The Cavs deserved it...

[moiso]

I loved how the Cavs played- with teamwork and effort.  Hickson looked great, Varajao is a great competitor.  But I wouldn't get my hopes up for this team long term.  They won't be able to maintain that effort level, and the talent isn't great.

[MMacOH]

Cavs talent is better than people give it credit for.  Of course, when you have a superstar who dominates the ball it is easy to make everyone else look ordinary.  The Cavs will have much more of a rhythm this year which will help everyone's performance.  I think they make the playoffs. 

[Chris]

This Cavs team is going to be a great study in the "winning culture".  This team is clearly not that talented.  There are a lot of teams with terrible records over the years that have had much more talent than this team. 

The difference is, the core of this team has been winning a lot over the last few years.  They have learned to play disciplined, winning basketball at the highest level.

We have seen with the C's, that there can be some carry over, even when the top players are not on the court.  But we have only seen it in small sample sizes.  Now, we have a great chance to see it over the course of a season. 

[greenhead85]

Doc must have forgotten that he's up against a Celtics hater in Byron Scott. Beating us everytime he got the chance is his motivation.

Beating a Scott-coached Cavs would be a special achievement. Remember when he ran over our team several times when he steered the Nets for quite a long time. Gosh, I really hated the guy. He gave us frustration after frustration for several years when he had Kidd, K-Mart and R. Jefferson under him.

[Fafnir]

This Cavs team is going to be a great study in the "winning culture".  This team is clearly not that talented.  There are a lot of teams with terrible records over the years that have had much more talent than this team. 

The difference is, the core of this team has been winning a lot over the last few years.  They have learned to play disciplined, winning basketball at the highest level.

We have seen with the C's, that there can be some carry over, even when the top players are not on the court.  But we have only seen it in small sample sizes.  Now, we have a great chance to see it over the course of a season. 

I remember watching the bench beat up on people in 07-08 when we'd secured HCA throughout the playoffs and were resting the starters in spurts.

Those games were fun to watch.

[pearljammer10]

It looked like the Celtics intentionally lost this game... They always do this at the end of games. They stop being aggressive and run plays that take way too long to get moving. They stand around and basically stop the offense. The amount of time the overloaded the right side and used Rondo and KG on one side, Rondo simply dribbling the ball around then trying to force a bad pass, it was just atrocious offense in the fourth quarter. They literally stopped running everything that was working. I don't get it sometimes.

[Chris]

It looked like the Celtics intentionally lost this game... They always do this at the end of games. They stop being aggressive and run plays that take way too long to get moving. They stand around and basically stop the offense. The amount of time the overloaded the right side and used Rondo and KG on one side, Rondo simply dribbling the ball around then trying to force a bad pass, it was just atrocious offense in the fourth quarter. They literally stopped running everything that was working. I don't get it sometimes.

Well, a big part of this is that defenses tighten up late in games, which makes it harder to do what they did earlier in games, and have to go to more of an isolation game, picking on mismatches. 

The problem last night was that their defense stunk.  Rondo played lazy defense, and didn't keep his man in front of him, which then killed the rest of the defensive system, giving the Cavs much easier looks than the C's were getting down the stretch, which was compounded by the fact that the C's couldn't run without getting stops.

And then of course there are the unforced turnovers. 

Basically, it was just sloppy.

[Evantime34]

This Cavs team is going to be a great study in the "winning culture".  This team is clearly not that talented.  There are a lot of teams with terrible records over the years that have had much more talent than this team. 

The difference is, the core of this team has been winning a lot over the last few years.  They have learned to play disciplined, winning basketball at the highest level.

We have seen with the C's, that there can be some carry over, even when the top players are not on the court.  But we have only seen it in small sample sizes.  Now, we have a great chance to see it over the course of a season. 

I remember watching the bench beat up on people in 07-08 when we'd secured HCA throughout the playoffs and were resting the starters in spurts.

Those games were fun to watch.

Hopefully Delonte brings an attitude to the second unit that will become contagious and force the C's to try in games like this.

[SamuelAdams]

I am happy for the Cavs fans. 

I expect a lot of Back-to-Back losses this year. We ARE old and will be tired. Doc will soon let the second unit play out more of those games.

[Chris]

This Cavs team is going to be a great study in the "winning culture".  This team is clearly not that talented.  There are a lot of teams with terrible records over the years that have had much more talent than this team. 

The difference is, the core of this team has been winning a lot over the last few years.  They have learned to play disciplined, winning basketball at the highest level.

We have seen with the C's, that there can be some carry over, even when the top players are not on the court.  But we have only seen it in small sample sizes.  Now, we have a great chance to see it over the course of a season. 

I remember watching the bench beat up on people in 07-08 when we'd secured HCA throughout the playoffs and were resting the starters in spurts.

Those games were fun to watch.

Hopefully Delonte brings an attitude to the second unit that will become contagious and force the C's to try in games like this.

The starters are not going to try just because Delonte is there.  And the starters are the ones who came out flat last night.  

However, with Delonte, the second unit may have enough firepower to overcome the lack of intensity of the starters.

[youcanthandlethetruth113]

They deserved it but we gave it to them via not taking care of the basketball and not playing defense for 48 minutes.

[greenpride32]

I posted this in the game thread; C's lost because Doc did not take this game seriously.  Ray KG PP played 5 minutes less than they normally would in a close game.  Wafer got meaningful minutes, without somebody else being injured or in foul trouble.  His first minutes should be in a blowout. 

I'm not sure if Doc purposely limited the vet's minutes or just didn't take the game/opponent seriously enough.  In either case, horrible coaching.  Playoff seeding will be critical this year.  So yes the games you should win do matter.  Game 2 of the year counts as much as game 70 in the standings.

[hpantazo]

I am happy for the Cavs fans. 

I expect a lot of Back-to-Back losses this year. We ARE old and will be tired. Doc will soon let the second unit play out more of those games.

exactly. It's not that Doc did't try to go all out to get the win last night, it's that a lot of our starters are old, and they just don't have it the second night of a back to back. I'm sure Doc could throw the starters out there for more minutes, but chances are that Ray would brick a few shots from not having any spring in his legs, and Pierce would drive at half speed and draw a charge or throw the ball away, and KG would just pass the ball off instead of taking it to the paint (wait, he does that anyway). These guys will be great in playoff series, but you can't expect the old guys to bring it at a high level on these back to backs, their bodies won't let them. This is why our depth this year is so important and why Delonte will add a lot to this team.

[Celtics4ever]

Cavs could be like ATL was a few season ago in 08 say.  Athletic gritty doesn't know they are outclassed and will play hard.