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Jason Lloyd's final thoughts

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A team can make a run on us and we won’t crack like we did earlier in the season,” James said. “That comes with games, it comes with being together and experience. Even tonight with Detroit they made a little run, we held serve and made plays, got enough stops, got to the free-throw line and made shots. That’s just all part of the process.

That is what we all saw..they would simply freeze up when their lead would evaporate.
Now they match the run with a run of their own.
It's called pride and a will to win.
 
Maybe just post a small tidbit of them and bait posters to click the actual article? I generally see staff doing it that way.

Try it:distrust:

5. Irving scored the Cavs’ final 11 points of the first quarter, their last eight in both the second and third and 10 of their last 12 to end the game. He scored 14 straight during one stretch late in the third quarter and into the fourth and 24 of their last 28. What a night.

6. He set a new arena scoring record. He set a franchise record for 3-pointers with 11, surpassing C.J. Miles’ previous mark of 10. He fell one point shy of James’ franchise scoring mark.

7. The only player to score more points in an NBA game in Cleveland, according to ESPN Stats & Info, was Michael Jordan’s 69-point performance at Richfield Coliseum in 1990.:crushed:

10. Irving’s game winner was reminiscent to his buzzer beater at Toronto a couple years ago and Damian Lillard’s shot at the buzzer when the Blazers won here last year. David Blatt ran a quasi version of Byron Scott’s standard 1-4 flat from a few years ago that allowed Irving to dribble the ball down the court while everyone else scattered near the baseline, giving him plenty of room to operate.

11. David Blatt left it up to Irving to decide what to do: Take the 3 or drive to the basket. Even with the 6-foot-8 Nic Batum defending him, Irving got Batum backing up a couple steps and then simply shot it over him.

12. “He’s so quick you don’t want to get too close,” Batum said. “You have to control the drive. I tried to contest the shot. I was on him, but he made a big shot.”

13. Said Blazers coach Terry Stotts: “Irving hit a great shot at the end. It was a well-contested, well-defended shot. Nick was close to blocking it. His hand was right there.”

16. James was inside the 3-point line at the other end of the court by the time Irving released the shot. He was nearing the free-throw line by the time it went in. He greeted Irving at half court with a leaping celebration that looked reminiscent of Tuesday’s celebration when Irving made a big 3-pointer with 1:05 left to put down the Pistons.

17. Irving didn’t have much to say after the game. It’s no secret he’s not particularly high on the media. “You guys can continue to ask me about what it feels like, really the only thing that matters to me is we got the win and everybody competed,” he said.

18. The win was vital. The Cavs extended their winning streak to eight games, but more importantly, won for just the second time in 10 tries when playing without James.:clap: The Cavs have lost some bad games this season without their best player. They were blown out by the Bucks and Kings, then lost at the Sixers in one of the worst losses of the season.

20. The Cavs held one of the league’s best 3-point shooting teams to 32 percent. They entered averaging 103 points, but the Cavs held them to 94. There were various points in the second half where it felt like the Cavs’ defensive effort was starting to slip, but the Blazers missed just enough open looks and the Cavs’ defense tightened at the right times to hold on.

21. Irving’s performance was something his coach has never seen. “In one game? A player who has that kind of game and that kind of point total? First time ever,” Blatt said. “I’ve seen some great performances. I’ve seen a lot of great performances, but something like that I haven’t seen. And I’ve been around a long time.”

35. I try not to overstate things, but this was one of the most impressive wins of the season. The Blazers have been scuffling a bit lately, but they were well-rested and sitting in Cleveland for the last three days. The Cavs were without their best player. Yet they still found a way to get it done.

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland...hts-on-kyrie-irving-s-historic-night-1.562455

Other key points:
1-5. CAVS teammates celebrating Kyrie Irving’s incredible night.

14-15. Lloyd review the last 3 CAVS V.S. Blazers at the Q.

24-27. About LeBron's wrist injury.

28-34. Shawn Marion, Kevin Love, and KI's defense on Lillard.
 
Last edited:
Cavs 101, Kings 90; Jason Lloyd's 23 thoughts on Kevin Love's big night and his bigger night ahead
By Jason Lloyd Published: January 31, 2015


15. “Wednesday there was no way I could’ve played. My wrist was too stiff and too tight. I couldn’t get much rotation on it,” he said, adding later, “When I woke up Wednesday the (wrist) swelled up. No way I could’ve played that day.” James conceded the wrist affected his shot. He missed 11 of his first 14 shots before making 4 of his last 5. He appeared tentative at times and had the wrist smacked in the first half when DeMarcus Cousins tried to slap the ball away.

16. The Kings shot just .357 tonight, the lowest percentage yet for a Cavs opponent and even more proof of their defensive turnaround. The Kings are battling their own offensive struggles lately and often seemed to take hurried, contested shots early in the shot clock. But the Cavs’ mounting defensive numbers are simply too good to ignore. Their sample size is growing and the stellar numbers (and league rankings) are holding firm.

17. Since Jan. 15, the start of this nine-game winning streak, the Cavs are fifth in the league in defensive field-goal percentage. Since Jan. 19, the home game against the Bulls when this defense really started to click, the Cavs have the top-ranked defense in terms of field-goal percentage. That’s insane.

18. Remember, this was a team ranked 29th in defensive field-goal percentage after the loss at Phoenix bottomed them out at 19-20. They’re still only 27th overall, but they’re percentage points away from taking a big leap. A few more of these performances (and the Timberwolves, Sixers and Pacers come up within the next week) and they’ll be flirting with the top 20 by the All-Star break.

19. “Everybody is bought in,” Love said of the defensive tenacity. Then he used the illustration of Iman Shumpert chasing a loose ball at least 50 feet down the court just to knock it away. “That’s winning basketball. Those are winning plays. Those are what the new guys bring to the table and it carries over and has a sort of snowball effect when you see that kind of thing happen.”

20. It has snowballed onto Love, too, who has never been known as a great defender and twice has been benched for entire fourth quarters this season because of his defensive deficiencies. But James has noticed a change in Love’s approach defensively over about the last month.

21. “You’re only going to get out of yourself as much as you ask of yourself,” James said. “I think he has challenged himself to be better. We all buy into playing defense. You don’t want to be that guy that’s, ‘I’m just out here.’ We all care about each other, we all want to defend, we help each other out and I think he has taken that role very seriously, especially this last month. It’s a huge step for us when he’s communicating to us on the back line and hopefully we continue to be great like we’ve been defensively.”

22. We have come full-circle now to where Blatt can be critical of victories. He didn’t like the sloppy ball handling (17 turnovers, including six from James) and he didn’t like the way the Kings outrebounded the Cavs 50-44. “We’ve got to improve our rebounding, particularly when it’s that many available balls out there,” Blatt said.

23. The redemption tour is in full swing. The Cavs lost to the Jazz, Thunder, Pistons, Blazers and Kings previously this season, yet those teams all account for five of the last six victories on this winning streak. This is their first nine-game winning streak in nearly five years, when they won a franchise-record 13 in a row. If the Cavs get through the Clippers at home next Thursday, they might make a run at the franchise mark. This from a team that lost six straight and 9 of 10 through the end of December and first two weeks of January. What a turnaround. Saturday night should be interesting. Talk to you then from Target Center.

Full article here:
http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland...big-night-and-his-bigger-night-ahead-1.563100
 
On Love:

“You’re only going to get out of yourself as much as you ask of yourself,” James said. “I think he has challenged himself to be better. We all buy into playing defense. You don’t want to be that guy that’s, ‘I’m just out here.’ We all care about each other, we all want to defend, we help each other out and I think he has taken that role very seriously, especially this last month. It’s a huge step for us when he’s communicating to us on the back line and hopefully we continue to be great like we’ve been defensively.”
 
From the Wolves game.

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland...to-minnesota-1.563282?localLinksEnabled=false


3. And the insults (towards Love)… well, Minnesotans need to be tutored on how to be nasty. They couldn’t even reach the level of Philadelphia booing Santa Claus. About the most hateful thing Love heard all night, he said, was “How does it feel to be a third wheel on a broken team?”

4. “Dude,” Love responded, “we’ve won 10 straight.”



16. I already wrote at length why the trade still makes sense today despite Love’s struggles and Wiggins’ rookie explosion. Even in hindsight, this was the right move for the Cavs. But the kid is already better than I thought he’d be and better than a lot of NBA personnel thought he’d be.


35. The Cavs’ locker room, conversely, was incredibly loose after the game. One of the best postgame vibes I’ve felt in there all season. It was starkly different than the last time we were all in that room. The Cavs lost by 29 that night, Dion Waiters accused Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson of playing “buddy ball” in a terse players meeting after the game and everything seemed to begin disintegrating just two weeks into the season. Far, far different feeling tonight.
 
I understand the spacing that Love brings, with Thompson and Moz being the bigs if he wasn't here.

I wonder what Griff would have done if he never got Love?

Wiggins might be going down that same role, he's the only viable option the T-Wolves have, but he may turn out to be that good.
Our other #1 pick in that dealk hasn't been so outstanding.
 
34. A handful of Timberwolves players were privately grumbling about the officiating after the game. They felt Timofey Mozgov got away with a couple of traveling violations (he did) and the Cavs had longer leashes on foul calls than the Wolves did. Such is life as an NBA underdog.

You've gotta be fucking kidding me.
 
There were AT LEAST two times where the ball clearly went off Minnesota and they gave the ball to them. The officiating was incredibly slanted in their favor other than the two non traveling calls. But this is the NBA and they're not always going to call traveling.
 
There were tons of blown calls that game.

The two that went in the Cavs' favor were the non calls on Mozgov for traveling.

The ones that went to the Wolves were the times they threw it out of bounds and kept possession (happened at least twice, one of which was so blatantly obvious at the time that it was surprising that the refs missed it), various bailout calls, the fact that Pekovic was allowed to foul Mozgov in the paint with very little consequence, and let's not forget the foul call with four seconds left in a blowout. Seriously, just let the clock run out.

Pekovic was only charged with one foul. Mozgov, on the other hand, had four.

The Wolves as a team were called for fourteen fouls. The Cavs had nineteen. Maybe they don't check box scores, but seeing as the Cavs had more fouls called on them and attempted fewer free throws, I don't understand what they're saying when they say that the Cavs had a longer leash on foul calls. Numbers from the game, as well as the eye test, prove that statement to be complete and total bullshit.

It's been said before, but for a perceived super team like the Cavs, they seem to get less superstar calls than any other super/elite team in recent memory. Miami definitely got more calls than the Cavs have this year.

The strangest thing is that the numbers say otherwise in that case, too. The Cavs are ninth in free throws attempted per game and are first in opponent free throw attempts per game. Overall, I think they are in the top ten in terms of free throw differential per game.
 
Here are a few of Lloyd's final thoughts from last night's game, click the link to read the rest. I posted these ones in particular considering the amount of hate that Delly has been receiving the past several games.

http://www.ohio.com/blogs/cleveland...hts-on-cavs-as-league-s-hottest-team-1.563872

4. It’s not much of a secret the Cavs are trying to upgrade their backup point guard spot. But that would mean coach David Blatt would have to stop playing Delly. Some nights he just doesn’t seem inclined to do that.

5. Blatt went with an old school lineup for the fourth quarter Monday. The three new acquisitions, the three pieces that have injected some life into the Cavs and turned their season around, all sat the bench for the fourth quarter. Timofey Mozgov and J.R. Smith didn’t play at all, while Iman Shumpert played less than a minute.

6. That left Dellavedova to play the entire quarter. Good thing, too. He scored 10 points in the fourth and went 3-for-4 on 3-pointers, including two in the final three minutes. His 3-pointer with 2:35 left was one of the biggest shots of the night and extended the Cavs’ lead to 91-83.

7. Don’t look now, but Delly is shooting the highest percentage on 3s of any Cavs player (42.4 percent). His assist-to-turnover ratio is better than 3 to 1. And he still has the trust of his head coach, who acted surprised to hear fans are tired of seeing Dellavedova.

Also wanted to add this:

26. What a league. Less than three weeks ago, Blatt’s future appeared in jeopardy. Now we’re talking about the franchise record winning streak. Talk to you Thursday after the Clippers.
 
Regarding Lloyd's remarks about Delly finishing the game... I think it is much less of an issue now that Blatt actually has other options. During the horrible stretch of games prior to the trades, Delly was forced to play way too much and against the wrong kinds of matchups. There were nights when he was logging 35 minutes. That's a recipe for disaster and it got to the point where I'd cringe every time he went to the scorer's table.

However, that doesn't mean Delly can't be a useful option under the right circumstances against the right teams. Last night, he was a useful option down the stretch and the results speak for themselves. The good thing with the roster now is we don't have to rely on that being the case every night.

Even if we make a move for a backup PG, I'd expect Delly to have a role in the rotation. It's all about matchups.
 
Honestly, a lot more than just adding Mozgov, JR and Shump changed here. The Cavs were just fucking dreadful prior to a few weeks ago. The trades helped a lot but there is clearly an uptick in effort by the players we've had all year long. Kind of inexcusable but I'm just happy it's happened.
 
Number 7 on Lloyds thoughts at the end with Blatt quote are confusing. Just a few weeks ago Blatt himself said in an article that Delly was playing too many minutes and when healthy he wasn't sure Delly would be in the rotation.
 

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