Game Thread 2020-21 Season | Game #25 | Cavs @ Suns | February 8, 2021

[Rich]

That .... was some bullshit, but not nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.
The bullshit: those 4th quarter subs, somehow limiting the attempts of Sexton.

But man, Garland was on a tear tonight. Love to see it. Some good stuff from Windler but he needs to know he ain't Sexton, so he isn't outrunning people like that in transition.

Sneakiest tank job in a minute, gotta credit JBB for the innovation

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When? Where?

 

[Futuredome]

End of the 3rd, Garland hit his best part of the night and put the Cavs in the lead

 

[Dr. Claw]

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When? Where?

Offensively there was a stretch where he had a few unexpected and good buckets. Want to say it was sometime in the third.
This says nothing about how the game ended,... where, when the game was in reach somehow the guy who does the thing the Cavs need to do (score) couldn't get the ball.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

A winnable game thanks to the absence of Chris Paul but the Cavs couldn't close the deal. Sexton got called for an offensive foul then missed a runner. Garland missed a step-back from the elbow. There was no ball movement in the final minutes, just Sexland going one-on-one and failing to score all three times.

But this game was lost on the defensive glass as the Suns got 14 offensive rebounds, most of which resulted in points. The Cavs got beat off the dribble repeatedly which forced their bigs to pick up the ball and challenge the shot, resulting in a plethora of second chance points.

The Cavs also missed eight free throws. The Cavs rank 28th in defensive rebound percentage and 29th in free throw percentage and those two vulnerabilities probably cost them 20-25 points tonight.

They also had another typical meltdown at the end of the second quarter as they gave up 8 points in the final 33 seconds in a 6-point loss.

Booker was brilliant for Pheonix with 36 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds. He either scored or assisted on at least 52 points. Cedi Osman, OTOH, was 0-for-4 on 3's. We needed him to hit a couple of those, especially since they were all uncontested.

Too bad McGee got run; he had 8 points in 8 minutes. He hasn't played in a while and when he finally gets back into the rotation he gets himself ejected.

The Twin Towers approach looked pretty good. Dre and Allen combined for 29 points, 19 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals on 12-for-19 shooting. I'd like to see more of Drummond and Allen on the floor together. It beats giving Nance's minutes to Cedi and Windler. By the way, Windler is a surprisingly good rebounder. He had 6 in 14 minutes. That's about all he does, though.

Sexton had a nice game with 23 points on 10-for-15 from the field and 5 assists. Prince had another solid game off the bench.

Okoro was a -20 in 25 minutes. The next worst was -5. Garland made some great shots but in the end he was just 6-for-18.

That should have been a Cavs' win but the meltdown in the last minute of the second quarter, the poor free throw shooting, and the awful defensive rebounding did them in. The 3-point shooting was also a factor as the Cavs were 8-for-24 while the Suns were 11-for-24.

 

[Dr No]

A winnable game thanks to the absence of Chris Paul but the Cavs couldn't close the deal. Sexton got called for an offensive foul then missed a runner. Garland missed a step-back from the elbow. There was no ball movement in the final minutes, just Sexland going one-on-one and failing to score all three times.

But this game was lost on the defensive glass as the Suns got 14 offensive rebounds, most of which resulted in points. The Cavs got beat off the dribble repeatedly which forced their bigs to pick up the ball and challenge the shot, resulting in a plethora of second chance points.

The Cavs also missed eight free throws. The Cavs rank 28th in defensive rebound percentage and 29th in free throw percentage and those two vulnerabilities probably cost them 20-25 points tonight.

They also had another typical meltdown at the end of the second quarter as they gave up 8 points in the final 33 seconds in a 6-point loss.

Booker was brilliant for Pheonix with 36 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds. He either scored or assisted on at least 52 points. Cedi Osman, OTOH, was 0-for-4 on 3's. We needed him to hit a couple of those, especially since they were all uncontested.

Too bad McGee got run; he had 8 points in 8 minutes. He hasn't played in a while and when he finally gets back into the rotation he gets himself ejected.

The Twin Towers approach looked pretty good. Dre and Allen combined for 29 points, 19 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals on 12-for-19 shooting. I'd like to see more of Drummond and Allen on the floor together. It beats giving Nance's minutes to Cedi and Windler. By the way, Windler is a surprisingly good rebounder. He had 6 in 14 minutes. That's about all he does, though.

Sexton had a nice game with 23 points on 10-for-15 from the field and 5 assists. Prince had another solid game off the bench.

Okoro was a -20 in 25 minutes. The next worst was -5. Garland made some great shots but in the end he was just 6-for-18.

That should have been a Cavs' win but the meltdown in the last minute of the second quarter, the poor free throw shooting, and the awful defensive rebounding did them in. The 3-point shooting was also a factor as the Cavs were 8-for-24 while the Suns were 11-for-24.

I didn’t think the twin towers were good, even if their numbers seem ok. It was bad offense when they were in and terrible defense keeping people from penetration. We are trying to play 1980’s ball in 2021. That lineup will get obliterated by Denver’s skilled and athletic bigs.

 

[Comeback kid]

Unfortunately 48 minutes of Taurean Prince and Dean Wade at PF isn’t good either. With both Nance and Love out, great options are not a plenty.

Oh good Lord, they haven't tried Wade all year...... they're not smart enough to do it now.

 

[Comeback kid]

Because he sucks, although honestly playing him can't be worse than the Allen/Drummond pairing up front. Put him in there.

How would you know that? He hasn't played yet this year.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

A winnable game thanks to the absence of Chris Paul but the Cavs couldn't close the deal. Sexton got called for an offensive foul then missed a runner. Garland missed a step-back from the elbow. There was no ball movement in the final minutes, just Sexland going one-on-one and failing to score all three times.

But this game was lost on the defensive glass as the Suns got 14 offensive rebounds, most of which resulted in points. The Cavs got beat off the dribble repeatedly which forced their bigs to pick up the ball and challenge the shot, resulting in a plethora of second chance points.

The Cavs also missed eight free throws. The Cavs rank 28th in defensive rebound percentage and 29th in free throw percentage and those two vulnerabilities probably cost them 20-25 points tonight.

They also had another typical meltdown at the end of the second quarter as they gave up 8 points in the final 33 seconds in a 6-point loss.

Booker was brilliant for Pheonix with 36 points, 8 assists, and 5 rebounds. He either scored or assisted on at least 52 points. Cedi Osman, OTOH, was 0-for-4 on 3's. We needed him to hit a couple of those, especially since they were all uncontested.

Too bad McGee got run; he had 8 points in 8 minutes. He hasn't played in a while and when he finally gets back into the rotation he gets himself ejected.

The Twin Towers approach looked pretty good. Dre and Allen combined for 29 points, 19 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals on 12-for-19 shooting. I'd like to see more of Drummond and Allen on the floor together. It beats giving Nance's minutes to Cedi and Windler. By the way, Windler is a surprisingly good rebounder. He had 6 in 14 minutes. That's about all he does, though.

Sexton had a nice game with 23 points on 10-for-15 from the field and 5 assists. Prince had another solid game off the bench.

Okoro was a -20 in 25 minutes. The next worst was -5. Garland made some great shots but in the end he was just 6-for-18.

That should have been a Cavs' win but the meltdown in the last minute of the second quarter, the poor free throw shooting, and the awful defensive rebounding did them in. The 3-point shooting was also a factor as the Cavs were 8-for-24 while the Suns were 11-for-24.

“The Cavs also missed eight free throws. The Cavs rank 28th in defensive rebound percentage and 29th in free throw percentage and those two vulnerabilities probably cost them 20-25 points tonight.”

WOOF.

Also WOOF, re Okoro’s -20 in 25 minutes.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I didn’t think the twin towers were good, even if their numbers seem ok. It was bad offense when they were in and terrible defense keeping people from penetration. We are trying to play 1980’s ball in 2021. That lineup will get obliterated by Denver’s skilled and athletic bigs.

The Cavs scored 113 against the NBA's fourth ranked scoring defense. The Suns are giving up an average of 107 ppg and the Cavs exceeded that by six. Not bad for the 29th ranked scoring offense. Putting Allen in for Nance improved the offense, but the defense was bad. The Suns average just under 110 ppg and got 119 last night.

The Cavs need to do a better job of not getting beat off the dribble which will allow their bigs to stay home and get position for defensive rebounds. Osman needs to stop having those 0-for-4 and 1-for-7 nights from deep. The last three games Cedi is 3-for-17 on 3-point attempts. That's the main thing he brings to the table - his ability to knock down open 3's.

The Cavs scored 4 points in the last 4 minutes. They were very good offensively until crunch time.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

Sure but you framed it as we were willingly taking 2s instead of 3s as a strategy.

We’ve taken only two less then them.

Sure, of course it would be nice to make more of the threes we take

My feeling at that time, and, I suppose, generally, is that, every time we get a 2, I worry that our opponent will come back with a 3. I am never confident that WE will come back with a 3, after our opponent gets a 2. We have a lot harder time pushing a lead, because we shoot and make so few 3s.

 

[Dr No]

The Cavs scored 113 against the NBA's fourth ranked scoring defense. The Suns are giving up an average of 107 ppg and the Cavs exceeded that by six. Not bad for the 29th ranked scoring offense. Putting Allen in for Nance improved the offense, but the defense was bad. The Suns average just under 110 ppg and got 119 last night.

The Cavs need to do a better job of not getting beat off the dribble which will allow their bigs to stay home and get position for defensive rebounds. Osman needs to stop having those 0-for-4 and 1-for-7 nights from deep. The last three games Cedi is 3-for-17 on 3-point attempts. That's the main thing he brings to the table - his ability to knock down open 3's.

The Cavs scored 4 points in the last 4 minutes. They were very good offensively until crunch time.

Our offense was bolstered by McGee hitting a 3 and Okoro hitting 2. For the first time all year, the Suns were without one of the best defensive point guards of all time (7 time first team all defense, 2 second team). Don’t be fooled. That offense won’t work.

 

[Ohioplayer00]

Mmmmmmmmm with Denver, Portland, Clips and GS coming up this road trip is going to get ugly without a full health lineup