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

[Snarly]

I think Blatt is trying to lockdown his rotations. We still need to throw Shump in there but that will probably knock out Delly and cut down mins elsewhere.

I think once Shump hits we will see a true 8 man rotation and then we all have an open roster spot for I assume a back PG in Farmer or Robertson. So I mean that will be great. Miller is fine for eight minutes here Jones is good for a late game three attempt and Delly is good in spurts as they should be. Harris should not even be in the game till next year. Winning with this rotation and seeing something solid is a bright spot and makes me feel a bit better.

 

[Damien O'Connel]

1. Word is Blatts job was on the line tonight

2. The team played hard

3. Blatt came up big in a critical moment (always seems to happen for him)

4. Blatt's halftime talk may have saved his job/our season. That is what the man does. IMO, tonight was championship coaching and playing. It wasn't pretty but the team had to win. And they did.

Do not lose sight of that. Proud of everyone on the team.

 

[Cashius X]

1. Word is Blatts job was on the line tonight

2. The team played hard

3. Blatt came up big in a critical moment (always seems to happen for him)

4. Blatt's halftime talk may have saved his job/our season. That is what the man does. IMO, tonight was championship coaching and playing. It wasn't pretty but the team had to win. And they did.

Do not lose sight of that. Proud of everyone on the team.

We played the Lakers. One of the 4 worst teams in the league...

 

[OhevEtHaCAVS]

We played the Lakers. One of the 3 worst teams in the league...

Minnesota, New York & Philly are worse

 

[Damien O'Connel]

We played the Lakers. One of the 4 worst teams in the league...

Dispute each of my points then.

 

[Snarly]

You know what kevin Love taking that charge while in pain shown me he cares and the way the team came to him to lift him up was amazing. That was the moment I now realize we needed. He took one for the team and the coaches. Blatt is not an issue and Love is giving it his all in anyway he can. The time has come to point the finger at two people. Number one is Kyrie and he picked it up and had a nice game so hopefully someone got through to him.

The second is LeBron and no I am not bashing him but I agree with the whole leadership stuff. He finally did tonight and look the team tried. When Love took that charge and the team lifted him up and Bron had that lets get this look. That is all I asked for is a team that cares for one and another as that will do wonders going forward. This leads me to my final point.

Shumpert and how good he will look on this team. He is a mix of Dion Waiters and Demar Derozen who plays Defense. He is one of those guys you wont plan on him being ready to knock down a three and he does. To put it this way on a team like ours he is a perfect fit. He and Mozz will be asked to defend and score when needed. Tonight was the first glimmer of hope I seen this season and of all people Love was the one who made it happen.

Bottom line is WINNING cures all and if they win against the Clippers I think we are going to be in for a fun second half. I am excited now and we are still missing a piece. Once this team is set in stone sky is the limit and we still have the Haywood contract. everything will be fine folk in the long run.

 

[Andrew]

LeSigh....all is forgiven with a win! Not.

This will all be for naught if they lay a massive egg against the Clippers. You need a better shooting night than 46% to beat Lob City. But, a win feels so new and was missed so let's relish this until another beatdown.

I take pride in seeing the Lakers lose, whether their squad is irrelevant or not, something about the purple and gold losing just makes me tingle in my man-parts.

While it was against Jackson and a whole bunch of Titos', two facets of the offense were admirable in their execution in this matchup...

While they only scored 11, 2 more than the opponent, fastbreak points, this offense is proven to be beautiful and quite effective if they play their game in a faster pace. Ball movement is much needed and there were about a handful of offensive sets were that point was illustrated tonight.

Also, outscoring, even again only by 2, the opponent in the paint is quite nice to see. I love the dribble drives and I love how I have been rooting for a guy who shoots unconsciously this entire season to only be replaced by a guy who does the same but makes it more than often than not. Plus there were points when Smith was on Kobe and I never would have trusted that for a millisecond if it was Waiters.

Nice little win, even if against an inferior foe. Now its time to regroup and refocus for a hard matchup in the Clippers.



Side note, anyone remotely follow Love while with the Wolves? Is this back spasm thing common for him or did it just come out of the blue this season?

 

[Dr. Claw]

Only me conserned that Cavs made only 14 assists?

and Kobe had 17 on his lonesome. KOBE.

Man. We fry the "stars" but the other guys just stare at the guy with the ball. The coach is supposed to see this and fix this. Supposed to. WTF man. We're Lakers East.

 

[CleveRocks]

Hey we won against the lakers. Its a nice pick me up with a feel good story around the bowling trip.

Ok

But if you are expecting a win against the clips, you are setting yourself up for dissapointment. The only way Klove gets better is to get off the back and go flat, and wrestling with Griffin is not that.


But it is progress. There are a lot of things to fix on this team, number one being consistent defense, which we played for one quarter last night, while Kobe was out.. Number 2 is passing on offense. No team I am aware of ever made it out of the first round with 14 assists per game. We have new guys in the mix and they are having to learn the offense, while Kyrie in particular figures out when to give up the ball.

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

1. Word is Blatts job was on the line tonight

2. The team played hard

3. Blatt came up big in a critical moment (always seems to happen for him)

4. Blatt's halftime talk may have saved his job/our season. That is what the man does. IMO, tonight was championship coaching and playing. It wasn't pretty but the team had to win. And they did.

Do not lose sight of that. Proud of everyone on the team.

The Cavs played the opposite of hard in the first half, look at the Vines of LeBron walking around not playing D, that turn around chuck at the backboard, etc. Idk how you can say we played hard

 

[linelson13]

LBJ rules!

James has won 13 of his past 16 matchups with Kobe since 2006.

From Elias: LeBron James is now 14-6 in his career head-to-head against Kobe Bryant, the 2nd-best win percentage against Bryant in his career (min. 15 games). James has averaged 28.4 points per game in those meetings while Bryant has averaged 25.0.
From Elias: LeBron James is now 14-6 in his career head-to-head against Kobe Bryant, the 2nd-best win percentage against Bryant in his career (min. 15 games). James has averaged 28.4 points per game in those meetings while Bryant has averaged 25.0.
Best Win Pct. vs. Kobe Bryant
Player
Win Pct.
W-L

James Jones
.733
11-4

LeBron James
.700
14-6

Manu Ginobili
.676
23-11

Steve Kerr
.667

10-5
Tony Parker
.657
23-12

-- Elias Sports Bureau

 

[Cashius X]

Dispute each of my points then.

I don't need to...we played the LAKERS. I'm not going to pull anything substantiative from a close win against the lowly Lakers.

You said the team played hard? We still barely won against a bottom 5 NBA team.

Blatt came up big? We still barely won against a bottom 5 NBA team.

Blatt's job was on the line? I agree...because if we lost to the bottom 5 Lakers he should be gone.

Glad we won but at the end of the day, it was the Lakers...a team that hasn't won 10 games all season...I don't think we can really pull anything from that game.

 

[Jscc]

edit: deleted.