Post Game Thread: The Cleveland Cavaliers defeat The Atlanta Hawks 114-102

36 comments

1. Dejounte was terrible but once again the coaching is what buried us. No offensive sets. Selfish basketball. Iced out Collins, Griffin, and Okongwu when they were leading the charge for us offensively.

   Please. Please Landry I beg you. FIRE NATE.

2. Dejounte was the biggest cause of why we lost tonight. Way too many bricks that caused us to lose momentum in the start of the 4th. Other than that, I thought we played pretty well for a good chunk of this game. Feel like we coulda stole this one with better execution down the stretch.

3. Ngl Murray does a lot of dancing with the ball to get absolutely nowhere lmao. Like just drive your lanky ass to the rim and draw a foul bro

4. Trae back to his iso dribble pull up 3 and shot 1/8

   JC the rebounder with 1 rebound, a travel and a 5 point swing

   Dejounte forcing the bricks lmao

5. One thing I loved about the Dejounte trade at the time is that it signaled to me they were all in. That’s what I want as a fan.

   When you trade away Kevin, who’s a good young player, to get under the luxury tax, it doesn’t make me, a broke hawks fan, want to spend time and money on this team.

   You could argue our rotation would be a little bloated when everyone is healthy but everyone is rarely healthy. Maybe it’s bad luck but maybe we just have injury prone players. Having too many wing players in the middle of the regular season is a problem that good teams have. We lost all our good shooters and have a better defense but our shooting is terrible.

6. My takeaways are the importance of bogi and hunter to this team are really about offensive scoring and keeping the holidays in a true deep bench roll.

   also AJ Griffin could seriously win ROY if he got 18+ minutes a game.

7. Holidays need to be a packingfor a permanent Holiday.

8. In a 7 game series between the Cavs, the difference will be up to the front courts (& they got a better front court right now).

9. Probably one of the worst games we’ve played this year unfortunately. Hopefully we can bounce back though.

10. Tonight was rough because we were so terribly inefficient. This team is straight Jekyll and Hyde

11. I think we need to stop taking so many 3’s. Just look at this seasons box scores.

12. Off game from DJM, team’s shooting woes continue (seriously why is our three point shooting so fucking god awful?), and dogshit refs. I love Collins’ energy but he can’t put the ball on the floor and get to the cup on his own, can’t shoot the three, and he can’t back down anybody. He’s a less athletic Josh Smith. He’s a locker room guy and emotional leader.

    So far this season, a solid third option hasn’t emerged on the team, although that might be changing with AJ showing out — he’s easily the bright spot this season. Hunter has been…mid. Not bad, not great, just fine. I love Hunter but man he’s inconsistent. I really, really hope Bogi comes back soon.

13. Letting cedi osman go for 20 should be a federal offense

14. We were there for the vast majority of the game, and we had no Hunter and Bogi still gone, plus DJM finally had a bad game. We gonna be fine

15. Need to finesse a team with a buy one get one free Holiday deal

16. trading kev for the holiday bros was the worse trade TITS has done since getting him

17. The 2 inefficient guard combo isn’t looking so hot at the moment

18. Just saw Trae was 1-8 from 3 tonight.

    This slump of his is brutal JFC.

19. Everytime we lose a game there’s certain individuals that wanna put all the blame on trae

20. On a positive note, we went 5-4 on a nasty stretch of competitive games where we saw:

    Pelicans W

    Bucks W

    Jazz L

    Sixers W

    Sixers L

    Bucks W

    Celtics L

    Raptors W

    Cavs L

    Last year we probably would have went 3-6 on a stretch like that lol

21. Wait the pacers have a 10-6 record !?

22. Someone’s going to get traded…

23. How the fuck did we take 16 more 3s than the cavs and made just only one more 3 than them???

    We are legit no exagerating the worst 3pt shooting team in the leauge

24. Traes iso step back threes should count as turnovers at this point.

    Basically he had 10 assists and 10 turnovers. Fell apart on the 2nd half of the third

25. The nba and the nfl have really sucked this year. The product being put out just isn’t good across the leagues idk what it is

26. If we had Mobley I’d be so confident thatd we see nba finals in the trae era

27. DJM fuckin sold but hey let’s have him shoot 3 more times at the end of the game in crucial possessions instead of having one of our hot hands try to score. I guess that’s just too easy. For as bad Trae was so far scoring wise this season he never had as bad of a game as Murray did tonight points wise. 4/17 💀💀💀

28. I only want AJ Griffin shooting the ball from here on

29. Trade aaron and justin holiday for legitimately ANYTHING! A used condom would be more productive than them.

    JC should be on trade block, and nate should be on the hot seat.

    Trae needs to wake tf and stop chucking up iso bricks.

30. AJ Griffin is the truth.

    Trade Collins as soon as possible.

    Profit

31. Why didn’t we give the ball to JC, OO, and AJG more looks? They were carrying us offensively and we all of a sudden stop going to them? WHY DID WE HAVE MURRAY SHOOT LIKE 3 TIMES IN A ROW AFTER HE WAS HAVING HIS WORST GAME SO FAR THIS SEASON? Make it make sense!!!

32. Kings and rockets are next should both be wins. Kings are great offensively but they have a bottom 5 defense and the rockets are dead the worst team in the league if we lose to them the hawks need to be relocated back to St. Louis

33. Our Atlanta Hawks lose to the Cleveland Cavaliers 102-114. We are now 10-7, and I want to add context to that and say that the number is bolstered by an easier schedule start to the season. I felt that there was a lot of iso/little ball movement, especially in the fourth. For reference, the only player with over 10 or more shots other than Trae or Murray was AJ Griffin, and I still felt he could have gotten some more opportunities.

    Trae started the game hot in the first half shooting 7/11 with 19 points his foul drawing was good in the first quarter, and drew 3 against Okoro. I thought at the half Trae was going to have a massive game o follow up his performance against the Raptors. The general picture is bleaker as he ended with 25,2 and 10 on 10/22 shooting, meaning he went 3/11 in the second half. He shot ⅛ total from three. I feel like he regressed in the second half because he relied on jump shots rather than getting to the rim. He did get 10 assists, but I did feel like he could have gotten a bit more had he reigned in the shot selection just a little bit. 6 turnovers is a bad number as well. There were a few instances of passes getting picked off due to their length. Kinda like the Raptor games if you’ve seen them. For those reasons, I give Trae a B- rating.

    Dejounte Murray was awful tonight 11 points,4 rebounds, and 6 assists on 4/18 shooting, or 22%. He went ¼ from 3. Murray was inefficient in the first half. 3 points on ⅙ shooting. Made 2 shots early in the third. Made 1 of 6 shots in the fourth. I thought his shot selection wasn’t great a couple of his layups got blocked at the rim by Cleveland’s frontcourt. The contested midranges weren’t going in. I felt he could have tried to get someone else a look, such as AJ Griffen or JC. This is by far his worst game of the season. C- game tonight.

    Johnson made two threes in the first quarter, which is great, considering he only had 3 makes up until tonight’s game. He had a layup too. He had an excellent hustle save attempt on defense. Too bad he didn’t get much time after that. B+ game.

    AJ Griffin was generally solid in his first career start. AJ Griffin got some stats in the 2nd. Had 7 points, a driving layup, a floater, and a 3-pointer. Got three steals, the highlights being one after a non-called foul on a three-point attempt and the other after getting called for a travel. Speaking of defensive, generally, Donovan Mitchell took advantage of the matchup. The same with Garland, especially during the final possessions of the 2nd. The third quarter started well for AJ he had a 3-point make and a turn around fadeaway. He had a turnover off a dribble penetration in the fourth, and he also made a garbage time three. I felt he could have had more shot attempts, given how well he was playing offensively but that goes back to the shot selections from Trae and Murray. B+ game imo.

    OO was a good A+ game from him, one of the better games in his career, at least offensively. Ended with 18 and 10 on 66% shooting. He had 12 in the first half. He made a midrange shot and attempted a 3-pointer which missed. Overall offensively, he was able to put the ball on the floor with a couple of moves and get to the basket. Defensively I thought he put in effort. He fought on boards and got the Hawks some second chances with 3 offensive rebounds.

    JC was kinda meh, in my opinion. The offensive number was good, with 16 points, 1 rebound, and 2 assists on 55% shooting. Made 3/5 three pointers. One rebound is too low for JC. He was solid in the first half and had 10 points. Made ½ 3-pointers and also had an attempted baptism in the second quarter which he got a foul call. His play stood out in the fourth. In the fourth quarter. He had an awful travel call in the fourth, along with a clear path foul which resulted in two made free throws, and Osman made three. Had a decent idea to make a second pass to CC, but it amounted to a turnover. He got two steals as well. IDK even though he had good points on good efficiency, I just don’t feel like he was that great tonight. B rating for me

    CC was ok. 4 points and 11 rebounds. CC had his first points in the third of a lob from Trae. I felt he was fine defensively. Probably a B-.

    Aaron Holiday was 0/5 (one being an uncalled foul on a fast break) until the 4th, where he made a 3-pointer. 3 rebounds 0 assists. MID. C grade.

    Justin Holiday. 0/3 all 3-pointers. MID. C grade from me.

    On to the Kings, who feature old friend Kevin Heurter who is averaging nearly 17ppg on 50% 3-pointer shooting. The same guy who we traded for Juston Holiday and Moe Harkless (waived) should be a fun one.

34. I never want to see Aaron Holiday shoot again

35. It’s quite obvious that this team can go on incredible runs offensively. Their issue is playing against well coached teams that can defend in the half court. That’s going to be a majority of the teams in the playoffs. This teams ceiling is capped. Until a more dynamic offensive system is in place. We should be utilizing everyone skill sets and running plays to create multiple points of attack. I don’t think that’s a lot to ask. It’s so hard watching this team. And I feel like we are going to keep losing great players to players Nate is comfortable with because players like K’von and JC are handcuffed. Giving the owner more reason to push to be the first championship team that does not pay the luxury tax.

36. One of kelel Ware/Dereck lively falling to the hawks will be ideal next draft