Game Thread 2022-23 Game #41 - BLAZERS VS CAVALIERS - JANUARY 12, 2023 - THURSDAY - 7:00 PM (PDT) ROOT

[Cugel]

assists were low last night because of missed shots

 

[Fairly-Hard]

NBA has very thin margins as far as who gets the dub and who does not

It has been said that the difference in talent between a contender and lottery team is a very slim margin.

 

[Fairly-Hard]

No trade at deadline going fix this team for this year.

Again it seems like these kinds of comments are based solely on what you consider "Fixed"

 

[Fairly-Hard]

this team don't play as a team there to many individual types on this team looking for there stats.

Nah that's a copout. This team is full of team players.

 

[THE HCP]

Becoming increasingly clear to me that the Lillard / Simons backcourt just isn't going to work. Much like CJ, there are too many overlapping skillsets,.

I keep seeing people post similar opinions that they are realizing that Ant is too similar or identical to CJ and it won’t work with him in the backcourt. Honest question, how in the hell did you guys not see this years ago, or even in training camp?

 

[THE HCP]

You do realize even if Portland tanks they may not get Wembenyama? You do realize that, right?

You must be new here.

 

[Tince]

That is a bit too optimistic for me but I do see them making a simple move before the deadline and that will probably involve Hart. After that move i see this team making some progress. They are not out of it by a long shot. Win a few games and they look much better.

I was being sarcastic/attempting to imitate one of our fine posters who pushed back when some were saying this wasn't a contending team 2 months ago. I do see why the sarcasm wasn't obvious though, I should've added green font.

I do get the feeling I'm higher on the team than the majority though. Not because my stance has change much, but because others stances have changed drastically.

 

[Tince]

Before he hit the 2 3s in the 2nd half last night, he was shooting 1-19 in the previous 3.5 games. After last night’s game he is 3-24 in the last 4 games.

How much weight do you put into a 200 or 1000 attempt sample size vs a 25 attempt sample size? Personally, I put a lot more weight on the % in the last 200 attempts than I do the last 25.

 

[THE HCP]

Cleveland's backcourt is working isn't it?

Is the major difference between the Trail Blazers and the Cavaliers, the backcourt, or the rest of the players?

i'm going to say it's the rest of the players.

if you could choose one player to swap to the trailblazers, would it be Anfernee Simmons for Donovan Mitchell?

Nope, I’d bring Mobley to town over any of them.

 

[OneSport3]

How much weight do you put into a 200 or 1000 attempt sample size vs a 25 attempt sample size? Personally, I put a lot more weight on the % in the last 200 attempts than I do the last 25.

Obviously a larger sample size will be more accurate and optimal. I was merely pointing out that he has been struggling immensely in the last week.

 

[HailBlazers]

Cleveland's backcourt is working isn't it?

Is the major difference between the Trail Blazers and the Cavaliers, the backcourt, or the rest of the players?

i'm going to say it's the rest of the players.

if you could choose one player to swap to the trailblazers, would it be Anfernee Simmons for Donovan Mitchell?

We need an Evan Mobley to compliment Nurk.

 

[42N8Bounce]

No trade at deadline going fix this team for this year.

Is Billups eligible to be traded?

 

[Mr. Robot]

look at this tragedy, sadly, many people dont understand bball, so they blame nurk, as if anything in these plays was his fault

pay attention to the third play, when nurk chews out dame for not guarding his man

 

[blazerkor]

look at this tragedy, sadly, many people dont understand bball, so they blame nurk, as if anything in these plays was his fault

pay attention to the third play, when nurk chews out dame for not guarding his man

It's not Nurk's fault as in he is fucking up. He is being asked to defend in space and that just isn't his game. He is a paint filling monster when you funnel people into his world. Pushing up on the P&R/defending the perimeter in any way or asking the guy to defend in space or do a lot of switching in man coverage is all not only unfair to Nurk but also stupid.

 

[Mr. Robot]

It's not Nurk's fault as in he is fucking up. He is being asked to defend in space and that just isn't his game. He is a paint filling monster when you funnel people into his world. Pushing up on the P&R/defending the perimeter in any way or asking the guy to defend in space or do a lot of switching in man coverage is all not only unfair to Nurk but also stupid.

your point is valid, but thats not the point of this video

its the fact that mobley & allen got alley-oops cause no-one was guarding them

 

[wizenheimer]

look at this tragedy, sadly, many people dont understand bball, so they blame nurk, as if anything in these plays was his fault

pay attention to the third play, when nurk chews out dame for not guarding his man

the 3rd play you speak of...Dame WAS guarding his man and that was Garland at the 3 point line. Grant made the decision to go with Allen leaving Dame on Garland, but Grant was late to decide and ceded the open lane into the paint which left Nurk frozen in the worst possible defensive position between Allen and Mobley. If Nurkic was yelling at Dame he was yelling at the wrong guy

what I saw was a Portland defense that seemed confused in both zone and man-to-man. A good defense is decisive and aggressive. Portland's defense(s) is/are passive and slow to respond which is why it's so easy to overload a part of the floor and get 1-on-2 mismatches. The rotations suck and your guy Nurkic is not without sin in this regard

in fact, if Nurkic wanted to yell at the guy responsible for Portland's defensive failures, he should yell at Billups

 

[Mr. Robot]

the 3rd play you speak of...Dame WAS guarding his man and that was Garland at the 3 point line. Grant made the decision to go with Allen leaving Dame on Garland, but Grant was late to decide and ceded the open lane into the paint which left Nurk frozen in the worst possible defensive position between Allen and Mobley. If Nurkic was yelling at Dame he was yelling at the wrong guy

what I saw was a Portland defense that seemed confused in both zone and man-to-man. A good defense is decisive and aggressive. Portland's defense(s) is/are passive and slow to respond which is why it's so easy to overload a part of the floor and get 1-on-2 mismatches. The rotations suck and your guy Nurkic is not without sin in this regard

in fact, if Nurkic wanted to yell at the guy responsible for Portland's defensive failures, he should yell at Billups

look at start of the play, it was grant guarding the ball handler (garland), was he supposed to or not, i dont know, but he was and dame shouldve cover mobley and not leave him open, nurk clearly told dame to go and cover mobley (cause grant was on garland and dame was closest to mobley), you can see the finger pointing, so possibly both grant & dame messed up (grant cause he was there in the first place and cause he followed allen and dame cause he wasnt there in the first place and cause he didnt cover mobley), grant shouldve stayed with garland in case allen passess the ball back to him and dame shouldve gone to cover mobley and prevent what happened, an easy lob pass and finish, but first and foremost, at the beggining of the play, grant shouldve been on mobley and dame on garland... then there simons with help defense, which left mitchell unguarded, so allen couldve pass the ball to him for an open shot, so simons messed up too... only nurk & hart did well on this defensive possession

 

[Fairly-Hard]

but he was and dame shouldve cover mobley and not leave him open

Dude?
Mobley is 6'-11"

 

[illmatic99]

look at this tragedy, sadly, many people dont understand bball, so they blame nurk, as if anything in these plays was his fault

pay attention to the third play, when nurk chews out dame for not guarding his man

can someone explain to me what Grant is doing on the first play?

 

[Mr. Robot]

Dude?
Mobley is 6'-11"

whats your point, that dame shouldnt guard him just cause mobley is much bigger... just cover him, try to stop him, if you cant, thats okay

mismatches happen every game with every team, but you cant just leave opponent open

when guards/wings have mismatch with nurk, hes not letting them go by him, he tries to stop them

 

[Fairly-Hard]

whats your point, that dame shouldnt guard him just cause mobley is much bigger... just cover him, try to stop him, if you cant, thats okay

mismatches happen every game with every team, but you cant just leave opponent open

Dame is 6"2". he is giving up 9 inches in height and about 14 inches in wingspan. It's not a question who was out of position here?
The Problem was Chauncey letting it happen not once, not twice, but three times and he still didn't call a TO to fix the issue.
"Just let them figure it out" is not the way to coach NBA games.

 

[wizenheimer]

look at start of the play, it was grant guarding the ball handler (garland), was he supposed to or not, i dont know, but he was and dame shouldve cover mobley and not leave him open, nurk clearly told dame to go and cover mobley (cause grant was on garland and dame was closest to mobley), you can see the finger pointing,

ok then, let's look at the "start of the play", including Nurk's finger point:



how the hell is Dame supposed to see Nurk's pointed finger...His back is turned as he's involved in tentaive PnR defense with Grant. The Cavs have 3 players overloaded on one side of the floor and Mobley was being guarded by Nurkic after passing right in front of him on a cross to the overload. Can you even tell if Portland is in zone or man-to-man? Was Dame supposed to turn around and abandon Grant against 2 players, then run to the baseline and guard Mobley while Nurkic guarded the paint on the floor?



backtracking to about a second earlier in the play, it looks like Dame's responsibility was to stop a side-court-->baseline drive by Garland, the ball-handler. Watching the play unfold there was never even any real screen. Allen kind of bluffed he was going to set a screen but backed off quickly because Grant was too far behind Garland leaving a passing lane open

I'm assuming this was some kind of zone, but it also could have been a man defense. Like I said, whatever D Portland was in it was passive and confused

looking at the bottom picture, which was the earliest part of the play, I'm not seeing a point in time when Dame's responsibility shifted to Mobley

 

[Mr. Robot]

can someone explain to me what Grant is doing on the first play?

hes definitey lost on this play

 

[Fairly-Hard]

ok then, let's look at the "start of the play", including Nurk's finger point:

View attachment 52905

how the hell is Dame supposed to see Nurk's pointed finger...His back is turned as he's involved in tentaive PnR defense with Grant. The Cavs have 3 players overloaded on one side of the floor and Mobley was being guarded by Nurkic after passing right in front of him on a cross to the overload. Can you even tell if Portland is in zone or man-to-man? Was Dame supposed to turn around and abandon Grant against 2 players, then run to the baseline and guard Mobley while Nurkic guarded the paint on the floor?

View attachment 52907

backtracking to about a second earlier in the play, it looks like Dame's responsibility was to stop a side-court-->baseline drive by Garland, the ball-handler. Watching the play unfold there was never even any real screen. Allen kind of bluffed he was going to set a screen but backed off quickly because Grant was too far behind Garland leaving a passing lane open

I'm assuming this was some kind of zone, but it also could have been a man defense. Like I said, whatever D Portland was in it was passive and confused

looking at the bottom picture, which was the earliest part of the play, I'm not seeing a point in time when Dame's responsibility shifted to Mobley

My biggest point is Grant should not have been out on Garland in the first place. That is on Chauncey.

 

[Mr. Robot]

how hard really is to remember defensive plays, its not like theres hundreds of them, you should know where to be and what to do

either theyre stupid and cant remember or theyre lazy or theyre not focused, either way, shame on them

 

[UKRAINEFAN]

Nope, I’d bring Mobley to town over any of them.

We definitely need a guy like Mobley on this team. If we could somehow trade Simons for someone like him, then could move Grant to SF where he belongs and Hart to SG where he belongs.

 

[wizenheimer]

My biggest point is Grant should not have been out on Garland in the first place. That is on Chauncey.

here's the thing....I'm not sure what the context is there. Was this some kind of quick transition by the Cavs when Portland was in man defense and had to pick up the players they were nearest? According to play-by-play, Dame had hit a three and the Mobley dunk came 16 seconds after so transition seems unlikely. Was Grant on Garland because the Blazers had already switched a couple of times?

in any event, watching what little that video showed of that play, I have a hard time seeing when Mobley became Dame's responsibility

 

[Mr. Robot]

My biggest point is Grant should not have been out on Garland in the first place. That is on Chauncey.

yes, but we dont know if that was designed play by chauncey or grant took the assignment by himself

was grant guarding ball handler entire game or this was one off

 

[Mr. Robot]

here's the thing....I'm not sure what the context is there. Was this some kind of quick transition by the Cavs when Portland was in man defense and had to pick up the players they were nearest? According to play-by-play, Dame had hit a three and the Mobley dunk came 16 seconds after so transition seems unlikely. Was Grant on Garland because the Blazers had already switched a couple of times?

in any event, watching what little that video showed of that play, I have a hard time seeing when Mobley became Dame's responsibility

https://watchreplay.net/cavaliers-vs-blazers-jan-12-2023/18853/

it was set zone defense, you can see here, just play the video

grant & dame had all the time in the world to switch positions, they didnt, but we dont know if this was designed by chauncey or something grant & dame did by themselves

 

[Fairly-Hard]

here's the thing....I'm not sure what the context is there. Was this some kind of quick transition by the Cavs when Portland was in man defense and had to pick up the players they were nearest? According to play-by-play, Dame had hit a three and the Mobley dunk came 16 seconds after so transition seems unlikely. Was Grant on Garland because the Blazers had already switched a couple of times?

in any event, watching what little that video showed of that play, I have a hard time seeing when Mobley became Dame's responsibility

They were in this set three times with Grant out front. This was by design. You can watch the whole 2-3 mins of the game where this was happening.
I really can't blame Chauncey for trying to make it work. He's obviously still trying things. This was obviously not working with two bigs in the game.