2023-24 Season | Game #5 | Cavs @ Knicks | Nov. 1, 2023 | 7:30 EST

[Pierre Pan]

 

[Prof123]

Well, the Knicks shot 10 more FTs than we did.

The real story was the Knicks shooting 5-30 from three, and 35% overall.

True. Still, we shot 95% and they shot 67% from the line, which was important given that we weren't getting as many calls. We don't usually shoot that well from the line, especially without Garland, and I think it shows we were locked in.

 

[Benway]

TT making his presence felt.

 

[MirORich]

View attachment 17683

He and TT both did some hombre-ing

I think Niang will shine more once Mobley and Allen are both playing 32mpg and he’s paired with one of them at all times but only time will tell

 

[Don-no-vann!]

I believe you

But also…the number people who now say they like TT vs what they posted about him in his first era here is kinda like the number of people who say they were at Woodstock or at the first Ramones show.

I bet we could gravedig TT hate posts from 99% of us haha

I was at Woodstock: https://tpcugrr.medium.com/remembering-woodstock-fifty-years-later-8af1958613a5

 

[Don-no-vann!]

He's so infuriating to watch at times, as talented as he is. He has some absolutely horrific possessions, and they usually come when we need GOOD ones.

I've been reading some of the criticism of DM. If you ask me, it's LaVert who was sucking as the PG. Mitchell had been deferring and the bad shots he took were 3's that he can make. The Knicks were doubling on him and forcing him to give up the ball and the Cavs were missing wide open 3's. No one was setting up DM for shots, either.

 

[Don-no-vann!]

Donovan single-handedly kept us in the game in the first half; and single-handedly losing us the game in the 2nd……FINALLY hits a shot and another ….and got a board

I guess we were watching a different game.

 

[Don-no-vann!]

In fairness the whole team except levert has sucked ass all game.

Levert played terrible when he was the PG. What are you talking about?

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Great defense from start to finish but especially in the 3rd quarter when the Knicks only scored 13. The difference was 3's; the Cavs were 12-for-32 while the Knicks were 5-for-30, or 16.7%. That's a 21-point difference in a 6-point game. The Cavs contested a lot of 3's and forced misses, although the Knicks missed a few open ones.

Awesome defense on Randle, who looked old and tired. He was 3-for-15 and for the only time that I've seen him play he did not shoot a free throw. Last night he shot 10.

The Cavs still got abused on the defensive glass (16 offensive rebounds by the Knicks, half by Mitch Robinson), but they played such great defense that they were able to overcome it.

Donovan Mitchell had 30 of the 95 points and LeVert had an outstanding game with a line of 19/6/5 including a cold-blooded 3-point dagger to push the lead to 8 with 1:02 to go.

The Cavs went 5:01 in the 4th quarter without scoring a point as a 79-70 lead became 79-77. But Mitchell hit a huge 3 after missing eight in a row and followed it up with an offensive rebound/layup to push the lead back to 7 points with 2:02 to go. It was great to see the Cavs hang tough in the last two minutes rather than fall apart like they did against OKC.

The difference from last night is the Knicks lost Barrett, their leading scorer, while the Cavs added LeVert. JBB decided to start Niang at PF after Wade went scoreless last night. Niang was a zero offensively, scoring just 5 points on 1-for-6, but he got 10 rebounds and those are like gold against a team that misses as many shots as the Knicks.

Brunson was only 8-for-23 and he looked tired on the second night of a back-to-back. DiVicenzo and Quickley kept the Knicks in the game with 34 points off the bench between them. Porter and Thompson had solid contributions off the bench for the Cavs.

It feels really good to beat the Knicks - finally, and on the road as well.

 

[ajz20]

TT making his presence felt.

Amazing what veteran toughness can mean to a team that lacks it. Could honestly use another guy like him at the trade deadline .

 

[CavsKermit]

I've been reading some of the criticism of DM. If you ask me, it's LaVert who was sucking as the PG. Mitchell had been deferring and the bad shots he took were 3's that he can make. The Knicks were doubling on him and forcing him to give up the ball and the Cavs were missing wide open 3's. No one was setting up DM for shots, either.

They're both less than ideal options at P.G.

 

[Dr. Claw]

This is why I refuse to believe the Knicks are better. They shot like complete ass. So did the Cavs mostly.
They fought their way through an offense lacking real playmaking. LeVert being in the lineup was huge. CPJ and TT with some good minutes. Dean Wade hitting SOME threes. Beat the ref show. Mitchell Robinson with 16 rebounds (a perfect split between offensive/defense), hit all his late FTs and it didn't matter. Knicks were dicks for that last series of fouls and that final 3.

 

[Dr. Claw]

the one thing I will say about LeVert (who was much needed for the offensive side of the ball at least against this team), is that he is best when he has a big running with him (tonight it was TT).

 

[macbdog]

Starting Niang is bold. Not sure it ends well though.

You should have been more bold.

 

[Pierre Pan]

I guess we were watching a different game.

It’s easy to come in here after the game and selectively pick out posts that don't age particularly well.

At the time that I composed that post, Donovan hadn’t scored a single point in the entire half, was 0 for 7 from deep and had just committed a costly turnover. If you’d notice, at the end of my post, I even noted that he finally scored twice and grabbed a rebound. That was more than midway through the fourth quarter.

This is a game thread where people are posting real-time comments; this isn’t Cavs Talk