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Game Thread | 2020-21 Season | Game #49 | Cavs @ Heat | April 3, 2021

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Rich said:
Thing is with the way the roster is now, how can I fairly judge Altman?

Because now the team is set up to lose. They aren't supposed to win with front court rotation of Love for 20 minutes, Dean Wade, Hartenstein, and Taurean Prince.

This is like what Houston was running before Wood came back. It can't win.

So now do I not hold Altman accountable? Is that the point?
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Are you holding Altman accountable for the injuries to Allen and Nance?
 
Okoro finally has a good game, and we get killed by Wade and Cedi. It’s a different guy every night, but in the wrong way.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
Are you holding Altman accountable for the injuries to Allen and Nance?
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No more like it's really convenient that because of those injuries, he has a built in excuse as to why this team is about to get blown out every night.
 
Deja vu. Two weeks ago the Cavs gave up 62 points in the first half and lost 113-98. Tonight they gave up 67 in the first half and lost 115-101.

The Heat came out smoking, hitting seven 3's in the first quarter and 10 in the first half on only 21 attempts. Two weeks ago they had 10 the entire game. Duncan Robinson, who loves to shoot from deep against the Cavs, was 6-for-9.

This game was lost from the 3-point line. Wade was 1-for-6, Love 2-for-8, and Sexton 0-for-4. That adds up to 3-for-18 from players who are supposed to be able to make them. In fact, Miami made five more 3's than Cleveland, a difference of 15 points in a 14-point loss.

The good news is the Cavs battled back in the third quarter and kept the game within reach several minutes into the fourth quarter, which is progress. But the Cavs started out the 4th quarter 1-for-10 with a couple of turnovers and the Heat pulled away.

Individually, Taurean Prince has shaken off the rust as he had 19 points off the bench along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. He had no turnovers in 32 minutes and had his best game as a Cavalier. Isaac Okoro had a career high 17 points on only seven shots. That's the kind of offense we've been looking for from him. He was 2-for-2 on 3's and 5-for-7 on free throws which is a big improvement.

The Cavs have been really hurting at the small forward position, IMO, so seeing strong games from Okoro and Prince is very encouraging. Osman was awful, going 1-for-6 in 10 minutes and finally losing it and punching the ball which got him a technical. Delly had another nice game with five assists and a -1 in 17 minutes.

Dean Wade needed to step up if the Cavs were to have a shot but he had a very disappointing game going 1-for-8 from the field and missing several uncontested 3's that he usually makes. Sexton had 26 points but he also had five turnovers as well as going 0-for-4 on 3-pointers, all of which were uncontested.

The Heat just have too much talent, especially with the Cavs having two starters out with injuries or illness. I wonder how much closer it would have been if Allen and Nance could play. These teams play a final time in Cleveland in four weeks. I'm hoping everybody on the Cavs is available for that game as it will be a good measuring stick compared with the first two games.

The Heat's starters were all between +10 and +18. They had a total of seven players in double figures and 35 assists on 44 baskets. They are just a smart, experienced, unselfish team that finds the open shooter and nobody cares who scores and how many. The Cavs are trying to pattern their team on the Miami model. They're going to need to find a Jimmy Butler and some better three-point shooters.

After tonight I'm really eager to see a Cavs team with Allen, Love, Nance, Wade, Okoro, Prince, Garland, Sexton and Delly all healthy at the same time. Maybe when they get back home a week from tonight.
 
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KilgoreTrout said:
Okoro finally has a good game, and we get killed by Wade and Cedi. It’s a different guy every night, but in the wrong way.
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For the Cavs to beat a decent team they can't afford to have players out, like Allen and Nance, or anybody to have an off night, like Wade and Cedi. I really feel for Cedi - he's fallen totally apart. Since March 1 he's shooting 26.3% from the field. He's made 3 of his last 26 attempts on 3-point shots. He's a mess. Tonight he jacked up six shots in only 10 minutes and made one - a fast break layup on a nice feed from Garland.
 
Rich said:
No more like it's really convenient that because of those injuries, he has a built in excuse as to why this team is about to get blown out every night.
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It's not about to get blown out every night. Against Philly without Allen and Nance? Yes. Against Miami with those guys out? Well, sort of. Against Utah on the road with Allen and Nance out? Sure.

But take a look at the rest of the schedule - there are some beatable teams. If we can get Allen and Nance back and if Okoro and Prince can keep playing at the level they were tonight, we're not going to get blown out.
 
KilgoreTrout said:
Okoro finally has a good game, and we get killed by Wade and Cedi. It’s a different guy every night, but in the wrong way.
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Every player has off nights and its highly unusual for all 8-10 guys in a rotation to be on in any given game. Our problem is our margin of error is so small that we really do need nearly everyone to be on just to hang with top level teams. That probably changes somewhat if everyone is healthy, but with the roster we put out there tonight, you're right, we needed Wade and Cedi to be at least average to go along with Prince and Okoro being better than usual.
 
Wham with the Right Hand said:
For the Cavs to beat a decent team they can't afford to have players out, like Allen and Nance, or anybody to have an off night, like Wade and Cedi. I really feel for Cedi - he's fallen totally apart. Since March 1 he's shooting 26.3% from the field. He's made 3 of his last 26 attempts on 3-point shots. He's a mess. Tonight he jacked up six shots in only 10 minutes and made one - a fast break layup on a nice feed from Garland.
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I feel bad for myself, watching Cedi shoot 3 for 26 from three. He should be playing for Efes Pilsen, not in the NBA.
 
Alec Zander said:
If they're injury prone, it's on Altman to know that. He's taking the risk rostering them. So it's always on him.
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Neither Allen or Nance are "injury prone". Love is injury prone due to his age and number of games played.

LeBron is out right now. Is he "injury prone"?
 
For a game where both Allen and Nance were out, and Love and Delly were in, I was expecting a lot worse than we saw.
The good news is that the presence of Love and Delly does improve some annoying habits on offense. Love's passing for example just makes things a lot better moving on offense. Still like Garland's slow evolution into being a better PG.

Miami isn't the Bubble Surprise this year but they are a team that operates that I wish the Cavs were doing right now, only they don't have the personnel for it yet. The game illustrated the Cavs' tendency to pounce when a professional team starts playing the slightest bit beneath that standard. Of course that fell apart in the 4th because no one could hit their shots, but there it is.
 
The starting unit is really, really small right now and the bench is really, really bad.

Thye've played hard and at times played well the last two games.

They're WAY outsized though. The Garland/Sexton/Okoro trio is already hard to make work defensively. Remove Nance and Allen and replace them with Wade and Love and there's just no way. Their only shot to win games right now is for Sexton to score 40 and hit a bunch of 3s.


But they played a really good 3rd quarter for once. Sexton was awesome.
 
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