Cavaliers nipped by Boston 86-83

An awful first quarter and an erratic fourth period slightly outweighed some excellent play in the middle periods and the Boston Celtics escaped Cleveland with an 86-83 win over the Cavaliers.
Kyrie Irving led the Cavaliers with 24 points,while Tristan Thompson and Ramon Sessions each scored 13 off the bench.
The lengthy homestand is now over for Cleveland,who travel to New York tonight against the Knicks.

Swashbucklings

1) Kyrie Irving left the floor in the first half with what proved to be a funny bone smack and then returned to the floor for the second half.
Irving kept the Cavaliers in the game and despite a steal late in the game by Boston off an Irving toss,I thought the steal was more an excellent anticipation by Kevin Garnett than a bad play by Irving.
All things considered,an excellent game for the rookie.

2) Wish I could say the same for the usual set of bricklayers.
Antawn Jamison 4 of 15 (and that's a low shot total for him),Anthony Parker 0 of 4 and Daniel Gibson 1 of 7.
A bad team (and things are better than I ever dreamed thus far) tends to shoot a low percentage,unless you play defense like a Paul Westhead team,so this is to be expected.
However,when you look at the close defeats that the Cavaliers have had,even a modest increase in shooting percentage would have likely meant a few more wins and solidly in the top eight in the conference.

3) Considering the above,is it too much to expect your veterans to shoot better?
I expect a low percentage from the young players or the lower men on the bench,but these experienced players are just killing me!
You can talk all you want about veteran guidance and locker room presence,but what I usually see from Jamison and Parker on the floor is that of fading players that need to be moved along to teams that will use them less..
Sometimes less can be more...

4) I know there was little time for the final three pointer,but why on earth did Byron Scott call the play that had Anthony Parker taking the final shot?
Parker did not hit a shot all night and HE is shooting with the game on the line?

5) Tristan Thompson scored 13 points and grabbed 10 boards,but I was excited with his 3 of 4 from the foul line.
Thompson entered the game under 50 % and had been reported to be "working hard" from the line,but you hear stuff like that all the time,
If Thompson improves from the line,he'll add a handful of points to the total per night and will keep him on the  floor in crunch time,so he will not stand out as a foul target.

6) Cleveland finished the nine game run of home games with a 4-5 record.
That seems about right to me,they beat the Clippers,balanced that out with the loss to the Hornets and everything else looks about the way it should.
5-4 would have been about right as well and better.

Photo Credit:AP Photo