Game 9 | Denver Nuggets (2-7) @ Cleveland Cavaliers (5-3) | November 17, 2014 | 7:00PM EST

[Rainman]

We need a center. It's simple.

NO its not that "simple"! It's called team defense and effort. In my opinion there's 2 games this team played as a team. 1 in Chicago and then against the Hawks. All others have been won by talent not effort.

 

[TitleTown]

Problem is teams just don't guard him on offense and he's on the wrong side of 30 so he doesn't bring the high intensity on most plays.

His intensity has been great. What are you talking about? He gave us great minutes tonight and was affective on offense. If teams don't defend him, then great--he'll be open.

Poor analysis man.

 

[TitleTown]

NO its not that "simple"! It's called team defense and effort. In my opinion there's 2 games this team played as a team. 1 in Chicago and then against the Hawks. All others have been won by talent not effort.

Well, I do think we need a center, but I also think you are right. We are relying on talent too much. Hopefully it's more chemistry than desire, but time will tell soon enough.

 

[Rainman]

Didn't look at the state line yet but I can tell you just by watching, a lot of shots didn't fall for the Cavaliers tonight. I'll bet the FG% was a team low.

 

[Rainman]

Well, I do think we need a center, but I also think you are right. We are relying on talent too much. Hopefully it's more chemistry than desire, but time will tell soon enough.

What will a center do besides clog up the lane. You really just need a guy like Ben Wallace but I don't see a guy like that in this league.

 

[The Oi]

Same thing it's been all season in the losses. Offense looks solid for a stretch, defense sucks. As soon as the opponent goes on a run, they stop the ball. Perimeter movement and Kevin Love post-ups turn into Kyrie pounding the ball and LeBron taking ill-advised step backs.

Every time they go down by about three scores it starts.

 

[crowned1]

Same thing it's been all season in the losses. Offense looks solid for a stretch, defense sucks. As soon as the opponent goes on a run, they stop the ball. Perimeter movement and Kevin Love post-ups turn into Kyrie pounding the ball and LeBron taking ill-advised step backs.

Every time they go down by about three scores it starts.

Cause they dont trust their defense to make stops.
This hasto stop somehow

 

[OptimusPrime]

The defense was bad, and Lawson did blow by guys a few times, but most of his damage came off the pick and roll where no one showed to stop the ball, and no one rotated over, so he just went around the screen all the way to the rim. A shot blocker would have been nice to try to clean some of that up, but the problems were mostly scheme or lack of understanding of the scheme.

The offense wasn't that good either, which is why Marion didn't play much down the stretch, because he doesn't offer much on that end.

 

[AmirT0]

This had trap game written all over it and Blatt to his credit identified it.
I think a trade must happen to shore up the defense.

 

[Brandname]

The Lawson/Mozgov pick and roll, where we had to decide whether to have Kyrie try to fight through or switch Love onto Lawson was just murder tonight. We had absolutely no answer for that play.

Credit to the Nuggets. They identified our two biggest weaknesses in defense, and they exploited it over and over and over again.

 

[priceFTW]

Same thing it's been all season in the losses. Offense looks solid for a stretch, defense sucks. As soon as the opponent goes on a run, they stop the ball. Perimeter movement and Kevin Love post-ups turn into Kyrie pounding the ball and LeBron taking ill-advised step backs.

Every time they go down by about three scores it starts.

This right here. It all stems from them not trusting themselves or their team yet which is one reason why Kyrie and Bron and Love have played so much. We don't really think we're good enough to win. We don't trust the ball movement and panic really quickly probably because we don't feel like we'll get stops so we lose our brains and take bad shots. In his last two seasons, Bron rarely took bad shots but has taken a bunch if bad shots this year as he's gained confidence in his jumper.

Once again, rebounding was mediocre--can't have that if our initial defense is poor.

 

[Andrew]

No doubt they were looking at the Spurs, I don't care what they say. Denver's back court isn't THAT good to make that big of a difference from game 1 over a week ago. Cleveland just looked dazed out there and expected to just outscore their opponent but the Nuggets wanted to become a half court team. Why Blatt didn't have Irving more on Lawson is beyond me, he wasn't in foul trouble but alas, every game is not pretty to watch in a long season and it's how the team learns from the losses that will ultimately define their success.

Onto the Spurs.

 

[Rich]

Well I missed this game because I hadn't slept in about 30 hours so I'm box scoring it, but just from giving it the once over I'd say interior defense was yet again a huge problem. Varejao and Thompson just aren't anywhere near elite defenders and Love certainly isn't. And I've got not idea how this isn't a problem for the rest of the season. There are no dudes available to fix it.

 

[priceFTW]

I'm hoping that Blatt and this team realizes if shots aren't falling and we're looking shaky, go to Love in the post or pick and roll/pop with LBJ/Love or maybe Kyrie/LBJ. LBJ is too good and smart to be taking those garbage stepbacks. He shot 57% last year exactly because he always took good shots.

I kept on waiting for Marion or James to switch onto Lawson but perhaps Blatt wanted to make a statement to Kyrie:

 

[KilgoreTrout]

I hope Blatt sees what YOU fellas see. If not, we'll need to fire him and replace him with OptimusPrime.