Cleveland Cavaliers Lose To Shorthanded Grizzlies
The Cleveland Cavaliers lost to a shorthanded Memphis Grizzlies team with only eight active players.
If you look up “Jekyll and Hyde” in the dictionary, you will see a picture of the 2015-16 Cleveland Cavaliers.
For the last few games and most of the season, the Cavaliers have been notorious for their slow starts to games. It was only a matter of time before it would catch up to them and they would struggle to make comebacks. In the last two games, they have been outscored 68-47 in the first quarter.
That is not the way a team wants to get itself ready for the playoffs with only a month remaining.
The Memphis Grizzlies came into Cleveland with only eight active players. Top players such as Zach Randolph and Mike Conley were out due to injury. It was a foregone conclusion for most fans that the healthy Cavaliers were going to win the game big against the Grizzlies’ second team. However, as Lee Corso always says, “Not so fast my friend.”
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The Cavaliers started out slow on both ends of the floor, just as they did on Saturday against the Boston Celtics.
There didn’t seem to be any transition defense being played–or any interest in doing so–by them. Tony Allen played like he was back at Oklahoma State as he put in a season-high 26 points. He played tough defense on J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert for most of the night, holding them to a combined 5-of-16 (32 percent).
Lance Stephenson also had his best game as a Grizzly with 17 points. But the biggest issue that the Grizzlies gave the Cavaliers was their physical play.
Almost everytime a player would get dribble penetration or come anywhere near the paint, the Grizzlies would be all over them. There was definitely hand-checking going on, but that’s how a shorthanded team had to play in order to get the win.
While the Grizzlies played their “grinding” style of basketball, the Cavaliers couldn’t stop turning the ball over. Kyrie Irving committed seven turnovers all by himself. He had trouble making the easy passes and he was dribbling the ball too long during possessions. They had a total of 25 turnovers compared to the Grizzlies’ 16.
Another issue that was hindering the Cavaliers was the stagnant offense.
Once again they were reverting back to the half-court sets of former head coach David Blatt, and they just stood around while LeBron James held onto the ball.
There was no ball movement, missed open shots, and just a careless approach to the game as a whole. Teams that are playing for a championship cannot lose a game like the Cavaliers did Monday night. It does prove the adage that on any given day, any team can be defeated. That was proven on Sunday after the 12-51 Los Angeles Lakers defeated the then-55-5 Golden State Warriors.
But when your team is the best in the conference, it’s important to prove that by beating the teams they’re supposed too, especially one that had most of the starting lineup missing. It shouldn’t have taken a 7-0 run by Irving to get the team back into the game. It should have been over before it even started.
Is there truly dissension in the Cavaliers locker room? Are the tweets that James seems to write on a daily basis a shot at his teammates? Only those players know. Whatever the situation might be, they must put their differences aside and focus on the number one task at hand, and that is bringing a championship to the city of Cleveland.
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I have probably ended my articles with that statement numerous times, and while Cavalier fans and I know that is the ultimate goal, It doesn’t seem to be clear that’s what the players feel. The performances within the next month should tell all that needs to be known.