Game 40 | Cavaliers @ Lakers | January 15th, 2015 @ 10:30 EST

[The Oi]

No doubt in my mind they lose this game. It will be close. Something along the lines of 105-100. Nick Young and Kobe will break their slumps.

They will lose more and more fans attention.

 

[Randolphkeys]

 

[Andrew]

if this isn't a win....who am I kidding? I have said that in every game thread, I do nothing. I move on.

Let's go Cavs!

 

[SalvadoranCavsfan]

It's gonna be weird seeing our ex-coach and soon to be ex-coach in the same building.

 

[Rainman]

This is tge the game it turns around. Cavs 121-93. Love double double. Kyrie with 30 Lebron 35

 

[Lagrange]

Cavs win by 20. FINALLY.

 

[JFT]

This is tge the game it turns around. Cavs 121-93. Love double double. Kyrie with 30 Lebron 35

That's right, let's follow Dr. Optimist tonight!

The Optimist - January 15, 2015
Bonjour, Cavalier fans and well-wishers. Me, I used to be known around these parts as “the Optimist.” Ask your folks about me.

For those old enough to remember me: Sure, I’d like to concoct some cock-and-bull story about hiding out in the teeming underbelly of some squalid third world country or chilling on a desert island surrounded by a dozen beautiful, exotic women and our kids and my volleyball, Wilson.

Or maybe I could have told you that I simply took the millions of dollars I’ve earned as a sportswriter and called it a career.

But the truth is, I took myself off the streets. I took a desk job.

What was it that made me snap? Was it the burden of never-ending positivity? Did I see one too many sub-82-win seasons? Did my partner buy it just one daybefore retiring from the force?

No. It was a simple, insignificant afternoon event in the Cavaliers palatial offices at The Q.

After the 2012-13 season, we cleaned up the mess from the 10th Annual Optimist Awards Banquet and pretty much closed up shop for the offseason – preparing for the Draft, Summer League, etc.

One late-spring afternoon, a comrade and close friend asked me (and others jaw-jacking ‘round the water cooler) what I thought the odds were that TheBron would return to Cleveland when he became a free agent the following year?

And I paused a very long pause.

And I said: “about 25 percent.”

Twenty-five percent.

And as those number-words came out of my mouth, I could feel something leaving me – and it felt very bad. And I realized that at that moment I stopped walking the walk.

And the worst part was: I really DIDN’T think it was 25 percent!! I always knew it was 100 percent!!!

But I bent to groupthink that day. And in that brief Garden of Gethsemane, I sold TheBron1 out – after being his most ardent in-house supporter while he was away. So I apologize to all y’all and exspecially to Numeral 23 for my weakness. It’ll never happen again.

I also want to apologize to those of you who got all dressed up for the 11th Annual Awards Banquet last summer. I hope you at least enjoyed the dinner portion (beef tips, mac’n’cheese, choice of vegetable, roll). I really am sorry. Please send me your tuxedo bill and I’ll reimburse 15 percent of the cost.

So, did I come back today just to bare my shame to Cleveland’s starting small forward?

No. I came back today because I sensed so many jangled nerves besetting the Cavalier Nation of which I am very much a part.

The 2014-15 Cavaliers came into the season with high expectations. Kyrie Irving signed an early offseason extension, TheBron made his triumphant return home and the Cavs dealt for three-time All-Star and the best Caucasio-American since Larry Bird: Kevin Wesley Love.

But after a strong start, the Cavaliers were cursed by injuries both big and small – and it’s no NBA secret that they’ve struggled mightily since Christmas.

It’s been a tough stretch, to be sure. But reading some of the pusillanimous reaction following Tuesday’s loss in Phoenix, I realized that fans were needlessly pooping their collective pampers and in desperate need of a healthy dose of optimism.

I mean, as long as we’re coming clean. Some of that negativity – even directed at me! – sort of kept me away over these past few months. But then I realized those negative nabobs were simply “internet trolls.”

And I thought: Heck, if it were a gaggle of goblins or minotaurs or Cyclops or bunyips or gorgons or even a bunch of cheesed-off leprechauns, maybe I’d be wary of what they were saying about me and my beloved Cavaliers.

But internet trolls?!!

Heck, trolls aren’t too much higher on the food chain than a common sprite or fairy. They’re nowhere near as tough as a hobbit, they’re not as wise or worldly as an ent2 and don’t even have the cool-factor of a gnome.

What kind of a Cavalier fan/employee would I be if I lived in fear of a faceless group that’s two steps above an imp?!

And I also realized that for every seven or eight haters, there was a faithful Junior Optimist – like little Nate F. from Cleveland, who wrote …

Mr. Optimist,

I could not find any articles from last year and have not heard from you yet this year with all the Cavs excitement. Will you be back? It's always great to start the week with more reasons why I need to "gird my loins" for Cavaliers basketball. I sincerely enjoy your columns and hope to hear from you soon!

Nate F
Cleveland, OH


Thanks, Nate. First of all, thanks for writing in. It’s always nice to hear from a Junior Optimist. And secondly, you don’t have to call me “Mr. Optimist.” That’s my dad. “Optimist” or “Doctor Optimist” is fine.

And thirdly, yes, you DO need to gird your loins for Cavaliers basketball. And so do the rest of you.

You’ve got to remain patient while this season plays itself out – through good times and bad, in sickness and in health.

Does that mean I like getting a 23-point stoot-slapping by the downtrodden Pistons at The Q or seeing P.J. Tucker elbowing TheBron’s precious dome in Phoenix? Of course not! But if there’s one thing I’ve learned over my dozen years living under this nom de guerre, it’s this …

It’s a long season.

The sooner you get that through your precious domes, the sooner we can go ahead and start enjoying the rest of the epic Cavaliers’ 2014-15 Championship-winning season.

I used to think that the Cavaliers would go 82-0 every season. But I learned in 2007 that all that really, really matters is winning the LAST one of the season. And there’s plenty of work to be done between now and then.

Maybe it’ll help to think of us as 0-1 with 43 games to go. Sure, other Eastern Conference teams have gotten off to better starts. But they’re going to hit their rough patches, too. Let’s see where we are after the All-Star Break, with TheBron getting comfortable with Timofey Mozgov and J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert defending on the perimeter.

Some of you think I’m just blowing smoke up your touchus. That I’m just talking in platitudes and Pollyannaisms, that I’m not giving you any cold hard stats and facts like that the Cavaliers are the first NBA team this season with an eight-game winning streak and a six-game losing streak and that five of the last six teams to do this made the playoffs including Shawn Marion and Brendan Haywood’s 2010-11 Mavericks, who won the 2011 NBA Finals, ruining TheBron’s summer which – admit it – made some of you slightly pleased.

So I’m asking you dear readers to bear with our Wine and Gold while they work this out. Today I got a fortune cookie that told me that "the principal part of faith is patience." And the cookie is never wrong.

Think of Thursday’s matchup in L.A. as the first day of the rest of your life. I don’t do predictions no more, but I think you know what I’m expecting when TheBron and Co. take the floor at Staples Center.

So did I bring the column back because of the bright lights of L.A? Yeah, maybe a little.

But, either way, I felt that you Cavalier fans needed a little jolt, a jumpstart. AndPLEASE – don’t think of this column as me chastising you. Think of it as me taking you over my knee and spanking the living the crap out of you.

Now buck up, Cavalierros! And in the end, when the squad puts together the puzzle, when the NBA Tournament tips off and when push comes to shove – the Cavaliers have the Hammer again. He’s been there before. He knows the pace of the season. And so do Mike Miller and James Jones and Shawn Marion and Brendan Haywood.

If you’re on board, please join me in my fight against evil. If not, take your smelly feet and get your arse off the bandwagon. For those TRUE Cavalier fans who are willing to gut out the dog days and gird up for the long haul. Welcome back. And it’s good to be back.

Several years ago, I wrote an Optimist every other game. And one season, I wrote a column for 81 games – missing just one installment after an irresponsible bartender over-served me at the Absinthe House on Bourbon Street on Halloween. Later, I did a weekly column entitled “News … Around … The … League.”

I don’t know if I’ll be back once a week or once a month. Maybe today’s column is just a little one-off, like a little note, wrapped in plastic in a tin cigar box buried under a chunk of black volcanic ash along a wall in a hayfield at the base of tree that looks like something out of a Robert Frost poem.

Get your pride back tonight, people. The days of being pushed around are over. We're the Cavaliers. We have a Humogotron3 that shoots flames – and we’re not afraid to use it!



Will the Wine and Gold topple the LakeShow tonight in Tinseltown and run the table the rest of the way?



I’m not exactly sure. The years have taught me that I can’t actually predict the future. Only a fortune cookie can do that.

All’s I can do is ask you to …

Keep the faith, Cleveland.

Your pal,
The Optimist
http://www.nba.com/cavaliers/news/features/optimist-lakers-150115

 

[crabbyshark]

I am really curious about this game. I can't tell if I'm excited or fearful. I thought they would lose to Phoenix because of lack of continuity, but losing this game to a mediocre team on national television under the circumstances and with a more difficult opponent looming tomorrow? I think this would be sinking a few hundred feet below rock bottom. I assume we'll know early...

Could be the last time LeBron plays against Kobe. No way in my mind Cavs lose.

edit: Here is their all-time head to head stats:

http://www.basketball-reference.com/play-index/h2h_finder.cgi?request=1&p1=bryanko01&p2=jamesle01

 

[JSS2306]

I think Tristan Thompson will have a monster game who will also once and for all prove why he's worth every bit of 9 million a year.

 

[mhi]

The players gotta know they have Blatt on the ropes. A loss here would be the knockout punch.

The question is, are they willing to pay the price in pride ?

Find out tonight at 10:30

 

[CavsFan87]

L

Delly - Harris - Contract - Jones - Marion - Miller - Thompson

Black - Douche - Clarkson - Kelly - Linsanity - Sacre - Young

Varejao - Nash - Randle​

Lol dude. The way you refered to Haywood as "Contract" legit made me laugh out loud for 5 minutes. Couldn't stop after I saw "Douche" shortly after

 

[AZCavs]

Lakers by 40

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

Am I really about to stay awake for this shit?

 

[Lagrange]

Am I really about to stay awake for this shit?

game starting 5:30 am here, and I'm staying

 

[Rainman]

Am I really about to stay awake for this shit?

Yes