Recap: Cleveland 114, Minnesota 107 (it’s a win, mate)

On Australia Day at the Q the Cavaliers looked to ignite the offense by pushing the pace for easier buckets, and for the most part it worked. We saw a bevy of turnovers early, but the Cavs really looked sharp in the third quarter, and they held on to win late. LeBron and Matthew Dellavedova were exceptional, all the starters scored in double digits, and Mozgov looked energized on both sides of the ball. Tyronn Lue humbly accepted the game ball after his first win to successfully clear his first hurdle towards building a collective spirit in the locker room. Let’s all sing Kumbaya.

First Quarter

Cavs raced out to a seven point lead on a couple long twos by Irving and a triple by JR Swish. Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins kept the Wolves in it by attacking and leveraging KAT’s automatic mid-range jumper. The Cavs helped Minnesota out with turnovers and very careless defense. Despite Lue’s directives, the Cavs walked the ball up until Matthew Dellavedova checked in with five minutes left, and then the pace picked up. Delly capped the quarter with two triples in the last 47 seconds including a near buzzer beater off the dribble when Minny went under the screen that brought the crowd to their feet and put Cleveland up  32-29.

Second Quarter

We started out with an actual elbow jumper by KLove that was pure string music, followed by a LeBron post-up and dish to Iman who smashed the ball with great violence and terrible ferocity.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vDF_HE8f08

Unfortunately, Kyrie’s first quarter makes gave him license to keep shooting mid-rangers, which he kept missing. The turnovers kept piling up for the Cavs too (10 in the half), and you could tell that the crisper pace was leading to some mental errors. Still, they were sins of effort and experimentation, and not sins of malaise. I can live with them. The Wolves kept shooting open long twos and kept making them until they’d clawed back to a tie at 34. Part of the Cavs’ problem was that no one was getting their hands up on D. Kyrie, Kevin, LeBron, and Moz were all guilty of “hand down, man down” defense. Kyrie had at least four shots drilled in his eye, as Zach LaVine was uncharacteristically sharp from distance.

Both teams went cold through the middle of the quarter, and the good guys dodged a lot of bullets. Kyrie dribbled around aimlessly a lot, and the Cavs’ offense didn’t pick up till Delly checked back in at the five minute mark. He sandwiched a floater in the lane between two Delly Dimes to LeBron for beautiful beautiful layups (highlights below). The ball started whipping around, but you could tell that Cleveland’s mental focus was on offense as Minnesota tied it back up at 51. Fortunately, the Cavs closed strong, outscoring the Wolves 8-4 in the last two minutes behind Shump and JR triples and a LeBron deuce to make it 59-55, Cavs.

Third Quarter

A nice two man game between the King and Kevin got Kev a floater in the lane, but Cleveland went away from him in the key and instead set him up for triples which clanked. Kyrie was firing away, and just made 1-4 early. Meanwhile, Pekovic, Wiggins, and Towns played bully ball around the basket, getting shots in close and collecting offensive rebounds until a Towns free throw gave them their first lead at 66-65.

Fortunately the Cavs had the Matty D who subbed for Irving. Dellavedova found TT on an improvised loaded wombat from the right baseline. Cleveland then ripped off a quick 8-2 run when Thompson then gathered a LeBron deflection and fired a beautiful outlet to James who reverse flushed at the other end. Delly hit LeBron for a top-of-the-key trey on the pick-and-pop, and Bron returned the favor two plays later finding Delly in transition for a triple of his own. But Minny hung around cause KAT couldn’t miss, and Wiggins hit a filthy turnaround in the post.

Seriously, it took LeBron seven years to perfect that shot, and he doesn’t shoot it now as well as Wiggins does in year two. Andrew looks like vintage Jordan or Kobe when he shoots it. There’s no wasted motion and the release is at the apex of his jump, but I’m not ****ing bitter.

My favorite stretch came when the Cavs put Delly on the floor with Kyrie, Shump, TT, and Mozgov. On paper, this is a “huh?” lineup, but the attention the guards garnered helped Tristan get two straight putbacks, and on defense the lineup caused havoc. A Delly steal led to one of the greatest plays of the season when he found a trailing Moz who caught a deflected oop with his left hand and flushed deftly. I woke my kids up with a galvanizing yell which shook the living room.

https://vine.co/v/iiXIjY1MuOh

Then, Kyrie swerved his way into a behind the back step-back three to stretch the lead to ten before he missed a buzzer beater, and TT missed the putback. 83-73, Cavs.

Fourth Quarter

This was good-bad-good. A 7-2 run was started by an LBJ fool’s gold 22-footer, followed by a nice Kyrie floater in transition, and then a Shump triple preceded by some gorgeous ball movement. But the Cavs let their guard down and slipped into bad habits after a T-Wolves timeout. Gorgui Dieng burned Cleveland by consistently cutting through the lane for layups and hitting his freebies when Cleveland fouled him. The Cavs found K-Love at the elbow for a nice J, and then lost him for the rest of the quarter.

Comfortable, Cleveland sleepwalked through a disastrous stretch: Kyrie missed a bunny, Mozzy traveled, Irving threw the ball away, and LeBron got the ball stolen when he tried to la-di-da dribble in the key between three people. This was countered by Bjelica three and a Towns dunk, both set up by Zach Lavine and the Cavs’ old nemisis: Kyrie Irving’s pick-and-roll defense. Lavine added two more transition layups, and suddenly it was 94-91.

Crunch Time

Thank God for Tristan Thompson. He owned the last five minutes. He notched nine points and showed great hands grabbing o-boards, dump-off passes, and a laser pass from Kevin Love. The Cavs scrapped on D, and really made some nice rotations to pick up a couple steals. A Delly trey put Cleveland back up 13 with 3:30 left, but Cleveland started making ridiculously bad decisions again. Towns, with his unstoppable mid-ranger, and Wiggins with, his fantastic footwork, made them pay.

J.R. Smith jacked up a baffling 18-foot brick early in the shot clock, and was only bailed out by a TT o-board. Then, with a eight point lead, he fired up a fading 24-footer with 12 seconds left on the clock. The Cavs missed three straight triples instead of attacking the basket, and the Wolves answered the misses with layups and turnaround shots in the post by Shabazz and Wiggins. (‘Drew showed LeBron the future with a 15-footer that was nasty). The lead was just four with a minute left. Thankfully, Kyrie got himself to the line on a drive and made them both.

Out of a timeout, Kyrie got smoked on the baseline by Zach LaVine and TT was forced to foul, leading me to question why the hell Ty Lue was playing ‘Rie over Iman Shumpert in a late defensive situation. Zach canned ’em both. Delly drove the left lane and hit a trailing LeBron with a gorgeous bounce pass for a layup with 19 seconds left. The Cavs’ six point lead looked secure, until LaVine drove easily, and Love inexplicably fouled him on the layup cutting the Cavs lead to just three. Fortunately, LeBron made the ensuing charity shots, LaVine bricked a three, and Delly sealed the deal with two more to make your final score 114-107.

Thoughts

After a slow first few minutes, the Cavs pushed the pace for two and a half quarters, and got into transition offense and into their sets quickly. When LeBron James posted up and the ball and his teammates moved, it was a beautiful thing to watch. He had some wicked feeds which led to nine assists, but he struggled with five turnovers too. He only took one really bad shot on the iso in the fourth quarter, and he was still 11-15 from the floor and 3-6 from outside the paint. Despite his regression late, I liked what I saw for most of the game. He suffered from the same gator arms everyone else did on defense, but the 25 points, nine assists, and four rebounds made up for it.

Key to LeBron’s night was his chemistry with Matthew Dellavedova. When James is at the power forward spot, Cleveland might be the only team in the league that runs a 4-1 pick-and-pop. Delly might be the best screening point guard in the league, and when LeBron comes hard of his screen, they are really hard to stop. Delly’s also gotten great at running the P/R with LeBron as the screener. With Thompson, Delly can deliver the lob, but LeBron can finish at so many more angles and delivery points. The Cavs were at their best with Delly on the floor tonight, as he was +16, 4-8 from three, with 18 points, seven dimes, four boards, and only two turnovers in just 25 minutes.

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

Delly outplayed Kyrie Irving, but I thought the Cavs were at their best when both were on the floor together. Kyrie had some good moments, but really struggled containing Zach LaVine and running the offense. He seems really focused on mid range jumpers and dribbling right now, equaling his four assists with four turnovers. But he did rebound, adding nine boards to his 17 points (on 18 shots). He is still struggling laterally on defense and had some tragically bad passes too.

Fortunately, Tristan Thompson was around to clean up the trash for Cleveland all night. He had seven offensive rebounds and 19 points on 8-10 shooting. He also did a nice job with his defensive rotations in the second half. He did struggle at the free throw line, but the picked up pace might help Tristan excel in his garbage man role.

Kevin Love was 4-4 from inside the arc and 1-7 outside it. He also only grabbed six rebounds. Why he didn’t get the ball more at the elbow, I have no idea. Love had one shot at it in the fourth and didn’t seal and it got stolen, and he didn’t get another shot after. But to his credit he worked the ball, and made assists or hockey assists as an unselfish passer. Lue noted that they’re putting extra plays in for him to do this. It kind of makes no sense because they do it with Andy, so they should already have the plays…

Speaking of Andy, he was a DNP-CD again. Lue says he wants to run, but basically played an eight man rotation tonight (Mo Williams got five minutes). LeBron played 38 minutes Lue must avoid the temptation to play James extra minutes in close games and has got to learn to trust his bench. Richard Jefferson didn’t see the floor either. A commenter speculated that he and Lue were enemies in their playing days, and maybe that’s part of the dynamic now. If so, that’s dumb. If the Cavs are going to run, they’ll need the bodies.

The Timberwolves are going to be scary good in two years: Wiggins (21 points), KAT, LaVine (26 points), Shabazz (10 points)… This team starts Tayshaun Prince and lets him play 21 minutes a night. Imagine what they’ll be like when they replace him with a player who is still alive.

Speaking of Karl Anthony Towns. I think we’re talking future MVP candidate. He’s only averaged 20 points, 11 rebounds, 2.4 blocks, 2.6 assists, a steal, and 62%/75%/89% shooting splits over the last six games, and that’s in 31 minutes a night. His jumper might be the purest on a big man I’ve seen since Dirk. You can’t give him any space at all. Porzingis is very good. He’ll be great, even, but KAT will be a top ten NBA player by next year. Who says tanking doesn’t pay? He’s Flip’s gift to Minneapolis. Kat had 26 and 11 on 16 shots.

Timo had some nice minutes. Defended the paint, hit a couple monster dunks. Shumpert was nice too. Thought he should have gotten a lot more than 22 minutes when JR got 38 minutes (and went 3-14). They should be splitting time at worst.

After the game, Lue rambled again, and his strange comments didn’t match what we actually saw. I don’t understand how if guys are getting tired, you don’t play more guys, and not fewer. Plus he made some strange comment about running Kevin Love with the second unit and running slower offense with him at the elbows. That wasn’t the strange part, the strange part was noting that Kevin was slow, and didn’t run the floor that well. At least that’s what I took from it. But Kevin Love playing with the starters ignites the break because he’s such a good outlet passer. Kevin Love’s not a slow player either. As we saw against the Clippers, he can hustle and get up and down the floor. He’s at his best when he does. And again, didn’t the Cavs already have high post sets for Andy? Eventually, Lue’s “say whatever is on the top of my head, whether or not it makes sense” style is going to get him burned by the media.

Still, a win is a win, and on Australia night, I was ok with the Cavs experimenting and Delly playing fantastically. Many of us stuck around for the Warriors/Spurs game which saw the Dubs destroy the Spurs 120-90 (which, as Mallory noted, made Blatt’s firing seem all the more absurd). Many a commenter gave up on the season watching that game, but I’ll tell you what I told them. Any team can be beaten. But if you don’t believe you can win, you can’t win. There’s been a lot of negativity on this site in the last week, and life’s too short for a “woe is me” attitude all the time. I believe that the Cavs have all the ingredients to beat any team in the league, and I believe they’ll come out and play hard for Ty Lue and the fans every night. That’s enough to keep me happy. Let’s keep building that kind of belief.