Game 28 | Cleveland Cavaliers (17-10) @ Miami Heat (13-16) | December 25, 2014 | 5:00 pm EST

[Rich]

Perhaps, I just don't like Lebron playing hero ball and it's hard for me to watch..
I'm just gonna have to detach till they sort things out man.
Do you love what you see?

No. But that doesn't make me forget the prior 27 games wherein LeBron has been the best player on the team the majority of the time and Waiters and Kyrie have not. So even if I don't like what I see I don't just discard all of the information that is available to me because of it.

 

[Sebastian]

Not going to say anything else about this game except that I hate the Heat so much. To lose to them in their current state, and once again on national television, is just fucking depressing. It feels like bees in the ass.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

What system?

A system may be hard to detect, if it is not being executed.

 

[CavsHomer]

This season...

 

[Rich]

We have to go out and get a good, young defender. Wing or center, whichever is available. And if we have to sacrifice offense, then we should do it. Everyone is caught up on the offense looking stagnant today, but that's just one game. Just back to our last game against a terrible Minnesota team where our offense did whatever it wanted and STILL we couldn't defend for shit.

We've won 3 games scoring under 100 points. 3 out of 17. Our ability to win low scoring games is non-existent. If we aren't getting to 100 you can almost assuredly pencil in a loss.

I thought this team had a chance to win a title playing great offense and mediocre defense. But right now we are well below mediocre. Being 15th in defense efficiency and winning a title would be a real challenge. Only one of the Kobe/Shaq Laker teams managed something like that. But 23rd? No shot. I don't really care what we do on offense to improve, you can't win a title when the defense is ranked with the bottom of the barrel lottery teams.

 

[dirtywax]

So for about 4+ years this team has not respected the head coach, does not play defense and doesn't show much effort. I'm not panicking yet, just disappointed. They're not even fun to watch.

 

[priceFTW]

We have to go out and get a good, young defender. Wing or center, whichever is available. And if we have to sacrifice offense, then we should do it. Everyone is caught up on the offense looking stagnant today, but that's just one game. Just back to our last game against a terrible Minnesota team where our offense did whatever it wanted and STILL we couldn't defend for shit.

We've won 3 games scoring under 100 points. 3 out of 17. Our ability to win low scoring games is non-existent. If we aren't getting to 100 you can almost assuredly pencil in a loss.

I thought this team had a chance to win a title playing great offense and mediocre defense. But right now we are well below mediocre. Being 15th in defense efficiency and winning a title would be a real challenge. Only one of the Kobe/Shaq Laker teams managed something like that. But 23rd? No shot. I don't really care what we do on offense to improve, you can't win a title when the defense is ranked with the bottom of the barrel lottery teams.

The Lakers had the 21st ranked defense (much better in the playoffs), but your point stands. In the past 35, the 1995 Rockets were 12th and two teams were were 10th. Every other team was ranked higher. In fact, only 8 of the last 35 losing finalists had a defense ranked outside of the top 10.

I posted complete statistics here:

http://realcavsfans.com/community/i...-cavs-14-15-metrics-watch.45145/#post-2033245

 

[Rich]

The Lakers had the 21st ranked defense (much better in the playoffs), but your point stands. In the past 35, the 1995 Rockets were 12th and two teams were were 10th. Every other team was ranked higher. In fact, only 8 of the last 35 losing finalists had a defense ranked outside of the top 10.

I posted complete statistics here:

http://realcavsfans.com/community/i...-cavs-14-15-metrics-watch.45145/#post-2033245

Yea I remembered the Lakers from a post, so it must have been you. And that Lakers' team was coming off a title the year before

 

[inliner311]

So for about 4+ years this team has not respected the head coach, does not play defense and doesn't show much effort. I'm not panicking yet, just disappointed. They're not even fun to watch.

The funny thing is the guys who were here the last couple years seem to be the one who are actually trying on defense. Kyrie is trying, Dion was locked in tonight, that's all delly does and tristian seems to give energy

 

[priceFTW]

Yea I remembered the Lakers from a post, so it must have you been. And that Lakers' team was coming off a title the year before

In the playoffs, they had a DRtg of like 97 which would have been the best in the league in the regular season. That team is an oulier's outlier.

 

[JSS2306]

Be gentle on my Cavaliers... they are a fragile group.

It really is time to start panicking. This roster is far from contending. Offensive juggernaut on some nights, defensive worst in the league on most nights.

I'm not confident at all against any possible match up in the playoffs. Trades are desperately needed at this point. This team as currently constructed is a perennial loser. There's talent but it's just not a good mixture of it where we need it.

 

[The Oi]

LOL at time to start panicking.

 

[Dr. Claw]

I still hate the Heat. And screw those refs for calling that tech. That was damaging. Rarely do you get to see LeBron fired up like that.

 

[Bdawgs12]

The Heat's defense during those years was much, much better than ours. We don't have the right personnel to be as good as they were defensively, so the one thing we CAN change right now is how we run the offense.

We could average 100 pts a game and we would still lose cuz our D blows

 

[Andrew]

Whelp, that was a shitty Christmas gift if I have to say so. As soon as I saw that small starting lineup, even with Bosh playing, I thought they had to have a James beast mode game to win. Wade turned back the clock and Deng played with some sort of grudge like he was scorned by the Cavs.

This defense is just horrid, I don't think they play any differently if AV was out there anyways. They turned it up in the 2nd half but got simply out hustled in every aspect. Lucky in the NBA there is a game and in less than 24 hours to take out your frustrations against the Magic, but by the way they are playing, even in some wins, a win isn't a given tomorrow.

It was a layup line for the opponent, and you won't get away with that small ball if you don't play any sort of defense in this league.

At this point, I think its a mixture of personnel and mentality, more so mentality. They have to mentally get over whatever hurdle is there. I say just play, just play the game you love with all you got and have no regrets.