Kings @ Cavs

[Orenthal]

alot of points later it is halftime.

[Orenthal]

uh, Landry, Evans, and the Kings are making us look silly. 16 point halftime lead turned into a 10 point deficit midway in the fourth.

[papacass]

This Cavs team has no interior defense and cannot rebound. Flat-out.

[papacass]

Also, their passing is extremely suspect. They telegraph the ball worse than DA.

[swerb]

25-57

[Orenthal]

Think they had it wrapped up at halftime. For as much as they had resilience in the Boston game tonight they folded under the increased pressure of Sacramento. As soon as our shooting % normalized we wilted. The defensive end ebbs whenever our offense stalls. By time we stepped it back up late in the fouth the climb was too steep.

So far we have seen max-out, utter suck, and now a halftime victory. JJ gets abused on defense, Jamo looks disinterested, we are without Mo, and Scott called his last time out too early/for what?

[swerb]

Jamison flat out looks like he don't wanna be here. Telling that he wasn't on the floor at crunch time. While guys like Moon and Jawad were.

This is a bad, bad basketball team. It's going to be a very long year.

[leadpipe]

They've got the horrible combination on offense of nobody that can create a shot off the dribble (or otherwise) with nobody that can create a shot for their teammate.

Painful.

And on defense, I'm sure Scott will have the guys out there that try eventually, they're just undersized and frankly, not that talented.

And you guys are correct, thought Jamo might make it a game and a half before he started watching for the trade deadline.

The line-up in moneytime was depressing.

[GodHatesClevelandSport]

The preseason talk about team, team, team has been cute and all. Reality is now setting in. It's showing in that the two threads following the opening game might has well not have been posted. No one's commenting.

And just wait until they go 2-14 in January.

[metalhead9x9]

Just win Dec 2 and whatever you do with the rest of the 78 is gravy for me

[papacass]

The tank-and-draft-high crowd should be praying that the Cavs stand pat. You start dealing guys, you might have to take big-money expiring contracts that belong to veterans who actually help you play better in the short term.

[papacass]

The Cavs bounced out to that huge first half lead because Sacto was letting Sessions get to the rack whenever he wanted. The first two words out of Paul Westphal's mouth at halftime were "Stop Sessions," I guarantee you.

Once the Kings tightened up their interior D and took away Sessions' driving lanes, that was it. The Cavs were relegated to chucking the ball around the perimeter, heaving up bricks that they weren't going to rebound because they flat-out suck on the boards, and Kings dominated the ball from that point forward.

In other words, Sessions' speed is the only difference-making anything the Cavs currently have on offense. That, and the occasional appearance by J.J. and Boobie. That's it.

[British_Pharaoh]

Third quarter of DOOOM is still in effect. Brown forget to take that with him.

[Prosecutor]

The Cavs bounced out to that huge first half lead because Sacto was letting Sessions get to the rack whenever he wanted. The first two words out of Paul Westphal's mouth at halftime were "Stop Sessions," I guarantee you.

Once the Kings tightened up their interior D and took away Sessions' driving lanes, that was it. The Cavs were relegated to chucking the ball around the perimeter, heaving up bricks that they weren't going to rebound because they flat-out suck on the boards, and Kings dominated the ball from that point forward.

In other words, Sessions' speed is the only difference-making anything the Cavs currently have on offense. That, and the occasional appearance by J.J. and Boobie. That's it.

Agree with this take. The Cavs went from scoring 67 points in the first half to 37 in the second. The Kings did a nice job of adjusting and the Cavs spent most of the second half tossing it around the perimeter. They were only 6-for-19 from the 3-point line while the Kings were 9-for-15. Casspi killed the Cavs going 6-for-7 from the 3-point line. Overall the Kings shot 52% from the field and 67% on 3-pointers, which surprised me since they played the night before. It looked to me like the Cavs were allowing a lot of penetration off the dribble which set up open 3-pointers.

I think the offense will improve when Mo gets back and the team gradually gets better at executing the scheme. It's only the 3rd game. Also, Scott is using a lot of players and is still trying to figure out his rotations. It was good to see Boobie penetrating and getting layups, although he still needs to develop a runner and learn to pass off to a cutter because the layup won't always be there.

[peeker643]

This Cavs team has no interior defense and cannot rebound. Flat-out.

Yes. Which is why the demise of the team was not greatly exaggerated when it was discussed weeks ago.

Went from three pages of posts on opening night to 15 posts and now 13 posts before mine in this thread. Won't take long til those season ticket sellouts at The Q have 10,000 no shows.

"All for One" indeed.

[Cerebral_DownTime]

This Cavs team has no interior defense and cannot rebound. Flat-out.

Yes. Which is why the demise of the team was not greatly exaggerated when it was discussed weeks ago.

Went from three pages of posts on opening night to 15 posts and now 13 posts before mine in this thread. Won't take long til those season ticket sellouts at The Q have 10,000 no shows.

"All for One" indeed.

You seem angry, is there something you want to talk about?

[peeker643]

This Cavs team has no interior defense and cannot rebound. Flat-out.

Yes. Which is why the demise of the team was not greatly exaggerated when it was discussed weeks ago.

Went from three pages of posts on opening night to 15 posts and now 13 posts before mine in this thread. Won't take long til those season ticket sellouts at The Q have 10,000 no shows.

"All for One" indeed.

You seem angry, is there something you want to talk about?

Not angry in the least. Just not sure why the surprise or the "sudden" realization this team can't pass, rebound or play much defense. Despite wishes to the contrary.

Shit in one hand, wish in the other. Lemme know which one fills up faster.

Thank you for caring though. Always nice to know there's someone there.

[Orenthal]

^After 3 games I'd hardly declare victory over... over... over people that just wanted to see the team do well and had a differing opinion on how they should go about its rebuild. How stoopid we all were not to see it months ago. What did my boy Charles Krauthammer say, "One is an anecdote, three is a trend, we're right in the middle of two."

It's the difference between prognosticatin' and analyzin'. I'll wait for a larger sample size, like I have been saying 20 games, before I go the blow-up option. Better hope there are deals to be had...

...as long as we are going down this road though. Put me in the Enes Kanter camp.

[peeker643]

^After 3 games I'd hardly declare victory over... over... over people that just wanted to see the team do well and had a differing opinion on how they should go about its rebuild. How stoopid we all were not to see it months ago. What did my boy Charles Krauthammer say, "One is an anecdote, three is a trend, we're right in the middle of two."

It's the difference between prognosticatin' and analyzin'. I'll wait for a larger sample size, like I have been saying 20 games, before I go the blow-up option. Better hope there are deals to be had...

...as long as we are going down this road though. Put me in the Enes Kanter camp.

Why is it about victory OJ? Who's declaring victory over anything and what do I get if I win?

No. Quite clearly I'm missing something in the Cavs DNA that shoulda had me on the 45-50 win train.

No time for martyrs brother. Difference between wanting something and analyzing something is a canyon. We'd all love to win 50 in a giant "F You" to the league and an Akron native. Didn't see it two weeks or two months ago and ain't seeing it today for the glaring reasons you saw when they lost.

Glaring meaning damning, crippling and likely to keep a team from winning 40 games much less more. And it's just not that they were discovered Friday in Toronto or last night in Cleveland.

Bottom line: it surprises me that it surprises some of you. No more, no less.

[FUDU]

Jamison doesn't look interested bc frankly he isn't. He's made it clear he wants to play for a contender. We need to let him play and hope to get rid of him come feb.

[pup]

The old I wasn't wrong, I was just hopeful has begun.

[Orenthal]

Just seemed so from the post previous to my last and the one previous to CDT's. It may be why he posted if you were angry. The tone of both is "duh idiots". It is just my opinion that we need more games before we come to any conclusions. I wouldn't be surprised if we suck, just didn't think it would happen unless they dealt a couple of the "almost" all-star vets.

However, if we don't cough up a 14 point halftime lead we may be having quite the opposite; "Why the fuck you wanna be .500 convo." I don't think we are as bad as the Toronto loss. Things like Jamo being non-existent can't be predicted, and if this play continues its as if he has been traded. Hey I know it was pre-season and all, but in all his interviews he sounded as positive and had the "company line" us against the world/we aren't that bad mentality going. Also Mo hasn't played in any game, and Andy missed 1.

Eh, on he rebounding and interior defense I won't even pretend that at 100% we will be in the top half of the league in those aspects. It surely hurts your ability to run if you allow teams to get close high percentage shots. There isn't a +defensive guy at the PF on the roster. It really leaves Andy and Hollins on the island.

Further proof comes Tuesday.

[aoxo1]

Things like Jamo being non-existent can't be predicted, and if this play continues its as if he has been traded.... Also Mo hasn't played in any game, and Andy missed 1.

Yeah, thanks. Honestly, our 3 top players are either taking to heart all of the tanking talk (Jamo) or not playing.

The former won't change, and couldn't be predicted, but the latter ought to.

[pup]

Heartless Mo, who almost retired over LBJ leaving.
A 35 year old power forward who has been nothing but a loser his entire career which only has minutes left in it.

The toughest training camp in team history.

Who could have predicted those guys would look uninspired?

Players know talent when it is in the room. Guys that have some are always the first ones off the wagon when the rest of it sucks.