Game Thread | Knicks playoff series Game #5 | Knicks @ Cavs | April 26, 2023 | 7:00 NBA TV

[2 For The Brew]

I'm done caring about Kevin Love not being here was this series. He might have helped the Cavs steal a close game 1, and sure, that may have made a difference.

But Kevin Love wasn't saving this sinking ship anyway. At absolute best he'd have made it Knicks in 6 - and that's probably a stretch.

I agree that Kevin would not have turned around the series. Where I do think it matters is that JBB & the team removed him completely from the rotation and let him go thinking he was expendable. We desperately needed defensive rebounding, an outside shooting big and someone to provide physicality under the basket. They let him go and then had NOTHING to counter the Knicks physicality and packing the paint on defense.

Wade, Lopez, Diakite, Stevens, Windler - all useless in this series.

Kevin is good enough to get minutes for the Heat who are up 3-1 in the series and up tonight in the second quarter in Milwaukee but NOT good enough to get minutes when Allen and Mobley are getting sand kicked in their faces down the shore and the bench is unplayable.

Like Flounder I fucked up - I trusted that the team knew what it was doing. It doesn’t. They made a bunch of boneheaded decisions that were exposed against the Knicks.

You abandon ship for a lifeboat better make sure the latter doesn’t have a big hole in it.

 

[Jscc]

Randle also had a bum ankle and was abusing Mobley tonight until his injury.

I don't think Randle scored a single bucket with Mobley on him tonight. He did when JA, Cedi, and Green were on him though.

 

[Kiddo]

Ummmm, no he wasn’t. 32% shooting for the series isn’t “abusing” someone

He sure was tonight before his injury. How frequently drove in on Mobley, brushed him to the side and scored easily.

 

[Kiddo]

Huh? He was like 0-4 in the first quarter when Mobley was in lol.

I'll be fascinated to check the tracking stats later, but Randle's shooting % while guarded by Mobley is gonna be somewhere around 20% and I'm not exaggerating.

He must’ve made all his shots in the 2nd qtr then because he had 13 in 16 mins.

 

[DCTribefan]

 

[Kiddo]

I don't think Randle scored a single bucket with Mobley on him tonight. He did when JA, Cedi, and Green were on him though.

Bull crap. He twice drove in on Mobley, shoved him aside and laid it in. Clearly remember, because I thought, dang Mobley you need to muscle up a little. Man some of you can’t see anything negative in Mobley

 

[Rich]

He must’ve made all his shots in the 2nd qtr then because he had 13 in 16 mins.

I'm pretty sure he did. I mean you can go look. He went through Allen's chest once or twice for some layups.

There was also the stretch where Mobley was C and Green was the PF and he took Green downlow a few times in a row.

I mean I'm sure he scored here and there with Mobley on him, but it was extremely rare.

 

[Wham with the Right Hand]

The Knicks traded Nerlens Noel, Alec Burks, and two 2nd round picks to the Pistons for....nothing. They just gave these guys to the Pistons to clear cap space so they could sign Brunson. Effectively they traded Noel, Burks, and two 2nds for Brunson. Then they traded three subs and a 1st round pick for Josh Hart.

I'd like to see the Cavs do something like that - trade Cedi, Okoro, and Rubio for one Brunson caliber player. But I don't think that will be possible.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

You do realize there are 4 more seasons on JB’s contract (26-27 season), right? No way does Gilbert eat that much money and hire a new guy for even more money.

Pure craziness.

 

[daddywags]

He just ran right past Mobley on that play. Mobley turned around and looked at the basket while Robinson ran right past him for the board and put back. A microcosm of the entire series IMO. Mobs should watch that sequence in his sleep all summer and get mad about it.

 

[Rich]

He sure was tonight before his injury. How frequently drove in on Mobley, brushed him to the side and scored easily.

He made 4 total shots. He had 6Fts, but Mobley had zero fouls.

So, like, I dunno what you want here.

Did he score on Mobley once or twice? I'm sure. He's a 28 year old two time all-star power forward averaging 25 points a game.

Did he, by and large, fail over this series when guarded by Mobley. Yea, unquestionably.


Did Mobley provide zero offense to go with his defense? Yea, also true.

He's 21 in his 2nd year.


Mobley also gathered nearly twice as many rebounds as Jarrett Allen for the series while playing WAY more minutes on the perimeter guarding Randle at the 3 point line and playing, essentially, the exact same amount of minutes as Allen.

I just don't agree lumping them together when Allen's primary responsibility abused him over and over for offensive rebounds and the same just wasn't true of Randle, the allstar, against Mobley.

 

[DCTribefan]

 

[CavsFaninNJ]

He made 4 total shots. He had 6Fts, but Mobley had zero fouls.

So, like, I dunno what you want here.

Did he score on Mobley once or twice? I'm sure. He's a 28 year old two time all-star power forward averaging 25 points a game.

Did he, by and large, fail over this series when guarded by Mobley. Yea, unquestionably.


Did Mobley provide zero offense to go with his defense? Yea, also true.

He's 21 in his 2nd year.


Mobley also gathered nearly twice as many rebounds as Jarrett Allen for the series while playing WAY more minutes on the perimeter guarding Randle at the 3 point line and playing, essentially, the exact same amount of minutes as Allen.

I just don't agree lumping them together when Allen's primary responsibility abused him over and over for offensive rebounds and the same just wasn't true of Randle, the allstar, against Mobley.

Do I want Mobley to be better on offense, sure. But in terms of being disappointed in guys, Mobley is near the bottom of my list. He was an elite defender in the playoffs, and took arguably the Knicks best player totally out of the game.

I think that's the only major positive from any Cav player did this entire series: Mobley played great individual defense, consistently.

 

[Rich]

Do I want Mobley to be better on offense, sure. But in terms of being disappointed in guys, Mobley is near the bottom of my list. He was an elite defender in the playoffs, and took arguably the Knicks best player totally out of the game.

I think that's the only major positive from any Cav player did this entire series: Mobley played great individual defense.

Okoro was a positive, despite being left high and dry by his coach who reinserted him into the starting lineup the last couple of months of the season only to then give up that ghost after game 1 + 3 minutes.


LeVert too, although...bleh. LeVert being good generally means its coming at the expense of better players so I dunno.

Sub off the bench is fine but I'm worried he's gonna get paid well more than that.

 

[red.]