Interesting difference in reactions to last night's loss. JBB had a "what are you going to do - it is what it is" reaction while Strus was more like "this is completely unacceptable".
We would love to be healthy, but we understand this is an 82-game thing that we’re working for...You accept the reality of the situation you’re facing and try to get the most out of it. - JBB
You can make all the excuses you want. At the end of the day, they played harder than us, they out-toughed us, they beat the s--- out of us....They came in and did the same thing that they did last year. Hopefully that lights a flare in our locker room and hopefully we respond tomorrow. We have to be better. - Max Strus
JBB says let's be patient, get healthy, and it's a long season. Just "accept the reality of the situation". Strus says we have to be tougher and we have to respond tomorrow night. One says we're going to accept defeat until we can get our guys back, the other says this shit needs to stop now.
I can't disagree with JBB. Really - Dean Wade starting? Two guys playing over 20 minutes each who had zero points in their NBA careers coming into the game? Tristan Thompson? I don't think it's a matter of "toughness" when half your team is either past their prime, played in college last year, or have career scoring averages of 5.3 and 8.1 ppg (Wade and Okoro).
Strus said none of that should matter.
We did not [play our game]. We played their game. We did what they wanted us to do. Played right into their hands and that didn’t work for us. It shouldn’t ever matter who is out there for us. We have enough guys who know how to play basketball in here. We need to be better. - Strus
I appreciate Max's "no excuses, next man up" attitude, but really? If the Cavs were totally healthy and the Knicks were missing Brunson, Robinson, and Quickley, would they be beating themselves up if they lost to the Cavs?
Anyway, let's see if the Cavs come out and play differently tonight with the same personnel. I guess there's a chance LeVert could play, but Garland, Allen, and Jerome are out.
The trio of Brunson, Barrett, and Randle were too tough for the Cavs to handle. They were +19, +16, and +19 in an 18-point win. Hartenstein was +12 and Quickley scored 18 points in 24 minutes off the bench, taking just 11 shots.
I don't think it was toughness - these guys are just more skilled than our guys. They're all veterans in their primes unlike some of our guys who are either just arriving (Bates, Porter, Merrill), finishing up (Thompson), or never arrived (Wade, Jones).
And Wade/Niang vs. two time All-Star Julius Randle at PF? Come on. We needed Allen to guard Robinson so Mobley could check Randle. Randle was just 5-for-14 but makes his living drawing fouls. It's harder for him to do that against Mobley's length. We needed Garland to match Brunson's offense and LeVert to guard Quickley.
I wish the Knicks were in our tournament bracket so we don't have to wait until March to see them play each other at full strength (hopefully).
