The Cavaliers still aren’t sure if George Hill will be available for tonight’s Game 5, according to Colton Jones of AmicoHoops. Hill sat out Sunday’s game with severe back spasms, even though he had four injections in an attempt to play.
Coach Tyronn Lue said Hill was able to do “some shooting” during Tuesday’s practice and will be reinserted into the starting lineup if he is able to go tonight. If not, veteran point guard Jose Calderon will get another start.
There’s more news today out of Cleveland:
- Kevin Love won’t blame an injured thumb for his shooting problems against the Pacers, Jones relays in a separate story. Love suffered a partially torn ligament in his left thumb while breaking up a pass in Game 2. It’s the same hand that he broke late in the regular season, an injury that sidelined him for six weeks. “I’ve been able to get up a lot of shots,” said Love, who is shooting .362 during the series. “I think initially it was painful in the few days that followed, but now it’s kind of subsided, and just getting the feeling back in my left thumb.”
- Rodney Hood is still trying to adjust to a less-structured offense in Cleveland, writes Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com. Hood, who was acquired in a flurry of deals at the February deadline, saw his scoring average drop by six points per game after leaving Utah and his shooting percentage from 3-point range dipped from .389 to .352. He’s down to 7.0 points per game in the playoffs.
- For all the roster changes the Cavs made this season, Lue relied on a group with experience playing together when he desperately needed a win in Game 4, notes Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. LeBron James teamed with Love, J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver and Jeff Green to pull out the victory. “That’s not a knock on anything or anybody,” Korver said. “When you’ve been through something at a high level, there’s experience there and there’s something to draw from. When you’ve been through experiences in life, you’ve been through tough games, whatever it is, it gives you a comfort level to go with people you’ve kind of done it with before.”
Its Lebron’s fault this team can’t win. You can’t run an offense with that guy, guarantee you put Love on the Warriors in place of Green and he would be 20-10 easily again. Why? Because the ball is swinging and it’s not everyone waiting for Lebron to drive to the hole and decide to pass. Lebron has some of the best 3 point shooters in the game(Korver,JR,Love,Calderon), how much floor spacing does he need? Face it Lebron fans he can’t put a team on his back and dominate offensively like he’s required to. To win the ring you’ve got to be a dog Lebron, none of this sissy passing and stat padding crap. The situation calls for you to average 35-40 points to get the ring and play defense, so do it and screw your excuses.
Saying Lebron is the reason this team can’t win is so ridiculous there is no way you can actually believe what you’re saying. Lebron. Is the only reason this team is even in the playoffs at all.
They play his way that is why. Let Lue actually run an offense or better yet get rid of that puppet and bring in a real coach with actual basketball knowledge instead of constantly saying “We need to be better” and that team still gets to the playoffs. Field this starting lineup without Lebron coached by someone like Mark Jackson for example and the Cavs are a playoff team.
Hill-Korver-Hood-Love-Nance Jr
They’ll still have JR,Clarkson,Tristan, and Green off the bench. Like I said the problem is Cleveland has no offense because everything has to be catered around Lebron, it’s sad Korver even said it after the last game and everyone knows they have to be Lebron’s slaves while he gets all the credit and they get all the blame if they lose.
That team would need a miracle just to be swept as an 8 seed
For Dionis. “LeBron just imposed his will on the game,” said [Indy coach] McMillan. “He put his head down and just attacked the rim.”
He also made all 15 FTs (a good omen for the fiture) and blocked Olidipo from behind before making the last shot. 3-2 clev.
As for Love– if he is just now getting over the numbness, and had pain for a while, then saying his thumb is not to blame is silly.
Hood is still not making it. There have been a number of teams mentioning him and if he gets a 3/21 offer he might be gone.
LeBron putting Cleveland on his back is the only reason they’ve done anything in the last 15 years.
Kevin Love runs down the court to either corner. Stands there with his hands out waiting for LeBron to pass it to him. I’d say 1 of every 3 times LeBron touches the ball it ends up in Love’s hands.
Except those times Klove gets the ball in the low post, the high post under the basket or the top of the key.
Cavs will have to get extremely aggressive if they want to keep LeBron. The back-ups they traded for won’t do it. They could match-up with the Hornets…
Cavs get: Batum, Howard, Walker
Hornets get: Hill, Thompson, Dudley
Phoenix gets: Clarkson
Cavs roster improves immediately. 3 actual starters, a premier defender, and 1 All-Star.
Suns need depth, Dudley offers them nothing off the bench.
Hornets dump Batum’s salary. Hill is an expiring contract (1M in 2019), Dudley is an expiring contract, and Thompson facilitates the trade and it saves them 46.5M over the next 3 seasons. I will concede that a draft pick may need to be included, unlikely to be the Brooklyn Pick. Probably a future Cav’s 1st.
C – Howard – Zizic (Bamba? Wendell Carter?)
PF – Love – Nance
SF – LBJ – Osman – Korver
SG – Batum – Smith – Korver
PG – Walker – (Trae Young?)
What other scenario keeps LBJ in Cleveland? Don’t see too many trade partners.
Hornets fans will howl, but after reading the Charlotte article HR directed me to, they seem to know there that they need a reset and trading for expirings is how you get that.
Yea, it won’t go over well, no matter what they do. Stand pat, trade away players for nothing. They must have been drunk when they gave Batum a max contract. Like why? He should have gotten a 13-14M deal like Williams and MKG and then they aren’t in this situation. 1 contract basically has curtailed their franchise. And Batum isn’t even a bad player. He’s just not 24-25 M good. This is similar to the Blazers matching Crabbe and giving ET 72M, everyone is like “huh??”
I doubt anyone is giving up an All Star PG to swap bad contracts (even with a remote 1st); or that anyone is taking on a pedestrian backup like Clarkson at his salary. Unless Altman is hired away by the Hornets first, I don’t think this deal is happening.
Lue is bad coach. He sets line-up and playing time…clueless on both. Forces Love to play center…stupid. Love should go to LA…I am sure he is tired of being LBJ whipping boy.
So he goes to LA to be a Ball whipping boy?
The Cavs should start their offseason by getting a new GM, and try to sell LeBron on the new guy’s ability to clean up this mess of a roster. Granted, a lot of is of LeBron’s making, but he won’t re-up on that basis.