Hey, Cavaliers fans and CavFanatics! It’s Austin, checking in again. What’s happening?
Right now, the Cavaliers are probably going through the toughest stretch of the season, opponent-wise. I believe eight of their next ten opponents are either in the playoffs or are looking to get there. But like Coach Scott says, this can be a good thing because, actually, they’re going to learn what kind of attitude they’re going to need to bring to the table on a consistent basis.
I mean, when you look at the teams that we’re playing against – all those teams need these games, and they’re looking at us as a “must-win.” And they’re bringing their best to get it over with as quickly as possible.
And this is a learning period for the young Cavs. Because they’ll learn what type of attitude and intensity that they’ll need to bring to the floor every night. They’ll learn that they have to focus for more than two or three minutes every quarter.
Look at these playoff teams – just watching Monday night, Boston vs. Miami, for example.
The last two minutes of the game, Boston lost their focus on the offensive end and they couldn’t execute. They were executing up until that point. Whereas Miami, just weathered the storm – Green was having a great game, the Celtics were scoring. And then all of a sudden, when it was time to clamp down, Miami got their focus defensively and finished the ballgame.
And that is a level that our team has to get to. They have to understand that, and hopefully they will.
They’re starting to understand that just going out and doing your thing, having fun, it doesn’t win ballgames. You have to learn how to play consistently from the opening tip until the fourth quarter buzzer. And stick with your gameplan. You have a gameplan because your coaches figure that’s the best way to beat this specific team.
In other words, if you want to double-team LeBron every time they run that low-post play, then you have to do that every time. Regardless of what happens, you have to stick with the plan. That way, the other guys know what they have to do. When you break down in those situations, that’s when you have chaos on the defensive end. And that’s what we have to learn to avoid, especially in key situations late.
In the first two Miami games this season, that’s basically what happened. And figuring out how to avoid those breakdowns comes with experience and understanding what’s going on around you.
It’s becoming frustrating and I know they’re getting frustrated. They play well for two or three quarters. But there’s one quarter where they don’t seem in-sync, and that can cost them the ballgame. Those are the quarters where they need to get more focused, especially on the defensive end.
The Cavs have played the Heat tough this year in two games on South Beach. Wednesday’s game is going to be tough without our backcourt intact. Those two guys – Kyrie and Dion – are guys that beat you off the dribble, which destroys a defense.
So we’re not going to have that penetration like that to cause problems. But because we’ve played them well the last two games, it’ll give us some encouragement going forward. The Indiana game on Monday took a lot of zap out of us. Because we thought we were there, but we found out we weren’t there.
Wednesday night is going to test their will to win. It’s going to show us how mature we really are, coming back off a game where a team manhandled us. To come in and play a solid game right behind that, it will test our fortitude.
We’re getting toward the last month of the season here and you want to see some good habits develop heading into the offseason.
More than anything, I want to see consistency. And our effort on the defensive end has to improve. You cannot give teams 50 percent shooting and beat them. I don’t care how many points you score. We’re scoring points now, no problem. But the defensive end is where we have our problem. And if we don’t improve defensively, that’s where we’re going to have issues.
There has to be a commitment to that end. And I mean by the players. The coaches are committed to it. But the players have to understand that it’s about getting stops and learning how to stop teams. When you really look at it, the Heat don’t stop you all the time. They stop you when they need to. And that’s the situation we have to get to.
It’s tough to adjust to the growing pains. But you have to go through it. There’s no other way to get there.
After Wednesday’s game with the Heat, I’ll be interested in how my Irish do in the NCAA Tournament that starts this week.
First of all, I hope they don’t wear those ugly green uniforms that they wore in the Big East Tournament. Those were horrible! The camera couldn’t even adjust to them, they were so bright.
But I’m thinking they should at least get past the First Round. That was the building in which I set the record, so they have good vibes for Notre Dame in that gym. So the Irish should get to the second round.
After that, I have no idea, because if they win this round, they play Ohio State. And if they do, I have to go with the Irish – although that would be a very conflicting game for me.
If they play Ohio State, I don’t even know if I’m going to watch the game. (But you know I will.)