No Irving? Big Problem

The Kyrie Irving-less Cleveland Cavaliers gave the New York Knicks all the Knicks could want for three and a half quarters before the Knicks pulled away with a huge run over the final seven minutes for a 91-75 win at Madison Square Garden.
Cleveland was led by Antawn Jamison's 13 points.
The Cavaliers will next hit the hardwood against San Antonio on Tuesday...

Swashbucklings

1) The Cavaliers effort was MUCH improved over their backfield in no motion effort against Milwaukee last game.
Considering the talent on their side and the opposition firepower,Cleveland fought hard and hustled.
That is all I can ask for considering the injury issues.
Just try.

2) Byron Scott must not have liked much about Tristan Thompson's game as he benched him in the first half and played him very little in the second.
Thompson finished the game with the same amount of fouls (four) as combined points and rebounds...

3) Antawn Jamison might have led the team with points with another shoot til it hurts evening,but the player of the night was Donald Sloan who finished with 10 points.7 rebounds and 4 assists as he took Kyrie Irving's place on the point.
Sloan played just under 35 minutes and showed that he might have a place on this team next season as the backup to Kyrie Irving.
Sloan has the type of skills that could make him a valuable bench player playing 20 or so minutes a night....

4) Semih Erden was the beneficiary of the lost playing time of Tristan Thompson and finished with eight points,including a nice jam along the baseline,but Erden grabbed just one rebound,which is not going to cut the mustard as a role playing big man.
Erden's problem appears to that he does not shoot well enough to be a finesse' center,but not physical enough to play down low...

5) Manny Harris played just one minute in the loss as the only healthy bench player to play less than 12 minutes.
The erratic use of Harris is one of the few things that I wonder about when it comes to decisions on playing time by Byron Scott this season...

Photo Credit:AP Photo