The game in 300 words or less

There's nothing to see here. Please disperse!

Well, that was definitely the worst loss of the season. The Cavs were down 100-50 at the end of the third and wound up losing to a 22-win Detroit Pistons team by 37 points. Not good.

With Anderson Varejao, Kyrie Irving, and Alonzo Gee all out of action, it wasn’t a shock that the Cavs lost, but you never expect to get run out of the gym by a team like the Pistons regardless of the personnel. Then again, when you take the three best players off of a team like the Cavs – already mediocre at best – then things like this tend to happen.

Brandon Knight was the biggest culprit, dropping 28 on the Cavs and missing just one shot all night. Five other Pistons cracked double-digits. The Pistons shot 60% from the field while the Cavs could only muster 34.8%; stats like that usually lead to lopsided scores.

The Cavs could have given away free season tickets to anyone who was still watching in the fourth quarter of this baby, as you could probably count those fans one hand.

Read more...

On Sunday nights, Cleveland Cavalier fans had a unique opportunity to look into a crystal ball and look into the post-Dwight Howard Orlando Magic world.  Although he opted into the final year of his contract, it would take a miracle to get him to stay with the team long-term .  In the crystal ball world that we got to witness, it didn’t matter and the Magic handedly beat the Cavs with a final score of 100-84. 

The game ball belongs to Jameer Nelson.  The point guard who has been inconsistent this season finished with 21 points, 7 rebounds, 9 assists and 3 turnovers in almost 29 minutes of playing time.  He got plenty of help.  There were four other Magic players who had double-digit scoring.  Glen Davis was well on track to be the sixth member of the Magic to score in double-digits when he had to leave the game after only 7 minutes due to a sprained right knee.

The Magic are literally limping into the playoffs.  It is not a given that Dwight Howard, Hedo Turkoglu and Glen Davis will be ready for the playoff berth that they just locked up by beating Cleveland on Sunday night. 

The Magic are a team that take and make a lot of three pointers.  When a physical presence like Dwight Howard is in the paint, it should be expected.  When he is out with an injury or an “I am trying to get my coach fired and deeply regret opting in” sabbatical, it is inexcusable for the Magic to have taken so many open threes.  Due to the nature of NBA defensive statistics, it is impossible to quantify how many open threes the Magic took, but it seemed as if the Cavs were constantly running through a screen and closing in on an open shooter a half second too late.  On the season, the Magic average 26.9 three point attempts per game and they make 10.2.  Both averages are the most in the NBA.  Having shooters and the most dominant big man in the league makes that a prudent way to run an offense.  The fact that the Magic made 11 threes without Howard should lead to an extra film session for Byron Scott. 

The Magic had control of the matchup for most of the game.  The one stretch that felt like Cleveland was dictating the game was before the end of the first half.  A series of questionable calls was made against the Cavs and they responded with a 7-0 run to finish the quarter. 

The Cavs did not execute on offense throughout most of the game.  In the first half, they managed to score only 30 points.  They did score 30 points in the 3^rd quarter to make the final score look somewhat respectable, but they cannot continue to have such bad stretches on offense.  The Cavs were worse than the Magic in a slew of different statistical categories.  They had more turnovers (17) than the Magic (6).  They shot a worse percentage overall (37.3%) than the Magic (45.6%).  Worst of all is the biggest lead for both teams.  For the Magic, the biggest lead was 20.  Cleveland never held a lead in the entire game.

The highlight of the game came in the third quarter when the arena production crew showed Mark Price on the Magic bench.  The former Cavaliers point guard is the most universally beloved Cavalier in the team’s 42 year history.  Being at the game and witnessing the ovation that he received was pretty great. 

Read more...

In what will be remembered as the “Luke Harangody Game,” the undermanned Cavs went into Washington and beat the Wizards by a score of 98-89.  The Cavs were missing Kyrie Irving, Anderson Varejao, Daniel Gibson  and Semih Erden to injury and Byron Scott chose to rest Antawn Jamison because the team was in the middle of three games in three nights.  The lack of available players did not matter and the Canton Charge Cleveland Cavaliers finished the night with a road win.

The Wizards had more points in the paint (42) than the Cavs (30).  They had more second chance points (19) than Cleveland (4).  The Wizards had 21 more possessions than the Cavs and they made 4 more field goals.  So how did Cleveland win the game?  Cleveland managed to get to the line 33 times compared to Washington’s 12 free throw attempts.  Anthony Parker has been to the line 50 times in this current season and 8 of those attempts came against the Wizards on Saturday night.  You would have to go back to January 14, 2010 to find the last game that Anthony Parker took that many free throws.  To put it into perspective, that is the game that the Cavs lost on a Sundiata Gaines buzzer beater in Utah.  Additionally, the Cavs made 81.8% of their free throws, which is an improvement from the 71.7% that they are making on the year. 

Tristan Thompson had a strong game on the offensive end of the court, but he continues to get his shot blocked at an alarming rate.  The Wizards managed to send back 4 of his shots.  Thompson took 11 shots and made 5 of them.  That means that of the shots that he didn’t make, only 2 were not blocked. 

With this win, Cleveland now has more wins than they did in all of last year.  This season has not always been pretty.  There have been a lot of injuries and losses, but the Cavs did improve upon their situation from last year.  Progress is key and although it isn’t always obvious, it is being made. 

As has been a common theme in game recaps this year, it is amazing how many guys will produce if given a chance.  Luke Harangody is not a player that you want playing big minutes in a playoff game, but he got his first career start and finished the game with a 16 point and 10 rebound double-double.  He was efficient and made good decisions throughout the entire game. 

John Wall was killing the Cavs with midrange baskets, but it was ultimately not enough for the Wizards to win the game.  He finished with a game-high 19 points and 9 assists.  During the post-game call-in show on WKNR, Michael Reghi was going off on a tangent about how the Wizards lack a winning atmosphere and that they are terrible because they have too many knuckleheads on the roster.  Reghi was excited about the win because he believes that finishing out the year strong is the best way to start off next season on a positive note.  Clearly, the Wizards do not have a winning atmosphere, but the only way to change that is to replace guys like Andray Blatche and all of their guards who do nothing but shoot with better players via the draft.  After the draft in late June, the Wizards are either going to have Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal or Thomas Robinson.  Bringing in any one of those guys is going to do wonders for their atmosphere and get John Wall at least one teammate that is worthy of his talents. 

The Good: The Cavs were able to get a road win despite being severely undermanned. 

The Bad: The Toronto Raptors are tied with the Cavs in the lottery seedings.  This blogger will be very angry if they win a tie-breaker and get a much better player in the draft than the Cavs did after the curious decision by Chris Grant to leave Jonas Valanciunas on the draft board last year. 

Read more...

After inexplicably giving Indiana all they could handle through the clubs’ first three-and-a-half meetings this season, the Cleveland Cavaliers finally crumbled under the weight of their own inferiority in the third quarter of tonight’s showdown at the Something-or-Other Corporate Sponsorship Fieldhouse. The final damage: Indy 102, Cle 83.

Coming into this one, the Cavs (19-38) had one win over the Pacers (37-22) and two narrow overtime losses, including just two nights ago—a 104-98 setback at the Q-- in the first tilt of this home-and-home series. And despite the continued absences of Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao, it looked like yet another improbably competitive contest was unfolding tonight, as the better-than-terrible shooting of Antawn Jamison and the incomparable overnight icon Lester Hudson had the visiting Wine & Gold up 43-41 at the half.

During the break, however, the Pacers were apparently reminded that a win tonight would clinch them a playoff spot in the East—an achievement, not unlike getting accepted to Youngstown State, that says relatively little about your potential. Still, if you have a gander at the standings, you’ll find that Indiana is actually sitting comfortably in the #3 spot in the conference, just 4.5 games behind the all-mighty Heat. Sure, no one at ESPN or TNT has mentioned the Indiana Pacers as a real contender at any point all year (because the mere thought is snooze inducing), but there they are anyway.

Read more...