Gonna need more from Deng and the PGs to win. Wade and Bosh cannot carry all the load. Spo, the last two games with some weird rotations. Low minutes for Deng and Ennis. Not good.
It's starting to look like Cleveland is going to take a significant amount longer to gel than Miami did when coming together. Their bench seems clumsy as hell.
Team has injuries.....Bird, UD, Deng is limited, McBob is on min. restriction and Granger has a hammy..... What is important is that Bosh and Wade looked great, again. Tough to win that game vs. the 2nd best Center in the NBA with 2 healthy front line players and one of them is J-Ham. As far as Ennis...he blows too many assignments to get 4th quarter minutes, but Spo has thrown him out there each game as a "Heat Check". I commented on Twitter that Spo seems to be tailoring the rotations as if he is laying the groundwork for Napier to start soon. He is purposely Inserting Shabazz Napier in a way that matches him up with the other team's best PG, and then he is giving him the entire 4th quarter to play.
Wade played well in the 4th...made a run in the end, closed the gap but couldn't score in the very end.
While that may be true, I don't think that is the problem (Delly would make the bench look better as well). When you are trying to win and only manage to have 4 assists though 44 minutes, that's a problem.
Kyrie had one of the weirdest games I've ever seen. He was crazy efficient and kept the Cavs in it a lot - but his head was just down trying to take 2-3 guys off the dribble on every possession. Kevin Love was just hanging out wide open outside the 3 pt line doing nothing and Kyrie didn't even glance that way. It's like - sure, you're making crazy acrobatic layups over 3 guys - but you could probably just pass over here to the wide open Kevin Love for a 3 instead.
I don't think it's time to freak out with the Cavs yet. The Heat struggled early when the big 3 came together. We all knew it would take time to figure it out. Anyone who didn't think that was kidding themselves.
Not worried at all and we got the 4 games in 5 nights schedule out of the way, we won't have that again the rest of the season, thank god. It was a tough stretch especially to start the season.
So LeBron yelled at Kyrie for dominating the ball 2 nights ago and then Kyrie came out and played completely ball-dominant in "F YOU" scoring mode last night? This is getting good.
No thanks, I know you're kidding but there won't be a sweeter feeling when we eliminate the Cavaliers in the playoffs. Not even an NBA Championship will feel as good. Riley and the Heat organization is way above bending over for Lebron James. It won't be that feeling like Kevin Love and Danny Granger felt when they both said they were happy to see us lose against the Mavericks, meanwhile they were watching from their couch as if they had anything to do with it. Wade and Bosh will watch the Cavaliers with their heads down in disappointment headed to the locker room after we eliminate them.
Hey I'm the one everyone trashed and called a liar for saying I don't want Lebron back so we are on the same page.
I mean aside from the schadenfreude angle I don't know why people are looking at this situation where Kyrie Irving refuses to play team-oriented basketball and LeBron keeps having to talk to him about it and we're all pouncing on LeBron for this. This is Irving's deal, and it shows just how special a trio the Heat had managed to put together back in 2010.
I really recommend listening to that Podcast that Lebby did with Riley. There is a great story there how he thought he was being invited to a Dinner with Jerry Buss where he was gonna be offered the HC Job and instead...Mitch Kupshack and Jerry Buss wanted to talk about our Young players including D-Wade. That is when Pat Riley realized that Shaquille Oneal was available, and he promptly told Buss that Wade was "Untouchable." Then the Deal was made, right there at that dinner over very expensive bottles of wine. Butler, Grant, Odom and a 1st round pick.
The weirdest part is that supposedly Blatt held a film session before yesterday's game and told Kyrie he was 3rd in the pecking order and that his job was to feed Love and LeBron. Before that, LeBron had scolded Kyrie in the locker room after the loss to Portland about ball hogging. So Kyrie comes out and drops 34 pts and 0 assists while taking on 2-3 defenders every time down. Pretty impressive to watch. He went full Melo. After the game? Blatt praised Kyrie's game. It's kind of a mess and Blatt might be in over his head. I'm a Cavs fan but this is still wildly entertaining.
In the wake of The Decision, I think there was kind of a fad of everyone trying to go after a Big Three. But I think the Heat's strategy would more accurately be dubbed a Right Three strategy as opposed to a Big Three strategy. And I'm not sure that's what is happening in Cleveland.
What's the timeline on that switch, you think? I was thinking around Christmas if they did actually make that change, maybe right after or something. But at the moment the way Cole's going...erm... And man, this Cavs thing is so strange...and yet so predictable. At least the NBA has national storylines in November, I guess. I think people outside of Miami didn't realize/underestimated how intelligently and professionally Wade handled everything. People had the wrong impression of him for some reason, and maybe underestimated the importance of he and LeBron's friendship. Bosh's super versatile game didn't hurt either...and he's a unique personality.
I really think this part of it is so overlooked. It takes a special kind of player to be able to completely change their game and take a back seat.
While it's way too early to tell, it always struck me as strange that they felt a guy with zero NBA experience would be the right guy to handle this job. This job, more than any in the NBA, is more about managing egos than the X's and O's of it. This guy has never dealt with one NBA superstar, let alone three (and a guy in Waiters who thinks he's a superstar). I agree with your premise, but it's early in Cleveland. That is something that those three can eventually learn to do. Of course, it's also entirely possible that they never do.
It took the Heat a whole season for team players to play team bball and gel properly. NBA fans think it's so easy to do and yet there are these individual players on the Cavs 'trying' to play team ball. It's going to take them a loooong while. Lebron made a poor bball decision but it was a personal one. I think he knows it will take at least a season my be 3 or 4 but if he wins one championship in Cleveland he might think it was worth it. IF he gets too impatient and frustrated before then he may regret it because we all know winning is most important in sports.
Eh theres two things at work here imo.... 1 is that Kyrie probably picked up some bad habits the last few years as a young player with no real stars or strong vets to keep him in line.. 2 is that it shows Lebron needs the ball to be effective. Blatts system is designed to be less Iso and the same things Kyrie is struggling with is where Lebron is struggling with. Whats good for one has to be good for the other. Personally I dont see this team winning anything as constructed. Theyd be better off trading Kyrie for a big and making Lebron a PG/primary ball handler. You cant make Kyrie a SG imo so thats the way the way to go.
6 games. 6 double digit wins. Golden State at home on Saturday. Should be a big test for our new found defense . Hopefully, Terrence Jones and Patrick Beverly will be back in the lineup.
If it's true that Deng and Gasol were on the way, he made an awful basketball decision. I honestly wonder if winning championships is the most important thing to him right now though. He made some comments at the end of the year last year that made me wonder that, and that was what started to scare me a bit about him potentially leaving.
I predicted December 1st before the season started. Maybe sooner? Shabazz has three important allies: Riley loves his game, Spo likes his command of the offense, and D-Wade is a a huge backer of his, and tells people privately that he is gonna be really good.
Shabazz really does look like a natural playmaking PG out there. He plays fast, but always seems under control. It would not surprise me at all to see him starting eventually this season.
I like Shabazz's energy better. Cole for some reason has a much slower tempo. The ball doesn't move around as quick as when Shabazz is on. For a rookie he looks in command and in control.
Yeah but the last two games he seemed pretty cold. Dunno. Seems like every time the guy is shooting (not at the basket) he's missing.
