Written by Demetri Inembolidis

---

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.

The game was blacked out by NBA TV because it was supposed to be on local TV in Columbus, but it was not.  Instead of broadcasting a NBA game between an elite rookie point guard and a superstar point guard in the twilight of his career, the decision was made to broadcast a college baseball game.  I am a person who only keeps a cable TV subscription so that I can watch NBA games, and I found myself looking for less-than-legal feeds to watch a game that I should have access to by paying my cable bill.  A similar occurrence happened last year and I took this video to demonstrate how ridiculous it is.  

Fox Sports Ohio must have realized their error and began broadcasting the game sometime in the second quarter.  As frustrating as not being able to watch the game was without using illegal means, it wasn’t as bad as seeing the Cavs play as uninspired as they did.  There were many problems that are worth pointing to in this game.  The players and coach were both to blame.  

The Phoenix suns outplayed the Cavs in almost every facet of the game.  The unofficial scouting report on Steve Nash is to try and make him beat you instead of beating you by distributing to his teammates.  The Cavs did not do that and Nash finished with 13 assist, 1 turnover and only 4 points.  The end-result was four different Suns player scoring in double figures compared to only two for the Cavs.  

It appears as if Byron Scott is experimenting with his lineups.  Kyrie Irving has been averaging about 32 minutes per game and he only played 27 against the Suns.  Manny Harris and Donald Sloan got more of an extended run than they are used to.  Neither of the young guards shot the ball particularly well (11 points on a combined for 30.7%), but Harris rebounded well (9) and Sloan did a decent job of distributing (4 assists).  

The most telling aspect of Byron Scott’s rotation against the Suns is that none of the starters played a single second in the fourth quarter.  Instead of trying to overcome the 23 point deficit, Byron Scott threw in the towel and emptied the bench.  

Kyrie Irving has played better games in his short career.  Irving finished with 16 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists.  Due to the issues that I had with my cable provider, I am unable to offer an exact amount of times that Irving’s teammates prevented him from getting an assist, but I did see Samardo Samuels do so on a few possessions.  The truth of the matter is that Mo Williams was able to average 7.1 per game with worse teammates last year and Ramon Sessions took the same roster and averaged 5.2 in less minutes per game.  Kyrie Irving is an amazing talent and there is very little that I would change about the way he plays basketball, but I am a little skeptical about blaming his teammates for his perceived lack of assisted baskets.  It appears as if there are multiple times during each game where his teammates prevent him from getting an assist, but this is something that he will have to play through and that is an issue for plenty of other point guards in the NBA.  

The Good: Tristan Thompson continues to improve from behind the free throw line.  He made 4 out of 6 free throw attempts.  In the month of March, he is is converting on 65.2% of his free throws.  This is not a spectacular percentage, but it is an improvement.  

The Bad: Columbus is approximately 2 1/2 hours away from Cleveland.  It is about 3 hours from Indianapolis.  If the NBA is going to proprietarily black out games on the League Pass and NBA TV, they need to make sure that they are available on the local markets.  As a fan, it is irritating to be prevented from watching a game on national TV because it was supposed to be on locally.  Either make Columbus an Indiana Pacers local market or be more efficient with only blacking out games that should be.  I have brought this issue up to people that I know within the Cavaliers organization and it seems like it simply cannot be resolved.  This is a problem.  

The Ugly: Luke Walton threw a pass in the second half that was not directed at anybody on either team.  Usually a turnover results when a pass is made that is not executed well and the opposing team gets to it first.  This pass literally went into the stands and was not directed at anybody.