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I do think that having Delly and Miller back from injury will help somewhat. (or should anyway) When we were playing Marion at SG, it was harder to then swing him over to rest Lebron for any significant minutes. Now that Marion is back to predominantly being the backup SF, it should be easier to get Lebron some rest. Of course, now we lost Andy, and that makes our front court situation more difficult .....

I don't know how much Haywood can do for us. He has played 4 minutes over the course of the past 7 games. That's not terribly encouraging. He is valuable because of his contract, but it seems like that's about the entirety of his value. Thompson is OK against some teams, and will get run over by others. Kirk hasn't shown anything yet, and I believe he is still working in the D League. That leaves us Thompson, Amundson, and Love as our PF/C group, for the most part. Andy was probably one of the guys (outside of the Big 3) that we could least afford to lose, even with his injury risk.

Man, we're in trouble up front. I hope that Griffin comes up with some sort of magical trade to solve this problem.

You and I always snipe at each other, but I am not making this reply because of our differences.

Instead, I am making it because I don't get how you--or anyone--can think that LeBron is doing what is asked of him. No offense, but I just don't see that at all.

I see LeBron trying to be the facilitator, dominant scorer, and coach all at the same time. Blatt calls a timeout, LeBron takes it to the basket instead. LeBron blocks Blatt from the huddle. LeBron is not running Blatt's offense. He keeps talking about how he needs to deal w/his young teammates.

What bothers me most is that LeBron is the last guy back on defense way too many times. That sets a bad example.

He is also setting a bad example by not buying into Blatt's schemes.

And understand this...........I never blamed LBJ for leaving Cleveland. He was a free agent. It's a business. I was disgusted by those little white punks burning his jersey in the street. I was thrilled when he came back here.

It is just my opinion that he is not handling this properly. I believe that he thinks he is doing the right things, but you absolutely need your star player to buy into what the coach is preaching and selling. And if things don't change, it doesn't matter who else we bring in here talent wise...........we aren't winning w/that type of chemistry.

Again, I am not bad-mouthing you at all. I just see it totally different from you and that other guy.

Kyrie is out for tonight's game. (in case anyone didn't know) He tried to practice, and couldn't go.

That leaves us down 2 against Orlando.

Cavaliers down 53-49 at the half.

How many Cavs games have you watched this year? Last year? How about any NBA games?

You came around right after LBJ came back, going on and on about the Princeton offense, and how you think TT's game resembles Cedric Maxwell's, and how our lack of a rim protector wouldn't hurt us because guys would just try harder on defense.

Forgive me for not taking your opinions on LBJ and how he's played this year seriously.

This game was the summary of Lebron this season, he's pacing himself. It's not about MVPs or putting up record stats. He wants a title.

Speaking of this, he pretty much confirmed it as well: Link

"I was actually in chill mode tonight but chill mode was deactivated after that."

Question for all the Cavs fans.

Is there any real or legitimate fear that Love leaves after this year?

I don't really keep up with the NBA anymore other than read recaps and maybe some other miscellaneous articles from time to time. If I remember correctly, Love only has a year remaining on his contract. The Cavs don't seem ready to compete for a championship this year. Love just went through a game where he didn't play the fourth quarter...don't know if that is significant or not.

But it seems the Cavs took a pretty big risk in signing Love and assuming he'd stay. If the Cavs don't win it all or don't make a deep playoff run, will he leave?

That could end up being a complete disaster.

Love would have to completely go back on what he said in order to leave after this season. He has said that he will, absolutely, re-sign after this season.

He cannot get a max type deal if he re-signs before next season. That is why he hasn't re-signed already.

Love needs to look at Melo before he decides to bolt. Melos legacy is a stat padder.

He might want to consider leaving. The Cavs are not utilizing him properly. Love would have been a perfect fit in Blatt's offense, but LBJ doesn't seem to want to run that offense. Heck, why run an offense similar to San Antonio's...they have never had any success w/it.

The Cavs are running what LeBron, Kyrie, and Waiters decide to run. A lot of pounding nails, quick shots, and lack of ball movement. Love's talents are being wasted on the way the Cavs are currently set-up.

Lebrons game makes role players better, but makes stars worse.

j/c


Chill mode deactivated


With the Orlando Magic playing well and leading by a couple points midway through the third quarter, Tobias Harris was winning his match-up against Cleveland Cavaliers' star LeBron James for the time being. It quickly became a heated affair when Harris swung an elbow to clear space against James and the two eventually exchanged words. Harris told LeBron to stop flopping at one point and it galvanized the four-time MVP into taking over the game.

As Chris B. Haynes of Cleveland.com writes, LeBron went out of "chill mode" and dominated the rest of the game on both ends of the floor. He shut down Harris the rest of the game and went off for 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting to close out the final 17 minutes of the game. The Cavs ended up winning 98-89 on the second night of a back-to-back.

Midway through the third, Harris was facing up James on the baseline and to create some separation; he flung his elbows around in the vicinity of James' face. James backed up to avoid the connection, but he took exception and said something to Harris.

The two jawed back and forth at one another and had to be separated. While walking away, Harris yelled, "Stop flopping."

Cleveland won 98-89 after holding the Magic to 14 fourth-quarter points. James said Harris "absolutely" fired him up, but it wasn't the flying elbows that pushed his button.

"It wasn't the shoulder or the elbow, it was the words that he said that got me going," James acknowledged. "I was actually in chill mode tonight but chill mode was deactivated after that."

Overall, James finished with 29 points, eight assists, five rebounds, two blocks, and two steals. Over those final 17 minutes, he helped hold Harris to just two points on 1-of-5 shooting. Harris finished with 16 points on 7-of-16 from the field. His trash talk fired James up and sent him into a mode that wasn't "chill" but it did allow him to dominate the game.

The Cavs risked losing a game on the road they shouldn't lose, but LeBron helped pull the victory out. They played without Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love didn't play a single minute in the fourth quarter. The final quarter was pretty much James (15 points) against the entire Magic team (14 points) with some help from Tristan Thompson. It wasn't a pretty victory but it still goes into the win column.

After the game, James told the media he didn't have a problem with Harris, so he didn't know what the deal was. Harris said he wouldn't back down from any player and the talk was to fire his team up. Looks like LeBron was the only one fired up from the incident.

Cavs' Kyrie Irving (knee) out Sunday against Pistons - CBSSports.com
http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on-bask...against-pistons

Cleveland Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving (bruised knee) will miss Sunday's game against the Detroit Pistons, head coach David Blatt told reporters, via the Cleveland Plain Dealer's Chris Haynes.

Irving suffered the injury against the Miami Heat on Christmas Day, and he sat out of the Cavs' 98-89 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday. In his absence, Matthew Dellavedova started and recorded eight points and three assists in 36 minutes, with LeBron James doing most of the playmaking.

On the season, Irving is averaging 20.2 points, 5.3 assists and 2.9 rebounds per game.

Cavs squander a 15-point lead to the friggin' Pistons. I switched back to football.

Disgusting, embarrassing and everything in between!

why do the cavs suck?

Didn't see the game tonight, but this is not a complete team. Quite talented, but they don't have any chemistry, and they are thin in the frontcourt. So what do you have?

The good news is that once this winter is over they'll still be playing this season. It will be warm again before the playoffs start. There is so much time to figure out things.

good point.. I have no clue besides we don't have a true center and andy sucks. waiters is having a tough time. lerbon needs to stop being the ball up. let KI do that.

we also need to run more plays and get rid of try hard but not good dellavedova

we have alot of issues on this team, no bigs, lebron being a wrench in the offense, not having a backup pg or a legit 2. I seriously hope the gm does something or gilbert brings someone in that will. The only way we will make playoffs is because we're in the east..we wouldn't even get in if we were in the west

I am really getting sick of watching LeBron turn it over and then not even running back on defense.

That is our team leader? Pfffttttt

Problem is we gave up most of our assets acquiring Love. A lot of these issues were things a few of us were worried about and mentioned when everyone was giddy about the prospects of pairing Love with Lebron and Kyrie.

Right now, what are our trading assets? An undersized PF playing center with a slow jumpshot and terrible post defense and a ball-stopping 2-guard who's best when coming off the bench. What do you really expect to nab with those two as your tradebait?

I really hated to give up Tyler Zeller. I felt that he was a solid #2 Center, and was improving each year.

I don't know that he will ever be a great defensive Center, but he works on defense. He is improving on offense. He has a big body, that has matured as a pro.

I do expect us to make a move using our trade exception at or near the trade deadline. I do not expect a hug move, but hopefully we make a move that allows us to add a big man who can play a little defense anyway. Jermaine O'Neal is still out there, but I have heard reports that he is really out of shape. I don't know if Okafor is getting healthy or not, but he reportedly wasn't going to be able to go until the 2nd half, at the earliest, anyway.

I have no idea what moves Griffin can make to add a big man through a trade at this point. I think that we will have to trade water until closer to the trade deadline.

Not saying you should agree, but until LeBron gets his act together, it doesn't matter who we have at center.

I was extremely excited to get LeBron back. I never begrudged him for leaving. However, he is playing like a loser.

I am sick of him pounding nails while other guys are open. Watch the vid of Waiters calling for the ball the other night so he could swing it to Miller--whose man had fallen down.

I am sick of him not running back on defense after committing yet another unforced turnover.

I am sick of him wanting to run his playground offense when we have a head coach who has a great offensive system.

I am sick of us wasting Love's talents so he, Kyrie, and Waiters can dribble and then force up contested shots from the perimeter.

Aarggghhhh!

Unfortunately, I am starting to wonder if Blatt can handle this roster full of star players. I put him at about 50/50 to be here next year at this point. If he does not get the team on track with his schemes, then it may be that Lue is the next coach up.

I think that LeBron needs to buy into what Blatt is selling, just like other stars have done w/their coaches. I really believe that Blatt's offense would work wonders w/our roster, if only LeBron would buy into it, instead of acting like god.

I am serious about this. Right now, I think LeBron is our biggest problem.

It is confusing, because in training camp, it was reported that Lebron learned Blatt's offense through and through, and was actually teaching it to the other guys. We have games where it looks like we are running Blatt's offense, and others like we are playing Browns offense from last year.

So do people think we'd be better with say Kyrie, Wiggins, and LeBron?

Kyrie, Love, and Wiggins?

I'm not trying to second guess bringing in the best player in the world..

But he doesn't seem like "LeBron" this season..

I think he's trying to let the young guys build a blueprint. We have half power LeBron at this point. He's purposefully playing meek to light a fire under the butt of everyone else.

I just hope this won't cause any unecessary tension in the locker room. He knows he can win a championship. He's just trying to morph the team into something special. I just don't think he wants to be "the guy" like he has been. He's tired of it.

I didn't expect them to come in together and win 60+ games right away..

Miami didn't even play that well originally and they were better players..

But losing big to the Pistons? No.. Just No..

It's more than just "not having a big"

Blatt in trouble.

http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/120922...d-blatt-sources

There is a growing level of worry within the Cleveland Cavaliers organization about first-year coach David Blatt and his ability to reach the team, according to league sources.

Sources told ESPN.com that there is rising concern in team circles about the level of response that Blatt is getting on the floor, with Blatt himself acknowledging that the Cavaliers "lost our energy and we lost our competitiveness" in Sunday night's embarrassing home loss to Detroit.

More from ESPN.com

ESPN Stats & Info takes a closer look at the Cavaliers' loss to the Pistons and LeBron James' struggles. Story

The Cavs would prefer not to be forced into evaluating their new coach just 30 games into Blatt's NBA career, cognizant that the job has quickly evolved into a much different one -- after LeBron James stunningly decided in July to return to his home-state team in free agency -- than it was when Blatt was hired from Israeli power Maccabi Tel Aviv in June with no NBA experience.

But the Cavs' effort level, especially defensively, is eroding noticeably, raising the volume of questions about just how much the locker room is listening to the 55-year-old Boston native, who has enjoyed tremendous international success but began this season as a relative unknown to NBA players.

Blatt denied Monday that he didn't have the team's attention.

"Absolutely I do," Blatt said. "We just didn't play well (Sunday). I don't think it was an issue outside of that. A couple games ago we were (17-10). I know some other pretty good teams in the NBA that didn't have that record.

[+] EnlargeBlatt
David Richard/USA TODAY SportsDavid Blatt has guided the Cavs to an 18-12 mark this season, which is good for fifth in the Eastern Conference standings.

"We have not played perfectly this year, I don't claim that. On the other hand, we're doing pretty good. We lost a couple games, we're down a few of our main players and last night did not look good and we did not respond well to it during the game. I recognize that. And certainly when that happens I'm every bit as much a part of that as everybody else, but it has nothing to do with questions along the lines of what I've heard. I just don't think that's right or fair. I really don't."

When asked Monday whether Blatt was the right coach for the Cavaliers, James wasted no time in saying that he's content with Blatt and that everybody is still in the process of getting to know one another.

"I think my relationship with the coach continues to get better and better every day," James said. "This is two months of us being together. I don't know him fully. He doesn't know me fully. He doesn't know any of the guys fully and that's to be expected. It's our first year together. But he has our attention."

Injured starter Kyrie Irving said the team is in "a really good place."

"The thing about it is we can't fault a first-year coach with getting to learn who everyone is," Irving said. "It's a process and just like assembling this team together, every single day we're all developing great relationships and learning how to communication with one another."

Cavs owner Dan Gilbert has proved in the past that he's unafraid to make coaching changes, dismissing Mike Brown this past May with three fully guaranteed years left on Brown's contract in his second stint as Gilbert's coach. Yet it should be noted that Blatt was hired in the summer largely at Gilbert's behest after Cleveland made unsuccessful runs at a number of high-profile college coaches, including Kentucky's John Calipari, Connecticut's Kevin Ollie, Kansas' Bill Self and Iowa State's Fred Hoiberg.‎

“

I don't know him fully. He doesn't know me fully. He doesn't know any of the guys fully and that's to be expected. It's our first year together. But he has our attention.
”- LeBron James, on Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt

Blatt was indeed asked Sunday at his postgame news conference whether he is worried that he might be losing control of the team. He responded: "I'm not concerned about that at all. I'm more concerned with how we're playing."

Just in the past two weeks, Cleveland has suffered home losses by 29 points (to Atlanta on Dec. 17) and 23 (Sunday's defeat to Detroit without injured starters Irving and Anderson Varejao).

Whispers about the lack of attention that various Cavs players are paying to Blatt during some timeout huddles, as well as their apparent preference to communicate with Cavs assistant and former NBA player Tyronn Lue, have been in circulation for weeks.

"You learn from experience, man," James said Monday. "You go through them and you figure out ways and which button to press as far as you as an individual, what helps the team. ...

"We haven't been together long. People want instant success so much in our sport and I think that's too hard to ask for when a team comes together for the first time. I understand it. I know what it takes and we're going to have moments where it doesn't look so good. We're going to have moments where it looks great. And then we're going to have moments where it just doesn't seem like it can get any better or get any worse. That's why you kind of stay even keel with the whole process and understand that if you believe in what you put in, believe in the work that you put in and the process, then things will shape its way out. It takes time."

Blatt agrees with James in that respect.

"We didn't come out and win 18 games without there being respect or understanding or attentiveness or any of those things," Blatt said. "You know what I mean? So when things go a little bit bad, naturally some people want to pin those questions because they seem to be an easy thing to do. I just think that's kind of unfair and really not to the point."

Turning 30: LeBron's Impact

Comparing how the Miami Heat and the Cleveland Cavaliers have fared through the first 30 games after signing LeBron James:
Heat
(2010-11) Cavs
(2014-15)
W-L 21-9 18-12
PPG diff. +9.3 +2.8
Opp. PPG 91.5 99.4
Opp. 3-pt FG 30.7% 35.5%

An eight-game winning streak earlier this month pushed the Cavs to a mark of 13-7, they have been just 5-5 over their past 10 games. During that span, Cleveland ranks 27th in the league in defensive efficiency, 28th in field goal percentage defense and 26th in 3-point percentage defense, according to ESPN Stats & Information. The Pistons made a franchise-record 17 3-pointers Sunday night.

The Cavs, it must be noted, are dealing with some lineup upheaval after Varejao was lost for the season last week to an Achilles tendon tear. Star guard Irving, meanwhile, has missed the past two games recovering from a hyperextended left knee and could miss more time as the team lets him recover from an injury he initially suffered on Dec. 11.

James was asked whether his endorsement would mean a lot for Blatt.

"Well, listen, man, I don't pay no bills around here. Listen, man, I play. I'm happy with who we have at our helm," James said. "He's our coach, but to make it a feud between me and Blatt or the team and Blatt is just to sell. It's just to sell and get people to read it and put something on the bottom of the ticker. That's all it is."

The Cavs are 18-12 and are fifth in the Eastern Conference heading into Tuesday night's rematch with the Hawks in Atlanta, which happens to coincide with James 30th birthday.

"I don't listen to things, and I'm very confident in what I do and what we're doing," Blatt said Monday. "I just know we got to do better right now. That's the important thing."

Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com contributed to this report.

This is my problem with that..The idea that a Coach can't reach a player..

It's the players job to listen to the coach..

Clearly our players aren't buying in.. And I hate that people automatically blame the coach for that..

Coach just needs to talk to his players to resolve whatever the communication issue is. This loss to a bad team and how it happened(15 point lead turns into a 23 point loss) will embarrass them enough to not want to repeat it.

I just don't get how turning the ball over while being careless and then not even bothering to run back on defense is trying to "morph" a team.

Right now, LBJ is our biggest problem.

I am fully cognizant that that could change and that LeBron will pick up his play and his teammates later in the year, but as of right now............the guy is a negative influence on this team and it is hurting this team.

And it really bothers me that Blatt is getting the blame.

The NBA is a Superstar driven league.. and I've always downplayed the effect a coach has, unless you have one of the great ones like Pop or Phil (in that order IMO)

But I always thought it was stupid that you have a guy like Rivers who was "terrible" in Boston, then gets two HOFers and is now a great coach..

Or the situation Miami put Spoelstra in, the same one they kicked Van Gundy out of.. when the players failed, it waz because the coach "wasn't good enough" but now, while not doing anything differently, they are great..

In correlation, I've always said the coach that wins with the Browns may not be the best, just the one lucky enough to be here when we finally found the QB..

Brian Windhorst is a parasite. Wish fat boy would keep his mouth shut.

People talk about Okafor and O'neal as mid season pickups. What do you think about Ronnie Brewer & Kenyon Martin?

Did Martin sign w/someone? I know he was going to work out w/a team this week....

What do you guys think of this latest Lebron fiasco?

I will try to find a link, basically immediately after the game, Lebron and Wade hugged, and they caught audio of what sounded like Lebron saying something about getting back together. I couldn't make it out. Some in the comments section that I read thought it was him talking about post-basketball.

I'm just gonna say this. I really doubt Lebron is dumb enough to say something like that on the floor when there are cameras, microphones, and people all around him.

I tend to think it was something else. I'm not guaranteeing LBJ is staying with the Cavs past this year, but I'm not going to base my thoughts of some rough audio.

I feel like it's 2009 all over again. So annoying.

I think in May & June we're going to be laughing about all of this. Do you think the Spurs are panicking right now? This is how we win a title-

1. Keep the Big 3 happy and rested.
2. Get a shot blocking center.

I feel like anything short of a title, and the masses will write these stories...

But really, where are we now? They're 18-13 while being able to rest Lebron a few nights. Probably just a bit behind where most thought they'd be. I think people that follow the Cavs closely realized that this wasn't going to be a smooth process...

Totally agree about the center, especially with Andy out, they need to get serious and do something before the deadline. It's not about luxury as much as it's about need now.