The Cavaliers put in their most dreadful performance of the season to date last night in Portland. They were a mess offensively and literally nobody other than Kyrie Irving was better than just somewhat decent. I'd have to say one of the toughest things of the night though was Luke Harangody losing his perfect FG% for the season though.
Cavs leaders: Points: Irving, 21; Rebounds: Jamison 11; Assists: Irving 4
Quick Thoughts:
The Blazers were the best team the Cavs have faced this year and this was the ugliest night we have seen out of the team so far. The early stages of the game were actually pretty rough to watch as neither team could really get anything going in the first half.
During the second half the Blazers really started to get the break going and got many fast break points. The Cavaliers were really lethargic all through the night yet made a few mild attempts at a comeback in the second half.
Cleveland was way off from the field and couldn't hit anything from deep. Basketball isn't always that hard to figure out though. When you hit 3 of 24 from three and turn the ball over a season high 24 times which leads to 22 fast break points it puts you in a tough position to win the ballgame.
It was one of those games where I just sat there thinking the whole time how I can't wait to get some real wing scorers who are elite athletes who can run the floor as well.
Portland's Wesley Matthews, Gerald Wallace and Nicolas Batum were a handful for Cleveland all night long as they were so difficult for our slower, more unathletic wings to handle.
LaMarcus Aldridge also had a pretty dominant game matched up against the struggling Antwan Jamison as expected.
Notable Performances:
It's easy to just say the entire team sucked and Cleveland sucks. But, I'm singing a little different tune right now because of how Kyrie played in his limited as usual minutes.
It was extrememly encouraging to see him step up on a night where nobody was lighting it up and put some points on the board for us. I expect him to carry a monster load throughout the rest of the season and become someone the rest of the guys look to for offense when things stagnate.
It would definitely be pretty fair to say everybody else had a tough time last night. Every single person who played during the real flow of the game at least had a turnover and basically everyone was Brick City from three.
There are going to be nights like this during the course of a season so it's up to Byron Scott to get more out of the team Tuesday night in Utah and I'm confident he will.
It's particularly confusing to see Omri Casspi struggle so much as he was the main veteran acquistion during the summer for the Cavs. He is definitely a much better player than he has shown us so I hope Byron sticks with him through his early season funk.
Fear the Sword's Player of the Game:
This one definitely has to go to young Kyrie Irving. He showed some flashes of brilliance through the night and it looked like he was the only person who was into the game offensively. It says a lot about him to be able to grind through a frustrating game like this but still be able to fill up the boxscore nicely.
I'm not even going to give you a second person to vote for because while Tristan had a nice little performance we should all be in agreement that Kyrie outperformed the rest of his teammates last evening. Props, kid.