Game 44: Timberwolves @ Cavs 1/14/2023

[ijspeelman]

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[ijspeelman]

Mobley went down with a knee to knee collision with Edwards, but didn’t go back to the locker room so hopefully he’s good.

[ijspeelman]

I’ll be honest… idk what happened this game.

We were up by 14 and suddenly it was a close game and then we lost by 8 points. Gobert went down with an injury, but I def wouldn’t say his absence was a positive.

I didn’t think we played bad team defense, but Timberwolves were finding ways to the rim and making all baskets there.

Our offense was struggling the second half and I can’t put my finger on why. We do struggle against the teams w longer wings who play aggressively, but we got open looks so idk.

[jbk1234]

The combination of Mitchell being sick and Rubio being on a minutes restriction sucked. You could tell that Mitchell didn't have it tonight. Sometimes a coach has to go to his main guys and say let your teammates get it from here. Not sure JBB feels like he can do that yet, and on that note...

Mobley was not really a plus out there after banging his knee. I've also seen enough 3 point attempts in the 4th quarter from him unless we're up by 20. He doesn't follow his shot or get back in transition after taking them. They're just wasted possessions.

If Stevens can't give us anything, and I mean anything, in a game like tonight, then it's probably time to cut the cord. Some of it is he's a step slow, some of it is that he's just not very good, but increasingly, I'm seeing an absence of hustle and willingness to do the little things that will keep him in the NBA, or not. There are times where I wonder whether we might not be better of using his roster spot on a guy like Chriss. At least he's going to play physical defense, fight for rebounds, and is effective at playing the enforcer role.

I'm a broken record on this, but the NBA is setting itself up to get embarrassed again in FIBA play with how the game is officiated. I do get that goals of the two organizations are very different. I just think they've gone too far with punishing good defense by rewarding offensive players who lean in, and rewarding teams who constantly reach and swat arms under the theory that you cannot call a foul on every possession. If a team like the Raptors or that Wolves second string is hacking away on every possession, you should call it on every possession.

[TheLand13]

I’ll be honest… idk what happened this game.

We were up by 14 and suddenly it was a close game and then we lost by 8 points. Gobert went down with an injury, but I def wouldn’t say his absence was a positive.

I didn’t think we played bad team defense, but Timberwolves were finding ways to the rim and making all baskets there.

Our offense was struggling the second half and I can’t put my finger on why. We do struggle against the teams w longer wings who is play aggressively, but we got open looks so idk.

I can narrow it down to three things.

One, Mitchell was not himself tonight due to being sick and he looked horrible as a result.

Two, Mobley wasn't very good after the knee injury. I'm glad he's able to play since it means no long term injury but quite frankly, I think we were better off not letting him go out. Bickerstaff should have just told him to sit this one.

Three, we didn't respect the Timberwolves after Rudy went down. When you've watched a team long enough, you can tell when they're starting to take their foot off the gas pedal. Sometimes teams will see an injury occur or someone leave the game for an extended period of time and they will take full advantage of it. We did not take advantage at all of Gobert being out. In fact we did the opposite. Rather than attack the paint like we should have, we just kept trying to find ways to get our shot going from the outside. That can't happen, especially against a team that likes to run and take advantage of misses in transition. The Cavaliers almost never take advantage of injuries or players being in foul trouble. I think this is a huge weakness of Bickerstaff as a coach, who I have defended constantly on this board. His on the fly adjustments based on what's going on in game are terrible, and it's one thing that can potentially hold Cleveland back in the long term if it's not something he works on.

These are the kinds of games you hate to lose, because I am of the belief that every game matters. And with how tight the Eastern Conference standings are, I will say right now that losing a game like this really hurts our potential standings in the playoffs. I am confident that we'll make the playoffs, but I want us to at least have favorable positioning. The way we are playing teams like Boston and Denver, we need to start showing that same effort and energy against lower ranked teams like this one, because we didn't do that tonight and it cost us.

Hopefully we can bounce back and start another run, but first up will be the very short handed Pelicans.

[JonFromVA]

We needed Garland to step up, but he's been running at about 75% most of the season feeling out what he can do game by game rather than just taking over thanks to the constant physical abuse.

Kind of begs the question, how do you find a durable star that can stay on the floor and still perform at a high level night in and night out?

Short of cloning LeBron of course.