Game Thread | Game #68 | Cavs @ Heat | March 8, 2023

[stick]

Just finished watching.

When I saw Kevin Love sitting on the bench (his natural place in the second half nowadays) making fun of Lamar Stevens shooting motion after a missed three, that fired me up even more. That shit pissed me off.

Keep your ass on the bench, Kevin.

Bring on Miami, Friday. Bring them on.

 

[Jscc]

When I saw Kevin Love sitting on the bench (his natural place in the second half nowadays) making fun of Lamar Stevens shooting motion after a missed three, that fired me up even more. That shit pissed me off.

On the ensuing Miami possession LeVert stole the ball, DG beat their trap, and Mobley dunked it. He was suddenly sitting there with his arms crossed. Funny stuff.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Another devastating victory.

Paraphrasing Scott Hanson - it’s the Bitching hour. Where wins become losses and losses become apoplexy.

We beat Boston and Miami back to back. Our offense struggled in both games because JBB is a terrible coach, not because the Celtics and Heat play tenacious defense.

I'm not sure how winning a game despite Mitchell going 1-for-7 on 3's and Allen getting in early foul trouble and having to sit for large portions of the game makes JBB a terrible coach.

I also don't understand how beating a team that's 21-12 at home and has a coach who is in his 15th season and considered one of the best makes JBB a terrible coach.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I don’t see how we can succeed with Okoro, Stevens, Mobley, Rubio, and Allen being 5 of an 8 man rotation. There’s just no threat of shooting there. Unless someone just has an out of body shooting series, in the playoffs, it’s doomed from the beginning.

We're just really dependent on Garland and Mitchell to either score or create easy buckets for teammates. There's a ton of pressure on those guys offensively. The lack of outside shooting is what will get this team knocked out; it's just a question of whether it will be in the first or second round.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Down the stretch, we didn’t get rattled. We made a couple of mistakes, but I thought for the most part, we didn’t let that thing snowball on us and we were able to fix it right away. I do think our guys learned from the last time we played this team, which is always an improvement. - JBB

I think this was the biggest takeaway. We've seen the Cavs pile mistake on top of mistake in the final minutes to let wins slip away. They made some crucial mistakes - Mitchell leaving his feet with nobody to pass to and committing a huge turnover, Rubio failing to call time-out within five seconds. But they didn't get rattled. Garland forced his way into the paint and got a bucket on a fallaway, the Cavs got a stop, then Garland hit Okoro who muscled in a layup.

I loved the part about Mitchell calling a quick team meeting before even leaving the court to go over what they needed to do differently next time. They didn't wait for the film review or the coaches. The players are taking responsibility and ownership.

 

[cabs]

Got to watch the replay. Great win. K Love LOL sit your ass down buddy. Lets beat them again !

 

[cabs]

we were all over those dumb outlet passes by Love too

 

[avs2000]

We're just really dependent on Garland and Mitchell to either score or create easy buckets for teammates. There's a ton of pressure on those guys offensively. The lack of outside shooting is what will get this team knocked out; it's just a question of whether it will be in the first or second round.

They are two all star level guards. Of course we are going to count on them to create or score They are guards

 

[avs2000]

Another devastating victory.

Paraphrasing Scott Hanson - it’s the Bitching hour. Where wins become losses and losses become apoplexy.

We beat Boston and Miami back to back. Our offense struggled in both games because JBB is a terrible coach, not because the Celtics and Heat play tenacious defense.

Dm was 1-7 on threes. All JBB‘a fault

 

[Cavatt]

That 5 sec call was really hard to swallow. They clearly called timeout and the guy was looking right at Rubio

 

[2 For The Brew]

I'm not sure how winning a game despite Mitchell going 1-for-7 on 3's and Allen getting in early foul trouble and having to sit for large portions of the game makes JBB a terrible coach.

I also don't understand how beating a team that's 21-12 at home and has a coach who is in his 15th season and considered one of the best makes JBB a terrible coach.

My comment about JBB was sarcastic. That might not have been obvious.

 

[mds]

I'm not sure how winning a game despite Mitchell going 1-for-7 on 3's and Allen getting in early foul trouble and having to sit for large portions of the game makes JBB a terrible coach.

I also don't understand how beating a team that's 21-12 at home and has a coach who is in his 15th season and considered one of the best makes JBB a terrible coach.

I'm just a fan who plays the guitar for a living, but I don't understand all the JBB vitriol. We're the best D in the league and solidly in the 4th spot in a tough East and most our team is half my age or less. They play hard and fight through tough situations and rarely just give up. Sure we could ALWAYS be better and have better this and that, but geesh this team is pretty facking' good.

 

[Cavatt]

I'm just a fan who plays the guitar for a living, but I don't understand all the JBB vitriol. We're the best D in the league and solidly in the 4th spot in a tough East and most our team is half my age or less. They play hard and fight through tough situations and rarely just give up. Sure we could ALWAYS be better and have better this and that, but geesh this team is pretty facking' good.

Offense is top 10 too

 

[bob2the2nd]

Offense is top 10 too

in efficiency this team is top 10. As far as points go per game this team is bottom 5

 

[jjvors]

We're just really dependent on Garland and Mitchell to either score or create easy buckets for teammates. There's a ton of pressure on those guys offensively. The lack of outside shooting is what will get this team knocked out; it's just a question of whether it will be in the first or second round.

Yes. Think of the Detroit Bad Boy teams in the 80s. They had two great guards, in Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, plus a tremendous defensive frontcourt. They even had their non-shooting defensive specialist like Okoro, Dennis Rodman.

Still, when they played the Lakers in the Finals in 1988, they lost in 7 games because Isaiah got injured in game 6. He played through it, but he was less. I thought Detroit was the better team that year and just got unlucky. Isaiah set the table and ran the show.

It would be fun to compare that team to this team player by player.