Game Thread 2020-21 Season | Game #17 | Lakers @ Cavaliers | January 25, 2021

Campy says the officials tonight were young and can be intimidated in a very subtle matter
by the stars.

shoes22 said:

People going off on Drummond are nuts. Without his production and defense, we lose this game by 25+ easy. Complain about his decision-making all you want, but if he wasn’t on the floor, this isn’t even a game.

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Los216 said:

People complaining about bigs pushing the ball up court but when they grab rebounds our guards need to stay back and come get the ball. If they start running out the bigs are going to take the ball across half court to avoid an 8 second violation.

Sexton does this a lot. The big will grab a rebound and he will run up court asking for the ball. Come back to the ball so that the big doesn't even have to dribble.

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I have been saying this FOREVER! When the big guys grab a rebound the guards should up to them, clap their hands and say give me the ball! My HS and college coaches would cuss me when I ran up court leaving the bigs to handle the ball. I used to watch Magic and Zeke run and basically TAKE the ball of the big men’s hands after they grabbed a rebound.

OptimusPrime said:

Need Garland to be more assertive. If he's not scoring, there isn't enough from the rest of the team. No one is going to let Sexton go off again until they have someone else to worry about.

On defense, they really miss Nance. His rebounding if nothing else. They could even throw him on LeBron for a while, but that wouldn't matter. He does this against everyone whenever he feels like it.

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Great post.

Great effort after last night's stinker. The Cavs had the lead starting the 4th quarter and held it until LeBron took over and put the Lakers up for good with 7:13 to go. LeBron had 23 in the first half and 23 in the second. I've never seen him shoot this well;19-for-26 and 7-for-11 on 3's. If he could shoot 3's this well when he was here we would have won 4-5 Championships.

Too bad we didn't have Larry Nance Jr but I doubt that would have got us a win.

According to the Cavs' assistant coach they interviewed at halftime the Cavs missed 12 layups in the first half. The Lakers' height bothered them. Not only did the Lakers force missed layups but they also blocked seven shots and got 15 offensive rebounds. Kuzma had a great game on the offensive glass with 6 rebounds in only 22 minutes. The Cavs are 29th in defensive rebounding percentage and it bit them tonight as the Lakers got a lot of second and even third chances to score.

Montrezl Harrell had a nice game off the bench with a +18 in 26 minutes. He went 6-for-9 with 6 rebounds. I thought he was the difference as Drummond got Gasol in early foul trouble but Harrell picked up the slack. The Cavs were +11 when he was on the bench.

Drummond had 25 points, 17 rebounds and only 2 turnovers in 28 minutes with a +4. That's the kind of game we want to see more of - a 25/17 with only 2 turnovers.

Sexton was only 6-for-17 but had 6 assists. He's a much better passer this year, but we needed him to make a couple more shots.

It took LeBron's highest scoring game of the season by 12 points to pull this one out for the Lakers. LeBron is averaging just under 24 ppg and had 46 tonight - almost double his average. The rest of the Lakers were 3-for-21 on 3's and 23-for-51 overall. LeBron had to practically win it by himself, with a little help from Harrell and Kuzma on the front line.

Sprained wrist for Nance, no timetable for return.

I guess I will have to take your guys' word for it since I missed most of the 1st half but on the offensive end, just because Drummond is scoring doesn't mean he's keeping us in the game. Every three foot shot that Drummond makes at a 50% clip has an opportunity cost. I don't know if he was contributing fantastically on defense, but rarely do I get the feeling of "Man we need to get this guy more shots"

shoes22 said:

People going off on Drummond are nuts. Without his production and defense, we lose this game by 25+ easy. Complain about his decision-making all you want, but if he wasn’t on the floor, this isn’t even a game.

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Yeah I'm a Drummond hater but he totally took Anthony freaking Davis basically out of the game. Could really care less if he stays a Cav after this year but give him his due this game

IWantAKouki said:

I guess I will have to take your guys' word for it since I missed most of the 1st half but on the offensive end, just because Drummond is scoring doesn't mean he's keeping us in the game. Every three foot shot that Drummond makes at a 50% clip has an opportunity cost. I don't know if he was contributing fantastically on defense, but rarely do I get the feeling of "Man we need to get this guy more shots"

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I mean he ate Davis up most of the night. Easily outplayed him. That's...more than I can ask of him.

Sexton sucked. Garland was meh. And LeBron couldn't miss a single shot.

If Sexton isn't scoring then we aren't gonna beat really talented teams like this.

Cavatt said:

Great post.

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Missed the game! What was up with Nance? A carry over from that wrist injury the other night?

Yes.

I usually don't complain about the refs but I agree with JBB that the Lakers got the calls tonight. Yet the Cavs only lost by seven points despite not having Larry Nance.

I don't know why people are so down on Drummond. He had seven offensive rebounds! And he plays good defense. And he was 11-for-21 for 25 points with only 2 turnovers. What is the problem, exactly?

I agree that Drummond and McGee should stop bringing the ball up themselves, especially if they're going to commit a turnover by trying to throw a pass on the dead run.

This was a good game for the young fellas to get some experience and also confidence that they can compete with the NBA Champs.

Okoro was guarding LeBron much of the night. He was 2 years old when LeBron played his first NBA game.

Pioneer10 said:

You really think they can play Garland Sexton against a team like the Lakers if this was the playoffs and the Lakers actually gameplanned?

That would be a nightmare with Lebron hunting them out just like he did as a Cav against guys like Curry. Cavs have nice pieces with Nancy Okoro Sexton etc but SexLand I'm not sure about at all. You can hide maybe one but two of these guys who both play small on defense?

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It's probably why they have put the ball into Sexton's hands more. Unless they stumble into tall point guard to pair with Sexton, Sexton will have to play PG so they aren't a defensive liability night in night out. Garland and Sexton will have to take up all 48 of the PG minutes for this team to be successful.

I think we will be back tanking soon. Just not enough top tier talent on this team.

inliner311 said:

It's probably why they have put the ball into Sexton's hands more. Unless they stumble into tall point guard to pair with Sexton, Sexton will have to play PG so they aren't a defensive liability night in night out. Garland and Sexton will have to take up all 48 of the PG minutes for this team to be successful.

I think we will be back tanking soon. Just not enough top tier talent on this team.

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They lose a really close game to the Lakers and people are already back on this.

So predictable.

Los216 said:

I expect him to not inexplicably run under that screen. There was no reason to do that.

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He could have made it. That was a moving screen. The screener is not allowed to move toward the basket at that point.