Game Thread | 2020-2021 Season | Game #53 | Pelicans @ Cavs | April 11, 2021

[KilgoreTrout]

Osman hasn't been bad tonight. Too many turnovers but otherwise fine IMO.

7-11 from the field, 7 assists, still a team-worst -10. How does he do it?

 

[avs2000]

Delly drove that tank

This tank thing is so dumb. Drove the tank. Driving the tank. Etc. it’s is so stupid. Franchises are not driving a tank. Every time someone says tank they just look stupid. Tonight. The Cavs lost. Period. No tank. They lost. Idiots

 

[cabs]

Cedi the ultimate tank commander

 

[Rodzilla]

This tank thing is so dumb. Drove the tank. Driving the tank. Etc. it’s is so stupid. Franchises are not driving a tank. Every time someone says tank they just look stupid. Tonight. The Cavs lost. Period. No tank. They lost. Idiots

actually that was a message specifically for me to read

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Great effort and despite missing four key players in Allen, Nance, Sexton, and Garland the undermanned Cavs took the Pelicans down to the final two minutes. In the end it was too much Zion (38 pts, 9 rebs, 4 assists on 16-for-22 from the field) and Ingram (27 pts, 8 assists). The two Pelican stars combined for 65 points and 17 assists. The Cavs could not stop them at crunch time.

The last time these teams played the Cavs scored 82 and tonight they surpassed that by 27 points despite not having their top four scorers. Wade had a career game with 21 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals. It was great to see him hit five 3's because he's been in a shooting slump.

Okoro had a career high 19 points. His shooting stroke is looking much better. Okoro is shooting 60.6% from the field and 58.3% on 3's in six March games. He's also made 11 of his last 13 free throws. His offensive game is coming around.

Cedi looked better as a point guard than he did as a small forward. He had 15 points and 7 assists while going 7-for-11 from the field. However, his 3-point shot has abandoned him as he's made only 2 of his last 21.

Hartenstein fouled out in 22 minutes. In his last seven games he fouled out once and played with five fouls three times. He really needs to work on moving his feet and not fouling while setting a screen. He also had four turnovers.

The Cavs had a great chance to steal a win against a superior opponent but they needed to hit a few more 3's. Love missed nine 3's. Delly, Prince, Kabendele, and Cedi went 1-for-14 from deep. The Cavs scored a season high 68 points in the first half but could only muster 41 in the second.

In the end the Cavs were much more competitive against the Pelis than they were three weeks ago when the game was over early in the third quarter. Too bad they couldn't have figured out a way to contain Zion or hit a few more 3's.

So now they have two days off and we'll see if Sexton, Garland, Allen, and Nance rejoin the team for Wednesday's game.

 

[bigfoot5415]

7-11 from the field, 7 assists, still a team-worst -10. How does he do it?

+/- should never be used as a metric for success

If I was out there with 4 HoF caliber players, turned the ball over 4 times in a w minute span, but we went on a 15-0 run. My +/- would be +15.

 

[Pioneer10]

7-11 from the field, 7 assists, still a team-worst -10. How does he do it?

The stat line doesn't show how bad he was out there (except the +/-). I mean had 3 possesions where I think he just lost the ball dribbling the ball under no pressure: I mean it was like a little kid game where they don't know how to dribble and the ball just goes random places.

A lot of his made shots were created by others off passes/TO's so this is again where basic box score misses out. When he tried to create (I missed the last 2 minutes of the game) it tended not go well

 

[LutherRackley]

Cedi had a solid game. Some people just love to hate him.
As Bigfoot5415 said plus/minus isn’t a good stat.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

Cedi had four turnovers in 29 minutes which is too many, but he was playing point guard much of the time so he was out of position. His shooting was encouraging as he was 7-for-9 on 2-pointers and 0-for-2 on 3's. He needs to stop taking 3-point shots altogether. I think he's made 2 of his last 21.

Cedi dished out seven assists in 29 minutes. Garland is averaging 5.9 in 32 minutes. The one area of Cedi's game that has impressed me this year is his passing. He sees the floor well and a 6'8" he can get his passes off without being deflected.

If he would take the time to dramatically improve his dribbling, especially with the left hand, I could see him as a point guard along the lines of 6'11" Ben Simmons, who averages 15 points and 7.1 assists in 33 minutes. Simmons is shooting 54.5% from the field and has only attempted nine 3's this year.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Cedi had four turnovers in 29 minutes which is too many, but he was playing point guard much of the time so he was out of position. His shooting was encouraging as he was 7-for-9 on 2-pointers and 0-for-2 on 3's. He needs to stop taking 3-point shots altogether. I think he's made 2 of his last 21.

Cedi dished out seven assists in 29 minutes. Garland is averaging 5.9 in 32 minutes. The one area of Cedi's game that has impressed me this year is his passing. He sees the floor well and a 6'8" he can get his passes off without being deflected.

If he would take the time to dramatically improve his dribbling, especially with the left hand, I could see him as a point guard along the lines of 6'11" Ben Simmons, who averages 15 points and 7.1 assists in 33 minutes. Simmons is shooting 54.5% from the field and has only attempted nine 3's this year.

I mean, it’s probably too late for Cedi to save himself, as a Cavalier.

But maybe if JBB had said to him, a few months back: “Every time you take a 3-point shot, you get a staple gun to the nuts”, he might have looked slightly attractive to suitors. Instead, he killed the team with at least a handful of nights where he shot like 1-8 from 3. Something must have happened to his 3-point shot, but JBB let him kill the team. Should never have been possible.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I mean, it’s probably too late for Cedi to save himself, as a Cavalier.

But maybe if JBB had said to him, a few months back: “Every time you take a 3-point shot, you get a staple gun to the nuts”, he might have looked slightly attractive to suitors. Instead, he killed the team with at least a handful of nights where he shot like 1-8 from 3. Something must have happened to his 3-point shot, but JBB let him kill the team. Should never have been possible.

I think he got the message even without the staple gun - taking him out of the rotation for a few games did the trick. He's not shooting eight 3's a game anymore but is driving and either finishing with a layup or floater or dishing off. He and Okoro are attacking the rim a lot more than they did earlier when they were both spot up 3-point shooters.