Game 55 | Cavs (33-21) @ Bulls (33-20) | February 12th, 2015 | 8:00pm EST

[kookoo]

James Jones and Mike Miller bring leadership to the locker room and combine for about 3 million in salary. They talk to Kyrie and Love and are mentoring them and have one championships. We have enough talent we just need to stay healthy. We need to Add a big and a guard. We were on a back to back right before All Star game against a rested Bulls team who hadn't beat us this season.

We do not have enough talent. LeBron clearly doesn't want to play PF and we don't have a legit backup center so when Mozgov is in foul trouble or god forbid injured, Tristan has to play guys like Gasol, Gasol and other bigs. There is a clear lack of depth there. And when Love is out, Marion and Jones end up playing heavy minutes at the 4. That's not going to get you any wins. Tonight was both those things combined. Mozgov was in foul trouble and Love was injured. It seems like just one game now, but what if it happens in the playoffs? If you want Jones and Miller as mentors, get them into the coaching squad. Every roster spot is important in a championship team. Our guys had enough rest last night at the end of the game. Back to back is a BS excuse.

 

[MRMsix6]

You're arguing my point even more! We were exposed with our lack of death, you admit that, but then suggest we really weren't exposed.

Ooookay.

...."exposed" suggests we're learning something new about the team...here I thought it was common knowledge that the Cavs lacked depth, especially when someone is injured.

 

[Real Deal]

Now the Clippers, that's a team that's exposed.

 

[jlegg21]

The arrogance in this thread is so annoying. If you guys want to hate the Bulls fine, I don't care, I hate them too, but you can't have it both ways. There is literally nothing to suggest, at all, that we are clearly the superior team, where the Bulls aren't even worthy of discussion of honest competition. What evidence is there to suggest this?? How many titles have we won recently? How many playoff appearances have we made the last few years?

The way so many are writing off the Bulls, as if they're not even worthy of being mentioning is absurd. Come on! Um, what exactly have we done? Have we even seen what this team can do in a 7 game series?

Someone give me examples, outside of sheer bias opinions, why we're clearly much superior than a team with a better record than us. A team that's made the playoffs with their best player sidelined, now back, playing pretty good basketball. With addition of Pau Gasol, and the emergence of Butler.

It's one thing to think we can beat them, which is fine, but to sit here and suggest that the Bulls aren't even worthy of being talked about as a competitor. You can't be more of a flaming homer than that.

Calm down big guy. The fanbase is on a bit of a high from that whole 14 of the last 15 thing. It's a good thing. This game was pretty meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Woulda been real nice to steal it but oh well.

I think maybe RCF could use the all-star break too, get some air, ice our knuckles for the stretch run. Gonna be a fun ride.

 

[godfather]

...."exposed" suggests we're learning something new about the team...here I thought it was common knowledge that the Cavs lacked depth, especially when someone is injured.

Common knowledge or not, tonight was the first game seeing our lack of depth in action against a quality opponent.

We knew it was a glaring hole, but how much of one? Well, how do you really know until you get a chance to actually see it on display. We did, and boy, was it not pretty.

Anytime you lose a player it hurts, I get that. But that couldn't be more the case with our front line right now. We can't at all afford to lose Tristan, Mozgov, or Kevin Love. Literally, at all, our depth is that bad.

I thought maybe they could have gotten away with it, I knew it would be a problem, but boy, they sunk into a typhoon tonight.

I think going into the break, the emphasis was obviously on trying to get another big, maybe 50/50 on a big/point guard. The emphasis should be soley on another big, no questions about it.

Obviously both are glaring holes, but our lack of depth of another big man is still pretty striking. We only have 3 guys, on the entire team, capable of quality minutes. That's pretty big glaring hole that was magnified for us tonight.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Well, we won 14 of 16. Both losses were away games, on the second night of a back-to-back. With a little more effort, we probably win all 16. Do we ALWAYS have to suck on the second night of a back-to-back? Not sure. I don't know how it feels to play a game in Indianapolis or Chicago <24 hours after finishing a game in Cleveland.

 

[NorthCoastBias]

Hey Godfather, go back to fapping over Tom Brady highlights.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

I wasn't a fan of the small ball lineup. Blatt seemed focused on spreading the floor but the problem was more defensively giving up 2nd chance baskets off offensive rebs all night and not protecting the rim. T-Mo was pretty much taken out of the game due to foul trouble which didn't help the cause.

But riding Jones that many minutes to me is ridiculous especially when he wasn't hitting jack.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

LeBron with 8 - EIGHT - turnovers tonight. That is wholly unacceptable. Talk about a dude that has his head elsewhere. This game meant absolutely nothing to him tonight. I feel so stupid that I was building up to this game all day long when the players themselves couldn't have given a shit less.

This is truth. Was very clear from the outset that none of the players gave a shit and were ready for the All-Star break.

Bulls came at it with a VERY different attitude. Kudos to them.

 

[Dr. Claw]

Well, now we know what happens without Kevin Love. Rebounding was a joke. Both Kyrie and LeBron looked awful as a whole. Mozgov had to rely on flopping too much. And James Jones is not even close to being anything but a weed carrier for the Cavs.

Would have been nice to go out to the break with a bang and a better record. I doubt this will happen again, barring a true disaster.

 

[kimdimasan]

No way Mozgov could be the reason of the loss of the championship contender, he is just one player and ofcourse they had plan to get him into foul trouble early - it'sno surprise at all.

 

[Dr. Claw]

Bottom line. Cavs need another big. Enough with the backup PG nonsense.

This times a million. With Shump and JR around, Delly's minutes are down and thus the things that were bad about him are minimized. In some respects Kyrie kind of is the "backup PG". So let's get another big that can spell Mozgov and Tristan. Really all the Cavs need at this point.

 

[godfather]

I wasn't a fan of the small ball lineup. Blatt seemed focused on spreading the floor but the problem was more defensively giving up 2nd chance baskets off offensive rebs all night and not protecting the rim. T-Mo was pretty much taken out of the game due to foul trouble which didn't help the cause.

But riding Jones that many minutes to me is ridiculous especially when he wasn't hitting jack.

I've been as critical as anyone when it comes to rotations, but I don't think he could help it tonight. It was either small ball, not really out of choice, but default. Or 99 year old Haywood.

Personally, I rather put out Wilt's coffin over the latter.

 

[morgwon]

Went to the game and had a good time. Won't get too high on the game cause once again both teams weren't at full strength and it looked like Lebron was very disengaged. One thing that changed in this matchup from the 2nd game (the first one with Mozgov) was that they were using Pau more in the pick and pop game pulling Mozgov away from the rim. In the previous matchup they were asking Pau to post up too much. He doesn't have as much success against big guys with his back to the basket. In those cases he needs to be facing up which he did the entire game. Liked the effort from the Bulls over the last 4 games. Best part is that Rose has stopped chucking 3s and has been driving more. Hinrich getting injured and missing the last 4 games has allowed Snell to get some nice burn and he really filled in nicely for Butler in the game and a half he missed. He had a great summer league but was buried for whatever reason by Thibs. Might make the trip to the Q for the final regular season game.

 

[David.]

No way Mozgov could be the reason of the loss of the championship contender, he is just one player and ofcourse they had plan to get him into foul trouble early - it'sno surprise at all.

its no surprise they went for it, but absolutely destroy our defense.

We didnt have a center for like 2 straight quarters. How do we win like that? people just shooting good shots at will.