The Cavs got destroyed by the Lakers on Sunday night. Keeping the theme of the ridiculous schedule, the Cavs will immediately have a chance for redemption. It's still the west coast, so I hope you all plan on being late to work tomorrow morning.
Who? Cleveland Cavaliers (9-30) at Sacramento Kings (13-24)
When? 10:00 PM Eastern
Where? Sleep Train Arena -- Sacramento, CA
Where on my eyeballs? Fox Sports Ohio / NBA League Pass
Tickets? Cleveland Cavaliers tickets
Music?
This a matchup between two pretty horrible teams. The Kings have been slightly better as of late, but still aren't anywhere near challenging for a playoff spot. The Cavaliers are, well, they're 9-30. The last time these two teams met, the Kings beat the Cavs at the Q and it was a pretty horrible loss. Can the Cavs return the favor and knock off the Kings on their home court? Uh, maybe?
There have been many fans on this site that want to trade for DeMarcus Cousins. And for good reason -- he's an awesome player. But there's roughly a 0% chance that the Kings are going to trade away their best shot at a franchise player. Since coming back from his suspension, he's been an absolute monster. If you think his talent is worth the headache of all his attitude problems, why wouldn't the Kings think the same way?
Cousins is probably the biggest mismatch of the evening for the Cavaliers. Tyler Zeller and Tristan Thompson watched Dwight Howard do whatever he wanted last night and Cousins is a similar beast. He isn't the same defensive monster that Howard is, but his offensive game is far more versatile. I'd love to see TT shut him down, but Cousins could very well bully the Cavs' front court big time.
Jimmer Fredette has been playing pretty well lately. I don't have much more to say about this, it's just shocking to me.
Kyrie Irving needs to get some help. He wasn't at his best on Sunday night, but he did create a lot of open looks for his teammates. Unfortunately, C.J. Miles, Tyler Zeller, Dion Waiters, and basically everybody else, refused to hit those open looks. One of Kyrie's flaws (yes, he still has flaws, you guys) is that if his teammates aren't performing, he starts to say "screw it, I'll do it myself." This is also known as "what Kobe Bryant does 100% of the time." It makes him more predictable and less efficient. There were a couple of bad possessions when Kyrie seemed clearly upset with his teammates so he just went iso against 3 defenders and put up a bad shot. His teammates needs to hit shots more consistently, but Kyrie also needs to not ignore them.
Tristan has had a couple of low rebounding games recently. It would really make me feel good if he could haul in 15 boards tonight and get back on that double-double train. Do it up.
Fear the Sword's Fearless Prediction
I think the Cavs will win. Kyrie Irving should have a monster game. Spoiler: we might have a Google+ hangout with some bros from the Kings blog later. So there's that.