Recap: Warriors 89, Cavs 83 (Or, The Right Idea….)

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The Cavs had the right idea today. They slowed the game down, limited their own turnovers to just 11, and ran the Warriors off the 3-line. They held the Warriors to just 41% shooting from the field and 27.8% from deep on just 16 shots. Golden State actually scored a season low 89 points. The Cavs, however, just couldn’t get a basket. They went 5-30 from downtown, and made just 31.6% of all their shots. LeBron James, Kevin Love, and Kyrie Irving scored 48 points on 57 attempts. J.R. Smith put up 14 points, hitting four of the Cavs’ five 3-pointers. Draymond Green led the Warriors with 22 points, 15  boards, and seven dimes. Former Cavalier Sean Livingston also chipped in 16 points on 8-9 shooting.

Despite Cleveland’s offensive struggles, they were within ten with 3:47 left in the game. At that point, the King dunked the ball two times in a row and Love tipped in a LeBron miss to spark a 6-0 run. Love then swatted Draymond Green from behind, which led to LeBron running the floor and getting fouled. With 1:32 left, the King bricked his two free throws, and the Cavs were down 77-81. They would get within three before ultimately falling by six.

First Quarter

The Cavs opened the game up trying to get the ball down low. On their first offensive possession, LeBron used a screen to get into position on the left block. He passed the ball to Mozgov on the baseline, but Mozgov stepped out. The next play, Love got the ball deep in the paint, and stepped through to the hoop. He missed his shot. Love followed that miss up by missing a wide open 3-pointer. Missing shots was the theme the quarter for the Cavs, as they hit just seven shots. The Cavs were moving the ball though, even though they had just three assists.

The highlight of the quarter came when Delly scored three the hard way after getting hit while throwing a floater in.

Delly and 1! #CavsNation #Cavs #Warriors #NBA https://t.co/byhPzGfeRW

— Cavs Nation (@CavsNationNet) December 25, 2015

Curry negated it though when he came down the floor and tossed the ball off the glass for a 3-point play of his own. Delly breathed on him a little too hard to trigger the foul call.

During the final four minutes of action, the Cavs were outscored 12-2. They missed six jumpers and refused to drive the ball to the basket. Draymond Green scored ten points, including two 3s, and handed out two assists for five points. Warriors up, 28-19.

Second Quarter

The Cavs turned up their defensive intensity in the second quarter to hold the Warriors to just 17 points on 31.6% shooting, and they were able to play catch up with some smart offensive play. Right out of the gate, Mo drew three freebies when Sean Livingston left his feet. The Cavs followed that heady play by playing tight defense, forcing five Warrior turnovers. They went on a 16-6 run during the first half of the quarter. LeBron was attacking the hoop, Love and TT both caught a passes deep in the paint for automatic baskets, and Irving and James exploited some mismatches for four points. The Cavs couldn’t continue their strong showing though. During the final two minutes of play, they were outscored 8-2. Klay and and Curry both beat the Cavs to their spots, which led to Iman fouling them each for a total of four free throws, which they hit.

LeBron led the Cavs with seven points on seven shots, and Klay scored six for the Warriors.  After two quarters of shooting below 34%, the Cavs were down just three, 45-42.

Third Quarter

The Cavs played with fire in the third quarter, but didn’t get burned too badly. The Warriors tried to play faster and the Good Guys didn’t do anything to slow them down. To start the quarter, Irving hit a jumper over Bogut, who got switched onto him after a Mozzy pick. The Warriors then sprinted down the floor and Klay drove straight into Mozzy for two freebies. He hit the next five Warriors points, including a two off of an offensive board he grabbed and a three from a Curry cross court bail out pass. The Cavs didn’t panic though, as they traded baskets with the Warriors. They tried to trap Curry several times, but he found the open man each time and made the Cavs pay, whether it was with a Green dunk or the previously mentioned Thompson 3-pointer. The Cavs hit just just seven of their 25 shots, but they made sure to run out on each of their misses. The Warriors hit 7-19 in the quarter to go up, 64-59.

Fourth Quarter

The King started out the quarter posting up Ian Clark, who was about 25 pounds too little to handle the King. Livingston then did a post move of his own, hitting a turnaround jumper over J.R. Smith. Livingston would go on to score eight points in the quarter. The Cavs did their best to play hard defense, but they just kept getting called for fouls, putting the Warriors in the bonus with 7:07 left. And, they just couldn’t hit shots for much of the quarter. Irving missed a point blank layup and three-pointer on two consecutive possessions.

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Delly prevented the Cavs from being blown out when the shots just wouldn’t drop. He nailed an a tough fading jumper in the middle of the paint, and he hit Love down low for a two pointer after rebounding his own miss. However, Delly wasn’t without fault. With 6:16 left and the Cavs down six, he threw an inbounds pass to Iggy. Shumpert chased Iggy down and fouled him. Of course, Iggy drained both freebies.

The Cavs bad luck continued. With 5:30 left, Love caught the ball right below the basket. Some of the Warriors pulled bats out of their shorts and hit Love repeatedly. He coughed the ball up, and the Warriors beat the Cavs in a 4-0n-5 situation for a Livingston dunk to go up by eight.

After another blown Love layup about a minute later, the Warriors ran down and got the ball to Green for a layup to go up by ten. At that point, LeBron ripped off two straight dunks, had a chase down block on Klay, and missed a shot at the rim, which Love tipped in, to bring the Cavs within four with 2:14 left. LeBron then missed three of four three throws down the stretch, and the Cavs were unable to get closer than 3-points, despite Iggy missing two free throws in the final 20 seconds of the game.

Gripes

1. The Cavs hit just five threes and took 30 of them. Whenever they couldn’t score, and it felt like they weren’t getting any calls from the refs, they jacked up 3-pointers. LeBron took five 3s and none of them were in the flow of the game.

2. The Wine & Gold had just 12 assists on 30 shots. During the first half of the game, they moved the ball, but during the second half, there was a lot of Le-Iso play, as other guys missed wide open looks. The King was getting to the rim at will, but he was met by multiple defenders and wasn’t getting calls no matter how hard he got hit.

LeBron was getting shots at the rim all night, he just couldn’t make them.

3. The refs were very finicky this game. In the first quarter, go watch the play where Delly got his And-1. He was hit fairly hard. The following play when Curry got his And-1, Delly was trailing him and barely touched his jersey. Also take a look at the Love layup with 5:37 to go in the fourth. Love got a beat down and there was no call.

4. Mozgov was Timo the Terrible this game. Early on Mozgov was contesting shots quite well at the rim, but later in the game the Warriors figured out he’s garbage if he has to step out of the paint. The mega Timo the Terrible play came in the third quarter. At the 7:15 mark of the quarter Andrew Bogut rebounded a Brandon Rush missed 3-pointer. The Cavs’ defense was scrambled and Curry ended up with the ball. Mozov was on him. Curry dribbled by him and Mozgov grabbed his trailing arm. Curry sank an uncontested layup and drained the free throw. Timo scored zero points, grabbed just three rebounds, and was -15 in 14 minutes.

5. The Cavs allowed Shaun Livingston to go off. For some reason, he kept getting smaller defenders on him, and the Wine & Gold didn’t bother to help each other out. Livingston hit eight of his nine shots for 16 points.

6. The Warriors had 11 second chance points and the Cavs had 14. However, the Cavs had 17 offensive boards and the Warriors had eight. Cleveland has to convert any extra chances they get. In the second quarter, the Cavs had one possession with four offensive rebounds. They still couldn’t get a bucket.

7. Kyrie still has to play his way back. He’s not there yet, even though we saw a couple flashes. His late misses were disheartening.

8. Why no Richard Jefferson tonight? We saw James Jones, and I’m not sure there’s anything Jones gives you that Jefferson can’t do better, even playing power forward. I mean it was worth a shot that someone could hit an open three.

9. The Cavs’ played unbelievably soft at the rim when Curry got by Lebron and then Delly late. The paint wussiness here was as big as any of the Cavs’ misses. Kevin Love or LeBron has to at least make Curry earn these. Love refused to give hard fouls all game. Tristan should have been playing crunch time.

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Hypes

1. The Cavs shot 31.6% from the floor and lost by just six points. They managed the clock for most of the game, and whenever the Warriors got out in transition they sprinted back to try and eliminate any easy shots.

2. Furthermore, they hit just five of their 30 3-point attempts. Most of their 3-point attempts were open. I can’t imagine the Cavs having another game where they just can’t drain their wide open shots.

3. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson hit just two total 3-pointers. They had 37 points on 12-31 shooting. The Cavs prevented them from getting open looks at the 3-line and made them work off the ball more than they would have liked to.

4. The Cavs occasionally trapped Curry when he was using a pick. Everyone scrambled back after doing so and the damage was minimal. Green wasn’t making the Cavs pay every time, as someone was usually on their way to whoever he passed the ball to off of his roll to the rim. Blatt didn’t trap constantly, which helped keep the Warriors on their toes. Sometimes, it seemed like Curry would pass to the ball to Green instinctively, fearing an extra man was on the way. The Cavs wouldn’t be trapping and Green would be forced to contend with TT or Mozgov stationed right at the rim.

5. The Cavs face the Blazers tomorrow night. Hopefully they can pick up a win and get back on track.