Game Thread | 2021-2022 Season | Game #57 | Cavs @ Hawks | Feb. 15, 2022 | 7:30 p.m.

[DCTribefan]

If Okoro is not making life difficult for the guy he’s guarding, or scoring, or assisting, or rebounding, what’s he doing?

Waiting for year three so he can start playing up to his potential.

 

[Rich]

My fear with Okoro is what you saw tonight.

The opposing teams best offensive player is gonna take most of the game off on defense to rest. Young is a terrible defender and the Cavs couldn't expose that because he was guarding Okoro.


I see Boston just putting Tatum on him so he can rest. Philly is gonna put James Harden on him.

Generally bad defensive players that are otherwise gonna hide when Okoro is playing all these minutes.


Which is why, even if he's struggling, LeVert needs to start. For that reason alone, he needs to be the guy getting the starter minutes, to get out ahead of that.

 

[2 For The Brew]

Nothing wrong with having realistic expectations. Top 6 would be an achievement. The East is deeper than the West. We’re young.

CBS SportsLine.com had eleven title contenders and we’re not one of them. OK - I don’t really think we can win the Finals. That’s fine.

But they have the LAKERS as a genuine title contender. That’s hilarious.

 

[KevinLoveFan]

The Cavs have been SO BAD over the last month that they're 10-5 which is good for a higher winning percentage than their entire seasons record.

We've only been 6-4 over the last 10 games. That's been a bit rougher.

We've had a slightly worse than normal 2 weeks or so and we have people pontificating about our ruined season ceiling and doomed to the play in.

Ive had overreactions myself in game threads...so i get it....

but its just not that serious. The Cavs are absolutely positively fine. The mighty Sixers who the same people were crowing a couple nights ago just got steamrolled by 40.

It's

Nothing wrong with having realistic expectations. Top 6 would be an achievement. The East is deeper than the West. We’re young.

CBS SportsLine.com had eleven title contenders and we’re not one of them. OK - I don’t really think we can win the Finals. That’s fine.

But they have the LAKERS as a genuine title contender. That’s hilarious.

Even during our best stretch, I saw us as a team that could make the semis. I still think we could do that, but it will be harder, esp without Rubio. I never expected a Finals run. The only team about as young as ours that's done that in the last decade-ish, IIRC, was my Thunder back in the day with Durant, Westbrook, and Harden. Garland, Mobley, and JA are nice, but they aren't at that same level.

But that's why I'm not freaking out in game threads like this either. We had a bad defensive effort, but we lost by single digits and were in the game throughout. I think some people here have been a bit spoiled and may have too high of expectations for the team. I know these threads can get heated, but tonight was a bit too over the top IMO even for what typically goes on here. I'm glad for the break bc at this point, it's about more fun to just watch Giddey and OKC and not deal w any drama.

 

[Rich]

Even during our best stretch, I saw us as a team that could make the semis. I still think we could do that, but it will be harder, esp without Rubio. I never expected a Finals run. The only team about as young as ours that's done that in the last decade-ish, IIRC, was my Thunder back in the day with Durant, Westbrook, and Harden. Garland, Mobley, and JA are nice, but they aren't at that same level.

But that's why I'm not freaking out in game threads like this either. We had a bad defensive effort, but we lost by single digits and were in the game throughout. I think some people here have been a bit spoiled and may have too high of expectations for the team. I know these threads can get heated, but tonight was a bit too over the top IMO even for what typically goes on here. I'm glad for the break bc at this point, it's about more fun to just watch Giddey and OKC and not deal w any drama.

And that was after the Thunder had been to the playoffs twice, I think. They got bounced in the 1st round the 1st year by the eventual champion Lakers, then the conference Finals by Dallas, then they made the Finals.

 

[2 For The Brew]

Even during our best stretch, I saw us as a team that could make the semis. I still think we could do that, but it will be harder, esp without Rubio. I never expected a Finals run. The only team about as young as ours that's done that in the last decade-ish, IIRC, was my Thunder back in the day with Durant, Westbrook, and Harden. Garland, Mobley, and JA are nice, but they aren't at that same level.

But that's why I'm not freaking out in game threads like this either. We had a bad defensive effort, but we lost by single digits and were in the game throughout. I think some people here have been a bit spoiled and may have too high of expectations for the team. I know these threads can get heated, but tonight was a bit too over the top IMO even for what typically goes on here. I'm glad for the break bc at this point, it's about more fun to just watch Giddey and OKC and not deal w any drama.

I think we could get lucky with seeding, opposing injuries and our good health, get hot and maybe do what Atlanta did last year. I’m rooting for that. But I think it’s silly to get mad if it doesn’t happen. If you can’t enjoy this season then sports will almost always be painful.

Yesterday I was waiting for a colleague and saw a banner on the TV screen: “Who’s to blame for Bengals loss”? I hate and despise that attitude. Here’s a team that nobody had winning the division, who came from behind to beat Mahomes in KC and damn near beat the Rams in LA. This idea that we need to find witches and burn them in sports is ridiculous. Bengals had an incredibly successful season but some moron with anesthetized testicles has to run that crap.

Finishing second in a hard-fought season is an achievement, especially when you weren’t a favorite.

The Cavaliers improving so much and having four players in this weekend at HOME is awesome.

 

[sportscoach]

I think some people are worrying to much, we aren't 100% healthy as a roster and we are still mixing and matching to get the rotations right... honestly we are in the playoffs and anything can happen there! That is way more than we expected starting the season and getting everyone back and healthy should help. Also we have some time to monkey with the roster as well. Maybe getting like DJ Augustine or Enes Freedom for veteran depth may help us as well... We shall see, but so far honestly this has been overall a very good season, so let's not give up with a 5 games over 500 stretch...

 

[KevinLoveFan]

I think we could get lucky with seeding, opposing injuries and our good health, get hot and maybe do what Atlanta did last year. I’m rooting for that. But I think it’s silly to get mad if it doesn’t happen. If you can’t enjoy this season then sports will almost always be painful.

Yesterday I was waiting for a colleague and saw a banner on the TV screen: “Who’s to blame for Bengals loss”? I hate and despise that attitude. Here’s a team that nobody had winning the division, who came from behind to beat Mahomes in KC and damn near beat the Rams in LA. This idea that we need to find witches and burn them in sports is ridiculous. Bengals had an incredibly successful season but some moron with anesthetized testicles has to run that crap.

Finishing second in a hard-fought season is an achievement, especially when you weren’t a favorite.

The Cavaliers improving so much and having four players in this weekend at HOME is awesome.

Bolded part made me chuckle out loud.

But yeah, Cavs have overachieved by all standards at this point. Sometimes in the heat of the game, or a slightly bad stretch of games, that perspective gets lost.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

I mentioned in the preview that the Hawks are either very good or very bad and I expected them to be very good since they've won 8 of their last 10 at home. Unfortunately I was right. The Cavs still helped them out a few times by being lazy getting back on defense, but the Hawks had a great game offensively.

Young was amazing with 41 points and 9 assists. JBB tried everybody guarding him but nobody stood a chance. The zone didn't work, either. But the guy that really hurt us was Gallinari, averaging 10.3 ppg. He scored 25 tonight.

I don't know if the Cavs were that bad defensively or the Hawks just had a big night. They average 114 ppg at home and got 124 tonight. This team beat Phoenix, Milwaukee, and Miami in the last month so when they're playing well they will beat anybody.

Garland was terrific with 30 points and 8 assists but he was no match for Young. At least we held Capela to one offensive rebound. Rondo probably had the worst game with a -16 in 19 minutes and 0 points. LeVert had an off night with 9 points on 12 shots. This is one of those games where we needed everybody to have a good game.

Nice game by Mobley with a line of 22/10/4 with 4 steals. I'd love to see those numbers every night.

OK, eight days off and the Cavs finish out the season with Markkanen back by the next time we play. Too bad we couldn't have pulled this one out but when they shot 54% and 42% on 3's it's tough.

 

[Dr No]

Just finished watching it on replay. A few thoughts. 1. Trae had a little extra spark tonight. I think he wanted to make sure people knew who the best pg on the floor was. 2. What were we trying to do with our defense on Trae? He’s too good to leave guys on islands trying to guard him. 3. We refused to make Trae work on D. Trae sucks on D and we didn’t even try to exploit him. We ran possession after possession letting Trae just stand in the corner guarding a guy just standing in the corner. I guarantee Wade and Okoro can take Trae at will - run a damn set that gets them the ball. JBB and/or Garland need to do better. 4. We’ve been beat by 2 superstar performances the last 2 games. Some of that is superstars doing superstar things. But we really haven’t adjusted to making life hard on them once they got going.

 

[mAo_mAo]

Wade was solid tonight.


I'm not sure about our bench in the playoffs.


RIght now, Rondo+Love just seems like a pick and roll nightmare for our defense.


The hawks just lit those two up all night.

I don't know what we're gonna do about that.

Love HAS to play big minutes because he's out most reliable 3 point shooter. But he is absolutely a target on defense.


On the other end the Cavs are not doing a good enough job recognizing opposing teams weaknesses.

Young got to hide on Okoro most of the night. We didn't start going at Gallinari until the 3rd quarter.

Tray actually hid by guarding Wade. This is what I am looking for with Mark and Caris in the starting lineup. There is no where another team can hide their non defensive player.

 

[Rich]

Tray actually hid by guarding Wade. This is what I am looking for with Mark and Caris in the starting lineup. There is no where another team can hide their non defensive player.

It was Okoro at the end when the lineup closing lineup was Okoro+LeVert in there.

But yes, Wade too.


Hopefully in a 7 game series the Cavs will actually make it a point to at least try and expose things like that.

I understand not game planning on trying to get Okoro and Wade a bunch of looks just to expose Young on a random Tuesday, though.

 

[mAo_mAo]

I

Just finished watching it on replay. A few thoughts. 1. Trae had a little extra spark tonight. I think he wanted to make sure people knew who the best pg on the floor was. 2. What were we trying to do with our defense on Trae? He’s too good to leave guys on islands trying to guard him. 3. We refused to make Trae work on D. Trae sucks on D and we didn’t even try to exploit him. We ran possession after possession letting Trae just stand in the corner guarding a guy just standing in the corner. I guarantee Wade and Okoro can take Trae at will - run a damn set that gets them the ball. JBB and/or Garland need to do better. 4. We’ve been beat by 2 superstar performances the last 2 games. Some of that is superstars doing superstar things. But we really haven’t adjusted to making life hard on them once they got going.

I’d rather have the switching defense against Trae rather than the drop coverage we were playing all night. Have Okoro foul Capela rather than Trae.

 

[kookoo]

Cavs are 10-5 over the last month.

But look at the teams we've played. And the manner of the games we've barely snuck out against bad teams... Pulling games out against OKC, Indiana, SAS. We had great comebacks in those games, for sure. But the problem when we come up against halfway decent teams is that comeback gets a lot tougher to actually pull off. We had comfortable games against Utah and Milwaukee. Literally every other game has felt like a slog where if Love or Cedi didn't hot in the 3rd, we realistically could have lost any of those games. I'm just not as confident as everyone else in how we've been playing in 2022, records be damned. One or two games here and there against bad teams, I get it. But it's felt like we've been slapped around a lot lately and we need to adjust or the post ASG isn't going to be much different, with or without Lauri. And I'm more concerned about the playoffs, where even the bottom 4 are still going to be very very very good. Not expecting to win a championship this year, but I'd like us to look competitive.

 

[PIP]

Okoro has to be giving me high level defense… That’s why I’m a proponent of him being out there… Locking up a top player, getting deflections, out in transition…. I’m fine with 8-10 points, couple assist, steals but that comes with the idea that he’s shutting down a top scorer or making their night miserable….

You give me his offensive output tonight but he held Ice Trae to 21 points ? Alright cool….Cause he only took 3 shots…

But if the other guy is cooking and I’m still not getting anything else ? Im not digging it…

If I had to place the blame on one person tonight it would probably be Dylan Windler…