Game Thread | Knicks playoff series Game #5 | Knicks @ Cavs | April 26, 2023 | 7:00 NBA TV

cavsfever said:

Unfortunately the fucking roster is flawed too

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Definitely a flawed roster, but I stand by my statement. But JBB also doesn’t like to play shooters who aren’t defenders, so we were never going to acquire a guy like McBuckets, who might have helped.

Kiddo said:

Oh come on, their big grabbed 10 offensive rebounds all on effort. Didn’t see that fight from our bigs

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I'm not talking about Allen. He was straight trash the entire series. But Mobley held Randle to 33% FG% and averaged 10 rebounds per game against both Hartenstein and Robinson. Both are 7'0 and 250 pounds.

Jscc said:

I'm not talking about Allen. He was straight trash the entire series. But Mobley held Randle to 33% FG% and averaged 10 rebounds per game against both Hartenstein and Robinson. Both are 7'0 and 250 pounds.

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Randle also had a bum ankle and was abusing Mobley tonight until his injury.

Kiddo said:

Randle also had a bum ankle and was abusing Mobley tonight until his injury.

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Ummmm, no he wasn’t. 32% shooting for the series isn’t “abusing” someone

I guess now I can get real.
We need a paradigm shift.

Cayman13 said:

I’d build around him somehow. I don’t care who we send out- no one is untouchable to me.

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Mobley is untouchable, but he needs a big-man coach, to take him to the next level. Kevin Garnett.

Kiddo said:

Randle also had a bum ankle and was abusing Mobley tonight until his injury.

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Huh? He was like 0-4 in the first quarter when Mobley was in lol.

I'll be fascinated to check the tracking stats later, but Randle's shooting % while guarded by Mobley is gonna be somewhere around 20% and I'm not exaggerating.

I'm so sick of watching the Cavs walk the ball up the court. This offense has ZERO pace. Everything looked hard for the Cavs while the Knicks seemed to just drive in for layups and offensive tip ins whenever they wanted. Just a pathetic series. Twin Towers looked more like Twinkie Towers. We messed up a chance for home court in the 2nd round should MIA eliminate the Bucks. If this wasn't the worst case scenario for the playoffs I don't know what would be. I'm pissed off!

Well, nothing new to see here. Cavs were outrebounded 48-30 and by an incredible 17-4 on the offensive glass. The Knicks seemed to get every loose ball and most of the contested rebounds. The Cavs' bench was outscored by 13. Same thing we've been seeing all series.

The Knicks were just more physical and much deeper. Toppin and Quickley combined for 31 points. I wanted the Cavs to draft Toppin but they went with Okoro instead. In retrospect that looks like a mistake.

Mitchell Robinson was a man among boys. He had 13 points and 18 rebounds while Allen had 4 and 4. Mobley didn't do anything, either, with six points. It's tough when you have two players on the floor whose offensive games are limited to dunks and you're playing the defense that led the NBA in points in the paint.

Randle had a line of 13/4/6 in 16 minutes. He reinjured his ankle just before the half but with Toppin on the bench it didn't matter. Randle could have missed the whole series and the Knicks still win 4-1.

At least Okoro played well with 10 points in 20 minutes including 2-for-3 on 3's. Maybe he'll provide a little more offense next year.

The Cavs had a higher shooting percentage (46.7% to 43.5%) and a higher 3-point percentage (39.4% to 31%), but the Knicks had 10 more shots because of all the offensive rebounds. They also took 29 free throws to 15 for the Cavs. The Knicks kept attacking the rim and drawing fouls. When you have 13 more offensive boards and 14 more free throws not much else matters.

It was a physical team against a finesse team. At least the Cavs' brain trust has a pretty good idea of what it's going to take to get past the first round. Give the Knicks credit - they signed Brunson and traded three players and a first round pick for Hart and that was the difference.

Donovan Mitchell ended up with a respectable 28 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists, but I didn't think he had a big impact on the game. He went only 3-for-12 on 3's and I thought he jacked up too many. Mitchell and Garland were a combined 4-for-18 on 3's and we needed better. With no scoring from Allen or Mobley and with the Knicks packing the paint we needed 3-point shooting from Mitchell and Garland and unfortunately, they didn't have it tonight.

Well, it's been a good year; 51 wins plus one in the playoffs. No draft for the Cavs this year but maybe the front office can swing a trade or something. See you guys next fall.

SanduskyCav said:

What a terrible fucking idea it would be to trade Mitchell. We would never recoup what we gave up. We would also lose the only set of nuts we have on the team.

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So you're saying that for Mitchell we couldn't get back the equivalent of Markkanen and Sexton? Granted Marks value is high now and I liked him a lot and we could use some shooting. Sexton is doing what? The second round picks eh.
And I like Mitchell a lot, he brought some serious excitement this year prior to laying an egg in the most important games of the season.
I'm just throwing something out there, don't get so excited. What's your plan?

Danny Green has to feel horrible right now. What a disaster of a buyout choice.