L Atlanta 100 Cleveland 94

[Glen Infante]

Funny to see some of us wanting to leave because we are losing, only to come back when we have a couple more wins on the books. I could easily point out the bandwagoners now.

This game was definatly ugly. I am not sure if Mike Brown is even giving out defensive schemes during practice. It just seems that all we are doing is trading baskets. I had enough of seeing an offensive team, and our offense isn't even that good.

I hope to see a change in mabey the lineup rotations. Mike Brown has to find a match where everyone plays well together at both ends of the floor.

Most importantly, LeBron really needs to start playing some defense. When that starts, then everyone else will follow. It all has to start with LeBron.

 

[Karma]

Re: Atlanta Hawks @ Cleveland Cavaliers

I dislike how LeBron is calling it a funk... slump.. whatever. That we're "better" than this. No, right now he should say that we're terrible, we suck, we need to work hard on our exposed weaknesses and come together as a team. What, we got completely outplayed by a team.. because we're not feeling so well? That we're on a slump? No, no, no.

A change of mentality is in order. Mike Brown needs to step up to the plate and show why he was so enamored by so many people that eventually led him to be bestowed with this coaching job.

You know, I'm glad that we lost this game. A good smack to the face. If we had squeaked by a win, we'd go by all cozy and happy. But tough times met by tougher times, much better.

But I do hate that LeBron also says, "I'm glad it's happening to us now." Bah to that. BAH BAH BAH. Atrocious. Like it's a slip up. Like it hasn't happened before. Silliness. The young king has a lot of growing up to do. This is reality and you better believe that you put up 39 points and still got schooled by the worst squad in the NBA.

Exactly LyXo. He is 100% on the the money. Its the attitude out there that is most disturbing. We had so many mismatches we could have taken advantage of, but we took the easy option too many times. Very frustrating. You dont put in that type of effort at home.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Re: Atlanta Hawks @ Cleveland Cavaliers

Can We Hit The Panic Button Now ?

Possibly....just wondering where the button is at. This game in a word:

DEPRESSING

We got outplayed by an inferior team. They showed more hustle than us. I am starting to think that its not about needing time to gel, but needing to light a massive fire under the players asses!!! I question Mike Brown's ability to motivate. We lost this game IMO because the Hawks simply wanted it more. And that is SAD......................

 

[Dungong]

I dont know about this one. Things started off good, Drew had an obvious mismatch and was taking care of things down low. Hughes was showing that he could pretty much get into the paint at will. Lebron wasn't even needing to touch the ball on offense. Then it started getting ugly.

On the defensive end, once the Cavs had a little bit of cushion, there was an immediate slack off. (This happened against the Bucks too) The Hawks got some young guys, but leave em wide open like that and they are going to hit. Joe Johnson was working up hughes, and no one was doing anything on Al Harrington. The Hawks managed to grab some offensive boards without box outs and the lead was lost.

On offense, the Cavs stopped doing what worked. Instead of taking the ball inside and moving the ball, there would be 1 pass shoot. Then the lead was lost and Marshall and Jones came in. For some reason, when the lead is lost, the Cavs tend to put up 3 pointers, everyone took a crack at it: Jones, Marshall, James, even Luke - all rushed shots that weren't set up by any ball movement and ALL misses. After a few possessions like that and more lackluster D, the Cavs find themselves down 10+ and never recovered.

The Cavs made a bit of a run at the end of the second, but it was really more of the Hawks getting sloppy than the Cavs playing well. Lebron almost brought them back himself. Then halftime comes and the Cavs let things slide away at the beginning of the 3rd.

Now this Hawks team has beaten San Antonio and Indy, but this should not have been a blowout Hawks win. At the worst, this should have been a down to the wire nail biter, but instead it doesn't seem that any effort comes until its too little too late.

Brown has to somehow get these guys to stick with what works and get them to play that way all the time. A couple things: If you are losing, you do not NEED to shoot 3's. You can shoot open 3's but rushed shots don't seem to go in for our shooters. In fact, its advisable to still run plays. On defense show some effort, jump up a bit and stick a hand in the guys face EVERY shot. Yeah, its going to look like you just got schooled when that jumper goes in, but its less likely to go in overall, which is what counts.

 

[highplainsdrifter]

Hawks 100, Cavaliers 94
Game Quotes: Cavaliers vs. Hawks - December 13, 2005

COACH MIKE BROWN
(On the game)
“Their effort from Mike Woodson on down to all of their players was a lot higher than ours. They were the aggressors from the opening tip until the end of the ballgame. We did not give effort, we did not concentrate, and we did not focus on anything. That is evident by 20 turnovers, and 28 points off of turnovers. Not only that, this is the 2nd time in a row that we have given up 15 offensive rebounds. This time it was not just one guy. Zaza Pachulia who is a good physical rebounder, and (Josh) Childress one of their guards. So again, that is about toughness, that is about effort, that is about desire, and we did not bring it tonight. It starts from me on down. Not only that, we did not concentrate from the free-throw line. You are not going to win at home shooting 63% from the free-throw line especially, when you shoot 27 free-throws and your opponent shoots 41.”

(Question: Is this the low point of the season?)
“This is not to take anything away from Atlanta cause again I will go with Mike Woodson out-coached me. From our effort standpoint, it is an embarrassing loss for us. I don’t care if we won or lost, just effort wise, our effort was horrible. I am part of it. My effort was horrible too. I am part of that team in there, and I am taking responsibility for this also.”

(Question about the Cavaliers’ effort)
“You can’t explain it. There is no excuse. We did not come with any effort. They came with all the juice. They were the aggressors. They did what they wanted to do, and they converted off of our turnovers. There is no explanation, they just came and brought it. When they came and brought it and turned it up, physically, mentally, the whole nine yards, we did not respond.”

“Right now we are not playing as hard as our opposing team. We go through stretches when we do and when we do, it is only for a short period of time and then we stop. Right now we have to figure out a way to play for 48 minutes. If we don’t like I said after the Milwaukee loss and the loss before that, we are going to see a lot more of that. We individually have to think about it, reflect upon what we have been bringing to the team, and try to turn it up a notch.”

(Question about the Hawks coming off a win over the Spurs)
“There are 30 teams in this league. I don’t care who you are, if you play harder than the opposing team you have a chance to win. You can shoot worse from the field than the opposing team. If you do and you play harder, and you do the effort thing: rebound, hustle, run out in transition and convert, take care of the basketball, you are going to win the ballgame. We did not do any of that tonight.”

LEBRON JAMES
(On the game)
“Defensively we held the team to 45 percent shooting, but we had 20 turnovers. You can’t turn the ball over and let them get 28 points off our turnovers. They converted. They are coming off a big win against San Antonio then they beat us. They played with confidence. We are in a funk. Every team in this league goes through this. We just need to tighten up some screws and get better. Once we do that we will be ourselves. I’m not going to say I’m happy about it, but I’m glad that it is happening early in the season.”

(On keeping spirits high)
“I can’t feel down. I don’t want to feel down. It is too early in the season for me to get down. Especially, with me being the leader of this team and I can’t get down because it will rub off on everyone else. I’m high in spirit right now. That’s one thing I can’t do is get low in spirit.”

(On the team being together on the same page)
“I think we are on the same page. I just don’t think we are putting it to practice on the court. We were able to do it early on, but it has kind of worn off. It is just about getting better. Those guys played hard and you have to give them credit. They are an NBA team just like we are. We just have to come with a sense on urgency Thursday.”

DAMON JONES
(On the lack of effort)
“There was a lack of intensity and a lack of effort out there at times tonight. When you come out with that kind of effort against any team in the league then you are bound to lose. It was a tough loss. Atlanta played well. You can’t take anything away from them. We could have given a better effort and we could have played better.”

(On where the team goes from here)
“We just have to fight through it. It is a long season. A team will have long runs where they win a lot of games in a row, and they will have lows and lose some games. The successful teams are those that minimize the losing streaks. We have to get out of it some how, some way. We don’t know how, but we just need to fight, go at it, and do what ever we have to and get the next win.”

DONYELL MARSHALL
(On the game)
“Their team is going to come out and play hard. They had nothing to lose. They are just going to come out and play. We felt we still should have won, but this is a good team. They beat San Antonio. They have played well against other teams. This is just an odd night for us. This is letting us know that we can’t just come out and turn it on when we feel like turning it on. We have to play hard from the beginning. Early on we caught teams by surprise, but now they know us. We have to continue to play.”

 

[NarlCavs]

I've been sick as hell this past week so haven't posted and that game last night didn't help me at all.
What a disgusting effort. There's no excuse to come out and play like that.

I agree about LeBron's postgame comments. I didn't like those at all. It's almost as if he really doesn't care.

As great as Lebron is and as lucky as we are to have him, I'm getting tired of aspects of his game. I put much of the blame on him for the defensive problems. He's a bad defender who gives no effort or a half assed effort on D. Until he picks it up there and becomes a real leader things won't get much better. He's also kept some of the selfish offensive play that started late last season. The Cavs offense and LeBron himself are at their best when the ball moves and he uses his passing and creative ability.

I also didn't like how LeBron threw a couple of terrible passes last night to Gooden and Wilks which they weren't able to get then got upset and had a disgusted look on his face although the turnover was actually his fault. Maybe teammates need to get on him all the times he fails to rotate on D, stay with his man or put a body on a cutter to block out for a rebound.

It's also time for Mike Brown to get on LeBron for his lack of D and even bench him for it. It's doubtful that wil happen since Brown seems to have his head far up LeBron's ass. It's easy to pull Gooden, Jones or Jackson out of the game. Let's see you really make a strong point to a major cause of the Cavs defensive problems.

This is a soft team that unless it becomes willing to do the dirty work will be lucky to win 1 playoff game.

 

[Glen Infante]

Mike Brown doesn't have the creditibilty to bench LeBron. If we had a high tier coach, it would be much easier. I don't think Mike Brown has the balls to bench him and LeBron knows it.

LeBron is pretty much running this entire organization. He does what he wants around here.