NBA Game Action: 3/25/2017

Utah / LAC big game. Clippers going for the tie-breaker. They are up 2-1 in the series.

Interested in seeing Nurkic vs KAT, too.

 

Gotta admit I've had almost no enthusiasm for watching the NBA when NCAA tournament games are ongoing. This year.

Not sure why. Might be because the Rockets are safely locked into 3rd seed, all the tanking going on and I don't care much about other seeding.

 

So OKC is going to play after being out two days uh...i thought they were going to play tonight, welp...maybe that's better for us.

 

Tomorrow's game is at 230. They would never schedule a night game the day before an afternoon game. By the time OKC would get here, they'd barely have enough time for a nap before morning shootarounds.

 

Go Clippers and Wizards. The magic number could drop to 4 if LA wins.

 

Cavs in trouble or nah?

 

Their defensive woes are serious. Some sportswriters believe they're just taking it easy til the postseason, but they're playing with fire if they think they can just turn it on.

 

(Cavs broadcast on NBATV) Oubre was asked if LeBron James is the toughest guard in the NBA. He said "No, I respect him a lot but to me, James Harden is a tougher guard."

Austin Carr: Interesting, We'll see if we have to play them in a series who is the toughest.

 

While I still think the Cavs will get to the Finals, I don't think it's logical to assume they will just turn it on in the playoffs. They aren't quite the same team. The vibe is different.

I think winning a championship and losing Delly have made them less desperate and scrappy. They were a team on a mission last year.

 

I heard that. It was hilarious.

 

Cavs are in trouble

Lebron can't cover for everyone anymore he's getting old.

The ppl that think this Cavs team can flip a switch will be disappointed. Kyrie and Love are not wade and bosh. They are terrible defensive players (kyrie is one of the 10 worst defenders in the league)

Cavs got lucky last year and it's biting them in the butt this year. They think they have enough to do it again when in reality everyone around them in both conferences got better.

Lebron has been blowing to much smoke in kyries ass. He's been telling everyone kyrie is an MVP player and the sky is the he limit.

 

I really don't understand what happened to the Cavs. They didn't lose too many people from last year. I can't see them winning a series against any of the top 3 in the West unless Lebron goes GOAT-mode again.

 

Jazz - 95
Clippers - 108 **

Wizards - 127 **
Cavs - 115

Raptors - 94 **
Mavs - 86

Knicks - 98
Spurs - 106 **

Wolves - 100
Blazers - 112 **

Rocket River

 

http://www.espn.com/blog/cleveland-...fensive-disaster-an-all-too-common-occurrence

Spoiler

CLEVELAND -- It was another atrocious showing on the defensive end for the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday in their 127-115 loss to the Washington Wizards.

The numbers allowed -- 71 first half points, 59.8 shooting percentage from the field, 44.4 percent from 3, another blazing night from an opposing point guard with John Wall dropping 37 points on 14-for-21 shooting with 11 assists -- are becoming so commonplace for this Cavs team that the shock value has worn off.

This is nothing new. They have been the second-worst defensive team in the league since the All-Star break, ahead of only the Los Angeles Lakers, who, it would appear, are purposely trying to lose in order to hold on to their draft pick.

What has changed is how Cleveland tries to explain what is happening.

The Cavs first framed their defensive struggles as improper personnel, then later presented them as a symptom of injuries and then rationalized them as a lack of familiarity among the new pieces combined with the players that were on the mend. Saturday it was described as simply a symptom of the regular-season doldrums.

"The big thing for us is at least we don't have to play back-to-backs in the playoffs," said Cavs coach Tyronn Lue after his team lost for the seventh time in the last 12 games. "I was upstairs talking to the coaches before I came down, and they said we played 21 games last year [in the playoffs] in two months. This month, we have 17 alone in one month, so it's a tough stretch, but everyone is going through it right now."

...

But there are real worrisome trends on the defensive side of the ball that might not be so easily fixed by an extra day between games or because the coaching staff and players can lock in on a singular opponent schematically for weeks at a time.

Just look at the Cavs' 10-man rotation. Five of them, and that might be a generous number, just aren't great individual defenders: Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, Kyle Korver, Deron Williams and Channing Frye.

...

With Thompson less than effective as their anchor, and Smith less than stellar as their primary wing stopper, and James not being asked to carry too much so he doesn't burn out in these final 11 regular-season games, you have to wonder if there is a chance for the Cavs to look consistently better on defense in the near future.

"It's been more down than up," James said. "So not room for concern, but we want to be more up than down, especially defensively coming down the stretch."

The opposite of concern is confidence. Does Lue have any of that?

"I'm not confident, but we got to," he said when asked if he believed his team's defense would get back to where it needs to be. "We have to."

_____________________________________________________________________
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Rudy Gobert questions teammates' competitiveness: Make winning plays, worry less about stats

Spoiler

LOS ANGELES -- Star center Rudy Gobert criticized unspecified Utah Jazz teammates for playing selfishly instead of putting a priority on winning after Saturday's 108-95 loss to the Clippers.

"We've got guys that compete, but some of us don't compete. Some of us just think about scoring," Gobert told ESPN after Utah's fourth loss in its past five games. "That's what it is.

"Coach keeps repeating it: We've just got to compete. We're too nice. Those guys, we know they're going to get calls. We've just got to come out aggressive and ready to fight."

It's an issue that also concerned Jazz coach Quin Snyder, whose team has too frequently gotten off to slow starts.

"It's something we've talked about," Snyder said. "It's a question for our guys, frankly. We can give enough attention to it and talk about it. Ultimately, when we step on the floor, we have to be ready to play with a level of intensity.

"It's not that we're not playing hard. We don't necessarily play hard together when we need to. I think that type of collective effort, when you get in big games against good teams and physical teams, that's what you need."

"I think everybody needs to think about making plays for the team, making winning plays, before thinking about how many points we're going to score and stuff like that," Gobert said. "Everybody has to be ready to sacrifice. In the playoffs, it's not going to be pretty. There's going to be some games where you don't score. But are you going to take a charge for a teammate? Are you going to come and box out DeAndre [Jordan] for a teammate?

"It works with all of us. And we do it, we do it, but we do it by stretches. We need to do it right from the beginning of the game. I think when we do that, we're very, very, very good."

 

The 1994-95 Rockets brought back the same team as the year before and struggled badly after their 9-0 start. It's not easy defending a title. Everyone has you marked on their calendar. The long playoff run from the previous season takes a physical toll. And for a lot of guys, that hunger isn't there anymore.

 

That's hilarious. Carr set up that question and then got that answer. Must have flustered him.

 

I think people are overreacting on this Cavs loss last night. The Wizs is the best team in the east now despite having one of the worse coach in the league.

Their back court is the best court in NBA this year, and their role player and young players are also playing at all star level.

They are very hard to beat in any situation.