Game 11 | Cavs (8-2) @ Pistons (5-5) | November 16th, 2015 | 7:30pm EST

never expected for the cavs to lose this. hell when they were up 10 midway through the 3rd i paused it for 30 minutes.

free throws have to improve. at one point the cavs missed 6 straight.

mozgov my god get his ass in shape. he was absolutely abused tonight. bench him, send him in the second string, put in AV. i dont care but he shouldnt be playing. 27 minutes and 6 boards.

lebron in the 4th. seriously mid way through the 2nd he had 23. he finished with 30. Did he score in the 4th? instead he just kept giving it to others. maybe he was trying to teach them but christ go win the game.

love and his defense...

this team is still going to walk through the EC, but still it would be nice to see them address their problems now.

also out rebounded by 8..... mozgov.....

gourimoko said:

You don't think we should be concerned about Love shooting at .397/.324 on the season so far? Or Thompson's inability to affect games; remember all the posts suggesting he was worth $80M+ given how he played in the playoffs?

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I expected Love to struggle with efficiency. He's coming off of a major shoulder injury and didn't play much in the pre-season. His last 5 games have been 43%, inching closer to career averages. He's showing improvement with time. .

I'm just confused, honestly, as to how one can hear James say there are issues with the team; yet we say here and now, after another poor showing, that everything is fine - nothing to see here?

It's a head-scratcher man, honestly.

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LeBron has pinpointed one of the issues, lack of effort. This is eerily similar to issues he's pointed out with almost every team he's played on for the last 4-5 years at this time of the year. The coasting is an issue, but it's also an issue that often fixes itself internally, especially on talented teams, it often improves when key components are added/return from injury(kyrie) and it is also almost never an issue that carries into the post-season(where maximum effort is attainable)

I'm not saying the team is on the verge of implosion, which I'm sure the next hyperbolic response from someone will be, but I am saying we aren't playing all that well.

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I'd agree. My point is just this: We already threw a fastball against Memphis to show we still have it, we don't need to be playing that well right now, we don't have deep-seated issues, we have easily correctable, partially habitual, partially injury related issues that are not going to get any worse and are most likely going to get better.

This was a horrible loss. Lot's of blame to go around but one thing that needs to be cleaned up for certain is the rotations.

I don't see any reason to have our 3 top playmakers on the bench at the same time (Mo, Love, LBJ) that should pretty much never happen.

Mr. Orange said:

Issues?

LeBron has a broken shot.
Mo is still terrible at Defense.
Love is soft and limited athletically
TT is awkward and still really can't be trusted outside of a dunk
Mozgov looks slow and lumbering
Turnovers...sloppy sloppy ball control

Yes there are issues. But I trust we will clean it up come the new year. Remember last year? 19-20, Blatt on the chopping block. Things got better.

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You forgot free throws.

But bottom line, 8-3 without two starters. Tough for me to join in the "sky is falling" crowd.

Make Free Throws, play relatively hard for most of the game, and stop pissing away possessions. Do at least one of those three things and the Cavs win these last two games.

Really my only concern at this point is Mozgov. He looks like shit. Granted, he has plenty of time to heal and get it together, but he looks rough out there.

Everything else is either easily fixable, or just the way it is (like Mo being a terrible defender for instance).

I know Dan Gilbert is trying rebuild Detroit but I didn't think the cavs were gonna provide the bricks.

Tlyons said:

I know Dan Gilbert is trying rebuild Detroit but I didn't think the cavs were gonna provide the bricks.

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Team is caught up in trying to make the spectacular when the basic will get the job done.

A lot of bad passes on bad plays where guys take gambles that make no sense. Guys driving baseline and trying jump passes under the hoop. Timo thinking he is Kevin and outletting the ball way down the court. Mo Williams going with a behind the back pass on every pick and pop with Kevin. LeBron trying a bunch of jumping cross court passes...just a lot of carelessness with the ball that is really catching up to them as they play better opponents. Been a problem even during the winning streak.

They are also trying to run and gun more, going back to trying to make the spectacular...Mo really pushes the tempo more than Kyrie typically does, which isn't a bad thing, but it's causing poor defensive rebounding habits...guys heading up the floor before the ball is secured, making the pressure on the bigs to grab rebounds extremely high...need the wings and guards to get in on the act like they were last year.

I don't think too much is off right now. JR coming to life was a nice sight to see, Kevin has looked good the last 2 games, LeBron has his jump shot working again...just need to stop being so damn careless with the ball and gambling so much on offense.

The defense shit is all effort issues. Blatt saying they need to get tougher is exactly how I feel regarding the defense. Hope they take it to heart.

red. said:

You definitely have an agenda. You speak of no one else playing bad, but Love, when there's other players playing bad defense as well.

You are an annoying fan.

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Relax man no need to get all personal and emotional here, we all have things that bother us more and we all like to talk about what we want to talk about haha, obviously Mo is terrible on defense but he is not as important as love is to our team.

Wasn't watching, Fellas. Help me out: what the fuck just happened? How did we go from 10 up to 5 down, in about 8 minutes? Who crapped the bed?

gourimoko said:

Yes, but, it would hurt us with respect to the offense. Mo, oddly enough, becomes our second option when Kevin is off.

If Love were playing better, then I'd be more open to it.

We've got some significant backcourt woes, with respect to defense. Irving and Shumpert clearly solve that problem, if they come back healthy.

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I am not specifically speaking on your comment, but I think it should be noted that Love had virtually no pre-season (wasn't even able to play full contact until very late into training camp), no off-season to refine and improve his game and these batch of early regular-season games constitute a rather less than optimal replacement for both.

He is having to get back into his groove, get his strength and shot back while in actual competition and he has done relatively well (he has had some great games) considering the circumstances. He'll return to form. He is too good of a player not to. I think many dismiss the need for time for him to get back to normal, but they shouldn't. Anyone who has a major injury knows that it takes a good deal of time, and repetitive effort, to attain one's normal level of performance.

Thankfully, November and even December games are not as important as they would be if we were in the West; though that doesn't dismiss or excuse the sloppy play by the team of late.

What happened jn the 4th? Moz played well in the third and we looked like we were going to cruise to a win.

Felt like those 4 straight fts were going to get them [emoji43]

Pyro said:

I mean, the Warriors are probably licking their chops hoping to face this team in the NBA Finals.

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But they won't be facing this team in the Finals as it's constructed (Kyrie, Shumpert) nor should you expect the Cavs to be playing down to their opponent by the Playoffs. Hell, neither of these teams might be in the Finals.

It's freaking November 17th, people!

I am not the type of person to think the sky is falling after consecutive losses, I hate overreacting but this was the worst game of the season so far.

I just saw a team completely take the opponent for granted and it cost them the game. Missing the last 7 shots of the game and allowing 29 pts in the 4th after being up by 13 in the 2nd half is unacceptable.

Kind of ruined my night but who the fuck cares really, onto the next...

David. said:

We aren't playing for third place with help from a cupcake schedule

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Because regular season is what decides where you finish.

Why are we not playing varejao?