Michael Brantley Mysteriously Leaves Spring Training Game, Stadium
March 19, 2012While We’re Waiting… Rebounding concerns, self-aware fans and misery loves broadway??
March 20, 2012It was the night of the rookies for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tristan Thompson scored a career high 27 points and Kyrie Irving had 26 points (14 of them in the 4th quarter) as the Cavaliers came away with a nice win in New Jersey.
The Cavaliers got off to a hot start as Tristan Thompson was active in the post and was punishing the Brook Lopez-less Nets with dunk after dunk. The Cavs had an early 15 point lead, but Deron Williams wasn’t about to let the Nets go down without a fight. Williams used some precise shooting and some crafty moves in the lane to bring the Nets all the way back.
The game would be back and forth from then on, before Mr 4th Quarter, Kyrie Irving, took over and did his thing. After Williams blew by Irving for a nice dunk, the rookie showed he wasn’t going to back down and on the subsequent possession Irving drove in for an And-1 opportunity. Then on the next possession Irving hit a 3 pointer to give the Cavaliers a lead they would never relinquish.
Going back to our theme of development, Tristan really did a nice job making his impact felt, going for 27 points and 12 rebounds. Kyrie Irving had 26 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 1 steal. Donald Sloan came off the bench to backup Irving and chipped in 11 points of his own. It’s far too early to proclaim Sloan a future backup candidate, but he did show some excellent composure and did some nice things to help the Cavaliers win.
Cleveland
Starters | Pos | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | +/- | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | BS | BA | PF | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
A. Parker | G | 31:51 | 2-6 | 0-2 | 0-2 | +10 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
K. Irving | G | 31:14 | 8-20 | 3-6 | 7-8 | -2 | 1 | 5 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 26 |
T. Thompson | C | 37:29 | 12-16 | 0-0 | 3-4 | -8 | 8 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 27 |
A. Jamison | F | 39:14 | 5-20 | 1-3 | 2-2 | +11 | 6 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 13 |
A. Gee | F | 28:30 | 3-6 | 0-0 | 2-4 | -2 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 8 |
Bench | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | +/- | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | BS | BA | PF | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Totals | 41-89 | 5-15 | 18-27 | 21 | 55 | 21 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 6 | 25 | 105 | ||
Percentages | .461 | .333 | .667 | Team Rebounds: 7 | ||||||||||
D. Sloan | 19:33 | 4-6 | 1-1 | 2-2 | +7 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 11 |
S. Samuels | 19:17 | 5-5 | 0-0 | 0-3 | +7 | 4 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
D. Gibson | 17:14 | 1-5 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
O. Casspi | 15:38 | 1-5 | 0-2 | 0-0 | +2 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
S. Erden | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
R. Hollins | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
L. Walton | DNP – Coach’s Decision |
New Jersey
Starters | Pos | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | +/- | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | BS | BA | PF | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
D. Williams | G | 38:02 | 8-23 | 4-10 | 8-9 | +4 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 28 |
M. Brooks | G | 29:54 | 3-10 | 0-2 | 4-6 | -2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
S. Williams | C | 25:46 | 4-5 | 0-0 | 1-2 | -5 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 9 |
G. Wallace | F | 39:58 | 8-14 | 1-4 | 10-11 | -5 | 1 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 27 |
K. Humphries | F | 33:12 | 5-10 | 0-0 | 3-3 | -8 | 4 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 13 |
Bench | Min | FG | 3Pt | FT | +/- | Off | Reb | Ast | TO | Stl | BS | BA | PF | Pts |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Totals | 34-81 | 6-23 | 26-31 | 10 | 37 | 15 | 12 | 6 | 6 | 3 | 24 | 100 | ||
Percentages | .420 | .261 | .839 | Team Rebounds: 10 | ||||||||||
G. Green | 27:29 | 2-6 | 1-2 | 0-0 | -7 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
A. Morrow | 19:49 | 3-10 | 0-4 | 0-0 | -2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6 |
J. Petro | 15:52 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | +9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
J. Smith | 9:58 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-0 | -9 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
J. Farmar | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
S. Gaines | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
D. Stevenson | DNP – Coach’s Decision | |||||||||||||
J. Williams | DNP – Coach’s Decision |
9 Comments
Really fun game to watch. TT and Kirie especially. But Anthony Parker, oy vey! am better than he is.
Games like this get me excited about the Cavs! great game by the rookies, even if it was only vs. the Nets. Add a few stars in the draft and we will be great again! Have faith Cleveland
Games like this get me excited about the Cavs! great game by the rookies, even if it was only vs. the Nets. Add a few stars in the draft and we will be great again! Have faith Cleveland
Irving does it in the 4th quarter again. One of these days, players will learn not to wake the sleeping giant and he’ll have to bring that fire on his own, but today it was Deron Williams barking at Irving and blowing by him for a nasty dunk that triggered Kyrie’s competitive drive.
Thompson was all over the place… challenging shots, grabbing rebounds, keeping possessions alive, and today he was making strong moves to the hoop and finishing them. Impressive game… just needs to be consistent from game to game.
I was impressed with Donald Sloan. I honestly never saw him play in college or anywhere else for that matter, so he might have just had a good day, but even if he wasn’t hitting those shots, he was really active defensively and looks like he can bring something to the table as a defender. He’s also got a good handle and looks like a better ballhandler than Boobie would be as a backup PG.
I was most impressed by his composure. 0 turnovers in 19:33 of action. He looked confident in running the offense and didn’t seem even the slightest bit overwhelmed by the speed of the game. Those are great attributes for a backup PG. The scoring is just a bonus. But if he can just run the offense and not turn the ball over, he’ll have a shot to compete for that roster spot next year. It’s just a matter of whether he can have this type of game consistently or not.
I thought the Nets’ announcer made a good comparison for Sloan… he looks a lot like Raymond Felton and his game was reminiscent of Felton’s as well. His stats from Texas A&M show that he was a good scorer but had poor assist/turnover ratios. Hopefully that’s something he’s doing better after working on his game in the D-League. He had zero turnovers in tonight’s game, but also only had 1 assist. One game doesn’t mean anything, but hopefully he can get those assist totals up while keeping his turnovers down.
Agreed, it’s pretty awesome that the Cavs have 4 first round picks in the next two years.
I was thinking the exact same thing when watching this one — that I could perform about as well as him. And I suck. Oy gavalt.
I know this is a bit blasphemous, but when I checked the box score I was actually somewhat disappointed when I saw the Cavaliers won this game. The Cavs are only 2-3 games ahead of a top 5 draft pick, it is very much attainable, and I strongly believe the future of our organization depends on that pick. It could be the difference between say, Beal…and MKG or Harrison Barnes.