing him in .

Nah, Queto and Tyson were getting into it right before Bryant got subbed in, and the very next thing that happened was Bryant got shoved in the back after the whistle. Bryant did nothing. He didn't even turn around to put pressure on the officials. Other teams don't respect us. The officials don't respect us. If that back third of the bench is going to be soft as well, they can get gone.

This Cavs core has been soft since April 2022, our 14th man in a garbage time game in October isn't going to erase 3.5 years of reputation.

Allen needs to be traded and go from there. Cavs need to put a Reggie Evans type next to Mobley, who just gobbles boards and needs zero plays ran for him bc he doesn't care about scoring. And then on the other side put a guy like Dillon Brooks or Draymond type next to Mobley; a guy who is going to mix it up and make the refs find their whistle. As well can shoot a tiny bit if they get hot.

If the Cavs wanna build around Mobley, those need to be his front court mates. Not soft as tissue paper Allen and a revolving door of failed 3&D guys.

It can probably wait 1 more year but then pick one of Garland or Mitchell to lead the back court, as neither guy can stay healthy for long stretches so it's time to find their iron man Bridges type to pair with one of em.

[jbk1234]

The Cavs were down 15 points with 2 minutes and change to play. Ya gotta pick your battles.

If anything, blame Kenny for not subbing him in .

Nah, Queto and Tyson were getting into it right before Bryant got subbed in, and the very next thing that happened was Bryant got shoved in the back after the whistle. Bryant did nothing. He didn't even turn around to put pressure on the officials. Other teams don't respect us. The officials don't respect us. If that back third of the bench is going to be soft as well, they can get gone.

This Cavs core has been soft since April 2022, our 14th man in a garbage time game in October isn't going to erase 3.5 years of reputation.

Allen needs to be traded and go from there. Cavs need to put a Reggie Evans type next to Mobley, who just gobbles boards and needs zero plays ran for him bc he doesn't care about scoring. And then on the other side put a guy like Dillon Brooks or Draymond type next to Mobley; a guy who is going to mix it up and make the refs find their whistle. As well can shoot a tiny bit if they get hot.

If the Cavs wanna build around Mobley, those need to be his front court mates. Not soft as tissue paper Allen and a revolving door of failed 3&D guys.

It can probably wait 1 more year but then pick one of Garland or Mitchell to lead the back court, as neither guy can stay healthy for long stretches so it's time to find their iron man Bridges type to pair with one of em.

Allen was solid last night. It's not his fault he only played 22 minutes. That's on Atkinson. I disagree that the Cavs need to trade talent for tough guys when you can just make sure that your role players, especially the back third of the roster, provide that toughness.

[JujitsuFlip]

Nah, Queto and Tyson were getting into it right before Bryant got subbed in, and the very next thing that happened was Bryant got shoved in the back after the whistle. Bryant did nothing. He didn't even turn around to put pressure on the officials. Other teams don't respect us. The officials don't respect us. If that back third of the bench is going to be soft as well, they can get gone.

This Cavs core has been soft since April 2022, our 14th man in a garbage time game in October isn't going to erase 3.5 years of reputation.

Allen needs to be traded and go from there. Cavs need to put a Reggie Evans type next to Mobley, who just gobbles boards and needs zero plays ran for him bc he doesn't care about scoring. And then on the other side put a guy like Dillon Brooks or Draymond type next to Mobley; a guy who is going to mix it up and make the refs find their whistle. As well can shoot a tiny bit if they get hot.

If the Cavs wanna build around Mobley, those need to be his front court mates. Not soft as tissue paper Allen and a revolving door of failed 3&D guys.

It can probably wait 1 more year but then pick one of Garland or Mitchell to lead the back court, as neither guy can stay healthy for long stretches so it's time to find their iron man Bridges type to pair with one of em.

Allen was solid last night. It's not his fault he only played 22 minutes. That's on Atkinson. I disagree that the Cavs need to trade talent for tough guys when you can just make sure that your role players, especially the back third of the roster, provide that toughness.

Allen broke his finger last night.

But i disagree your core 4 can all be soft and that's fine. We get pushed around every April and May and continue to be shocked we're eliminated from the post season early. The guys getting the bulk of the minutes need to be hungry for boards and need to help the refs find their whistle.