Week in Review: The Return of Entertaining Losses

Given the phrenetic pace of games that has only seemed to accelerate since the All-Star break, we’re clearly struggling to get recaps up in a timely manner (Adam Cathcart’s heroic efforts aside). I’ve decided to try to evaluate these games in blocks. The first block? The Five games in the last nine nights since the all-star break.

Cleveland started on Friday the 12th with a moribund 116-82 loss to the Pelicans. It appeared no one on the Cavs had done a damned thing during the All-Star break, as the execution level, effort level, and awareness level was fully locked in at “we just got done with a week on the couch playing video games” level. The lack of Darius Garland (sitting for injury) loomed large.

It was a sobering loss that had most of the Cavs faithful saying, “ok, this was a stinker, but we’ll get back to normal next game.” Unfortunately, the subsequent 100-82 Atlanta loss was in a way even more disconcerting since Cleveland had dealt with them well earlier in the season, and were supposedly near full strength. Collin Sexton had his worst game against Atlanta that I can remember with a a 5-17 rock fest and a game low -24. The game also pointed to some disturbing trends with Jarrett Allen who looked Rip VanWinkle-esque: flashing an odd lack of verticality, energy, and free throw making ability (5-12). Seven dimes from Darius Garland and a great effort from the bench unit (41 points) kept this game from being an out-and-out disaster.

Despite the shooting woes (31-81, 8-30 from deep, 12-23 at the line), most concerning was the lack of cohesive game planning. When playing Atlanta, if you want to win, you must punish Trae Young on defense and leave bruises when he flops for fouls. The Cavs’ lack of willingness to seek out Young and destroy him defensively meant that their half court offense was half-hazard and ineffective. It didn’t help that it didn’t appear anyone practiced shooting during the all-star break, or that Larry Nance Jr. having returned from injury looked as rusty as the ungentrified sections of The Flats.

Next up? A Miami game that got all the Cleveland doomers into full throated Cavspocalypse talk. This 113-98 loss had Miami stealing Cleveland’s lunch money again and again. 11 Miami steals including two back breakers from the masterful Jimmy Butler (28/12/4) and yet another abysmal three point shooting performance (10-35) spelled DOOM for the wine and gold. But there were a lot of silver linings in this one, including a re-emergence of Larry Nance Jr. in the starting lineup and a solid 14/9/4 -2 line in 37 minutes. The team just played harder and had more energy in this game.

Part of the issue in the first two games may have been the forced inclusion of Kevin Love in the starting lineup as he tried to return from injury and suffered an immediate setback in the second game against Atlanta. Whether it was post-ASG malaise, or the resentment of having to play with Kevin, the spark appeared back against the Heat. Unfortunately, this Heat team was every bit the squad that won the Eastern Conference last season. But fortunately, every time the Heat would take their foot off the gas, Cleveland would go on a mini run until Butler sealed the deal in crunch time with two freebies, an and-1 dime to Bam, and a dunk to put Miami up 17 with 1:40 remaining.

This game felt like a turning point for the Cavs at least from the standpoint of being competitive throughout the game. In the first two games out of the break, Sexton was abysmal: 17/2/1, 34%/12%/82% splits, and a -55 in those two contests. WOOF. Youngbull was much more competitive against Miami (21/1/3 -2), but Darius Garland really struggled. He was 11/1/3 with FIVE turnovers and -17 in 33 minutes. Miami frequently sprung double teams and traps against Cleveland and practiced junking up the defense throughout the first half. Garland and Sexton both struggled against these aggressive double teams and had a hard time hitting the short roller or the safety valve at the top of the key. But Cleveland kept grinding and held Miami to an 18 point fourth quarter.

The other emerging development in Miami, the continued inspired play of Javale McGee. McGee was 8-10 with 16 points off the bench. At 33, his athleticism is still incredible. He’s still out-jumping guys 12 years his junior and playing above the rim. On the post, he can simply out-elevate anyone to get his shot off, and his no-no-no-YES! aggressiveness catches so many defenders off-guard, and so many offensive players unaware as he swats their shots. Still, the timeline was doomy.

The Cavs STINK

— SportsNom (@SportsNom) March 17, 2021

I actually predicted a Cavs win the following night versus Boston because I was 100% sure of two things: the Cavs were turning a corner, and the Celtics is garbage on the road – even on St. Patrick’s day. The Cavaliers rewarded my faith on the second night of a back to back with an inspiring win against the Celtics that saw brilliant games from multiple Cavaliers. Sexland combined for 44/11/12 on 36 shots, and repeatedly smoked Marcus Smart and the Jurassic Jeff Teague. Boston fouled a lot (27 personal fouls to 17) and the two teams combined to shoot 62 free throws. Cleveland’s 27-33 at the line was a huge part of this game considering Boston went 20-29.

Larry Nance Jr. got his shot going and played his best game in months, dropping 18/10/4 on eight shots with two steals and a block, plus a couple much needed three-balls. But it was Isaac Okoro’s unexpected offensive outburst (15 points!) that really put Cleveland over the top. Cleveland let him create some early in the half court (but unfortunately abandoned this approach against San Antonio), and Okoro looked much more comfortable. Though he didn’t drop a triple, he went 5-5 at the line and frequently drove against a Boston defense that featured effective shot-blocking. It was the best he’s looked offensively since preseason, and it was punctuated with this brilliant dunk.

Isaac Okoro's poster dunk on Jayson Tatum caps off a 117-110 Cavs win over the Celtics 🔥pic.twitter.com/AfGWw7x1O0

— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) March 18, 2021

I have a theory that the teams with the worst records also get the most dog shit officiating crews, as those game are the least likely to be consequential. That would explain why MIN has had so many hideously officiated games this year

— Patrick Fenelon 🌹 (@Patrick_Fenelon) March 20, 2021

Cleveland grinded this one out, and overcame a lot of garbage officiating and flopping from Boston down the stretch. The NBA has become really insufferable with the officiating, and I can confirm the phenomenon above about Cleveland getting terrible crews. Further, this playing for fouls phenomenon has filtered down to the NCAA level. The one tourney game I watched this weekend featured both teams exaggerating contact and playing for fouls on every other play.

Regardless, Cleveland’s 10-23 shooting from deep and rebounding carried the day despite Brad Stevens ridiculous attempts to draw out the game at the end (which Cleveland copied on Friday). Collin Sexton boarded as well as I’ve seen him in a Cavs’ uni with seven. Dean Wade had great night off the bench with eight, including a critical three out of double screen which was as good of a set play as I’ve seen Cleveland run all year. McGee was steady again with five off the bench, and just looks like the anchor of the bench units.

Javale’s absence caused issues Friday against San Antonio, as their bench struggled mightily against a Spurs Squad that staggers their starters to get them the best matchups and exploits opponents’ benches as well as anyone in the league. McGee was listed as “DNP – Illness,” which likely means the Cavs are holding him out so he doesn’t get hurt before they can trade him. Dylan Windler was abysmal in his first half five minutes, including a Shaqtin-a-fool level turnover on a nowhere pass to Cedi. Osman was 0-6 on the game, and Quinn Cook experiment also seemed over as he recorded a DNP against the Spurs.

In their place, two way players Lamar Stevens and Brodric Thomas played in the third and fourth quarters, and brought a ton of energy. We know who Stevens is at this point: an athletic and strong three/four who can attack the rack, score at times in the post, and get buckets with hustle and defense on the the o-boards or in transition. He struggles to shoot from distance and isn’t much of a creator. Brodric Thomas was an eye opener this game after playing a bit against Boston.

Stevens went 15/11/1 in 17 minutes while Thomas brought seven points and three assists and +16 in 16 minutes against the Spurs. Towards the end of the game when Cleveland repeatedly pressed and trapped, Thomas and Stevens were everywhere and really helped extend the game. As has been the case far too often, though, Cleveland had dug too big of a hole to overcome. When you’re down sixteen in the middle of the fourth, it’s just too hard to come back.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST107fknnvg

The Cavs were led by the brilliance of Darius Garland, who posted a career high 29, and cut the Spurs lead to 10 with five minutes left. Cleveland couldn’t get stops though against DeJonte Murray (22/6/3) and DeMar DeRozan (20/1/7) despite Sexton cutting the deficit to just eight with on consecutive possessions at the 3:13 and 2:37 marks. Credit the Cavs for playing out the string Brad Stevens style despite Patty Mills and Keldon Johnson extending things out to 13 at the 2:01 and 1:27 marks.

A Sexton putback of a Jarrett Allen free throw miss caused a Greg Popovich rage timeout at the 1:03 mark as the Cavs were within 10 again. Pop did what Pop does and drew up an out of bounds play to get Keldon Johnson a layup. (OK, that’s not exactly what happened, DeRozan fell down, the Cavs relaxed, and Johnson snuck in the back door). Cleveland still refused to quit.

Garland scored on a pair of freebies, and Cleveland forced two consecutive turnovers with steals from Thomas and Nance and converted them to buckets to go on a 6-0 run in 14 seconds to cut the Spurs lead to 109-103.

The Spurs weren’t going to keep turning it over, and the Cavs were forced to foul Derrick White for a couple free throws. Cleveland kept applying the pressure, and brilliant passes from Darius Garland gave Nance and Allen buckets sandwiched around a press-breaking Murray Layup to put Cleveland down four with just 16.6 left. The margin of error was so thin here though, and even after Keldon Johnson split a pair and Brodric Thomas hit a holy s***! left wing three, the Cavs were down four with just 8.9 seconds remaining. After two more Dejounte free throws, Larry Nance Jr. decided he’d had enough and went in for a finger roll instead of playing for the three and the steal, missed, and the game was over.

But that’s what we want: the Cavs to play hard. I’m ok if they lose when they do, and a part of me actually wants that, given the NBA’s stupid penchant for reward failure with lottery odds. We’re at least back to watching the Cavs compete and look like some of these guys might have a future instead of mailing in games against the Pelicans.

We’ve seen a lot in the last nine days: three decent to brilliant games by Garland and one bad one, while Sexton’s pitched in two brilliant games, an average one, and two stinkers. The stats show the difference.
Garland

Sexton

Garland doubling the assists and scoring just three fewer points per game despite shooting six fewer shots a game shows how Darius has really become the focal point of this Cavs offense when it’s at its most efficient. You’d like to see those turnovers tick down below a 2:1 ratio, but it feels like he’s really picking up steam with his play. That Darius is doing this with half the number of games in the NBA as Sexton has had is really impressive.

Meanwhile, the return of Larry Nance Jr. to the lineup has also helped Sexton and Garland tremendously. Nance’s ability to pass in the half court, ignite the break, and get deflections and blocks has really helped Sexton and Garland get into the open floor and get some easy looks as well as relieve some defensive pressure. It’s no coincidence that their play improved when he returned.

Struggling mightily since the return from the all-star Break has been Dylan Windler who has scored just three points in the last three games and with the emergence of Brodric Thomas is in danger of falling out of the rotation entirely. He just has no confidence right now, and appears to be hitting the rookie wall. At least he is working, but the critics are becoming unkind.

It's like 30 minutes since the game ended and #Cavs Dylan Windler is still on the court, rebounding for himself now, and shooting shots from all over the place. He's been in a big slump since that hot stretch.

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 20, 2021

Last night: Spurs beat the Cavs

Keldon Johnson — Dylan Windler
Pts: 23 — 0
Rebs: 21 — 2
Asts: 2 — 0
Tovs: 2 — 2
Stls: 1 — 0
Blks: 2 — 0
FG%: 47% — 0%
Plus-Minus: +12 — -6
Mins: 39 — 6

😅 I still like Windler, but this hurts just a little https://t.co/MntPC8qF7v

— Brayden Todd (@Bray__NBA) March 20, 2021

https://twitter.com/chat_pacers/status/1373347679804227591

The fact that the Cavs went with Windler after being projected to take Keldon Johnson two years ago did not go unnoticed by many a Cavs observer, and the line about the Spurs having the least draft capital in the last decade to the Cavs having the fifth most is the most damning indictment of this team’s management one could make. Fortunately, 2016 absolves all sins.

As noted, Keldon Johnson bullied the Cavs with a 23/21/2 performance Friday, including 11 offensive rebounds. Cleveland only lost the battle of the boards 51-47, and this was largely due to problems with the Cavs’ starting front court. The Cavs routinely fail to make a proper backside rotation and box out when Allen and Nance help on defense and it leads to a lot of offensive rebounds. The Cavs failed to gang rebound against the Spurs the way that they did against Boston, and it showed, especially with Spurs’ starting Center Jakob Poeltl spending much of the night on the bench with foul trouble. Nance, Garland, and Okoro combined for just eight defensive rebounds in 90 minutes. Okoro leaks a lot, but the Cavs have to find a way to gather defensive rebounds.

Okoro struggled against San Antonio, and played an uncharacteristic 22 minutes, as he repeatedly got rooked by the herky-jerky DeRozan who got quick fouls on him (some deserved, some not) throughout the night. Right or wrong, Okoro is getting a reputation as a guy who bites on fakes. It might be time to just let guys shoot over the top on anything other than help D until that reputation abates a bit. This is the lunatic in me, but I’d literally pay guys off the street to come in and run a drill to start training my defenders to start second fouling guys hard after flop and fake whistles. Coaches should be drilling players to give hard fouls on the arms and shoulders before an and-1 can come. When you bite on a pump fake and hear that whistle, get your money’s worth for that foul. Call it a buy-one-get one. There’s probably a reason I’m not an NBA coach. It’s also probably not in Okoro’s best interest to follow this advice.

Okoro’s up-and-down season continues, but no one has had a more up-and down season that Cedi Osman. Osman can be a solid bench guard, and has been the Cavs defacto backup point since Quinn Cook has fallen out of favor after the Pelicans game. (There’s a reason I’ve been referring to him as “Quinn Cooked.”) Anyway, when Osman is good, he’s a’ight, and when he’s bad he’s horrible. He’s the walking embodiment of the problem with averages.

Cedi Osman

Those 0-6 and 1-9 games just kill him, and his inability to finish consistently and his rushed shots really hurt him. Cedi has to slow down, but he’s one of the few Cavs that consistently plays with pace, even though it’s a pace he’s not all that good at. I get the feeling that if he was on a team where everyone played at his phrenetic pace all the time, he’d be so much better. People forget too, that Cedi’s still only in his fourth year. But yeah, Osman has to be better. Even if he is the Cavs’ only decent option at backup point guard, it doesn’t matter if even during that middle stretch of OK games he’s going 6-18 from the floor.

It’s going to hurt the Cavs’ bench if Javale McGee isn’t playing until a trade, as he’s the anchor on defensed, and weirdly on offense. Rational or not, he’s the only guy with enough confidence to consistently look for his shot. Dean Wade has been solid in stretches, but for every decent game he’s putting up a 2-7 night against the Spurs and missing wide open triples.

It will be interesting to see if Lamar Stevens takes over some backup forward minutes given that he has to be running out of days on his two-way. Yes, the Cavs will probably convert him at some point. With the trade deadline coming Thursday, I have to think that day is coming soon.

I think we all want to see more of Brodric Thomas, who’s been impressive as hell in three games, and has put Dylan Windler on the hot seat. The 24-year-old who was a redshirt senior at division II Truman State has had three separate G-League call-ups this year for Toronto, Hoston, and now Cleveland. Further, he’s got length, a super quick release, and seems to play some rangy defense. His G-League Stats are impressive too.

Brodric Thomas G-League stats

Thomas doesn’t seem to be a solid free throw shooter, but he’s a willing and aggressive three point shooter, which is something the Cavs need. His Truman State senior year accomplishments are legit.

2019-20: The senior went out with a bang as he had one of the best individual seasons in Truman history. Thomas racked up four GLVC Player of the Week awards (11/25, 12/2, 1/27, 2/10) as well as numerous other awards–GLVC Player of the Year (first Bulldog to win the award since Mike Carlson in 2013-14), GLVC All-Tournament Team and Tournament MVP, named First Team All-Region D2CCA and to NABC All-District Team…set a new Truman record with 666 points in a season and was fifth in Truman history in scoring average at 21.5 points per game…also fourth with 228 field goals made in a season as well as fifth in attempts with 459…notched four double-doubles (22 points and 12 rebounds at William Jewell 1/2, 27 points and 12 rebounds vs UMSL 2/8–finished two assists short of a triple-double, 32 points and 14 rebounds against UIndy 3/7, and 25 points 10 rebounds vs UMSL 3/8)…led team with 83 three pointers which ranked sixth in the GLVC and his .417 percentage from downtown was sixth in the conference; 83 made treys was tied for fourth most in a single season in Truman history…his season high in points came in the regular season finale at Missouri S&T in which he scored 34 points, one short of his career high…finished his career with 1,500 points which is fifth in program history, as well as fifth in scoring average with 18.8 points per game…finished his career fourth in blocked shots with 84 and tenth in steals with 128…286 assists is ninth in program history.

Could Thomas be the next Christian Wood? The next guy who came from out of nowhere to become an NBA success story? While Wood came out of high school and worked his way to NBA stardom, Thomas has a DII pedigree, but has shown an impressive ability to adapt on the fly to three different NBA orgs, and has impressed when thrown into the fire. I can’t wait to see more.

The Cavs take on Toronto tonight at seven, and Kevin Love may be playing again? More updates at game time. We’ll see how much he plays in an attempt to generate trade interest, and if McGee plays tonight.

Back at it again 👊 pic.twitter.com/WdVUM55oFs

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 21, 2021

Finally, let’s hope that the Jarrett Allen we saw before the All-Star break returns at some point soon here. McGee hasn’t seemed the same player from a conditioning, explosiveness, and finishing perspective that we saw before the break.

Here’s the stretch since becoming a starter, and here’s the stretch after the All-Star break. Is he nursing an injury? Or just playing back into shape after a lazy fortnight off?

Jarrett Allen

He’s certainly not touching the ball as much, and that should change. Let’s hope it does tonight.

*all stats from www.basketball-reference.com