Recap: Cavs 103, Pistons 95 (Or, sometimes talent is enough)

The Cavs defeated the Pistons to win their seventh straight game.  This one was the definition of an uneven game.  The Cavs were about as lethargic as I’ve seen them in the opening minutes before LeBron decided to push the tempo off every miss, taking over the game in spurts.  Cleveland couldn’t hit 3s no matter how open until they hit four straight to push their lead to 15 points in the third.  (They finished 9-34 from downtown.)  Shawn Marion gave an inspired two-way effort in the first half and barely saw the court in the second.  LeBron, for all his spurious wizardry was downright horrific in the fourth quarter.  Kyrie Irving had one of his best games as a Cavalier.  There were periods were the only offense the Cavs could generate was on the heels of Kyrie’s defense and in the 4th quarter he alone kept the Pistons at arms-length.  The Pistons had moments where they completely dominated the Cavs with dribble drive penetration and individual post moves from Greg Monroe.  Andre Drummond dominated the defensive glass and sent six shots back from whence they came.  But he finished an abysmal 6-17 from the field and missed a handful of point-blank bunnies, including an uncontested one in the final moments that would have made the game much more interesting.  A win is a win, but the Cavs played like the 25th best team in the league outlasting the 27th best team.  That both teams shot 42% and the Pistons had zero defensive answers for LeBron dribble drives while the Cavs defensive effort was Swiss cheesian tells you how poorly these teams executed on offense.

First Quarter:

Fun play to start the game – see above.  Kevin Love threw a 4/5ths court pass to LeBron for a powerful one-handed dunk. Other than that, the first few minutes was one of the worst defensive efforts I’ve seen from the Cavs in weeks (and their offense wasn’t any better). They were just jogging through the motions – conceding fast breaks by letting the Pistons just push the tempo and not running to match them. Greg Monroe abused Kevin Love on the right block in the early going. It seemed like every J.R. Smith brick lead to a runout for the Pistons. The Matrix threw down a two-on-one alley-oop from Kyrie to break up the snooze-fest. He definitely seems more explosive lately. Kyrie was working hard on defense – fighting through screens and staying with Augustin. The Cavs ended the quarter very well. Kyrie played strong defense for 21 seconds on DJ but was whistled for a weak foul. Still, it was the first semblance of continuous defensive effort for an entire possession.

Eventually, LeBron slow walked it up court, took the high screen from TT, drove left and squared his shoulders up at the last second (his patented dribble drive move these days) and bounced in an and-1. On the next possession he used a series of screens starting just inside the time-line to go in uncontested for a layup-line-like lefty layin. Next, LeBron drove, the defense collapsed, and he found Marion under the hoop for a turn around pop shot. Basically, for a few moments, LeBron happened – and the Pistons were powerless to stop him. The Cavs tied the game at 17. The Pistons scored the last bucket of the quarter. 19-17 after one.

Scratch that. #Cavs missed first 15 of 19. But you get the idea

— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) January 28, 2015

Second Quarter:

I liked what I saw from Iman Shumpert. Once again he drained a 3 to open the second quarter(which is gravy in my opinion). Defensively, even though he hasn’t been here long, he seemed to have the best help-and-recover instincts on the team. The Cavs continued to get exploited by the Piston’s up-tempo offense, but LeBron provided enough of his own to keep pace. He continued his aggressive forays into the paint, scoring or assisting on nine of the Cavs 11 points in the early going of the 2^nd quarter. It was fun watching him plow through defenders like they were mere children.  Or in the way of the Goat from Goat Simulator.  When LeBron checked out, the Cavs went back to struggling offensively, at least, initially. J.R. Smith threw up an optimistic floater that was blocked, and Kevin Love badly missed a wide open corner 3. The Cavs started 1-11 from behind the line until Kyrie Irving hit a jab-step “why not?” triple. Kyrie followed it up with a slick jumper running right.  Finally he he broke all the ankles in the gym including his own on a drive, spin, and step back J from the foul line. Filthy.  Defensively, Mozgov bailed out J.R. Smith who got bird’d by Kyle Singler, with the Iron Curtain meeting the ball at the apex and kicking off the Kyrie show the other way.

Cavaliers outscored the Pistons 7-3 with LeBron James on the bench just now, an encouraging sign.

— Kevin Pelton (@kpelton) January 28, 2015

Irving hit another 3, this time off a LeBron feed that didn’t really hit him in the pocket. Credit Kyrie with getting off a nice shot against an incoming contest in that situation. The Cavs finished the half on a 12-4 run, with Shawn Marion really making an impact at both ends. After LeBron blew a transition layup, Marion stole the rebound and kicked it back out. The Cavs did nothing valuable for the next 22 seconds and Marion found himself with the ball after some late-clock hot potato. So he spun and tossed in a floater. He grabbed a rebound in traffic on the very next Pistons’ miss. Moments later he threw down a dunk off a REALLY sweet feed from Kyrie Irving. Kyrie used a pump fake and dribble drive to completely beat his defender. He dribbled towards the center of the paint, drew a paint defender away from the baseline, and stopped on a dime to throw a sweet wrap-around pass to a cutting Marion, who flushed with, again, impressive explosiveness. At the half, the Cavs led 47-39. Kyrie and LeBron combined for 27 of those 42 points and six of the Cavs’ nine assists. The next most prolific Cav was Shawn Marion with 6 points. The Cavs went into the locker room with a seven-point lead because they took care of the ball and Detroit didn’t. The teams combined to shoot 5-27 from beyond the arc.

Cavs found way to up FG percentage in 2Q with little strategy called give it to LeBron (16 pts) and Kyrie (14). Lead Pistons 47-39 at half.

— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) January 28, 2015

Third Quarter:

The Cavs started the third quarter with some exhilarating LeBron/Mozgov two-man action. LeBron found The Iron Curtain for a LOBZGOV smash. On the next possession, LeBron found Kevin Love open in his sweet spot. The best outcome here is for Love to drain the shot. He passed it up to feed Mozzy, who’d sealed his man in the deep post. Moz flipped it in over his broad right shoulder. D.J. Augustin hit a 3 to bring the Pistons within five. But the Cavs started executing and opened up a 15-point lead. Basically, all the 3s they’d been clanging (grazing is the better verb) started to fall. Kevin Love finally hit a three, but my feed was buffering so I’m not convinced I’m allowed to witness Kevin Love making outside shots (I didn’t watch the OKC game). Unfortunately the Cavs couldn’t put the game away because D.J. Augustin kept making plays. At one point, he banked a 3 off one leg after a broken play where he had to run way into the backcourt to retrieve the ball. The Cavs made just three field goals in the last five minutes of the quarter. It was a poor end to the quarter for the Cavs. With about 33 second remaining, LeBron slow-dribbled up the court, eliminating any chance for a 2 for 1. I guess this makes sense if you want to set up a good play and prefer a high-quality possession over multiple possessions. So LeBron stands at the right wing dribbling, dribbling, oh and then he just fires a contested, out-of-rhythm 3. The Pistons ran down in transition (with 10 seconds to do whatever they wanted) and got fouled on a layup attempt. Dumb basketball. Cleveland took an 11-point lead into the final quarter. LeBron landed awkwardly and got up holding his wrist after trying to make a play on the Pistons final transition possession. He went to the bench.

I’ve awarding LeBron the Cavs 4 out of 5 Swaggy Ps for their end of quarter performance.

Fourth Quarter:

LeBron must have been OK because he was out there to start the fourth. The Cavs got a nice five-point swing when the Pistons failed to convert right under the hoop and Kyrie drilled a transition 3 at the other end. Then LeBron started getting lazy – he took another ill-advised deep 3. On the next possession the Cavs actually over-passed, giving up good looks for less good looks. Iman Shumpert missed his second straight 3 and I watched LeBron sort of half-jog up the court. It was egregious. About seven players passed him and I’m not sure he even made it to the half-court line. The camera panned to Jodie Meeks who drove through minimal traffic for the left-handed layup. LeBron’s cherry-picking paid off on the next play as Kyrie stole the ball and threw down-wind to LeBron for the uncontested dunk. But the Cavs continued to play lackluster basketball. J.R. Smith barely grazed the front of the rim on another wide open 3. Then Kevin Love barely grazed the back of the rim on a corner 3.  (hope the rim wasn’t ticklish) The only offense the Cavs generated was from Kyrie Irving steals. Tristan Thompson cleaned up the glass with a put back dunk off Kyrie Irving’s missed layup in transition (after Irving stole the ball). Kyrie sandwiched a sneaky layup in between two offensive fouls by Shumpert and TT. And what I mean by that is the Cavs had offensive fouls on two of three late game possessions. (The TT one was a bogus call away from the ball that wiped out J.R. Smith’s only nice play of the game.) Anthony Tolliver hit two funny-looking 3s to bring the Pistons to within eight. LeBron continued his suddenly uninspired play and Kevin Love continued missing spot-up 3s. LeBron fouled Caldwell-Pope on a 3-point attempt, allowing the Pistons to cut the lead to 7. But for every dumb play LeBron made, Kyrie Irving had an answer. He drilled a 20-foot J and followed up three free throws from KCP with a filthy 3-pointer in D.J. Augustin’s eye that barely moved the net. The rest of the game followed the same script. The Cavs did dumb things defensively– J.R. Smith fouled Anthony Tolliver on a 3-point attempt and he drained all his FTs – but they held onto the ball and made all their late-game free throws.

https://twitter.com/MrDee25/status/560266115759493121

What I liked:

Kyrie Irving was phenomenal.  At both ends.  Early on when the entire Cavs team looked listless it was Kyrie that I first noticed grinding on defense.  He finished with three steals and every single one of them led to transition buckets for the Cavs.  Irving finished with 38 points, he was 6-10 from downtown, and he single-handedly took over the fourth quarter to keep the Cavs from blowing the game.  Despite this, he played within the flow, rarely forcing.

Shawn Marion looked spry and played really well in the second quarter.  He had exactly the type of game the Cavs need from him going forward.

Mozgov really has his moments around the hoop.  He has been more effective offensively than I’d have imagined.  Someone (maybe Cols?) described him as a rich-man’s Tyler Zeller.  [I’ll allow it]

The Cavs made adjustments and plugged some holes in the boat defensively.  For a while they were getting carved up by Augustin and dominated by the Pistons bigs in the low post.  I thought Iman Shumpert in particular played great help-and-recover defense.  Mozgov altered shots at the rim.

The Cavs usually look great in first quarters and give it all away in the second when LeBron is sitting.  Tonight the second unit handled its business.

Kevin Love held his own on the defensive glass and generally made the correct basketball plays on offense.  He had a few nice entry passes to Mozgov.  He finished with four assists and a game high +11.

Watching LeBron impose his will with powerful physical drives to the rim harkens back to days of yore.  He had a prolific stat line: 32-7-6, but also finished with a plus/minus of zero (or he gave up as much as he got).

This is how I expected the Cavs to look on off nights. Too much talent to lose to the Pistons of the world.

— realcavsfans.com (@realcavsfans) January 28, 2015

What I didn’t like:

J.R. Smith had a horrible game.  Just horrible.  He was barely grazing the rim on his wide-open 3-point attempts.  He made one nice play on offense that was wiped out by a phantom offensive foul call on TT.  He looked lifeless on defense and was regularly blown by.  He generally just fouled in those situations.  He finished with as many fouls as points (five) and made just one out of his six 3-point attempts.

Kevin Love was 1-8 on 3s and I think six of them were so wide open he had time to watch the entire Hobbit Trilogy while setting his feet.

LeBron’s effort on defense can be maddening and his slow-walk iso-fests are like binge-drinking.  Yeah it can be fun now and then but you pretty much always wake up with regrets and a killer headache.  He took a ton of terrible 3s and then passed up the one 3 that I thought he should take – a wide open spot-up look off good side-to-side ball movement.  He played very poorly in the 4th quarter at both ends.  He wasn’t taking the Pistons seriously at all.  Maybe he’s earned that right.  But as a fan of a terrible team for the last four years (and a team that has come no where near their pre-season expectations) I’d really like him to start playing like an underdog – because that’s what the Cavs are at this point.  He owes Kyrie a steak dinner.

The Cavs committed two offensive fouls and fouled the Pistons twice on 3-point attempts in the closing minutes.  They tried to give the game away but they just couldn’t with Kyrie Irving on fire.

Final Thoughts: The Cavs notched a victory on pure talent.  It’s nice to know they’re good enough to do that.  There was a time a few weeks ago when they weren’t.  I fear they are starting to feel relieved instead of hungry.  They need to be hungry.  They can’t save anything for the swim back.  Still, seven in a row is a very good streak of basketball.  They look to be even deeper once Shumpert’s minute restriction fades.

As the great Joe Tait would say: "They won't be sending tape of that to Springfield."

— Joe Gabriele (@CavsJoeG) January 28, 2015