This Is How We Will Win

Here's are flag

This is a semi-live journal.  I’ll go quarter by quarter for this Atlanta game, which we won.  I’ll put my comments in that are time related along with some extra ones.

1^st Quarter:

Listening to the two minutes of pregame talk for Atlanta, I heard more about them than I’d heard all year.  I don’t know if it’s what I’m reading or if the Hawks just aren’t talked about at all, but I didn’t know they were leading the league in turnovers, shoot the three ball well, and are 9-4.  Well, 9-5 now.

The first play of Cavs’s offense: It might be a long night if Varejao misses his little jumpers.

10:30ish I like to see the whole team run down the court after a steal.  Varejao deserves to get the offensive air ball rebound and then some easy points just for coming down the court. 

9:45 Tristan Thompson always gets stuffed.  He doesn’t even attempt to fake someone out.  It’s funny because I think I could block him; he’s the shortest 6’9” man.

8:33  Gee gets a dunk.  He’s good for one solid dunk a game now.

6:12 Shit, the Hawks have one of those possessions where their inside man passes out of a double, and the perimeter people pass one by one until the corner man gets the three.  Beautiful.

5:51 The Zeller driven Fuck Truck (He’s the award winner for showing how bitching he actually is) starts up.

He passes a nice assist to Varejao who has an open score.

3:46 Josh Smith would help the Cavs so much.  He jumps the passing lane, passes out the stolen ball, then runs down to rape the rim off of an alley-op pass.  Kyrie loves the two man break.

2:21 Zeller gets a rebound, runs back down, and then gets himself into position for an open shot.  He nails it. 

1:22 Tyler Zeller just ran down the court received a pass while cutting to the rim and actually elevates about two feet to dunk it one handed over Devin Harris.

Then Zeller runs back after the ball is pushed quickly up the court and just finds an open man to defend.  He hustles. 

2^nd Quarter:

10:17 Waiters is pissing me off.  He gets blocked on a pick and instead of fighting around it he just stands there.

4:47 Tristan Thompson knows how to hang around the baseline and when to come out for the easy points.  He should be doing this a lot more since he has no skills whatsoever. 

Dion Waiters is making his shots now and starting to drive, which is making him really hard to defend.   Defenders are playing off and giving up shots, or being burned.  He’s making the right decisions too.  The pass to Thompson, mentioned just above, wouldn’t have happened two games ago because he refused to drive.

This game was his best so far I think.  He shot 6-16, but he went to the line 7 times and had 7 assists.  This is how we will win our games. 

The last minute and a half of the quarter:  This was a tutorial on how to shoot yourself in the foot, leg, and thigh.  If you are going to foul, foul hard.  Al Horford should not get an And 1 with three people standing next to him.  Then, if the other team is running right away after their defensive rebound,  sprint to defend them.  You should never have ZaZa making a play against you that leaves you thinking: “that wasn’t bad.”  Finally, don’t have bad luck and a three by Ivan Johnson to beat the buzzer won’t go in.  If you foul like a turd, stay back on defense, and have bad luck you give up 7 points quick.

3^rd Quarter:

10:23 Varejao is always around the rim on people’s layups and gets the easy baskets.  It’s a skill that’s getting him 15 plus rebounds/points a game; no one is stopping it.

9:09 AWW FUCK is what I have written down.  Jeremy Pargo just made a classy pull up jumper though.  Not a warranted “Aww Fuck.”

7:13 Dion Waiters is starting to get it.  If he drives, people move around and other people are made open even if he doesn’t take the shot.  He found one of the open people.

3:16 Dion keeps driving.  I love this.  He can co-drive the Fuck Truck with Zeller today.  He’s driving for correcting mistakes he was making.  Zeller is solidifying his driving position by blocking ZaZa after Varejao is beat by him.  Zeller assists defensively in the paint without giving his own man a chance to score. 

4^th Quarter:

10:27 Tyler Zeller fakes a shot, gets the man to bite, drives to the hoop, jumps up and stalls to lay the shot in and avoid the charge.  He has a lot of body control and knows he can’t power through people.

6:39 Somehow, we just got 2 offensive boards in a row.  Then Boobie hits the three.  I love when we get hustle points. 

0:57 Dion Waiters runs down into the paint and could have taken a layup, contested, but  he decides to pass to Varejao for the easy shot.  The Cavs go up 2. 

How did Atlanta tie?  I guess they’re getting lucky.  Josh Smith hit that three after the ball has was hit back and forth between Cavs and Hawks on the floor before ending up into his hands. 

Piss, Lou Williams tied it. We’re done. 

Oh fizz, Gee is the man. 

Gee put the ball in after an air ball to win the game.  That’s the Cavs. 

Post Game Thoughts:

Jeremy Pargo has an uncanny ability to freestyle shots.  He keeps dribbling or holding the ball, and somehow he manages an awkward turn or a quick step to get a shot off that is makeable with time running out.  He’s freestyling because everything else around him has broken down, or he hasn’t allowed it to happen.  That’s a good skill for a Cavs second unit player to have considering they aren’t too great at running anything yet.  He’ll be great for the bench when Kyrie is back.

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The way we won the game tonight is the way we are going to win any games in the next year.  Alonzo Gee was not lucky in getting that put back; he was hustling.  To be that far under the rim and not boxed out takes major abilities.  He slipped by Josh Smith just how Anderson Varejao slips by everyone during the game.  The Cavs are going to win with the mentality that nothing is over on offense until the other team is actually shooting on their own basket.

Gee was a human flag for the country of the Cavs with this win.