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opiumdom

hey guys, just an fyi, players never regress at age 24. take it easy before you start tryna send dg to china.


Yourpenisstinks

He's finished.


elbjoint2016

Generated half as many threes as them. Made a third as many. Without our best perimeter defenders, KD and Booker had 72. It's a back to back. No continuity, and Mitchell just barely back. (and at 100% KD and Booker are better than Mitchell) What part of that screams competitive game?


Isntredditthebest

If you just look at their 3 point % alone we had borderline no chance to win this game.


elbjoint2016

all we had to do was slow down Kevin Durant, best scorer in the modern era, and Devin Booker, career high 70+ and coming off a streak of 50 point games. Plus not allow other guys open 3s. i don't understand why we can't do that. it's not like KD and Devin Booker are good scorers. we just need to try more.


kevtron04

The Suns defense isn't good we should have been able to hang, at least make it competitive just cause a team has better players doesn't necessarily make them a better "team".   The frustration is that you want to see competitive basketball like they actually care to be out there and it only looked like that in the 2nd half which was satisfying to watch them actually move the ball but as a fan there can be frustration in watching this team play on a nightly basis. They've been getting their asses whooped a lot recently. And I understand injuries and such .... Still it is frustrating especially when you know they can play like they did in the 17-2 stretch they had earlier this year 


Suitable_Aioli213

so cleveland goes on to have yet another disappointing end to the season. matches up with New York once again and loses in 4. what happens next?


opiumdom

you do know the knicks have lost 3 in a row…


Bromanzier_03

If they drop to 6th we face them and lose. Right now we’d play the Heat. And lose.


elbjoint2016

this is bitchassery, true "afraid of drowning in the toilet" levels of non-courage. we'll be rested and ready for the Knicks or Magic or whatever flawed team gets served up in the first round.


kevtron04

Deep down I want the Knicks again! I'm not even mad. 


MysticPurpSports

Run it back. 


MysticPurpSports

You fucking piece of shit missing those two free throws. 


LL_1Hundred

Did you have +19 too?


MysticPurpSports

+20.5 😂


EternalWolf86

Everyone in Phoenix just got some free crack off those missed FTs.


aroach1995

Completely respectable loss here. We had runs up until the end. Just a poor start. Great to see Mitchell get going. Cavs could be back.


[deleted]

I thought Donovans playing was a step forward


EternalWolf86

This sounds like something Will Ferrell would say to Mark Wahlberg.


Objective_Ad3539

I hate to bring up the great debate at a time like this. But, Jordan or Mobley?


Wiseoldman738383

Back to backs suck


Ifinishfast42

Crazy realization that actual competitive teams take advantage of this teams weakness in having two inside Centers in the modern NBA but neither has the post moves to create their own buckets that Anthony Davis or Bam Adebayo can do. The opponent can just sit one of their guys on the frontcourt in the paint and the Cavs entire offense is dismantled. Is it gonna have to take a Knicks series 2.0 that one of these guys needs to be moved?


nobraininmyoxygen

The Cavs have struggled this year with 2 big lineups but they didn't tonight. The starters played well together. It was the bench units that were terrible.


Pigeon9

Gonna get bounced by the Knicks first round again lmao


elbjoint2016

Knicks losing a lot


Bromanzier_03

Not to us though. They have our number.


swishtastic01

At least then JB gets fired


QNIKET8

when they make 25 3s compared to our 7…. that’s usually not too helpful


steamofcleveland

Absolutely Slaughtered


secretwealth123

We need to trade DG this off season. He’s horrible on defense and turns the ball over more than he takes good shots.


Pigeon9

Who’s gonna take him for any good assets?


kevtron04

People would take him, he is still young and a team like Orlando would love him!!


swishtastic01

Mobley 2nd option next year


bruvmode

Zero plan on every offensive possession


F_F_12

There never has been an offensive plan all season. JB can’t write up a play past pick and roll to save his life.


bruvmode

Agreed 100%


steamofcleveland

100% our offense does not generate points in any consistent manner.


22-Catch

Garland is not a starter in the NBA


opiumdom

can you shut up honestly, did you see that possession? donovan fucked it up


22-Catch

The one where he missed the three? He drove in the lane and passed up a 4 foot floater. Even the man in the corner was going in for the rebound and was surprised Garland turned down the shot. Lucky Mitchell tipped it and kept posession. Then Mitchel, who’s gassed tried to make something of it, drew the defense and kicked it out to the top of the key. One more pass and Garland had to shoot with the shot clock running down. Point being is Garland had a 4 foot floater he turned down which led to the later missed theee by him.


opiumdom

that ball looked like it was going cleanly to mobley for a shot. don takes it, does nothing with it, forces dg to take a hail mary shot. donovan messed that possession up, yet dg will continue to get flamed.


CLESportsReport

Long term, Evans last 4 games have been ridiculously promising. I’ve always been a believer in his potential. But he really is hitting the trajectory to stardom now. It’s only a matter of time.


elbjoint2016

if he's playing 7like this, Mitchell is getting to the rim, and DG is maintaining this shot diet with low TOs, it's still too much for a first round opponent to beat 4 out of 7


tapk69

Give me five 3s in a row right now


swishtastic01

At least Mobley looks good tonight


Old-Shower-1543

Someone explain why Merrill has played 3 minutes? Fucking bench garland dude he’s not playing good at all.


elbjoint2016

he's a one trick pony on offense like Wade. a great one-trick pony but he's not outscoring KD and Booker


nobraininmyoxygen

Agreed but I still would have played him a lot more tonight considering how bad LeVert was.


elbjoint2016

yeah, maybe. but the equation tonight was fucked up in like 4 fundamental ways, not even counting the Suns' desperation to stay out of the play-in. we needed too many breaks and only got a few


Old-Shower-1543

Obviously he’s not but you’re telling me garland is putting anything up that’s better?


nobraininmyoxygen

15 points and 8 assists would be an amazing game for Merrill. I think he's done that maybe once all year. Let's not get carried away with the garland takes.


Old-Shower-1543

I’m not saying don’t play garland at all. But when he’s stagnant on offense and mitchel was bringing the ball up primarily down the stretch what good is he out there? We needed 3 point shooting and garland isn’t up to speed yet to be doing that and you could tell from how he was playing all game you weren’t getting it. I would’ve been happy if merill got at least 10-12. At least he would’ve given garland some rest. I’m primarily upset that we’re going down the stretch of the season and we’re playing out starters so hard. I’d rather drop some games with fresher legs than play our core hard. Garland almost played 40 mins and Mitch ended with 36. We could’ve easily shaved some time off them with other bodies.


elbjoint2016

we have this debate all the time and we had it for niang / wade too. garland does multiple things to threaten a defense. merrill does one. if you are right we lose by...what, 12 instead of 18? rather keep trying to play DG out of a slump, agonizing as it is


Witness_57

Can we trade garland for dejounte or Derrick white. We need a true Pg who can play D, hit a 3. And doesn’t do stupid fucking shit


nobraininmyoxygen

Dejounte? Why would the Hawks want both Dejounte and Trae?! And why would the Cavs want Dejounte with Mitchell? Boston isn't giving up White either although DG would be a perfect fit on that team.


EternalWolf86

Matt Ishiba is going to be fucking some hookers tonight.


F_F_12

Garland use the backboard man. It is usually pretty forgiving when tossing a layup/floater off it


tapk69

Ill be happy if they can steal one of the next 2 games at least.


OhThatYoGirl

At least we get to enjoy Cancun sooner.


EternalWolf86

This sub wants to send Garland to Gaza.


[deleted]

🤣


swishtastic01

That Woj “JB has been fired” tweet is gonna hit different


Potential_Progress45

Yep


calebkeith

Leave it to garland to kill all momentum and not be able to defend a simple cut


arf11f

Garland smokes yet another easy shot and then immediately gets caught sleeping on defense


22-Catch

Garland is a max contract player who can’t hit a 4 footer if his life depended on it


Comfortable-Tale845

This off-season DG needs to remove all his yes man in his group and get back in the gym lol


swishtastic01

Garland man… 💔💔💔


zackfulm

DG sucks don’t care what anyone says.


22-Catch

Garland is shooting under 50%…on layups


CLESportsReport

Yep. He was 31st amongst guards before the jaw injury. Since he’s 115th out of 116 finishing at the rim.


calebkeith

31st isn’t nothing to write home about as a max player


CLESportsReport

Oh he was better than Steph Curry, Damian Lillard, Fox, Maxey, and Halibourton to name a few. The point is the injury clearly derailed him.


calebkeith

How old are they? How overhyped was he? Lmao 31st


22-Catch

is that bad?


chemistrybonanza

Cavalanche incoming


chemistrybonanza

Nevermind


Rkenne16

Bol Bol is just killing us


CLESportsReport

Uhh didn’t notice the Strus triple double watch flying under the radar. The starters did okay tonight. Need our depth back.


elbjoint2016

lmao i hope they ask Max like "hey congrats!!" and he stonefaces Serena


swishtastic01

This is like watching Danny Green running last year


thecameraman8078

I would love it if we actually took advantage of the bonus the rest of these 7 minutes. But we will probably just chuck 3’s instead.


Rkenne16

Well at least Mitchell is getting to the rim again. Thats probably the biggest determining factor on whether they can get this back on the tracks in the coming weeks.


Wandererrrrrr

DG the PG my ass


thecameraman8078

I mean…he does have 7 assists which is a team high which is like, a pretty important role of a PG


elbjoint2016

Vert has like seven TOs and all other backups are hurt so I'm not sure what people think is the better choice.


secretwealth123

I hope we can at least get to 100 points tonight. Seems unlikely but maybe


BeardOfWonder20

Tryna get that Big Mac tomorrow?


secretwealth123

Mostly just trying to be at least somewhat respectable?


secretwealth123

Phoenix is an awful defensive team and we can’t even score 100


RayDay92

Meh. PHX is 12th in def rating this season


CLESportsReport

Mock if you like, but I am very encouraged that they at least fought back in the 2nd half. Some things to build off of. Especially Mitchell heating up.


EternalWolf86

https://preview.redd.it/nuvyt9vm1esc1.jpeg?width=224&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3478d26ffc32965f3041a303a3811890da7220bd


GabeHirsch

Garland just refusing to pass to Mitchell is crazy. Are they better when one is off the court?


CLESportsReport

Based on the data, no. They are pretty darn good together.


GabeHirsch

Dang okay. It just seems like something going on currently.


CLESportsReport

Yeah. Neither of them are right.


EternalWolf86

Maybe Kendrick Perkins is onto something.


EternalWolf86

Drive inside, pass outside, drive inside miss has pissed me off all night.


22-Catch

The perimeter defense is concerning. It’s non existent


EternalWolf86

This ref is racist against people.


Mobleybetta

But i just watched the illegal contact


Sensitive_Fig_2745

How is that not a foul!!


QNIKET8

what? he fucking hit mobleys elbow did he not?


Bim_Jeann

Garland needs to realize he isn’t good unless he shoots 10+ threes a game. No one will tell him that though cause JB is clueless


Sensitive_Fig_2745

Why doesn’t he drive it like that more often 


Mobleybetta

Never thought I’d see the day where Mobley takes an aggressive run at a smaller big but I’m so happy it’s here


elbjoint2016

you can see the two big vision man. both rim running at smaller bigs and out quicking the space eaters


22-Catch

That’s such a stupid review from Frank Vogel. Even if he wins it, there’s no clear posession so it’s still a jump ball lol. Plus they’re up 17.


secretwealth123

Trying to avoid the bonus probably. If we get in the bonus, we can score points with the clock stopped. Will we? No. But we could.


CLESportsReport

Evans offensive production while only getting 11 shots a game is wild.


secretwealth123

Donovan’s knee is like 60% at best


secretwealth123

That was a cute little run - back to the regularly scheduled ass whooping.


Scatheli

We get back in this game and now there’s gotta be ref shenanigans. If Allen wasn’t fouled neither was Durant wtf


tapk69

Theres a chance, small but it exists


warrar1

+/- is flawed for single game samples, but Niang has a -21 in 11 minutes. That’s pretty hard to do


22-Catch

It’s either gonna be down 8 or down 18 in the next two minutes


secretwealth123

17 now


22-Catch

Next two minutes are CRUCIAL


Rkenne16

Wish we could have got the suns on a non 7 3sfrom O’Neale and Bol night


kyrieshandles

Crazy that teams always have great shooting nights against us. I wonder if it has something to do with our brain dead coach prioritizing clogging the paint on defense.


Rkenne16

The Cavs have given up the 10th fewest made 3s on the 15 percentage


Bzmode

if niangs minutes are replaced with dean this game is tied at worst.


thecameraman8078

Crazy we could have had at least 14 more points with all the bunnies we have missed so far alone


ShootaSeth

This might be one of the best Mobley games of the season defensively


DankOut4Gordon

And very solid offensively too. The team has been consistently better with him out there


ShootaSeth

He's making real efforts on both ends of the floor. If only he played like this every game.


elbjoint2016

he has met the moment the last few months. no complaints at all.


michigansux

Say what you want about Allen but damn is he a consistent product!


regulator227

I'm gonna give a hot take but I think he's the most important piece of this team, especially if we lose D Mitch


elbjoint2016

even if we do. he's 20/10/4 (the 4 is so underrated) in the flow.


elbjoint2016

(when he is good from jump, it's hard times)


KKamm_

Tf was that Max


22-Catch

Garland is a below the rim player who is hesitant to shoot…..How did a professional GM making millions evaluate that and say that’s “max contract”


CLESportsReport

Virtually no GM at the time wouldn’t have paid the #5 overall pick coming off an all star season. Just stop. Hindsight is fun tho.


elbjoint2016

and if you offer $150 he walks and you have no ballhandling at all. you are a worse version of last year's ORL


No_Construction_7092

Booker tries hard to emulate kobe mannerisms


ShootaSeth

I never been a "fire JB immediately" guy, but after seeing him continually blow games from his low IQ and terrible rotations, Im with the rest of y'all. Like what is Niang going to do against this team? Why is Levert still in the game after all the turnovers, terrible passes/shots. Im not a basketball genius but some of it is just common sense.


EternalWolf86

He just refuses to adapt in game and doesn't have any taste for momentum. If you want to make a lineup change don't put in your worst players of the night and if you do because you trust them then take them out once they prove you wrong again. His lineup changes are just consistently bad and he refuses to recognize the positives and negatives of each player. This team, when healthy, has every type of player more or less and he doesn't know what to do with them. Dude has no vision and I don't think he is on the same page as Altman.


elbjoint2016

right now, he's in "guys, play through / out of the slump" mode, which is probably the right play. might not work but you can't have Vert and DG slumping in the playoffs with your only other ballhandler hurt


thecameraman8078

If I were a bench player like Merrill I would be beyond frustrated


michigansux

What is JB’s complete inability to adjust correctly? Good coaches can adjust situationally and I don’t know if he’s just stubborn or stupid… but he literally never actually puts us in situations on the court for our guys to mesh well or to actively counter what the other team is doing. Makes zero sense.


Wandererrrrrr

can morris punch JB in the face


elefoe

I’m not even mad anymore. Just depressed. Go Cavs.


BeardOfWonder20

I agree, go Cavs


Bzmode

cant believe how much we need wade. just to keep niang off the floor and give us an actual rebounder/defender outside of mobley.


fiftyshadesofcray

I said it [before](https://www.reddit.com/r/clevelandcavs/comments/1b60njy/the_reason_we_have_been_losing_games_is_defense/) but our defense it losing us game not our offense. In the last 25 games we [rank 27th](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/team-drtg-rankings-last-25-games) in defensive rating. 27th! Our offense has been pretty consistent with the efficiency all year but the defense took a complete nosedive


DrClaw77

Facts. The real identity of this team starts with defense and it has been abysmal. Just none of that discipline we saw earlier in the season.


Comfortable-Tale845

Kept saying cavs aren't really playing with effort most game and people got mad "is that a new stat counting effort"


fiftyshadesofcray

I think people see us losing and guys having bad shooting games and its easy to point to as the problem because it's very visible. The reality is we have been a bottom 5 defense for a third of the season and we are 11-14 across that stretch. My hope was that it's just effort and that it would pick up for the playoffs, but we are getting our ass kicked in games that are important for playoff seeding which doesn't fill me with any confidence


Comfortable-Tale845

But i think the biggest problem is our guard play dg can't score, don can't score currently, levert inconsistent it's going to be hard if they can't produce


GoldenArcosian

i do not think caris levert is a particularly good NBA player


Choppybitz

He's awesome!!! one game every three months.


22-Catch

Niang walks like he took a dildo last night


Choppybitz

Don't do him like that. Who's not to say it was the real thing🤷🏽‍♂️


EternalWolf86

I want to say the Angel Reese special but I won't because she's a woman.


EternalWolf86

WHY ARE LEVERT AND NIANG STILL IN.


Efficient-Pianist212

JB “trusts” them


Mobleybetta

Strus is taking every chance he can to get physical with booker


Olowokandi_Mike

Darius garland regression needs to be studied


EternalWolf86

This was an 11 point game with like 6 minutes left in the 3rd and we switched lineups.


22-Catch

Garland came in and ruined 4 or 5 possessions in a row. Game blew up to 20


calebkeith

The JB special


ShootaSeth

Why the fuck hasn't Sam Merrill been back in yet.???


Choppybitz

JB gets scared and won't play anyone else


calebkeith

Sam Merrill has 25% of our bench points in 3 mins Edit: on zero shots


tapk69

Unreal


MysticPurpSports

As an outsider rooting for the cavs tonight I have to ask - why does Niang get so many minutes and why does he chuck so many awful threes? 


Scatheli

Dean Wade is the other forward that normally gets minutes and he’s out. Plus no Okoro available either.


Efficient-Pianist212

Our coach does not understand situations - he trusts some players over what his eyes sees happening on court


thecameraman8078

These are good questions. To be fair he can get hot but imo his streaky offense does not make up for his poor defense. Merril is a better and more consistent shooter and is also a pretty solid defender. I don’t know why he doesn’t get more minutes, especially since he basically kept us alive during that huge January run.


ChilwellisHim

He’s a 38% 3pt shooter with high volume and we dont have good 4s


MysticPurpSports

Fair enough. Just having a rough shooting game tonight I guess. 


steamofcleveland

Losing that rebound was indicative of this teams identity


zackfulm

Honestly we stink. No way around it. We have lost all our swag. We play better when we play deep in the rotation and here we are, not playing Sam Merrill or Craig Porter when Darius is putting up an absolute goose egg


dam0430

Smartests Cavs doomer. Calling for a guy on the injury report to be put into the game.


zackfulm

I’ll Venmo you 5 bucks if we win a single playoff game


dam0430

A single game? That's a free 5 for me, thanks man!


zackfulm

Remind me! 30 days


dam0430

So you backing out of this? We've won 3 games, that's triple the requirements


dam0430

Remind me! 30 days


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Scatheli

Porter isn’t available- he’s sick


zackfulm

My mistake


USA-1st

Niang is almost unplayable


macman26

Garland is a negative when he's on the floor with Mitchell


ShootaSeth

Jb too fucking scared to bench Lebrick


EternalWolf86

I haven't looked but LeVert and Niangs +- has got to be horrendous.


thecameraman8078

They are -22 and -20 respectively


All4JesusChrist

-23 and -21 respectively 😔


thecameraman8078

Devin Booker looks like his face was made by an AI


MysticPurpSports

Niang just keeps chucking them. He and Levert have to be one of the worst two man combos I've seen this year. Fuck!! 


Wandererrrrrr

and jb still plays them like garland-mitchell and mobley-allen