It’s All About The Vareajos Baby!

Our whole team is taking after him!

We lost to the Grizzlies, go figure.

It’s getting pretty frustrating that we are up by 7+ points at different points in games, even the third quarter, and we still manage a lose.  I thought the Cavs played amazing defense in the first and even most of the second against this Memphis Grizzlies team.  Hell, even the third quarter our defense was decent.  The Cavs run into major issues when they start to turn over the ball for lots of easy baskets;  that’s what allows our opponents back into the game. 

We also have issues when none of our wing players are able to drive or refuse to drive when our jump shots failing.  There were multiple stretches in the second quarter where we had multiple trips on offense with missed shots and missed second possessions.  We have very inopportune scoring droughts at the ends of games and quarters.  Speaking of droughts, the whole fourth quarter was one for us.  We had only nine points and didn’t score the first three minutes.  It was a gritty fourth quarter ,however, with tough defense and lots of back and forth defensive battles: one turnover or bad shot going into another turnover or bad shot.

The Cavs give games away, and every body we plays knows this.  It gives a mentality that no matter what opposition teams should just play hard because we generally figure out a way not to pull the win.  Our power ranking of 19 reflects this; ten teams below us have more wins.  We actually have a negative turnover differential, we’re a top ten team in rebounding, and we’re number 12 in three point percentage.  We are a middle of the road team.

I’ll go over some things I noticed this game, most of which are surprisingly pleasant.

-Anderson Varejao is a beast.  He also distributes his beastdom to other players with nice little passes in the paint for easy baskets.  At first, he was trying to just outdo Marc Gasol because his first assist came after Gasol got one under the rim.   Then Wild Thang was just doing it to do it.

- Everyone on the team has been fighting for extra possessions on offense.  Even when we don’t get them and only tip the ball or knock it away for a second, we are making the other team lose their ability to run the fast break.  This has been helping us a lot to get set on defense.

-Tristan Thompson played great defense.  He is stopping his habit of leaving his feet for every block.  He’s started to just put a body with hands up into the offensive player.  Zach Randolph scored a lot, but they were contested shots.

-Our help defense today on the bigs was very precise. When someone left their man to help down low,  they committed and really hacked the ball away.  We grabbed a decent amount of steals and forced eight turnovers from just Gasol and Randolph. 

- Dion Waiters drove the ball against these Grizzlies.  He only took two threes, and he got to the line for six free throws.  That’s what Dion needs to do every game.  If he does this against other teams that don’t have amazing bigs, he’ll definitely score a few more points than 16.

-Alonzo Gee made a big fuck up at the end of the first half on the fast break getting a charge and not passing for an easy dunk or layup.

-Tristan Thompson is continuing to improve on the offensive end.  He is going up quicker and not being blocked as much.  I can’t wait until he figures out a little running power step hook shot.  That will help him to just drive in when he’s close.  Now, players just play off of him even around the hoop, since he moves his shot set up slow enough they can run out to defend him.

The Fuck Truck Driver of the night is obviously Varejao.  He had 22 rebounds.  Eight of them led to definitive second possessions.  How many tips out to other players for offensive boards did he have?  How many disruptions after a Cav's offensive shot attempt did he have to slow down the Grizzlies's ability to fastbreak?  Varejao also had some nice passes to set up our big men with dunks and easy shots. 

Varejao is also giving a whole hustle mentality to the team.  Everyone has started trying on defense and just going after the ball when it’s released on offense.  We are turning into an annoying team to play against.  It’s like a team of Varejaos without Kyrie Irving being on the floor; it’s all hustle, no talent.