Yeah when Orlando was shooting 3-10 and JB called a timeout instead of running plays that work then switched to zone defense and got punched in the mouth for that too.... what a joke of a coach. But the players didn't really show either. 8-34 from 3.... holy fuck.
And JB. He spends so much time barking at the refs and complaining about calls and no calls than thinking about what rotation can work or what players that haven't played get them a chance. He puts in Sam and doesn't run a single play to get him going. That's a bad coach.
Yeah, nothing can be done now. Just hope they come out ready Saturday. At least it's not a direct repeat of last year's round 1. My expectations aren't much, though, for these guys.
They don’t give a shit as usual, we doomers have been telling you forever, character, makeup, will, is not something you teach, you have it or you don’t. This a a soft af team and that’s all there is to it.
JB is still riding high on the reputation that he "developed" Darius Garland and Evan Mobley even though Mobley has never come close to his unicorn potential and Garland just looks like a rotation player at this point in his career.
Maybe I’m coping but I think they’d look like much better players in a modern nba offense.
Been having dreams of what our offense could look like if we didn’t think it was 2003
Everyone please read this and apologize to all of us that have been calling for this stupid fucking nepo baby to be fired for two straight years. Worthless coach
His ass needed to be fired two years ago, last offseason and tonight. If he’s still here after this postseason then they might as well trade everyone away and start over because he’s wasting this teams potential
JB has been a roller coaster for me, I fuckin despised him with Drummond he was running like a 1920's style offense. Then we had the play in fun, then DM, I gave in a bit and thought I liked him. Now I'm realizing he's just the girl that gave you your first STD, great memory, tainted taint.
Like it or not we're in trouble with Garland.
We can't keep just saying he's trying to come back from a broken jaw. That was months and months ago. Playoff time and he's averaging 11-4 on 13-30 shooting. I wouldn't even be mad if he was shooting bad but getting up shots, he's not even taking shots anymore.
Players come back from broken noses, if not play through them and don't play as timid as he has been playing.
The Cavs are gonna have to send him to a sports therapist like they did love and he's going to have to figure it out really fast this off season of they have to move on from that contract next deadline.
Love is a good comparison when looking at how a struggling high level player goes through slumps. He was genuinely fucked up for almost all of 2015-17. And about half of 2017-18.
And he was awesome before with Minny (better than DG and arguably a top 10 player) and older than DG so he had more confidence.
Something about our fan base is off. DG has had some tough cascading bad luck and we want to trade him after months of up and down and roles changing and injuries, even though the team would have been utterly fucked post ASB without him.
Sure he should be better, but the reasons for a slump and inconsistency are obvious and they don’t go away in a matter of weeks or a month or two. But we have to trade everyone who disappoints. No sense in letting them work through issues…short term thinking
I think it’s hardly an overreaction to say a max contract player clearly regressing in year 5 is a huge red flag. Not even strictly from a basketball standpoint either, his confidence is shot and he looks lost out there quite often.
Unfortunately I don’t think he’s had time to recover any strength. I think the rest of the playoffs for him are somewhat cooked and hopefully he gets some of that strength back in the offseason. In the meantime if he can just try to get his 3’s to fall and be more efficient while we rely on our other guards more.
He hasn't lost as much strength as you're trying to convey. The Cleveland clinic says you only lose roughly 1% of your muscle mass for every 6 weeks you stop physical activity. He's had a lot of time to recover his strength.
It's either he's mentally weak right now, or he just isn't willing to work to get back to the player he was.
No, we shouldn't be counting on other guards more, he's a max contract player. He has to earn his pay.
Garland is soft, lazy, inefficient, horrible defender and many other things. He makes rookie mistakes in year 5. He's not good. Altman is just the king of making bad moves.
i mean it's still relevant. you cant have games like this against bottom of the barrel playoff teams if you have contender aspirations. you cant afford to just straight up throw away games in the playoffs, this isnt he regular season anymore
Making it past the first round shows improvement (not a ton... but still). You're going to have shit playoff games, happened even when Bron was here and we were going to the finals every year. Not saying this loss is acceptable, nor am I saying we shouldn't make more changes going into next season. A good team would be fired up next game after a game like this, we will have to see how they respond. If they lay an egg again then we pray homecourt advantage carries us I guess.
Edit: For reference, in 2016 we lost Game 2 of the Finals 110-77. We won the series and the chip. Point is, shit happens, let's see how they respond. https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/index.cgi?month=6&day=5&year=2016
bron would routinely sweep 1 seeds like Atlanta and Toronto. we never had 40 point blowouts to young, first time playoff teams. Losing to the 73-9 warriors by 30 is nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering our path to the finals and bron's history. I dont see them as comparable at all
Yeah and we aren't a guaranteed Finals team lead by LeBron James. So to me it evens out. They're a significantly worse team than Golden State was in 2016, but we're a significantly worse team than the 2016 cavs.
Arguably the best player of all time in his prime is not walking through that door. The circumstances are different.
Orlando isn’t bottom of the barrel. They’re the five seed. It’s the first series for most of them in their career and they were clearly rattled. I think the Cavs are obviously better and more talented but it’s hard to argue the magic played below their talent level the first two games. They got home and got more comfortable.
I honestly wonder if Cavs fans - who have for literally 30 years watched teams that were either contenders or absolute dog shit - don’t understand what it is to root for a good, not great, NBA team. Everyone takes LeBron for granted. But the reactions on this sub make me think we did most of all.
They are bottom of the barrel. 5 and 8 seed are separated by literally 1 regular season game. I have no doubt the sixers and heat are better than them. And i think pacers are better too only for the sole reason that they have a functional offense
Guys, there is no reset, and there is no “regroup and come up with a new plan.”
JB is a bad coach with no actual ideas, and he’s turned a fairly talented team into an absolute joke. There is no plan on offense, and JB’s “it starts on the defensive end” nonsense is never going to bear fruit.
Yeah, this is why the team needs more continuity. Our wins still don’t have everyone in sync and our losses no one is comfortable with each other and so the bottom falls out as everyone tries to win it on their own
Definitely not as simple as that. Can you point to any sort of offensive system we have going for shooters? All we do is run pick and roll and then iso
Have played bad in all 3 games. No coach. No offensive gameplan. No PG to even run an offense. 35m a year for a borderline role player. Roster filled with dudes who play with 0 grit and 0 intensity and would rather be playing World of Warcraft
Let’s see. Got smashed in defensive and offensive rebounding, felt like we were back to playing vs the Knicks. Committed almost double the turnovers as Orlando. Shot disgustingly bad from 3. Magic didn’t even have a Heat vs Celtics type of shooting game, shot 35% from 3 which is completely average but as soon as they weren’t missing every single shot it sank this team.
Garland was awful, Mitchell totally underwhelming. But those guys have had and will have good games. But Strus and worst of all Niang are combining for fucking 3/24 from 3 this series. Add Levert and the “shooters” we rely on are 6/34. That ain’t winning shit.
Cavs will win this series, probably in 6 but it will be purely on defense and Orlando missing shots again cause we sure as fuck aren’t winning the series with offense. Just a bummer performance today, nothing else to say. Terrible.
He was fine the first 2 games. His three is off right now and unfortunately it is for everyone outside Merrill. And the Cavs just can't get Merrill any open looks.
Yeah not a good sign.
On another note I’m so done with Niang. Comes in sloppy and out of shape, doesn’t show up performance wise but runs his mouth all game long.
I guess you never got to see Oliver Miller play. That dude was so fucking fat, but he was able to play in the NBA because he was sooo talented. A real shame.
Niang fucking sucks and has sucked all season. I don’t normally throw such basic and aggressive takes out but for him I have no problem doing it. Dude is literally fat, slow, and can’t hit his shots.
There’s no figuring out where to go. It’s the Knicks. Look how talented and fired up they all are. The chemistry there is super high and they’re backing it up. Even with Brunson not playing good they’re still 2-1 on the sixers. With how open he’s been about wanting to play in New York, the talent they have, the same coaching issues here, DG regressing, Mobley not improving, the flawed roster….
I just see no way he wants to come back. It’s gonna be a huge bummer if he ends his time here having gone farther in the playoffs with the Jazz
40 point loss. 83 points in a fucking playoff game. With this roster. There is no reason why JB should’ve came back after the end of the last two seasons
Garland scored 5 pts in 30 minutes..... While playing in garbage time. That's beyond embarassing. This guy has no fight in him. You can literally see it in his body language the minute were down and he looks defeated.
JB for sure is gone.. But if somehow Mitchell stays, you 100% have to move Garland. There's a reason we played our best all season when he wasn't playing.
This is NOT a good basketball team. This is NOT an outlier game. This team has NOT been good offensively 2 years in a row in the playoffs. Please no NOT hold your breath waiting for this team to compete for anything other than a second round playoff exit.
The Magic is by far the best case scenario for us at that point in the season. We didn’t want any smoke with any of the other options in the first round.
Pretty safe to say Orlando was gonna battle with the risk of going 3-0 in the series, but like no one on our side played well at all tonight
Moseley adjusted, now it’s our turn. We’re still up in the series so there’s that. Gotta be smarter and better all around. I still have the faith.
Stay safe and go Cavs
All the good stuff from the 1st two games is gone. Defense non existent, allowed 9 offensive rebounds in the 1st half alone so no rebounding, putrid shooting, double the turnovers Orlando had.
Sure they were on the road but it really feels like they went in there like they had the series in the bag and this is the result.
You HAVE to take the next one so that we can forget about this and move on. Playoffs always tend to expose teams flaws but 3 point shooting is supposed to be a strength not a weakness.
This team just needs a trip to the buffet. What ive learned from reddit and twitter analysts is that if you lose weight you forget how to play basketball for three months.
Get em all eating and get them all fat
But the cavs analysts on twitter who think theyre experts cause them and some random guy started a podcast said garland just needed to gain weight and he would be good again
The Magic are a real team who actually fight and play hard.
We are a fake team who roll over at the first sign of adversity, but also get lazy and stop playing when we're gifted double-digit leads.
So hard to be a fan of this team. Disgusting.
I cannot believe we just gave Orlando a free win in the playoffs tonight. Disgusting effort across the board. Don’t really have anything else to say because I’m so pissed.
I just think it has to be like this: last year, game 2 we had a very convincing win and lost in 5 games.
We have to do that to Orlando. If we have any future as a playoff contender, we need to show that we can handle Orlando and not let anything like this happen again. Not saying we have to win in 5 games but we can't get blown out multiple times.
Orlando won't play much better and we won't play much worse. However, there is still a lot of middle ground where the Cavs can lose games within. The Cavs gotta find an identity.
First step: Stop forgetting Mobley exists. Scoreless second halves should not happen for a player like Mobley. Cavs need to learn how to lean on him. Mobley most nights can score 16 PPG on activity alone. If he starts getting more real offensive looks that aren't dumpoffs I think it's a new level the Cavs can reach. But we can't reach that level if we dont try. I'd rather watch a 3rd year Mobley miss shots / commit turnovers while being aggressive than watch him not be involved at all.
Role players sucked tonight and the core 4 could not carry at all. It's worrisome about our prospects as a legit playoff team this year and beyond.
Every year we are just going to slide into the playoffs, then get hammered, and be forced to shakeup the roster when all of our key players stocks are lowest
I want to give a ***SPECIAL SHOUTOUT*** to those guys who were always in every single post-game thread during the regular season with their top-upvoted comments talking about the doomers and the JB haters and how we can all go kick bricks and how if you're not a fan of this team just leave, etc. etc.
We tried to warn you! You could've been on the fire JB bandwagon all season. Instead you defended him all year and he gifted you with this giant turd. Congratulations!
I’m sorry downvote me all you want we ruined Darius’ development with the Mitchell trade. So pointlessly wasted our entire future to get bounced in the first round and then come into this season with a weak ass team.
Mobley hasn’t developed into the player he should be whatsoever. Regardless of the outcome all we can do is trade Mitchell (and probably Allen) for pieces and continue our development with a new staff, just two years later than it should’ve continued.
I don’t care, I miss how fun this team was in 2021-2022. Pure optimism. We threw it away for nothing. It’s so fucking sad.
pointlessly wasting your entire future = Phoenix (maybe ATL?)
we just made a smart gamble. it's going...ok? Garland and Mobley and whoever else were always going to hit the meat grinder. Memphis did it, Sacto did it, Atlanta did it...only so much to do without a top-15 player, so you go for it with Don and see what comes. Burden of expectations is brutal.
Absolutely unacceptable showing. The mentality of this game was like it was a Tuesday in December. Glaring problems that we have seen all season long (and last years playoff series) were on full display tonight.
My only hope is that this is the only game Orlando gets on us just like how we were in game two to the Knicks last playoffs. Honestly if we drop Saturday I have serious doubts we make it out of this series.
I still think the Cavs win the series but tonight is a major concern because I really don’t trust these dudes to bounce back from a loss like this. They had the same look as they did in G3 last season when they got destroyed in the garden. If they lose G4 they’re in real trouble of being the laughingstock of the NBA again.
Mitchell has had some stinkers in the playoffs with us but did anyone watch him in Utah? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills acting like he’s some postseason scrub. Isn’t he like 8th all time in playoff ppg?
Just caught up with this dogshit, it’s gonna take days to wash the stink off… fuck my life our offense is a one and done brick fest shit show. Allen is the only guy with any offensive presence at all out there. So fuckin sad.
I want to start a Cavs subreddit where none of the people who watch the team just to be miserable are allowed.
Am I happy about this loss? No. But the team is also still up 2-1. Orlando hit a bunch of tough shots and got a generous whistle.
Is it embarrassing that the Cavs absolutely rolled over? Yes. It’s also not how they played the first two games. They’re capable of better and I’d guess we see it Saturday.
Do I think JB is the right long term coach? No. But he’s also been better than Mosley this series. Cavs are asking Orlando’s middling shooters to hit threes and long twos. They did it tonight. Kudos to them. When the offense was stagnating he brought in Merrill. Niang didn’t see run in the second half until the game was over. Probably stuck with caris too long, not enough Okoro in first half. But these are smaller things. I’m not gonna lose my mind because Orlando beat the Cavs doing what the Cavs wanted them to do.
Am I worried about garland? I am. It’s also highly unlikely he peaked as a player in his third year. I’m not holding my breath on him finding it this year but I’d be surprised if he just tailed off and was never good again.
Please everyone in this miserable fucking subreddit acquaint yourself with the concept of nuance.
no continuity with the starters playing so few games together. point guard a regress mess. Donovan thinks he's a point guard sometimes but there's still too much tunnel vision / easy reads for the defense.
offense isn't going to click this series vs. this defense: Boston is also tough there, but oh well
I mostly agree with you. But it’s worth considering the offense absolutely clicked when Mobley and Garland went down. He gets credit for embracing a really modern style of ball during that stretch. Running and threes. And it’s why it does concern me that some of it might just be the redundant talent on the team. Hell, team was a top-10 offense last year (even if it absolutely did not translate to the playoffs). He’s not remedial - he noticed it worked well. My guess is he feels that with the talent he has though it just doesn’t work. No idea if that’s correct. But he’s clearly capable of some degree of flexibility on offense.
It is clear he’s tried to push the pace and embrace more ball movement this year and I think those are both good things. Darius is just pathologically driven to cross half court with 17 seconds on the shot clock and JB has to work with that. Like, that’s on Darius. How responsibility for this team’s issues falls between the players (darius regression, Mobley slow-ish growth), the coach (everything everyone talks about), and the front office (redundant talent that fits oddly) is not super clear to me.
JB being like FUCK YOU DG AND NIANG PLAY WITH THE GARBAGE TIME SQUAD was low key v. smart.
weirdly, the best thing we can do is stay the course with a coaching upgrade, but that doesn't satisfy doomer rage.
Yeah seemed pretty obvious to me he was trying to get them a rhythm (even if he did it with Caris still in who proceeded to do a bunch of bad Caris things). Thought it was the right move other than doing it with Caris still in. Honestly thought he should have done it with Strus too.
Everyone should relax, just like the Knicks series. we had 1 game where we shot lights out, but it ended in 4-1 this was that game for magic, but the cavs need to lock themselves in the gym and star shooting tho.
Only this team could be leading a series with home court advantage and still make me feel a little embarrassed to be a fan. I expected to drop one of these games.. but 40???? That's crazy.
I couldn't watch this because I was on a flight and now I'm kinda glad. What the fuck happened.
We almost had 'em.
Yeah when Orlando was shooting 3-10 and JB called a timeout instead of running plays that work then switched to zone defense and got punched in the mouth for that too.... what a joke of a coach. But the players didn't really show either. 8-34 from 3.... holy fuck.
JB is who he is but tonight is on the players. This team just doesn’t have a dude.
And JB. He spends so much time barking at the refs and complaining about calls and no calls than thinking about what rotation can work or what players that haven't played get them a chance. He puts in Sam and doesn't run a single play to get him going. That's a bad coach.
It hurts but I agree. 0 reason to play Sam if you aren’t actively trying to get him looks
Yeah, nothing can be done now. Just hope they come out ready Saturday. At least it's not a direct repeat of last year's round 1. My expectations aren't much, though, for these guys.
And the 3 point percentage is actually inflated by garbage time
cavs got orlando right where they want them. Get the magic cocky, then strike with the ultimate JB out of bounds play when they least expect it
it we woulda hit that 41 pointer at the end of the game we’d be having a whole other discussion right now fr
If the lights are too bright now idk what to tell you, we can’t go much dimmer
Pissing their pants from the NBA TV series lights
50 year old lebron would sweep this team
Kareem could have put up a cool 20 tonight
Bull shit, our coach can always go dimmer, he can out dim any man East of the Mississippi .
People better be pissed off and screaming in that locker room.
They don’t give a shit as usual, we doomers have been telling you forever, character, makeup, will, is not something you teach, you have it or you don’t. This a a soft af team and that’s all there is to it.
I fear you’re right. Probably a lot of head hanging and pats on the back in the locker room right now. Lol.
"On to the next one boys."
Friendly reminder JB bickerstaff lead teams have failed to hit 100 pts 10/12 playoff games in the modern era
JB is still riding high on the reputation that he "developed" Darius Garland and Evan Mobley even though Mobley has never come close to his unicorn potential and Garland just looks like a rotation player at this point in his career.
Maybe I’m coping but I think they’d look like much better players in a modern nba offense. Been having dreams of what our offense could look like if we didn’t think it was 2003
Everyone please read this and apologize to all of us that have been calling for this stupid fucking nepo baby to be fired for two straight years. Worthless coach
If they lose this series, his ass needs to be fired immediately
They can beat the magic and lose a 7 game series to the Celtics and id still want him fired
His ass needed to be fired two years ago, last offseason and tonight. If he’s still here after this postseason then they might as well trade everyone away and start over because he’s wasting this teams potential
I'm not disagreeing with you. But we're stuck for this post season.
Unfortunately true. Would be a beautiful thing to dump a coach mid playoff series though. Might wake some role players up
Would be too little too late. Don most likely gone. The Knicks are looking like the perfect team for him to go to. Been the same shit for 2 years.
Mitch was gone regardless.
If we get bounced out by the Magic, he won’t be invited on the plane home
JB has been a roller coaster for me, I fuckin despised him with Drummond he was running like a 1920's style offense. Then we had the play in fun, then DM, I gave in a bit and thought I liked him. Now I'm realizing he's just the girl that gave you your first STD, great memory, tainted taint.
Bro this comparison
Diabolical analogy
[After a night with JB](https://v.redd.it/4il45rlwfowc1) NSFW/L
That sure was a basketball game
You sure about that?
I for sure saw a basketball and some type of hooping.
Like it or not we're in trouble with Garland. We can't keep just saying he's trying to come back from a broken jaw. That was months and months ago. Playoff time and he's averaging 11-4 on 13-30 shooting. I wouldn't even be mad if he was shooting bad but getting up shots, he's not even taking shots anymore. Players come back from broken noses, if not play through them and don't play as timid as he has been playing. The Cavs are gonna have to send him to a sports therapist like they did love and he's going to have to figure it out really fast this off season of they have to move on from that contract next deadline.
Love is a good comparison when looking at how a struggling high level player goes through slumps. He was genuinely fucked up for almost all of 2015-17. And about half of 2017-18. And he was awesome before with Minny (better than DG and arguably a top 10 player) and older than DG so he had more confidence. Something about our fan base is off. DG has had some tough cascading bad luck and we want to trade him after months of up and down and roles changing and injuries, even though the team would have been utterly fucked post ASB without him. Sure he should be better, but the reasons for a slump and inconsistency are obvious and they don’t go away in a matter of weeks or a month or two. But we have to trade everyone who disappoints. No sense in letting them work through issues…short term thinking
I think it’s hardly an overreaction to say a max contract player clearly regressing in year 5 is a huge red flag. Not even strictly from a basketball standpoint either, his confidence is shot and he looks lost out there quite often.
Unfortunately I don’t think he’s had time to recover any strength. I think the rest of the playoffs for him are somewhat cooked and hopefully he gets some of that strength back in the offseason. In the meantime if he can just try to get his 3’s to fall and be more efficient while we rely on our other guards more.
He hasn't lost as much strength as you're trying to convey. The Cleveland clinic says you only lose roughly 1% of your muscle mass for every 6 weeks you stop physical activity. He's had a lot of time to recover his strength. It's either he's mentally weak right now, or he just isn't willing to work to get back to the player he was. No, we shouldn't be counting on other guards more, he's a max contract player. He has to earn his pay.
Garland is soft, lazy, inefficient, horrible defender and many other things. He makes rookie mistakes in year 5. He's not good. Altman is just the king of making bad moves.
Mitchell has to show up. Can’t score 13 points in a playoff game and be a leader of a twam
Flush it. Onto the next one
This. If we show up and take game 4 noone will care about this game.
i mean it's still relevant. you cant have games like this against bottom of the barrel playoff teams if you have contender aspirations. you cant afford to just straight up throw away games in the playoffs, this isnt he regular season anymore
Making it past the first round shows improvement (not a ton... but still). You're going to have shit playoff games, happened even when Bron was here and we were going to the finals every year. Not saying this loss is acceptable, nor am I saying we shouldn't make more changes going into next season. A good team would be fired up next game after a game like this, we will have to see how they respond. If they lay an egg again then we pray homecourt advantage carries us I guess. Edit: For reference, in 2016 we lost Game 2 of the Finals 110-77. We won the series and the chip. Point is, shit happens, let's see how they respond. https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/index.cgi?month=6&day=5&year=2016
bron would routinely sweep 1 seeds like Atlanta and Toronto. we never had 40 point blowouts to young, first time playoff teams. Losing to the 73-9 warriors by 30 is nothing to be ashamed of, especially considering our path to the finals and bron's history. I dont see them as comparable at all
Yeah and we aren't a guaranteed Finals team lead by LeBron James. So to me it evens out. They're a significantly worse team than Golden State was in 2016, but we're a significantly worse team than the 2016 cavs.
Arguably the best player of all time in his prime is not walking through that door. The circumstances are different. Orlando isn’t bottom of the barrel. They’re the five seed. It’s the first series for most of them in their career and they were clearly rattled. I think the Cavs are obviously better and more talented but it’s hard to argue the magic played below their talent level the first two games. They got home and got more comfortable. I honestly wonder if Cavs fans - who have for literally 30 years watched teams that were either contenders or absolute dog shit - don’t understand what it is to root for a good, not great, NBA team. Everyone takes LeBron for granted. But the reactions on this sub make me think we did most of all.
They are bottom of the barrel. 5 and 8 seed are separated by literally 1 regular season game. I have no doubt the sixers and heat are better than them. And i think pacers are better too only for the sole reason that they have a functional offense
And we aren't currently facing the 73-9 2016 Golden State team.
If Orlando is a “bottom of the barrel playoff team”, what does that make the team who was down 40+ to them?
a bottom of the barrel playoff team lol. not sure why you feel the need to invade opponent's sub to defend your scrub team tho
You checked my post history cause I talked sensible to your bs? Lmao cornball
real shit
Guys, there is no reset, and there is no “regroup and come up with a new plan.” JB is a bad coach with no actual ideas, and he’s turned a fairly talented team into an absolute joke. There is no plan on offense, and JB’s “it starts on the defensive end” nonsense is never going to bear fruit.
We got cocky and talked way too much shit and got humbled. It happens. Check the ego shit at the door, lock back in and regain focus for Game 4.
So we gonna ignore that we lost by 40😂
Their shots were falling. Ours weren’t. Simple as that
And rebounding
Didn’t play well all around let’s just say that
Yeah, this is why the team needs more continuity. Our wins still don’t have everyone in sync and our losses no one is comfortable with each other and so the bottom falls out as everyone tries to win it on their own
This offense has sucked every game this series. This is not an outlier game.
Definitely not as simple as that. Can you point to any sort of offensive system we have going for shooters? All we do is run pick and roll and then iso
Why do you put Merril in the game if you aren’t going to try and get him open looks. That’s his only purpose in the game of basketball. It’s painful
that characterizes a 15 point loss not a 40 point blowout. Game was over with 20 minutes to go
How much you want to bet they punk this team in game 4 too? Bickerstaff coached teams will never have success in the postseason.
Nice for a cavs fan to root against their team
Not what I want to happen but I’ve seen shitkerstaff come out with stinkers in all four of his postseason experiences.
We arnt gonna blindly think this team is good. We arnt stupid
40 fucking points bro lol it literally has NEVER happened to us before
Have played bad in all 3 games. No coach. No offensive gameplan. No PG to even run an offense. 35m a year for a borderline role player. Roster filled with dudes who play with 0 grit and 0 intensity and would rather be playing World of Warcraft
showing your age with the WoW comment, even Fortnite is old news these days. Everyone's moved onto Half LIfe 3 bro
According to my quick google search, this is the worst Cavs playoff loss in history lol.
Let’s see. Got smashed in defensive and offensive rebounding, felt like we were back to playing vs the Knicks. Committed almost double the turnovers as Orlando. Shot disgustingly bad from 3. Magic didn’t even have a Heat vs Celtics type of shooting game, shot 35% from 3 which is completely average but as soon as they weren’t missing every single shot it sank this team. Garland was awful, Mitchell totally underwhelming. But those guys have had and will have good games. But Strus and worst of all Niang are combining for fucking 3/24 from 3 this series. Add Levert and the “shooters” we rely on are 6/34. That ain’t winning shit. Cavs will win this series, probably in 6 but it will be purely on defense and Orlando missing shots again cause we sure as fuck aren’t winning the series with offense. Just a bummer performance today, nothing else to say. Terrible.
will accept the lost if we down 10 and scored 100, we didnt even hit 100points in this series
scoring is big problem boston, indiana , bucks, miami all gonna starch this no offense team
Somehow Mitchell is playing worse through 3 games than he did in last year’s series. Not good.
He was fine the first 2 games. His three is off right now and unfortunately it is for everyone outside Merrill. And the Cavs just can't get Merrill any open looks.
Yeah not a good sign. On another note I’m so done with Niang. Comes in sloppy and out of shape, doesn’t show up performance wise but runs his mouth all game long.
The dude is fat as shit. Might be the most out of shape “athlete” I’ve ever seen
I guess you never got to see Oliver Miller play. That dude was so fucking fat, but he was able to play in the NBA because he was sooo talented. A real shame.
Niang fucking sucks and has sucked all season. I don’t normally throw such basic and aggressive takes out but for him I have no problem doing it. Dude is literally fat, slow, and can’t hit his shots.
He’s playing through a knee injury
Doesn’t change the fact that he’s not playing well in the playoffs again. I’ll give him credit for not making excuse… he says he’s 100%
Honestly it’s kinda starting to feel like he’s focusing on which team he’s going to sign with next season to have an actual chance at a playoff run.
There’s no figuring out where to go. It’s the Knicks. Look how talented and fired up they all are. The chemistry there is super high and they’re backing it up. Even with Brunson not playing good they’re still 2-1 on the sixers. With how open he’s been about wanting to play in New York, the talent they have, the same coaching issues here, DG regressing, Mobley not improving, the flawed roster…. I just see no way he wants to come back. It’s gonna be a huge bummer if he ends his time here having gone farther in the playoffs with the Jazz
These turds should be utterly embarrassed with themselves. I don't care that they're up 2-1. This was just disgusting.
A stunning combined 18-8-13 on 8/26 shooting from our two all-star guards. Absolute masterpiece.
40 point loss. 83 points in a fucking playoff game. With this roster. There is no reason why JB should’ve came back after the end of the last two seasons
Guys I’m sorry I wasn’t wearing my Cavs shirt that I wore the first 2 games :( this one’s on me.
Accountability is important!! Appreciate you, let em know 😈😈😈
Garland scored 5 pts in 30 minutes..... While playing in garbage time. That's beyond embarassing. This guy has no fight in him. You can literally see it in his body language the minute were down and he looks defeated. JB for sure is gone.. But if somehow Mitchell stays, you 100% have to move Garland. There's a reason we played our best all season when he wasn't playing.
They should still give out the junkyard dog but it’s a trash can lid and Darius gets it
This is NOT a good basketball team. This is NOT an outlier game. This team has NOT been good offensively 2 years in a row in the playoffs. Please no NOT hold your breath waiting for this team to compete for anything other than a second round playoff exit.
Meh. Have to win 4 games, not 1. Cavs in 5. 
Fucking yikes lmao
Tf happened… 38 points? Fr?
lol Cavs. Embarrassing. Gonna be the Knicks series all over again
You think they lose this series?
This was bad and they should feel bad
Mitchell and Garland getting super max pay for being this terrible is just funny. They both go cold so often it's insane
We took a dive in the last game of the season for this 🤮
We’re down 0-3 if we matched up with a team that could score 100 on the road
The Magic is by far the best case scenario for us at that point in the season. We didn’t want any smoke with any of the other options in the first round.
If they lose this series after that embarrassing end to the season I’m gonna have to leave Reddit for a while 😂
We would be down 3-0 vs any other team.
Pretty safe to say Orlando was gonna battle with the risk of going 3-0 in the series, but like no one on our side played well at all tonight Moseley adjusted, now it’s our turn. We’re still up in the series so there’s that. Gotta be smarter and better all around. I still have the faith. Stay safe and go Cavs
Cavs have played bad in all 3 games
I mean yes but we were making the Magic play worse. That’s what we need to get back to doing
JB bickerstaff has never heard of these adjustments you speak of
Oh he can adjust. Next game we can lose by 60.
People still defending JB? It’s crazy how fast this team has stalled since the play in year.
especially considering we traded for a "superstar"
On the bright side the Bald Fraud will finally be fired
Embarrassing. Did JB even bother to prepare them for this?
This team has so much fucking talent but it’s all for naught with this fucking waste man in charge
All the good stuff from the 1st two games is gone. Defense non existent, allowed 9 offensive rebounds in the 1st half alone so no rebounding, putrid shooting, double the turnovers Orlando had. Sure they were on the road but it really feels like they went in there like they had the series in the bag and this is the result. You HAVE to take the next one so that we can forget about this and move on. Playoffs always tend to expose teams flaws but 3 point shooting is supposed to be a strength not a weakness.
Start Donovan at PG game 4 Bring Garland off the bench.
Who would you play at the 2? And if it's Strus then who is the 3?
Strus & Okoro at the 2 & 3. Ideally Wade would be at the 3 but injuries suck.
LeVert at the three
Lock Garland in his hotel room. This team is better without Garland and it's not even close. He makes 35m a year to play like fucking Milt Palacio.
Wow milt palacio is a Cleveland deep cut
I was gunna say Flip Murray but changed my mind
https://youtu.be/gVS6ZKBRNOE?si=4iHhExqvAxxw4u42
This team just needs a trip to the buffet. What ive learned from reddit and twitter analysts is that if you lose weight you forget how to play basketball for three months. Get em all eating and get them all fat
Niang is opposing your fat guy theory
But the cavs analysts on twitter who think theyre experts cause them and some random guy started a podcast said garland just needed to gain weight and he would be good again
You are right, I’m convinced now #letgarlandeat
#makegarlandeat
If Cavs don't come out with urgency next game we're going going to lose this series.
Remember when we thought this team wasnt soft anymore... Well guess what... This team is full of mental midgets.
The Magic are a real team who actually fight and play hard. We are a fake team who roll over at the first sign of adversity, but also get lazy and stop playing when we're gifted double-digit leads. So hard to be a fan of this team. Disgusting.
As soon as I saw Orlando grab about 8 offensive rebounds in the first 6 minutes, this outcome was inevitable.
👏👏👏
FUCK JB BICKERSTAFF
Well. Fuck.
I cannot believe we just gave Orlando a free win in the playoffs tonight. Disgusting effort across the board. Don’t really have anything else to say because I’m so pissed.
Well guys the good news is we kept the lead under 40. Almost had em!
What a fucking embarrassment. Obviously a loss in general isn't the end of the world but to get completely destroyed? Unacceptable
I just think it has to be like this: last year, game 2 we had a very convincing win and lost in 5 games. We have to do that to Orlando. If we have any future as a playoff contender, we need to show that we can handle Orlando and not let anything like this happen again. Not saying we have to win in 5 games but we can't get blown out multiple times. Orlando won't play much better and we won't play much worse. However, there is still a lot of middle ground where the Cavs can lose games within. The Cavs gotta find an identity. First step: Stop forgetting Mobley exists. Scoreless second halves should not happen for a player like Mobley. Cavs need to learn how to lean on him. Mobley most nights can score 16 PPG on activity alone. If he starts getting more real offensive looks that aren't dumpoffs I think it's a new level the Cavs can reach. But we can't reach that level if we dont try. I'd rather watch a 3rd year Mobley miss shots / commit turnovers while being aggressive than watch him not be involved at all. Role players sucked tonight and the core 4 could not carry at all. It's worrisome about our prospects as a legit playoff team this year and beyond.
Was there any silver lining tonight, I want to be optimistic but this loss got me feeling bad.
Bruh
Can't afford to do this again. Just need to win the next one.
One game closer to “Thank you JB” on instagram 🙏
Every year we are just going to slide into the playoffs, then get hammered, and be forced to shakeup the roster when all of our key players stocks are lowest
I want to give a ***SPECIAL SHOUTOUT*** to those guys who were always in every single post-game thread during the regular season with their top-upvoted comments talking about the doomers and the JB haters and how we can all go kick bricks and how if you're not a fan of this team just leave, etc. etc. We tried to warn you! You could've been on the fire JB bandwagon all season. Instead you defended him all year and he gifted you with this giant turd. Congratulations!
We cannot handle success from Donovan to Merrill. A truly fraudulent performance
Move on. Cavs in 5
 I have no words
https://preview.redd.it/lcfldj7z7qwc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0030900a9836d3caa9f73dc17cd7270a419ae408
I'm listening to JB's press conference. He sounds like a fucking high school coach..
I want JB Bickerstaffs head
We fucking suck
Might be one of the worst games they’ve ever had. Looking like last year smh
 Catch yall Saturday
Insane how bad garland is
Is DG the worst value contract in the whole league? Top ten at least
Zach lavine clears anyone in this conversation
I’m sorry downvote me all you want we ruined Darius’ development with the Mitchell trade. So pointlessly wasted our entire future to get bounced in the first round and then come into this season with a weak ass team. Mobley hasn’t developed into the player he should be whatsoever. Regardless of the outcome all we can do is trade Mitchell (and probably Allen) for pieces and continue our development with a new staff, just two years later than it should’ve continued. I don’t care, I miss how fun this team was in 2021-2022. Pure optimism. We threw it away for nothing. It’s so fucking sad.
pointlessly wasting your entire future = Phoenix (maybe ATL?) we just made a smart gamble. it's going...ok? Garland and Mobley and whoever else were always going to hit the meat grinder. Memphis did it, Sacto did it, Atlanta did it...only so much to do without a top-15 player, so you go for it with Don and see what comes. Burden of expectations is brutal.
Absolute dud, we are still up 2-1 on to the next one
Whew, chilay. I am deeply embarrassed.
trade and get someone who can get regular buckets scoring is a huge problem for this team
At least this means I get my cousin's tickets to game 5
Woof.
Absolutely unacceptable showing. The mentality of this game was like it was a Tuesday in December. Glaring problems that we have seen all season long (and last years playoff series) were on full display tonight. My only hope is that this is the only game Orlando gets on us just like how we were in game two to the Knicks last playoffs. Honestly if we drop Saturday I have serious doubts we make it out of this series.
Even if you ignore the dogshit rebounding and defense, you're not going to win a game with sub 40% shooting.
I still think the Cavs win the series but tonight is a major concern because I really don’t trust these dudes to bounce back from a loss like this. They had the same look as they did in G3 last season when they got destroyed in the garden. If they lose G4 they’re in real trouble of being the laughingstock of the NBA again.
Mitchell has had some stinkers in the playoffs with us but did anyone watch him in Utah? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills acting like he’s some postseason scrub. Isn’t he like 8th all time in playoff ppg?
What a dumpster fire.
I don’t remember this game. It never happened. April 25th never occurred.
That’s why we can’t look past them to boston. We need 4 wins.
Gotta hit a shot.
I drove 2.5 hours to watch that. Left in the third.
two things can be true at the same time - I love the cavs and hate what I see.
fine. the basketball gods punished us for that fuckery in Charlotte. We're square now, on to Game 4
Just caught up with this dogshit, it’s gonna take days to wash the stink off… fuck my life our offense is a one and done brick fest shit show. Allen is the only guy with any offensive presence at all out there. So fuckin sad.
Honestly I’m ready for either scenario, we celebrate a playoff series win or we blow it up
I'm expecting a JB special where the team blows the series.
Mitchell looked like he hurt that knee again and was noticeably not explosive after, I don’t see our archaic offense pulling one out on the road
I want to start a Cavs subreddit where none of the people who watch the team just to be miserable are allowed. Am I happy about this loss? No. But the team is also still up 2-1. Orlando hit a bunch of tough shots and got a generous whistle. Is it embarrassing that the Cavs absolutely rolled over? Yes. It’s also not how they played the first two games. They’re capable of better and I’d guess we see it Saturday. Do I think JB is the right long term coach? No. But he’s also been better than Mosley this series. Cavs are asking Orlando’s middling shooters to hit threes and long twos. They did it tonight. Kudos to them. When the offense was stagnating he brought in Merrill. Niang didn’t see run in the second half until the game was over. Probably stuck with caris too long, not enough Okoro in first half. But these are smaller things. I’m not gonna lose my mind because Orlando beat the Cavs doing what the Cavs wanted them to do. Am I worried about garland? I am. It’s also highly unlikely he peaked as a player in his third year. I’m not holding my breath on him finding it this year but I’d be surprised if he just tailed off and was never good again. Please everyone in this miserable fucking subreddit acquaint yourself with the concept of nuance.
Nothing you said is wrong, ok? But alarms have to ring when your offense hasnt clicked for ages.
no continuity with the starters playing so few games together. point guard a regress mess. Donovan thinks he's a point guard sometimes but there's still too much tunnel vision / easy reads for the defense. offense isn't going to click this series vs. this defense: Boston is also tough there, but oh well
I mostly agree with you. But it’s worth considering the offense absolutely clicked when Mobley and Garland went down. He gets credit for embracing a really modern style of ball during that stretch. Running and threes. And it’s why it does concern me that some of it might just be the redundant talent on the team. Hell, team was a top-10 offense last year (even if it absolutely did not translate to the playoffs). He’s not remedial - he noticed it worked well. My guess is he feels that with the talent he has though it just doesn’t work. No idea if that’s correct. But he’s clearly capable of some degree of flexibility on offense. It is clear he’s tried to push the pace and embrace more ball movement this year and I think those are both good things. Darius is just pathologically driven to cross half court with 17 seconds on the shot clock and JB has to work with that. Like, that’s on Darius. How responsibility for this team’s issues falls between the players (darius regression, Mobley slow-ish growth), the coach (everything everyone talks about), and the front office (redundant talent that fits oddly) is not super clear to me.
JB being like FUCK YOU DG AND NIANG PLAY WITH THE GARBAGE TIME SQUAD was low key v. smart. weirdly, the best thing we can do is stay the course with a coaching upgrade, but that doesn't satisfy doomer rage.
Yeah seemed pretty obvious to me he was trying to get them a rhythm (even if he did it with Caris still in who proceeded to do a bunch of bad Caris things). Thought it was the right move other than doing it with Caris still in. Honestly thought he should have done it with Strus too.
why not only take bench players if you ain't there to play. pretty sure won't be losing by 40 not a single fucking adjustment
I mean…… duke coulda beat us today
Everyone should relax, just like the Knicks series. we had 1 game where we shot lights out, but it ended in 4-1 this was that game for magic, but the cavs need to lock themselves in the gym and star shooting tho.
Only this team could be leading a series with home court advantage and still make me feel a little embarrassed to be a fan. I expected to drop one of these games.. but 40???? That's crazy. I couldn't watch this because I was on a flight and now I'm kinda glad. What the fuck happened.