Cavaliers let off the gas, lose to Detroit.

   The Cleveland Cavaliers reversed their play against the Milwaukee Bucks in their last game as they scored the first fifteen points of the game against the Detroit Pistons at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit.

Then as the Bucks did in Cleveland, the bottom fell out for the Cavaliers as the Pistons outscored Cleveland by fourteen points in the fourth quarter to ease past the Cavaliers 115-105.

The loss stopped Cleveland's winning streak at three, dropped their record to 30-20 on the season, and was only the 12th win for the lowly Pistons.

Darius Garland led Cleveland with 24 points with Evan Mobley adding 18 in support.

Cleveland returns home tonight to face another lottery-bound team in the New Orleans Pelicans.

Swashbucklings

1)  J.B. Bickerstaff stated after the game that the Cavaliers "thought it was going to come easy" and after the first quarter, I think the coach nailed it head-on.

It did seem that the intensity was waning, especially on the defensive end of the court where the Cavaliers definitely seemed to be a step slow.

2) Detroit's starters couldn't have hit the ocean with a shot in the first quarter but their second unit was a key factor in not allowing the game to get too out of hand.

Frank Jackson scored fifteen of his nineteen points in that quarter to single-handedly keep the Pistons from falling behind by twenty or more.

3) The Cavaliers are the team that is supposed to be built on defense and the edge that comes with that but it was the Pistons that were the more physical and rougher team defending in this game.

You could almost say that the Pistons got away with too much grabbing and holding if the Cavaliers didn't often use the same tactics.

4) Cleveland held Cade Cunningham without a point in the first half but the top overall pick from Oklahoma State would finish with 19 points and a triple-double with ten assists and ten rebounds.

5) Dean Wade finished with 14 points and was four of five from beyond the three-point arc but Wade doesn't present the matchup problems that Lauri Markkanen can and defensively Wade is far from a force.  

Boxing Challenge: Hamburglar Alert in Warren

 The boxing challenge starts in Warren, Ohio as what I thought was a bad decision didn't only decide a world championship it could have been a multi-million dollar bad call.

WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu was very fortunate to escape mandatory challenger Thabiso Mchunu by a split decision to retain his championship.

Mchunu was the more active fighter and I thought he was the more aggressive one but Makabu retained his title with scores of 116-112 and 115-113 overruling a 115-113 call for the challenger.

The decision not only retained the title for Makabu, but it also kept alive the chances of a multi-million dollar paycheck against Canelo Alvarez as Alvarez attempts to add another belt to his trophy case.WBC cruiserweight champion Ilunga Makabu was very fortunate to escape mandatory challenger
Thabiso Mchunu by a split decision to retain his championship.

Mchunu was the more active fighter and I thought he was the more aggressive one but Makabu retained his title with scores of 116-112 and 115-113 overruling a 115-113 call for the challenger.

I scored the fight for the challenger 116-112.

The decision not only retained the title for Makabu, but it also kept alive the chances of a multi-million dollar paycheck against Canelo Alvarez as Alvarez attempts to add another belt to his trophy case.

The Don King promoted was even worse with another WBA minor title "defense" as Trevor Bryan won a split decision over Louisiana clubfighter Jonathan Guidry.

Bryan generally controlled the dull fight over the overmatched but gutsy Guidry and scored the only knockdown with seconds remaining with the bell ringing after a weary Guidry barely made it to his feet.

Bryan won on scores of 118-109 and 116-111 with the usually dependable Steve Weisfeld offering an inexplicable 115-112 for Guidry.

I saw it for Bryan at 118-109 but the win was far from impressive considering the competition and Bryan will have to be far better in his next fight against the WBA mandated Daniel DuBois.

In Tulsa, Oklahoma, Robson Conceicao rebounded from his close defeat to Oscar Valdez with an easy unanimous decision over Xavier Martinez in a WBC junior lightweight eliminator on ESPN.

Martinez stunned Conceicao at the end of the third round but that was the only round that he won on my card in a 99-91 defeat.

Conceicao likely will be in a position to either challenge the Oscar Valdez-Shakur Stevenson unification winner or fight for a vacant title should the winner decide to vacate their championships.

Last-minute replacement Giovanni Cabrera shocked heavy favorite Rene Tellez Giron by outboxing Giron over eight rounds in winning an upset unanimous decision.

Cabrera took the fight when Luis Melendez missed weight and hadn't fought since 2019 but his awkward style puzzled Giron from the start and his four-inch height advantage kept Giron from doing any work on the inside.

In the boxing challenge

Vince Samano 12 Pts (4)

Ramon Malpica 11 Pts (2)
TRS 10 Pts (4)

Boxing Challenge

  The boxing weekend will feature two cards with four fights including one world title bout from a site that isn't accustomed to hosting championship events.

Warren Ohio is the place (I almost decided to attend this card but the cheapest seats at 100 dollars made me think twice as winter weather could cancel a trip on the day of travel) as the WBC cruiserweight title is on the line between champion Ilunga Makabu and mandatory challenger Thabiso Mchunu.

Now even though this is a world title fight, Makubu is from the Congo, Mchunu is a native of South Africa, and neither is known by many of even the hardest core fans, so it's not unreasonable to wonder why this fight is in Warren, Ohio.

Well, the answer is Don King, the one-time titan of promoters, who at ninety is more sideshow than promoter currently and Makabu is promoted by King so that's what you get.

The fight is of interest to even casual fans though as Canelo Alvarez has asked the WBC to fight the winner and with the huge paycheck that whichever of these two could receive for a fight against Alvarez on the line, so people that may not have heard of either boxer may be interested.

The two fought in 2015 in South Africa with Makubu scoring an eleventh-round knockout.

The other fight on the card pits minor champion Trevor Bryan in an "ahem" title defense against unknown Jonathan Guidry.

Bryan, who has fought once in the last three and a half years, will eventually stumble his way into a bigger fight by holding his "title" has two names on his record, knockouts over faded former cruiserweight contender and in his last fight, one year ago today, Bryan stopped washed-up former WBC heavyweight Bermane Stiverne in eleven entertaining but sloppy rounds.

Bryan has been forced to a certain degree to be inactive as the WBA consistently ordered a fight against Mahmoud Charr that never seemed to happen and once again, Charr fell out of this one against Bryan.

Enter late replacement, Louisiana's Jonathan Guidry, who has no relation to former Yankees pitcher Ron "Louisiana Lightning" Guidry, who has never fought past eight rounds and if you think Bryan's resume is underwhelming, you may want to look at Guidry's.

Just an affront to title fights everywhere...

On ESPN, two interesting fights at junior lightweight top at the card from Tulsa Oklahoma.

Robson Conceicao returns from his narrow points loss to WBC champion Oscar Valdez and faces undefeated Xavier Martinez in a WBC eliminator.

Conceicao lost by one point on my card to Valdez and the former Olympic gold medalist proved that he is a solid contender in defeat and is in line for a future title shot.

Martinez previously fought for Floyd Mayweather's Money Team but defected to Top Rank with Mayweather's blessing after two entertaining decision wins over former contenders Claudio Marrero and Juan Carlos Burgos.

Marrero dropped Martinez twice in the eighth round of their fight to cause concerns about the quality of the chin on Martinez.

I'm looking forward to this one and think it could be an exciting pairing.

The co-feature will pit Rene Tellez Giron against Giovanni Cabrera.

Giron was originally scheduled to face Luis Melendez but when Giron weighed in a shocking five pounds over the weight, Melendez was pulled from the bout (Kudos to Top Rank for paying Melendez his purse anyway) and replaced by the undefeated Cabrera.

Giron shocked the boxing world on a PBC card when he knocked out undefeated Olympian Karlos Balderas (Balderas is now with Top Rank)  and has notched two knockout wins since.

Cabrera has not fought since October 2019 and was scheduled originally in a four-rounder on the card.

Giron is a tough opponent to face off a layoff of that length.

Boxing Challenge

WBC Cruiserweight Title. 12 Rds

Ilunga Makabu vs Thabiso Mchunu.

R.L: Makabu KO 8

TRS; Makabu KO 6
V.S: Makabu KO 9

Heavyweights 12 Rds

Trevor Bryan vs Jonathan Guidry

R.L: Bryan KO 5
TRS: Bryan KO 3

V.S: Bryan KO 6

Junior Lightweights. 10 Rds

Robson Conceicao vs Xavier Martinez

R.L: Martinez Unanimous Decision

TRS: Conceicao Unanimous Decision

V.S:  Conceicao Unanimous Decision

Junior Lightweights. 8 Rds

Rene Tellez Giron vs Giovanni Cabrera

R.L: Tellez Unanimous Decision

TRS: Tellez KO 7

V.S: Tellez Unanimous Decision 

PPM

The PPM returns for the conference championships and who punches their ticket to the Super Bowl.

Last Week: 1-3 

Overall: 161-97

AFC
Chiefs over Bengals 34-29

NFC 

Rams over 49ers 24-21

 

The Mayfield Conundrum

     The Cleveland Browns have many authors in the book that contains the 2021 season that brought such unexpected disappointment to followers of the team.

There are many to blame but one seems to bear the most blame and is the most polarizing to Browns' media, observers, and fans- Baker Mayfield.

Mayfield defenders blame his injuries for his poor play but overlook his lack of injuries for the rest of his bad play during his tenure and believe that Mayfield can be a franchise-level quarterback if he only gets healthy.

Mayfield deriders point to his one good season that you need to assemble from various parts of different seasons (Mostly some of his rookie season and the second half of 2020) and believe that the ceiling for Mayfield is what you saw in 2020.

Which is the truth?

I'd like to say somewhere in the middle but that would be giving Mayfield a large benefit of the doubt.

Look at Mayfield's one indisputable run of strong play, the 2020 season (mostly compiled in the second half of the season) and compare the numbers from 2020 to 2021 and the numbers don't show an appreciable difference other than the obvious elephant in the room- the difference in touchdowns (26 to 17) and interceptions (8 to 13), the numbers are in the same realm.

Granted, the touchdowns and interceptions are a large stat to eliminate from the conversation but let us do so for now.

Mayfield's yards (3563 to 3010), yards per game (222 to 217), completion percentage (62.8 to 60.5), yards per completion (11.7 to 11.9), and sacks allowed (26 to 43) all are in the same ballpark of production.

Keep in mind that Mayfield played sixteen games in 2020 compared to fourteen in 2021, so if you give Mayfield his YPG for two games in 2021 and add it to his numbers, you would have 3,427.

In other words, if you consider that the interception numbers rose because he didn't have the same amount of protection in 2021 as 2020, which I think had something to do with it yet is far from the only reason, Mayfield's numbers in his best season aren't appreciably better than last season.

Yes, Mayfield was playing with an injured shoulder, which I'm sure didn't help his season but looking at the numbers-the shoulder just wasn't as major of an issue as the "Baker Bros" would have you believe.

The numbers show in each season that Mayfield still doesn't get the ball downfield, still isn't as accurate as an average-armed passer needs to be (or as Mayfield was reputed to be when he entered the league from Oklahoma), and has become increasingly vulnerable to injury.

Let's think back to the tremendous Bills-Chiefs playoff game and imagine the crazy final few minutes with both Josh Allen and Patrick Mahomes firing the ball downfield for big plays.

Now after you watch those throws with seasons on the line, close your eyes and think- Can you visualize Baker Mayfield making those throws?

Me neither.

Mayfield can't and he couldn't when he came into the league, it's just not his strength.

However, if you cannot be that type of quarterback and you struggle as a game manager, how on Earth can you think that you can win a Super Bowl with this player?

In a conference with quarterbacks named Mahomes, Allen, Herbert, Burrow, and Jackson, all more established, all with bigger arms (except maybe Jackson), and all but Herbert having done more than Mayfield?

Can you imagine any one of those teams trading their guy for Baker Mayfield?

I wouldn't trade Patrick Mahomes or Justin Herbert for Baker Mayfield and five first-rounders and their teams wouldn't either!

No matter how you look at it without bias, Baker Mayfield is an average quarterback in a conference loaded with excellent young quarterbacks with a decade or more still to play in their career and he simply isn't going to get the job done if the Browns have serious plans of winning a championship.

Now I've been asked this question- If you decide that you don't want Baker Mayfield next year, who do you bring in that is better?

That depends as we really don't know who is available and I'm not even sure that I am in the camp of no Mayfield for 2022 because there are worse options-but I do know where I stand for after 2022.

Baker Mayfield would have to post a season above and beyond what he has ever done and one that, in my opinion, is one above his capabilities. for me to even consider an extension to keep him in Cleveland after 2022.

However, in part two of the Mayfield Conundrum, I'll write about possible options if the Browns would be committed to making a change for next season and what I might do to push the envelope if it was needed to move on immediately... 

Cavaliers bomb Bucks 115-99

 Kevin Love scored 25 points off the bench and Cedi Osman popped in 23 from the second unit as the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame an awful start to overwhelm the defending world champion Milwaukee Bucks 115-99 at Rocket City Field House in Cleveland.

Cleveland trailed by as many as fifteen in the first quarter and was fortunate to trail by only nine at the end of the quarter.

Cleveland would outscore Milwaukee by seventeen in the second and ten in the third and cruised to the win whereafter.

Cleveland's win was their third in a row and eighth in their last nine games.

The Cavaliers are off until Sunday when they travel to Detroit to play the Pistons.

Swashbucklings

1) Cleveland allowed Milwaukee to connect on six three-pointers in the first quarter and only three others in the final three.

Milwaukee lives and dies with the three-pointer and their bombs rarely hit their target/

2) Cleveland's hit nineteen three's on the game and seven came in the third quarter as the Cavaliers swallowed up their first-period deficit and blew by them in the second quarter.

3) The NBA game has evolved a great deal with the three pointer playing such a larger role in today's game and this game shows how when a team drills nineteen three-pointers and it really isn't all that unusual.

4) Darius Garland left the game with back spasms but did return after missing a few minutes.

Those few minutes likely cost Garland another double-double after finishing with nineteen points and eight assists in twenty-six minutes.

5) Kevin Love had been a target for many (including myself) over the last two years for lack of effort, a massive contract ( which still doesn't get off the books until after 2022-23 ), and an attitude that threatened to infect a young team in the locker room.

This season has been entirely different in play and attitude for Love, who initially appeared to resist being used off the bench as an offensive force.

Instead, it might have saved his career.

6) Cedi Osman can be streaky and both good and bad can come from that.

Osman was six of fourteen from three-point range in the win finishing with twenty-three points.

Osman had combined for twelve points in his previous three games.

7) The win moved the Cavaliers to fourth in the Eastern Conference and their thirty wins pulled them even with the three teams ahead, although playing more games to reach the number than the other teams.

Things I think...

  A few opinions of mine from the sports world.

Sorry, call me a crusty old guy dedicated to "stats of the past" but I'm not in on Scott Rolen for the Hall of Fame.

I think Rolen was a very fine player and I wouldn't be furious over his selection but the baseball Hall voting seems to wobble from one extreme to the other with the younger more stat focused voter preferring players that suit their ideas of a great player and the various committees that prefer ignoring many qualities in favor of the buddy system such as the induction of Harold Baines.

I'd rate Rolen as a Hall of Very Good player but not quite at the level of what a Hall-level should be.

I wonder what the New Orleans Saints will do without Sean Payton but I don't think that things look good at all in the Crescent City.

New Orleans somehow wobbled to a 9-8 record in what was Payton's best coaching job but have been kicking salary cap problems down the road for years, have a major problem at quarterback, and have two impact players with large salaries and injury issues (Alvin Kamara and Michael Thomas).

The Saints job might not be the most attractive job available and it might be the least.

I wonder boxing lightweight Ryan Garcia isn't rapidly becoming boxing's version of Shawn Michaels?

Talented, temperamental, and can thrill you in the ring before disappointing you with his behavior outside the ring.

I wonder if this past weekend's four playoff games might have been the best weekend in NFL history.

Four games all decided on the final play of the game.

My solution to the disappointment of teams not getting the ball in playoff overtime?

Toss the coin, play an extra period, and should the game be tied at the end of that period, the game then moves to sudden death.

This would be used in the playoffs only, although I would like to see the regular season's sudden death overtime period return to fifteen minutes rather than the current ten-minute version.

For all the hype about the three young quarterbacks in the AFC in this weekend's games (add Justin Herbert of the Chargers, and first-round losing QB's Mac Jones of the Patriots and Derek Carr of the Raiders) as the future of the conference. the Browns could have had some of them.

Joe Burrow, Justin Herbert, and Mac Jones were off the board in the 2020 and 21 drafts plus the Browns believed they had their foundational quarterback already, but Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen, and Derek Carr all could have been Browns.

While I ranked Patrick Mahomes as my top QB in the 2017 draft, not even I at that time wouldn't have taken Mahomes over Miles Garrett, the Browns could have drafted Derek Carr three times and passed him over for Justin Gilbert, Johnny Manziel, and Joel Bitonio in 2014, and what seems to be the biggest mistake (since they drafted a quarterback over him), Baker Mayfield, over Josh Allen.

Meanwhile, as the Browns believe they have turned a corner as a franchise, there are several AFC teams that have their proven franchise QB and only one is over 30, the soon-to-be 31 Derek Carr.

Cleveland has Baker Mayfield.