Kevin Love - Miami Ground Machine

[brownsbuck6]

So right. It's a game of give and take.

How long must I wait?

How much more must I take??

 

[Binkster]

BREAKING: Kelly Olynyk has torn a torn labia.

(Has this joke been made yet? Too many new pages in this thread....)

I'm... Pretty confident you're the only one.

 

[Ruken]

What sucks is only time will tell how it is holding up. He obviously will not be 100% untill surgery, but if he can give it a go after treatment for a few weeks and is willing to deal with the pain I say let him. The doctors already said there is no way he can damage it further (someone posted an article earlier in the thread where that was discussed). Didn't Dwight Howard also play with a tear?

 

[Cayman13]

(Feel Free to delete if you guys don't want this here)

Shalom, fans of competitive sport. It’s me, the Optimist, back on terra firma in the Best Location in the Nation.

I know it’s been a while. And I know some of you readers might be asking: ‘Hey Optimist, the Cavs just swept the Celtics. Why are they dragging your dusty old bones off the bench?’

Fair enough. But let me explain my new role. Instead of rigidly going game-by-game, I’m working on more of a “Bat-Signal” basis these days. My beloved boss, Tad Carper, throws up the lights and – bada-bing! – I show up to provide the muscle.

And I think we all know why we’re here today. Sure, our beloved Cavaliers swept the Celtics right out of the Playoffs. And that was plenty satisfying. But in the process, they lost two starters – one for the entire Second Round, one for the first two games of it.

I’m no shmuck. I can read the local zeitgeist. And I can sense that fans with a weaker constitution are starting to fret about the Wine and Gold’s chances moving forward. And “fretting” isn’t a good look for fans of a team with Numeral 23 on it.

So to answer your question from four paragraphs ago, they dusted my old bones off to remind some of you guys to hold your damn mud!

I don’t mean to cuss at you, Cavalier fans. I know it’s a rough Tuesday morning. Yesterday, you got a two-pronged bummer about Kevin Love’s shoulder and the National B.A.’s suspension of J.R. Smith. There’s chaos on the streets of Baltimore. The Indians are struggling to score points. And the insane Brown posse are about to make two first-round picks just two days from now.

Cavalier fans – you need a hug.

Well, you’re not going to get one here. The Cavs have practice at Cleveland Clinic Courts this afternoon, and like TheBron poignantly confirmed after Sunday’s sweep, it’s “next man up.”

And to think … I almost wrote a column on Sunday morning seeking to smoke the peace pipe with Boston after all these years of animosity. I like to think I’ve grown over the years. I thought about how much I didn’t like Kendrick Perkins when he was a Celtic and how much I love him as a Cavalier.

I mean, sure, the Celtics wrecked my childhood Cavaliers dreams in 1976 and 1985. And, yeah, they seemed to get all the calls over the years. And they were always on national TV and Tommy Heinsohn blatantly rooted for them (and now Bill Simmons does) and Red Auerbach would smoke that stupid stogie and M.L. Carr would wave that stupid towel and Paul Pierce once loogied on little Luke Jackson.

I was even willing to forgive them for Dan Shaughnessy’s insulting, outdated, condescending recent column in the Boston Globe or the traumatizing Podolak Egg Incident of 2010 in which one of my closest friends, Marcus Q. Podolak, was pelted with an egg at the TD Garden. AN EGG!!

But I thought: Maybe these new Celtics were different. I thought: How am I supposed to be mad at guys like Isaiah Thomas or Coach Brad Stevens? And what about dreamy Academic All-American and former Cavalier, Tyler Zeller, who once told me how many ways his family knows to cook a turkey. (Three)

Then Sunday afternoon happened …

And what upsets me even more about Sunday’s shart-show at the Garden is that The Rock was sitting right on the baseline and didn’t do a darn thing about any of it. What kind of action hero is that?! You think The Hulkster2 would’ve sat idly by, munching popcorn and signing autographs while his good buddy Kevin Love was being accosted 85 feet away?!

Now I’m glad I didn’t extend an olive branch. And if Joakim Noah and the Bulls are up next when the Second Round tips off on Monday night, don’t look for any peace offerings there either.

But we won’t know about who Cleveland’s next foe will be until Thursday – or maybe even Saturday night. And as long as we have some time, let’s get the usual housecleaning out of the way, otherwise steam starts shooting out both sides of PR jedi Jeff Schaefer’s angular little cabeza …

On This Date in History, Billy the Kid escaped from jail in New Mexico, Fletcher Christian orchestrated the Mutiny on the Bounty and, back in 357 A.D., Julius Constantius celebrated his military victory over Magnus Magnentius despite having a clearly inferior Roman emperor name.

Today’s Birthdays include Bruno Kirby, John Daly, Jay Leno, timeless uber-fox Ann-Margaret, former Cleveland Brown Scott Fujita, the first seven-footer in the WNBA - Margot Dydek , Jessica Alba, Pulitzer-prize winning author Harper Lee and former Red Wings star, Nicklas Lidstrom , who they called “the Perfect Human.” But looking up at Ann-Margaret3, I’m not even sure he’s the perfectest human on this list.

Not to bring down the room, but Dead on this Day/Still Dead are a pair of hoops heavyweights: Jim Valvano, who passed back in 1993 and Dr. Jack Ramsay, one year ago. Saddam Hussein was born on this day, which is bad. But Benito Mussolini died on this day, which is good. See how things even out?

Good times …

Now that we’ve dispensed with the educational portion of today’s column, let’s proceed to the part where I don’t tell you anything new at all, like that Kyrie Irving has been a stone-cold killer through his first playoff series and that TheBron is only getting warmed up.

Is it gonna be tough without Kevin Love and J.R. Smith?

Yes it is.

But that just means the “next man up” has to fill the void – be it Iman Shumpert or Tristan Thompson or Shawn Marion or Mike Miller or Delly or James Jones. And nothing against the Bulls or Bucks, but I’m of the mind that TheBron wouldn’t let any opposing team come in here and take two home games if Cleveland’s team consisted of him, Sir. C.C., Sign Man, Cyclonus of the C-Town Throwdowns and Bob the Dancing Usher.

Take the rest of Tuesday morning to finish licking your wounds, Cavalierros.


David Blatt’s squad should be wrapping up practice by noon. At that point, I expect y’uns to start getting prepped for the Second Round. Jason Kidd’s young Bucks gave Cleveland all they could handle this season and, to paraphrase my former assistant principal Richard Vernon: you mess with the Bulls, you get the horns.

That means it’s time to gird them loins good and proper. I’ll check back with you guys when Tad flashes the next signal. In the meantime, as always, the Wine and Gold and I cordially invite you to …

Keep the Faith, Cleveland.

Your pal,
The Optimist

 

[Chris]

"next man up" has much more meaning when we don't know the quality of the guy that's coming up, ala JT barrett and Cardale Jones.

Miller, Marion, Jones, Thompson...we know what these guys are. We've seen them plenty. None of them are going to fill the void left by Love.

I'm more banking on the fact that we have LeBron and Kyrie, who can play 40 minutes if need be (and they will need to), being enough to beat the Bulls.

 

[mAo_mAo]

Fuck the celtics! Next season,as punishment, we only play our scrubs against them. Give them the win we dish out punishments.

 

[Simon]

If he could give it a go for the ECF, provided we get there - that would be amazing energy and momentum. Would be unbelievable. I doubt it will happen, but you never know.

Not to mention the emotional lift from the team as well seeing Love come back, if he does.

 

[UDcleveland]

Fuck the celtics! Next season,as punishment, we only play our scrubs against them. Give them the win we dish out punishments.

That would be a weird punishment, lol. How about we play some goons but also our good players... and beat the shit out of them?

 

[amurderofcrows]

That would be a weird punishment, lol. How about we play some goons but also our good players... and beat the shit out of them?

Fuck It....................I'm in. Add a few 10 Day Contract Players due to "Injuries"?

In other News.
The Optimist. Dude can "Stroke the Prose"!
Ann-Margaret3 and Bob the Dancing Usher?
And I am soooooooooooooooo fuckin' JEALOUS!

edit: I had to re-spell Ann-Margaret3 FOUR TIMES! Sumpthin' about the lack of blood flow to my brain....................................

 

[brownsbuck6]

 

[brownsbuck6]

I'm so sad right now.. I have no other words.

 

[brownsbuck6]

 

[brownsbuck6]

 

[brownsbuck6]

 

[Frank Stallone]

To those who still think they can win the Finals, all the power to you. This team can still win the East, I am confident of that. Like, very confident. I do think it'd be a damn tough fight vs. all remaining teams, but I think they can win it.

Without Love? Not sure how they can beat any of the top West teams. Hope I am wrong.