The Indiana Pacers notched their first preseason win against the Cavs on Saturday night and it wasn't pretty. The game was competitive through the first half. Foul trouble, free throws, poor shooting and poor execution in the second half made the game borderline unwatchable. The loss dropped the Cavs to a record of 3-2 in the preseason. Tristan Thompson had 11 points and 8 rebounds in 21 minutes. Anthony Bennett came off the bench and had an ugly 11 points and 10 rebounds which came at the expense of a 3-11 shooting performance.

There were not many positive things to take away from this game. It was about as much of a preseason game as one could expect. The teams combined for 83 free throws. The Cavs made only 14.3% of their three point attempts. The Pacers were out-rebounded 55-35. The Cavs out-rebounded The Pacers on the offensive boards 17-4. Despite the work on the boards, the Cavs lost by a score of 102-79. The most likely reason for the blowout loss was poor shooting. Cleveland only converted on 29.5% of their shots.

The Cavs big men gave Roy Hibbert problems. The all star center finished the night with 6 points and 3 rebounds. David West, on the other hand, gave the Cavs big men problems. He finished the night with 20 points and 5 rebounds.

The Cavs had a 17-13 advantage after the first quarter. They held the Pacers to 23.5% shooting but could not capitalize much due to the fact that they shot 28% themselves. Tristan Thompson was active in the quarter. He made all three of his shots and had 7 points and 3 rebounds. The Cavs kept the game respectable through the first half. They held onto a 39-36 lead going into halftime. Dion Waiters was struggling and missed all 6 of his field goals. Kyire Irving had 11 points, 4 assists and 4 turnovers. The wheels fell off in the third quarter. Mike Brown went with a young lineup and Frank Vogel kept his veterans in the game. Dion Waiters did his best to keep the Cavs in the game. He scored 9 points on 4/7 shooting. Kyrie Irving committed 4 fouls in the third which capped off his night. The Pacers shot 52.9% in the third which was significantly better than the 34.8% that Cleveland shot. To finish the game, Mike Brown played Anthony Bennett, Matthew Dellavedova and Sergey Karasev the majority of the minutes in the 4th quarter. The result was not pretty. They shot 13.3% and gave up 50% shooting to the Pacers. The Cavs were outscored 33-14.

Read more...

The new era of Cavaliers basketball kicked off on Tuesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks and there were many positive signs. The Cavaliers got off to a big lead and never relented it. The Bucks maintained a 4-2 lead early in the first quarter which was the last time they were topping the Cavs in the scoreboard.

If there was any doubt that Mike Brown did indeed walk through that door, the Cavs held the Bucks to 37.7% shooting for the game. There was miscommunication and more open threes than Brown would probably care for, but the Cavs defense was swarming from the get-go. Luckily for the Cavs the Bucks were not able to take advantage of the open looks from beyond the three point arc.

Anthony Bennett's NBA debut left a lot to be desired, but it is way too early to panic. Bennett had surgery on his shoulder and did not participate in any basketball activity this summer. He visibly looked out of shape and struggled to get any elevation on his shots. Bennett had his shot blocked 3 times and only made 2-12 shots. Bennett was able to get to the line 8 times but only made 3 of the free throws. Again, Bennett was playing in the NBA for the first time in his life and is admittedly out of shape. We need to see what he looks like after his nerves calm down a bit and after he sheds a few pounds. NBA players do not cement their legacy after their first preseason game.

Read more...

Being an NBA fan in a small or mid-market has its challenges. In the past three years, we have seen LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Chris Paul and Carmelo Anthony leave their franchises in less-than-stellar markets for those with warm weather, bright lights or no income tax. The NBA is a star-driven league and the best teams tend to have the big-name players. Teams that do not have the better players tend to be bad. This is not a by-product of teams intentionally losing in an attempt to land the star player. This is as simple as bad teams will lose more games than their rivals that are good. It is also as simple as bad teams typically being those without the players of high-quality. I wish more people would understand this simple concept.

It does not sit well with me that the network that is responsible for reporting the news also plays a major role in creating it. It is unsettling that ESPN's Truehoop Network is devoting most of their material to changing the NBA draft lottery. Their main writer, Henry Abbott is quite outspoken in his disdain over the lottery. He believes that it rewards losing. Abbott also believes that it doesn't bode well for the culture of the NBA when teams like the Bobcats are mocked for signing Al Jefferson and "being too good" to secure a top 5 pick in the upcoming draft. Henry Abbott is an intelligent writer who is smart enough to understand the nuances of the NBA. He should know better than to claim that teams are intentionally trying to lose. He should also know better than to claim that huge changes need to be made in order to stop this problem.

Read more...

There seems to be some excitement over the Cleveland Cavaliers for the first time in four years. Nobody expects the Cavs to get out of the first round, let alone win the go on a deep playoff run. But just about everybody nationally and locally expects the team to make the postseason for the first time in years. The Cavs have reloaded their roster by signing Jarrett Jack, Andrew Bynum and Earl Clark. They drafted Anthony Bennett first overall and were fortunate enough to have Sergey Karasev fall to them at 19. Karasev is a work in progress, but many people expected the Cavs to have to move up in the draft to pick him. Last but not least, they drafted Carrick Felix to hopefully be a 3 and D guy off the bench. It is unlikely that all three of these players will work out for the Wine and Gold, but they should at least be able to get some rotation players out of the draft that was held in June.

Luckily for Cleveland, they will not solely rely on the draft and free agency to make a playoff run this year. There should be enough internal growth for them to be a borderline playoff team. Combine that with the improvement that Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, Dion Waiters and Tyler Zeller should show and you have a playoff team.

Some of the young players on the roster were more NBA-ready than others. While some of them need a lot of work and improvement, every player on the team has certain areas that they can improve in. I will outline what some of the players need to focus on this off season in the next few paragraphs.

Read more...