GT #4, Cavaliers @ Nuggets, 25 October 2021, 9:00 PM ET

[ducler]

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[JonFromVA]

Garland partially participated in shoot around and is questionable.

[El Hespiritu]

Rrubio to the bench.

Versus one of the most powerful NBA teams.

Good luck with that.

[JonFromVA]

Rrubio to the bench.

Versus one of the most powerful NBA teams.

Good luck with that.

Because Ricky can't help off the bench?

[El Hespiritu]

Because having your best PG coming from the bench is like having your best Center coming from the bench.
Structurally dysfunctional.

Rrubio can bring many good things to the table even if you make him play just garbage time.
But obviously not that many as if he's the 7th man.
And obviously far less as if he's starter.

But whatever... Late Pre Season lineups... I'll try to not overreact.

[toooskies]

Because having your best PG coming from the bench is like having your best Center coming from the bench.
Structurally dysfunctional.

Rrubio can bring many good things to the table even if you make him play just garbage time.
But obviously not that many as if he's the 7th man.
And obviously far less as if he's starter.

But whatever... Late Pre Season lineups... I'll try to not overreact.

Do not mistake this Cavs team as one trying to win as many games as possible. Instead, this is a team trying to teach it's young guys how to win.

The starting lineup isn't merit-based.

[El Hespiritu]

If season keeps on and this starting lineup stands I'll agree they don't want to play bball and prefer to play tankball instead.

Or (because miracles exist) they will improve as a unit out of the blue proving me wrong

But it's too early for any of that.


So far so good.

They are holding the ground and even forcing The Joker to go PO mode. That's meaningful.
Mari Karmen still doing polite no-dunks but nailing it from deep. He looks aggressive tonight both ends.
That alone doubles his value at court.

I love El Facu. He is, as argentinians would say refachero (roughly: cool + brave)
But when it comes to try going under Rubio's skin, he just bites more he can swallow.

Ricky charged him with two faults in less than fifteen seconds.

As an argentinian would say too: Te falta calle, Facu (you lack alley-wisedom)

[JonFromVA]

Ricky wasn't brought in to start or likely even stick around if the Cavs get a decent trade offer. Get used to it.

If there's an interesting take away from this game it was Sexton's absence from the closing lineup ... again.

[El Hespiritu]

I will get used to that and to any other aspect of team's game at due time to be used.
One day or another Late Pre Season will end .

Wether my opinions on lineups, we neatly won a Behemot from the West.

So no complaints at all.

[Revenged25]

Ricky wasn't brought in to start or likely even stick around if the Cavs get a decent trade offer. Get used to it.

If there's an interesting take away from this game it was Sexton's absence from the closing lineup ... again.

Pretty sure Garland was lacking from it too

[mg]

It seems to me JBB is coaching for his job so he's likely going to finish with vets like Rubio or a defender like Okoro to try and protect the lead. Even Mobley was on the bench until they subbed him in for Love w/ 3 mins left when the game was already decided. Markkanen wasn't playing at the end either. Cedi didn't make an appearance at all in the 2nd half. Even with the team winning by 17 w/ 2 mins left JBB hadn't put in the scrubs even though Denver had long done so by that point. Cavs were playing with a shortened rotation esp in that 2nd half.

Anyway it was a great win by the Cavs. The entire team played well. Allen and Love were both exceptional.

[JonFromVA]

Ricky wasn't brought in to start or likely even stick around if the Cavs get a decent trade offer. Get used to it.

If there's an interesting take away from this game it was Sexton's absence from the closing lineup ... again.

Pretty sure Garland was lacking from it too

DG played most of the 4th, Okoro was in there a lot, Love got some run too. Windler even showed up in garbage time.

The assists from Darius and Ricky create a lot of offense for the team and keeps the bigs involved.

[Jorgeglez7]

So far, 2-2 and playing, in general, way better than expected. If this lasts some more games, I would really start considering if pulling the plug is actually the smarter move. Look Phoenix example....

[Jorgeglez7]

So far, 2-2 and playing, in general, way better than expected. If this lasts some more games, I would really start considering if pulling the plug is actually the smarter move. Look Phoenix example....

[Revenged25]

Ricky wasn't brought in to start or likely even stick around if the Cavs get a decent trade offer. Get used to it.

If there's an interesting take away from this game it was Sexton's absence from the closing lineup ... again.

Pretty sure Garland was lacking from it too

DG played most of the 4th, Okoro was in there a lot, Love got some run too. Windler even showed up in garbage time.

The assists from Darius and Ricky create a lot of offense for the team and keeps the bigs involved.

Looking at [url]this http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20211025&game=CLEDEN[/url] the Sexton had played the first minute 5 1/2 minutes of the quarter where they had taken a 7 point lead, including off the back of two HUGE Sexton 3s and was given a rest. The fact that the Cavs were never in danger in the 4th afterwards probably leant to him not coming back on the floor.

[toooskies]

We're in this weird, fun place where the backups may be just as good as the starters.

[yoyoboy]

Gotta give props to Love. He played a hell of a game yesterday even defensively. Bringing him off the bench might have revitalized him.

[JonFromVA]

Pretty sure Garland was lacking from it too

DG played most of the 4th, Okoro was in there a lot, Love got some run too. Windler even showed up in garbage time.

The assists from Darius and Ricky create a lot of offense for the team and keeps the bigs involved.

Looking at [url]this http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20211025&game=CLEDEN[/url] the Sexton had played the first minute 5 1/2 minutes of the quarter where they had taken a 7 point lead, including off the back of two HUGE Sexton 3s and was given a rest. The fact that the Cavs were never in danger in the 4th afterwards probably leant to him not coming back on the floor.

Oh, we were in danger and JBB played like it not wanting to take any chances of blowing that lead. Given we had the lead, JBB may certainly have preferred a more defensive lineup and would have possibly sent Collin back in if we needed to score, but he also choose to play Love which was certainly more of an experience/hot-hand move than a defensive one.

Something to watch, but finishing lineups can show who the head coach actually trusts .vs. who he's been told to play give or take situational and hot-hand decisions.

I'd say in general JBB did a pretty good job spreading out the minutes in this game, and only leaned heavily on Allen. There may have been some discussions after playing Mobley 38 minutes in the opener. Garland had the second most minutes on his recovering ankle but at least it was under 32.

[Revenged25]

DG played most of the 4th, Okoro was in there a lot, Love got some run too. Windler even showed up in garbage time.

The assists from Darius and Ricky create a lot of offense for the team and keeps the bigs involved.

Looking at [url]this http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20211025&game=CLEDEN[/url] the Sexton had played the first minute 5 1/2 minutes of the quarter where they had taken a 7 point lead, including off the back of two HUGE Sexton 3s and was given a rest. The fact that the Cavs were never in danger in the 4th afterwards probably leant to him not coming back on the floor.

Oh, we were in danger and JBB played like it not wanting to take any chances of blowing that lead. Given we had the lead, JBB may certainly have preferred a more defensive lineup and would have possibly sent Collin back in if we needed to score, but he also choose to play Love which was certainly more of an experience/hot-hand move than a defensive one.

Something to watch, but finishing lineups can show who the head coach actually trusts .vs. who he's been told to play give or take situational and hot-hand decisions.

I'd say in general JBB did a pretty good job spreading out the minutes in this game, and only leaned heavily on Allen. There may have been some discussions after playing Mobley 38 minutes in the opener. Garland had the second most minutes on his recovering ankle but at least it was under 32.

THen I don't know why Garland was in if it was cuz of defense cuz he kept getting blown by and caught sleeping when his man was cutting to the rim. Also the Cavs were never really in danger. IIRC they never got closer to within 3 of the Cavs in the 4th quarter.

[JonFromVA]

Looking at [url]this http://popcornmachine.net/gf?date=20211025&game=CLEDEN[/url] the Sexton had played the first minute 5 1/2 minutes of the quarter where they had taken a 7 point lead, including off the back of two HUGE Sexton 3s and was given a rest. The fact that the Cavs were never in danger in the 4th afterwards probably leant to him not coming back on the floor.

Oh, we were in danger and JBB played like it not wanting to take any chances of blowing that lead. Given we had the lead, JBB may certainly have preferred a more defensive lineup and would have possibly sent Collin back in if we needed to score, but he also choose to play Love which was certainly more of an experience/hot-hand move than a defensive one.

Something to watch, but finishing lineups can show who the head coach actually trusts .vs. who he's been told to play give or take situational and hot-hand decisions.

I'd say in general JBB did a pretty good job spreading out the minutes in this game, and only leaned heavily on Allen. There may have been some discussions after playing Mobley 38 minutes in the opener. Garland had the second most minutes on his recovering ankle but at least it was under 32.

THen I don't know why Garland was in if it was cuz of defense cuz he kept getting blown by and caught sleeping when his man was cutting to the rim. Also the Cavs were never really in danger. IIRC they never got closer to within 3 of the Cavs in the 4th quarter.

Oh, I'm not saying we didn't do a good job of closing this game out, but sometimes we start turning the ball over willy nilly when a team pressures us and we've blown leads just because the other team started playing hard and hitting shots.

Anyway, something to watch for now, but don't be surprised if Sexton's decision to turn down our extension offer doesn't change how we use him, how we promote him, etc, etc.