Game 4 | Cavs (1-2) @ Jazz (1-3) | November 5th, 2014 | 9pm EST

[kookoo]

Funny that the refs didn't call Favors on the dipped shoulder at the end there, but called Andy on it twice.

 

[RedBlackAttack]

LBJ played like the best player in the NBA. Kyrie scored. That's about all that can be said for his game. It's not worrisome, yet, it just sucks watching two of our best scorers (Dion and KLove) constantly not get open, and when they do they don't get the ball or miss the shot.

LBJ played like the best player in the league? Wow. I must have been watching the wrong game. He had a weak drive with 25 seconds left that was easily defensed by Hayward. He then hit that desperation heave and caught a very stupid Utah defender in the air, followed by three made three free throws.

Outside of that, this game was totally pedestrian by LeBron. Once again, especially in the first half, he played disinterested basketball on both ends.

Hell, on the game winning shot, he was on his backside. That was HIS man that hit that shot.

It is early in the season, yes. He doesn't need to play it like Game 7 of the Finals for 48 minutes, but his effort so far has left much to be desired.

Kyrie has been tagged as the whipping boy. He's getting all the criticism, but the fact is that we desperately needed all of his scoring tonight. This offense is still a total work in progress and there is a lot of standing around, watching. That doesn't exactly promote ball movement.

Defensively, our interior was exposed big time for the second straight night.

I'm not freaking out too early in the season, but I'd like to see more fire for 48 minutes, specifically out of the league's best player.

 

[Rainman]

yea its game 4 of the season. dude is coaching like its the nba finals

So it makes sense to get shit on 2 nights in a row if you sit them, right?

 

[Rainman]

LBJ played like the best player in the league? Wow. I must have been watching the wrong game. He had a weak drive with 25 seconds left that was easily defensed by Hayward. He then hit that desperation heave and caught a very stupid Utah defender in the air, followed by three made three free throws.

Outside of that, this game was totally pedestrian by LeBron. Once again, especially in the first half, he played disinterested basketball on both ends.

Hell, on the game winning shot, he was on his backside. That was HIS man that hit that shot.

It is early in the season, yes. Be doesn't need to play it like Game 7 of the Finals for 48 minutes, but his effort so far has left much to be desired.

Kyrie has been tagged as the whipping boy. He's getting all the criticism, but the fact is that we desperately needed all of his scoring tonight. This offense is still a total work in progress and there is a lot of standing around, watching. That doesn't exactly promote ball movement.

Defensively, our interior was exposed big time for the second straight night.

I'm not freaking out too early in the season, but I'd like to see more fire for 48 minutes, specifically out of the league's best player.

Go to bed

 

[kookoo]

So people bitch about KI when he stinks it up and bitch when he scores too much? Okie.

LBJ is one of the best passing small forwards ever. We don't need a traditional PG.

Tonight we got in to a situation where match ups dictated far more PNR and one on one.

While we need to move the ball better collectively, if a guy is just abusing someone (which Kyrie was), just let him go to work.

Our biggest issue right now is our bench is absolutely garbage. We are 6 deep with TT just giving us crazy energy. Dion was terrible again tonight in a reserve role, Marion did nothing with his first start and Miller got 1 shot off in 22 minutes of floor time. Our 7 and 8 guys in the rotation gave us 5 points on 1-5 shooting, 1 assist and 2 rebounds in 35 minutes of floor time. That is abysmal.

I'd actually be happier right now if guys like Cherry, Kirk, Haywood and Harris got minutes.

 

[Rainman]

I'd actually be happier right now if guys like Cherry, Kirk, Haywood and Harris got minutes.

Why are we tanking again?

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

Positives
1. Lebron showed some flashes; his legs still aren't there but he showed some of his usual game out there on both sides of the ball which is a positive sign.
2. In general the D showed some strides. Created some turnovers, effort was there at least outside of the 1st qtr.
3. Cavs showed some fight collectively. Didn't work out but at least they didn't mail it in when they were down 20.

Negatives
1. Pick and Roll D is terrible and we don't have a shot blocker to clean up the mistakes.
2. Somehow we lost the rebound battle 41 to 30? With this team that should be impossible. We also lost the rebound battle to the Knicks so this is a recurring theme.
3. Ball movement was terrible, only had 6 assists? That seems impossible.
4. Weak production off the bench again.
5. Blatt's rotations and use of timeouts was questionable. Don't like Lebron and Love on the bench at the same time really ever. Don't like the heavy minutes on Lebron. Don't like the lineups where Kyrie/Dion are out there with bench players.
6. Kyrie over dribbles and looks for his own offense too much. He produced tonight but on this team we really need him to manage the pace of the game..

Basically my whole post could be summed up by saying..we really aren't good at anything right now on either side of the ball.

Could be looking at a 1-4 start with Denver on the road coming up..

 

[lukesicari]

We never win at home and we never win away
We lost last week and we lost today
But we don't give a fu*k
Because we're all pissed up
WE ARE CLEVELAND, OK

 

[spydy13]

We need Rondo. Or anyone who will actually run our offense and keep his man in front of us.

Kyrie and Dion need to realize that ALL of our shitty defensive play is because someone always has to help because neither one can keep their man in front of them. We will only get as far as their defense takes us.

EDIT: Blatt might also need to institute a five pass before shot rule and force these idiots to call each pass out like they are 10.

I honestly don't know how we go possessions without LeBron even touching the ball.

 

[KLove14]

We need a PG.

Cavs got a pg and he's called LBJ. We're in the process of making Irving understand that he has to let go of his ambitions and let the guy who 90% of the time makes the right decision when he has the ball in his hands (whether it is scoring or passing after correctly reading the play). There are two ways for this team to start winning. Either lebron becomes the primary ballhandler (preferable) or Irving becomes a facilitator more than a score first pg

 

[priceFTW]

About Blatt overextending James and Kyrie: he wants a few wins to boost confidence and build winning chemistry. We didn't deserve to win tonight, but if we had, it would have been a huge confidence booster.

Secondly, apparently we have no bench at all. We aren't using Miller at all so he's not gettig any looks to do the one thing he really good at. Really didn't see any time so what are we left with? That's a bit worrisome.

We lost in large part because we couldn't rebound. That's what we are supposed to be tremendously good at. Up 89-86, we get a Favors miss but hey get the rebound. Down 93-90, they miss but get the rebound. Love, Andy, and Tristan rebounding the way they should be would have had us at least +6 to +8 and a win. We have to pick up the pace, put out more intensity on defense, get Waiters to contribute in some way before he's a lost cause, rebound the damn ball, spam pick and roll with LBJ and Love if nothing else is working. The third quarter tonight and the first 6 minutes of the game last night have shown is wha type of potential this team does have and that's with LBJ not at his best, Dion doing nothing, and Love not shooting well tonight. Lastly, Andy, please--you have to provide some sort of resistance at the rim or in the post.

 

[StuDiscus]

Stop crying.
We have the best player in the league.
Top 5 PF
Top7 PG
and a solid bench.

Figure the rotation out and we kill the rest of the season.

Fucking Cleveland fans, all doom and gloom.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Thought I'd see better ball movement playing in Utah, didn't expect it to come from the Jazz though. Tip of the cap to Quin Snyder, he smartly juggled a young 10-man rotation and attacked the Cavs' lack of size in the post early and often.

 

[kookoo]

If you guys think Rondo is going to help this team out, you're crazy. Kyrie needs to learn how to play off the ball when LeBron is on the floor. The reason Miami was so successful was LeBron was the primary ball handler. They also had a defensive scheme. Right now it seems like Blatt's defense is to throw two guys at the ball handler every time. The minute they stop doing that and playing hard nosed one on one defense is the moment we start winning ball games by 15 point every night.

 

[MH32246]

Oh by the way the blatant goaltending call came back to bite us