Game #77 -|- Cavaliers @ Hawks -|- April 4th, 2014 @ 7:30 PM EST

[JSS2306]

Kyrie has played overall OK minus a few bonehead plays. Dion has a few himself. The frustrating part about Kyrie's last shot was the fact that they cleared the floor for him and he jacks up a 3 ball while in the bonus instead of attacking. The floor was his.

 

[CosmoKramer]

Kyrie and Dion both looked engaged on defense in the second quarter, they were instrumental in forcing 9 turnovers.

If we could just hit some fucking shots this would be a game.

 

[Rainman]

Need to come out with energy in the second half. Start making those easy shots, and also stopping Mike Scott.

Mike Scott...Who? Mike Scott...Who? Mike Scott...Who?

 

[OptimusPrime]

Kyrie's playing like shit, and his poor shot selection isn't helping matters, but the defense is why we are losing.

 

[Cassity14]

This is the point. Dion doesn't bring it up, tell everyone else to clear out, and then launch a jumper. He might launch one off of a screen, which isn't the greatest, but at least there is some player movement there.

As guards, Dion and Delly understand what it means to 'initiate' an offensive set. Hell, even lately, Jack has shown at least a clue in doing it.

Kyrie struggles mightily as an initiator. He's a great scorer, he's a very talented passer. He can fill it up and drop dimes with the best of them. But he doesn't routinely initiate sets that get his team quality shots. Given his physical stature and position, if he can't do that, he won't find team success in the NBA as the best player on his team.

 

[adriano_leite]

When Kyrie scores 20+ and get 5+ assists everyone is talking how bad his D is. When Kyrie shoot 3 of 8 for 7 points, he is hot garbage and nobody talks about his 4 steals and solid D. It's not all on Kyrie guys, we couldn't score no matter who was there. Kyrie's steals in second quarter starter this little run and we are down 12 and we were down 23 if i remember good. This game is still winnable.

GO CAVS GO!

 

[Pioneer10]

I still think we got a good shot at this game:
Deng, Kyrie, and Hawes times 2 blew some easy easy shots.

Hopefully, Brown learns his lesson and either sits or hides Hawes on defense as much as possible

 

[AuxiliaryPie]

Mike Scott...Who? Mike Scott...Who? Mike Scott...Who?

281-330-8004

 

[Stark]

You shouldn't give up 61 points to the Hawks in a half, especially when they don't have Horford.

No excuses. The defense is fucking horrible tonight.

 

[Nathan S]

Long stretches of atrocious defense is part of the Cavaliers experience, though. It just wouldn't feel right if we played solid basketball all 48 minutes.

 

[OptimusPrime]

These are the games, against a team that won't allow you the fancy ball movement like we saw against Orlando, where we need both Kyrie and Dion on the floor, and there is going to be some ugly, iso offense, that's to be expected. It would be nice if they had more work in together with the other starters, but whatever. These are the games where we need Mike Brown to do the only thing he really can do, coach up the defense. With Irving and Waiters on the floor together we should be able to find enough offense to beat anyone if we are playing proper defense. Obviously so far tonight we are not.

 

[Cassity14]

The defense was really bad during the tail half of the first quarter and the first 4 minutes of the second quarter. Good shooting makes it look like an entire half of shit defense, and I'm not sure that's the case.

Hot shooting does not always equate to bad defense. The Hawks came out hitting a lot of tough shots and broke the Cavs' spirit early on. I give Kyrie a lot of credit for checking back in at about the 8 minute mark in quarter 2 and showing defensive intensity. That seemed to set a ton on that end. Scott got open looks around the rim because he torched guys with his jumper and/or the Cavs had to overplay the 3 point shooters.

If the Cavs start the second half the way they ended the first, this game will be at least tied going into the 4th quarter. These next 6 minutes are make or break.

 

[Plaxicofan7]

You shouldn't give up 61 points to the Hawks in a half, especially when they don't have Horford.

No excuses. The defense is fucking horrible tonight.

with Horford out ATL is left with a bunch of guys who can shoot - so it makes sense for ATL to score more.

notice we started defending the 3 and we were getting back into the game

 

[RedBlackAttack]

Kyrie's playing like shit, and his poor shot selection isn't helping matters, but the defense is why we are losing.

Thing is, Kyrie's defense in the second quarter actually sparked the team to get semi-back into the game. He took a couple bad shots, but I didn't think he was the problem in the first half. I'll take a couple bad shots if he's going to play defense with that much intensity.

The problem is Millsap and Scott are eating us alive. On the bright side, I don't see Atlanta shooting 57% in the second half and I don't see us continuing to miss bunnies at the basket. This game will tighten up.

 

[ice cream man]

Kyrie hasn't been that bad, haha. He took one bad shot. He played pretty good defense. Hawes and Tristan....