Game 6 Recap: Cavs 113, Raptors 87 (or, Got Your Six)

There’s a saying in the military that goes “got your six,” which essentially means “I’ve got your back.” The idiom originated with World War I fighter pilots referencing the rear of an airplane as the six o’clock position. It’s use continues to perpetuate today not only in the armed forces, but in other close knit brotherhoods like law enforcement and fire departments. Tonight, it rang true for another group of men who persevered to overcome adversity, and worked together to take one step closer to realizing the championship dreams of a team, an organization, a fanbase, a city and an entire region.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have done it once again. They are going to The Finals for the second straight year… only this time fully healthy. Though it took more than the expected four or five games, they finally subdued their scrappy and resilient neighbors to the North, beating them in six… in The Six (as it’s commonly referred to — at least by Drizzy). And, in doing so, got each others’ “six” while helping LeBron James arrive at his sixth straight Finals appearance, matching only the great 1960s Celtics teammates Bill Russell, Sam Jones, K.C. Jones, Bob Cousy, Tom Heinsohn, Satch Sanders and Frank Ramsey (oh yeah… and some dude who goes by “The Champ” — or JFJ if you’re C:tB savvy).

As Canadian Dynamite himself, Tristan Thompson, said in his post-game interview, one of the keys to approaching Game 6 for the wine & gold was to treat it as their Game 7. In their minds, they had already made two border crossings too many in this series. They would not allow for another. But, to execute that plan in the hostile environs of the Air Canada Centre, a place in which they were 0-4 this year, they’d need to have each others’ backs on both the offensive and defensive ends, as well as in the locker room and the sidelines. Boy did they ever… and, none more than their in-the-running-for-G.O.A.T. of a leader, The Chosen One… King LeBron Raymone James.

Tyronn Lue had said publicly that he wanted to see a “vintage” game from his superstar… and vintage game did he receive… to the tune of 33 points (on a highly efficient 13-22 shots), 11 rebounds, six assists, three blocks and a steal. LeBron was seemingly everywhere on the court in the first half of the game (well, maybe not seemingly… since he did play all but 37 seconds of the first 24 minutes). King James didn’t just have his teammates’ backs… for the first time in the series, he put them all on his own for a while. Alternating between converting transition opportunities off of Kyrie Irving steals and assists, and knocking down a couple of rare three-balls (he was 2-3 from downtown in the first quarter, 3-6 for the game), LeBron racked up 14 points in the first period and 21 for the half (the most in any playoff first half this post-season).

Locked in from the jump on both ends of the floor, he looked to score early and often, even giving the Cavs a six point margin at the end of one (31-25) with a freight-train drive to the hoop. LBJ continued his onslaught in the second, scoring another seven points, but also leading the defensive attack on Toronto. He notched a block on both DeMarre Carroll and Kyle Lowry, while pulling down three boards. With 4:30 remaining in the half, LBJ’s driving dunk (off another Kyrie assist) gave him almost half of the Cavs’ scoring total (21 of 44 points). From essentially that point on, the Raps got no closer than a double digit margin.

His earlier triple-double in Game 2 notwithstanding, this was as complete a performance as LeBron had delivered in the series, and possibly the entire post-season. He was a man on a mission… a dynamo turned loose… a legend carving yet another signature game into his ever-growing lore. He didn’t just take over this game to provide the Cavaliers a cushion… he sucked the life and oxygen right out of an arena full of hyped up Raptor fans. When his team, coach and fans needed him most… he had their backs… and then some.

Yet, it wasn’t as if the King didn’t have help, even if it didn’t arrive in the form of scoring until the last two minutes of the first half. Kyrie Irving had (as Nate accurately described it) a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde kind of night. He shot just 2-8 to start the game, although he finished 10-16 (12-24 total) to finish with 30 points and maintain his team-leading scoring average. Even though he couldn’t get his shot to go down much in the first half, he still looked to distribute the ball (at least in the first quarter when he notched five dimes), and played some fairly tenacious defense with three steals while helping to hold Lowry to 12 first half points.

His real troubles came in the second quarter, though, as he stopped moving the ball in favor of tunnel vision dribble-drives into traffic. However, after a couple of turnovers and some relatively stagnant offensive sets that allowed the Raps to cut the lead to six, Kyrie started to find LeBron again, assisting on another triple and a driving dunk. Then LBJ helped him get going with a terrific pass on an excellent cut to the hoop, which he followed up a minute later with an and-one.

Second half Kyrie was mostly Dr. Jekyll, as he heated up considerably both from mid and long range. Uncle Drew also dazzled with an assortment of finishes closer to the rim… often of the left-hand variety.

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Where LBJ did the majority of his damage in the first half, Kyrie did the balance of his in the second, scoring 21 of his 30 (including 12 in the third quarter alone). The only real downside, was his counterpart, Lowry, scoring 18 of his 35 points in the same quarter.

There may be no subject more polarizing on this blog than the subjectiveness of how we collectively perceive Kyrie’s play. There have been entire posts dedicated to things like his ability to use a screen, or his inability to avoid getting stuck on one like so much flypaper. In the end, the stats were gaudy in this game, but they don’t reveal the entire story. Kyrie is unquestionably an offensive force of nature, yet what often holds him back from reaching his ungodly potential is his decision-making off the dribble, and his defensive lapses. To this point, it hasn’t hurt the Cavs because they have his back, especially on defense. Chances are that won’t be the case against the likes of either Curry or Westbrook in The Finals. There’s a thin line between good and greatness… it’s up to Kyrie to navigate it.

The third leg of the tripod also came up big to help close out Game 6 after two sub-par previous games north of the border. Kevin Love started the game with a three, and ended the first half with another one.

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In between, he went to the free throw line twice… once after nearly having his teeth knocked out by a stray Biyombo elbow. The elbow was deemed a Flagrant 1, which would have put Big Smack over the limit and DQ-ed him for a potential Game 7. While the blow may have slowed Kev’s shooting, it had the opposite effect on his rebounding aggression. Love wound up snagging nine of his 12 for the game in the first half, helping the Cavs win the war on the glass 38-33.

Love then matched his scoring output (10 points) from the first half in the third quarter alone, drilling two more treys and getting to the line twice more. He totaled 20 points on 5-11 shooting (a healthy 4-8 from beyond the arc) to go with the 12 boards and four assists. Most importantly, he didn’t wilt or disappear, and often had the Cavs’ “six” on defense underneath.

The common denominator of the difference between the Cavs’ 12 wins vs. two losses is the play of Kevin Love. It may be cliche to say “as Kev goes, so go the Cavs,” but it’s a fairly accurate assessment. No matter how amazing LeBron and Kyrie are in any given game, without KLove coming up strong as he did in the first and last two games, winning a championship will be a much tougher endeavor.

As good as J.R. Smith was as one of the few bright spots in the Game 3 loss, he was even better in this game. He didn’t score as much as in Game 3 (15 points vs. 22 in that one), but he did it on a lot fewer shots (5-9, 5-8 from deep vs. 7-16, 6-15 from deep), and ones with a much higher degree of difficulty.

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He also ran around on defense like a man possessed, jumping passing lanes, chasing down loose balls and preventing transition baskets. On one offensive set, it seemed like Swish ran about a half mile through the defense in an attempt to get open. It’s just amazing to watch the revelation that continues to be this version of J.R. on this team. Right now, his shovel is sharp and his will is outstanding…

TT had a fairly quiet night by his standards with just two points and five boards in 24 minutes, although he did pull down two gigantic offensive rebounds at extremely opportune moments. Tristan likely would have preferred to have at least one breakout rebounding game in his native country, but he had his hands full with Biyombo in all three Canadian games. Bismack did seem to get quite a bit of uncalled holding on TT under the hoop, but that’s playoff basketball for you. It won’t get any easier for Tristan if OKC winds up being the Cavs’ Finals opponent, as the length of their front line may be tough to combat. Maybe Draymond and his jersey yanking and donkey kicks are actually preferable in this instance…

Because Coach Lue rode his starters hard to ensure there would be no chance of a Game 7, there wasn’t much input from the bench bunch in this one. However, almost all of the primary subs had that one signature moment in the game. Channing Frye, aside from draining another couple of timely triples to kick off the second quarter, had a retaliation block on Big Smack… after which he wagged his index finger all the way back down the court.

Aside from a couple of assists in his scant nine minutes of play, Delly’s only bucket came on a beautiful broken-play give-and-go with LeBron that had to have taken some wind out of the Raptors’ sails.

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And, Richard Jefferson, besides hitting a garbage time three, took great offense to taking an elbow to the ribs from Jonas Valanciunas in the second quarter. JV looked like he was trying to apologize, but RJ was having none of it… getting in the big man’s face with his own jabbing index finger.

Shump didn’t really have a signature moment, but he played his usual lock-down defense, putting up a +14 in just 18 minutes.

For Toronto, they were again paced by their two back court All-Stars, Lowry and DeRozan, who both had hot shooting games (11-22, 6-12 from three for Special K and 9-18 for Kobe Lite). Yet, even though the two shooting stars combined for 55 points, the remaining Raptors barely eked out 32 points, and nobody else hit double digits. The Raptors fought hard in the series, and credit especially to Lowry who never gave up. But, they just didn’t have the necessary firepower to hang with the Cavs. They have an interesting summer ahead with DeRozan, Biyombo both reportedly opting out of their contracts to become unrestricted free agents. Toronto might have a tough time replacing either or both of them.

The Evil:

There’s not much to dislike in a blowout close out victory that puts your team into The Finals for the second time in two seasons. For at least a few days, let’s all soak in the amazing accomplishments this team has achieved. We’ll have plenty of time, once their opponent is decided, to debate the merits of Kyrie’s game, whether or not Kev and TT can be effective against big front lines, and Ty Lue’s substitution patterns…

The only other external evil would be the inconsistencies of how the playoff fouls and flagrant fouls have been called. This seems like it will only get worse in The Finals.

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The Genius:

Beyond the game itself, the determination and focus this Cavs team showed in treating it like a must win, and the fact that they won a close out game on the road in a place where they hadn’t won in their previous four tries this year, there were some things after it was over that were terrific.

• LeBron getting emotional talking about this team to Doris Burke.
• Doris Burke reinforcing her status as the best NBA sideline reporter working with that “stumper of a question.”
• The Cavs electing to let AC present the trophy to Ty Lue.
• @CavsDan, David Griffin and LeBron all giving up the spotlight to AC, Lue and the young guys during the trophy presentation.
• The class the Raptors showed (particularly Lowry and DeRozan) in coming over to the Cavs bench after they checked out to congratulate them.
• The Toronto crowd, who are as passionate and loud as any fans in the NBA, staying until the end and cheering for their Raps.
• LeBron racing back to the locker room to get the festivities rolling.
• The Cavs improvising with water bottles when they had no champagne bottles.
• The sheer joy this team seems to have about each other, and the belief they have in one another.
• The fact that the Cavs have another five days of rest now before The Finals.

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— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) May 28, 2016

Parting Shot:

With respect to the subtitle of this recap, despite all of the ups and downs of this season, the turmoil of a mid-stream coaching change, social media dustups and subtweets, and general perception that this team had trouble getting along and “galvanizing,” they certainly seem to have each others’ backs now. And, isn’t that all we really wanted from this team? To be able to enjoy them not only winning, but coming together to form a chemistry as good as the other title contenders? However you felt at the time of the dismissal of David Blatt, or the dumping of Andy so the Cavs could pick up Channing Frye, it’s pretty hard to argue with the results of either of those moves. David Griffin has seemingly pushed all the right buttons… to a degree that even Dan Gilbert is amazed by. The NBA has seen fit to find ways to rescind technical fouls… maybe they should find a way to rescind the Executive of the Year award given the circumstances.

The bottom line is that not only do the Cavs have each other’s backs, David Griffin has their collective backs, and @CavsDan has Griffin’s. And because of that… this team and this organization is back in The Finals.

Don’t worry Cleveland… the Cavs got your six!

Four more wins…

GO CAVS!