Thank you, Tyreke Evans. In a tight game down the stretch just after it seemed like the Cavaliers had blown it, Evans gave it right back to us and for that, we thank him. Kyrie drained the clutch free throws and gave the Cavs a 93-92 win to put them at 12-17 on the season.
Cavs leaders: Points: Irving, 23; Rebounds: Casspi, 12; Assists: Sessions, 5
Quick Thoughts: With the guard rotation out of order currently due to injuries I'm very happy to finally see Kyrie Irving and Ramon Sessions get a bunch more court time together. I rate them as the 1st and 3rd best players on the team so I'm not happy when they split minutes.
When DeMarcus Cousins made his layup to give the Kings a lead with 2.9 seconds to play it seemed as if the game was lost. Alas, Cavaliers secret weapon Tyreke Evans fouled Kyrie Irving with 0.4 seconds to play with the Kings up one. Evans thought the Kings had a foul to give when the Cavs were already in the bonus. A boneheaded play indeed - and from the Kings, it's not all that unexpected. Apparently that didn't change when Keith Smart took over. (Why do they call him "Smart" anyways? *rimshot*)
Former Cavalier, J.J. Hickson made his return to Cleveland and probably played his way out of Byron Scott's doghouse by being so terrible. In his 16 minutes he scored five fewer points than Ryan Hollins and, of course, missed all three of his attempts from the field. Is he going to even shoot 40% this year?
Meanwhile, Omri Casspi again struggled to score and his 3-12 mark from the field wasn't much better. But, with the poor rebounding Hollins and Antawn Jamison playing many minutes up front, he snagged 12 boards to lead the team.
In one of my (biased) surprise stories of the season, Alonzo Gee again was one of Scott's most trusted players as he had a solid night in his 42 minutes.
Notable performances:
Tristan Thompson, who I have not been high on of late, had 15 points and 12 rebounds to outshine Hickson.
Alright, this one isn't a biased surprise of the season and because of that I'm bolding and italicizing it. Ramon Sessions hit another three and is now 19-44 (43.2%) on the season from deep. Keep in mind in 259 games entering this season he had nailed just 13 of 71 (18.3%) in his career.
Fear the Sword's Player of the Game:
Kyrie Irving
In a close race between the two rookies I'll be giving this one to the future Rookie of the Year. Props on those game winning free throws on an odd night when both he and Love nailed a pair of freebies with their team down one and less than a second left.
0 recs | 15 comments
For me Tigger gets POTG all the way. There were times when Kyrie was visibly annoyed/affected by Isiah Thomas. He Settled for far too many jumpers, and was forcing things offensively. It was strange because I had never seen him do that before.
FrenchToast979 - February 20, 2012
its nice to see us win games (in part) because of smart play. Sacramento is a bit more talented than we are but we grinded the game out. this was an example of why I like Byron Scott so much. on the other hand, we have to get stop winning basketball games
davidzavac - February 20, 2012
http://cleveland.sbnation.com/cleveland-cavaliers/2012/2/20/2812487/jj-hickson-cleveland-cavaliers-sacramento-kings
FrenchToast979 - February 20, 2012
HAHAHAHAH
johnf34 - February 20, 2012
I will probably write about why this would be dumb.
Conrad Kaczmarek - February 20, 2012
Jamison would be gone, Hollins and Harangody are not worth a roster spot. Jury is out on Erden. Samuels is bad. Next years bigs could use anybody with any kind of upside.
OPace - February 20, 2012
I’m actually interested to see your point. Because the reason the Cavs traded Hickson was mainly because of the contract issue (and it was a smart move, despite Caspi’s struggles). If Hickson has so tarnished his asking price going into next season, he may be viewed as a undervalued commodity (on the free agent market that is). Though as I write this I see that he is going to be a “restricted” free agent, and it is likely that if the Cavs sign him to a team friendly deal, then the Kings would match it despite the poor play he has shown thus far, and assuming it continues the remainder of the season.
hans - February 21, 2012
Yeah that’s true. He may have played himself down into a price range where it’s worth it. It’s just like…are we doing this again? Don’t we want Tristan starting next year and getting 30-35 minutes per game?
Conrad Kaczmarek - February 21, 2012
Triston starting isn’t the big issue, the minutes are though. But depth at the position will be non-existent (unless they bring in another center and move Andy back to PF), and in any case contracts aren’t going to dictate what Byron Scott decides to do with his rotation. He’ll play the best player the most minutes, and that is probably what we’d want to happen anyways.
hans - February 21, 2012
Bring it Conrad, I am more than ready to have a unnecessarily long conversation about this. I
Martin Rickman - February 21, 2012
I don’t know if you and Rickman have a thing going on, but I would also be interested in a rebuttal to his article. He makes some good points.
It is refreshing to actually hear someone lamenting being traded away from Cleveland instead of always having to here how no one wants to play here. My only worry is that if he does come back and he still doesn’t get the minutes he wants, is he gonna pout like he is in Sacramento?
AJ leaving and the likelihood of finding another serviceable PF in FA for a reasonable price is another point. Sure we have cap space, but what’s your point? This is a team dedicated to rebuilding thru the draft and with young talent. No marquee FA will come here, and a rebuilding team won’t spend $ on a high priced journeyman. It doesn’t make sense to draft another PF in the first round, but we should be able to draft good options for the 2-3 spots.
All in all, if the price is right and Byron can sell the kid on him being the #2 PF, I don’t see how this is dumb…
allovertheplace - February 21, 2012
Yeah, I know Rickman haha. I’ll work something up probably for tomorrow.
Conrad Kaczmarek - February 21, 2012
lol I left a dangling I…it’s like I was talking and someone (Conrad…) just came up and slit my throat or something.
Martin Rickman - February 21, 2012
How u
Martin Rickman - February 21, 2012
basketball reasons
Conrad Kaczmarek - February 21, 2012
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