What We Learned: Cavs vs Suns
The Cavs lost their 6th straight game in LeBron’s return from injury. The Cavs showed us some good things, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Suns. Here’s what we learned from this one.
• You can’t give up on the Cavs, no matter how bad it looks. The Cavs were down by 21 points in the 2nd half and were able to come back and take the lead. Their defense was why they were able to come back. They’ve showed us that they can play defense with intensity for short segments. If they played defense like that all game they would’ve one this one running away with it.
• The Cavs can’t win when Love and Irving don’t contribute on the offensive end. They combined for 18 points on 7-25 shooting. Kyrie missed a lot of shots we have grown accustomed to him making, especially late in the game. James Jones was in the game over Love for most of the 4th quarter. Love can’t have this happen to him again. You can say it’s questionable coaching by Blatt, but the truth is he was playing awful. You can’t blame Blatt for this discision. These two have to play better than this for the Cavs to win. Especially late in the game when all the attention is on LBJ.
• Mozgov can’t impact the game when he’s on the bench. Mozgov only played 16 minutes and was in foul trouble early. I still would’ve liked to see him in late in the game. I believe he would’ve made it harder for the Suns to get a couple of those offensive boards and not give up so many open shots . Questionable coaching to say the least by Blatt.
• J.R. Smith can keep you in games. Smith made 3 3’s in a row late in the 3rd quarter to make the Cavs come back possible. He finished the game with 29 on 10-19 shooting. He gave us last night what we hoped Waiters would give us.
• Markieff Morris can match LeBron point for point. Morris ended the game with 35 points. He matched LeBron point for point at the end of the game. If it wasn’t for him the Cavs would’ve won this one easy. He was definitely the player of the game.
• LeBron is back! LeBron’s two weeks off made him look a couple years younger. It was great to see. There’s a lot of blame to go around after this one, but not much of it goes to LeBron. He played great. If he can keep playing like this the Cavs will be alright. It was by far the best game I’ve seen him play this year. His explosiveness was back to what we’re used to seeing. I loved the way he was taking it to the basket. Before he left he would settle for contested jumpers, yesterday he was taken it to the basket like…well LeBron. It’s good to have LBJ back. Now let’s start a winning streak.
The Cavs will be back in action Thursday night against the Lakers on TNT. Let’s go Cavs! Keep the faith Cavs fans.
@CST_JacksonF
