Washington dumps Cavaliers 124-112

Watching the Cavaliers 124-112 loss against the Washington "Bullets" nee Wizards tonight may not have been the most scintillating basketball contest, but for the flaws of the game, it did something else for me anyway.

It made me think of various times, events and matchups between these two teams that you wouldn't really think of as rivals, yet have consistently offered memories for me, and there are enough to revisit this "rivalry" that really wasn't to write in a future post.
The piece will cover the Miracle of Richfield from 1976 and the following season's mini-series along with the three meetings in a row during LeBron James' first stint in Cleveland.
It will also look at the players from both teams and memories throughout the years.

However, this one is about tonight's game, which was a mildly sloppy affair between two teams that are well under the .500 level.
And with that-

Swashbucklings

1) We start with this.
I don't have the NBA League Pass as in the past, mainly because Rachel prefers the Devils and the NHL, so my Cavaliers watching is very pre-internet-when they play Washington and their occasional cable network appearance.
I've written in the past of my frustrations when the Devils play Washington and how hard it is for me to deal with their announcers, but I'm not sure that I have ever written about how much I enjoyed the Washington telecast for the Bullets/Wizards when I watch their games.
When the expanded television offerings began to give me options other than the Washington or bust for the NBA, I didn't watch as many of their telecasts, but Steve Buckhantz ranked at the top of my favorite play by play men in basketball.
I was surprised to see the Wizards move away from Buckhantz and his excellent work.
And for me, it was different watching a Washington game without hearing his voice.
It just wasn't the same without the voice that I have always connected with the NBA in Washington and going back farther, with Georgetown on the then-WTTG in Washington.
Last night without "Buck" was a "Dagger" indeed.

2) The "Bullets" have always had strong announcers on their telecasts as before Buckhantz, the Bullets voice was Mel Proctor, another excellent play by play man and before Proctor in the ancient age with the UHF Channel 20 holding a Bullets road game package, the team used Jim Karvellas, a veteran New York announcer, who returned to Gotham with the New York Knicks.
The business of broadcasting isn't any different than the business of sports, veterans move on in favor of cheaper and younger talent and perhaps that's a sign of my age, but I would think that there should be room somewhere for the Steve Buckhantz's and Mel Proctor's of the world.
Perhaps, they don't wish to travel and they deserve to skip the travel if they choose, but it's too bad to lose hearing them when there are plenty of shots left in their game.

3) I know it's a lot of announcer talk here, but I'd be remiss in not mentioning the Cavaliers without Fred McLeod.
The veteran that brought so many Cavalier games into my home over the last decade-plus passed away in the off-season (as noted here) and was a strong and steady voice during the LeBron James eras with Austin Carr at the table.
McLeod always brought professionalism to Cleveland games and even though Joe Tait will always be the "Voice of the Cavaliers" to those that were there from the early years, the championship years will always be associated with Fred McLeod.
McLeod will be missed.

4) Finally to the game on the floor and the loss to the also-struggling Wizards.
Bradley Beal finished with 36 points to lead all scorers and I thought of the 2012 draft where I wanted Beal very badly (link comes complete with a Dusty Springfield album cover. Can any post with Dusty Springfield be all bad?) for the Cavaliers with the fourth pick in the first round, but Washington plucked him with the third pick leaving Cleveland to make a questionable selection during the Chris Grant years in Dion Waiters.
The pick of Waiters over Damian Lillard, Harrison Barnes, and Andre Drummond looks bad in hindsight, but least Waiters still plays for someone as one pick later, Sacramento passed over all three of these players as well in favor of Thomas Robinson.
With the absence of John Wall since the Nixon administration from Washington, Beal has been the star of the team, averaging almost twenty-eight points a night and I wonder how things might have been different had Cleveland found a way to add Bradley Beal in that draft.

5) How bad was this loss for Cleveland?
Washington was playing the second part of back to back games, arrived in Cleveland from Miami (not exactly next door) at four in the morning and had all of the excuses in the world to come up short.
Yet, it was Cleveland that looked like the tired team against the Wizards.
In this situation when the teams are reasonably equal talent-wise, the home team should win over eighty percent of the time and Cleveland's play was pretty dreary.
No excuses.

6) However, I exclude Larry Nance Jr from that critique as Nance was all over the floor with a reported career-high 22 points ( I was surprised to see that was a career-high) to pair with twelve rebounds and two three-pointers.
Nance Jr. isn't the type of player that you can plug in as a starter and expect numbers approaching those, but he's terrific at coming off the bench, doing the hustle things that that you expect from your reserve big man and delivering a dunk or two that can electrify a crowd to raise your team up a notch.

7) Kevin Love scored a quiet 21 points, but Wizards announcer Drew Gooden stated that he thought the Cavaliers wouldn't be able to trade Love because of the backloaded contract that the Cavaliers signed with Love (and maybe kisses too.)
I looked up the Cavaliers on Cap Space (located to the right in the links page) for Love's contractual status and Gooden is somewhat right.
Love is receiving 28.9 million this year,  31.2 million for the following two seasons before the final year of 28.9 million kicks in.
At that cost, Gooden could be onto something-Cleveland might not have the market that they hope for in a trade.
I wonder what type of offers would be coming and what would be worth moving Love off a bad team?

8) Collin Sexton led Cleveland with 29 points (10 of 15 shooting) as Sexton continues a run of 25 or more points in four of his last five games.
However, the Cavaliers lost all five games and for all his talents, Sexton might settle in as a player that good teams don't have as their top or second option overall.
I'm not saying that Sexton reminds me of Monta Ellis, but he does make me recall the rule that I named after Monta Ellis- If Monta Ellis (or a facsimile thereof) is one of your top two or preferably top three players, you are going to be hard-pressed to win 40 games.
That type of player will put up very solid numbers on lesser teams but are players that aren't going to lift a bad team to below average or a below-average squad to a borderline playoff team.
That shouldn't be considered a knock on Sexton, it's more of an indicator of just how far the Cavaliers have to go in their rebuild.

9) The most recent Cleveland first-rounder Darius Garland continued to struggle offensively as he made only four of seventeen shots (three of those from beyond the arc) to finish with thirteen points.
There is always talk of the "Rookie Wall" around the 30-40 game mark of the season for players used to a college season, but Garland played in only five games in his one season at Vanderbilt, so his wall has to be well-worn at this point.
Garland is the only member of the three Cavaliers first-round selections that are currently healthy as Dylan Windler and Kevin Porter Jr. currently out with injuries.
The injury to Porter was especially bad timing as his game was just starting to flourish a bit, although that could help Porter later in the season in dealing with that dreaded wall.

10) Wrapping up with uniform talk.
While I really like Washington's uniforms, which give the retro nod to the Bullets of the Capital Centre days and Cleveland's regular unis are basic, but fine, I really dislike the NBA series that forces these nicknames on them.
Cleveland didn't wear their "The Land" jerseys, but Washington wore "The District" and it just feels so gimmicky.
I'm usually in favor of throwback jerseys although the Cavaliers are using those horribly awful 90s versions, but between the "Land", this seasons throwback, and the ugly one with only the C sword logo, it seems that the uniform options continue to grow and not for the better.

Cleaning out the inbox-Passings

Sadly, more passings pile up in the inbox, so it's time for their salutes and notations.

Goodbye to Fred McLeod at the age of 67.
McLeod, who was originally from Strongsville in Northeast Ohio, was best known for his work with the Detroit Pistons for most of his career until Dan Gilbert (a Michigan native) bought the Cleveland Cavaliers and in one of his first moves as team owner brought in McLeod as the play by play voice of the Cavaliers on television.
That decision meant that the voice on so many of LeBron James' career highlights would be that of Fred McLeod.
McLeod was one of those steady announcers that aren't truly appreciated until they are gone because he realized that the game is better when it speaks for itself rather than making the moment about the man behind the microphone.

Goodbye to Andre Emmett at the age of 37.
Emmett was an All-American for Texas Tech under Bob Knight in 2004 and is still Texas Tech's second all-time leading scorer behind Jarrius Jackson.
Emmett spent eight games with the Grizzlies in his rookie season and would spend the rest of his career playing overseas other than six games with the 2012 Nets.
Emmett most recently played in the Big 3 league that features older players in three on three play.

Goodbye to Bill Bidwill at the age of 88.
Bidwill was the long-time owner of the Arizona Cardinals and was the owner behind some of the oddest decisions in football.
Honestly, if not for the one miracle Super Bowl run behind quarterback Kurt Warner, it would be tough to find too much credit for Bidwill, who took football out of St.Louis, fired Don Coryell in the middle of the only sustained success of Bidwill's ownership, chose Bud Wilkinson, who had never coached in the pros or at all in fifteen years over Hall of Fame coach Joe Gibbs, pledged to help St.Louis get an expansion team and when it was time to vote, voted for Jacksonville and that's just the St.Louis part of the inept reign of the Bidwill family, which doesn't account for the legendary stories of the organization's cheapness.
I bet there is a hell of a book somewhere behind the scenes of the St.Louis and early years in Arizona Cardinals when Bill Bidwill called the shots before handing over control to his children.

Goodbye to Ed Simonini at the age of 65.
Simonini was an All-American at Texas A&M in 1975 and won the Southwest Conference defensive player of the year award in 1974 and 1975,
The linebacker was drafted by the Baltimore Colts in the third round in 1976 and would lead the Colts in tackles from 1977-80 as the flagging Baltimore franchise's final big-time middle linebacker.
Simonini would be injured in 1981 and would play for the Saints in 1982 before retiring.

Goodbye to Tom Phoebus at the age of 77.
The diminutive 5'8 Phoebus was best known for his curveball. won 14 games as a rookie for the 1967 Orioles and was named the AL Rookie of the year by the Sporting News.
Phoebus was said to have had the best stuff of any of the Orioles starters which included Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, and Mike Cuellar, but struggled often with his control.
Phoebus followed up with 15 wins and a no-hitter in 1968 and 14 more for the 1969 American League champion Orioles.
Phoebus was the swingman for the 1970 World Champion Orioles, but despite an ERA of 3.07 Phoebus finished only 5-5 and after the season was traded to San Diego for Pat Dobson.
Dobson won 20 games for the 71 Orioles, Phoebus won three in San Diego and three more for the 72 Cubs to end his major league career.

Goodbye to Wally Westlake at the age of 98.
Westlake played ten years in the majors from 1947-56 with six teams, mainly with the Pirates and Indians.
Westlake hit 103 of his 127 homers in his first five years with the Pirates and would be a backup utility outfielder for the 1954 American League champion Indians.

Goodbye to Alex Grammas at the age of 93.
Grammas played shortstop for nine seasons, mainly for the Reds and Cardinals, before coaching for years with the Cincinnati Reds and Detroit Tigers as Sparky Anderson's third-base coach.
Grammas would also manage the Milwaukee Brewers in 1976 and 1977 to two sixth-place finishes before returning to Anderson as his righthand man.