As a fan, it was tough to ask much more of Cleveland’s 109-101 loss to the Grizzlies Monday night at the FedEx Forum. The youngsters Irving and Thompson both played reasonably well, the Cavaliers competed well with the playoff-bound Grizzlies in their house and on the second night of a back-to-back no less, nobody got seriously hurt and- best of all- they didn’t win the game.

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The Cleveland Cavaliers have not beaten the San Antonio Spurs on the road since they did so on February 27, 2009.  That may not seem like that long ago, but the Cavs have not had a lot of luck in San antonio.  When the Cavs beat the Spurs in San Antonio on November 3, 2006, it was the first time they had done so since 1988.  

Considering that the Spurs continue to be an elite team and the Cavs are jockeying for lottery position, it comes as no surprise that the Spurs were able to blow out Cleveland by a score of 114-98.  

There is not a lot to be said other than the Spurs are really good and that the Cavs are not.  Cleveland played hard throughout the game, but San Antonio was too deep, too talented and too fine-tuned for them to ever make it a game.  The Spurs are a real treat to watch because they play the game the right way.  There is a lot of ball movement, but not too much.  Additionally, their front office is very good at finding guys who can contribute without relying too heavily on the draft.  

Speaking of castoffs from other teams who do well for the Spurs, Danny Green continued his stellar play.  Green had 14 points on only 8 shots.  Stephen Jackson was traded from the Bucks to the Warriors and then to the Spurs around the trade deadline.  Jackson, who was disgruntled and causing problems for the Bucks, is contributing very well for the Spurs.  He scored 17 points in the game and had 14 in the fourth quarter to help put the Cavs away.  Manu Ginobili was another Spurs player to come off the bench and play as well as most starters on any given game day.  Ginobili scored 20 points on only 12 shots.  

On the Cavaliers side of things, Kyrie Irving played his third game coming off his shoulder injury.  Irving finished with 19 points and 3 assists in 29 minutes.  One has to question what the purpose is of playing Kyrie Irving in these games because the Cavs are mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and he is the cornerstone of the franchise.  It would be shameful to see him hurt himself in any one of these games.  Regardless, he put on a dazzling display of offensive moves.  It took him until the second quarter to make a field goal, but he more than made up for it with a wide array of fantastic layups and even a dunk.

The Anthony Parker era is inevitably nearing an end.  In what will probably be one of Parker’s last games in the Wine and Gold, he pulled down 8 rebounds, dished out 4 assists, had a steam and a block in 30 minutes.  

Tristan Thompson played relatively well.  In 29 minutes, he scored 9 points and pulled down 9 rebounds.  Most impressive were his 2 blocks against Tony Parker and Dajuan Blair.  The lack of Tim Duncan’s presence must have been bittersweet for Thompson because he reportedly idolizes his game.  Then again, it must not be fun for a raw rookie to play against someone as great as Tim Duncan so early in their career.  

The Spurs were able to dominate the Cavs without Tim Duncan.  They are able to not skip a beat without him because of great coaching and because the team has a strong foundation.  The Spurs remind me one of those teams that either beat Team USA or give them a hard time in international play.  They are undermanned in the talent department, but their experience of playing together and great coaching can oftentimes overcome all of that.  Gregg Popovich is able to get the most out of every single player regardless of what their personality is like or if they are not very talented.  He is simply an amazing coach.

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The New York Knicks—winners of four of their last five—entered the Q with Amare Stoudamire back in uniform and a #6 playoff seed still in reach. The Cavaliers—losers of three straight and positioned #5 in the draft lotto— came in with Anderson Varejao officially declared done for the season and inspirational D-Leaguer Lester Hudson unceremoniously released from the squad. …Naturally, the Cavs won 98-90.

Against the better judgment of all believers in the Church of Tanking, Cleveland (21-41) out-hustled, muscled, and scrapped the Knicks (33-30) all night, jumping out to an early lead and never relinquishing it. And while the Knickerbocker broadcast crew tried to explain away the 52-32 rebound gap as an example of the complexities of working a guy like Stoudamire back into the rotation, objective eyewitnesses just saw a mediocre team expecting a cakewalk and performing a sleep walk. The loss basically seals New York’s fate as first round fish food for either Chicago or Miami.

So, getting back to that 52-32 glass domination—whom might you presume paced the Cavaliers in that department, out-leaping Amare, Carmelo, and Tyson Chandler? Got to be Tristan Thompson, right? Nope, T.T. had a decent night (4-of-7, 10 pts, 6 rbs), but it wasn’t him. Hmm, Antawn maybe? No, he was more of a quiet contributor (3-of-9, 8 pts, 8 rbs, 5 assts). Ok, how about big ole Samardo Samuels off the pine? Well, Sam had himself another solid ballgame (7-of-12, 15 pts, 3 rbs, 2 blocks), but like everyone else not named Kyrie, he was just living in Manny Harris' world tonight.

The 22 year-old shooting guard, who scored 20+ points a handful of times as a rookie last season, tallied a season-high 19 tonight (6-of-12, 3-of-5 from deep) to go along with a career-best 12 boards-- giving him his first ever double-double. Harris also tossed in about a 40-foot Hail Mary shot with the 24-second clock expiring at one point in the fourth quarter. Good on ya, Manny.

So, for at least one night, Harris helped the Cleveland faithful forget the stat-sheet-stuffing exploits of the dearly departed Lester Hudson, whom the Memphis Grizzlies happily yoinked today after the Cavs decided to let the feel-good-story’s latest 10-day contract expire. “We’d had just about enough of Lester’s shenanigans,” GM Chris Grant didn’t actually say. “We’re trying to align some ping pong balls here, for f%$#’s sake.”

Along those same lines, Cleveland limited its sole marketable commodity, Kyrie Irving, to just 26 minutes in his second game back from injury. But he utilized the time well, dropping a game-high 21 points in a matchup with Mike Bibby (the Knicks are still without their version of Lester Hudson—Jeremy Lin—and Baron Davis was sadly a DNP in his return to the Q).

Leading 45-34 at the half, the Cavs avoided their usual third quarter collapse and actually expanded their advantage to 16 at 72-56, with Irving scattering 8 points around a pair of Harris triples. In the fourth, the lead expanded to as much as 19 before dwindling slowly back to single digits. It never got interesting, however, as Irving sat the whole quarter and Carmelo Anthony confusingly did the same, ending his lackluster night with just 12 points on 5-of-13 shooting. New York’s top scorers were Stoudamire and Steve Novak, who added 15 a piece.

With four games left, the Cavaliers remain snuggly in control of the fifth worst record in the league, just a game better than Sacramento and Golden State in the dreaded win column. No real need to root against the Wine and Gold at this point, though. The top pick has only been awarded to one of the three worst teams ONCE in the past 7 years. Meanwhile, the fifth worst team has won the lottery three times in the past decade.

An unintended consequence of the lockout that cost the NBA sixteen games per franchise is that everybody is attempting to fix system issues.  Most NBA fans are accustomed to watching games, looking at playoff standings, thinking about the draft and trade rumors.  The lockout turned these discussions into those of BRI (Basketball-Related Income), parity, salary cap and the luxury tax.  

Leading the charge is ESPN’s Henry Abbot, from the Truehoop Network.  If there is one thing that he would like to see changed about the NBA, it is tanking.  He has the best of intentions with his premise, but I cannot help but feel that he is arguing that the league should make drastic changes to system issues over something that doesn’t really exist.  

Yes, you read that correctly.  I do not believe that tanking exists.

The premise behind tanking is that teams that are not going to make the playoffs intentionally lose as many games as possible with the hope of landing a franchise-changing player with a high draft pick. 

Look at the Cavs, for example.  The players on the Cavs are looking out for their own best interest when they play games.  They would never not try their hardest or intentionally lose games so a more talented player can come, take their minutes or roster spot and send them packing for Asia or Europe.  

Coaches are in the same boat.  According to the Truehoop Network blog Truth About It, the average tenure of an NBA coach is a little over three seasons.  This does not mean that Byron Scott definitely has only one more year left in Cleveland, but time is not on his side if the Cavs do not start winning games.  It would be in his best long-term interest to strategically coach to develop young players at the potential expense of losing games, but he is coaching for his future every single time he gets on the sideline.  It would be nice if NBA owners would show a little patience with their head coaches, but the league operates under a “what have you done for me lately?” modus operandi.  Byron Scott is not thinking about potentially drafting Anthony Davis, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, Bradley Beal or Thomas Robinson.  He is only concerned with winning each and every game and coaches with that mentality.  

General Managers are probably the one member of the team that could be accused of tanking.  For reasons that I cannot comprehend, General Managers are given more patience by owners than coaches.  If a coach cannot win games, it is seen as his fault despite the fact that he only has the talent to work with that the General Manager provides him with.  According to the Los Angeles Clippers General Counsel Robert H. Platt, the average tenure of a GM is less than five years.  This is not a long time, but it gives the GM enough time to see if his vision is going to pay off.  If he were held to the same standards as head coaches, General Managers would make short-sighted trades and other roster moves which could be detrimental to the team that he is trying to build.  

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