Podcast Recap: Cavs 95, 76ers 85 (Or, Throwdowns in a Throwback)

2016-01-11 Off By Tom Pestak

https://soundcloud.com/ctb-5/cavs-theblog-podcast

We did a podcast recap!  Listen above, on SoundCloud, or iTunes.  Below are collections of my thoughts in case you’d prefer the usual recap.

This game was a friendly reminder of how effortlessly LeBron James can completely dominate a game.  It was a throwback to 2009, when LeBron’s transition baskets were unstoppable and plentiful, his only misses were heat checks, and the Cavs decided at some point in the second half that they’d had enough.  Tonight, that occurred when LeBron checked in at the 7:32 mark of the 4th quarter and promptly disposed of the Sixers by scoring 12 of the Cavs 14 points in a 14-0 run.

1st Half: The Cavs settled for a TON of 3s in the first half.  I wish they hadn’t, because they had some sweet offensive sets otherwise.  LeBron used some english to spin a bounce pass to a backdooring J.R. Smith for a nifty reverse layup.  Delly ran something of a Kraken, feeding a vacated-space-filling LeBron for a monster dunk.  And Kevin Love found LeBron for a very simple cut to the basket off a TT offensive rebound for and and-1 jam.  Tristan Thompson did an admirable job fighting around the basket in the second quarter, bailing out some blown layups and other miscues.  The Cavs led by eight with a minute and a half to go in the 2nd quarter and really let the 76ers off the hook.  In particular, the decision of Mozgov to fire a corner 3 with eight second on the game clock/seven seconds on the shot clock was notably stupid.  His airball led to a runout and Okafor conversion (over Moz) at the other end to bring the 76ers within one at the half.

2nd Half: LeBron had his hands in everything.  Kevin Love scored on nifty move around the basket, squeaking the ball in before the weakside defender could swat, and he had a few glorious outlet passes to LeBron who throw down a sick reverse jam on one of them.  The way LeBron created separation in the open court was reminiscent of ’09 Bron.  No one had a chance to stop him.  It’s not like it’s hard to throw a pass to LeBron, but Kevin Love is really somethin’ with these three-quarter-court chest passes that land in LeBron lap as he’s going full speed.  The Cavs let the 76ers hang around a bit until LeBron checked back in at 7:32 mark of the 4th and that was that.  Jumpers, a triple, another throwdown off a K-Love outlet pass, an insane, Kyrie-spun reverse layup through traffic off yet another K-Love outlet….LeBron was 15-20 from the field before clanking two “who cares” heat checks after the game was firmly out of reach, and the Cavs coasted to a double digit win.  They won’t get to feast on the hapless 76ers any longer but they should be commended – it’s hard to beat any team four times.  They took care of business.

The Good:  LeBron dominated and overcame poor shooting from the rest of the team to notch a double digit road win.  It’s not a recipe for long-term success, but the Cavs are good enough to win in a variety of ways.

The Bad-ish: J.R. Smith was a little too trigger happy tonight.  When the Cavs allowed the 76ers to get back into the game it seemed like they rushed the offense and fired a lot of 3s instead of probing for a better look.

The Bad: That sequence by Mozgov was bad.  Jason Lloyd wrote a lot about the Mozgov struggling/Varejao DNP dynamic in his “X Number of Things” bit.  (Those are must-read for me.)  That Blatt doesn’t feel comfortable playing all his guys, during a long road trip, against the worst team in the league, is….bad I think?  I’ve been an advocate for Varejao all season.  Not sure why he’s in the DNPhouse, but he’s there and I think it’s short-sighted.

Enjoy the podcast for more player-centric analysis, we cover:

Jeff Van Gundy-isms
Kyrie’s growth
Mozgov’s value
Shumpert’s Jumperts
J.R.’s actual value on defense
LeBron’s defensive ceiling
The value of “chill-mode”
The Sam Hinkie Experiment
Memories of Dennys

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