In Kanye West’s song “I
Don’t Like,” Pusha T says, “The
power’s in hair my nigga.” This is
referring to Ric Flair, but I’ve heard rumors that Pusha T will now be adding a
line about Anderson Varejao’s hair because it’s developed a jump shot, can
rebound, and is a killer just like Sideshow Bob. Anderson Varejao is the Fuck Truck Driver of the night.
He shot 10-15 with 18
rebounds and 3 assists. He also
shot 7/7 in the third quarter while hitting his 15 foot jump shot. It was automatic for him this game. Forwards were coming out to cover him,
and he would give them a fake before driving and pounding in a lay up. If he keeps his shooting up, he will
continue his scoring binge and probably have an even easier time getting
baskets under the hoop without defenders waiting for him. I’m not even scared if teams start to
double him; he’s able to make the right decisions and is great at setting
people up for their favorite shots.
Varejao got us back into the
game during the third bringing scoring and raising the morale and effort of the
team for a couple of minutes.
Unfortunately, the morale
boost didn’t last; we couldn’t
score for the last 3:28 of the third quarter and entered the fourth
down 51-79. During the fourth quarter, we
blew any chance we had to come back by having multiple 1 ½ minute stretches
without any scoring. It didn’t
help that Jeremy Pargo thinks Omri Casspi is the fastest man on the floor, so Goran scored two open threes in a row (I’ll cover this below).
I’ll cover the big factors
of this game using the letter “R."
Rotations: The defense tonight was pretty
good. It looks like it wasn’t
because the Cavs can’t score sometimes.
However, Pargo has trouble with his rotating when double teams on
defense happen. This is what
allowed Goran’s two open threes.
Omri Casspi came deciscely
to help on the ball handler near the paint.
Waiters goes over to grab Casspi’s open man while Pargo gets the man
Waiters left at the top of the three line, rather than staying on Dragic, who is all the way on the other
side of the court now in the farther corner. Casspi has
no chance of running all the way to the open Dragic; however, he could have
made it to the man Pargo is on and Pargo could have been on Dragic. Pargo needs to learn the abilities of
people on the court and where they can get to when coming off of a double team. He messed up two times in
a row in crucial defense situations.
I would also like to give
props to Omri who is still like me at times when he panics, dribbles too high,
loses control, and falls. However,
I’m not giving him props on being like me today. He gets props for being very decisive and moving to double a
person right away, rather than floating near the ball handler while leaving his original assignment open. Floating like that does nothing to help in the man to man
defense. Dion Waiters is guilty of
this a lot, but he is working through this issue and gets a break since he only
played zone defense during college.
Reacting: Tristan Thompson sucks at
reacting. His offensive moves are
so slow that even if he takes a shot the defender can be four feet away and
still get there in time to throw him out of rhythm. He missed four, almost totally open shots, in the first
quarter. He needs to start doing
his moves quicker, so less athletic defenders don’t dominate him. There is no reason he should not be
taking Marcin Gortat off the dribble every time.
Reading: Dion Waiters is improving, since he has
figured out to drive the ball a lot more.
He still took a ton of shots, but they were slightly better shots. Defenders
didn’t cheat guard him by playing up in his face knowing he only shoots the
ball. Dion’s reading was shown
this game through him acting as a total facilitator during the third
quarter. He read the book of
Varejao, and he kept turning the pages every time he drove in a little bit then
fed the ball to Wild Thang at fifteen feet to turn another page.
Alonzo Gee also did some
great reading too. He played tight
defense and made sure to drive the ball rather than jacking up shots every time
he touched the ball.
Ridiculousness: I love Austin Carr. His favorite phrase and new phrase was
about Goran Dragic’s left hand. He
kept reminding the Cavs that the left handed men like to go to the left side. “You see, the Cavs aren’t realizing
Goran likes to go the left side.
That’s why he keeps scoring.”
This was repeated numerous times along with noticing all the birds that the Cavs
got; the referee should check for bird crap on the floor because tons of birds were in the arena. They should also make the sure area
under the hoop is in playing condition;
Austin Carr noticed Gee and Varejao throwing the hammer down on dunks several times. CJ Miles even pinged the rim and floor
a little too. Thank you being for you, Mr. Carr.
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