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.
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