Cavs Rewind + The Week Ahead (11/17 – 12/5)
By Will
In my last post I expressed some concern about the four games the Cavs had on the schedule coming off of a three game win streak. Well wouldn’t you know it, I was right to be scared. Cavs expert, right? We finished the week off 0-4 against the Nuggets, Spurs, Wizards, and Raptors.
The sky was falling, Kevin Love was going to leave for the Lakers, and we were heading right back to the lottery again!!! Let’s be honest with ourselves for a second though, if you’re looking for easy wins to check off the schedule the Nuggets are the only obvious one of the four. Let’s chalk it up to the early season growing pains of a new superteam and leave it at that.
Luckily for the sanity of Cleveland fans, the schedule has eased up some since that stretch and we’re back on the fast track to the finals. We have slapped the shit out of Orlando (which I was in attendance for), Washington (great rebound win after losing to them the week before), and Indiana (yeah we better win against them this year). LeBron won Eastern Conference Player of the week for the second time this season and at the moment, all seems right with the Wine and Gold.
Magic:
The prelude to this game was LeBron saying he “stinks” and needs to do his job better and Kevin Love calling it a must win. Both of those things are hilarious in retrospect considering it was a game in November against a lottery team. The mindset apparently worked though. We came out and set the tone early taking a 56-38 halftime lead and cruising to a 32 point win. LeBron led the way with 29-4-11 and 3 steals.
Wizards:
The Cavs had lost by 13 points in Washington just five nights prior to this game. LeBron didn’t like that. He put on his cape, messed around, and (almost) got a triple double netting 29 for the 2nd night in a row to go with 10 boards and 8 dimes. Combine that with 21 from Love, 18 from Kyrie, and 15 from everyone’s favorite Muslim –Dion Waiters– and the Cavs rolled the Wiz by 26 points on Thanksgiving Eve. The most surprising part of this game for me was Kyrie locking up John Wall to the tune of just 6 points on 2-6 shooting.
Pacers:
This game was a blowout, then close, then a blowout again. The Cavs started fast and jumped out to a 16-4 lead before the Pacers knew what happened. Then they made their run and nearly tied the game up at the half, only trailing 52-49. The Cavs came out hot again in the third and opened up a 16 point lead and coasted to a 109-97 W. Kevin Love played his best game as a Cavalier dropping 28 and 10.
To sum it up, the past week had me feeling like:
UPCOMING:
Milwaukee Bucks:
Cleveland opens this week up Tuesday night with the surprising Bucks. They are led by Jason Kidd who has really coached up the Greek Freak (whose real name I’m not going to bother with) and Jabari Parker. People expected them to be one of the worst teams in the league but they’re currently 10-8 and ahead of the Cavs in the standings. My prediction is that we continue our hot streak and the Bucks start to fall back to earth. Cavs by at least 9.
New York Knicks:
A rematch of one of the most exciting, and then disappointing nights in Cleveland sports history. (Editor’s note: “Cleveland sports history” seems a tad harsh) The Cavs head to MSG to take on Melo and the Knicks. Both LeBron and Kyrie play their best basketball in the Mecca so look for at least 30 points from one of them. We get revenge for the opening night loss and handle the Knicks by 6.
Toronto Raptors:
Drake is soft. The Raptors are not. I don’t like this game. If things go according to plan we’ll be riding a 5-game winning streak but going into Toronto on the second night of a back to back is going to be tough. If that’s not a recipe for a loss I don’t know what is. Only hope is we still have the bad taste in our mouth from getting stomped by them on our home court. PS – the Raptors have to have gotten a boost from the Jurassic World trailer coming out. Raptors clearly have the most swag of any dinosaur right now.
Need to win 2 out of 3 this week which would leave us at 10-8 through the five weeks of the season.
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Bottlegate 