Game 3 | Cavs @ Hornets Nov. 1st, 8:00PM (ET)

Im just pissed right now...idk. I just was lookin forward to this game all day. Everyone played good and worked there ass off except LeBron. Its just that, he looked so damn nonchalant at the end and on the bench when he sits down. Its one thing to be on the bench when your winning but if you start to notice the team starts to lose when your down..I wouldnt just stay sitting down, but i mean thats him i guess

We coulda won this. Ben's Defense, Gibsons/ West/ Z showed up all night, AV and Mo played decent enough

LeBron didnt

LBJ is one of the best player this game will ever see but he has to learn that you cant win a championship if you dont trust your teammates. He talks about how we have the people to do it but he still doesnt trust them!!

Typhoon said:

Im just pissed right now...idk. I just was lookin forward to this game all day. Everyone played good and worked there ass off except LeBron. Its just that, he looked so damn nonchalant at the end and on the bench when he sits down. Its one thing to be on the bench when your winning but if you start to notice the team starts to lose when your down..I wouldnt just stay sitting down, but i mean thats him i guess

We coulda won this. Ben's Defense, Gibsons/ West/ Z showed up all night, AV and Mo played decent enough

LeBron didnt

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Heck, some decent refs and we might have won this even without LeBron, but yeah, you're 100% right...

Lebron will eventually get back in his zone IMO but imagine how pumped we would be if we won against new orleans in new orleans. Games like this really matter even if its the 3rd game of the season.

4everfan23 said:

Lebron will eventually get back in his zone IMO but imagine how pumped we would be if we won against new orleans in new orleans. Games like this really matter even if its the 3rd game of the season.

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With NO banged up some this really should have been a game we came in primed to take, but nope...

I'm pissed off but really, this game wasn't that bad of a performance for 3 1/2 qtr's. The Cavs played a solid 1st half, had a good 3rd quarter and started the 4th pretty well.

When Lebron came back in though, everything ground to a halt and the defense fell apart.

Lebron just has to continue trusting the offense and moving the ball. He has to look to get his looks off the ball or in the post, cause teams have scouted his pound pick & roll to death.

Bashing LeBron seems like the hot topic of the night... but remember that we are one game into a tough road trip. He can't be superman on the road every night. He looked gassed in the fourth, and sometimes that happens to human beings on road trips.

That said, don't underestimate this New Orleans team. They are very good, with or without Peja... who is overrated at this point in his career. Pavlovic and Wally were outplayed by Posey and Mo Pete... but they were the home team, which always helps rhythm shooters. They are much better with Chandler, but the Hornets are still very good.

Mo and LeBron are still finding their rhythm together... and while they look great at home, they are far from comfortable with each other's roles on the road.

we were too worried about chris paul that when ever we would double team him,there would be another player wide open,like posey and butler were HOT the whole game,we have to bounce back from this vs mavs,because we played awesome in the first 3 quarters,and lost momentum in the 4th

LMAO @ MB

"they did a good job of uh not having..fouls...called on them."

cmstophe said:

..how is that overreacting? We got outclassed and outgunned by an undermanned opponent when we have the best player in the world on our team.

We aren't a championship team. Try and be clever all you want, but it's true, and tonight showed have a ways to go before we can hang with and finish a great team ON THE ROAD.

FT shooting sucking? Check.

Taking bad shots to kill possessions? Check.

Lots of turnovers? Check.

Tell me which of those are characteristics of a championship team. We did this against the Celtics too.

So we're 1-2. We beat a bad team, lost to two good ones. We have a very real shot at going 1-3. You excited to go to Dallas?

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You are basing an entire season on one game against a good team (Tyson and Peja are not contributors every night)...that is called an overreaction. We are three games we have lost to two good team in their house during there home opener. To make a prediction NOW on where we will be in 5-6 months...pointless.

2 of their starters were out and we still couldn't win. Seriously, we are a bad road team. I don't care if we're 3 games in. I am accepting it already. We always suck on the road. We let 3 guys beat us tonight basically. All we had to do was one of these 3 to win....

1. stop CP3 (not likely)
2. double and hound West
3. Or DONT LEAVE JAMES POSEY WIDE OPEN FOR 3 EVERY TIME DOWN COURT! WHAT DONT WE GET!? THAT IS ALL HE DOES IS STAND ON THE 3 POINT LINE!!

Several problems:

1) The Hornets got to the line 10 more times and made 14 more free throws than we did.

2) Our defense was very poor, pick and roll coverage's were atrocious. Besides for the first quarter our defense was horrible.

3) Our two main guys played bad. Lebron did a good job setting up everyone but he had 5 turnovers and shot bad. Mo also shot bad and had 4 turnovers. His shot selection was very questionable.

4) Despite having the edge over them on size we did NOT outrebound them. We were tied for 36 rebounds but THEY HAD 2 MORE OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS THAT US.

When you look at all of that I am not surprised we lost. It doesn't matter if two of their best players were out. We played horrible defense, the thing that wins games for us is our DEFNSE. We are not a flashy offensive team, hell we aren't even a very good offensive team. Our defense has won games for us, the addition of Mo williams wont change that because our coach had no offensive philosophy (he's a defensive minded coach).

It was frustrating though to see great ball movement through 3 quarters but then breakdown in the 4th. We went back to "pounding the ball" offense.

Benedict_Boozer said:

I'm pissed off but really, this game wasn't that bad of a performance for 3 1/2 qtr's. The Cavs played a solid 1st half, had a good 3rd quarter and started the 4th pretty well.

When Lebron came back in though, everything ground to a halt and the defense fell apart.

Lebron just has to continue trusting the offense and moving the ball. He has to look to get his looks off the ball or in the post, cause teams have scouted his pound pick & roll to death.

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I agree. That's 3 games now where we've had 3-3.5 good quarters. If we're going to entirely mail it in though, we can't let teams hang around the way we do for the other 3 or so quarters. This was the home opener for a top five team with the best point guard (possibly player) in the world. And for 3.5 quarters, we did play pretty well. But at some point along the line, I got tired of saying, "man, we were close enough to win that game." We have a talented squad. We have one of the league's best players. It's time to stop underachieving. It's time to stop pounding the ball. Time to stop playing down to the competition. It's time to stop"almost winning" and start actually winning.

SteelSmack said:

We just can't hit clutch shots on the road.

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2 of my favorite players, Boobie and Z, just plain suck on the road.

MB almost always sucks.

And LeBron thought he sucked tonight too.

Blame game...

MB 40% - Gibson and Pavs should be seeing many more of West and Wally's mins. And several other things too.
LBJ 30% - We thought he played lackluster at the beginning of the last 2 years?
REFS 10% - There were some pretty tough calls that changed the momentum a few time.
Exectution 10% - We missed a lot of shots we have to make.
Hornets 10% - They are good, especially Paul...

cmstophe said:

I obviously agree, but coulda woulda shoulda.

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So you agree we could easily be a 3-0, but you know from what you saw tonight we are not a championship caliber team......??????? Emotional reactions will not get you anywhere.

This will be...oh, the 5th year in a row that this has happen. Why does everyone want to nail down their season predictions based on hardly anything.