Game Thread | Game #61 | Cavs @ Sixers | Feb. 15, 2023

[Boobie4Three]

No Cedi = Loss. Was at the game. Fun comeback!

And Steven's missed some shots Cedi would have made half of. I lik

He is a offensive drag

The spots I recall are those Steven's missed corner 3s.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Garland is averaging 56% from the field and 53% on 3's in seven February games. Plus 7.2 assists. He's having a very nice month. Like I said, hope they snub him every year - it pisses him off for a while.

 

[bob2the2nd]

Weird time to dump on LeVert when he played fine and led the team in +/- by a mile at +14. Yes, the few boneheaded plays he makes every game are super frustrating, but he really doesn't deserve half the shit he receives on this board.

I don't care what anyone says, Mobley was not good tonight, despite a not-awful looking stat line. He was brutal in the first half and got spoonfed a bunch of bunnies in the 2nd

+/- over a season is a tool that can be used to justify a player, +/- over the course of half a season has some noise but is a acceptable, +/- over 20 games may show some trends but they can often lead to wrong conclusions, +/- over the course of a single game is fuckign worthless.

Over the first 10-15 games of the season Cedi had the highest +/- on the team, and Mobley was last. That was something like 15-20% of the season right there that showed that Cedi was the best player on the team and Mobley was the worst.

 

[2 For The Brew]

First half was pretty discouraging. We’ve been on such a roll and it was even worse in person than it had to be on TV.

Five assists in the first half. Very little team ball and the individual performances - other than Darius - were pretty bad.

The one advantage we had was the crowd was out of the game and I knew they would be out if we came back. Philly fans expect bad shit to happen (sound familiar) and they had blown big leads this year.

Second half we started playing better defense and we ratcheted it up as the half went on. The game looks so much different close to the court. Garland is underrated as a defender in a team concept. He’s quite a pest when he’s on.

Crowd was dead the entire second half except when a Cavalier missed the first of two free throws. The building went nuts because a second miss meant five free chick-fil-a
pieces for everyone. FT made, crowd went silent. I think most were still bummed out from Sunday.

Don’t get why we fouled down four with 9 on the shot clock and 41 seconds left. JBB called for the foul. Odd.

I thought late in the game exactly what @Wham with the Right Hand said - just too much to expect to stop Embiid. We did an awesome job coming back in the fourth but even a defense as good as the Cavs can’t stop Embiid, Maxey and Harden completely.

I left the arena feeling good for our season so far and glad that we didn’t quit. This game should be a lesson learned. We were not ready for a team like the Sixers until too late.

We need to beat the Sixers at home in four weeks.

Our young guys still have a lot to learn.

Bright future but until we are more seasoned and experienced we’ll have games like this.

 

[Dr. Claw]

A normal first half and the Cavs win this game.
No "Fire JB" comments from me; he did mostly fine with the situation (and again, recognizing that Okoro needed to come in for the Cavs to try to win in crunch time).
Just complete ass from the starting line up not named Jarrett Allen in the first half mostly. And it was mostly on DEFENSE. WTF was all this double/triple team CRAP?

Seeing Danny Green out there makes it apparent where the priorities need to be in the offseason.
If Kevin Love wants to be part of "the organization" then Koby needs to give him an office job.
I don't think they should be fooling around with anyone who plods around on defense, the way these teams play.
The Cavs need someone like Spurs Danny Green. I dunno, maybe Keldon Johnson (who they passed up to draft Dylan Swindler)?
Ah well.
I will say this, since the deadline I am liking what the Cavs get from LeVert on the bench. Both sides of the ball. He's not a downhill killer like Donovan or even Collin Sexton, but if he gets on a team-friendly deal in the offseason I wouldn't be mad at this point.
A wing player that can SHOOT is the goal however.
Dean Wade had a solid night on defense but the offense...

Man, that's all that's missing. Offense outside of the "Big 4". Enough to clean up the poop when the backcourt has a night of poop, or at least 1/2 a game of poop like we saw tonight.

Also, I realized that James Harden is basically LeVert, but the completely evolved, high-tier version of such. Backward passes, drives, a whole lot of trickery and creation.

 

[Don-no-vann!]

Nice comeback from being down 28 (I scribbled "men against boys" at that point) to being down by 4 points and a legitimate chance to steal a win.

That wasn't going to happen with Embiid on the floor as he scored 8 points in a row. The refs let him get away with pushing Allen with his off arm as much as he wanted. The ESPN announcer said Allen needs to hit the floor to get the foul and he finally did with a couple of minutes to go and still didn't get the call.

The Sixers started 7-for-8 on 3's and were 3-for-19 the rest of the way. The Cavs were 4-for-17 at halftime on 3's and went 6-for-13 in the second half. It's all about the 3-ball.

The announcers made a point that the Cavs forwards don't shoot well enough. Yep, that is our Achilles heel. Mobley, Okoro, Wade, Green, Stevens, and LeVert combined to go 3-for-16 on 3's. Just 5-for-16 would have meant a tie game in regulation.

Whoever we play in the playoffs will take note and pack the paint, inviting Mobley, Okoro, and Wade to shoot 3's all day.

Loved the way Mitchell battled in the second half after struggling the first half. He had 25 points in the second half and along with Garland almost pulled it off. Garland had 27 points on just 14 shots. He's been amazing this month.

Allen was pretty much destroyed by Embiid, who had a line of 29/14/5 to 12/7/4 for Allen. I love Allen but I wish folks would not refer to him as an All-Star just because he was an injury replacement last year. Put Allen on the floor with Embiid and it's obvious who is the All-Star and who is not.

The next game is in Cleveland and hopefully we'll have Rubio back. Danny Green will have had a few more games to settle in by then, too.

In the end it took the Cavs too long to get going. They were down 25 at the half and 28 in the 3rd before they starting clawing back.

Hard to defend Embid when the refs let him push off with his off arm and ram into the defender with his shoulder.

 

[Jscc]

Harden getting whatever he wanted matched up with Okoro was sad to watch. If you're a defensive specialist and your athleticism is your selling point.. just gross.

 

[Ohioplayer00]

First half was pretty discouraging. We’ve been on such a roll and it was even worse in person than it had to be on TV.

Five assists in the first half. Very little team ball and the individual performances - other than Darius - were pretty bad.

The one advantage we had was the crowd was out of the game and I knew they would be out if we came back. Philly fans expect bad shit to happen (sound familiar) and they had blown big leads this year.

Second half we started playing better defense and we ratcheted it up as the half went on. The game looks so much different close to the court. Garland is underrated as a defender in a team concept. He’s quite a pest when he’s on.

Crowd was dead the entire second half except when a Cavalier missed the first of two free throws. The building went nuts because a second miss meant five free chick-fil-a
pieces for everyone. FT made, crowd went silent. I think most were still bummed out from Sunday.

Don’t get why we fouled down four with 9 on the shot clock and 41 seconds left. JBB called for the foul. Odd.

I thought late in the game exactly what @Wham with the Right Hand said - just too much to expect to stop Embiid. We did an awesome job coming back in the fourth but even a defense as good as the Cavs can’t stop Embiid, Maxey and Harden completely.

I left the arena feeling good for our season so far and glad that we didn’t quit. This game should be a lesson learned. We were not ready for a team like the Sixers until too late.

We need to beat the Sixers at home in four weeks.

Our young guys still have a lot to learn.

Bright future but until we are more seasoned and experienced we’ll have games like this.

Koby needs to sign a big man (IBaka or Alridge). Allen and Mobley get pushed around too easily inside

 

[Jscc]

Koby needs to sign a big man (IBaka or Alridge). Allen and Mobley get pushed around too easily inside

Ibaka was the softest big man I've ever seen.

JBB could've played Lopez in strategic minutes to slow down Embiid around the rim. Just don't switch and live with Embiid 3s for a stretch. Alot of their crucial 3s came from Philly's offensive rebounds as our guys scrambled.

 

[Medina smoke]

did garland make anyone better in this game? Thought he played poor Except when he was getting his​

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The Cavs outscored the Sixers 74-55 in the second half. This comment from Mitchell after the game:

I honestly think we just found things that worked. They played well. They came out aggressive. We just continued to trust it and played with a little more, I don’t want to call it a sense of urgency, but I think we just played with a little more force. Realized we could get downhill, get open shots, make plays defensively and that’s what allowed us to put that stuff together.

So we'll see what happens when these teams play in Cleveland in a few weeks. Mitchell says they "found things that worked". Let's see if they can start the next game getting "downhill" and getting open shots.

They scored 38 in the first half and 74 in the second. That 74 points is no joke against a team that ranks 6th in defensive efficiency. Next time these teams play the Cavs need to look at the film of the second half and game plan off that.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

did garland make anyone better in this game? Thought he played poor Except when he was getting his​

27 points on just 14 shots plus 6 assists and 3 steals, including one that ended on a spectacular 3/4 court pass to Mobley for a dunk.

I'll take that performance any night.

With Rubio and Cedi out our bench was 4-for-13 and scored 12 points in 54 minutes. Next time we'll get them at home and if Rubio is back it will make a difference.

 

[Medina smoke]

you‘ll take the stats, wont take the performance. He made no one better, directed no one,Lead no one.Has a laissez faire attitude and his defense is atrocious. And we pay boat load money to be killer, like DM and he just gets his .

 

[Jscc]

The Cavs outscored the Sixers 74-55 in the second half. This comment from Mitchell after the game:

I honestly think we just found things that worked. They played well. They came out aggressive. We just continued to trust it and played with a little more, I don’t want to call it a sense of urgency, but I think we just played with a little more force. Realized we could get downhill, get open shots, make plays defensively and that’s what allowed us to put that stuff together.

So we'll see what happens when these teams play in Cleveland in a few weeks. Mitchell says they "found things that worked". Let's see if they can start the next game getting "downhill" and getting open shots.

They scored 38 in the first half and 74 in the second. That 74 points is no joke against a team that ranks 6th in defensive efficiency. Next time these teams play the Cavs need to look at the film of the second half and game plan off that.

How much of this was actually Cleveland?

Philly got sloppy like they were coasting in the second half like we did against the Spurs.

 

[Dr. Claw]

Hard to defend Embid when the refs let him push off with his off arm and ram into the defender with his shoulder.

Yeah. Rarely see that many blatant offensive fouls go uncalled. Might be "Embiid Rules" for real.