Are the Cavaliers getting complacent?

heathmalc · Post #1 » by **heathmalc** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:37 pm

Watching the Cavaliers' last 3 games has given me some concerns.

VS OKC:

Against the Thunder, the Cavaliers could never really pull away. In-addition, they got out-hustled, and out-rebounded. The Thunder refused to let the Cavaliers impose their will on them, and the Cavaliers' players seemed to accept that. They seemed to be happy with just a win.

Yeah, it was the last game of a 4-game road trip, and those can grind on a team. But it was the THUNDER! If the Cavaliers are to have aspirations of a championship, then they have to dig deeper.

VS Houston:

This was a close game against a good team. But the thing that bothered me was that Tracy McGrady never even tried to play, Yao Ming barely played 20 minutes... and we STILL had a lot of trouble with them.

But, it was Houston... so people acted as if all was good.

VS Washington:

This was OKC redux! Only thing was... this was against a Washington team that is just as bad as OKC, or worse...and it was in the "Q."

Washington shout 44%... we shot 41%. Rebounds were even... but if not for that final, meaningless rebound off the last shot by Mike James, then we would have been out-rebounded...against a much smaller team.

31 three-point attemps? Are you kidding me? That is nuts. We got away with it by shooting 38%, but I sure hope this isn't a new trend.

The only player that really seemed to be in the game the whole time was Mo Williams.

We were down by 7 points with 1:40 left in the game...against a crappy team who is missing their starting PG, their starting center, their back-up center, had their back-up PF playing center, had their starting SG coming off the bench..... and we BARELY won.

If not for some really dumb plays by the Wizards, and some calls going our way...plus some clutch free-throws by LeBron and Varejao, and a clutch 3 by Mo... we would all have a sick-feeling in our guts over this game.

Over the last 3 games, we have allowed 2 of the league's worst teams to stay close-enough to win. THAT is NOT acceptable! Not if the Cavaliers have any hope of getting past the second round, or winning a championship.

We have a home & Home vs Miami... and I will guarantee you that Dwayne Wade will not make those same mistakes, or allow his team to. If the Cavs don't get their sht together, then this could end-up being a very bad month for the Cavaliers.

I'm just glad that we didn't have to face a better team...like Boston or Orlando.... we would have lost by 30 points with those performances.

It's time for the Cavaliers to swing a deal... infuse some new blood into the line-up, and to re-focus on their goal. Otherwise, this may be the start of something that ultimately leads to the demise of the Cavaliers as we know them..... IE: LeBron heading elsewhere.

Post #2 » by **Rise Against** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:23 pm

Relax and stop thinking so much. Even the elite teams have a tendency to not show up against teams who are below .500. The OKC game, we never trailed and they were playing supremely well for some odd reason. The Houston game.. McGrady didn't show up but when does he ever nowadays? Maybe it's our defense, who knows. But like you said, LeBron didn't even bother to try against Washington like T-Mac didn't with us. What if LeBron did try though? Would it still be a close game? However, the last couple of games sort of reminded me of last season but nevertheless, we are still tons better than we were before the trade for Mo. Let's hope that the next game will be better and we'll get back to blowing out teams.

CHIMOCHI · Post #3 » by **CHIMOCHI** » Fri Dec 26, 2008 11:26 pm

Tone it down a notch. You know sometimes a fan doesn't see everything, this is from truehoop live blogging

http://myespn.go.com/blogs/truehoop/0-3 ... eland.html

6:51 PM: The Czar makes the point, and we saw it at 6:47 PM -- Butler is exploiting the Cleveland defense on the high S/R by splitting the defenders. It's working and Varejao is going to have to adjust.

7:05 PM: Cleveland needs to make one additional pass on each possession. There are guys open on the weak side every time down the court, but the Cavs aren't finding them.

7:14 PM: I don't think Washington's halfcourt game requires Cleveland to leave M. James alone on the weak side. The overload just isn't necessary.

7:23 PM: You sort of wonder where that screen out on the wing for LeBron has been all night.

7:30 PM: If the Cavs lose this game -- and that appears possible -- they can look at a series of high screen-and-rolls run by Washington. Each time, the Cavs trap the ballhandler, and leave Jamison -- the roll man -- wide open on the perimeter for an uncontested jumper.

Post #4 » by **INKtastic** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:29 am

CHIMOCHI wrote:7:05 PM: Cleveland needs to make one additional pass on each possession. There are guys open on the weak side every time down the court, but the Cavs aren't finding them.

I think this has been a key the last 3 games. We aren't moving the ball as much and are playing a tad too much one on one. I'm sure with two days off before the heat game that we'll get that cleaned up in practice. The good news is we haven't played our best, but still have 3 wins to show for it. We'll need to play a bit smarter against the heat.

LoveThemCavs · Post #5 » by **LoveThemCavs** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 7:19 am

The bottom line is the Cavs won these 3 games. The teams attitude seems to suggest they know they have to get better than this to win a championship. I'm not concerned, they're going to have some stretches like this throughout the year.

heathmalc · Post #6 » by **heathmalc** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 2:50 pm

LoveThemCavs wrote:The bottom line is the Cavs won these 3 games. The teams attitude seems to suggest they know they have to get better than this to win a championship. I'm not concerned, they're going to have some stretches like this throughout the year.

Yeah, you're right about that. And, I guess that is the good thing that we, as fans can take from these last few games (besides the wins

). If the Cavaliers realize the mistakes they have been making, they'll get a chance to fix it in a mini-series ( home & home) vs a team that they may face in the post season: Miami.

Post #7 » by **B Mac** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 3:30 pm

Im not too worried. We were definately spoiled by all of those blowout wins to start the season. I think it was pretty obvious that those blowouts weren't going to continue at the rate they were happening all year. We still won all but the Washington game rather convincingly, and it took a miracle game from Mike James and a lackluster one from LeBron for the Wiz to even have a shot.

A win is a win, and as long as we keep racking them up it shouldnt matter if we win by 1 or 21. Sure you'd like the blowouts to continue all season long, but that's not going to happen. That's why I think we need to adjust our expectations down just a little bit. I still expect to win every game, but that doesnt mean that we wont have struggles from time to time, even against the worst team's in the league.

GoLebron · Post #8 » by **GoLebron** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 11:45 pm

Boston just lost 2 in a row, one of which was to a horrid warriors team. LA has lost to indy and sacto. I'm gonna say that were still a little bit ahead of the curve as far as taking care of business. Not that it's time to get complacent or anything, but I don't think it's time to get crazy.

Like some people have already said, there were some odd things happening for klahma city and the wiz. Klahma city probably played one of its best games of the year on their homecourt. When any NBA team is at its best and playing on its homecourt, they are tough to beat; that is why its an NBA team.
For the Wiz, Mike James had his first good game in some two years, and it looked like Lebron was either sick or just completely lacking energy.

Also, I think the cavs have earned a bullseye for a number of reasons. First of all, they're one of the best in the league. And in the case of a team like klahma city, we destroyed them a month or so ago, and they want to look better. In the case of the Wiz, they haven't been able to get up for a game all season, but since they hate the cavs, and the cavs are good now, they were probably using that game as motivation. i think that, in general, the rest of the season is going to be a lot like a pitcher going against a lineup the second time around. Teams know what the cavs do and how good they are, and they are going to be able to plan better for games against the cavs, which may lead to more success.

prekazi · Post #9 » by **prekazi** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 4:43 am

Hope not, I'm spoiled a lot, I'm Macauley Culkin right now. We cannot afford complacency, I can't at least!

Baseline Runner · Post #10 » by **Baseline Runner** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 6:04 am

Also the Wiz are not nearly as bad as a team as their record would indicate. This is pretty much the same team that made the playoffs last 3 years in a row.

Post #11 » by **Rise Against** » Sun Dec 28, 2008 8:18 am

Not to mention, Mike James was playing like Arenas out there... It was ludicrous.

Del Sol · Post #12 » by **Del Sol** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 3:47 am

They're the opposite of complacent. They've been going out, trying to destroy teams EVERY game. Even when they play like crap, they lock it down and find a way to win.

People need to realize that this team is completely different from any Cavs team of the past. And it's more prominent in their mental toughness/attitude than anything else.

Benedict_Boozer · Post #13 » by **Benedict_Boozer** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:35 am

I think the slippage has been on offense. Defensively the Cavs are still holding their opponents fg% down, contesting shots in the paint, and rotating on the perimeter.

However on offense, way too much isolation play and the "hockey assist" is not occurring as frequently as it did to start the season.

Part of the problem in that regard is some of our shooters just aren't hitting as consistently. The bench has not been producing as well either.

kiwibrindle · Post #14 » by **kiwibrindle** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 6:52 pm

Booz is right the slippage over the last couple of games is on Offense. We have started to see more LBJ taking over and less ball movement ever since Z went down a couple weeks ago. I hope Boston loses a few more just to have the team get a reality check with a tough lose.

I know this is splitting hairs here but we looked more amazing a few weeks back and I know we can get back to that level with just some concentration.

I'm not upset, just talking about polishing the jewel we have.

The one improvement over the last couple of games I will say is that seeing Ben Wallace has delighted me. Ben is playing like a kid again at the end of a game in crunch time. Against the Wizards the charge he took was amazing. And his weak side help against the Heat was assume too. I even saw him smile during a close-up of him watching the jumbotron overhead of him blocking a shot last night and the crowd loving it. He was having a good time on the floor for sure.

This is the best "team play" I've ever seen from a Cleveland team. Ever, period. Wilkens teams always had to play man to man defense and noone helped out. During the shot by Jordan, Ello was in man to man and noone but him was close to MJ. If this team was on the floor that night, LBK woould have had Micheal and Andy would have rotated over to trap.

Forget the coaches and the front office. The players are playing like a family on offense and defense and its amazing. Just keep sharing guys.

Oh and get back to practicing more free throws too!