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Episode 141: 11-0 & Making History
62 Plays7 months ago
Alex and Corey react to the Cavs making history with an 11-0 start to the season as well as dropping 83 points in a half against the Golden State Warriors. We breakdown the most recent games and take a look at the up-coming schedule. We also take a look at the Cavs team and individual stats so far.
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Transcript
Cavs' Historic 11-0 Start
00:00:15
Speaker
Hey Cavs fans, welcome to another episode of the Cavs pick and roll podcast the podcast by diehard fans for diehard fans. I'm Alex and I'm here with Corey. What's up, Corey? The Cleveland Cavaliers are now 11 and 0.
00:00:30
Speaker
and making history, Alex. I cannot believe the start that this team is off to. It almost feels like a dream. Like they're the best team in the NBA. Who would have thought? Who would have thought, man? Yeah. It's been, it's been awesome. It's been a hell of a ride so far.
00:00:46
Speaker
11-0, man, it's incredible.
Reflecting on NBA Season Start Records
00:00:50
Speaker
11-0 and I was looking and we were just talking before we started recording. I was kind of looking to see where do they stand in the record books because you see you see stuff popping up after they won so many games. Kenny Atkinson becomes the first coach in NBA history.
00:01:03
Speaker
to win first ten go 10 and 0 with a brand new team in a first season. He already beat that now that he's 11 and 0. So some history is being made there by Atkinson. But I also wanted to see well where the Cavs stand. And they're part of the history books now, too, because there's only about, I think it was 14 teams that have started off the season 11 and 0. And um if you're curious, Alex, the record, but number one overall record, is held by the Golden State Warriors.
00:01:33
Speaker
2015-2016 season, 24-0 to start the season. And when I saw that, I was like, ah, Cav's Hank, probably not catching that. But what made me smile after I read that was in parentheses after it said 24-0, it said lost in finals. We all know. We all know who they lost to. I love that. Yeah. That's awesome. ah Yeah, 24-0, man. I don't know if we're going to do that. that's That's tough. My hat's off to them. It's too bad they lost in the finals. Best start in franchise history and they're also in the NBA record books now too. It'll be interesting to see how long they can keep this going. They had a tough game last night against the Nets, which we'll talk about
Cavs vs Nets: Overcoming Challenges
00:02:22
Speaker
here in a few.
00:02:24
Speaker
Man, I just can't believe the start that they're off to and they're they're gathering a lot of attention, Alex. I don't know if you're noticing too, like national media and just, man, they're getting a lot of a lot of buzz right now. Yeah, it's been great. you know it's It's just so nice too that everybody's, there's no trade talk and all that negative press that comes along with either a bad record or just having guys on on contract years. Yeah, it's been nice that it's just been nothing but positive buzz around the Cavs. There's always going to be a couple haters out there, and the one that I saw that made me kind of laugh and then I was like, all right, um was they rattled off like the teams or they said something along the lines like, they haven't played anybody yet.
00:03:09
Speaker
It's like they played a lot of games so far in a short amount of time and They have played some tough team. I mean they smashed the Warriors. We'll talk about that too, right? I mean they've they've played They've played good teams along the way as well. Sure, they played some bad ones, but 11 and 0 is 11 and 0. And they're the only team in the NBA that's still undefeated at this point. Yeah, I mean, ah to say they haven't played anybody is kind of crazy. I mean, they just smoked the Warriors and the Warriors only had one loss going into that game.
00:03:42
Speaker
Yep, yep, so I did just haters being haters. You're always gonna have that um trolls and all that stuff but just just an incredible start for this team and You know Alex last night they they played a home game second night of a back-to-back against the Brooklyn Nets. And I thought that was going to be the game. I'll be honest with you, Alex, I thought that was going to be the game that the streak was going to end kind of a scheduled loss second night of a back to back, you know, that the Cavs pulled off a win. And let's let's get into this game, Alex. What kind of who is your thoughts on this game? I think it helped being at home for sure. But the Nets, man, they're not they're not a great team, but they they were pretty scrappy in this game, weren't they?
00:04:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, uh, it did feel that way. Like, like this could be the game, you know, second night of a back to back. They seem kind of tired. Even though they, they played really well in that first quarter, they led 34 to 28 at the end of the first. And then going into the second quarter, they still played really well. I think they still maintained a slight lead at halftime, but then third quarter, they just kind of seemed out of it. Like they were just all out of sync. They weren't really.
00:04:57
Speaker
They weren't taking care of the ball. They had a lot of turnovers. The defense wasn't quite there. And they just didn't seem like they were playing that up-tempo offense that they had been playing previously. They seemed to, I don't know, like they were just kind of trying to coast.
00:05:14
Speaker
Towards the end of this game they had they had an old-fashioned Cleveland Cavaliers third quarter outing exactly 13 points they scored in that entire quarter. So Luckily, the fourth quarter was kind of the opposite where the Nets struggle to score and the Cavs, you know almost almost you know double outscored them they scored 35 points in the fourth quarter compared to their 18 and um You know, had some work to do and was able to kind of eke out the win there. But yeah, I mean, the Cavs were looking like they were going to, you know, kind of take control of the game. um They had a little bit of a lead in a second. And then, yeah, it was close at halftime and they laid an egg in the third and.
00:05:56
Speaker
the Cavs had to do some work. And I don't know, Alex, it I don't know if that team in that scenario a year ago, second night of a back to back would have fought their way back into that game. It just feels like there's been several games now where they've been close or they've been down and they just there's no quitting them. They continue to fight chip away and have been able to to eke out some wins that maybe they wouldn't have a year ago. Yeah, I don't.
00:06:24
Speaker
the The thing that stuck out to me the most ah with that Brooklyn Nets game was just how much Jared Allen disappeared in that game. He only had four points. How many rebounds did he have? Three rebounds, three turnovers.
00:06:39
Speaker
It just seemed like he had so many opportunities to just dunk the ball, throw the ball down, and he would do like these layups and miss. I noticed it like three or four times, like, like, Jared, just throw it down. Why are you... I don't know what he was doing, but...
00:06:56
Speaker
Yeah, Mobley had a great game. One for six. Allen was one for six. 23 and 16 for Mobley. But besides that, all of our bigs laid laid an egg. Dean weighed three points for rebounds. Niang actually had a better stat line than Allen.
00:07:12
Speaker
um With eight points and and a couple boards and assist. Yeah, it's just an off game for Alan um You know worst game in the season so far for him The good thing is is like there's no trend there. and You know, that's a one-off fluke. You gotta you gotta think he got a hope, right?
00:07:29
Speaker
and even with Jared Allen, Dean Wade, and Nieang giving you a total of, let's see, 11, 15 points between the three of them, the Cavs still win this game. I mean, that's just, that's just amazing. They were able to find it in other places. Mobley with a big game with 23, Mitchell with 22, Garland with 20, Lavert chips in 12,
00:07:50
Speaker
you know and play some defense and that's enough to beat a team like the Brooklyn Nets. um They were fortunate. Were you sad there was no Ben Simmons, Alex, in this game? Who? ah ben Benjamin Simmons. Does he still play for the Nets? He does. He was playing early in the year. I don't know what happened, but he had I think i read he had like lower back spasms or something like that. He's just ducking Cleveland. Yeah, I don't know. I don't see him. like He's not even listed on the on the box score roster. I mean, he's not even a... He didn't play. He's not even a did not play listed there. I don't know where he's at. Maybe he's on the IR.
00:08:28
Speaker
Like always, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, kinda crazy. He's back home playing 2K again.
00:08:36
Speaker
Nice, nice.
Dominating the Warriors: Key Strategies
00:08:37
Speaker
So yeah, this game was the second night of a back-to-back and the the the the game that's gonna be the most fun probably to talk about is is this Golden State Warriors game, Alex. um Also at home in Cleveland, but this was a big game because, you know, it felt like it was gonna be a good test, a good measuring stick because like you said up until this game, the Warriors had only lost You know, one of their games so far and you know, we're early in the season, but you're kind of just waiting to see when is that? When is when when is this going to crumble? When when are we all going to wake up from this dream? And I'm going into that game thinking, just God, just don't let this be the game. Anybody but the Warriors, especially at home in Cleveland. and Like the last thing I want to say is us getting smashed by the Warriors.
00:09:24
Speaker
But Alex, what what what give us give us your rundown of this game. This was a fun one to watch. It was. I've heard it coined the Kavalanche. It was just a barrage. It's an every episode thing because you pulled that out last week, too. Did I say it last week? Yeah, you did. You said it last week, too. It's been the theme of the season so far. I mean, they're just destroying people. And this is one of the games. They came out against Golden State and they 39 points in the first quarter, 44 points in the second quarter.
00:09:58
Speaker
I mean, they were just 83 points in that in the first half. I think it was the franchise record for most points in a half. Yeah, it was it was just a barrage of threes. um They were just lighting them up. They couldn't miss Ty Jerome. Holy crap. And had Austin Ty Jerome. I was going to call him out. He was he was balled in. And man, I was I get hyped up watching him when he does things like that. um And it just like What a thorn in the side for the Warriors that game, who previously had Ty Jerome at one point on the roster, by the way. But it's one thing to get like so like beat by you know Darius Garland, you know Donovan Mitchell, who only had to put up 12 points in this game, by the way.
00:10:45
Speaker
But to get, you know, to have someone like Ty Jerome and don't mean this any kind of disrespectful way, but basically ah ah a bench player, a backup point guard to come into this game and just smoke you. Man, that's really got to hurt for that Warriors team. um and And Alex, they were down or the Cavs were up 41 at half.
00:11:06
Speaker
41 and a half. It was a glorious thing, scrolling social media and seeing the the halftime score go around social media and just people making the rounds. It was it was awesome. So do you think, I mean, it's been so many it's been quite a few years now, right? Like eight years since the Cavs, Golden State, the whole The whole, ah you know, kind of rivalry going on. Do you think that this current roster feels any sort of extra motivation or extra, I don't know, pleasure in defeating the Warriors? Or is that kind of over with since I guess only Tristan Thompson would still be the final remaining player from that roster?
00:11:52
Speaker
Right. Right. And Tristan i got a good old three minutes there at the end of the game. So I think I think this I think for the fan base, um probably more for the Cavs, maybe maybe both, because here's the thing. As long as Draymond Green and Steph Curry are running around in a Golden State Warriors from a Cavs fan perspective, every time you play them, you're're you're thinking about that rivalry.
00:12:18
Speaker
You you want to get you want to get one over on them. You don't want to lose to them. So on and so forth. Right. From the Warriors standpoint, like from their fan base, yeah maybe the Cavs annoy them because there was that one year, you know, it's kind of a thorn in their side. You know, the comeback story. We all know that from the players standpoint. Nah, I don't think so. You don't think so. I don't think so. And it's probably not the same for Steph and Draymond anymore because LeBron's not here.
00:12:45
Speaker
You know what I mean? Like he was the guy and and and they were the guys in his eyes, right? And it also looks weird because Clay's not out there anymore. Of course, he's out in Dallas. So, I mean, I think there's a hey, this is another team in the league that I guess is a contending team. So we want to up our game for that. But I don't think and they know the history, of course, but I don't think they they have that same feeling because they watched that rivalry. They didn't play.
00:13:16
Speaker
in that rivalry.
Team Dynamics and Coaching Improvements
00:13:17
Speaker
You know what I mean? So it's different. And Tristan just, you know, he's not enough to carry that weight and he doesn't play anymore in like heavy rotational minutes to be out there banging with Draymond Green. Like that'd be cool if Tristan was still a rotational player and he's banging around with Draymond Green out of the post or something like that and they start shoving each other. That'd be cool. ha But he's just he's just watching the game. I bet the front office cared a little bit. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:43
Speaker
they'll They'll always be that rivalry in our eyes, but i yeah, I don't think so from the from the players standpoint anymore. Yeah, yeah, you're probably right. Probably and not as much from the historic aspect of it, but more from the hey, the Warriors are, you know, one of one of or the top team in the in the West and the Cavs are the top team in the East right now.
00:14:03
Speaker
right right and uh speaking of allen much better game this this game alex with uh 13 points 12 rebounds 23 points for mobly and he grabbed a couple boards as well and um yeah nobody played over 30 minutes in this game darius garland and Jared Allen played 30 minutes exactly Mitchell in to play 26. The only part that kind of disappointed me was The Steve Kerr kind of emptied out his bench um late in the game um And it it didn't get them back in the game but it got them back enough to where the Cavs weren't able to kind of just clear their bench and because it wasn't until like almost the four minute mark, four or five minute mark when when the Cavs, you know, finally pulled their starters basically. And I was hoping that the Cavs are going to be able to arrest some of these guys a little bit more, especially with it being the first night of a back to back. But
00:15:00
Speaker
the Cavs still get the big win up 40 something points in this game. I mean, it just, that's an embarrassing loss if you're the Warriors, right? So that that kind of sets some reality for them. and And for us, it's also like, holy crap. Like this is for real. This is, this team is legit. This is actually happening.
00:15:20
Speaker
It was awesome. yeah Yeah, I agree with you. I kind of thought the Cavs, you know, they were still far enough ahead. I thought they could have put in, you know, put in Jalen Tyson a little earlier. Tristan Thompson, Craig Porter Jr. just work them into the rotation a little bit more than the the three minutes that they all got.
00:15:39
Speaker
Agreed. Agreed. Yeah, and I will say this too. Shout out to Isaac Akuro, who also chipped in with 16 points this game. He balled out. um You know, I think we talked about him last week, you know, and we've talked to him before, like, is he going to be a player that's going to be able to stay in this rotation and kind of has a lot of competition and stuff like that?
00:16:04
Speaker
That was a game that definitely helped his case um with with remaining you know in the rotation and big game of 16 points there that definitely helped as well.
00:16:15
Speaker
Yeah, Koro's been, he's just been kind of quiet. He's been playing well for the most part, again yeah besides this Nets game, where it didn't seem like anybody played overly well. But besides that, you know, he's been hitting the three when he gets his opportunities. He's, you know, running the fast breaks, getting some easy points at the other end in transition.
00:16:38
Speaker
And he's still playing great defense, so i he's getting he's impacting the team where he can. I don't know how much else he can really do since you have so many other people on the team that are the playmakers and scorers. Yeah, the the one the one good thing for him is is he's probably very under the radar as far as opposing teams and who they scout on this Cleveland Cavalier roster. I mean, he's he's got to be the 7th or 8th guy down on the list that they even look at, right? Because you're you're worried about Mitchell. You're worried about Garland and Mobley and Allen and, you know, Caris Laver coming off the bench and Ty Jerome's going to start getting more attention and just
00:17:18
Speaker
You know, so anytime Isaac and Kuro can get you more than five, six points a game, it's it's always goingnna it's always going to feel like a positive win as far as the output he's given you. And to get 16 with all the other players that are on this roster, that's a huge night for him. And it really helped and and was able to lighten the load for a lot of other players.
00:17:39
Speaker
I have the um the team stats up right now, Alex, and I wanted to talk about this too real quick. The Cavs shot 54% from the field, went 20 for 42, three-pointers, for 47%. They shot 42 three-pointers that game. That's crazy. They matched the Warriors who shot 43 but only made 13. But what I was most proud of this game was 24 out of 28 free throw attempts. I think it was the game before this. that I want to say it was the Pelicans game. Mitchell had come out after the game kind of complaining about, you know, the Cavs not getting calls and they fly back home for this home game in Cleveland and they got to the line 28 times and for the most part took advantage of that. And that was huge, too. The Warriors only got to the line 14 times. Hmm.
00:18:29
Speaker
It's an interesting stat. Yeah. Yeah. So we'll take that. It's gonna be hard to lose ball games when you're, when you're shooting that well on top of it, you know, they couldn't miss. They couldn't miss. It was absolutely insane. Yeah, it was. Probably my favorite game of the year so far.
00:18:45
Speaker
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, for sure. It's going to be tough to beat that. um The Pelicans game, you know, the Cavs go out on the road, um you know, and they they they eke out another win here. um You know, Mitchell had a big game, I thought he he scored twenty nine points in this game and he had some other ah players again chip in with some great effort.
00:19:11
Speaker
You had ah ah Garland, Lavert, Allen, Mobley, also all in double digits. Tigerome, as well, gave you 11. And that's that's one thing I really like about this team, Alex, so far, is that you know I could be wrong. i' I'd have to look at every box score.
00:19:28
Speaker
But it doesn't feel like there's been a night yet where it's just like two guys went off and that was it. And that's how we won the game. Like we haven't had somebody, we haven't had like a Mitchell Garland, both guys scoring 30 plus. And that's how the Cavs won for the most part. It's been a team effort with even scoring between anywhere between four to six guys, it feels like.
00:19:51
Speaker
You know, um, and that's really helping. I think this calves roster win games and also making it so that a guy like Mitchell doesn't have to kill himself. Remember all that ISO hero ball that we saw last year, Alex, I'm not seeing it so far, you know,
00:20:09
Speaker
it's uh you know you got to give credit to Kenny Atkinson what he's been doing with this team's pretty amazing uh you know last season like you were saying you would see Mitchell playing hero ball but you were you were seeing that Bickerstaff's lineups were a lot of okay we'll start Mitchell and Garland together we'll take you know Mitchell or Garland out and we'll leave one of them in so one would be you know leading the team and then they would swap them and the other one would be leading the team and Kenny's really gotten them to play together really well. They kind of they've just been feeding off of each other and they're playing such a high tempo offense and they're moving the ball so well that it never feels like okay Garland is now in control of the offense or
00:20:52
Speaker
Mitchell is now in control of the offense or okay you know it seems like they're taking turns going taking shots at the other end of the court which is always the way it felt in the past with Bickerstaff's offense. Yeah you know Kenny's gotten them to buy into whatever the system is that he's put in place and it's it's not really reliant on any one person they're just kind of everyone's staying involved and everyone's taking their opportunities and being aggressive.
00:21:17
Speaker
yeah Yeah, absolutely. It's it's like night and day from a year ago. It's a beautiful thing to see and that continuity is playing a part here. like it So far, i mean I know a lot of people were ripping the calves when they basically didn't make a single move outside of signing their own players and making the draft selection. They made no trades or any you know free agent signings or anything like that.
00:21:43
Speaker
There's a lot of calves fans there's a lot of fans around the nba and stuff just like what are you doing you know the seventy six is doing stuff new york's doing stuff yeah so far that is paid dividends because We don't have the problem, and I'm not watching the Knicks, but you know it has to um I have to imagine it has to be a thing that they're still trying to figure out. How how how does Brunson, Kat, and Bridges, and and whoever else, how do how do they all get their touches? How do we make this all work? right Which we had to go through when Mitchell first came over. you know We're past all that. This team has played together for a couple years now. It's the same roster.
00:22:22
Speaker
um And they all know each other so that's that's paying off big time right now And then like you said the system that Atkinson's running and then believing in that It's just the perfect storm right now and the Cavs are again the hottest team in the league as as a result Yeah, yeah, there's a There's just so much good camaraderie among that, you know, in this Cavs team. It's so great to watch the, uh, the, the Cavs postseason interviews. And they had one that was with, uh, Tristan Thompson and George and Yang. And they were just so funny together in every question they got asked.
00:22:59
Speaker
uh they were just cracking jokes it was hilarious and uh you know it it's funny that it's booby gibson that's part of that that team yeah i i really enjoy that that's great yeah tristan and ning are are kind of a good pair together kind of like what what fry and jefferson have been you know since their playing days so well I know you're not a fan of Niang and all that stuff, but a Niang Tristan Thompson podcast, I would listen to it. I would totally listen to it. I think that'd be fun. It'd be entertaining. Yeah, for sure. It'd be entertaining, for sure. For sure.
00:23:36
Speaker
um And then I know we're not gonna talk too much about this pelicans game I wanted to quickly touch on these bucks games before we get into some other topics though because and this is where up we kind of left off because the last game ah Last episode was the magic win these bucks games were tough Alex um Both of them came came down to the wire won the first game in Milwaukee. Donovan Mitchell hits a game winner. And if you remember that, Alex, you know, he he is playing hero ball at that point. He's basically isolated at the at the top of the three point line, kind of on the right side. He goes and starts to make a move.
00:24:16
Speaker
He kind of loses his dribble. Miraculously, the Bucks don't think, oh, I should go double team. He regains. He goes back to the middle of the court. Yeah. Yeah. And he almost goes over and back. He almost loses it yeah to the other side of the court. Yeah.
00:24:33
Speaker
Yeah, and and he pulls up for, you know, an 18 footer that could have clanked very easily and and it goes in and just what a win on the road against the Bucks who are a struggling team right now. That had to be a very deflating loss for for that fan base.
00:24:51
Speaker
That was such an incredibly difficult shot. Just but pressure the the clock ticking down with the score. You know, he's got to take that shot and he's got to make that shot. Like you said, he almost loses the ball in the back court. Then he almost loses his dribble again out of bounds. And then he quickly grabs the ball.
00:25:11
Speaker
turns, squares up, launches that shot as as quickly as I've ever seen anybody take a shot. He made a, you know, he just had one little quick glance at that hoop and it's incredible that that shot went in and everybody was celebrating. It was just such an incredible moment. That game was, that game was amazing. That was an a incredible finish.
00:25:31
Speaker
that that Yeah, it was. And you know it's funny because we were talking, again, ah Mitchell had a big game, played 35 minutes, put up 30 points in this game. But there was definitely other people that contributed in this game. Again, we had five, six players here at go double digits scoring. But I said a couple of minutes ago how Ty Jerome basically torched his old team. Well, good old Sammy got to do that because Sammy put up 17 points and once upon a time you know played for the Bucks.
00:26:00
Speaker
earlier on in his career. That's always got to be kind of gut-wrenching. um you know When you see a former player come back and it's like, wow, he's he's thriving with this team. How did we ever let him go? you know So on and so forth. Can you think of anybody like that for the Cavs? They were kind of like a, eh, piece while they were here. But then they moved on. And then they kind of just, man, you wish you had him back. and like You know we've talked about like Jordan Clarkson in the past like he's here. He's he's too high up for me cuz he cuz Carson's like he's a starter in the NBA. Can you think of any kind of role players or bench players that we've had at some point that like um we shouldn't have let him go.
00:26:43
Speaker
not not in the same vein. Like similarly, you know, like Danny Green or Hunter. Yeah, but he was, it wasn't necessarily in his career. yeah was Yeah, he was just so early in his career that we never gave him a chance to kind of find his is this place on the team. Yeah. But I can't really think of anybody in particular that we I'm sure there's been plenty over the years. I'm kind of drawing a blank, too, to be honest with you. I'd have to research the, I'd have to go back and kind of just look at some old rosters, be like, okay, there there's there's one, and then I'll probably come up with 10 of them. But ah but yeah, Sammy you know had a big game, that game put up 17 points. And then Mobley and Allen give you 29 points between the two of them, grabbed 20 boards. Akuro, again, 13 points, and and Garland gives you,
00:27:35
Speaker
You know, 11 points as well. Ten assists that game. So Garland was dishing them out. And again, just a very well balanced offensive evening for the Cavs. And Mitchell plays the hero and and hits the the game, game winning three Cavs. Again, Alex shot 46 percent um from from this game from three point and 48 percent from the field. And that's the other thing, too. It's just it's so weird watching them be We talked about this a little bit on the last episode, but like a modern offensive team. It's weird seeing them jack up threes and them go in. It's weird seeing them score for the most part, you know, 115, 120 points, 130 points, like consistently for the most part. You know what I mean? It's just our minds, our brains are not used to seeing that with this team. It's just amazing to watch right now.
00:28:35
Speaker
Yeah, and to beat a team like the Bucks, I mean, I know they're struggling right now at the beginning of the season, but they still got Giannis, they got Lillard. like that' That's gonna be a good team once they figure it out. I mean, they're still gonna be up. Giannis could have had a triple double this. I mean, 34 points, 16 rebounds, nine assists. Giannis is still Giannis. Damian Lillard goes off of 41 points, gives out nine assists. So there's your hero ball right there. There's your two guys.
00:29:04
Speaker
You know who else was their third leading scorer, former Cleveland Cavalier, or Torian Prince with 16 points, and Bobby Portis Jr. gives you 10 points, but nobody else. Brooke Lopez looks horrible. He needs to retire from basketball. Alan ran circles around him. But what I was worried about with this game was the Bucks are off to a rough start to the season. I'm like,
00:29:25
Speaker
They're in desperation mode, like they need a win badly. They're at home. They know they're going to bring their A game, which their star players did. um And they don't have Middleton Middleton. I feel like Middleton's been out for a year or something like that. So that plays a factor here. But the Cavs were lucky that they got this win because the Bucks needed one and in the worst way. They needed a win in the worst way for sure. Yeah.
00:29:52
Speaker
So then they fly back to Cleveland to play a home game in Cleveland against the Bucks.
Thrilling Win Over the Bucks
00:30:00
Speaker
And this game, you know, again, third quarter. Look at that. 31 points to 16 points. And the game started to go the Bucks favor as a result. And the Cavs did not win in this game. It required them going on a ah nice little run late in the game. I think it was like an 8-0 run they went on.
00:30:19
Speaker
um but they were down they were they had to fight back into this game similar to the Nets game and Luckily was able to eke out the win here. Does anything stand out from you here? dar Darius Garland best game of his of this year so far 39 points Alex I think what sticks out what I remember most about this game was my heart skipping a beat is Damian Lillard launched a three his time expired. I was like, oh dear God, don't let that go in. Yeah, because that's what he does. Could you imagine if he would have hit that and Mitchell would hit the game winner like if it was back to back game winners man?
00:30:58
Speaker
Who yeah ah bullet dodge there, but dairy scarlin man again got to give him some props that this is the best This might even be the best game. He's had over the course of not only this season, but all of last season as well um He just looks So different so different than what was ingrained in our minds last year. He is confident He is not hesitating. He is getting to the rim at will and he is shooting the three-pointer Without hesitation and and hitting it and and he's also dishing out those assists. He had eight assists this game as well
00:31:35
Speaker
Big game out of him. Donovan Mitchell only had to put up 14 points this game. And then again, you had some other folks chip in, but a huge game by Garland Alex. Is he redeeming himself in your eyes so far?
00:31:48
Speaker
Absolutely. um Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, last season it was just the injuries, right? It was the eye. He got poked in the eye and he was out and then he got his jaw broken and he was out and he was just never the same after that. He had his jaw wired shut. He couldn't eat anything. He lost 20 pounds. Yeah. Yeah. He was never, he was never the same last season, but I think he's definitely back to where he was the season before that he's in that he's looking like ah the all-star garland that we remember.
00:32:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that that warranted that you know franchise history contract that he got. So I'm feeling a little bit better about that because I was nervous going into the season. like Did we just make a the biggest salary mistake and in the and the history of this team, potentially? right like I was worried that he was going to start off the season like last season and you know the Cavs are making some sort of move by the deadline or something like that. That would have been horrible.
00:32:47
Speaker
So yeah, he's he's definitely redeeming himself. I think Alan is too. Alan, yeah, he laid a stinker you know against the Nets or whatever, but that's 14 points, 15 rebounds in the in the second Bucks game. I mean, that's that's basically a nightly basis for him. He's a double, double machine. And we talked last episode, Alex, the production he gives you for the amount of money you're paying him. Come on. Come on. yeah So.
00:33:14
Speaker
Yeah, the cast man, they are on fire right now. 11 to know. And another thing I wanted to talk about was I was just curious what kind of the player stats look like for the roster right now.
Balanced Scoring and Team Efforts
00:33:28
Speaker
And I see a couple of trends. I see a couple of things that catch my eye here is one. Oh, yeah, let me ask you this. I don't think you have it up. If you do, don't try not to look. What do you think Donovan Mitchell is averaging right now point wise so far this this NBA season?
00:33:45
Speaker
oh That's tough that is really tough because sometimes yeah, he kind of bounces back and forth with ah Garland so he might have 14 points one game in 30 some the next I'm gonna guess like I'm gonna say 25 25 he's only averaging 22 and a half. Okay 22 and a half um It's it's it's you know, it's it's fun From a fan perspective, like you want to see high scoring games, you want to see dunks, you want to see highlights, you want to see your superstar players throwing up 30, 40 point games. But man, this is just different. Think about this for a second. The Cavs are 11 and 0. Hottest team in the NBA and their best player is we're doing this with our best player only having to average 22 points. I don't have it in front of me, but I would love to look at some of their teams in the around the league, the top tier teams.
00:34:43
Speaker
and kind of see what is Giannis averaging? What is, you know, Luca averaging? what are these teeth What are these players having to average right now for their teams to kind of be sitting where they're sitting, you know, to be, you know, quote unquote contenders of this early part in the league? I guarantee Donovan Mitchell is probably the lowest.
00:35:01
Speaker
out of all of them. I think that's great. Yeah, yeah it's an interesting obvious observation, but is Donovan Mitchell our best player? Or is Darius Garland our best player? Or is Evan Mobley our best player? Or is it Ty Jerome? It could be any of those guys any night. What's great is on any given night, it could absolutely be any one of those players. Donovan Mitchell is still our best player.
00:35:27
Speaker
But I know I know what you mean by that. And and to be and to be honest with you, Darius Garland isn't too far around, ah too far behind. He's our second highest ah points per player game right now, 20 and a half.
00:35:39
Speaker
You know what I mean? So that's great to see him because I don't think last year – I think he was in the teens last year um if I recall correctly. But to see him up there, that's what you want him to be. I want him to be in that low 20s mark and dishing out, you know, eight eight and above assist the game. And so far from a scoring standpoint, he's doing that. His assists are only at at six six and a half but he's very capable. He can have a big night and dish out 10-11 assists on any given night.
00:36:07
Speaker
So he's having a great start to the season. But the other thing that stood out to me is how many players do you think right now we have averaging double digit scoring? I think Mitchell, Garland, Allen, Mobley.
00:36:29
Speaker
I'm going to stick with those four. It's actually six players. Wait a minute. Did it. How many did I count? Mitchell, Carolyn, Alan, Mo. with the core for Okay. And let's go with, uh, I'll throw tide Jerome up there and.
00:36:51
Speaker
shoot allen. There are a sale in our cell was already in their way. Wait, Wade's been getting some minutes now the core of her liver. Oh, how do I forget? Lavert, and of course, we're man and Lavert Laverton tie. um Man, what an impact they've been making both of them off the bench.
00:37:10
Speaker
I really credit a lot to those two as to why we're having so much success. And it's resulting in Donovan Mitchell not having to put up 40-point games just for us to win a game. It's because we have players that are coming off the bench consistently. They're reliable.
00:37:29
Speaker
And you know they they do other things. Ty Jerome, man, he's crafty. He's poking away steals. And that Warriors game, I forgot, I i can't believe I didn't talk about this. There was one one series of plays where he had back to back steals.
00:37:45
Speaker
um and And they both resulted in points. He's very crafty and he can run an ah offense and he can get you a cyst and he just make you can get to the line. He can make the right plays and the vert like an edge energizer bunny man. He'll chase around whoever you ask him to on the defensive end. He never gets tired. He's grabbing rebounds. He's just doing a little bit of everything. So those two have been huge off the bench for the Cavs so far and have been the most consistent players off the bench so far.
00:38:13
Speaker
um So six players, Alex, averaging double digits scoring right now. Again, I don't know how many other teams in the and NBA have that many averaging double digits, but I have to imagine it's it's not that big of a list.
00:38:25
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty cool. The other thing, the other thing real quick um is that stands out to me is minutes per game. We talked about this last episode, how, you know, wear and tear plays a factor right in an NBA season. And if the Cavs can find a way to keep these minutes down and make sure that they're healthy late into the year and go into the playoffs, you know, that that should help them, right?
00:38:53
Speaker
Only one Cavs player is averaging 30 or more minutes. Any guesses? Mitchell. Mitchell. And he's averaging 30.3 minutes per game. Everybody else is underneath 30 points or 30 minutes per game. Garland, Mobley, Allen are all at 29. Next highest guy is Laverde at 23.
00:39:19
Speaker
So again, I think that's a big deal too, because our guys aren't having to play, you know, 35 plus minutes a night on a consistent basis to, uh, to win these loving games. So, um, just a lot of good things right now. alex Again, it feels, it feels like a dream. It really does. Yeah, that's pretty, that's pretty awesome. We're gonna need to look and see who is coming up on the schedule. How many more games can they win in a row here?
00:39:48
Speaker
consistent It's it's it's weird because it's it's still hard to train yourself to look at this Differently and not as ah the the old Cavs fan because when we did our last episode we're looking we're like man the bucks the Warriors yeah like the Knicks before that like man We thought that was gonna be a tough stretch and sure the Cavs are gonna lose some games here at some point They're gonna have a losing streak. It's gonna happen at some point and But I believe I heard Alex, their next game is against the Bulls, and I believe I heard... that Lanzo's out again. I think ball is injured and he's out again, which is kind of I don't know. um Kind of, I don't know, his career is just to be one of those guys talked about like a what if story, but they got the Bulls, the 76ers, the Bulls again, the Hornets, then they play the Celtics, the 19th. The Celtics is the next milestone game in my opinion as far as a measuring stick.
00:40:51
Speaker
That's gonna be a national game on TNT. National game. Yeah, that's gonna be good. Now, at the same time, I'm not gonna just sit here and say, hey, you know, these Bulls games, the 76, like, I don't want to get in this mindset, though. Either way, those are automatic wins. Because what I want the Cavs not to do, up until that Celtics game,
00:41:13
Speaker
is like, this is not the time to go on that. Don't go one in four here against teams that are beneath you, right? Not not only in the standings, but like the 76ers are the worst team in the East right now. The Bulls, you know, they've won a couple of games, but they're they're beneath you.
00:41:31
Speaker
um Hornets same thing So don't don't don't let this be the time period where you you start losing some games and lose lose to bad teams Continue to play strong go for no go three and one or something like that But that Celtics games gonna be huge and a fun one to watch You know, it's a something that you were talking earlier about a former Cavalier who was it Prince and Yeah, Torian Prince. Yeah, yeah, Torian Prince. You know, who reminds kind of reminds me of Torian Prince was Damari Carroll, who is now an assistant coach for the Cavs, which I didn't realize until I started seeing him on the sideline, but he's ah he's been in a lot of the huddles. You know, I see him animated on the sideline. Oftentimes Kenny Atkinson is sitting down and you see Damari Carroll and the other assistant Cavs coaches, Johnny Bryant.
00:42:26
Speaker
is also usually out there pointing and yelling and so he's he's definitely making, Kenny's making good use of his assistant coaches there. It's ah always good to see, but yeah, Damari Carroll, yeah, so ah totally caught me off guard to see him on the Cavs sideline there. I was like, hey, when did they make that trade?
00:42:44
Speaker
yeah yeah Yeah, he usually gets interviewed right after the halftime before the third quarter starts, ah which is pretty cool. um And I like that they're they've been doing a lot of them actually on the court. It felt like in years past, like last year, it was always like, you know, in the locker room somewhere to where this is kind of live, you know, um right before they they start the third quarter and stuff. and You know, it's like a 30 second thing or whatever, but yeah, pretty cool that the Cavs, I always like having a couple, you know, a former cat, a former NBA player or two, you know, sitting on the the bench coaching staff. It was cool when, um, the UK train was there for awhile. Um, there's been other ones over the years, uh, random NBA players, Luke Walton, you know, good old Luke. Uh, there's been others too, but.
00:43:33
Speaker
carol never ah former cavaliers but you know he was a player that could put the ball in the hoop played for toronto for awhile and that's longer year one year Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So maybe, uh, yeah. So maybe we're, uh, he's, uh, teaching the team some things on the defensive side. That's always good. They've been playing excellent defense. So yeah. Yeah, definitely. So kind of the last thing here, um, I wanted to ask your opinion on I'm a, I'm a check the standings every day kind of person. It's one of the things I do in my morning routine. And when I first, you know, get on my phone and stuff, just to kind of.
00:44:10
Speaker
See what's going on. I like to see what other teams are doing, who's kind of moving up, who's moving down. And we're very early into the season. So we know it's kind of, you know, it's kind of funny season. We'll see how much of this is legit, you know, 20, 30 more games from now. But to the start of this season, you know, every year, Alex, I feel like there's there's two things that happen. There's a couple teams where they make a jump.
00:44:37
Speaker
right They go from a middle of the pack team or a fringe playoff team and they make that leap to where they get into you know the top half of the East um like the Knicks did a couple years ago, like the Magic are starting to do now.
00:44:51
Speaker
Well, the Cleveland Cavaliers are that team this year. The Cavs are the team that has made that leap into that eliteness category. But there's also teams that go the other way, the opposite way, where they were a contending team year over year for the last couple of years, and they're trending in the wrong direction now. And there's a couple of teams that are doing that right now.
00:45:13
Speaker
Um, but what, when you look at the standings, I don't know if you've been looking at it or have it up, but is there anything that surprises you so far when you look at the standings? I mean, obviously seeing the bucks towards the bottom is a surprising with all the talent that they have. Yeah, I think, um, other than that, you know, and nothing really, nothing really 76ers don't surprise you.
00:45:43
Speaker
i You know, I guess a little bit. Yeah, two and seven. Yeah, but that's a little bit of a surprise. The Knicks, I thought would be a little hotter than four sitting at four and five. The Heat, four and five. These are generally teams that are, you know, better and in the playoffs.
00:46:00
Speaker
Sure. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's it's crazy because the cell besides the Celtics who the Celtics are the Celtics. Right. um They're nine and two. So they're they're hanging around. Right. ah but But then it just it really drops off. It's five hundred ball or below after that. So the Cavs are, you know, again, very early into the season. But they're you know, even if they start losing some games here, it's going to be the Celtics and Cavs.
00:46:26
Speaker
you know at the top of the East here for for the you know near foreseeable future at least. um Other teams will start to figure it out. you know The Magic, we talked about it, how Bancaro's out. The Knicks are trying to figure out how to make their new pieces work. you know The Bucks, I don't know what's going on there, but you know i'm you know I feel like they're going to start to go in 911 mode here.
00:46:50
Speaker
janis seems annoyed if you if you i've been seeing stuff they've been showing clips of him and he seems short and and press conferences half the game and i'm sure he's getting annoyed and then the seventy sixers it's is's drama land down there with everything going on with m bede I don't know if you heard, but he like shoved a reporter and he got suspended for three games. No, I didn't hear that. Yeah. Yeah. The the the reporter said something that triggered him, something about something something, something with one of his family members or something like that. And he ended up shoving them and he suspended for three games. He missed the first couple of games. And then of course there was that statement he made around, you know, I don't think I'm going to ever play another back to back game in my and NBA career. And he got ripped.
00:47:33
Speaker
by you know NBA legends for that one. So there's a lot of drama going on with the Bucks and 76ers who, you know for the last better part of five years, have been in the mix year over year. So secretly, I kind of love it. I kind of love that they're down at the bottom because it's opening up that window for a team like the Cavs right now.
00:47:57
Speaker
Um, and it's a beautiful thing because we've been in that situation. We know what it's like to be down there. Um, what about the West? I mean, we're not watching, we're not stamped to one o'clock in the morning, watching West coast games, but a little bit more competitive out there. It looks like, is there anything jumping out at you with the West standings? Um, I don't think so. Um, the jazz, it's always fun to watch the jazz just because there's a, you know,
00:48:25
Speaker
It's kind of like watching the old Cavs. I think I mentioned that last episode. ah Yeah, they're sitting at the bottom two and seven. um The Suns are at the top at the first seed. Of course, they got KD and Booker. So not too surprising there. Nah, you know, nothing's really I don't see anything that's just overly surprising in the in the West.
00:48:48
Speaker
Yeah, nothing too crazy. I mean, the Suns, the Thunder Warriors, Wolves, Nuggets. Yeah, I mean, that's the Rockets at six right now, you know, um nothing too crazy. The Jazz. Yeah, I mean, I wonder, I think I said this to you ah like last week or something or it was somebody I was like, I wonder if the Jazz will We'll have a fire sale at some point. They just gave marketing that that new big contract. You know, they got Jordan Clarkson, they got Colin Sexton, you know, eating away at their salary as well. You know, assuming their seasons, it doesn't take very long in the West, like, you know, 10 more games go by and they don't start to turn this thing around.
00:49:31
Speaker
They're not going to climb out of that. They're not going to climb back into, you know, a playoff contention, most likely this year. So I wonder if they have a fire sale and I wonder if some former Cavaliers players will end up finding a new home here at some point this year. If you, not that they would, but if you could only take one of them back, would you take Sexton back or Clarkson back at this point in their careers? Oh man. Sexton or Clarkson. Yeah.
00:49:59
Speaker
Let's see. Oh man. I don't know if we need another point guard. That could be famous last words. I don't think either one of them is really a guard to be honest, like a point guard to be honest with you.
00:50:13
Speaker
ah They're both only six foot three. They're small but they're both they both play off the ball. Clarkson's 32 years old. Sexton's 25 years old. Sexton's making 18 million. Clarkson's making 14 million. Yep. Oh geez that's tough. I you know I'd probably I'd probably want to take Clarkson. If I had to choose between the two.
00:50:37
Speaker
Yeah, I like I like Clarkson a lot. He's one I've talked about before. I wish I wish we had back like more in his prime. He's more seasoned. Yeah, he'll he'll make us he'll be more likely to make the smarter play.
00:50:51
Speaker
You know, when, when games get into trouble territory. So he's a bucket. He's, he, he, he, yeah he's a bucket, right? He's a guaranteed bucket. Um, man, I felt like a missed opportunity when we had him. Um, and we didn't, you know, and then, you know, LeBron left and all that stuff, but, um, Sexton though he's younger, has he reached his ceiling yet? And we know that he's got that dog in him and that, that just that energy.
00:51:17
Speaker
Um, it's, it's a tough call between the two. I probably would lean Clarkson as well, but it's, it's very, very close. I'd be, I'd be happy with either one of them. Marking and making 42 million. Well, he's an all-star last year. What kind of contract did they give him? That's wild. All-star, man. Yeah. He's put up big numbers last year, man. Yeah. They just can't win games. They just look at the rest of the roster. Yeah. I mean, not much going on out there. They need to work on building out that roster, bringing some more veterans. Yeah.
00:51:48
Speaker
Yeah. But we'll see. We'll see if they end up wearing a New Jersey at some point this year. But I think that's it for this episode of the Cast Pick and Roll, Alex. Let's go ahead and wrap it up. And you want to let cast fans know where they can follow us and connect with us.
00:52:04
Speaker
Follow us on Twitter, at calvespickandroll. Shoot us an email, calvespickandroll at gmail dot.com. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, watch this episode on YouTube. however Wherever you're listening, click like, subscribe, leave a rating or a review, we'd appreciate it. All right, CAS fans, there it is. We'll talk to you again soon. Peace out, CAS fans.