Game 56 | Cavs @ Raptors | February 21, 2014 7:00 PM ET

[Derek]

could be wrong, but Bennett only got 17-18 minutes against ORL, so we can act like Hawes ate into Bennett's minutes all we want. when Andy comes back, Zeller is most likely the odd man out considering CLE was trying to deal him. Bennett will continue to get 14-20min per night.

The problem that arises is that Zeller only got 20 minutes tonight and Hawes got 26. 26 might be a good number for Hawes, but Andy is going to play more than 20. Those minutes have to come from somewhere.

 

[Fuggles]

With Andy's history, I wouldn't bank on him coming back any time soon. I'll be surprised if he does come back soon. The same thing happens every year. He gets hurt right around the deadline with a seemingly minor injury that blows up into something much worse and then he misses an extended amount of time.

You're drunk, those were major injuries.

 

[OptimusPrime]

Hawes didn't play any 4 tonight. Neither did Zeller. Thompson played at least 10 minutes too many tonight.

 

[Derek]

Bennett not getting enough minutes cost us the game.

That is a new one

Honestly, I still don't even care about winning. We're not doing anything important this year in terms of wins and losses. I'd just like to see our young guys getting extended minutes so that they can continue to improve and help us towards our ultimate goals. What's the difference between going 33-49 and going 30-52? I'll take a couple less wins if it means better development for our young guys.

 

[Marcus]

You're drunk, those were major injuries.

Obviously they were, otherwise he wouldn't have missed extended time like he did.

But last year went from a sore quad or something (can't remember exactly what) to a fucking blood clot in his lung that he needed emergency surgery to get rid of and missed the rest of the year because of it.

Admittedly, the previous two years the injuries were more serious and I was wrong in that regard. But the shoe fits for this year being very similar to last year. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[brooks]

In spite of the loss, I thought we played fairly well tonight overall. Some glaring defensive lapses in the 3rd quarter, but it was a hard-fought game both ways. For whatever reason, we just couldn't buy a basket tonight - countless missed layups, wide open 3's, etc. Shooting 2/7 from the line to close out the 3rd quarter was probably the difference - it would have been an entirely different ballgame down the stretch had we been able to bring it within two possessions.

These are the kind of games where injuries suck - we could have really used Dion + Miles as potential scoring punches, as well as Andy's energy against their bigs; they ate us alive inside during the 2nd half, although I was fairly impressed with Hawes - I expected him to get bullied and he held his own for the most part.

Sucks that the streak is over, but we'll get em back in Cleveland on Tuesday.

 

[OptimusPrime]

In spite of the loss, I thought we played fairly well tonight overall. Some glaring defensive lapses in the 3rd quarter, but it was a hard-fought game both ways. For whatever reason, we just couldn't buy a basket tonight - countless missed layups, wide open 3's, etc. Shooting 2/7 from the line to close out the 3rd quarter was probably the difference - it would have been an entirely different ballgame down the stretch had we been able to bring it within two possessions.

These are the kind of games where injuries suck - we could have really used Dion + Miles as potential scoring punches, as well as Andy's energy against their bigs; they ate us alive inside during the 2nd half, although I was fairly impressed with Hawes - I expected him to get bullied and he held his own for the most part.

Sucks that the streak is over, but we'll get em back in Cleveland on Tuesday.

I missed a good bit of the 2nd quarter, but from what I saw no one (except Dellavedova a couple times) was missing open 3s, because no was getting open 3s. In the 2nd half Toronto played tight defense because there was only one guy on the floor who could get by his man off the dribble and make a play, so they shaded the help defense his way and got up in everyone else.

 

[brooks]

I missed a good bit of the 2nd quarter, but from what I saw no one (except Dellavedova a couple times) was missing open 3s, because no was getting open 3s. In the 2nd half Toronto played tight defense because there was only one guy on the floor who could get by his man off the dribble and make a play, so they shaded the help defense his way and got up in everyone else.

We shot 20 of them, the majority of which were uncontested. Just couldn't knock em down, especially Delly & Kyrie who combined for 2-10 from behind the arc. I don't recall seeing a Toronto jersey nearby for all but maybe two of those, they just whiffed.

Toronto's defense is intense, though...aside from those 3PAs, Ross + Lowry were riding Kyrie as hard as anyone I've seen so far this season.

 

[DatDudeZ3]

People wanted Kyrie to carry us to a win because 2 of our top 4 players were out (Dion, Andy)... That's the reason Kyrie struggled, Toronto's defense was geared to stop Kyrie and make someone else beat them because they knew we were down a few players. Also, the Raptors got hot in the 2nd half and were making everything so we couldn't get anything going offensively because we were constantly facing their defense set up after made field goals. Yes, Kyrie missed open shots but it's hard for him when the whole defense is focusing on stopping him and he's going against Toronto's set defense the whole 2nd half.

 

[Cashius X]

People wanted Kyrie to carry us to a win because 2 of our top 4 players were out (Dion, Andy)... That's the reason Kyrie struggled, Toronto's defense was geared to stop Kyrie and make someone else beat them because they knew we were down a few players. Also, the Raptors got hot in the 2nd half and were making everything so we couldn't get anything going offensively because we were constantly facing their defense set up after made field goals. Yes, Kyrie missed open shots but it's hard for him when the whole defense is focusing on stopping him and he's going against Toronto's set defense the whole 2nd half.

Hop off his dick. He struggled. It happens to everybody. I don't see anyone blaming the loss on Kyrie. You can't always fabricate excuses out of nowhere. Sometimes it's just not their night. Shit happens.

 

[Rich]

Yea, I mean no one was really giving Kyrie a hard time other than saying "wish he would have played better" and still even that's just a little too much criticism.

"Can't blame KYrie for shooting 3/16..." Why? We blame every other player for their shooting woes in games.

 

[DatDudeZ3]

I said he missed shots? He could have shot better obviously, but the reason he shot so bad was because he couldn't get many good looks due to the pressure on him. There was NO ONE taking pressure off of Kyrie for us last night. That's the reason she shot poor, he shot even more poorly because he missed a couple open looks. Most of his shots were tough shots and his open shots were off. He's not going to make many high-difficulty, tough shots when his shot is off. But he was forced to take tough shots due to the defense being geared to stop him.