Recap: Cleveland 121, Charlotte 114 (Or, Boxing Day Memories + Live Thread)

I’d like to say that I saved this recap for Boxing Day to celebrate all the Australian Cavaliers (and expats from the Brittish Commonwealth around the league). I would, of course be lying, but it is fun to note a holiday celebrated in much of Christendom around the world. Boxing Day, a holiday on the feast of St. Stephen, has origins that are disputed. Some say it is from “filling the poor boxes” at Anglican churches. Some origins trace to wealthy families “boxing up” leftover food and gratuities for servants and tradespeople and then giving them the day after Christmas off. I’ve heard the name in Canada often refers to taking boxes of presents to celebrations with extended families. Aussies have their own set of traditions around the holiday including the famed Hobart-Sydney yaught race (pictured above, and sadly canceled this year). Regardless, I didn’t get the chance to post this recap till Boxing Day.

That’s a shame, because the Cavs gave us an incredible Christmas present on the 23rd with an unexpectedly competent win over Charlotte. After all our carping over the starting lineup, the Cavs started their three young guns (Garland, Sexton, and Okoro), Larry Nance, and Andre Drummond. The results were dynamic. After a sloppy first quarter by both teams, Collin Sexton went on a tear, mid ranging his way to an 18 point, three assist first half with zero turnovers. Sexton went 6-7 as did Javale McGee who gave them similarly surprising offense by flashing a buttery Kareem-esque skyhook on more than one occasion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aGA5A0ZKds

Larry Nance also shined, running the offense in the half court with a 7/6/7 (Pt./Reb./Asst.) line. It’s safe to say that the Hornets seemed quite ill prepared for the Cavs’ feistiness, and folded quickly when the Cavs came out and blew the doors off them with a 41 point second quarter. Part of the reason why was splitting up Sexland so that Collin while starting, ran point guard for the second unit.

It’s hard not to get over-optimistic about this boxing day blowout for a couple reasons: the Hornets looked terrible, like worst team in the league level bad. They give significant minutes to a tiny backcourt, with a pair of 6-1 Smurfs in Devonte’ Graham and Terri Rozier combined with not exactly stellar defenders in P.J. Washington, Cody Zeller, and Gordon Hayward.

In fact, Charlotte only seems to feature one plus defender in on the whole roster, Bismack Biyombo. Biz was one of the few live bodies in this game for the Hornets, dunking up a 5-5 line from the field (but 1-5 from the line) for 11 points. He did a nice job as a dive man and picking up the trash around the basket as the Cavs pushed their D towards the Hornets’ perimeter based attack.

Why was the final diff +7 after the Cavs led by as many as 24 in the second quarter? The Cavs got a little too nuts with their floor balance. Turnovers and misses often turned into layups for Charlotte because when Garland and Sexton got into the lane, or below the foul line extended, the other perimeter players rarely rotated back to the top of the key from the wing to cover the breakout opportunities. This happened time and again throughout the game, and it was beyond frustrating. Also frustrating: the Cavs utter inability to run a baseline inbounds play. They’ve turned it over out of these sets repeatedly under both baskets throughout the preseason and in this game as well, and were forced to call a timeout late when they couldn’t get the ball inbounded against a full court press. It will be a welcome change to have Kevin Love throwing these in tonight. But someone needs to move without the ball.

After Charlotte cut it to eight in the third, Cleveland extended the lead back out to 18 before a furious run in the waning minute cut an 11 point Cavs lead to just five with 10 seconds left. Leading that charge, Terry Rozier who also absolutely torched the wine and gold behind the line with 42 including 10-16 from deep. Rozier routinely punished the Cavs for going into drop pick-and-roll coverage or zone defenses, leaving one small defender to cover Rozier and a screening big. Terry bombing away. The Cavs also lost him in defensive scrambles. When a guy who has 30 points already gets another wide open triple, it has to be maddening for the coach.

Also leading the Hornets: Gordon Hayward, who looked like his old self with a 28/4/7 line and a solid all-around game. He’s still a three level scorer who can get his own shot, but knows how to run a set offense on and off the ball. If the Hornets have any shot at competing this year, it will be by basing their offense around his competence.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du49wk3CNSI

LaMelo Ball’s debut was mostly uneventful. He failed to make much of an impact in the game, as the flashy passes were dished primarily by his opponent, Darius Garland, whose 26/6/6 line was exemplary. Garland could’ve had double digit assists but a lot of the Cavs just were ready for his laser passes to scoring positions under the basket. They seemed as surprised as I did. Garland’s shot was also dialed in. He went 4-8 from deep, 7-13 from the floor, and was perfect from charity. It was perhaps the most complete game I’ve seen him play as a Cav. LLaMelo, conversely had a jump shot that was as bad as advertised, his elbows flaring out like a junior high kid. He posted three dimes and three turnovers and seemed mostly overwhelmed by the moment.

Isaac “Ice” Okoro seemed the opposite of that in his regular season debut as he forced no issues but filled up the box score with 11/3/5 on just five shots, including an emphatic two handed dunk – scoring off catch-and-shoots, transition buckets, and timely cuts. Dean Wade’s debut as a rotation player surprised us all with seven points in 16 minutes, flashing his quick release J. He had zero rebounds, but we’ll forgive him that given his three steals and the fact that the the Cavs dominated on the boards. Larry Nance Jr. looked like a men among boys, and Andre Drummond’s looked like a Goliath with their 13/13/8 and 14/14/4 lines as they dominated the interior.

The Cavs repeatedly worked the ball inside out, and throttled the Hornets’ zone looks as Drummond and Nance compressed it and then swung to the shooters. The rock was absolutely humming, especially in the second quarter, and the Cavs finished with 34 dimes, with six guys notching at least three dimes.

Rounding this game out, the three wings: Damyean Dotson who was mostly invisible in his 13 minutes, Cedi Osman who deserved more playing time than 18 minutes (he still flashed the J and notched an 11/3/4 line), and Dylan Windler. Windler was pressing a bit, but did string one pretty southpaw jumper before he got knocked out of the game by a dirty foul from Gordon Hayward, who should frankly know better.

Windler cut from the left corner for a dunk and then got hit on the arm by Gordo while flying recklessly to the basket. Hayward high bridged the kid and Windler’s legs flew out from under him, leaving no way for Dylan to catch himself as his left hand and wrist bore the full weight of Dylan’s body. It was very similar to how Dwayne Wade injured Delonte West on a breakaway over a decade ago. Newtonian physics are undefeated. Dylan has a broken ring finger on his shooting hand and will be re-evaluated in a week. Someone should’ve run Hayward across a very hard screen.

Cedi should get more PT in Windler’s absence, and with Kevin Love returning tonight, Dean Wade will likely end up with a DNP.

All-in-all, it was a fun and unexpected game highlighted by Sexton’s inability to miss, and Charlotte’s utter inability to guard him. Defensively, the Cavs bigs played well, but the Cavs’ perimeter D was disastrous and the game planning was suspect. Against a team that bombs away from deep like Charlotte, any zone looks are probably going to be unsuccessful. The Cavs’ unwillingness to bring up second defender against the screen for Rozier almost burned them, but for the most part Cleveland had the cushion to get away with it. I’d be remiss if I didn’t say that Andre Drummond really did look gargantuan out there. His presence made life much easier for Sexton and Garland, and Larry Nance showed out as the best player on the floor when you add up his complete offensive and defensive games.

Detroit will not be so easy an opponent tonight. There’s no chance they sleep on Cleveland after dropping their opener to the T-Wolves. The Cavs go against another rookie point guard in Killian Hayes who starts for the Pistons along with Delon Wright, Jerami Grant, Blake Griffin, and Mason Plumlee. These front court guys have given Cleveland problems over the years, and I find Plumlee particularly loathsome. (He knocked Zizic out for a few weeks last winter). The Cavs will have to watch out for Jalil Okafor and Josh Jackson off the bench, who combined for 34 on Tuesday.

In the plus column, Exum joins Love in returning to the lineup tonight, which means we may not see as much of Sexton and Garland splitting ballhandling duties, but it will be nice to see him back. It should be a fun one. Let’s hope this gives us all some good Boxing day memories after a slate of mostly boring games on Christmas. Go Cavs!