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David Blatt is a former NBA coach

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What a breath of fresh air. I don't think he got everything he wanted from the team on offense, but he did get more effort than I expected on the back-to-back. I love hearing about this after all the stories about Cavs coaches who have been reluctant to ruffle feathers and prefer catering to superstars.
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David Blatt called meeting over debut
Updated: November 1, 2014, 2:17 AM ET
By Dave McMenamin | ESPN.com
CHICAGO -- Before the Cleveland Cavaliers could go on to earn the first win of their season -- and the first win of David Blatt's NBA coaching career -- he had some lingering feelings about his team's disaster of a debut that he had to share.

In lieu of putting the Cavs through a shootaround before the tail end of their back-to-back, the longtime European coach called a meeting at the team hotel and put them in their place instead of putting them through their paces.

"You all are such nice people, I'm so happy you weren't in the morning meeting today because your opinion of me might be vastly different right now," Blatt told the media after the Cavs beat the Chicago Bulls 114-108 in overtime Friday. "But we cleaned some things up and the guys responded beautifully and we played a great game."

Blatt spared no one, including LeBron James, who bounced back with 36 points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals against the Bulls after a 5-for-15 shooting night against the Knicks that was further sullied by eight turnovers.

"He just got on us," James said when asked about Blatt's message. "He got on us from the time we started our meeting to the time we left. And it's great. For a team like us, we need that. I love constructive criticism. I never took it personal. It's just an opportunity for us to get better and it definitely put a fire into us."

After turning the ball over 19 times against the Knicks leading to 26 points for New York, turnovers Blatt called "irresponsible" and "borderline inexcusable," the Cavs cut that number to just 12 against Chicago.

Blatt also told the team he wanted more ball movement and as well as player movement on offense going forward.

"Fiery and to the point," one source told ESPN.com when asked to characterize the meeting. "[Blatt] was very direct with the group about the expectations and what we need to do day in and day out."

The Cavs showed a greater team resolve while playing for the second consecutive night, this time on the road, and outrebounded the Bulls 52-42 after New York had controlled the glass 35-33 the night before.

"Today in our meeting, we said we have to play better than the way we played last night," Anderson Varejao said. "We have to play harder, tougher, and that's what we did tonight."

Blatt said his team "kind of dropped off the map" after its initial emotional surge against the Knicks. He demanded a more sustained effort from the group.

"There are some things that have nothing to do with X's and O's," Blatt said. "That's a good part of what we were talking about and there were other things that were very, very basketball related and we addressed those as well. I don't know exactly the numbers, but I'm sure we were 70 or 80 percent in 50/50 balls tonight."

All of the extra effort by his team led to Blatt getting the game ball to take home with him, a memento from his first NBA win.

"That's his first NBA win," Kyrie Irving said. "He deserves the game ball. It's his first time in the NBA."

Blatt was smiling and disheveled when he met the media after the game.

"Big win for him," Tristan Thompson said. "Welcome to the NBA. We messed up his hairdo, so, for his interview, you know what happened to him."

The morning meeting paid off, it would seem.

"You know what was the best about that? I didn't even think about," Blatt said of the reception he received after the game. "That was so beautiful what LeBron did right after the game [hugging him], what the team did in the locker room. You know the funny thing about that is, not all of you know me that well, but I've probably won about 700 games in my career. Just none of them have been here. So, it was a little bit odd on one hand, but that's the first NBA game and that's a bit of history for my friends and my family, and I'm glad I did it with the Cleveland Cavaliers."
 
I'm a still a bit baffled by the offense. Did we run any Lebron and Love pick and rolls during regulation?
Haven't seen Lebron create so much off straight iso's over the last 2 games. Now that maybe because he had Dunleavy on him and the Cavs felt they didn't need to bother with the pick with this matchup but even when Snell was on him we didn't see it. Just surprised since Love seems such an ideal pick and roll partner with Lebron and it's now two games where it hasn't been featured at all
 
One thing Blatt will learn is if Mike Miller is going to get minutes on this team, he HAS to play with LeBron. Right now he's been playing him without LeBron and it's not working. LeBron has amazing chemistry with Mike and knows where he'll be at all times on the court. Play Delly less and play Miller more. He'll figure that out though.
 
Looks like we could use another defensive guard
 
One thing Blatt will learn is if Mike Miller is going to get minutes on this team, he HAS to play with LeBron. Right now he's been playing him without LeBron and it's not working. LeBron has amazing chemistry with Mike and knows where he'll be at all times on the court. Play Delly less and play Miller more. He'll figure that out though.

Play Kyrie less and Mike more and I agree. ;)
Fwiw when Mike was in there I thought he did a great job defending McDermott and as a result McDermott never ended up being a factor last night. It's nice to have a few players that actually know what they're doing.
 
I really like how blatt has handled himself in all the circus. Its been a big learning curve for him as much as anyone and although he hasnt coached a perfect game so far,the intangibles he brings are great and his authority is obvious. He really gives me a popovich vibe,i just hope we can keep him around and establish a culture.
 
David Blatt receives surprise assist after winning his first NBA game

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Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving talks with head coach David Blatt in the second half. (Joshua Gunter/The Plain Dealer) October 30, 2014 at Quicken Loans Arena. (JOSHUA GUNTER)
By Chris Haynes, Northeast Ohio Media Group
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on November 01, 2014 at 1:38 AM, updated November 01, 2014 at 1:56 AM
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CHICAGO, Illinois – Kyrie Irving made sure to get the ball in his hands as the clock ran down, giving the Cavaliers a 114-108 overtime win over the Chicago Bulls.

The final buzzer went off and a shrewd Irving confiscated the ball, taking it with him towards the back.

When Blatt entered the locker room, Irving handed him the game ball and the rest of team along with the coaching staff circled around him shaking his hand, messing up his hair, congratulating him on his first NBA win.

Blatt has won over 600 games during his professional coaching career and now he can add the supreme level to his coaching resume.

"We're all just happy for him," Shawn Marion told Northeast Ohio Media Group. "We wish we could have done it for him the other night, but you can tell he was very happy so it's all good."

Blatt was so wrapped up in the process of a rigorous 82-game season that he forgot to soak in the fact that he had accomplished something personally: His first win came against Tom Thibodeau.

That's quite the feat.

"You know what's best about that, I didn't even think about it," Blatt said referring to his first win. "It was so beautiful, what the team did...I'm glad I did it with the Cleveland Cavaliers."

There's plenty more where that came from. This team enjoys being around Blatt and you can tell early on that he has them bought in. The sky's the limit for Blatt.

"We're just proud of him. He deserves it," Anderson Varejao said. "I'm glad we were able to do it for him."
 
I listened to all the post game interviews from last night, and someone asked them a question about a speech Blatt gave during the team breakfast or whatever, and how Blatt said nobody would like him anymore if they heard it. LeBron said that Blatt got on them (I'm imagining something similar to his infamous youtube clips) and challenged them to win the game. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I LOVE BLATT. He isn't afraid to tell it like it is and put people in line, despite how good they might be. I bet LeBron (and Love and Kyrie) aren't used to that treatment, probably since highschool days or before. It sounded like LeBron enjoyed it and appreciated it though.

It is so nice to have a good coach for once. Congrats to Blatt on his first win with many more to come.
 
This team only needs to be above average defensively. The coaching staffs need to figure out a way to make the Cavs an efficient shooting team. If they can shoot at the same efficiency rate that Miami shot in the last 4 years, they'll be better than Miami was.

The rebounding difference is night and day between both teams. I don't see how any opposing team will be able to stop the Cavs once they start picking their sweet spots and shooting high quality shots. The whole Spurs-like offense won't work because to be quite honest you need players to be really disciplined and selfless in order to run that type of offense.

I think LeBron needs to play closer to the post so that way he can shoot more efficiently and set up better plays for his teammates.
 
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I liked that he made the adjustment to switching defense later in the 4th and they came up wit 2 stops immediately. I also like switching Marion to Rose but not how he was giving him the space to shoot.

That said, he still needs to get better with the rotations, they've had no rhyme thus far these first 2 games. The starters should definitely be playing in shorter stretches.
 
Idk what he says during timeouts and quarter breaks but energy issues and sloppy play usually get fixed

It was so annoying seeing Brown call a timeout just to do some stupid crap the very next play
 
I liked that he made the adjustment to switching defense later in the 4th and they came up wit 2 stops immediately. I also like switching Marion to Rose but not how he was giving him the space to shoot.

That said, he still needs to get better with the rotations, they've had no rhyme thus far these first 2 games. The starters should definitely be playing in shorter stretches.

We are also only 2 games into the season and have had 2 big games that the players obviously wanted to win. I Think things will kind of level out here in the next week or 2 with rotations. Marion and miller should see more time once the team is gelling.

I also loved that Blatt was willing to let Lue give the defensive instructions at the end of the game. That takes a real man to know and allow someone with the experience to step in and coach like that on national TV. I also loved that we had 2 or 3 inbounds after a timeout that worked perfectly last night. And that one where TT had the inbounds dunk the other night was sick. Thats something we havent seen in a LONG TIME

Last. I wanted the Cavs system to be like the spurs so bad. But I don't think it will or needs to be. The spurs do not have elite shot creators on the wing (outside of parker.) We will have more ISO than the spurs because thats where our big 3 are going to flourish. Now the passing out of the ISO is what needs to improve. It already has in 2 games and will continue to get better.

so pumped for this team.
 
Props to Blatt to bitching out the entire team including Lebron before the game. While at the same time offering them a blueprint on how to improve. seems like it had a big impact on the team.
 
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