For the Cavaliers, the first quarter has been an issue in the last two games. Against the Knicks on Tuesday night, Cleveland trailed by 14 after one and could not recover, and on Thursday afternoon against the Pacers, the Cavaliers trailed by 11 after one. It was an uphill battle the rest of the way, as Indiana(4-1) defeated Cleveland(3-2) 118-99 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Domantas Sabonis led the way for Indiana with a team-high 25 points and 11 rebounds.
This was Cleveland’s first game of a six-game road trip, which continues on Saturday in Atlanta against the Hawks. In their three wins, Cleveland had the lead or was tied after the first quarter. However, in their two losses, they have trailed by double digits after the opening stanza. Cleveland has been outscored by 25 points in the past two games in the first quarter.
“In these last two games, we’ve allowed the first quarters to impact us throughout the game,” Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said after the game. “Again, you go back and look at it. We had open shots; we had shots that we didn’t take, and we had bunnies at the rim that we didn’t finish. That carried over into other things.”
Collin Sexton, who had a game-high 28 points against Indiana, felt the team was not playing together in that first quarter.
“First quarter, I felt like the offense got stagnant. We wasn’t going by our principles, and that’s sharing the ball and feeding the post… We wasn’t playing together. That’s first and foremost. We wasn’t playing together. You can tell. Everybody was like, ‘swing, swing.’. Passing up open shots. We need guys to shoot those open shots every time.”
Darius Garland, who poured in 22 points, including 5-7 from three-point range, believes the team has to come out with more energy.
“We just have to start the game with more energy, set the tone,” he said. “We were on our heels a lot at the end of the first half of the game… We just got to start the game better. That’s all.”
After the game, Bickerstaff kept the team in the locker room a little longer than usual, and he explained why.
“Things are easy when things are good. Things become a little more difficult when things are hard, and our response to that is important,” he said. “We just wanted to have a discussion about that, about the grit we need to play with all the time, about the confidence we need to play with all the time, and believing in what we are doing and believing in ourselves through the good times and bad times.”
Cleveland has a young basketball team, and unfortunately, what comes with that is inconsistency. The Cavaliers have to get back to what made them successful, sharing the ball, creating turnovers, and making open shots. We’ll see if that back to that against the Hawks on Saturday.
Notes:
Andre Drummond recorded his fifth straight double-double with 11 points and 13 rebounds.
After defeating the Clippers by 51 points last weekend, the thought was maybe the Mavericks have found their groove, but in their home opener against the Hornets(2-2) on Wednesday night, the team took a step back, and their inability to make shots in the third quarter may have been the reason.
The Mavericks(1-3) were down by 11 points at the break, and In the third quarter, Dallas went cold. They shot 4-24 from the field, including 1-16 from three-point range. The Mavericks were outscored by 18 points in the quarter and trailed by 29 points entering the fourth quarter. Ultimately, Dallas would fall to the Hornets 118-99.
Hornets rookie LaMelo Ball had a career-high 22 points, and Miles Bridges had a double-double with 20 points and 16 rebounds. Tim Hardaway Jr. led the Mavericks with 18 points.
“Ugly night,” Mavericks head Rick Carlisle said after the game. “There’s not a whole lot else to say. We really were dominated for three quarters. The fourth quarter — I love the way we fought in the fourth quarter, but obviously, it was too late. Disappointing loss.”
Mavericks star Luka Doncic, who was 4-10 from the field and was held to 12 points, got up some extra shots up after the game. According to Doncic, his legs are not where they need to be at this point of the season, which might be true when you consider he is 2-21 from three-point range.
“I just think my legs are really tired, but it’s not an excuse,” Doncic said. “I don’t think it’s the problem. The problem was shooting today. Defensively, they made a bunch of shots. They didn’t feel us early in the game. We missed a lot of open shots early in the game.”
Carlisle added: “It’s clear Luka doesn’t have his rhythm yet. Everybody is working through something at this point in time. The thing that we can’t work through is the idea or the fact that, in this league this year, you’ve got to step on the floor playing with full force all of the time, or you’re going to get your ass beat.”
Because of the truncated offseason and a very limited preseason, Doncic believes that we will continue to see many strange things in the early part of the season.
“I said it before the preseason, these games are going to be weird,” he said. “You’ve never seen two teams lose by 50. I think it’s still a lot of people trying to get in their rhythm. Normal, it’d still be in preseason, Right?”
Dallas has to beat a team like Charlotte at home, but to Doncic’s point, you might continue to see some interesting results in the early part of the 2020-21 season. But eventually, Doncic and Dallas must find a rhythm if they want to get back on track.
We have seen so many things go wrong in 2020, whether it’s the COVID-19 pandemic or the untimely deaths of so many people in the world of sports and entertainment, 2020 will be a year that many will talk about for a long time.
On Wednesday in San Antonio, we finally got some good news and another event we will be talking about for a long time. Former WNBA star and current Spurs assistant coach Becky Hammon made history. After Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the second quarter in the team’s 121-107 loss to the Lakers, Hammon became the first woman in NBA history to serve as a head coach.
The 43-year old Hammon has been an assistant coach with the Spurs for six seasons, and she coached San Antonio’s summer league team in 2015. When the Spurs hired Hammon in 2014, she became the second female coach in league history.
After the game, Hammon discussed what it meant to be the first female to lead an NBA team.
“Obviously, it’s a big deal; it’s a substantial moment,” Hammon said. “I got traded here in 2007, so I’ve been in San Antonio apart of the Spurs and sports organization, with the (Silver) Stars and everything for 13 years, so I have a lot of time invested, and they have a lot of time invested in me, and building me and getting me better. Honestly, in the moment, I was just trying to win the game.
“I say this a lot, but I try not to think about the huge picture and the huge aspect of it because it can get overwhelming. It’s my job to go in there and be focused for those guys and make sure that I’m helping them do the things that will help us win. I really have not had time to reflect. I haven’t looked at my phone, so I have no idea what’s going on outside of AT&T Center tonight.”
Many believe that Hammon will be a head coach in the NBA in the near future, and when she does, she and others will always remember December 30, 2020.
Watch below as Hammon talks being the head coach for the Spurs on Wednesday night:
Plenty of history was made on Wednesday night in San Antonio. Some we expected and some that was a surprise. First, LeBron James, on his 36th birthday, became the first player in NBA history to have one-thousand straight game in double figures. Next, after Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich was ejected in the second quarter, Spurs assistant Becky Hammon became the first woman in NBA history to serve as head coach.
Ultimately, behind James’ team-high 26 points, the Lakers would defeat San Antonio 121-107 at AT&T Center.
Michael Jordan previously held the record with 866 straight games in double-figures, but James would surpass that mark in 2018.
After the game, James reflected on one-thousand straight games of 10 points or more.
“I just go out and try to prepare to be the best every night I step out on the floor,” James said about one-thousand straight games in double-figures. “If I’m in uniform, I gotta do things to help our team win. If that’s scoring, rebounding, defending, assisting. Doing the little things, and just be available for my teammates throughout the course of the game when I’m on the floor or when I’m also on the bench.”
This is James’ 17th season in the NBA, so first, you need longevity to pull this type of streak off, and next, you have to have consistency, which means this record will be tough to break.
It’s not easy to score a basket in the NBA, and scoring in double-figures is even harder, but as he continues, James is making many things in the NBA look easy.
At 36, James is still playing at an elite level, and the way the world-champion Lakers are presently constructed, this team could make another deep playoff run this season. James shows no signs of slowing down, and he appears to be a guy who could play at a high level for years to come. Expect James to achieve more milestones and do more amazing things moving forward.
At this point, it’s clear, we are all witnesses to greatness.
An NFL season can be very long and can be even longer when you’re not very good, which is the position the Jacksonville Jaguars are in right now. Jacksonville won their first game of the season against the team they conclude the season with, the Indianapolis Colts.
In that game against the Colts, Jaguars QB Gardner Minshew played his best game of the season. The second-year quarterback was 19-20 for 173 yards and three touchdowns. After defeating the Colts in Week 1, it’s been all downhill. Jacksonville(1-14) has lost 14 straight games, including last week’s 41-17 loss to the visiting Chicago Bears.
Last week, Jacksonville did not name a starting quarterback against the Bears until Saturday afternoon, which was Mike Glennon. This week, Marrone decided a little sooner and will go with Glennon over Minshew against Indianapolis. Against the Bears, Glennon threw for 211 yards, two touchdowns, and two interceptions.
On Wednesday, Jaguars head coach Doug Marrone explained why he choose Glennon over Minshew.
“We just feel like it gives us a good chance [to win], and we can operate and see where it goes,” Marrone said. “Honestly, I don’t think any one decision on the quarterback, or any other position, is really going to move the needle one way or the other. If it did, then obviously we would make it, but we don’t feel that way. Let’s go in there, and let’s try to take advantage of some things.”
Marrone is right. When you are the Jaguars, it doesn’t matter what you do at this point of the season. You are what you are, and the Jaguars are not a good football team. A change will come in Jacksonville at season’s end, and hopefully, for the franchise, better days are ahead.
While it’s cliche, the NBA is truly a make or miss league, and for the first time in three games, the Cleveland Cavaliers were not making their shots. Coming into Tuesday’s home game against the Knicks, Cleveland was averaging 122.3 points per game and shooting 51% from the field, which is why they were 3-0. However, Tuesday was a different story for the Cavs.
Cleveland got good looks against New York(2-2), but they could not make the shots. They shot 36% from the field, including 7-32 from downtown, and ultimately, the Cavaliers(3-1) would suffer their first loss of the season 95-86.
Julius Randle led the Knicks and had a triple-double with a game-high 28 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists.
The first quarter set the tone for Cleveland. They shot 24% from the field and were 0-10 from three-point range. New York led 29-15 after one quarter. According to Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, that first quarter affected the team the rest of the way.
“I think we were a little demoralized early. When we were creating great looks for ourselves, and it didn’t go,” Bickerstaff said. “I thought we played good basketball in the first quarter. I thought we missed open shots, and we allowed that to impact us for the remainder of the game.”
Cleveland played well on the defensive end and forced 25 turnovers, which led to 27 points, but when you don’t make shots, it’s hard to win in the NBA.
“We couldn’t make a shot tonight,” said Cavs G Darius Garland, who scored 17 points against New York. “We played great defense. Our defense brought us back into the game, so the defense, it was there. We made them turn the ball over, and we just couldn’t make a shot in the first half, and that is what got us in this hole, and we just couldn’t come back from it.”
Garland(6-18 FGs) and Collin Sexton(6-17 FGs) decided to put up shots after the game because of their poor shooting.
“We were just out there working,” Garland said. “That’s all it was. We just had a bad game in our opinions, so we just got up several shots.”
Sexton added: “I shot a lot after the game. I’ll be ready to go back on Thursday against Indiana.”
This was a game the Cavaliers needed to have because they are about to embark on a six-game road trip, which won’t be easy. However, if they can get the looks they got on Tuesday against the Knicks and continue to create turnovers, they should continue to have success this season.
Notes:
-Cavaliers C Andre Drummond recorded his fourth-straight double-double with 18 points and 17 rebounds against New York.
-Cleveland begins their six-game road trip on Thursday against the Pacers. After Indiana, they have the Hawks, Magic(2x). Grizzlies, and Bucks.
Dallas Maverick F/C Kristaps Porzingis participated in his first full practice on Tuesday. Porzingis, who underwent surgery in October to repair the lateral meniscus in his right knee in the playoffs, is expected to return sometime in January.
The 25-year-old Porzingis has had some struggles with injuries in his career. In February 2018, while with the Knicks, Porzingis tore his ACL and missed the rest of that season and all of the following season. Ultimately, he was traded to the Mavericks in January 2019 and made his debut with the team last season.
According to Porzingis, he felt good after his first full practice with the team.
“I felt good out there,” he said. “Moved around, feeling the contact. It was a good practice. After practice, played some 1-on-1s. Just want to get back into the rhythm of playing against contact… The next step is getting right to be able to step on the court and play a game.”
Last season, Porzingis averaged 20.4 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2.0 blocks per game. Dallas needs Porzingis to make a deep playoff run, so they need to make sure he is right and can hold up for a complete season.
Life as a cornerback in the NFL is never easy. In fact, you have to have a very short memory. On Sunday, Philadelphia Eagles rookie CB Michael Jacquet had an unforgettably bad day in the team’s loss to Dallas.
Whether he was defending Michael Gallup or Amari Cooper, Jacquet struggled. According to Next Gen Stats, Jacquet allowed seven catches for 182 yards and two touchdowns. The 182 yards was the second-most given up by a defensive back this season.
On Tuesday, Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz explained what went wrong:
“Yeah, well, we put [CB Darius] Slay on [Cowboys WR Amari] Cooper, and M.J. [Michael Jacquet] was out on [Cowboys WR Michael] Gallup most of the time,” Schwartz said. “And he was having a tough day. And I started going to some zone, but the problem with that is the quarterback just kept checking down to Zeke [Cowboys RB Ezekiel Elliott], and he would get 10 yards a pop there.
“At halftime, we switched Slay over to Gallup to try to get a little bit more help to M.J., but he was still struggling. What I compare that to, it’s a little bit like a pitcher. Sometimes you don’t have your best stuff, and Skip [the manager] has got to go to the bullpen.
“I felt like we had sort of gone through all the different things. We tried to go to some zone. We tried to switch it up. He was still having a tough day. And we didn’t want to, but we had to go to J-Mill [S Jalen Mills] at corner, and I didn’t want to because he was giving us a lot of solidity in the middle part of the field. I thought Mills did an outstanding job of putting the fire out. I thought him and Slay at that point really started playing well on the outside part of the field.
“Now, we had our other issues that put more pressure on the safeties, and [S Marcus] Epps got banged up a little bit early in the game. We started going with some different combinations back there. Communication wasn’t the best. But we made a little run in the second half, mainly because of Slay and Mills. Again, I think it’s just such a compliment to Jalen that he’s been such an unselfish player. He’s been making progress at safety, and for his career, it’s probably best that he just stays there, but when we said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to move you to corner,’ he never even batted an eye. He’s gone out, and he’s switched to the best receiver before, he’s gone out and just started playing right and left, challenges guys.
“We weren’t able to get back in the game, but that gave us a chance to get back in the game. But M.J. will bounce back. We talked a little bit about his mental makeup and things. Sometimes they’re going to hit a homer off of you, and you’ve got to be able to come back and throw that fastball again, and I have confidence that he will.”
Ideally, Jacquet, who was an undrafted rookie free agent out of Louisiana-LaFayette, would not be on the field, but injuries in the secondary forced him into the lineup. Hopefully, for Jacquet, better days are ahead for him.
The Giants were riding their train on the way home from Baltimore yesterday evening when they learned the results of the late afternoon games involving NFC East teams that left them with an opportunity to win the division title on the final weekend of the regular season.
But Joe Judge would prefer his players not think about the possibility of playing in the postseason but instead concentrate on their Week 17 opponents, the Dallas Cowboys.
It’s the same approach the first-year coach has taken all year.
“I actually met with the team last night when we got back to make sure we were set on what the plan for the week was,” Judge said on a Zoom call today. “Our focus still needs to remain on the Cowboys. That’s the priority this week. We remain focused on improving as a team. We have a division rival coming up ahead, it’s a big game for us. Obviously, there are implications. As I’ve said all along, those games right now don’t exist. Until I can talk about any kind of opponent coming up beyond who we’re playing, there’s not a conversation to be had. Our focus remains on the Cowboys.”
Dallas has won three consecutive games to improve to 6-9. On Oct. 11, the Cowboys defeated the Giants in AT&T Stadium, 37-34, on Greg Zuerlein’s 34-yard field goal as time expired. Dallas has won the last seven games between the teams.
The Giants are alive in the division race despite a three-game losing streak that has dropped their record to 5-10. The winner of their game against Dallas in MetLife Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday must then wait for the result of the Washington Football Team vs. Eagles game that night in Philadelphia. A Washington victory will give it the division crown at 7-9. Should Dallas win and Washington lose, the Cowboys will stand alone at 7-9 and the Giants will finish third at 5-11. But if the Giants and the Eagles – who are eliminated – each win, all three contenders will be 6-10. The Giants would claim the championship based on their 3-1 head-to-head record vs. Dallas and Washington.
Yesterday, the Giants lost to the Ravens in the 1 o’clock window, 27-13. Dallas and Washington each played late in the afternoon, giving Judge and the Giants an opportunity to monitor their games as they returned to New Jersey. The Cowboys crushed the Eagles, 37-17, while Washington lost to the Carolina Panthers, 20-13.
“Being on the train, actually we had the game streaming in the background,” Judge said. “We had kind of a little conference room in the front car that I was in. Me and (defensive coordinator) Pat Graham sat in there. We went through the defensive tape together and watched like we do, we did the same thing coming back from Washington and talked some ball. We were kind of checking scores throughout the league with a lot of games going. That’s kind of normal custom right there. Everyone’s kind of checking scores around the league. Last night was no different. Obviously, there were some division games going on that we were conscious of. We checked those, we streamed those and watched the end of those games.”
Judge was asked what the team’s reaction was after learning their Week 17 games would potentially have a division championship at stake.
“To be honest with you, I was actually separate from the rest of the players,” Judge said. “They had us very spaced out in the cars. The front car was kind of more coaches than it was players. I saw the players on the back end when we got back to the facility. I called a quick meeting in the bubble just to address how we’re going to handle the week going forward, and kind of clear up any questions that may have come up. To be honest with you, look, the questions about the playoffs, these are things the players obviously have as well.
“We’re going to keep our focus on Dallas. We’re not getting focused on the playoffs. I truly believe what I said earlier. This is a hypothetical game. The only thing we can control is what we do against Dallas. At the same time, there’s a human nature that they’re very conscious of what’s going on around the league. It would be naïve or ignorant to pretend that they’re not paying attention as well. When we got back, I grabbed the team and just kind of let them know what the situation is, but really, reaffirm the importance of staying focused on Dallas. That’s all we can control.”
The players, no doubt following a directive from Judge, have virtually abstained from discussing the division race and postseason permutations.
“I’m just focused on Dallas,” center Nick Gates said. “We have to beat Dallas first to be able to even think about the playoffs. After we beat them, we have to see if Washington wins. I’m just focused on Dallas and trying to give ourselves the best opportunity.”
“Our coaches hit it best,” said middle linebacker and defensive captain Blake Martinez. “They said, you always want to have meaningful December football games. Obviously, this game will be in January, so meaningful January games. To be able to have that, every competitor, especially in the NFL, wants to have that opportunity.”
And what are Martinez’s thoughts about the Giants’ playoff chances?
“You just go about each and every week the same that we have been doing since the start of the season,” Martinez said. “Just making sure we get better. Going to work Monday, making improvements that we need to from the previous game. Just focus on what we can do as a team to be better than we were last week. Be better than we were to start the season. As long as we’re doing that and showing it the following Sunday, whatever ends up happening, happens. We’re ready to go and we’ll do the same thing if we get another chance to re-focus in and get back to work the following Monday after that.”
Martinez is one captain clearly following the orders of his general.
The Philadelphia Eagles did not have much success in 2020, but because they are in the NFC East, Philadelphia had a legitimate chance to win the division. However, that all ended when the Eagles lost to the Cowboys 37-17 on Sunday. With the loss, Philadelphia(4-10-1) is officially eliminated from the playoffs.
Philadelphia, who will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2016, has dealt with many injuries in 2020. The offensive line and secondary were hard hit by injuries. Those injuries, along with poor quarterback play from Carson Wentz, hurt this team tremendously.
Although Philadelphia struggled in 2020, Eagles head coach Doug Pederson, who some believe could lose his job at season’s end, believes he can turn things around.
“This season has been tough for myself personally as the head coach here,” Pederson said. “Obviously, as the team and dealing with the pandemic and just everything that’s really hit us through injury and not playing well, it’s very disheartening.
“I just sit here today and just have to apologize to the fans. Really just this is not what we expected. It’s not what I expected back in training camp and the early part of the season.
“But I know in my heart that this is a great place to play, a great place to coach. We do have the best fans. When we win, it’s unbelievable. It’s exciting. I know we can get back to that level.”
Pederson was the first and only coach to lead the Eagles to a Super Bowl victory back in the 2017 season, and according to him, he knows what it takes to get his team back to that point.
“Like I said earlier, I know what that looks like. I know what it takes,” he said about winning a Super Bowl. “Me personally, I’ve been in three Super Bowls, been on three Super Bowl teams, and I’ve seen exactly how it can be done. We’ve got to get that back. We’ve got some great players, some great young players, and they’re getting valuable experience right now playing.
“It’s just unfortunate that we’re not winning these games. I think of yesterday’s game. It’s kind of like how our season has gone. We’ve had opportunities, right? We’re in the red zone, in the scoring zone, and we just come up short. That’s kind of been the way our season has gone. It is unfortunate, but I know we can get it turned around and get it fixed.”
This is Pederson’s first lousy season with the Eagles. He’s been in the playoffs for three straight seasons, including a Super Bowl victory. So, what that being said, he deserves a chance to fix what’s wrong. Obviously, they have a decision to make at the quarterback position, which should be interesting. But, in the end, Pederson should be the guy to fix everything that went wrong with Philadelphia in 2020.
