Game 12| Cavs @ Pistons | 7:30pm Nov. 18th

[Adam]

I didn't see the game, from the reports it sounds like too much LeIso and not contesting the pistons shooters. The cavs need to lose games where they play too much one on one to reinforce the importance of spacing and ball movement.

Maybe they will respond in the next few games.

 

[lbusiness]

This dude is a straight up fagot and if I see him the ima woup his ass..............



This is exactly why I didn't want to loose this game, we have to make one more move for a big ..

 

[Chris]

Just a few notes from ESPN First Take. Skip and Scoop discussed the game last night.

-Detroit can take anyone in a 1-game scenario
-We learned that Cleveland is "a little better than Detroit" and would beat them in a 7 game series
-The Cavs had a 13 pt lead and were comfortably in control until Lebron began jacking up horrible shots, namely 3s (he was 0-4)
-Lebron has "snipers all over the field"- like Mo Williams who is an "assassin" in Skip's words (rofl), and he needs to trust them. If he did, the Cavs would have comfortably won

Thoughts? People hate on Skip all the time but for once he is actually 100% right. In his words, "Lebron went LeBrick on us late in the game and it contributed to the game being lost, when he had played a good game up to that point". He also noted we outrebounded the Pistons and that we could have easily closed that deal last night.

 

[Rimage]

This is exactly why I didn't want to loose this game, we have to make one more move for a big ..

McDyess was not basing his decision on this game. You made that fact up.

 

[Mdog1]

Just a few notes from ESPN First Take. Skip and Scoop discussed the game last night.

-Detroit can take anyone in a 1-game scenario
-We learned that Cleveland is "a little better than Detroit" and would beat them in a 7 game series
-The Cavs had a 13 pt lead and were comfortably in control until Lebron began jacking up horrible shots, namely 3s (he was 0-4)
-Lebron has "snipers all over the field"- like Mo Williams who is an "assassin" in Skip's words (rofl), and he needs to trust them. If he did, the Cavs would have comfortably won

Thoughts? People hate on Skip all the time but for once he is actually 100% right. In his words, "Lebron went LeBrick on us late in the game and it contributed to the game being lost, when he had played a good game up to that point". He also noted we outrebounded the Pistons and that we could have easily closed that deal last night.

Didn't we start to lose the lead when LeBron was on the bench to start the 3rd? If so it is hardly his fault we lost the lead. I don't agree with his shots but if they had went in everyone is singing a different tune, and the entire team would have been energized.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

^It's not Lebron's fault we lost. Even when he shoots horribly he draws a ton of attention from the defense, is one of our best defenders and one of the best rebounders on the team.

In hindsight he should have deferred more to Mo as he was clearly on fire, but that's part of the process. The trust isn't there yet.

 

[SteelSmack]

Didn't we start to lose the lead when LeBron was on the bench to start the 3rd? If so it is hardly his fault we lost the lead. I don't agree with his shots but if they had went in everyone is singing a different tune, and the entire team would have been energized.

LeBron played the entire 3rd quarter, like I've said before HIS focus is what kills us in the 3rd quarter. If we are winning big in the third we'd be better off - and I KNOW this sounds crazy, but it's 100% true, we'd be better off playing someone other than LeBron, he just gets laid back with big leads.

LeBron turned into LeJumper, when he did attack he wasn't getting calls, so he wasn't getting motivation to attack. It didn't help that the Pistons shot free throws about every other trip down the floor in the third either. A couple of no calls on charges as well. When we have a big lead to start the third, Mo needs to run the offense and LeBron needs to stand in the corner and be a spot up shooter, a post up guy who strictly passes to the open guy when he's doubled, something like that. LeBron's still a beast, but for whatever reason, once he's convinced the Cavs are the better team, he just stops playing.

 

[Redz West is Best]

My summary:

1) Lebron's shot selection killed momentum on almost every occassion. Mo Williams was on fire and Lebron wants his piece. Lebron heat checked himself after Mo or Delonte or Z made a shot. Lebron should have been driving or giving it back to those players.

2) Rasheed had the decisive back to back 3 pointers. He won the game for the Pistons hands down. Just Wow. You have to hand it to him. However, I doubt he can make those shots even 3 out of 7 times. Those shots were extremely clutch. Lebron tried imitate them and failed horribly.

3) Lebron iso (getting back to point 1) tried the isojumper rather than isodrive and kick too many times in the 4th quarter. This was THE game for Lebron to play the role of Magic Johnson. Mo was on fire in the 2nd half especially. Lebron is so used to having to win the game. Hopefully he will learn that Mo, Z, and for periods West/Boobie ALL can hit open shots throughout the game even the 4th quarter.

4) Too many horrible calls by the refs against the Cavs. How many of Delonte's fouls were actually fouls? I believe 2 out of the 5. It was obvious that the Cavs were the agressor in the first half but the Refs seemed to want to make the fouls were about even the whole game. In all honesty, there weren't many fouls the whole game. Alot of the fouls on both sides should not have been called.

5) No help defense in the 2nd half. Iverson whoever was guarding him West, Mo, Gibson, Pavs..got to the lane for easy buckets. Not once did I see Iverson get hit hard by Ben, Andy or whomever. Iverson is one of the top scorers of all time and still is one of the top scorers. Letting him go basically one on one against an opponent after having ran the opponent around a few screens is not a good strategy. Andy and especially Z played poorly as help defenders.

6) 2nd Unit with Mo and Z. If there is no Lebron, and Mo and Z are on the floor, then Z should be getting half the shots on offense. He is becoming a liability on defense (Pick N Roll anyone?), that he must be productive offensively for it to balance out. Now, when Lebron is on the floor there is a difference since Z will get product of Lebron's presence rather than be the cause of the offense.

7) Daniel Gibson plays 10 minutes in the end of the 3rd and beginning of the 4th and does not take a shot. He needs to score when he is in the game. If he isn't scoring, he doesn't have any other benefit right now.

8) Did I mention Lebron had an atrocious 4th quarter?

 

[Redz West is Best]

^It's not Lebron's fault we lost. Even when he shoots horribly he draws a ton of attention from the defense, is one of our best defenders and one of the best rebounders on the team.

In hindsight he should have deferred more to Mo as he was clearly on fire, but that's part of the process. The trust isn't there yet.

I disagree, he is the reason we were not able to halt Detroit's push in the 4th. There were better options than taking LeIso jumpers with two guys in your grill.

 

[Chris]

Didn't we start to lose the lead when LeBron was on the bench to start the 3rd? If so it is hardly his fault we lost the lead. I don't agree with his shots but if they had went in everyone is singing a different tune, and the entire team would have been energized.

The game was close down to the final ~5 minutes if I recall. Lebron hurt is a lot throughout the 2nd half.
Yes if they went in we'd be singing a different tune but that's not the point. IF he is going to jack up those shots he better damn well make them. If he doesnt he has to live with the criticism. It's only fair.

 

[SteelSmack]

4) Too many horrible calls by the refs against the Cavs. How many of Delonte's fouls were actually fouls? I believe 2 out of the 5. It was obvious that the Cavs were the agressor in the first half but the Refs seemed to want to make the fouls were about even the whole game. In all honesty, there weren't many fouls the whole game. Alot of the fouls on both sides should not have been called.

And the ones they did no call, a couple of blatant charges, they swallowed their whistles on, and it just happened to coincide with the big Piston run in the third quarter.

Excellent summary, BTW. I guess what we can all look forward to is, we aren't going to play that defense against them in the playoffs, we just aren't. We won't show them anything until we have to. We know they aren't shooting 50%+ on us again this year, and they're lucky some of the open shots we took didn't fall, Gibson 1-7 what?!

The bottom line is LeBron SHOULDN'T be taking 3s. Period. Stop taking them. In my opinion, Mike Brown should put the hammer down on this, LeBron gets one 3 a game (other than buzzer beaters from 3/4 court), If he misses it, no more threes, if he makes it it, he gets another 2, if both of those miss, he's done. He's just not a good enough shooter to be taking jumpers away from actual good jump shooters.

 

[Da_James_Gang]

Just a few notes from ESPN First Take. Skip and Scoop discussed the game last night.

-Detroit can take anyone in a 1-game scenario
-We learned that Cleveland is "a little better than Detroit" and would beat them in a 7 game series
-The Cavs had a 13 pt lead and were comfortably in control until Lebron began jacking up horrible shots, namely 3s (he was 0-4)
-Lebron has "snipers all over the field"- like Mo Williams who is an "assassin" in Skip's words (rofl), and he needs to trust them. If he did, the Cavs would have comfortably won

Thoughts? People hate on Skip all the time but for once he is actually 100% right. In his words, "Lebron went LeBrick on us late in the game and it contributed to the game being lost, when he had played a good game up to that point". He also noted we outrebounded the Pistons and that we could have easily closed that deal last night.

Well i agree, i said this yesterday. Mo was on fire and Bron should of deferred to him when his own shot wasn't falling. We brought Mo in here to take pressure off him but that won't happen if Bron doesn't trust him teammates.

 

[Mdog1]

And the ones they did no call, a couple of blatant charges, they swallowed their whistles on, and it just happened to coincide with the big Piston run in the third quarter.

Excellent summary, BTW. I guess what we can all look forward to is, we aren't going to play that defense against them in the playoffs, we just aren't.

I agree. The calls in the second half were all Pistons. The one Delonte had me screaming. It was just terrible. Delonte barely touched him and AI threw his body five feet away from DW. Hopefully he gets a suspension or fine or whatever because the league said they were going to start to be tougher on floppers, well there you go Manuesque.

About the defense. I hope we don't play thaat bad of defense the rest of the year. It was terrible. If we are playing like that in the playoffs then we don't even deserve to be there.

 

[Mdog1]

The bottom line is LeBron SHOULDN'T be taking 3s. Period. Stop taking them. In my opinion, Mike Brown should put the hammer down on this, LeBron gets one 3 a game (other than buzzer beaters from 3/4 court), If he misses it, no more threes, if he makes it it, he gets another 2, if both of those miss, he's done. He's just not a good enough shooter to be taking jumpers away from actual good jump shooters.

BTW just for everyone ragging on LeBron beign 0-4 on his threes this game, he missed one with one second left on the shot clock so really he had no choice. He passed it to someone and they passed it to Z and Z passed it back to Bron with a second left, and he had to throw it at the rim otherwise it was a turnover any way.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

I disagree, he is the reason we were not able to halt Detroit's push in the 4th. There were better options than taking LeIso jumpers with two guys in your grill.

Well IMO without Lebron we aren't in position to be in the lead at all in the 4th. Who else on our team can defend Tayshaun Prince? He scored with ease over any of our guards, Pavs is the only guy and he is a liability with his poor decision making. Without LBJ, the Pistons would focus their defense on Z and Mo and we would have been toast well before the 4th. The perimeter defense that let guys like AI and Stucky carve us up was equally bad.

The point being sure LBJ played like a retard in the 4th (and most of the 3rd) but solely blaming him for the loss isn't really fair.