SI:AM | The Honeymoon Is Over for the Cavs

Plus, the best players who are and aren’t at the World Cup.

Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I watched more of the Western Michigan-Central Michigan football game last night than I’d care to admit.

In today’s SI:AM:

🏈 The greatest receiving game in NFL history

⚽ Best 22 under 22 at the World Cup

☘️ The Celtics’ offense is historically good

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The losses are piling up for the Cavs

Less than two weeks ago, the Cavaliers were riding high. After an opening-night loss to the Raptors, they’d won eight in a row, including two against the Celtics. They were in second place in the East behind the then-undefeated Bucks. It was an impressive start after Cleveland gave up a king’s ransom to acquire Donovan Mitchell in the offseason.

But after falling to the Bucks, 113–98, last night, the Cavs have now lost five in a row. Cleveland coach J.B. Bickerstaff thinks his team got complacent after the hot start.

“We got kind of a fat cat mentality. We went out and won eight games in a row, everybody was giving us love and praising us, and we got really comfortable,” Bickerstaff said. “We are the team that won those eight games; we are a really good basketball team. This is about maturation and growth from a team as a whole.”

To Bickerstaff’s point, nothing about those first four losses would indicate that this is a team in crisis. The trouble started with a West Coast road trip. After a win over the lowly Lakers (that’s fun to say), the Cavs lost close road games against the Clippers, Kings and Warriors. They then returned home and, with Mitchell sidelined by an ankle injury, dropped a game to the Timberwolves that wasn’t as close as the 129–124 final score would indicate.

Last night’s game against the Bucks was a chance for the Cavs to prove that they can hang with the league’s elite, though—and they dropped the ball. Their 98 points were their lowest offensive output of the season and they were out-rebounded 52–34. Their .429 shooting percentage on two-point attempts was their second-worst of the season.

The Cavs have the makings of a good team, which is what makes the current skid puzzling. Darius Garland, who had 51 points in the loss to Minnesota, is an emerging star. Jarrett Allen, who missed last night’s game, is an excellent rebounder and interior defender. Caris LeVert and Dean Wade provide offensive depth. Kevin Love is flourishing in his new role coming off the bench.

There’s no shame in losing to a team as good as the Bucks, but Cleveland’s poor showing reinforced the Eastern Conference’s hierarchy. At the top you have the Celtics (12–3) and Bucks (11–3) as undeniable championship contenders. Everyone else—including the Hawks, who are 9–6 after getting torched by Boston at home last night—is in a tier below. Cleveland and Atlanta (and Philadelphia and Brooklyn) may enter that group eventually but right now it’s a two-team race.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Flipper Anderson set the NFL’s single-game receiving yardage record but 33 years later he still wants to get his hands on the game ball, Joseph Salvador writes in today’s Daily Cover.

Ben Lyttleton ranks the 22 best players under the age of 22 at this year’s World Cup. … Marcus Krum has compiled a 26-man roster of the best players not at the World Cup. … Chris Mannix’s mailbag leads with what has to be the biggest question in the NBA right now: What’s going to happen to Kyrie Irving? … Tom Verducci spoke with Rafael Palmeiro about how his life changed after he tested positive for steroids. … Rohan Nadkarni breaks down the Celtics’ red-hot offense. … TCU's CFP ticket reservation prices jump 178% as the Horned Frogs extend their unbeaten streak.

Around the sports world

Kyrie Irving could make his return to the Nets this weekend. … MLB is reportedly investigating whether the Mets and Yankees illegally communicated about Aaron Judge. … Several athletes were named in a class-action lawsuit over the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. … Candace Parker intends to return to the WNBA for a 16th season. … In an interview with Serge Ibaka, Giannis Antetokounmpo said he doesn’t believe he is the face of the NBA. … UFC fighter Israel Adesanya was detained at New York’s JFK Airport because he had brass knuckles in his bag. … The NFL is monitoring whether it will have to move Sunday’s Bills game due to extreme snowfall forecasted for the Buffalo area.

The top five...

… things I saw last night:

5. Mikal Bridges taunting Klay Thompson after hitting a three in front of the Warriors’ bench.

4. Kings winger Viktor Arvidsson’s save on a Connor McDavid shot.

3. The wild ending to the Wizards-Thunder game. (Bradley Beal gave Washington the lead with 6.1 seconds left before Shai Gilgeous-Alexander topped off his 42-point night with a step-back three to win it.)

2. Western Michigan running back Sean Tyler’s long touchdown run in the snow.

1. Trevon Brazile’s monster dunk for Arkansas.

SIQ

Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Seaver, who was born on this day in 1944, was infamously traded by the Mets to the Reds in June 1977. What was the nickname the New York newspapers gave that trade?

• The New York Mess
• The Cincinnati Steal
• The Queens Ransom
• The Midnight Massacre

Yesterday’s SIQ: Who was the first sitting U.S. president to attend an NFL game?

• Calvin Coolidge
• Franklin D. Roosevelt
• John F. Kennedy
• Richard Nixon

Answer: Richard Nixon. He attended Washington’s game against the Cowboys on Nov. 16, 1969. That’s much later than I would have guessed.

Nixon, who had been one of the worst players on the football team at Whittier College in California, was a big fan of the game. An oft-repeated tall tale claims that he even called a key play during a Washington playoff game in 1971, although ESPN determined in 2012 that the story is false.

Nixon didn’t go to RFK Stadium on that day in 1969 just to see the intra-division matchup between Washington and Dallas, though. As Politico’s Jesse Berrett detailed in 2017, Nixon was using football as a political tool, hoping to quell growing protests against the war in Vietnam.

Nixon had also attended a Dolphins-Raiders AFL game a month earlier. In both instances, the games took place around the same time as major protest marches in Washington. The Washington-Dallas game was different, though. The Nixon administration had declared the week before the game “National Unity Week” ahead of a planned Nov. 15 protest and suggested that football games played that weekend feature halftime shows with pro-U.S. messaging. Unfortunately for Nixon, the first football-field-sized American flag didn’t make its debut until 1987.

From the Vault: Nov. 17, 2014

Brian Bahr/Getty Images

I’ll be honest, this passage from Tim Layden’s 2014 profile of J.J. Watt bums me out a little bit:

Through nine games Watt has 8½ sacks, sixth in the NFL, and, according to Pro Football Focus, 27 quarterback hits, more than double any other player. He has seven batted passes; no one else has more than four. Watt has achieved these numbers despite relentless double teams and offensive schemes designed to neutralize his disruptiveness, despite his being consistently held and despite the fact that the 4–5 Texans have been hit with injuries to four defensive starters, including both cornerbacks. Watt, meanwhile, has sat out just 51 of Houston's 652 defensive snaps, participating in an average of 66.7 per game, higher than any other defensive lineman in the league. He has scored two defensive touchdowns, a 45-yard fumble return in an October loss to the Colts in addition to the pick-six against the Bills, and he caught a touchdown pass as a tight end in the Texans' Week 2 win over the Raiders.

The subheadline on Layden’s story touts Watt as a likely future Hall of Famer and while that’s still true, it’s tough to read that list of accomplishments and not be at least a little disappointed about how Watt’s career has gone since then. He won his second career Defensive Player of the Year award the year that story came out and won the award again in 2015. But since then, he’s played more than half his team’s games in just two seasons. (He’s missed only one game this year with the Cardinals, though.)

Now 33, Watt may not be the physical force he was eight years ago but one thing that’s stayed the same is his personality. Layden’s story is full of anecdotes that give you an idea of the kind of guy Watt is away from the field, like how he befriended a stranger on a trip to Ireland. It’s no surprise that he was named SI’s Sportsperson of the Year three years later for his efforts helping raise money for hurricane relief in Houston.

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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