Chase Down Podcast Live, presented by fubo: Stung by Charlotte

Chase Down Podcast Live, presented by fubo: Stung by Charlotte

This crowd Rises to its feet the Tor slammed it home gar left wing free ball perfect the lane lock the Bly p and Allen blocked the shot at The Rim how with the left hand and a foul welcome to the chase down podcast part of the C

Media family I’m your host Justin Rowan the chase down is presented by fubo the official streaming partner of the Cavs watch over 350 channels of live sports and TV including B Sports Ohio without cable there’s no cost and no commitment try for free at fubotv.com Cavs well folks that just happened the Cleveland

Cavaliers dropped a disappointing game on the road against the Charlotte Hornets did not come out with the defense of intensity that they needed and it ended up biting them in the end joining me today is my co-host Carter Rodriguez Carter how you doing buddy is

It too deep of a cut to have gotten an I’m upset clip from Whiplash uh is that is that too is that too deep too heavy for for an audio drop on the Pod I I I think without the context it would be tough to to pick up

Exactly uh no I’ll tell you what Justin sometimes this pod it’s like a little present I give myself you know it’s uh it’s like a little fun thing I get to do you know I always tell Kylie a lot of people a lot of people’s husbands their

Hobbies cost money you know mine you know is a revenue generator for the family what a what a win what a victory for us sometimes Justin the Pod feels like a job and on a night like tonight I would have rather turned in but you know

What we must we must kind of go forward we got to talk about what happened uh you know it’s funny whoever and you better be here you better be here commenter who yelled at us for only going live after WS when we had been you basically you made us jinx our

Unbelievably Good Run Of post- win pods uh with a stinker tonight and that wasn’t even true we’ve gone live after losses primarily lately and this was among probably the most painful of them and frankly like I’m well that guy needs to apologize I want him in in the comments after this one

Apologizing to us cuz we you know we’ve just been doing the Lord’s work over here Justin I sense your tone and honestly I’m getting the vibe that you’re more frustrated with this one no I’m mostly doing a bit about that okay fair fair uh it it would be very convenient to blame

It on anybody but uh you know the the players that well it is that guy it is that guy more more than anyone just kidding buddy I think his name was Maverick we’re we’re teasing buddy we’re teasing anyways as convenient as it would be to you know find some other

Source of blame I think really it comes down to the players tonight like I I think defensive effort this is something we know that the Cavs are capable of doing frankly we even saw it a little bit down the stretch like I I think when you talk about the Cavs coming out flat

Defensively I’m always going to start with the leaders of this team and frankly I thought this was the worst game at least for the first three quarters I thought this was the worst defensive game I’ve seen Garland play this season uh I thought Jared Allen uh was not effective on the defensive end

As well uh biting on a lot of pump fakes just trying honestly I felt like it was a team wide thing where even though the defensive effort and the point of attack presence wasn’t really there they were trying to kind of get the box score defensive stats they were trying to

Gamble for a block they were trying to gamble for steal and frankly just kind of let guys go get by them expecting that somebody else was going to clean it up and you know that ended up costing them in the end in the fourth quarter you know I saw

Possessions where where Darius is staying in front of his guy and poking the the ball out in a dribble and and forcing you know uh tough inbound possessions with 3 seconds left on the shot clock like I I saw those type of instances we know that they are capable

Of doing it and they just team wide didn’t come out with the defensive effort that’s needed and I know just like we want to blame it on you know YouTube commenters and things like that I’ve I’ve seen people say oh you know coach to to get them prepared or or you

Know one blame uh or source of blame or the other you shouldn’t need that in these type of instances when there’s 10 games left of the regular season you are in a intense seatings battle and you know like the reason I’m not even that frustrated is because you know sometimes

We have to acknowledge hey we are obser iring what’s occurring as fans we don’t have any in input over kind of how this is going to unfold and the team that we like is going to have to live with the consequences of their actions and this

Is the type of loss and effort late in the season that can jeopardize your ability to go as far as you want in the postseason we saw this a couple years ago uh where you know the short-handed Cavs dropped a lot of games down the stretch and fell into the play in their

Road to achieve their goals this season may become a whole lot harder if they’re not able to make up for what was absolutely a should win game by stealing some of the games that you don’t really feel like they would have a good chance

Uh down the stretch yeah I mean a lot to hit on there um uh I just kind of Rapid fired at you you did so I I guess what I’ll try to do is just focus on the macro I you know we can hit on a lot of the specifics and you know

Sometimes you have losses where you just kind of want to throw out the specifics cuz it’s just it wasn’t their night um I just don’t one of those I don’t think this is one of those and I think we’re going to have to dive into all the

Things that went wrong and the ways they went wrong to really be instructive as to why this was such a disappointing uh game um but first the macro to your point um you know this this is like one of those things where it’s like you know

The teams ask to be taken seriously as a as a real contender in the East when you’re in a pitched battle uh against a just just a team completely decimated by injuries um you know one of the worst two teams in the league uh you just

Can’t you can’t do this if you want to be taken seriously if you want these are the kind of games you can’t lose uh if you want to lock up home court in the first round of the playoffs which is now you know feels less likely than it does

Likely you know based on how tight everything is around them um the only thing they had going for them tonight was was Orlando losing to Golden State which was fortunate but now the Knicks have overtaken them as the three seat and that’s a tougher you know that’s a

Tougher Hill to climb because the Knicks have the tiebreaker as well yeah uh it it that feels you know it’s not done and dusted there’s still nine games left but like they’re going to now now they need some help and they need to far outperform what they’ve been you know we

I mean just at the beginning of the all at the end of the All-Star break we talked about how they almost certainly were going to surpass their win total from last year they have to go I believe seven and two the rest of the way uh

Just just to match and honestly I think that s-2 is probably what will be needed to give them a chance to go out there and get that three seed like I believe last po I said seven and three would get them there um or at least give them a

Very good shot to get the the three seed you just kind of can’t lose to Charlotte if you want that though you know right right like you would assume that that is one of the seven so you know go now that you have to go on a five game uh West

Coast Road Trip you’re you’re playing some good teams you’re playing teams that almost exclusively are going to be in kind of the playoff and seaing Hunt you’re going to to earn this man like the the thing is it is impossible really to talk about this season in any stretch

Of the Cavs this season without you know keeps of context understanding who they were playing who was available who was playing through various ailments and things like that but when you get to this time of the year as much as we have an understanding of everything that went

Into them getting here in know it’s now time that you just kind of have what you have nobody is fully healthy you have to make doe you have to make the adjustments to you know whatever you’re dealing with as an organization and as a team uh if certain guys aren’t 100% you

Got to find your your ways to maximize what they are still bringing to the table gavs have to do that now they it’s time to just focus on the results like we can talk about the the context when when it comes to year and review but the

Time is running out to put yourself in position to achieve your goals that you have for this year and the reality is a lot of these losses uh you know they’re three and seven in their last 10 which is just really you know obviously disappointing and some of these losses

Are against teams that are you know you you can’t play the Donnie card in most of these matchups these are games that you know you you lose to Miami when they’re down uh bam and uh in hero you you lose to Minnesota down cat you lose

To Houston down shenon uh you lose to Brooklyn down you know I say you you started with the worst teams to point out from that stretch sure but but you’re you’re right like they’ve dropped too many teams say I’m saying that there they’re they are playing teams that are

As banged up or you know nearly as banged up as them that have also had to play through an 82 Game season and they’re just not executing well you know there’s a reason why I wasn’t grumpy at the end of a 2020 first quarter on Monday where I thought the Cavs process

Was good and they just weren’t they weren’t making shots that stuff that is kind of out of your control it it’s the it’s the attention to detail it’s the focus um and then and also like just the fact that yeah they played better defense in the fourth but they also got

Themselves into the bonus like with nine minutes left cuz you know when you try to turn that kind of thing on all the sudden and start playing really hard you play out of control and how many possessions did they fail to finish in even in that quarter where they only

Allowed I think 18 points just because they were out of control trying to ramp themselves up into the level of focus they should have had the whole game so like I think that I agree with that you know there there’s just a lot of that lack of focus you know balls just

Hitting off their hands and and falling out of bounds uh guys that are not in in rhythm with one another um yeah it I mean if we thought that the beginning of the year was a SLO I mean this is this is a significantly worse stretch of play

Yeah than than what the beginning of the year was where they were basically playing 500 ball um yeah yeah and the the loss you know the win first win against Charlotte broke up their first three game losing streak First losing streak since December like on the surface that looks very good but you’re

Correct in that this stretch it was very much like last January where you’re going win loss win loss and you lose three in a row you finally get that win against Charlotte and you’re not able to build upon that success and frankly like I I want to get your thoughts on this

Because this is kind of how I felt uh watching them in that first half we had talked about on the last podcast how we kind of wanted them to use this game almost as a practice in some ways to okay let’s go out there and execute offensively let’s go and run our sets

Make sure that you know the offense is Flowing we’re getting our threes up and we can kind of like use this as an inseason opportunity to do that I thought they did that like I thought offensively things were rolling the three-point rate was good for the most

Part guys were being decisive with their cuts and whatnot that focus on the offensive end was just not mirrored defensively and it’s almost like they they felt hey we are getting everything we want uh in this quarter they’re not going to be able to keep up with us

Offensively and you know that kind of approach that kind of like confidence that okay like we’re just want to do what we do and we’ll get the win like that’s that is not this team’s identity that is not how they go win games like they don’t I don’t know how many

Suffocates that Cavs had tonight but I would venture to say it wasn’t more than one or two right yeah yeah there really wasn’t th those kind of possessions out there and when the Cavs win games you know even against teams like this when when you look at over the last three

Years basically kind of of the Garland Mo and Allen era they’ve won games because they lock in on defense the effort is high they win uh the you know the 50-50 ball battles like they don’t just go out there and out Talent teams even though

They do have a lot of talent and you know I just feel like again this is one of those games where I don’t think you can put it on anybody but the the guys out there like they’ve been through enough of these experiences where you know these disappointing games that you

Should have won down the stretch of a season have put them in a tough position typically you know you hope that those type of failures and those setbacks lead to experience lead to those growth opportunities lead to that sense of we don’t want this to happen again and as

Frustrating it as it is like this clearly seems like it’s history repeating itself to some extent yeah o man this is one of those losses that I mean I would say it’s it’s way worse than the Portland law midseason just in terms of the time the

Urgency needed um and just in terms of we saw them have a very good defensive effort against Charlotte two nights ago right like they took care of business they uh even though you know the offense wasn’t clicking that first quarter you go out there and you hold them to 92

Points that absolutely should have been possible tonight uh I I know you have it in your notes so I’m stealing it a little bit but like just the fact that you know Charlotte Grant Williams at the five and they didn’t take advantage of that right all right let’s let’s let’s

Let’s start it up buddy um because you know I I think the mo the the the worst accusation I would kind of make of uh what the Cavaliers were doing especially on offense in the second half was they were playing such decisive smart basketball like yeah they were hitting shots but they were

Generating really good looks consistent wide open buckets the entire fourth quarter I would def find what they were playing was is as aimless basketball they subbed out Nick Richards with I want to say like four or five minutes left you someone can check me on that and it doesn’t actually matter and

They played Grant Williams at the five the Cavs shortly after get Moy back in so they’re playing two seven-footers against a grant Williams Le Rim protection unit and they didn’t attack it once they were running they were running they were just sleepwalking through their sets as though uh as though they

Were just playing against a normal lineup like there was no intention with the sets they were running to try to get the ball to the bigs going towards the hoop with with Advantage there was no there was no slip into a big to Big pass there was not

Anything they were just running normal spread pick and roll without lot of spacing without any real intent behind what they were doing you know a lot of you know a lot of and and also and to that end man you can’t you can’t start possessions with 13 seconds left on the

Shot clock Justin that that that was that’s my main thing is that because we saw even within this game pretty good offensive execution for large stretches of it like you know the second and third quarter 27 26 points like that’s nothing to write home about but it’s I I felt

Like the process was good in those quarters and whatnot they fell back into those old habits of waiting far too long um in the shock clock to to initiate possessions um you know I thought for the most part Darius in the fourth quarter was better um it was very

Frustrating because to start this game obviously like the defense jumped off the screen like he just was not present he wasn’t trying there were a lot of possessions where he was not running hard was was just getting by him with very little resistance and like once you

Have that kind of breakdown at the point of attack your responsibilities as a defense even against a team like Charlotte it just gets too difficult like there are one or two passes away from a very clean look and it just breaks down from there and when you have

A night where most other guys aren’t really performing well in the defensive end as well like you’re going to lead to kind of these catastrophic failures but um I thought like his turnovers most of them occurred in the opening couple minutes of the game the first one I’m

Not sure what happened I think it went through Mo’s hands I I’ll need to see that in the rewatch but then the two after that were just you know not handling the ball well and the ball would would go to the the Hornets basically right I thought after that

Point like the playmaking was good through up and night that’s the nicest way to describe a turnover I’ve ever not handling the ball and the ball went to the Hornets yeah well I mean that’s basically what it was it wasn’t even like there was an attempted pass there

Right like he’s handling the ball all of a sudden it’s not in his hands and it went to the Hornets um but like I thought you know sometimes he get some real passive language out of you buddy I thank you thank you for calling

Me out on that I needed it but I I thought like some nights he’s going to force passes and he throws it to the other team and you know there’s just not the zip on it or it’s okay well what’s the read there it wasn’t those type of turnovers tonight like the the

Playmaking was very good I I thought overall from him and even down the stretch I I thought his fourth quarter was fairly strong um but man like it it it’s just so frustrating to to see you know he rolls his ankle on that that one possession where he has a turnover I

Thought maybe there was contact there but I I get not calling that in that spot um you got you got to earn those spots man yeah I agree with that so I’m fine with a no call in that spot I’m starting to get concerned though about

That ankle I think that’s the third time in the last week that he’s rolled that particular ankle it happened against the pels it happened uh against the the wolves and and now uh you know against the Hornets that’s starting to to get a little concerning because you know there

Was a direct line in terms of the the trajectory going up and and now it’s not but I thought like there’s enough possessions where he was moving well defensively later in the game that I don’t think there’s any way that you can excuse the the effort to to start the

Game like the defensive effort JB talked about JB talked about in postgame they felt like they didn’t really respect their opponents felt like the the Closeouts were lazy and you know I I think you here’s here’s the quote the quote is we were lazy in rotations we

Were lazy in Closeouts we weren’t good defensively we didn’t have the grip we needed to win the game we didn’t bring our best effort tonight like I I agree with all that and when Co when what coach says matches what my eyes say you

Know that that says a lot you know um uh and like to to the Darius front you know it’s just you know whether it’s the ankle whether it’s just not getting in Rhythm you know it’s just it just feels like we’re trying too hard to find the the the kind of the the

Nuggets of of of good stuff you know when we’re when we’re used to gring him on a way higher curve um you know I was looking you know these kind of blip seasons are not uncommon uh for for for young point guards you know you’ll see it I mean

Halton’s having a second half of a blip season right now you know um so and I hope Pacers fans are giving him a little more grace than Darius is getting um but you know who knows uh but you know you think about like dearen Fox who looked

Like a like like Rising Star then plateaued super hard and now is you know back on the rising star trajectory so like you know you see it happen but like again on a night where the the team just needs something you know the point guard is the one walking it up the floor

Starting The Possession at 13 seconds left and like I can excuse that when your team’s ISO game is going well I don’t like it ever but I can at least understand it but on a night in a half word nothing is going right for you and

The game’s slipping out of your hands to not go out of your way to set yourself up to succeed that I think is why I’m so disappointed with this effort tonight is there was a lot of there was some poor play there was some poor Focus but then there was just

Like straight up like not winning process and and like I just think they I just think they have to I mean I don’t know how to say it other than then they have to be better they just they can’t if they want to be the level of team we

Think they are they’ve got to do better um they have to be decisive and attack what I mean and how many times do we see really really good teams they’re picking at scabs you know they’re they see you run out a lineup that has a weakness and

They’re attacking it and like you know I think a lineup that has povi and it has has some holes to attack you know a lineup with Grant Williams at the five has some holes to attack for a team with two seven Footers on the floor and them not playing that like I just

Feel like this is one of the one of the losses where you could like yeah they’re tired yeah they’re not fully healthy but they’re getting pretty close to fully healthy like again this is a team that won that’s why that’s why I didn’t bring up any of that stuff because like I said

Earlier you have what you have you missing two rotation players is like pretty normal you know right this is a team that won 4 four games two years ago uh frankly like we we saw enough offensively in this game to like there was no reason like you don’t have to

Bring up any of the Contex stuff in this situation because like they had enough to win this game without a doubt they had enough to to win this game and the only reason I was bringing up that that late turnover was because after he rolled his ankle it was basically Carris

Initiating a lot uh down the stretch um the darus turnover happened with 216 um after that possession you have a car turnover I believe he threw it to Grant Williams um you have The Possession where get it to Allen he misses both free throws and then uh Caris traveling

On the layup attempt right like it it was just it was rough and the tough thing is like Merill helped them get back into the game but at the same time that’s another one of those situations where he had such a long shift where he

Was doing it it was tough to then get him back out there in those closing minutes especially when you needed stops and there were times where it got exposed post um you know from a rotation standpoint um I understood what they were doing earlier in the game which is

Okay we were trying to get Mobi and Allen minutes together were trying to to build that chemistry but you know I thought that they did a more effective job of that later in the game and there was some staggering of them later in the game but

That kind of first Ben shift uh where it was cpj Merill okoro Nang and Tristan like that’s just too much defensive responsibility on okoro and that’s just too much playmaking responsibility on on keev uh Craig Porter Jr like it is just that lineup got them back into the game

That got Charlotte back into the game I missed the first two minutes of the second quarter because I had to go to the bathroom and and that’s a very slow process when you’re in an aircast um but I came back and I was like whoa what happened whoa what’s this lineup like it

Was just kind of like a like just a shock that okay the is back like really in question here in terms of you know Charlotte has a chance to to take the lead and um you know credit that didn’t go back to it but I I just thought

Wasn’t a good enough job of kind of insulating yourself if you’re going to do that approach where you’re trying to get the starters minutes together there’s better combinations that you you could have gone to in that particular spot yeah it it does it that lineup definitely is where it felt like the

Hornets kind of got reconnected to the game game uh I think is the the way I would frame it and yeah sometimes you just have a lineup where like you know you hope those lineups pleasantly surprise you but the second I saw that five some I was like how about this one

And uh you know was pretty quickly uh proven correct so yeah it’s it’s tough like it’s tough to stay connected when when you got a lineup like that it’s not tough for us to stay connected on this year podcast though Carter support for this podcast and the following message

Comes from Zoom half a million businesses Connect using Zoom a single platform for phone check workspaces events apps and video Zoom enables realtime collaboration for teams around the globe Zoom how the world connects well done buddy uh let’s talk about something fun cuz I’m sad right

Now uh let’s talk about Max Max is back baby and uh I felt like was you know his minutes were pretty much the only minutes that felt really really good tonight um he I thought he looked great I I agree with that I’ve been sitting on

This Max topic for a little bit because you know sometimes you know at makes the heart go fonder uh Max I’ve said this before but I I think he’s already one of my favorite cast role players like I just love what he brings to the table

But you know if you not just in this game but I I think overall this is something that I’ve really felt with with him and his presence this season and you know a much needed positive uh angle for tonight um but what I really like about Max stru is when you look at

The roster construction of the Cavs I feel like a lot of guys are very rigid in what they bring to the table right like Caris coming off the bench he brings playmaking but it’s really kind of confined to the pick and roll a lot of it is you know getting the bigs going

Not a lot of kickouts to the perimeter and on a night it’s not there like tonight it’s really not there right the the guards have their strengths that they bring to the table but you know there’s some limitations because of their size The Bigs are very good at

What they do but there’s some limitations because uh of their inability at this point consistently space the floor Max what I love is that he’s that connector between the more rigid aspects of this team because of his ability to do a little bit of everything right like he’s able to

Provide the playmaking he’s able to um you know space the floor his intensity like the way that he communicates on defense and the way that he runs through his actions I think it kind of is a tie that raises all boats and like I agree

Like I thought he was one of the the few guys that was locked consistently tonight I think he brings a seriousness to the table we were actually discussing seriousness does feel like his number one like for a team that can get a little floaty can be a little you know

Dependent on the joy side like having just like a a grump in streu Mad Max uh you know I think kind of goes a long way for them and and I’m interested to to get your reaction to this cuz we were discussing it in the Discord and I said

What what I like about Max is he brings a physicality to the table like there there’s a seriousness there’s a physicality but I feel like it’s a little different than a physicality of a guy that like Marcus morrris brings to the table um I feel like Marcus Morris

Is flagrant to physicality while uh Max dreu is flagrant one physicality like he’s going to be making a basketball play but there’s a little bit extra there yeah I think I would even say he’s the uh he’s the elbow in your stomach uh under the hoop and no one sees it uh

Level of physicality he going to jam every single cutter like he’s when he sees a cutter he’s like hell yeah this is my chance and like again I just think like every second he wasn’t out there I was just begging for him to get another

Shift and I know he was on a minute’s restriction T night yeah but you know especially on a night where Caris you know had a really rough one and you know Caris has those games where the second that first shot leaves you go it’s not

Going to be his night from three and it was certainly one of those he went 05 from three had four turnovers against his eight assists and you know two of nine from the field for Four Points which is just really you know that it’s tough to win that way uh when when he’s

Getting 30 minutes when when you talk about like the this three and seven stretch right I feel like there are multiple kind of crunch times where Caris has had a lot of uh kind of ball handling opportunities and they just haven’t gone particularly well yeah so I

You know I think like they they really were begging for more stru minutes cuz you know Merill was getting beat up on defense a little bit you you know uh Charlotte was playing uh even though they were playing really small in the front Court they were playing a lot of

Brandon Miller at the two uh over the course of this game where they kind of took teran’s man out and there’s a lot of poku or bretons in there which again you should be able to win those matchups I mean you just need to you know I’m

Saying poku and Braton was your was your upshift in physicality and size but you know there were just a lot of possessions where you know if Merill wasn’t perfectly Square up at the beginning of the possession it was hard for him to recover uh so you needed some

SCU size and physicality with his shooting and and uh and general toughness on a night where Carris didn’t have it so every minute he wasn’t out there you did really miss it um I think the team will be very very well served to have him back um especially once that minute restriction

Goes away and they can kind of play that game where if they need to go down to seven guys on a night they can you know uh because they do have some guys who can play Heavy minutes um and so so you I I you know on a night where Caris doesn’t have

It you can just say Caris sorry buddy you’re just we’re we’re going to play Max 39 40 minutes uh and uh and just and get that from him uh on a night where you know Isaac had a really really bad game uh you know again one of those

Seven points two rebounds zero assists zero steel zero blocks um and and like I I feel like he has been more hesitant offensively recently like I I think when I when he’s really rolling it and even when he’s not like I always felt like the processing speed at least for

Playmaking opportunities was there but there was a few times where like the ball would come to him in the corner you’re getting a sharp close out and like he had DG coming as a trailer or he had another read that just wasn’t really made in time or he had kind of made his

Mind up about okay I’m going to attack the clothes out and drive and you know dump it off to Allen and then relocate like there were too many of those possessions where he just wasn’t seeing the floor as well as he typically does I just like when when Isaac and Carris are

Are both having you know this rough of a night it does make things a a lot more difficult especially with Max uh being on that minut restriction as he mentioned yeah it was uh yeah it’s just one of those games man where it just like just kind of felt like you you know

You know moyy disappeared for long stretches like he had that first quarter where he you know I think he finished on a on a you know an into to end play where he just kind of elevated over Bridges and he did that in the last game

Too and then you you just stop seeing the mash or do anything like if you’re not going to play a sophisticated game you have to play a physical game and they weren’t doing either of those things on offense or or defense really uh and like again I mean that’s how you

Lose a game to a team that you really just can’t lose lose to at this time of the year um with with the with the with the stakes as high as they are in the standings I did want to do a little bit of challenging my own uh my own

Instincts I’m going to Pivot off this game just a little bit Justin okay uh because I was I was sitting here I was grumping during the post game as as you know I’m want to do I was like man you know it it just stinks that this team got

Better in a lot of ways you know addressed a lot of the roster deficiencies they had didn’t really lose much out the door um and and aren’t going to and likely won’t have a better record year-over-year and I was like and and then I had this you know I had this

Thought again this is all just living up in my head space I was like man it stinks like and we were beat up last year too so like you know like yeah we were beat up this year yeah we had some rough rough luck stretches but we had

Rough luck last year so I was I went ahead and just did a quick little audit of games missed um this year versus last year and I actually was pretty freaking surprised Justin by just how much more Starcrossed we’ve been at the top and I

Do think I’m trying to be fair on a night where I’m feeling frustrated you know uh because like obviously I just want you know I just want the team to do great and I’m rooting for them so I was like I wanted just to to to check and

Some of the numbers are pretty jarring last year Donovan missed 14 games with nine games left this year he’s already missed 24 last year D Darius missed 13 games this year 13 only 13 I checked he played he played uh 69 games last year yeah

There you go nice uh uh this year he has missed 24 same uh as Donovan last year Evan missed three games this year he has missed 33 Dean is our our only major rotation piece that uh that missed more year-over year he missed 38 last year he’s missed 19 this

Year uh Max has missed 13 games yeah last year he never misses games uh Jarrett is is the other uh is the other one he missed 14 last year he’s only missed six this year but even okoro missed four more games than he did last year so like

At the very top like I mean that is that’s like a gulf of like you know 40 or 50 games missed from your best three four players and like it does matter uh it it doesn’t matter in the micro AKA a loss tonight that you absolutely should

Have won but it did help me contextualize my feelings about a regular season that I thought you know I was thinking they would could be a a mid to high 50s win team uh if everything broke right and then they go 18 and two in January and

February and you go okay man they have it has clicked they’re getting healthy they’re getting ready to take another leap and yeah they didn’t get healthy they actually got less healthy somehow um but you know I I think also that stretch kind of spoiled us a little bit

On like most teams do bad when they’re beat up I’m not again I’m not trying to contextualize I’m not trying to excuse you know a loss tonight and and if you listen to the beginning of the podcast you heard me not excuse some of the

Other losses but like it does add up it is cumulative so I guess all you’re all you’re really hoping for is that everyone comes back everyone comes back healthy you know it would really stink if Donnie comes back and is on one leg or you know on one and a half legs you

Hope everyone comes back healthy you just hope they can like you know catch lightning in a bottle here because the reality is they just haven’t had very much time together uh at the for the best players on their team and that’s really hard to overcome yeah and I think

Sometimes when people you know turn us into caricatures and make assumptions of what we talk about on this podcast like they assume that we’re we’re the type of podcast that oh everything like it’s 82 and0 we’re we’re going to win a championship like that’s never really been us we’re we’re not really a

Predictions podcast either we just kind of discuss what’s going on and you know when when things are good sometimes we’ll we’ll catch some uh [ __ ] about you know focusing too much on where they can get better and when things are are bad we’ll we’ll catch some hell over you know um

Talking about how you know adding context to the situation and that getting categorized as excuses but like the reality is like right now based on what we’re seeing like they are not in their top form we have seen them play better this season we’ve seen them play better since their time together but

They’re not in top form and you kind of have who you have as you’re going into the playoffs and like obviously you and I we were going to sit here and we’re going to root for them every single night we’re we’re going to hope for the

Absolute best but it is getting to that point where there’s just not a lot of games left so you’re you’re kind of banking on Hope right like because you just don’t have this track record of okay things are rolling you’re going to feel good about their current form going

Into you got to feel different if you’re in our shoes than you are in Miami shoes a team that is playing worse and been worse all year uh you know because they have pedigree yeah well I mean here here’s another way to uh here here’s another way to to kind

Of add context to it like the Cavs have been sliding for a while here and they have finally slipped to a point where they are in that range of surging teams like the Knicks and Magic right like the year-long aggregate win total like these teams that are on fire and feel great

Great Point their their win total for the season is where the Cavs are currently at right like you have to kind of take that into consideration we fallen into being peers with teams like the Knicks and in in the magic and uh they’ve been through their injuries too right like

They Orlando has gone healthier and I think that’s been a big part of their run the Knicks have kind of having Knicks are currently having the Cavs January basically of like we’re short-handed but we’re going out there we’re rolling teams like we’re we’re really in a groove right now and like if

The Cavs don’t get it together right like if they they fall let’s I think the floor is five in terms of where they would end up in the yeah I mean they’re three and a half up on Andy who isn’t playing particularly well um I would be

I would be stunned if if they fell to to six I mean I I still and again this is me being an optimist I still feel all right about four um but like let’s say they do fall to five like just looking at at the schedules you you know that I

I thoroughly examined Orlando schedule at this point um but like if the Cavs fall short of their expectations this year right like there is going to be a lot of context to it but like that’s the type of situation that even if there is understandable you know reasons that and

Contributing factors the reality of how competitive the league is and whatnot is it might put the Cavs in a position where they have to make very tough decisions fair fairness is not always the most desired is not always the outcome you it you know that fairness is a luxury man

You know you don’t always get to make Fair decisions like we always talk about like especially at the end of Seasons you have to choose which lessons to learn from sometimes you have to make calls with incomplete data sets that’s just that’s just life in the league no

One gets unlimited time to figure everything out and the thing that I I find comforting is I ultimately have a lot of confidence in the decision makers that the Cavs have and you know I also have an understanding that these guys are going to have so much more data to

Make those decisions than we ever will like you know we we can talk about what certain guys are going through and what not or what it seems like guys are going through but they know more specifically than we do right like in terms of what guys have played through what guy people

Are feeling in the locker room what they’ve worked on on practice what what comes down to execution and and what is schematic right like all of these kind of things that are really hard to kind of assess from the outside they’re going to have that information so you know it

It’s to be interesting um there there’s reports out there that donov Mitchell is close to a return to the lineup um as you mentioned hopefully that when he does return it looks good um I I think it’s just kind of fair to assume at this point like everyone in the league but it

Especially with him coming off of this injury I don’t know if we’re going to get 100% but you know you have to work with what you have you have to find ways to maximize what you have out of these guys and you know it’s now an amplified pressure but we’ve seen this team

Respond from Bad losses we’ve seen this team respond um you know against tougher competition and I hate seeing them play down to their the the level of their competition like that’s really frustrating from a fan perspective especially when these games are so important but I do understand that they

Also have the ability to bounce back to win some of these games to rally on the road this was one of the best road teams or the best road team in in the league for a lot of this season so it’s doable but I also have to acknowledge being

Honest with myself that a lot of this is Hope based because they just haven’t been they just haven’t had it yeah and it’s not this isn’t a two week stretch this is a month and a half of of of uh of up and down play again they’ve

Only won two games in a row once post All-Star Break um so like I think while you know you talk about the kind of the relative confidence that they can hold on to the four seed um you know I think the macro uh kind of body of work this team

Has put together says yes but you know depending on what lens you’re looking through their post All-Star break lens makes you think yeah there’s no way so like like I think I think you kind of have to the Cavs kind of have to take a

Loss like tonight and I I hope they kind of are like I hope this is one of those losses that isn’t just a bummer but kind of serves as a catalyst serves as a is this who we are is this really how we’re going to end the year are we going do we

Really want to do we want to limp into the playoffs and just and just try to find it then or do we want to just throw all that out and say hey we’ve got nine games we’ve got we’ve got basically we got like three weeks basically uh until the postseason

Starts how are are we going to take it how seriously do we want to take ourselves how seriously do we want to take this run up um and and and show that we’re a team that and show ourselves that we’re a team that is is a legit team in the postseason cuz like

You know you can’t just dwell you can’t dwell but I mean this is two really rough losses in in in four days and uh and so you know you you really really hope that uh that they they can make the most of of these these kind of lessons not to go

Back to the rebuild era uh uh and and find something cuz right now it looks like a team that is you know I said it they they’re they’re playing at their worst they’re playing aimless basketball and it’s been kind of an aimless stretch uh since the All-Star break Y and it’s

Got to turn around right like it it’s it’s now or never you got nine games left let’s see what they do with it so it’s going to be interesting um hopefully you know the guys that are returning lineup Mo and streu get into that Rhythm I one of the the kind of

Bullet points and Game notes that I’ve had from the last two games is I’m actually really impressed by Mo’s processing speed as a playmaker in these two games but you know there’s just there’s too much to talk about tonight other than that um but that’s the play

Mrs Lincoln yeah that is something that I’m at least going to be continuing to track of okay is this going to continue when it’s a defense that’s a little more Stout than Charlotte um does it translate in some of these games but you know as he and Max work their way off

Minute restriction and Donovan gets reintegrated and hopefully Wade comes back um you know hopefully they they can find a little bit of a a rhythm here but I’m using hope a lot here and I’m definitely uh aware of that so we will be back after this weekend hopefully

Again uh the Cavs have have some productive wins there and can maybe steal one against Denver and take care of business to home against Philly Joel embiid will not be back for that Philly game but it does sound like he’s going to be back at some point in the regular

Season so that’s something to to think about too as we head into the playoffs uh big thanks to everyone that tuned in live uh on YouTube make sure you like And subscribe click the notification Bell so you know when we’re going live if you’re listening via podcast and you

Want to support us leave us a rating review subscribe unsubscribe resubscribe and help cook those books you want to be part of chased Down’s exclusive Discord chat send you screenshot that R to chased down poot gmail.com orever you choose to support us we really do appreciate it make sure you guys are

Staying safe out there until next time go Cavs

The Cavaliers fell apart down the stretch against the Hornets. Carter and Justin break down what went wrong, and take a look at what the team can do with their remaining nine games.

Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast…

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6yN2y73…

Please Note: The opinions expressed by The Chase Down podcast are solely their own and do not reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Cavaliers or its Basketball Operations staff, parent company, or partners.