When I recap a Cavs game, I like to offer the readers analysis of what happened during the game.  I seek out statistics that may be overlooked by other blogs and major media outlets and attempt to offer an explanation for why one of the teams lost and the other didn’t.  To do this, I rely on what I saw while watching the game and by looking at statistics.  

Thanks to Time Warner Cable, the NBA’s proprietary blackout rules and Fox Sports Ohio, that is not going to be entirely possible today.  To make a long story short, things in Columbus get complicated when the Cavs games are on NBA TV and when the Columbus Blue Jackets are playing at the same time.  Channel 1310 on the digital cable guide stated that the Cavs game was going to be on, but it was mislabeled.  Instead, there was a college baseball game despite being labeled as the Cavs game against the Suns.  I checked the alternate stations and those were either repeat broadcasts of the college baseball game or the Blue Jackets game.  The game was even being aired on NBA TV nationally, but it was blacked out in my market.

Read more...

It just wasn’t meant to be for the Cavaliers in Wednesday night’s 103-102 overtime loss to the Hawks at Philips Arena. Despite leading by as many as sixteen in the first half, by three with 5.4 seconds left in regulation and by six with 1:27 left in overtime, Cleveland lost its seventh in a row to Atlanta and dropped to 0-3 in overtime games this season.

For the Hawks it was a much-needed salve for their frustrating home loss to Boston two nights earlier. For the 17-27 Cavaliers, the defeat dropped them further behind in the playoff race. They now trail red-hot New York by four-and-a-half games for the eighth spot and Milwaukee by three-and-a-half for the ninth spot.

Read more...

The Cleveland Cavaliers ended their three game losing streak on Monday night against the New Jersey Nets.  The win required an incredible showing and effort from the duo of Cavaliers rookies.  Tristan Thompson and Kyrie Irving combined for 53 points and both looked great in the starting lineup.  

The final score was a 105-100 win for the Cavs.  The biggest statistical edge that Cleveland had was in rebounding.  Cleveland pulled down 55 rebounds compared to 37 for the Nets.  Because of the rebounding, the Cavs had the opportunity to take 8 more shots than the Nets.  In addition, the Cavs shot better from the field than their opponent.  Cleveland converted on 46.1% of their shots and New Jersey did so on 42.0%.  The difference was all of the extra shots and the superior shooting.  Cleveland only won by 5 points, but it is fairly clear that the extra effort on the glass is something that paid dividends.  Sometimes a team does not shoot the ball particularly well or they struggle with turnovers, but they can make up for it in other areas.

Cleveland had another great fourth quarter.  The effort was capped off by Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson who combined for 20 points on 63.6% shooting in the final twelve minutes.  Once again, an encouraging sign was not only that they both played so well, but that Byron Scott trusted them to play together when it really mattered.  They both played for the entire fourth quarter.  

Up until recently, the two rookies had limited time on the floor together.  Ever since Byron Scott named Thompson as a starter, they have finally gotten extended time in the same five man group.  The experiment is short-lived, but worked very well against the Nets.  To put it into perspective, Irving has only assisted to Thompson four times prior to the Nets game and they connected three times on Monday night.  Running offensive plays for Tristan Thompson is something that good teams will be able to account for, but there’s no reason that they should not have better chemistry on the pick-and-roll.  There were some definite encouraging signs in that department.

Daniel Gibson left the game with an ankle injury in the third quarter.  Injuries are never a positive thing, but this allowed for Byron Scott to get an extended look at Donal Sloan.  The rookie point guard scored 11 points on 4-6 shooting and he also contributed 3 rebounds and 1 assist.  The biggest play that he made was a 3 point basket in the fourth quarter which shrunk the Nets lead to three and was a turning point in the game.  

For the Nets, Gerald Wallace played his second game after being traded to the Nets.  He had a very nice outing for his new team and recorded 27 points and 12 rebounds.  Gerald Wallace is a very good player who can do incredible things to help his team win, but the Nets appear to have given up too much in their trade for him.  The Nets are fully committed to making the Deron Williams experiment work and have given up multiple first round picks to get him and in an attempt to surround him with teammates that will make him happy.  One does not need to be a clairvoyant to predict how things will end for the Deron Williams and New Jersey Nets relationship.  

The Cavs are probably a far way from being considered a playoff team, but the efforts of the rebuild are on display when the rookies play as well as they did against the Nets.  Tristan Thompson isn’t going to regularly score 27 points on 75% shooting, but he is showing that he is capable of stepping up and playing like a lottery selection.  This may not always result in wins, but the growth of the young players during games like these that are truly encouraging.

The Good: The 2011 Cavaliers draftees looked great.  They combined for 53 points, 17 rebounds and 8 assists.  Regardless if these types of performances are far and few between, it is fun to watch as it happens.  

Read more...

A few days have passed since the Cleveland Cavaliers traded Ramon Sessions and Christian Eyenga to the Lakers for their 2012 first round pick, the right to swap picks in 2013 and other pieces.  Sessions made his season debut for the Lakers on Friday.  He came off the bench and played relatively well.  It has been quite some time that the Lakers didn’t rely on Derek Fisher’s diminishing skills to run the offense, so the result was national media and Lakers fans being a little too overjoyed about his 7 points and 5 assists.  

Cleveland is getting killed nationally for what is perceived as giving Sessions away for nothing.  As Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal pointed out in his article “Lack of Scoring Punch Could Cause Cavs to Regress Next Season,” what is being overlooked is the fact that Cleveland was going to lose Sessions to free agency after this season.  Isn’t it better to get a first round pick and am improved pick next year as opposed to keeping Sessions as the backup point guard during the second half of a season that will not result in a playoff birth?  

ESPN’s David Thorpe is one of the national media members who believes that Cleveland did not make a good trade.  He was on the NBA Today podcast with Henry Abbott on Friday.  When the topic of the Sessions trade came up, he had the following to say:

“There’s lots of irony here that the owner of Cleveland who was so concerned about guys like David Stern doing everything they can to help the big market teams and Cleveland may have given LA literally a real chance to get back to the finals now.  I don’t know if they will. but adding Sessions who is a legitimate point guard and is a quick little guy that they needed (because) they get destroyed by quick, little point guards against other teams.  This was a nice coupe for the Lakers.  I don’t know what Cleveland was doing.”

If there are two things that bother me with the NBA media, it is laziness and easy narratives.  The problem with this quote is that it ignores one major aspect of the Sessions trade: Dan Gilbert was not doing it to help the Lakers.  There are clear-cut benefits to making this trade for the Cavs and ignoring them is an easy way to take a jab at Cleveland in a post-Comic Sans letter world.  The Cavs were able to pick up an extra draft pick and have the ability to potentially move up multiple draft spots next year, but it is easier to call the Cavs hypocritical for vetoing the Chris Paul trade to the Lakers.  

Another lazy aspect to that comment is that it was not solely Dan Gilbert‘s doing to renege on that trade.  The NBA got into a can’t-win situation when it allowed for the Hornets to be owned by the other 29 teams.  To assume that one of the 29 NBA owners had enough pull within the entire NBA to cancel a trade between the Lakers, Hornets and Rockets is is baffling.  It is a fact that Dan Gilbert was not happy with the cancelled trade, but it is ridiculous to assume that one owner was the reason that Chris Paul ultimately ended up with the Clippers.  One confusing aspect of the backlash towards the NBA for nixing the Chris Paul trade is that the Hornets appear to have gotten a better package from the Clippers because they are getting young and talented players as opposed to overpaid veterans who are on the downturn of their career.  It is fashionable to joke about the NBA’s explanation for canceling the trade, but I feel that they got a better package.

Read more...