2023-24 Season | Game #52 | Sixers @ Cavs | Feb. 12, 2024 | 7:00 p.m.

[Smooth]

Idk why people are acting like Garland was playing well pre-injury. He was probably shooting better, but that’s about it.

Anyway…He was a minus 8 tonight. Mobley was also a negative and the other three starters were +5, +10, +10. As usual we have to overcome Garland’s lack of defense and rebounding and he himself didn’t do enough to make up for that on the other end. He had a 2-3 minute stretch where he was aggressive & effective. Assists are not going to impress me at this point. He’s a natural set up man and he can rack up assists in his sleep.

I don’t think 2-3 years ago we’d be content with Garland being a clear level or two below Maxey (who is 1 year younger with 1 year less experience), but that’s for sure the case.

Garland is going to be a max player who is not even top 10 at his position.

If they had to overcome Garland's lack of defense you would think it would have shown through a bit more since his return then it has? The Cavs are second in the league in defensive rating in February (106.4)... Here are their defensive points per possession percentile ranks in their February games: 90th, 92nd, 63rd, 81st, 93rd, 81st..

Maxey is without a doubt a better scorer than Garland.. Maxey has benefited from good health this year as well as being unpaired from Harden.. But it's funny even in a down year for Garland and a breakout year for Maxey, their TS%, free throw rate, assist percentage usage percentage, are all about equal with Garland having a slight advantage in steal percentage whereas Maxey has a slight advantage in rebound percentage.. Maxey has had a DRTG below 115 once in his career, Garland has had it in three straight seasons..

Also, saying Garland isn't even close to top-10 at his position is a bit exaggerated since it speaks more so to the depth of the position in the league currently then it does about Garland... Additionally, of course saying it in the midst of a down year is going to make your point a lot more salient then saying it after last year, or after an All-Star year.. Even within that, he's still a top-15 PG on his worst day and firmly in the top-10 conversation on his best unless you're including any of the psuedo guard-wings like Luka, Cade, Booker, Harden, etc., point guards then it just furthers the depth point to which you ask 10 people their top-10 point guards they're all going to have different answers..

 

[Nphan]

The play wasn’t designed for Garland. Did you have an opportunity to watch the game or folllowing on radio/espn box score?

I know it wasn't designed for him. The play was having Mitchell drive for some reason when its should have been for him to shoot. Thats why i won't believe it until i see it in the playoffs. A play designed to have Mitchell drive into 5 guys at the rim.

 

[LutherRackley]

The worst part of this loss is I was stuck with the 76ers announcers.
Two of the most annoying people on earth. The Sixers never commit a foul and the opponent does on every Sixers shot.

 

[Tlyons]

Recent history says we're about to win 8 more in a row.

 

[Dr. Claw]

In the Regular Season post I noted that I had 2 playoff concerns: Not being able to match other teams from 3, and the general distrust of Niang minutes. Both those things happened tonight.

Sixers got a lot of points in the paint but I don't necessarily put that on the bigs. They were hitting bullshit levels of contested shots over all. And I knew something was off as I was listening to the game on the radio to start and noticed the lack of 3 point shooting in those early minutes. Had me wondering what the Sixers were doing on defense.

I really hate Buddy Hield. Always gets the most bullshit levels of 3s off against the Cavs, no matter the uniform. And they gave him to Nick Nurse. Next time around, whoever has that defensive assignment needs to go Okoro mode. Force him to put the ball on the ground.

Nick Nurse brought Raptors Ball to a team that definitely didn't need it. Against those annoying 2-guard lineups he put out, should have been some Okoro in place of either DG or Donovan, add Strus (or Merrill) just so one of them couldn't go off. Really missing Dean Wade tonight just to have another quick defender in the lineup when Mobley isn't playing.

Speaking of Mobley, he's still putting up at least one F-U Block a game and those 3 point shots are adding up.

Overall, a bad game on defense early with minutes Niang wouldn't be playing in an ideal situation and they lost by 2. After the break, I need to see an asswhipping. Embiid ain't going to be there.

 

[Rich]

Honest question, where do you find Merrill minutes?

In a game where Mitchell and Garland accounted for 68 minutes of the available 96 backcourt minutes, that leaves 28 minutes to split in the backcourt along with 48 minutes to split amongst Okoro, Strus, and LeVert at the SF spot..

Not saying Merrill doesn't deserve more minutes, but the Cavs needed Okoro's POA defense more than the needed Merrill's shooting it's not like any of those other three guys played extreme minutes (Strus, 29; LeVert, 26; Okoro, 23)...

The problem with Merrill is the three other wings can play beside Mitchell and Garland, whereas Merrill will get squeezed when it comes down to crunch time lineups and Garland and Mitchell are on the floor..

Just acknowledging what's slowly taking place. His minutes are drying up. The DNPs are soon to follow. Especially if the Cavs hit a rough patch.

 

[cavsfever]

Having a rough season does not make DG 'a clear level or two below' Maxey. The guy just had back to back seasons of 20+ points/7.8+ assists while shooting 38%+ from 3. He led his team to a play-in in '22 and helped lead them to the fourth seed in '23.

While this was happening, Philly moved Maxey to the bench because he was a volume scorerer taking shots away from Harden and Embiid. Now he's taking almost as many shots as Mitchell currently is and making a good percentage of them. He's having a good season in that regard, but that's about all he does.

We don't need another Maxey nor should we want DG to be more like Maxey. We have a better one already. We just need DG to be DG.

Whatever, DG is still a clear level or two below Maxey.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

I haven't...now I'm gonna be annoyed tomorrow.

I slept on it, and I’m STILL salty as fuck!!

 

[CleveRocks]

I only got to watch the last 7 minutes , but I did not see defensive intensity.. In the bucks game we were up in the grill of every ball handler once they crossed the half court.. Garland was laying off his man 5 feet. It just gives them time to survey the defense and figure our what to do, then after the inbound it's a slow walk and a few jokes before anything happens.. When you are down 9 with 2 minutes left you need thos seconds..

Also Strus screwed the pooch with a useless T..

I know Garland had a lot of assets, but his three ball is not falling. Levert was just as open on the left corner, and I would have rather trusted him to bury the dagger, than Garland in his current state..

I think Garlands three will improve as he finds his legs, but I am not as sure he plays with intensity..I think sometimes the stats look for the other stars in the crunch, but that's not the formula that got us here..

 

[CavzAddict]

Donovan should've stopped and put up a 15 footer for the tie or dished it to Levert. I knew Garland wouldn't hit that shot. He's just not clutch. He hasn't had "a moment" since he's been here. Nice effort at the end to even get to that point though. Me and my boyfriend headed to the garage with a minute left.

 

[buzzdog]

So you’re the required dude on the internet melting because of the second loss in about a month and a half. Congrats on being that guy.

Yep, that got him immediately moved to the Ignore list for me.

 

[buzzdog]

Seems like a little too much angst and anguish is being had over this one..

Really boiled down to the Cavs picking a bad night to have a bad night defensively, and the Sixers shotmaking being way above their heads...

The Cavs were to get some things going late but it was a little too late at that point with how the Sixers had been playing offensively..

As Daugherty was saying all night, just one of those games you have to find a way to win and the Cavs had a chance to do so in the end...

I was flying home last night so I had to watch a replay of the game. On the flight I watched some of the Nuggets and Bucks, and I was thinking how ugly the style of play of both those teams was compared to the Cavs basketball we've been seeing the past few months.

Then when I got home and started watching the replay I was immediately disappointed. Watching our offense and defense I thought I was transported back to the early months of the season where Mitchell, Garland and LeVert were taking turns, everyone else was standing around on offense. This went on for much of the game. Defensively nobody was stopping the ball, nobody was pressuring outside shooters, they were playing very casual defense overall, no sense of urgency that we've gotten used to seeing.

The comeback attempt at the end was fun to watch but I felt we never deserved to win that game because we reverted to a lot of our bad old habits across the board. We relied way too much on dribble penetration, and as a team we never got the ball moving around the horn which forces the opposing defense to scramble. The Sixers were able to relax on defense because our guys were standing around watching the dribblers dribble, penetrate and kick out. We were easy to defend because of our own failure to stick with what has been working.

So to me this didn't really come down to a missed shot or a failure to play Merrill, even though perhaps we could have pulled a win out of our asses with a few things going differently. It was a loss by the whole team and coaching staff because they lacked the kind of energy and movement we've embraced during our successful streak.

 

[2 For The Brew]

I was flying home last night so I had to watch a replay of the game. On the flight I watched some of the Nuggets and Bucks, and I was thinking how ugly the style of play of both those teams was compared to the Cavs basketball we've been seeing the past few months.

Then when I got home and started watching the replay I was immediately disappointed. Watching our offense and defense I thought I was transported back to the early months of the season where Mitchell, Garland and LeVert were taking turns, everyone else was standing around on offense. This went on for much of the game. Defensively nobody was stopping the ball, nobody was pressuring outside shooters, they were playing very casual defense overall, no sense of urgency that we've gotten used to seeing.

The comeback attempt at the end was fun to watch but I felt we never deserved to win that game because we reverted to a lot of our bad old habits across the board. We relied way too much on dribble penetration, and as a team we never got the ball moving around the horn which forces the opposing defense to scramble. The Sixers were able to relax on defense because our guys were standing around watching the dribblers dribble, penetrate and kick out. We were easy to defend because of our own failure to stick with what has been working.

So to me this didn't really come down to a missed shot or a failure to play Merrill, even though perhaps we could have pulled a win out of our asses with a few things going differently. It was a loss by the whole team and coaching staff because they lacked the kind of energy and movement we've embraced during our successful streak.

It was disappointing literally from the jump. Our players were not mentally ready for the game and their players were. Thoroughly deserved loss.

Sometimes the first home game after a road trip is tough because you’re home and understandably relaxed.

I suspect the coaching staff is not entirely displeased with the loss. Sometimes you need a good ass kicking and a slice of humble pie to avoid complacency.

It’s damn difficult to maintain mental focus over 82 games. Everybody has a limit to their mental energy. It’s natural to get up more for tough opponents than for easy ones.

But now that we’re in second place everybody wants to beat us. Nobody cares if you beat Detroit or Washington. But beat a team that’s going for 10 straight and you’re missing key players? That’s a signature win and morale booster.

The mental challenge will be our main challenge the rest of the season and into the playoffs.

 

[buzzdog]

It was disappointing literally from the jump. Our players were not mentally ready for the game and their players were. Thoroughly deserved loss.

Sometimes the first home game after a road trip is tough because you’re home and understandably relaxed.

I suspect the coaching staff is not entirely displeased with the loss. Sometimes you need a good ass kicking and a slice of humble pie to avoid complacency.

It’s damn difficult to maintain mental focus over 82 games. Everybody has a limit to their mental energy. It’s natural to get up more for tough opponents than for easy ones.

But now that we’re in second place everybody wants to beat us. Nobody cares if you beat Detroit or Washington. But beat a team that’s going for 10 straight and you’re missing key players? That’s a signature win and morale booster.

The mental challenge will be our main challenge the rest of the season and into the playoffs.

I'm not upset about the loss. There's a reason nobody in the whole league has won more than 9 straight. Like you said the mental intensity is hard to maintain at the highest level, there are bound to be collective lapses from time to time. And even as depleted as they are, the Sixers are no slouches. Maxey, Hield and Oubre can all be very potent and they all had it going on last night, very hard to defend even if we would have given our best effort (which we didn't).

Our shots weren't going down and that's also bound to happen sometimes in an 82 game season. I was just disappointed in the lack of ball movement side to side and inside out and back in again, their half court defense didn't have to move much as a team to defend us.

 

[MobGod]

I'm not upset about the loss. There's a reason nobody in the whole league has won more than 9 straight. Like you said the mental intensity is hard to maintain at the highest level, there are bound to be collective lapses from time to time. And even as depleted as they are, the Sixers are no slouches. Maxey, Hield and Oubre can all be very potent and they all had it going on last night, very hard to defend even if we would have given our best effort (which we didn't).

Our shots weren't going down and that's also bound to happen sometimes in an 82 game season. I was just disappointed in the lack of ball movement side to side and inside out and back in again, their half court defense didn't have to move much as a team to defend us.

I agree, one loss doesn't mean shit. We beat the Bulls on Wednesday and beat these Sixers again after the allstar break and we are looking just fine. Also did not realize no one has gone on a 10 game winning streak yet, for sure thought the Knicks, Clips, or Boston did.