CLEVELAND, Ohio — In this episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast, Ethan Sands and Jimmy Watkins discuss the Cleveland Cavaliers’ recent victory over the Charlotte Hornets, highlighting how they truly live and die by their 3-point efficiency.
Takeaways:
Offensive Explosion Masks Larger Issues
The Cavaliers snapped a three-game losing streak with a much-needed offensive outburst, scoring nearly 140 points. The backcourt duo of Donovan Mitchell (30 points) and Darius Garland (27 points, 10 assists) looked dominant, and the team made 24 three-pointers, the fifth-most in franchise history. However, both hosts caution that this performance came against the Charlotte Hornets, a team with a poor defensive record that fueled the Cavs’ offense with numerous unforced turnovers. While the win and the return of a “fun” offense provide a confidence boost and a temporary reprieve from a recent slump, the speakers suggest this offensive success primarily “papers over” significant, unresolved issues with the team’s overall play and consistency.
Defensive Effort and Rebounding Remain a “Blaring Red Flag”
Despite the victory, the Cavaliers’ defense remains a primary source of concern. They allowed 132 points to a Hornets team that entered the game with the 20th-ranked offense, resulting in the Cavs’ second-worst defensive rating of the season. The most glaring weakness was rebounding; Cleveland was dominated on the offensive glass, giving up 17 offensive boards that led to 20 second-chance points. This happened against a Charlotte team missing its starting center and losing another big man to injury during the game. The hosts labeled the defensive lapses and lack of physicality on the boards a “bright blaring red flag,” indicating a serious lack of effort that even a high-powered offensive night could not hide.
Key Role Players Show Flashes of Their Value
The game highlighted the crucial, if inconsistent, impact of several role players. The return of Sam Merrill was significant, as his court presence and shooting threat (“gravity”) created vital space for Garland and Mitchell to operate, even though Merrill himself only scored four points. De’Andre Hunter had a strong performance, described as a “progression to the mean,” where his offensive success fueled his defensive engagement and physicality. Meanwhile, Dean Wade scored 14 points, including 11 in the fourth quarter, showcasing the 3-and-D potential that makes him a valuable archetype. It serves as a reminder of the potent player he can be, complicating any potential trade discussions.
The Performance of the Big Men Is a Growing Concern
A significant negative takeaway centered on the play of the Cavaliers’ big men, Jarrett Allen and Thomas Bryant. Despite facing an undersized Hornets frontcourt decimated by injuries, the Cavs’ centers were outworked, particularly by Moussa Diabate, who grabbed six offensive rebounds. Thomas Bryant played 20 minutes but recorded only one rebound and finished with a team-worst minus-13 plus-minus. More critically, the hosts pointed to a continued pattern of “floaty performances” from Jarrett Allen, noting a decline in the motor and consistent energy that once defined his play. This lack of interior dominance and effort is seen as a symptom of the team’s larger struggles.
A Tougher Road Ahead Demands Urgent Improvement
While the win was celebrated, the context of the victory provides little room for comfort. The Cavaliers allowed a 19-point lead to shrink to just seven against the Hornets’ end of bench players in the final minutes, highlighting an ongoing issue with closing out games. The conversation quickly shifted to the unforgiving upcoming schedule, with a game against the surging New Orleans Pelicans the very next day. The hosts warned that bringing the same defensive intensity against a quality opponent would undoubtedly result in a loss. With the team already behind in the competitive Eastern Conference standings, the win serves as a brief stopgap, but the urgent need to fix their defensive and effort-related issues is paramount to avoid falling further behind.
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Transcript
NOTE: This transcript was generated by artificial intelligence and could contain misspellings and errors.
Ethan Sands: What up Cavs Nation. I’m your host Ethan Sands and I’m back with another episode of the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. And joining me today from a sunnier and warmer state than Cleveland, Ohio, Jimmy Watkins, columnist for Cleveland and we’re coming to you guys after The Cavs latest win, 139, 132 over the Charlotte Hornets. The Cavs snapped a three game losing skid and are now back in the win column and put up nearly 140 points. And Jimmy, let’s start there. Let’s start with the positives of tonight’s game. The offense looked fun again finally. It looked like it was flowing. It looked like multiple players were getting into their rhythms. Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell dominated by doing what they do best, creating for one another and facilitating the game around them. 30 points for Donovan Mitchell on 6 of 11 from deep, 27 points for Darius Garland, 5 of 6 from range, 10 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals. It was a box score stuffing performance by Darius Garland and it’s great to see him getting back into forum back to back games where he had a performance that you can be happy about, especially coming off aggravations of the toe injury. He looked like he might have done it again tonight, but he’s not answering questions about his toe anymore. It’s more so just playing through the pain and figuring out what he’s capable of. Jimmy, let’s start there. What’s the positive offensively for you when it comes to this tandem and looking like the backcourt that we all know and love?
Jimmy Watkins: I just think at large even with all the injuries like this team reminds you that as a lot of things that have been wrong with them were still wrong with them this year. But when they’re making their shots and Darius Garland’s getting in the paint and they’re resembling the best offense in the league that we saw last year during the regular season you can at least paper over those issues for a little while. We all understand that this team’s going up fight fighting its own internal mental strife that’s fighting injuries. It’s been it hasn’t been whole the entire season. We have we can have a we probably will on this podcast have a separate conversation on should it be the case the Cavs look so night and day different on both ends of the floor based on where the whether their shots are falling or not. But when they are falling you get you remind yourself the same sky isn’t right when the shots are falling you remind yourself the sky isn’t that this team is super talented, they are still capable of turning the ship around. It’s the Charlotte Hornets. The Charlotte Hornets had a lot to do with the Cavs offense tonight. They are fueling it with turnovers, many of them unforced. And the Charlotte Hornets themselves are not going to cover themselves in glory on the defensive end. But when you’re in as deep of a funk as this team has been recently, you’re never going to argue with a win. You’re never going to downplay a near 140 point performance. We never want to give up 131 points to the Charlotte Hornets either. But this is at least 1, 1 familiar sign. This is one aspect of that made this team what we thought was a contender last year. And maybe sometimes in basketball you just need to see one go down. That’s what they say, right? Maybe the Cavs just need to have one night like this and obviously getting Darius to look like himself is a big part of that. And this is not the first night that that that has happened. But DeAndre Hunter, whether just needed to get elbow in the face or needed to see a couple go down, whatever the Cavs when they needed to have one night like this, let’s see what this can bring. It’s not perfect. It’s a win. You’re not arguing with those right now.
Ethan Sands: Yeah. And the positive continue with that. Jimmy, you mentioned it there, DeAndre Hunter, he had like 12 points in the first half. He was doing more than he had in the last couple of weeks. And then gets elbowed in the face and goes nuclear. You see just the physical acumen that we know DeAndre Unter has and it’s needed. Right. He’s a guy that’s preached about toughness, physicality and just having that mentality throughout an entire contest. We saw it last year in the postseason when he went at Benedict Matheran. Now you’re seeing it when he gets elbowed in the nose and coming back and playing with a different kind of force. I think that’s a kind of player that the Cavs have lacked and it’s part of the reason why they went and got him. Obviously the offensive acumen is great. The defensive point of attack, when he’s actually engaged defensively, can be a positive. Even though he can get caught ball watching a good amount. I think when he’s engaged, when he’s paying attention, where he’s having that level of awareness on both ends of the floor and is engaged on both ends of the floor, you get to see the level of player that the Cavs wanted when they went and traded for DeAndre Hunter and then Jimmy. I think we can’t go without saying that Sam Merrow was back for the first time since November 17th. And although he didn’t make a three, he only had four points because he got to the lane in two layoffs. Oh, that’s big deal for Sam Merrill, but his gravity is huge. Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell. Kay Atkinson talked about it after the game about just how important his presence on the floor is for this team and creating looks because this team, you understand that players on the defensive end cannot leave him even a sliver of space. You allow now Donovan Mitchell to come cut and drive and Darius Garland to shift through the defense. And now you have other defenders away from the ball who have to be paying attention to Sam rather than leaving to go and help or go into smother in the painted area. It’s a different look for this team. And Sam Merrow is one of the most important pieces on this team. But even defensively, you have to see the intensity and just the awareness that he plays with on that end of the floor. And it’s much needed. And a lot of the different players on the floor tonight were raving his praises. And even though in the locker room after the game, he walked out with an iceman level amount of ice on his right hand to deal with the swelling, as we know, he’s still dealing with soreness and not 100%. But being out there alone does a lot for this team, no doubt.
Jimmy Watkins: And I think I tallied it up there 10 and three with Sam, the lineup this year and the rest of the lot, and do the rest of the math, the rest of the losses are without him, right? Double digit losses, losing record without him. And there’s probably some noise in that. There’s also probably some shoes to that. Sam Merrill’s mere existence on the basketball court creates opportunities for the Cavs. Greece’s driving lanes for the Cavs. He has the defense’s attention at all times. Helps helps Darius Garland helps Donovan Mitchell helps Jared Allen helps everybody. Again, the Charlotte Hornets helped. The Charlotte Hornets are not a good defensive team. The Charlotte Hornets committed. Was it 19 turnovers? I counted them up. Depending on your grading system. I counted 10 that were unforced. So I don’t, I don’t want to be doing backflips here. The Cavs beat a bad team. They should beat bad teams. They should beat this team worse, frankly. But having Sam Merrill, you see, you see this offensive performance the likes of which we have not seen much this year because Sam Rail in part because Samuel has been in and out of the lineup. You see this team, you’re just. Your memory is jogged. Your memory is jogged of what this offense is capable once they start to round in the form. And remember still we still got Evan Mobley waiting in the wings. The calf string you want, you want to be careful with. But at some point he will return. Max Drus the timeline seems like it’s getting murkier and murkier the longer this goes. But at some point he will be back in the fold. The Cavs offense, even amidst this garbage embarrassing boo inducing stretch, they have been putting together some pretty impressive offensive performances. Now let’s see the whole, let’s see the whole picture and let’s see can we see some defensive effort independent of offense. Like I thought for everything we just said about Darius, the 27 points, the 10 assists, all that I loved the way he was fighting for loose balls in the middle of that third quarter. He ended up pouncing on one and calling a timeout. He pushed for one I think on the Cavs side of the court like the basket they were defending and that Thomas Bryant ended up getting and that was one that it looked like the Hornets weren’t going to get and we’re going to get and Darius inserted himself into that situation. I think that all flows from great we have energy because our our shots are falling again. Should that be the case? No, it should not. But given that it is the case, you’d rather have them go down than not. And 24 three pointers will inject a lot of energy into a locker room.
Ethan Sands: And 24 is the fifth most number amount of three pointers made for the Cavs in a regular season game. That cannot go unnoticed. I think the other positive stat from tonight’s game, Donovan, Darius and DeAndre became the fourth trio in Cavs history to score 27 or more points apiece in the same game. And also this Cavs team shot a perfect 19 of 19 from the free throw line tonight. Their second most free throw makes without a miss since 1982. 1983. And Jimmy, the last positive that I want to do for this podcast before we get into the negatives because I, I still think we have to be critical of this team especially as they go into this last stretch of games for the month. Dean Wade, four triples, 14 points. 11 of those 14 points coming in the fourth quarter. Huge to see him have some shots go down as part of the 24 three pointers that were made tonight. Especially when you talk about just him taking the necessary ones, him doing some escape dribble threes, him doing some relocation three point attempts. I think seven three point attempts for Dean Wade is a positive sign, especially when players like Darius Garland, Donovan Mitchell and DeAndre Hunter have going to the capacity that they did. I think it’s necessary, especially when we talk about Kenny Atkinson wanting to utilize this small ball lineup with Dean at the five more and more. And we saw it again when Thomas Bryant and Jared Allen were on the bench, when Dean Wade was out there handling his own fighting for rebounds. He finished the game with seven of those leading the team. I think it’s big for this Cavs team to have somebody of Dean Wade’s caliber playing to that on the offensive end because we know what he brings defensively and on the glass. And if he’s going to continue to shoot and make these threes better than he had to the beginning of the season, that’s going to only make it harder for the Cavs to want to deal him at the trade deadline because they know what he does in playoff games on the defensive end of the floor and how that can impact series, not just games.
Jimmy Watkins: Yeah, with with Dean Wade, I’m more like it’s good that Dean Wade had this game tonight obviously, right? Team high plus 18 when Dean Wade makes threes, he becomes one of the most valuable players in the NBA. Legit 3 and D way. His defense was much better tonight. I thought he was legitimately giving Lamelo issues on dribble drives at times. And Lamelo had some really good verve tonight when he was getting downhill. Although sidebar maybe the most Lamelo ball shot of all time when they were down 15 in the fourth quarter and there was 11 on the shot clock and he decided, you know what it’s time for One legged step back three. I got you right here, Coach Brick, I digress. This is the blip with Dean Wade. I want to spend this positive because like I just said, when D. Wade shoots like this, he is one of the most he becomes one of the most valuable players in the most valuable archetype player archetypes in the NBA. We just don’t see it often enough. It’s nice to see it every now and again. This is what we need to see more of from Dean Wade with DeAndre Hunter. Tonight felt like a progression to the mean. As much as DeAndre Hunter was walking around looking lost on the court the last three weeks, I never thought that DeAndre Hunter was going to go the whole season shooting 31% from three. I figured a night like this was coming eventually and lo and behold, when it did, it looked like. I tweeted this out earlier. It looked like someone pressed the on button for him. All of a sudden he’s engaged on defense again and it’s looks like he’s. He’s the defensive menace that they traded for and he’s getting to the rim. He’s finishing strong. He’s being strong, stronger on the glass. 5, 5 rebounds, which is a lot for him with Dean Wade. This is the outlier, the mean for Dean Wade is floating on offense, afraid to shoot threes. But this is the glimmer. I, I feel like Colby Altman’s watching this game. If, if Kobe alt. Let’s. If Kobe Alton’s thinking about cutting salary at the deadline, Dean Wade would probably be at the top of that. That list right now. This makes you hang up the phone or at least, or at least put it down for a second because if you could just tap into this, you could tap into this Deanway, you could be such a useful playoff piece for this team too. Like the original vision was two plus sized wing defenders who can shoot the ball like this. Like that’s in theory incredible. We just don’t, we don’t see enough of this out of Dean Wade. But tonight you saw everything that the Cavs envision him to be leads the team in rebounding. Like you said, you don’t have to squint at his box as plus minus tonight. You understand why he was the most impactful player on the court by that metric. And I can, I can. I just hope that we can see this version of Dean Wade more often because the Cavs need him, need it. And clearly it’s in there every now and again.
Ethan Sands: All right, Jimmy, time to get to the negatives of tonight’s game because we know that this was by no means the perfect contest for the Cleveland Cavaliers. As you mentioned, they gave up 132 points to the Charlotte Hornets who came into the game with the 20th ranked offense in the NBA. And when you look at these statistics, Obviously the Cavs 137.6 offensive rating was their third best effort this year, but their 132 defensive rating was their second best worst effort. And I think we’re continuously seeing this. And as you said, Jimmy, the Cavs shooting shot them out of a possibly horrible ending. Right? And now we’re talking about how the Cavs need to end possessions because it wasn’t necessarily the transition defense that Gave them fits. Tonight it was the offensive rebounding of the Charlotte hornets. They grabbed 17 offensive boards, which turned into 20 second chance points to just the Cav seven second chance points. And I think that’s a big deal when you talk about a team that doesn’t necessarily have a huge rim present outside of Moussa Diabate, who is a player that Kenny Atkinson described as one of the best offensive rebounders in the league. And obviously Mason Plumlee went out early on in the game because of, uh, groin soreness, so you didn’t have another rebounding threat there. Miles Bridges grabbed six rebounds in total two offensive boards. Diabate had 14 total six on the offensive Glass himself. Tre man had five rebounds, four on the offensive glass. And obviously the Cavs are in a horrible defensive situation when they’re giving up these offensive boards because they’re already at the rim. It creates such easy looks for the opposition that this is an area where the Cavs need to get better, especially with multiple areas of the defensive end trying to improve. If there’s too many weaknesses for teams to exploit, whether it’s the transition defense. And the Charlotte Hornets tried to run, but also led to more turnovers on their end. So they slowed the game down and chopped it up into the half court and got offensive rebounds and created their offense that way. So I think there’s multiple areas that teams across the league are trying to key in on when it comes to the Cavs defense and offensive rebounding and transition defense are two of the things that they are doing. And obviously, Jimmy, we talk about how this Cavs team is focused in on defense at practice the last couple of days, the last couple of weeks, even talking to Naquan Tomlin about them having a practice recently that was solely dedicated to defense. And yet they’re still having these issues. And I find it hilarious because at the beginning of the season during training camp, Kenny Yakinson was having this conversation with us about, hey, our defense is way ahead of our offense. Well, that’s not true. Can’t be true. And Kenny has now been transparent with us about this and saying that, like, this team needs to be better at defense because through the first 15 games, they might have been in the top five. Over the last now they’ve dropped out of the top 10, which is a significant decrease. And the lapses are apparent for everybody that is watching.
Jimmy Watkins: Yeah. So the other thing I think we should have said during the. The positives part of this is that you saw glimpses, glimpses, only glimpses of what can happen to the Cavs defense when they don’t have to be in transition so often because they’re scoring with the identity of this team they’ve yet to show us what it actually needs to be is a team that is an offense that is so good that it magnifies the defense. Because teams are repeatedly taking the ball out from under the basket because they just scored and they get to go back and set their defense. And when everyone’s healthy, mmobi can’t come back fast enough for this defense. When everyone’s healthy, they can be a hard group to score against in the half court. And tonight there were moments where sparse moments, sparse moments where they made the Hornets work and they forced a shot clock violation and they were getting deflections. I counted 10 unfortunate turnovers I caught. I counted nine forced ones as well from the Cavs getting active and that’s going to was a point of emphasis at the beginning of the season. Funny to think about that now because of where we are, where the defense is. But you saw, you saw that theory in action. The other, the other way to look at this thing is we’re four games I think now into Evan Mobley’s absence. What is this defense without Evan Mobley? I mean what is any defense without its defense? Defensive player of the year, perennial candidate. That’s a fair question. But you strip away the defensive anchor that frankly the Cavs use as a crutch like him and Jared Allen. It’s not just smart to funnel the shots toward Evan Mobley and Jared Allen because they are elite rim protectors. It’s also sometimes their only option because the perimeter defense like Darius Garland is just never going to be anyone’s idea of a stumper. And Donovan Mitchell, Kenny praises him a lot and I think he’s for again for I’ve said this before when he’s for a superstar, Donovan Mitchell is more than adequate as a defensive player. But teams are, teams are going to go at him and they can. He’s gettable. DeAndre Hunter. The effort comes and goes with his shot. Dean Wade was better tonight, but we’ve seen the last few games quicker guys can get them. The Cavs defensive identity is just boy, it’s really nice to have those two guys behind us, but you’re putting a lot, you’re asking a lot of those guys. You’re getting beat repeatedly and I still think there are too many spacey moments where the Cavs lost track of shooters. Con canipple was too open too often tonight. He was also on he was also on a crazy hot streak early in this game but they lost track of him too often. Lamelo is it also should be noticed. Yes, the Charlotte Hornets are a bottom 10 offensive league. When LaMelo plays they are closer to top 10. I don’t think they’re quite top 10 but they’re like top half of the league with Lamelo in there. He’s a real difference maker in that regard. So that’s, that’s part of this too. The Charlotte Hornets can be a quality offense, but it’s a quality offense that you put the Scav defense in its current iteration against a quality offense you get 132 points and like you said Ethan, they are otherworldly shooting performance which yes is a progression of me and yes, some of the, some of the things that you can point out and say, well these things will even out over time with the offense and with this team in general. That’s all true but this, this defense thing is not. There’s nothing, nothing was fixed in the big picture today. You might have stemmed the tide. You desperately needed a win. This can be a jumping off point for your Darius Garlands, your DeAndre Hunters, your Dean Wade type. Guys who really needed the confidence that comes with a nice night or in Darius’s case, two straight nice nights. The bigger issue here, the defense that is cratering over the last five, six games after they said they were spending a lot of time getting it fixed like these are. This is still a bright blaring red flag for this team and we’re really far into the season, man. Granted the best defensive player in the league last year is still coming back but man, it’s repetitive. It’s going to get you beat down the road if you don’t, if you don’t invest more energy into it.
Ethan Sands: I think that’s an interesting point because we talk about the rebounding aspect of it and the defensive acumen and obviously.
Jimmy Watkins: Sorry, the rebounding, that’s the other thing. Ryan Cobrenner didn’t play tonight. The Hornets starting center didn’t play tonight. Who by the way pretty good drop defensive big as well. Averages like two blocks a game. Might have made a difference on the offensive end too but and by the way and Moussa Diabate was incredible getting his hand on every missed shot. It seemed like he for particularly given the workload that was asked of him. Incredible performance from Midnight. The fact of the matter is that the Hornets were down two centers. I forget when Plumlee got hurt but like with a long chunk of the Game left. He got hurt and you still got crushed on the boards. Cavs are missing Evan Mobley too. I get it. But that is a bright, blaring red flag the way they are handling everything else, man. Like, there is a lot that goes into offensive rebounding, but that’s, that’s another signifier, like, you guys just aren’t taking this seriously enough, even on a day where you’re making all your shots and that’s supposed to be supplying you with energy. This, this other team that is even further down his depth chart than you are is just straight up outworking you.
Ethan Sands: And I think that’s interesting, right, because we can obviously point to the fact that Tyrese Procter and Craig Porter Jr. Only played like two and a half or three minutes. But like, obviously with Darius Donovan, Sam Marrow all being available, those guys minutes are going to be decreased. I’m more so looking at Thomas Bryan and Jared Allen playing 20 minutes tonight. Right. And against the team that is hammering you on the boards. And I, I just think that obviously Dean Wade was having himself a night, even though the scoring came more so in the fourth quarter than anything else. Kenny Atkinson wanted to go to the small ball lineup. You have the spacing on the floor, which is helpful for everybody else around them. But the other portion of this is like the Cavs had a 19 point lead at multiple points tonight and they won the game by seven against the Charlotte Hornets, who had their G League players in at the end of the game. I just think you need to be able to finish teams off more substantially than they were able to tonight and have been all season. Like, it’s been a growing issue over the last five games. I think there’s been one where they haven’t led by double digits and still they’re 2 and 3 over this last stretch. And I think that’s bad. Like that that’s not a good sign of a team that has championship aspirations or we’re not even talking about this team in a contention window right now because of who they are, how they’re playing against these other teams. And then you mean to tell me that the New Orleans Pelicans come in tomorrow and they got almost everybody healthy, they’re coming in with a vengeance on a winning streak. Good wins over the last few games. Beating the Houston Rockets the other night, that’s huge, right? And the other point. Point that Jimmy is making diabate, of course he has size and a little bit of physicality, is 6 foot 10, but like he just was bouncing around off of everyone. Sure. He ended up elbowing DeAndre Hunter in the face and got a flagrant one. But that’s the physicality needed. That’s the energy that Naquan Tomlin kind of plays with, that wild ferocity that nobody knows where he’s going, what’s going to happen, and he’s going to make something change because he’s just out there wilding. He didn’t have a rebound tonight, right? He played 13 minutes. Naquan Tomlin didn’t get a chance to make an impact in that kind of capacity. But Diabate was banging bodies with everybody. As Jimmy mentioned, he basically touched the ball every time he was on the floor. He had six steals, Jimmy. Six. That’s ridiculous. It’s deflection city. It’s length, it’s athleticism, it’s aggression. And sometimes you need one of those kind of wild cards. I talked to Charles Lee before the game about having risk takers and LaMelo Ball and Lonzo Ball who are willing to make pass passes that are sometimes impossible. Darius Garland talked after the game, like, sometimes you don’t expect them to make those passes. That’s needed. That’s a different kind of risk taker. Some other ones, you need people that are willing to put their body on the line to make things happen. And I think that’s something that the Cavs are still looking for. Obviously, DeAndre Hunter plays with a different level of physicality. I feel like I’m going to write about that for tomorrow, but I think this team needs that aggression, that physical presence on both ends of the floor, and they’re just not getting it.
Jimmy Watkins: Yeah. Jared Allen. Thomas Bryant and Dean Wade. Moussa Diabate. Yes. He’s taller. He’s 210 pounds. Okay. Dean Wade is listed at 228 pounds. Jared Allen is listed at 243 pounds. Thomas Bryant’s listed at 240. One of them’s 243. One of them is 248. Regardless, they’re all bigger. This dude was just working harder. And we’re at the point now where like, dude like Jared Allen and Thomas Bryant played the same role tonight. Basically. Exact. Exact same minutes load. Jared Allen is. I don’t know. Put it simply. The Hornets, energy guy out. Energy. Everybody on the court. The Cavs, energy guys. I would consider Jared Allen an energy guy. Thomas Bryant. What is. Thomas Bryant is not an energy guy. He’s. I’ll tell you what. Thomas Bryant is the guy who’s begging for the ball in every transition possession. He’s sealing that defender down there. And you know, he has, he has flashes of skill. He had a nice night on the with his jumper and in the post tonight. Minus 13, dude, he had one rebound. And, and Jared Allen, we’re seeing fewer and fewer flashes of the motor that used to make me want to defend him when he would pick the worst possible moment to turn it off in the playoffs. Like at the very least, over the last four seasons, you could at least count on Jared Allen for 16 and 12 every night in the regular season. Right. And I again, I thought with Evan Mobley out, as much as that puts on his plate, I thought this could be an another opportunity for Jared Allen to remind everybody. Like, hey man, I’m pretty skilled too. Gets the picket roll pass, I think it was from Donovan. Hits a smooth spin move and finishes and finishes maybe even with the left hand, if I’m remembering correctly. Like that used to be regular occurrence. We used to talk on this podcast about like, I’m kind of in awe at Jared Allen’s touch around the rim with both hands. He’s got great float game, great soft little jump hooks. Like he’s just not involved the way he used to be at either, at any, really any part of the game. I’ve said this before. People always say that Jared Allen is a bellwether for how the Cavs are going. I think the Cavs are a bellwether for how Jared Allen’s going. And I think among the many things you can point to and say, something is really off here. His repeated floaty performances, again, that’s on him. He needs to figure it out. But that is also a sign of just how off how, how far we have strewn. Strewn from what this thing is supposed to look like.
Ethan Sands: And I mentioned it a little bit earlier, the Cavs now welcome in the New Orleans Pelicans, who are on a five game winning streak after being the Trailblazers, the Bulls, the Rockets, the Pacers and the Mavericks tonight. And this is a team that looks not like a single win team, Jimmy. They’re looking a lot better than they had to begin the season. They only have eight wins on the year, but they’re looking like they’re going to challenge teams, especially with their physicality. With Zion Williamson being back, Derrick Queen is looking like a really good rookie. His passing acumen, his ability to bully in the painted area, his physicality, his toughness, and then also just his mental awareness of the game and processing of the contest, I think that’s huge. The next game for the Cavs, we one the biggest Portion of this conversation is Darius Garland plans to play we had this conversation about Darius Garland not being available in back to back for a longer stretch than what we’re seeing right now. Darius Garland planning on playing in the contest on Tuesday against the Pelicans. He’s played in just 14 games this season. That would be a big sign for the point guard to be able to play in a back to back to be able to showcase that he is not only playing through injury but is not even necessarily getting better, but getting better in dealing with the pain because we saw again tonight he was hobbled for a little bit. It just feels like this is something that’s going to be recurring throughout the remainder of the season and how he deals with it is more important to his playoff performance. And back to back games with 25 plus points. That’ll do it for how this Cavs team is going to need him going forward, especially if Lonzo Ball is not going to be available for tomorrow’s game against New Orleans. And Lonzo, for all of his negativities with the ball in his hands shooting wise over the beginning portion of the season, he had seven assists. Tonight he was good. He was a plus 11. He did have one turnover and that one turnover did make Kenny Atkinson throw a towel onto the floor at one point. That was kind of funny to see. But I do think the Cavs need all of the guard help that they can get. And as we mentioned Tyres Proctor And Craig Porter Jr. Didn’t play tonight. They likely will get more minutes tomorrow with Lonzo Ball not being available. I just think this is a part of the season where the Cavs understand the need to bank wins, especially heading into the latter stretch of December where they have the Knicks and the Rockets and other teams that are going to challenge them physically, emotionally heading into the new year.
Jimmy Watkins: That’s just they need the games and that’s not part of the calculus with Darius playing back to back. But it’s important that he’s playing tomorrow because they need the game. The under discussed subplots of this terrible start. The games are going to be more intense earlier in the season now, now you’re, you’re really behind the eight ball and the playoff seeding. Like they are five games out of the two seed behind Detroit and New York, neither of which look like they’re going to stop winning anytime soon. They’re still within reach. Like what are they behind? Boston? Two and a half for the three seed. Sure have a good month, which I, I do think a good month will will come down the pike eventually. You can get into that conversation, but you got to start. You got to keep afloat. In the meantime, they are, they’re on this trend. They are on right now. They are flirting with danger here. These things can slip through the cracks. You can only nonsense your way through so much of the regular season before you realize just how much regular season matters. Come cle. You do not, you do not want to see a team that you thought you wouldn’t have to see until the conference finals in the first round. That’s where you’re at right now. That’s where you’re at right now. Okay. And. And to something Ethan said earlier, like a tldr of this podcast. If The Cavs made 24 threes this time last year, game’s over in two and a half quarters. Starters are resting. Tyrese Proctor is out there cooking the entire fourth quarter. It’s. It’s a nice little Runway for him. This game was competitive Late into the game. Like, the Cavs took a bunch of guys out and they were talking about on the broadcast, like, are they going to have to put these guys back in? Liam McNeely and Terrence Mann are kind of cutting these guys up right now. Is Kenny gonna have to put the starters back in against the Hornets? Against the Hornets? You bring this same defensive energy tomorrow, and you only make 15 threes. 14 threes. You’re gonna lose. You’re gonna lose. You bring the same defensive energy on Christmas Day. Christmas is ruined, brother. The Knicks are really good. The Knicks have the best offense in the Eastern Conference. You’ll get embarrassed. The stem the Tide, it didn’t fix anything.
Ethan Sands: Big picture again, as Jimmy said, this is not room for celebration. And obviously the Cavs locker room was much more joyful after this one than they have been. But to their credit, I was in their pregame and they were goofing off and being their old selves before the game even happened, which kind of shows the camaraderie and the joy of the team. It also could pull for room for concern depending on how the game would have gone. But again, it was a Charlotte Hornets. So we’re gonna have to wait and see how the game goes against the New Orleans Pelicans tomorrow night. And we’ll be here with you guys after that one as well. But with all that being said, that’ll wrap up today’s episode of the Watch and Gold Talk podcast. But remember to become the Cavs inside and interact with Chris, me and Jimmy by subscribing to Subtext sign up for a 14 day free trial or visit cleveland.com/cavs and click on the blue bar at the top of the page. If you don’t like it, that’s fine. All you have to do is text the word stop. It’s easy, but we can tell you that the people who sign up stick around because this is the best way to get insider coverage on the Cavs from me, Chris and Jimmy. This isn’t just our podcast is your podcast, and the only way to have your voice heard is through subtext. Y’ all be safe. We out.