CAVS.SPACE

Game day is here in Cleveland as the Cavaliers and the Toronto Raptors are tied 2-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals. The last time the Cavs were tied 2-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals, LeBron James reeled off 48 points against the Detroit Pistons, including 29 of the Cavs' last 30 points. 2016 EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS NOTES Series: The home team has controlled the tempo in each of the first four games, with the home team dominating the road team in every second quarter so far.  Kevin Love had 25 offensive rebounds in the first two rounds (eight games). He has only one offensive rebound so far in the first four games of the series.  Cleveland has either tied or had more assists than Toronto in each game thus far (22-19, 24-17, 15-15, 23-17).  Games 1-2: In games 1 and 2, the Raptors guarded the three-point line and paid the price as the Cavs scored 126 points in the paint.  The Cavs outrebounded the Raptors 45-23 in Game 1 and 46-38 in Game 2...

As reported by ESPN's Doris Burke during Game 1, Raptors coach Dwane Casey does not expect starting center Jonas Valanciunas to be ready to return from injury until next week. In his absence, the Cavaliers scored 56 points in the paint and outrebounded the Raptors 45-23 in Game 1. Those familiar with Casey know that he is one of the top defensive coaching minds in today's NBA. He was Rick Carlisle's lead defensive assistant when the Mavericks upset the Heat in the 2011 Finals. To turn the tide in that series, he had the Mavs play a 2-3 zone to eliminate the Heat's ball movement. However, the Cavs are too strong of a three-point shooting team for a 2-3 zone to work effectively. With that said, what will the Raptors try to do in Game 2 to change the flow of the game in their favor? 1) They will slow down the pace. During the season, the Raptors played the second-slowest pace in the league. They are built to play a half-court offense that picks and chooses when to ...

Coach Tyronn Lue--much like every Cavs coach since the days of Lenny Wilkens and Mike Fratello--has taken a lot of criticism for juggling the lineup. Fans are concerned that the Cavs do not have a set rotation, a lineup that they roll out day in and day out. The truth is that Lue is trying to do what he needs to do. Take a look around the league, not just this season, but every season. Even the best teams make changes to their lineup, and they do this throughout the playoffs.  Contrary to popular opinion in Cleveland, successful NBA basketball does not consist of sending out the same exact lineup every game. As the Cavaliers and Warriors know from last season, there are two obvious reasons for making lineup changes: injuries and matchups. While Cleveland changed its lineup to cover for injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, Golden State increased and decreased usage of David Lee, Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli, and Marreese Speights--including sitting all four of them-...

Since 1968-1969, the NBA has identified its top defensive players for each season, with 10-12 players being named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team and NBA All-Defensive Second Team . Through the 2012-2013 season, votes were cast by the league's head coaches (with coaches not being allowed to vote for their own players). However, the process was changed to media voting, as All-Defensive Team voting by the coaches did not always match well with the media's voting on NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Regardless of the voting process, most of the league's best defenders--not just above average, but elite defenders--get acknowledged at some point in their careers. Legendary football coach Bear Bryant once said: "Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships." In basketball, both offense and defense are important, but defense certainly helps teams to win championships. In looking at championship defenses since the NBA began acknowledging its All-Defensive Fir...

With the NFL Combine taking place this weekend, team officials (management, coaches, and scouts) along with media analysts and fans will be watching as NFL prospects look to prove their fitness and abilities. With the NFL Draft two months away, highlight videos of college football stars are all over YouTube, ESPN, and the NFL Network. In true highlight fashion, viewers are amazed by the plays made by star players. However, highlight videos are not the whole story. Highlight videos only seek to show players at their best. It is definitely worthwhile to evaluate players throughout the course of a game and in practice. (There are plenty of those videos on YouTube now, too.) In taking a step back to see the full picture of a player, evaluators can better see the details that matter. When it comes to evaluating talent, especially in trying to look at potential stardom and greatness, evaluators should consider the greatness of Larry Bird. Bird has amazed people as a player, coach, and...

On Thursday night, TNT aired a video clip of David West talking about playing with Tim Duncan and the Spurs. West expressed his amazement with how Duncan, an accomplished basketball legend, remains open to constructive criticism from Gregg Popovich and allows himself to be coached. On Friday afternoon, news reports confirmed that David Blatt had been fired as head coach of the Cavs, with Tyronn Lue being promoted on a permanent basis. Rumors have been swirling that Coach Blatt had butted heads with stars LeBron James and Kevin Love and did not have the buy-in of the players. During an impromptu press conference, David Griffin confirmed that there was a sentiment of disconnect in the locker room. The media airwaves and social media were blowing up with discussions about whether or not LeBron and the rest of the team are coachable. Some people went as far as saying that the team tanked the game versus Golden State on Monday. Griffin advised that the blowout loss to the Warriors was n...

The Cleveland Browns drew a lot of attention when announcing the promotion of Sashi Brown to Executive Vice President of Football Operations and the hiring of Paul DePodesta as Chief Strategy Officer. In particular, DePodesta worked for the Cleveland Indians in the past and was recruited to the Oakland Athletics by General Manager Billy Beane. Beane is seen as the figurehead of "Moneyball", a movement in baseball focusing on statistics and advanced analytics. Bill James had helped the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) publicize their research on key baseball statistics, which became know as "SABRmetrics" or "sabermetrics". Michael Lewis wrote about Beane and the Athletics' front office in the book " Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game ". When a movie was made based on the book, DePodesta asked that his real name not be used, so Jonah Hill ended up playing the part of "Peter Brand". While advanced sports anal...