May 22nd, 2013 at 8:56 AM
By Pat MurphyLast night the Cleveland Cavaliers had the balls fall the right way as they won the NBA Draft lottery for the first overall pick in the 2013 draft. This will be the second time in in three years the Cavaliers will have the number-one overall pick. They now have won the lottery four times since it started in 1985, the most of any team in the NBA.
Cleveland went into the lottery hoping to do well to continue their growth and development as they look to return to NBA Playoff relevance. The team had 15.6 percent odds of winning the number-one pick after they finished the 2012-13 season with the third worst record in the league. Yet it was the magic of the bowtie of Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert's son, Nick, once again that helped Cleveland win the lottery. Two years ago he represented the Cavaliers as they won the pick that led to drafting NBA Rookie of the Year and All-Star Kyrie Irving.
Read more... Join the Conversation... April 24th, 2013 at 8:19 AM
By Pat MurphyJust a few days after the Cleveland Cavaliers announced that they were parting ways with head coach Byron Scott after three unsuccessful seasons, there have been several rumors swirling about who would replace the head man.
The first rumor, of course, surrounds Phil Jackson, the former Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers coach. It has been reported that the Cavaliers and general manager Chris Grant reached out to Jackson on Saturday about the opening. While Cleveland does have a bright future, it seems unlikely Jackson would coach a team that has won 64 games over the past three seasons – a total Jackson usually targets with his teams for one season.
While the likelihood of the Zen Master taking over in Cleveland was always small, the Cavaliers would not be doing their due diligence if they did not at least make an attempt at arguably the best coach in NBA history.
With that likely put to rest, it seems Cleveland is going after a familiar face. Mike Brown is a name that was initially thrown out as a candidate, but now seems to be the front runner for the job. This is a curious circumstance, as the Cavaliers fired Brown before hiring Scott. Brown was coming off two straight 60 win seasons, but could not get the job done in the playoffs with LeBron James.
Read more... Join the Conversation... April 18th, 2013 at 12:58 PM
By Pat Murphy
The Cleveland Cavaliers have fired head coach Byron Scott today, just as he finished another disappointing season in Cleveland.
During his three-year stint as the coach of the Cavaliers, Scott complied a record of just 64-166, a winning percentage of .276 – the lowest in team history.
There have been rumors about Scott's future with the team as the season came to a close. Cleveland only had one winning month while he was the man in charge, this past February, and that was only with a record of 7-5.
Before the season, Cavaliers' owner Dan Gilbert said he would need to see improvement from this team in order for Scott to remain in charge. To be fair to Scott, the Cavaliers have improved on their win total in each of his three seasons – 19 in 2010-11, 21 in 2011-12, and 24 this season – but it was evidently not the improvement the owner was looking for.
Cleveland has been especially disappointing as of late, dropping their last six games to end the season and 15 of their last 17. The team had been eliminated from the NBA Playoffs for some time, but there was questions about whether Scott was getting the best out of his players recently.
Read more... Join the Conversation... April 17th, 2013 at 12:55 PM
By Bryan PauquetteCleveland welcomed the Miami Heat to town Monday night, for one last go around before the close of the 2012-13 season. With the Eastern Conference already clinched, Coach Erik Spoelstra benched all of the starters, but the Miami substitutes were too much, and they defeated the Cavaliers 96-95.
Down by a point, with seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Kyrie Irving drove up the court. Cleveland fans that haven’t tuned out at this point liked this. Time dwindling away in the fourth is Kyrie’s time to shine. Except this time a Cleveland State alum, Norris Cole smoothly stripped the ball from Irving’s hand as he went for a shot with 2.2 seconds left and dribbled those seconds away to secure the victory.
Most people know Norris Cole as having the finest flattop in the league, but on Monday Night fans got to know him as star of the game. Cole finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists.
LeBron James warmed up prior to that match, but quickly suited up and planted himself on the bench. James noted that he would have preferred to have played against Cleveland, but understood the reason why this couldn’t happen.
Read more... Join the Conversation... April 11th, 2013 at 8:37 AM
By Pat Murphy
The Cleveland Cavaliers returned home for the second of a back-to-back to take on the Detroit Pistons. After playing good defensively over the last few games, there was very little defense played by either team in this game. The Pistons shot 50% on the night, while the Cavaliers were just under 49%. The team that shot better though was the one who came away with a win in the final seconds of the game 111-104, as Detroit swept the season series over Cleveland for the first time since 2002-03.
The game was closely contested throughout, with the Pistons on top by four at the end of the first and second quarters. In the third period, the Cavaliers found themselves down by as many as 11, but were able to come back and take the lead heading into the fourth.
The comeback was led by Kyrie Irving coming alive in the third, as he was just 1-of-7 from the court until then, but finished the game 7-of-15 with 27 points and nine assists. He did shoot only 1-of-5 from behind the three-point arc and had five turnovers on the night. It looked like Irving might save the day again, as he attempted to take over, but his long-range shot was off the mark with just over 30 seconds remaining, and Detroit made enough free throws to get the win.
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