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Game Thread | 2021-22 Season | Game #6 | Cavs @ Lakers | Oct. 29, 2021

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It's a problem. Same as last year.

We have no sniper. No truly great shooters.

People point to percentages without looking at volume or difficulty. We only have guys who shoot 3s when wide open.

Kevin Love is the only player willing to rise up and shoot a 3 while guarded somewhat closely. And he's bad at it now.

We are a bad shooting team.
I’d add Garland to the list with Love. On night where he lets it fly, he dribbles into 25 footers.
 
This team can not play without Mobley on the floor. They just don't know how.. on both ends. Which is incredible and also sad.

They have no other real anchor...

Anyways, besides that point, I enjoyed this game so much.. I was cheering like crazy. I felt the Cavs were the better team if the Lakers did not enjoy the refs home cooking and defensive leeway as well as Stevens. Stevens was a nice double agent.. Lebron paid him handsomely taking advantage of his lowborn contract. Touche.

I wish I had more trust in the Cavs FO to build a solid team for Mobley. These are crucial times. JBB and/or Koby may not be long for this world.
 
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Lakers neutralized our tri tower game because they are also long in the front court.. they have AD, LeBron, Jordan .. and they get 40 minutes out of Dwight and Anthony. And even with those players, we are up 8 before Carmelo shoots out of his mind..

These guys defend. We held the scoreless for five straight minutes at the start of the fourth, but they help us to 6until Lamars garbage time 3.. in a lot of ways we are modeled after thier line up, but ten years younger and a net 200 lbs lighter..

We are going to win more games than most of us thought..
 
Tied at the end of 3 the Lakers held the Cavs to 10 points in the first 10 minutes of the 4th quarter. The lid was on the basket and nobody could make a shot.

The Lakers came in with the league's worst scoring defense allowing over 119 per game and held the Cavs to 101. It looked like they decided they were going to play defense. I thought they would come back with a strong effort after blowing a 26-point lead to OKC in their last game. They were determined to win this game and in the deciding 4th quarter the foursome of LBJ, Anthony Davis, Westbrook, and Carmelo took control.

LeBron found some energy and blew by the Cavs for layups or bounce passes to Davis for easy buckets. Carmelo got hot at the same time the Cavs got cold.

The Cavs lost despite 16 offensive rebounds and 20 Laker turnovers. The Lakers shot 54.8% from the field and 44.4% on 3's. Carmelo's 24 points off the bench were huge. The Cavs allowed him too many catch-and-shoot 3's.

At least Markkanen is showing signs of busting out of his shooting slump with 17 points. Mobley actually outplayed Davis with a line of 23/6/3 with 2 steals while Davis had 15/9/3 with 1 steal and 3 blocks. Garland had a great offensive game with 18 points and 11 assists.

One game after bailing the Cavs out with 26 points Sexton had his worst game of the year, going 2-for-9 and was a -19 in 32 minutes. When he's not scoring he's a liability. He did have 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists, however, but we needed a lot more from him. The Lakers did a great job of doubling or tripling him when he got to the paint.

Lamar Stevens did a nice job defensively but is hopeless on offense, missing point blank shots. We need to get Okoro back.

The Lakers won this round but LeBron had to play 38 minutes. He can't do that all season, not at his age. He hasn't played in a week due to a sore ankle so he was very rested last night. In the end it was LeBron taking over the game in the 4th quarter with a lot of help from Anthony and AD.

These teams play in Cleveland with three weeks left in the season. The Lakers will be at the end of a four-game road trip playing their 4th game in six days. I like the Cavs chances in that one.
 
Stevens is a joke,he cant even make a layup every schoolboy can do.
 
It's a problem. Same as last year.

We have no sniper. No truly great shooters.

People point to percentages without looking at volume or difficulty. We only have guys who shoot 3s when wide open.

Kevin Love is the only player willing to rise up and shoot a 3 while guarded somewhat closely. And he's bad at it now.

We are a bad shooting team.
And 3 guys who can shoot are sitting the bench.
 
Completely winnable. Vet tricks got the across the line.

Cavs had enough looks to win. They missed them. Those 2 steals in a row where they got nothing was hard to watch. Kids got sped up.

Lakers wanted this really bad
 
Completely winnable. Vet tricks got the across the line.

Cavs had enough looks to win. They missed them. Those 2 steals in a row where they got nothing was hard to watch. Kids got sped up.

Lakers wanted this really bad
Lakers stepped up to playoff intensity. It would be interesting to see how many playoff games (or minutes) the Lakers rotation have vs us. We’re an improved team from last season but still young & raw. It’s not reasonable to expect us to match up against a team like this - for now.
 
Lakers stepped up to playoff intensity. It would be interesting to see how many playoff games (or minutes) the Lakers rotation have vs us. We’re an improved team from last season but still young & raw. It’s not reasonable to expect us to match up against a team like this - for now.
Yes, the Lakers were embarrassed in their last game having blown a 26-point lead late in the second quarter and losing to an 0-4 team. They got LeBron back last night and came out with intensity. We caught them at a bad time with a rested LeBron and coming off an embarrassing loss.

Nevertheless, it was tied after three quarters. The Lakers upped their defensive intensity in the 4th while LeBron attacked the rim and Carmelo knocked down 3's. The refs tipped the scale in the Lakers' direction, giving LeBron every call. They called one foul on him in 38 minutes. Even when he spiked a rebound away from Markkanen while knocking him to the floor he didn't get called.

The Lakers should enjoy this while they can because their window is closing fast.
 
Melo is 19/38 this season for three point shots which is elite. We don't have anyone on our bench with that kind of scoring firepower or anywhere close to that. Sucks that LA could get that for vet min but what can you do?
He was 6/8 from 3 last night (75% from 3!!) .

Going into last night I guess that means he was 13/30 or 43% which is still excellent.
 
After the Hornets and Lakers games, the opposing team's scouting report on the Cavs is going to read *junk up the game, get physical with them, and force them to shoot over you.* The Cavs need an answer to the former that's more than Bickerstaff picking up a tech and almost getting thrown out. When Garland, Lauri, and Love all start missing, as happened in the second half last night, Bickerstaff might have to sacrifice some defense by sitting down Okoro (Stevens should go back to third string immediately) and giving some run to Windler or Valentine. You have to be able to shoot over a box and one or five guys in the paint.
 
Sure people missed some open shots, but for some reason we're not really running any actions to get consistent good looks from the perimeter. It's always "spot up on the weak side and hope for the bullet pass from the ballhandler after he goes 1-on-1 and ends up under the basket".
 
Sure people missed some open shots, but for some reason we're not really running any actions to get consistent good looks from the perimeter. It's always "spot up on the weak side and hope for the bullet pass from the ballhandler after he goes 1-on-1 and ends up under the basket".

We are running some actions, at least more so than the start of the preseason, but they are so god damn ineffective.
 
Cavs played the better game. Nothing to worry about. Any team with vet superstars can disrupt a young team with a bunch of tricks. Cavs hit their shots and even that doesn't work.
 
Cavs played the better game. Nothing to worry about. Any team with vet superstars can disrupt a young team with a bunch of tricks. Cavs hit their shots and even that doesn't work.
Lakers are not even in this game at the end if the refs were not so biased in this game. It was the worst officiated game I think I have ever witnessed outside of a few college games with the dean of volleyball or the fester born of cheddar bob were impersonating the stripes.
Sorry its Halloweekend smh
I want to see the Cavs bounce back and win this one, but I have no confidence a hobbled Sexton add no Okoro is going to get it done unless JBB has the sack to unleash the Jedi
 

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