2023-24 Season | Game #31 | Cavs @ Mavericks | Dec. 27, 2023 | 8:30 p.m.

So who needs Mitchell, Garland, and Mobley anyway? Trade 'em all, I say. Oh, and fire Bickerstaff.

cavsfever said:

He ran around seeming extremely high energy for a guy too sick to play

Click to expand...

Maybe it’s an STD?

I was ready to write this one off in the 1st quarter, especially when Bates came in. But these guys just don't quit. They ignore the score and just keep plugging away, one possession at a time.

Allen had one of his best games as a Cavalier with a line of 24/23/6. He totally dominated the 19-year-old Mavs' center, whose line was 4/4/1. Allen had NINE offensive boards.

Okoro continues to thrive in his new role with 22 points on 13 shots and 4-for-7 on 3's. All that work is finally paying off, and just in time. One, we need scoring right now, and two, it's a contract year.

Porter is amazing. A point guard getting 12 rebounds, second in the NBA tonight? And 7 assists. Defensive rebounding has been a problem for the Cavs going back to the playoff series against the Knicks and Porter grabbed eight of them tonight.

With three starters out we need serious bench scoring and LeVert stepped up with 29 points and 7 assists. He was directly involved in about 45 of the 113 points. Probaby his best game of the year and it came at the perfect time.

Niang finally stepped up with a season high 16 points. He still choked two free throws at the end. I was sure Doncic would hit a 3 to send it to OT, but Allen and LeVert doubled him and Strus made sure Seth Curry didn't get a clean look. Great defensive execution to bail out Niang.

The Mavs made just 10 of 37 from deep (27%). Take away Curry's shots and they were 5-for-28. They should have won this one but we got lucky in that they missed a lot of open 3's and they paid for it.

As I keep saying, this team will be really, really good once they're fully healthy. Allen, Okoro, Porter, and Wade are getting better from the experience they're getting. This team doesn't think they're inferior to anybody. What an impressive win!

The Cavs are performing better without their 3 best players.

Altman needs to go. Talk about a bunch of misfit pieces.

JBB made a nice move in doubling Luka and forcing him to give up the ball to teammates who were ice cold from deep. I thought he should have done it earlier after it was apparent nobody could stop him, but better late than never. That may have won the game.

Luka started the 4th quarter on the bench and entered at 5:40 with the Mavericks up by 9. I figured we had our fun, but now it's over. The rest of the game the Cavs outscored them 17-5.

Didn't see that coming. Luka was fresh from a long rest and I was sure he would put it away, especially with a 9-point cushion to work with. But even with Luka on the floor the Cavs trashed them down the stretch. LeVert was on fire and Allen was playing great defense and getting all the boards. Allen forced a lot of missed shots tonight in addition to his points and rebounds.

Alec said:

The Cavs are performing better without their 3 best players.

Altman needs to go. Talk about a bunch of misfit pieces.

Click to expand...

Another couple of wins without Garland, Mitchell, and Mobley and I don't see how they don't send him packing. He wasted a lot of money and draft picks on players we have no need for. Complete and total incompetence.

By the way, we're now a half game out of 4th place.

After this tweet of mine, Niang hit 4 threes (and smoked the FTs that would have iced it).


What a comeback.
Credit to JBB for not compromising roles.
Hopefully CPJ to main roster soon.

It certainly is peculiar that we keep grinding out wins, but without Garlands 3 late clutch turnovers and less Mitchell iso 40 min tired legs bricks, it is proving to be the difference in some impressive team wins. Don't look now but a new big 3 has arrived with CPJ, CL, and JA to take us to the promised land.