Believeland rises from the ashes - A Next Gen 2k21 Story

[marshdaddy]

Big moves to bring in both AD and Fox, surprised that Sacramento let Fox go like that.

Curious, how is MyNBA? Is it a serious step up from MyLeague/GM on current gen? How much can you change on the playoffs? Can you do a play-in tournament or change the format at all? Sorry for the bombardment of questions, just have been super curious as to how it is.

[cincy14fan]

Quote: Originally Posted by marshdaddy

Big moves to bring in both AD and Fox, surprised that Sacramento let Fox go like that. Curious, how is MyNBA? Is it a serious step up from MyLeague/GM on current gen? How much can you change on the playoffs? Can you do a play-in tournament or change the format at all? Sorry for the bombardment of questions, just have been super curious as to how it is.

I am surprised too, even more surprised that they accepted. I think it is the first time I actually got a big name FA to come to our team when Cleveland is bad. Again it was an interesting twist and thought it would be fun to play with than doing normally what I do.

As for MyNBA it depends on what you mean by step up. Technically its the same as current gen (not sure of draft classes or AI logic). You can't change the playoffs or schedule of the NBA as of now. So runs the same as current gen. Can adjust teams in conference and add new teams. But again but no expansion or reductions of playoffs or start of the season (you start first week of December)

However, If you want to be a GM, do story lines, run team sales, and set prices you can do that. They rolled all modes into MyNBA. Can also upload other people scenarios and try to complete it. I don't like stuff from the previous GM modes so I turned most of that off.

Sorry if that wasn't the best in depth answer you were looking for. Basically what everyone else says sums it up the best:

While NextGen isn't from the ground up its still a way better game than current gen. Get all the features to carry over and nothing was really taken out for what I have seen so far.

[cincy14fan]

Cav's Weekly report

Game 6 (5-0) @ Pacers (1-4)

Pacers and Cav's would look like two heavyweight fighters in a ring. Both defenses came out to play in this game. Only twice would a team score more than 25 points in a quarter and both of them would come by the Cav's in the second and fourth quarter. It would come down to the final quarter in this game. The Cav's did have an eight point lead at half which was still an eight point lead after three.

Still the final quarter the Pacers would run out of steam as the Cav's would outscore them by nine in the quarter to make it a rout. T.J. Warren had 27 points, 5 steals, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists to lead the Pacers. If Oladipo could make a shot (8/26) he still ended up with 19 but that would be the downfall for them. On the other side the way-too-early-big-three for the Cav's (Fox, Davis, and Toppin) all had double-doubles with Fox one rebound shy of a triple-double. Kevin Porter Jr. would be the only other player to score in double digits for the team.

Game 7 (6-0) @ Mavericks (4-2)

Mavericks would try to get Doncic started early, but it didn't go well as he was 2/10 in the first half with 3 of his shots blocked. That would help the Cavs take a double-digit lead into half. Second half the Mavericks would slow it all the way down so it became who could make shots. Which would then turn into Doncic verses the Cavs. Doncic would lead both teams in scoring and would score 24 points in the final quarter as he ended up with 36 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, steal, and a block. While Porzingis would try to help with a double-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds, 6 assists, 5 blocks, and 3 steals. Mavs would close down the paint, but the lack of scoring from other players was the downfall in this game for the Mavericks.

While Cavs struggled on defense for the first 3 quarters, it looked as if they already we celebrating the win heading into the fourth where they allowed 39 points in the quarter. Still there big three of Davis, Fox, and Toppin lead the way with double-doubles. Still it would be Sexton who would get player of the game as he ended up with 20 points, 7 assists, 4 rebounds, and a steal. Also Dylan Windler would finally break double figures in the game as he had 10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, and a steal to help seal the game for the Cavs.

Game 8 (7-0) vs. Celtics (5-1)

Questions arose for head coach Michael Stauffer as he would sit Davis for the last quarter and a half of the game. It was after the game he said Davis complained of his legs being heavy so we decided to let him sit and rest up. “We were doing well and had the league, but at the end they just found ways to hurt us without him on the court. Didn't want to bring in him after sitting for 20 minutes to play the last two and really hurt himself. After the game the doctors said it isn't too much to worry about, but he will miss some practices. However, he will be ready for the next game against Washington.” Coach Brad Stevens said “I assumed it was a precaution early on. You don't let someone sit that long unless there is something going on. Luckily for us we won, the game, but I am afraid how it would of ended up with him out there. They match up very well against us.”

The Cavs would play a great three quarters, and then when the rotating door of big men came out for the fourth quarter the Celtics would adjust and play pick-and-roll the whole quarter that lead to mismatches for easy dunks. Once Cavs adjusted it lead to wide open three's for Tatum and Hayward. In the end it would be the Celtics scoring 42 points in the quarter while the Cavs only managed 29 as they were handed their first loss of the season.

Around the NBA News

The Memphis Grizzlies, yes the Grizzlies who started the year 1-1 have won 6 straight to sit atop the Western Conference. Their only loss was an 18 point loss to the Heat who had all there starters before some injures came. Their wins so far: Timberwolves, Rockets, Suns are the last three in which Morant has been averaging 31 a night. Also won against Lakers, Nets, Bulls and Nuggets. Way harder competition against teams that the leading Eastern Conference team the Cavs have faced.

Eastern Conference isn't setting the league on fire as only seven teams are .500 on the year. Four are great so far record wise in 76ers (6-2), Heat (6-2), Celtics (5-1). Again the Cavs are up there at 7-1 but only faced off against 3 quality opponents. And of them is having a terrible year.

Only one team in the league has one win so far in the first two weeks of the NBA Season. If you would think it was the Lakers or any team in the Central Division you would be wrong. It goes to the team the Cavs played the first game of the season as the Portland Trailblazers are 1-7 on the season. Damian Lillard is leading the league in scoring with 37.9 a night, but the team only managed a 7 point win somehow over the 76ers. Six of their eight games have been against Western Conference teams.

Nine teams in the Western Conference are over .500 with only the Spurs straddling that line with a 4-4 record. Of the eight teams with winning records might would say they would see Portland, Lakers, Nuggets, and the Jazz but all of these teams have losing records. Again the season isn't ending anytime soon, butright now just a slow start for some Western Conference teams.

Upcoming games for this week

Dec. 22 @ Wizards
Dec. 24 @ Knicks
Dec. 26 @ 76ers
Dec. 28 vs. Heat
Dec. 31 vs. 76ers

With just a week and a half left of the month we are going to combine those weeks into one. Again a very interesting set up. First weeks games are all on the road, with the final two at home. Again two of the three away games are against weak Eastern Conference teams. Actually, all the games are against Eazstern Conference teams. Still the Cavs shoot way better on the road than home, and the two home games are against the top competition of the East in Heat and 76ers. Like the Celtics the Cav's will match up pretty well with these two teams, but like the Celtics its going to be hard to find easy shots for both teams.

Analysis are worried that Davis won't be back until later this week unlike what the Cavs are saying, but think with the first loss and two easier teams to play at first the Cav's will win the first two before dropping the next three straight.

[cincy14fan]

Cav's Weekly report

Game 9 (7-1) @ Wizards (2-6)

Cavs wanted to run and with Beal and rookie Wiseman out with injuries fans knew this might get ugly fast. It would as the score in the first five minutes was 20-8, but it wouldn't be the Cav's leading. Wizards would come out running as well and would get a quick jabs in (first three baskets were dunks) to help start the game out on a 6-0 run. Then it looked like an all-star game since no one wanted to play defense as the first half would show 20 dunks in the first half with 13 coming from the Cavs.

Without Beal and Wisemen the Wizards would only go a half in this game. Ironically it would be backup center for the Cavs as Tyrique Jones would get to double digits for points. He would end the game with his first double-double of the year with 18 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block. Leading scorer for the Cav's wouldn't be Fox or Davis, but rookie Toppin who just dominated the game with 35 points (14/19, 1/2, 6/8), 11 rebounds, assist, and a block. Wall would keep the Wizards mostly in it, but only when he faced the bench for Cavs as he would only score 6 of his 37 against the Cavs starters.

Game 10 (8-1) @ Knicks (2-7)

Knicks would jump out to an early 5 point lead. That would last for the first eight minutes of the quarter. After they lost the lead they would never regain it. While the Cavs wouldn't lose it it wouldn't be an exciting game. Actually it was a very slow game for the Cavs who seemed uninterested in this game and might have been looking ahead to the 76ers game.

Again guards would score at will as Schroder (30 points) and Lowry (24) lead their team in scoring. While on the other side the big three had double-doubles again only Fox would score more than 20 points in the game. Still at the end of the game the Cavs were up eight with 1:45 and at the end it would be sealed by foul shots by Davis as the Cavs would hold on to just a two point victory.

Game 11 (9-1) vs. 76ers (8-2)

This all by sealed the Cavs legitimacy this year. They should make the playoff's, and if they do it looks as if they will be a force to be reckon with even if we are still just a month into the season. It would be the first time the Cavs would would allow their opponents to out shoot this this year with a 47% to 42% for the game.

Both teams would have their strategies. First for the Cavs it was to help Fox on defense as Simmons was the point. This meant that Toppin or Davis would have to help. It worked as first as Summons would have his two shots blocked by helped defense, but then Hortford (24 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, 4 blocks, a steal) would just leak out to the three point line as Toppin would help to hit wide open three's. Simmons would still have an amazing game despite only scoring 11 points, but did add 15 assists, 9 rebounds, and 4 steals. Joel Embiid would have a battle with Davis as both were winners as losers as he ended up with 18 points, 14 rebounds, 6 assists, 3 blocks, and a steal. On the other side the 76ers defense would dare the Cavs to shoot outside. Anytime they went in was meet with help defense that helped them to 11 blocks in the game. Still the Cavs who don't shoot well at home, and continued with just 42% did however shoot 44% from deep on 11/25, which lead to fouls on jumpers and long range shots as they were 91% from the line but was 32/35 where 76ers were just 75% on 9/12.

In the end it would be the Cavs taking this one as the big three would again have a double-double with all scoring 20 or more points, and then a big game from Sexton who had 25 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and a block.

Game 12 (10-1) @ Heat (2-7)

This game wasn't close. Every quarter was outscored and the end the gmae was out of reached as the lid would close on the rim as the scoring difference was 37-15. Final score was a 31 point blow out. If you thought that the Heat crushed the Cavs you would be mistaken.

Sure Giannas had 28 points, 16 rebounds, 2 assists, and a block. Bam-Bam Adebayo was close to a double-double with 16 points and 9 rebounds, and Cook their point guard did score 14, but after that no one did anything. Herro was ice cold going 2/10 and the rest of the players went 3/17 from the field. As a team they shot a horrific 36% from the field while the Cavs would shot an cool 49%. Again this was a game on the road and Cavs seem to play better on the road.

While the leading Cavs scorer was Toppin, yes that is correct with 23 points, it would be the first time all year that all five starters would score in double digits. If Sexton , Porter Jr. and Davis would score at least one more all the starters would have had 20 points in the game. Still the big three were the big three in unstoppable but it was a breakout game for Porter Jr. with 19 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, and 2 steals.

Game 13 (11-1, 1-0) @ 76ers (8-5, 0-1)

Just a week later these two teams would meet again but would be a road game for the Cavs this time. Very similar game with the results almost being the same. Simmons would shoot better this game but would end up with just 12 points, 12 assists, 6 rebounds, 2 block,s and a steal. Horford would have a terrible game as Toppin wouldn't leave to help much, but did lead his team in scoring with 19 points again.

On the other side it was more of the same. Big three would all score over 20 this game though, and Porter Jr. is just dropping shots as he ended up with 17 points on 5/9 from deep. While Fox did have 16 assists this game, a season high, the player of the game went to Toppin with 20 points, 19 rebounds, 6 blocks, assist, and a steal. He did go 0/5 from deep in this game. Other than a very terrible second quarter, outscored 29-16, this could have been a very different game, but in the end it showing that with in game adjustments so far for the first month the Cavs have just been the overall better team in every game.

Upcoming games for this week

Jan. 1 @ Knicks
Jan. 3 @ Heat

Cavs had a tough game after the first Knicks meeting in second place team 76ers in the Eastern Conference. At the start of the month they have to play fourth best team in the East in the Heat. Hopefully they don't overlook the first game despite Knicks only losing by 2. On the other end they blew out the Heat so hopefully don't take that game for granted since it is a home game for them and they will want their revenge.

Still the Knicks are the Knicks this season as they can't seem to get the new players to jell and are just 2-11 on the year and sit in second the last place in the Eastern Conference. The analysis predict the Cavs again splitting the week with a 1-1 record. See an easy win against the Knicks and then a way closer battle the second time in the a week against the Heat.

[RolePlayer]

Are you controlling all 30 teams or just kinda trade findering it to make the best Cavs team possible?

[cincy14fan]

Quote: Originally Posted by RolePlayer

Are you controlling all 30 teams or just kinda trade findering it to make the best Cavs team possible?

Just controlling the Cavs. For the Kevin Love trade I did do trade finder. Tend to do that if I am getting rid of a player I don't want/don't like. Or if there is a trade rumor for a player I will look at what the trade finder will offer to give context. With the Garland trade I did manually and the draft pick trades during draft were done from the offers I received.

My idea's on why I like controlling one team over the 30 like most people. I like the randomness of everything. Most people feel like some of the stuff the CPU does is unrealistic. I.E. Davis backing out and signing with us instead of Lakers (it was between us and the Hawks). Or how the Kings just let Fox walk. How we ended up with both (like I said I was shocked it happened. Probably could of got Fox but never a top 5 player in the first three years of FA in a franchise before).

Yet say a couple years back I was controlling all 30 teams and after Durant was one game away from reaching the finals with OKC I decided to just let him walk and then shockingly sign with the best team in the game on a way less than max deal everyone would think I was trying to stack the Golden State warriors. Or if I made LeBron after reaching the finals four years with the Heat and winning 2 championships just let him bolt for free to sign back with a young cast back with the Cavs who couldn't win more than 25 games the season before. Everyone would think that is crazy or the CPU is just doing one of its crazy trades. Yet it happened in real life.

Would in real life Davis actually leave the Lakers and join up with Fox, with him being let go for free, on the Cavs. I would probably say absolutely not. Would I love it that if it happened...of course but realistically I doubt it could. Still we have seen crazier things that happened in real life.

One last thing I do have trade override on just if I don't think the trade works out. Like Bucks last year wanted to trade all their small forwards and shooting guards for centers. Pretty sure they wouldn't do that so I veto it. But I don't force anything for me and let the chips fall how it does. Then just make up stories to how and why something so crazy can happen. Like Davis having a falling out with LeBron or how Giannis goes to Miami.

[cincy14fan]

*Note: Been trying to upload pictures for a couple of days to onedrive. Always say an error so just going to paste and then edit when it finally comes in again like before*

December Monthly report

Top 5 Scoring

POR Damian Lillard 34.6
PHX Devin Booker 32.9
LAL LeBron James 31.3
DAL Luka Doncic 30.2
LAC Kawhi Leonard 30.1
9 CLE De'Aaron Fox 27.9

Top 5 Rebounding

UTH Rudy Gobert 16.2
POR Jusuf Nurkic 14.9
MIN Karl-Anthony Towns 14.6
CLE Anthony Davis 14.3
MIA Giannis Antetokounmpo 14.2

Top 5 Assists[

CLE De'Arronb Fox 12.2
MEM Ja Morant 11.0
ATL Trae Young 10.3
PHI Ben Simmons 10.1
POR Damian Lillard 10.1

Top 5 Steals

PHI Ben Simmons 2.2
MEM Jonathan Isaac 2.2
MIA Jimmy Butler 2.1
MIL Donte Divincenzo 1.9
UTH Donovan Mitchell 1.8

Top 5 Blocks

CLE Anthony Davis 3.1
MIL Brook Lopez 2.6
CLE Obi Toppin 2.2
MEM Jonathan Isaac 2.1
DAL Kristaps Porzingis 2.0

Rookie Report


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Rookie of the Year Already Sealed?

Done and sealed. Only way is if Toppin gets injured or gets sent down to the G League. And while most think it is between Toppin and Anthony it is actually between two Cavs players right now. Problem is Tyrique Jones can't make a shot. But to prove it here is the breakdown for the three man race right now.

Obi Toppin:
19.7 PPG, 13.0 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.0 SPG, 2.2 BPG on .526/.273/.857 in 31.8 minutes a night

Cole Anthony:
18.4 PPG, 3.1 RPG, 3.8 APG, 0.8 SPG, 0.2 BPG on .459/.344/.862 in 26.3 minutes a night

Tyrique Jones:
5.8 PPG, 7.4 RPG, 1.5 APG, 0.7 SPG, 1.2 BPG on .394/.000/.742 in 17.4 minutes a night

If Jones was getting at least 30 minutes a night his stats would look like this:
10.9 PPG, 13.7 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.2 SPG, 2.3 BPG

Sure his points are low, but it would put in top five in rebounding and blocks which would be slightly higher than Toppin right now. If he would shoot, and he only takes shots within ten feet of the basket, he could be in contention for rookie of the year even with 17 minutes a night. Still he is not, but he does get to the line more than others on the team, and is a beast on the boards and helping out on defense. Since he can't shoot it will most likely go to Toppin who gets less pressure since he is running with Davis and Fox who open lanes and easy one-on-ones with his defender.

First Problem Arises for Cavs


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In the last 2 games Kevin Porter Jr. has averaged 18 points, 5 rebounds. 3 assists, and a steal. For the month he has averaged 7.8 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 0.7 steals, and 0.1 blocks. Problem is that he doesn't want to be on the team now and has no interested in resigning even if his stats are up across the board. Although he is also getting around 8 more minutes a game. He isn't in the big three and more or less is now an afterthought. Last couple of games he has been shooting the ball when it gets rotated and has found a lot of space with the attention of the big three, this is also benefiting Collin Sexton as well. Still Porter has already announced he won't resign with the team. That's the bad news. The good news is that the Cavs do have a team option going into next year which will keep him cheap at just 3.85m.

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So knowing when the timer is to expire what to do for the Cavs.

Option One:Cavs can trade him now or up to the trade deadline. The problem with that is he has only had two great games despite being the last option as a starter. Right now he is playing like a sixth man on a starting team, but with the way the Cavs use Fox, Davis and Toppin its not like a big name player will come here to sit in his role behind those three. So no, the quest for a another top 50 player in the league is unlikely. Right now with the salary cap and new season the best overall player you are looking for him in a straight trade is probably a 77-78 overall player which is going to be a center in return. However, the Cavs do have five upcoming first round picks in the draft. Although the Pistons and Bucks are Top 10 Protected. Still too early but looks as if those could be possibilities. But throwing him with two of the first round picks you are looking at young players now at guard or small forward. Which then begs the question why trade two first round draft picks and a player or a similar player on just 2-3 more years and their first round pick. Porter Jr. has been on the Cav's his whole career so far and right now does have chemistry with the team. While the new player won't.

Option Two: Wait until after the season to trade and before draft. Teams will have the cap space before free agency and if a team needs that position they know what a player they will get now instead of a guy they draft. Value will be higher, but it will depend on how well he does for the rest of the year. Stock will plummet if he continues like he did at the start of the year where he was around 4 points a night, but if he can keep around ten a night with the rest of his stats his stock will probably rise. This is more realistic than the first option.

Option Three:Keep all the way and next year pick up his option. Play him and hope you can get a trade bite before the deadline or he will walk away for free. This is a huge gamble but probably the safest. One you have him on the team for this year and next on his rookie deal which is very cheap. Cavs still keep their vault of draft picks for the next two years, and they know what they have in him. A spot up shooter from deep. Who, while he isn't happy on the team, hopefully will be not a distraction about wanting out and help the team with shooting from the outside. Doing this even if he has an outstanding year next year teams will know the Cavs will have to trade him or sign and trade to make sure they get a good deal unless they want to have a bidding war on him. If he just lingers and averages his stats now his stock won't be good so not a big pay day for leaving, but won't hurt the Cavs as they got their use out of him and either can draft someone for that position or find a decent player in free agency. Again way better than the first option but a toss up with the second option.

Cavs Strengths

Most people though Anthony Davis lost his mind after the fight with the King and wanted out with LA. He chose Cleveland, with a no trade clause, who at the time just drafted Toppin second and traded away Love for 3 future first round draft picks in 2021. With a team that just finished 19-46 it saw the loss of both centers in Thompson (in F.A.'s) and Drummond (Lakers). Everyone knew that Davis would have to play center since Toppin couldn't, so it was a surprised turnover just a year prior when he joined the Lakers to say he wouldn't play center. With cap space and just a week later the Cavs landed a point guard in De'Aaron Fox. Which lead to a trade of Garland for another future round draft pick. With a shorter off-season it looked as if the pieces would be overwhelmed early and Davis would be upset as he would be lost in the weaker Eastern Conference.

Yet a month into the season and the Cavs might be changing the way the NBA now drafts and plays people. Yes there is problems, and we will get to that later, but right now the pro's outweigh the cons as the Cavs are off to the best record in the NBA with a 12-1 record. With that lets dive into those pros for the Cavs:

Fox is getting off 21 shots a game, but Davis is just behind him with 20. While Davis doesn't have the strength to go against the heavyweights down there (yes a con, and again will get into that later), the strength comes on the offensive end. He is agile and quick enough to face up and drive on a big man. Has the quickness and the leaping ability to get rebounds and recover when beaten. He can shoot outside. Add in that everyone is quick on the Cavs and have Fox who is one of the fastest in the league and Davis is just more or less has free roam on where ever he wants to go on offense. We see him hit corner three's and battle for offensive rebounds when posting up.

Add in the fact that Toppin is lean and athletic to go with the Davis type and then have two outside shooters with Porter Jr. and Sexton. On top of that... have we said we have one of the fastest guys in the league already? Who can shoot decently from outside and teams don't know how to slow the Cavs down this year.

Teams have packed the paint and dared the Cavs to beat them outside. Teams have switched on pick-and-rolls, and with Davis popping out it gives Toppin to post up or do a back cut after the pass which leads to mismatches inside. Teams have guarded the three but then Davis and Toppin take turns just swapping blocks and just wear down teams with jumpers and then hit later with pump fakes to lead to easy dunks.

Right now the offense is free flowing in different plays they run which leads to quick ball reversals to find open shooters. If not, you always have fast breaks leading by Fox who can just run down and dunk with ease as well. While the short off-season hasn't caught up to the Cavs they need to make sure they grow instead of just staying at their level. Or the new love of the new relationships with these players might turn sour which already has one player in that boat in Porter Jr.

Cavs Weakness

Is there a lot of weaknesses to the best overall team? Not a lot, but some if they don't fix soon and teams find out how to play the Cavs will turn into serious problems. Ironically in 13 played games only 3 of them the point guards didn't score more than 15. Two of them were against the 76ers in Simmons as point (11 and 12). Other was the Heat who Cook did score 14. The other ten games they been giving up an average of 24.9 points to the point guard. Most of this is to pick-and-rolls and chemistry. Now granted the first game they gave up 49 to Lillard but lately have been closing down. However, the Cavs are downright bad on these. Even if it is now stopping the drive they let kick outs for open three's happen and when the guard is top tier the backups struggle mightily.

Need to get better at home. Which is a very weird thing to say. We know the Cavs shoot way better on the road, but right now they also score 13 more points a night (127) than they do at home (114). Still there defense is better at home as they only allow 100 points a night than the 110 on the road.

Also while we have athletic starting big men in Davis and Toppin they sometimes get beat by traditional big men. Right now though when helping they are getting lucky on bad shooting nights by some players despite the late close outs. If teams start hitting shots this so called new lineup the Cav's are rolling out might not be the best.

As for lineups the starting five is good enough to win a championship. Hands down no big arguments that they won't. Problem is their bench. Rookie point guard Long is suppose to be one of the best shooters from deep on the team and yet he is just shooting .220 on the year, and is very bad defensively. Larry Nance Jr. is the standout of the bench players as he can do well on both sides of the court, but Windler and Osman while great spot shooters aren't very mobile to take people on the drive and and iffy on defense. Tyrique Jones is a beast on the boards, and while gets 1.2 blocks a game gets beat on defense and looks lost at times. On offensive end does well at the foul line, but if it isn't a dunk off of an offensive rebound he struggles finding his own shot.

Last what happens if Davis or Fox have an off night. Well we have seen it before but opponents were worried about outside shots so Davis would leave the paint and would let Sexton or Fox drive and work through them. Once teams see's a player with an off night and start to either pack the paint or learn how to stop allowing mid range jumpers it might be a lot harder to score over 115 points a night.

Breakdown by Quarters

1st QUARTER For: 367 (28.2) /Against: 327 (25.1)

Fast starts are good. Being a front runner horse isn't good as they die out in the end, but the logic behind it is that if they have a good enough lead at the start they can hold out at the very end. Well Cav's do start strong, and only once have they been held under 20 points to start the game (against the Pacers but they also only scored 18 like us). Still we are only averaging a 3 point lead after the first quarter. We did score once 41 points in the quarter, and ironically was opening night, but the largest point after that was 32 halfway through the month and only score more than 30 points in five games.

2nd QUARTER For: 375 (28.8) /Against: 337 (25.9)

Nothing much changes in the second quarter from the first. Sure scoring goes up .6 for us and .8 for them, but shows that we on average take a halftime lead by six points. Although in 3 games this season we were losing at half. Good new is that we haven't scored less than 25 points for this quarter in any games in the month. On the other side it all over the place. Three has opponents have scored more than 30 points in the quarter, but twice have score under 20. Consistency is the key and on offense we are that. On the defensive side it is more of a roller coaster.

3rd QUARTER For: 389 (29.9) /Against: 325 (25.0)

So far the Cavs turn into a different animal after half. They hold opponents to the lowest scoring of any quarter at 25, but come out of half with new life on offense as they just pummel teams. Twice has the Cav's only scored less than 25 in a quarter and one was when Davis got injured. Other than that they have score more than 30 in five games with two in the 40 point range. This is usually when they pull away and cruise to a victory. Now there has been 3 games where the opponents have outscored the Cavs but its usually just by a basket. Nothing too crazy.

4th QUARTER For: 442 (34.0) /Against: 388 (29.8)

Opponents have scored over 30 points in seven games this month with two coming in the 40 point range. One of them was a 42 point outing by Boston which gave the Cavs their first loss on the season so can't really complain about that from a standpoint. While giving up 30 in the final quarter looks like we are coasting is a double edge sword. Normally our bench gets more playing time since we are up by double figures, and opponents are trying to fight tooth and nail to get back into the game. Problem is we score 34 a night which is still five points more than our opponents, but the hay maker usually comes in the first 3-5 minutes were we usually push the lead by more than ten points at that time. Then the bench comes in and a couple lucky shots drop and that's how we scored 30 points in every game but one for the month. In the game we didn't score that mark we only managed to score 29. While the opponents are pushing tempo the Cavs do get a couple easy points in transition for the quarter.

Eastern Conference


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Western Conference


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Central Division


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Well Pacers are trying to show we aren't the worst conference as the Cavs sit 12-1 and the Pacers are just 4.5 behind them with a winning record of 8-6. Other than that the Bulls, Bucks, and Pistons are sitting with losing records. Road seems to be the best place for the Cavs since they are 7-0 so far Would be nice to look at conference and division records but whatever reason there is a bug with that. Bulls while just going 5-9 only have a difference of -1.9 which is great while the Pacers are -3.9 despite having a winning record. Cavs are the only team with a positive which isn't surprising going 12-1 but at 15.1 is a big difference than the first of the teams in the division.