The Cleveland Cavaliers have been riding an emotional roller coaster this year. At times they’ve looked like a playoff caliber team, and other times they’ve looked like one of the most poor and dysfunctional teams in the league. The rides destination from the start was always the playoffs, and that ride all but came to an end with Saturday nights overtime loss to the Charlotte Bobcats — the surprise playoff team of the Eastern Conference — but for some strange reason nobody
This season has been one of great disappointment and controversy for Cleveland Cavaliers All-Star Kyrie Irving. Expected to be one of the more competitive teams in the Eastern Conference before the season began, the Cavaliers have floundered and are all but out of playoff contention after their latest 117-98 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Friday. More importantly, there have been rumors all season long about how Irving doesn’t want to remain in Cleveland – rumors Irving has denied. The most recent
Hopson on his way to winning the 2013 Israeli League Dunk Contest The Cavs are making a playoff push, and they’ve filled out their roster with a 15th guy. Is Scotty Hopson any good? Decide for yourself after watching him play, but here is my take after watching him this season. On Monday, it was announced that Cleveland had signed the ex-Anadolu Efes wingman to a 2-year, $3.8 million contract, with a team option for next year. There has
How about those Indiana Pacers? For five straight games they have been held below 90 points — and in four of those games they were sub-80. Their last two victories have been quality wins against the Miami Heat and the Chicago Bulls, but they have lost five of six overall and are now tied in the loss column with LeBron James’ team. All in all, it is fair to call them something close to a mess as they head into Monday
Tuesday night’s showdown between the Knicks and Lakers was a bit one-sided. The New York Knicks, who had been surging towards the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference with a recent string of eight straight wins, have (seemingly) fallen flat on their faces. If their recent fourth-quarter collapse against the hapless (and Kyrie Irving-less) Cleveland Cavaliers wasn’t bad enough, they travelled to Los Angeles for a shellacking at the hands of the short-handed Lakers. [Read more…]
Everything is bigger in Texas. Including losing streaks. And the Philadelphia 76ers are on the verge of the biggest losing streak in NBA history. After a couple of relatively narrow losses in which they were more competitive and provided a smidgen of hope for their suffering fans, the Sixers are back to normal and getting clobbered again. Philadelphia is up to 25 straight losses as it prepares for Thursday’s game at Houston. Another loss will tie the 76ers with the 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers for the
Sunday night’s self-destruction against the Cavs was about as bad of a loss as the Knicks could have imagined, given that they had a chance to pull within two games of the Atlanta Hawks, who had lost earlier in the day. Well, to be fair, it wasn’t totally a self-destruction. Jarrett Jack was phenomenal for Cleveland on offense, repeatedly burning Raymond Felton, and Luol Deng did a terrific job on Carmelo Anthony, keeping the ball out of the NBA’s second-leading scorer
For the Miami Heat, the story of the night will be how LeBron James went into Quicken Loans Arena and dropped 43 points on 14-of-19 shooting from the field to help his team come out with a 100-96 victory. The Cleveland Cavaliers will largely wonder how Dion Waiters didn’t get a foul call when it mattered the most. Down 95-90 with just under 30 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Waiters saw an opening and drove to the basket past Ray Allen.