Game Thread | 2021-2022 Season | Game #76 | Mavericks @ Cavaliers | March 30, 2022 | 7:00 p.m.

[mAo_mAo]

By next season, I hope we have a legit 3. Move Lauri to play Love’s role. Move Love to play the high fiver on the bench.

 

[MirORich]

Well I can’t just pick any team team, but a true elite defensive coach coach a defensive system that’s not reliant on a total gimmick. I mean, just looking at the old Heat teams…or the greats Spurs teams with Pop…when those teams were missing their best players, and yes, also their best defenders…they didn’t turn from an elite defense into a bottom feeder. They had a scheme where their less talented but smart and gritty bench unit used great coaching and a smart scheme that permeated through the entire roster to constantly play tough, gritty defensive games.

Shit, we saw it first hand under Mike Brown a lot.

Elite defensive coaches just don’t see their defenses collapse the way this defense has. They just don’t. We’ve only missed JA and Evan together for 1 game. Only missed JA himself for a short period of time. Our defensive collapse predates BOTH players getting hurt, truly.

I just think we climbed the defensive ladder on the back of a gimmick that threw the league off guard for awhile and we have about an average defensive coach who is an extremely bad offensive coach.

We've had this collapse for so long yet still have the 3rd best opponents points per game and decent opponents shooting percentage.

So I'm just not sure how much of a collapse it's been. Has it gotten worse? Yes. Do I feel fair attributing *some* of that to the toll of injuries? Yes.

And when you talk about Heat and Spurs teams, you are talking about almost always veteran roster composition teams that had uninterrupted identities and systems built on 5-10-20 year timespans.

I've seen a lot of jumps this year individual and team wise. I've seen some of the flaws/faults still there that need improvement. I've seen the injuries and not just total games missed but who and when. I'm ready to enjoy these next 6 to whatever games that remain and then look forward to seeing what tweaks, adjustments, changes and growth happens next year.

 

[MirORich]

To add to this, scoring has been high league wide for the past 4 seasons.

In the last 4 seasons, there have been 16-22 teams averaging 110ppg or more PER season

In our last LeBron era, there were 13 teams TOTAL over that 4 year span averaging 110PPG

So yes, our defense has regressed some as the year has gone on, but on the whole, it's not some crazy collapse, especially relative to scoring league wide. Let try to look at every angle and every context available to us,

 

[jjvors]

Current standings. We didn't fall from 7. We're still 2 games ahead of the Nets.

Eastern Conference​

TEAM	W	L	WIN%	GB	CONF	DIV	HOME	ROAD	OT	LAST 10	STREAK
1 Miami Heat - se	49	28	.636	--	31-16	11-2	27-12	22-16	1-3	5-5	W 2
2 Milwaukee Bucks	47	28	.627	1	29-18	10-3	26-12	21-16	0-2	7-3	W 1
3 Philadelphia 76ers	46	29	.613	2	27-18	6-9	21-17	25-12	3-1	6-4	L 2
4 Boston Celtics	47	30	.610	2	30-18	9-7	26-13	21-17	4-3	7-3	L 2
5 Chicago Bulls	44	32	.579	4.5	29-19	10-5	26-10	18-22	0-1	4-6	W 1
6 Toronto Raptors	44	32	.579	4.5	27-20	9-5	21-16	23-16	3-2	8-2	W 4
7 Cleveland Cavaliers	42	34	.553	6.5	25-21	9-6	24-15	18-19	2-0	4-6	L 1
8 Brooklyn Nets	40	36	.526	8.5	28-19	9-6	17-20	23-16	2-0	7-3	W 1
9 Charlotte Hornets	40	37	.519	9	24-23	6-7	20-19	20-18	0-7	8-2	W 1
10 Atlanta Hawks	39	37	.513	9.5	23-24	8-6	24-14	15-23	0-1	7-3	W 3

 

[Dr. Claw]

About as good as it's going to get with no JA/Mobley.
The best game we've seen from LeVert yet.
Defense is toilet without Tower City.

With the way injuries have decimated this team, the Basketball Gods better give the Cavs a start-worthy 3 who can do at least LeVert-level playmaking and hit the 3. Backup C, Backup PG, someone 6'7" or more who can play 2/3 and do 3 and D. That's what the Cavs need to be looking for.
Cause this is some bullshit.

(Like the 3 pointer they gave Dallas, despite being released later than the 2 they took from Brandon Goodwin who hit it at the end of the clock.)

 

[Lurking Upvoter]

His defense isn’t as good without his two defensive anchors. Great insight as always

Also lost Ricky Rubio, who RAPTOR has as the Cavs' 2nd most impactful defender (Allen +4.0, Rubio +3.7, Mobley +1.5). At the one cavs game i attended i noticed Rubio was not guarding the point guard, instead guarding the guy in the corner and calling out rotations.

 

[InBoobieWeTrust]

Come on Boobie your better then this, you lost the argue when you mention 2 Great Teams with great Coaching…..We’re in our infant stages right now with our schemes and players……Imagine if we had our top 8 players right now, like the other top teams above us right now, only the Bulls is missing a top 8 rotational player (Ball) and they barely hanging on right now……

Well the question indicated the top defensive players would not be playing and my entire point is that we have shit coaching.

 

[letgocavs]

So again if we don’t make the playoffs we get a lottery pick?

 

[DCTribefan]

About as good as it's going to get with no JA/Mobley.
The best game we've seen from LeVert yet.
Defense is toilet without Tower City.

With the way injuries have decimated this team, the Basketball Gods better give the Cavs a start-worthy 3 who can do at least LeVert-level playmaking and hit the 3. Backup C, Backup PG, someone 6'7" or more who can play 2/3 and do 3 and D. That's what the Cavs need to be looking for.
Cause this is some bullshit.

(Like the 3 pointer they gave Dallas, despite being released later than the 2 they took from Brandon Goodwin who hit it at the end of the clock.)

Yes the refs takeaway and refusal to takeaway baskets was inexplicable.

 

[Heat Check]

,Markk played really well before and particularly after he came back from injury. I guess he's another one that turned back into a pumpkin. I still really like him. Just wish he'd play some damn defense and go to the basket more like he was doing a month ago. He's still my makeover project like Tye was to Cher in Clueless.

The guy is averaging about 17 ppg since he returned from injury (17 games). In other words, Lauri's been able to up his scoring quite a bit for the stretch run (he'd been averaging 13ppg for the season when he got hurt).

He also owns the highest offensive rating of the team as well as the 2nd highest net rating among the rotation guys, after Garland. So he's playing a lot of minutes in the starting lineup for a reason.

That said, when Lauri's shooting is off... it's REALLY off. He's a streaky guy, and the problem with streaks is that sometimes the hot ones come in games where we have no chance anyway, and the cold ones come in games where we really need people to make their open shots. The Dallas game was in the latter category. Lauri, Okoro and Love going 3-15 from the perimeter, mostly on wide open looks, was a huge reason why we lost. This shit needs fixing.

 

[daytripper]

So again if we don’t make the playoffs we get a lottery pick?

Yes if they lose the play in game(s) they keep their pick. Assuming they hold on to the 7th or 8th seed the play in will be double elimination. If they lose the first game (let's say to the Nets) and then lose the 2nd game to the winner of the Hawks/Hornets they get to keep their pick.
If they keep losing and fall to the 9th-10th spot, the play in will be a single elimination game for them. FWIW the Nets are rested and the Hawks are suddenly playing their best ball of the season.

 

[Rich]

Markennen is such an underwhelming rebounder on top of the rest of it.

Since Allen went out and he's been moved to PF his rebounding has jumped all the way up to...6.1 a game.


Questionable spot-up shooter, below average rebounder, slow footed.

Meh. We gotta upgrade the wing spot. He's not the guy.

 

[Heat Check]

Some late thoughts:

We keep running into teams that put on a clinic on how to play to their strengths. Dallas is a group that has been built from the ground up to function around Luka's magic. There's total buy-in from everyone. They have a couple of rim runners, but the rest are, in essence, outside shooters happy to live on the perimeter and move the ball after Luka gets an advantage and passes out of a double team. There's no room on the Mavs roster for any freelancers who suddenly decide to go 1-on-3 and put up bad shots.

The shooters know they'll be getting their shots, and they make them when they get them.

However, these guys defend too. Kevin Love flat out would not play for Dallas, no matter how many threes he makes. Just out of the rotation and that's that. For us, he often plays almost 30 minutes. That's certainly a difference.

It's kind of unbelievable to me that we defended Luka in the exact way he should not be defended. But I guess that's JBB for you. We constantly doubled him, helping off the shooters once again, as if we didn't realize that Doncic WANTS to be doubled. That's his game. It's the same mistake we made with LeBron, and apparently we're going to make it again and again.

With Luka, you let him score his 50 if you have to. Sometimes he's on, sometimes he's not. You may get lucky and have him going 12-38 out there. But you fucking stay home on the shooters. If JBB doesn't realize something as simple as this, we really have no hope.

And how about putting your trust in Kevin Love's broken down ass in a critical part of the game instead of playing the young, 7'2'' energy guy who had been doing a good job? Jesus Christ. Yeah, I know the Mavs were putting Moses into every pick and roll they could. That's what smart teams do. But damn, at least he was moving out there, rebounding, rim running and giving us a different look against an athletic team. Love is just as horrible at PnR defense but he also can't get off the ground and wasn't making his shots either. So why on earth would you go with him?

Speaking of Love, seeing him get ready to dive on the floor for a loose ball was high comedy. It was about the same speed as a tectonic plate moving. I was expecting him to put on a pair of fucking knee pads.

 

[Rich]

Cavs are forced to play Love because we lack shooting so much.

So I don't blame JBB for playing him most nights. It's a byproduct of him getting 30 million a year.

Trying to find a trade partner for Love this offseason is absolute priority 1. Above all else.

You could really find some.versatile bench wing men with what we pay him. Maybe a couple.

 

[Heat Check]

And Doncic tore Okoro's defense up. Stevens can guard Doncic, Okoro can't handle him.

Doncic is WAY too big for Okoro.