Preseason Recap: Boston 118, Cleveland 95 (or, I Miss Larry Drew Already)

I don’t know what to make of John Beilein. He’s either in way over his head, or the team just isn’t figuring it out yet. But this squad is pretty painful to watch, at least against the Boston Celtics. After getting nuked from orbit for a 46 point loss on Sunday, Cleveland only lost this one by 23. At the very least, the pre-season is mercifully over. Jarell Martin can go melt back into the night.

Things started out well enough, with eight straight points for Kevin Love on three jumpers and a goaltend by Robert Williams III. Kev dropped eight and five in ten minutes, and after delivering an elbow on a rebound that knocked Robert out of the game three minutes in, Love was rightfully done for the night. Things unraveled quickly after he left with the Cavs unable to get into an offense that made any kind of sense, and a defense that got out-muscled by the Celts all night.

I noted after that this kind of game was good for Cleveland because they have to get used to the NBA’s physicality. The Cavs have one physical perimeter defender on their team in Delly now that they’ve cut Sindarius Thornwell; their young guards and wings can’t even even get used to NBA defense and pressure if they have no one to challenge them on their own team. That was completely obvious as 29-year-old NBA sophomore, Brad Wanamaker, considered this preseason start as a personal mission to deliver a shot on Collin Sexton every time Wanamaker drove, and more than once when defending Sexton. Sexton, to his credit played fairly tough, and definitely had a bit of a bounce-back game, at least in the box score after a disastrous Sunday: 20 points on 14 shots and a couple nice dimes to Dean Wade.

Also playing physical for the Celts, Javonte Green who was like a slapshot towards the rim every time he drove. I haven’t seen a guy who consistently drove that hard and that quickly in a long time. He also let the game with nine rebounds. It’s good that he has that in his game, because he isn’t a great shooter. Who is a good shooter? Perdue’s Carsen Edwards who only put up eight threes in a third quarter Supernova.

The Celtics got this guy with the 33rd pick. He is like Darius Garland with muscle. OK, not really, he’s not nearly the ballhandler that Garland is, but he does have a lot more functional NBA strength, and Boston actually runs plays to get him the ball in catch-and-shoot situations, running him around screens to get him shots at the wing and elbow, or simple hand-offs at the top of the key. Of course, the Cavs’ defense was putrid, and you’d think they’d stop leaving him after, you know, the third, fourth, fifth, or sixth time Edwards drilled a triple, but no. The Cavs guards overreacted to simple ball swings and left a guy who had flames shooting from his fingertips. Maybe what got Thornwell cut was the highlight above where he comically ignores Edwards at the top of the key to cheat in on a big, and Carsen drains yet another 3-ball.

The Cavs offense, on the other hand, makes no sense. Their most inexplicable plays involve a guard dribbling at the top of the key with two wings making cuts back and forth to the elbow while two guys stand in the corner. What the hell is this? Is someone running this wrong? What is this play designed to do? Why is Larry Nance standing in the corner looking sad?

Poor Larry. His offense in the Cavs’ high post and dribble hand-off sets last season were a revelation at times. He is looking increasingly beat down as this preseason goes on. His offense tonight was an 0-3 from downtown with three assists. The Cavs seem to be getting him the ball primarily in pick-and-pop sets. Boston seemed to rightfully sag off him and Jarell Martin (2-6 deep, and more than one airball – much to AC’s chagrin). Why do the Cavs seem to run a wing oriented offense when they have no wings? (And yes, I’m looking at you, 10-point, four turnover, -15 Cedi Osman, who I’m desperately trying not to give up on).

I don’t know. The Cavs O did seem to pick up in the fourth quarter. Maybe it was a result of the Celts’ sagging off, maybe it was the guards hijacking the O, or maybe it was the team finally getting into a rhythm, but I saw a lot fewer bewildered looks, more dribbling, and at least an idea by Cleveland of where their shots were going to come from. Sexton did a decent job of getting out and running, and in the half court did a good job of getting guys guys trapped behind him or on his hip. He’s going to get to the line a lot with that kind of functional strength and speed. It seemed like Beilein gave up on his offense and just started letting guys play pickup, and it looked a lot better. Jordan Clarkson excels at this and put up 15 on eight shots and a 0 plus/minus. He still did a lot of staring at Carsen Edwards though.

I don’t know why the Cavs switch out of an offense that made a lot of sense for their personnel into Beilein’s system but maybe it will look better with real NBA players at the big man spots next week. God, I hope so.

As for the other guys, Marques Bolden drew the unlucky straw of having to match up with Tacko Fall, who if he got good at basketball, would have to be outlawed. The dude gets the ball in close, there’s literally nothing you can do. He makes everyone on the floor look tiny. Bolden had just three boards in 21 minutes, but much of that was due to matching up with a giant. Bolden was -12, but Tacko was -4 with four turnovers and five points in his 17. Thank god, he isn’t good at basketball. Tacko also knocked Delly out of the game when he swatted Delly from 20 feet away and the followthrough sprained Matt’s already injured thumb. Maybe it’ll help his J. Kev did help Delly dish five dimes in eight minutes though.

Dean Wade had some nice cuts to the basket, and is a decent finisher for his size. He went 3-3. See you in Canton, Dean. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot was 0-3 and will hopefully never be in a Cavs uni again.

Kevin Porter Junior got back to his natural self in the fourth: low efficiency iso scorer. KPJ went 3-9 and 1-5 from downtown to go 3 turnovers, but did manage to post a positive +/- in garbage time. Porter gravitates towards inefficient basketball.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJTGoEUetGo

It was a bummer that we didn’t get to see Dylan Windler this preseason and it’s also a bummer that throughout the NBA there seem to be eyebrow raising rookies like Tyler Herro, Carsen Edwards, and Boston’s Tremont Waters (just 24/2/7 in 28 I’m-gonna-smoke-Jordan-Clarkson minutes), while the Cavs have a guy who shoots and dribbles well, but looks 12 years old and can’t stay healthy. Garland was ok with 16 and 4 with zero turnovers, and one sick J, but is naturally lost on D but also put up a couple bad floaters that airballed or got sent into the stratosphere by the long arm of the Celts. I’m worried about his finishing ability long term. Beilein also would play him for 2-3 minutes in the first half and then jerk him, and it was hard to get a rhythm.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4mhbY-ApKY

Boston does a nice job of adding guys up and down the roster with draft picks, but also by finding guys like Green, Theis, Vincent Poirier (+28), and Wanamaker in Europe, while the Cavs are trotting out scrubs like Jarrell Martin, Luwawu-Cabarrot, and Daniel Hamilton. Koby Altman is either a tanking master or doesn’t know how to get talent into the pipeline. And now I look at the news and see that he’s comically keeping Jarell Martin over Sindarius Thornwell. Why do you hate me Koby?

The Cavs seem to value shooting and then not much else as an org. The Celtics seem to know how get guys who are good at one or two things and then teach them how to do other things: shooting, being tall, exploding to the rim, etc. I’ve probably seen to much Boston and am overly negative.

As for Beilein, we will see how it goes. I imagine he’s just realizing what he signed up for. There are going to be a lot more frustrating nights than Tuesday. At least Larry Drew knew that. I don’t know what to expect long term from this team, but at least pre-season is over.  Let’s hope Cleveland can stop traveling on the court (there were a lot again Tuesday) with all their October travels off it. The NBA pre-season games are holiday guests. You’re happy to see them come, but you’re happier to see them go.