Recap: Cavs 98, Nuggets 88 (or “I love it when you call me Big(s) Papa”)
2013-12-05
The Cavaliers rode a balance of front court dominance and Kyrie Irving… er, Kyrie Irving-ance to put some scuff on the gleaming Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets, winners of seven straight heading into Wednesday night’s contest and one of the league’s fastest paced teams, were held to 39.1% shooting. Their leading-scorer Ty Lawson was bottled up scoring only four points on 1-13 shooting, more than 16 points below his season average. For the Cavs, Irving led all scorers with 23 points, but the key to Cleveland’s first relatively stress-free fourth quarter was the trio of Tristan Thompson, Andrew Bynum and Anderson Varejao, who combined for 49 points and 41 rebounds.
Cavs’ First Winning Streak of the Season Bullets:
-Okay, let’s get this out of the way. What is going on with Varejao’s facial hair? I mean, that’s all any of you could think about during the game, right? It wasn’t Andy rediscovering his bolting cuts to the basket, his post game or his continually money elbow jumper. It was whatever that bizarre thing he’s got going on in the upper-lip/chin region. I know. I get it. But, please, trust me. If you look past some of the poorest manicuring decisions this side of Drew Gooden, you’ll see Varejao’s first full game as the Andy of old. He was active and incredibly effective offensively to the tune of 18 points (on 7-9 shooting) to go along with 13 rebounds, three assists, three blocks, two steals and only one turnover. No, this man is not just a collection of mismanaged facial follicles. When he’s playing like he did tonight — like he played in his abbreviated tenure last year — he is one of the most intelligent, entertaining players in the league. Period. But, seriously. Shave.
-Thompson followed up his solid 14/14 game against Chicago with an even more impressive 17 point and career-best 21 rebound game. He added three blocks (which, we all know by now, is gravy when it comes to a solid TT outing) and went 5-6 from the free throw line. For those of you scoring at home, Thompson is now hitting 75% of his free throws. That’s a 15% increase from last season. Thompson also showed an increased understanding of where he should be to grab rebounds when Bynum shoots the ball. Sure, the Cavs front line was matched against the mostly undersized Nuggets starters of Kenneth Faried (6′ 8″) and former Cavalier heartthrob J.J. Hickson (6′ 9″), but that was the same mostly undersized Nuggets front line that ran the very tall Brooklyn bigs into a wall the night before. We should all take this game with a grain of whatever, but two above-solid games from Thompson against the active bigs of the Bulls and the Nuggets can’t be anything but a good sign (yes, unless, of course, it is no sign at all…).
-Bynum was effective again going for 14 points and seven rebounds in just 20 minutes. He was showing some very nifty moves against both the smaller Hickson on the somewhat equally sized Timofey Mozgov early, but Varejao was just so effective against this Nuggets team that Mike Brown had the luxury of leaning much less on Bynum than he did on Saturday against the Bulls.
-We’ll probably want to mention Dion Waiters. After coming off three straight 20-plus games, Waiters took a backseat scoring the ball, hitting only 2-8 shots for five points. But he did grab four rebounds and dish out six assists (against only two turnovers). Outside of his first touch of the game, a long two-pointer off a rare feed from Irving that missed just as we all knew it would, Waiters looked to manage the game more this time out. He passed up several chances to drive to the hoop choosing, instead, to try to set up one of his teammates. What you have to wonder with Waiters, though, is is there anything in between? Can he be a consistent scorer in this league while also being a player who can handle the ball, manage a tight game and make his teammates better. He’s shown us he can do both, but rarely can he do the basketball equivalent of walking and chewing gum at the same time (okay, okay… yes, that’s extremely reductive of the ability it takes to do all of the things I’ve just listed on an NBA level. Maybe, walking and… damn, that’s the best I’ve got.).
-I don’t have a ton to say about Irving. He got his 23 points on 9-20 shooting, but only shot three free throws (he hit all three) and dished out four assists. We’re getting close, Kyrie. But, like with Dion, there’s a certain roundness to the game that’s eluding many of your performances this season. Your bigs get 49 points, but you only get four assists on those? Still, Irving’s understanding of setting the pace of the game seems to be his biggest step forward in the last several games. We saw it against Miami and again against Chicago. Irving’s trying to speed up this team and, so far, it’s led to the team’s most competitive stretch of the season (yes, Boston excluded).
Ten Words or Less:
-I could get behind Jack-Waiters-Bennett-Thompson-Varejao unit.
-Miles is a more complete player than given credit for.
-Thompson had nine rebounds in the first quarter.
-Cavs roster versatility finally showed up tonight.
-Only 12 turnovers makes Mike Brown defense look good.
-Next up: Hawks on Friday. [Note: Thanks to readers for catching the previous mistake.] [Other Note: Notes do not count against my ten words, in case you were wondering.] [Third Note: I know you were wondering.]
after this game kyrie will be averaging 19 points on 39% shooting on 19 shots a game
disregarding the game against washington, since moving to the bench dion is averaging 18 points on 52.3% shooting 3rebs 3 assists 3 tos on 12.5 shots a game in about 28 minutes a game.
I’ve noticed that Dion’s decision making is outstanding when he gets lots of touches. He’s willing to pass and move the ball. He knocks down the open looks he gets and then takes it to the basket when defenders rush out to get him. It’s when he’s being frozen out that he plays one on one and takes bad shots. I also noticed that Kyrie plays really well when he gets lots of “second” touches. He gets double teamed when dribbling . . . so when he gives it up and it comes back with a single defender on him… Read more »
@rodney mac – that is very insightful point. good post.
i do think KI grew accustomed to”hero ball” in his first two year because that was actually our best strategy. it worked for the team and it earned him fame. now that we have more talent and a different system he needs to adapt. i think his heart is int he right place and he will sort it out, but he clearly is struggling with his identity right now. tough transition for him.
Rodney Mac: dead on. I always say to my friends, “if we could put Dion’s mind and heart in Kyrie’s body…”
Btw, back to Nate and Grover’s complaints about Bennett. Here’s from an article I read today: “To recap: Bennett has shot a respectable 47.1 percent from the field in his last four games, rebounds better than All-Stars Marc Gasol and Chris Bosh and has the same defensive rating as a former Defensive Player of the Year. (See, small sample sizes can work in Bennett’s favor just as they do against him!).”
Do there’s that…
Dion shows point guard like knowledge sometimes. I mentioned this above, but after Bennett hit that three, the next possession down Bennett had decent post position and Dion made it a priority to get Bennett the ball. Little things like that separate good players from great players. Kyrie does this sometimes, but when he plays hero ball his only focus becomes scoring. Once this year did he defer to someone and that was in the bulls game when he let Bynum get the last touch in that game. Bynum missed, but atleast it wasnt hero ball.
The reason some of the commentators like Dion more than KI is dion seems to be trying to become the best player he can and KI seems to care more about being the player with the best handle’s or Mr. clutch or whatever Uncle Drew is. Dion will make the pass if he sees it. Sometimes he’ll take a bad shot when he doesn’t see a better option and he needs to work on that but it looks like he working on that. That handoff to Bennett was a nice read. Push the defense in and hit the trailer. A… Read more »
Anyone else notice that jack doesn’t seem to know the plays when he’s playing the 2. There were at least 3 plays where he cut the wrong way or didn’t know where to be on called set plays
Free Cols714!!!
I’m still here, but you need to unban me.
Jon, we shouldn’t expect Kyrie to play like Michael jordan, but If we expect to be a contender, we should expect him to be at least as good as if not better than he was last year, and so far he has regressed pretty significantly outside of assists and defense, which is still bad but no longer awful, and occasionally it is decent. If we are going to be a contender, Kyrie needs to be the superstar he looked destined to be the first 2 years of his career and not the average talent me first player we are getting… Read more »
Looking at last night’s Chicago whipping Miami puts a sunnier perspective on these two wins. Da Bulls are still a quality team, Denver is a quality team. There has been some ball movement back to the weak side, not as much as good teams do, but some. Bynum and Andy can really help with that movement because they do look around and will pass. When players stop dribbling into the trap in the strongside corner then we might really see a difference.
Jon, no one ever dissects Kyrie ever. People on this blog make it heir duty to count the number of mid range shots which Dion takes. We should have higher expectations for Kyrie. You should never settle or be fine with a player regressing. Kyrie is not playing up to his ability so far. Even this past game, Kyrie started 7-11 and managed to go 2-9 in the second half.
Haha someone is proposing we are too easy on Dion and too hard on Kyrie… I think it’s the other way around, can’t recall the last time someone brought up the number of bad shots in a game specifically, but after every game it is a point to mention exactly how many bad shots he put up that night… Dion has never had a free pass, especially on this blog.
I’m not looking to pick on Dion. I’m just asking why he always gets a break when Kyrie’s every mistake is dissected. When Dion misses a shot it’s because the refs were unfair or it just barely bounced out. Let’s stop making excuses for him, the same way some have proposed we stop making excuses for Kyrie. Dion shot awesome against Chicago, yes, and poorly against Denver. I think the mainstream media doesn’t give him enough credit, but if he has a bad shooting game it’s okay to say so. And just because Kyrie went to the All Star Game… Read more »
Good call Underdog. It’s not an either/or thing with Dion and Kyrie. And Robert, I hope my correction didn’t come off as snarky. I liked the post. Just pointing out one little mistake. I should be more tactful.
Jon, Dion SHOT 80% THE GAME BEFORE ON DOUBLE-DIGIT FGA!! My god, I think one could accuse the Dion haters as the ones that ignore the good! Like last night, yes, he shot it poorly but lead the team in assists and was second in plus/minus. This is impacting a game when your shot in not falling. This is to be celebrated for a young player who just played his like 84th career game not to accentuate the negative…
Finally, one would think from watching games that Jarrett Jack is no friend of Anthony Bennett’s.
from another blog –
“Anthony Bennett’s per 36 the last 5 Gs before this one was 12 pt and 8 reb 40%-ish. Not great but about what people expected coming into yr”
7:43 PM – 4 Dec 2013
Fairly meaningless because he’s not really doing much . . . but suggests a changing paradigm from the 1 for 20 (or 30) start.
In the win against the Bulls, we got 39 pts from Dion & Kyrie in the back court (Recall Kevin’s usage article). In the win against the Nuggets, we got 49 pts from 3 bigs, and dominated the offensive boards. It looks like we’re getting to the place where we can beat teams by playing to our match up strengths. Didn’t we all know that Dion would be inconsistent early in his career? Didn’t we know Dion would have games where he’d bust loose for 24 pts, followed by games with 8 pts? And don’t we know that – over… Read more »
Yes, thank you. Hawks on Friday. Change is made.
Kyrie barely shot below 50% last night. He shot a much better percentage than his season average. He also played good defense. He needs to play better, but last night was at least somewhat encouraging. Let’s look at his whole game and not just the 4th quarter.
Also, I’m not trying to bash Waiters, but some people are all SEE I TOLD YOU SO when he has a good shooting game, and ignore nights when he shoots 25% or worse.
Anyways, I hope we can at least all agree that Jarrett Jack takes too many long 2s.
How bad is Nate, always pointing out the obvious that Bennett is bad and not letting anyone be happy that Bennett wasn’t horrible yesterday. Yes, he’s bad, we all know. And Jon, Kyrie has shot over 50% in just a single game this year, it was disheartening to watch his hero ball at the end of the game allow that truely shocking and disheartening trend to continue. Yeah, Dion shot 2-8, but he also had more assists and rebounds than Kyrie and yes, his expectations are lower. They should be, he hasn’t been to an all-star game and is a… Read more »
There is a learning curve for both Waiters and Irving on being able to manage the game and still shoot effectively, especially Waiters who is a streaky shooter, thus it is hard to get on a hot streak when you are looking to dish to other players. Personally I will be happy if he is consistently one or the other the rest of the year and doesn’t have any games where he is neither. His 6 assists is impressive especially in light of the few that were left on the table because of missed layups and fouls on the layup… Read more »
Jake, his lay-up would not have been blocked because he got it up super-quickly. Again, adapting to the speed of the game.
Tom, I miss Col cuz we we’re staunch allies! ;)
Anyone else really miss cols? Remember when he live-commented while he was listening to one of our podcasts?
I agree with Nate, Bennett hit an open three(omg yay!) and made a driving layup. Nothing to write home about, but his conditioning looks better. I think one of the positives of Bennett moving to the three is his size advantage in the post. I feel if Bennett was being guarded by a 4 on his driving layup it would’ve been blocked.
Really, Nate and Grover? Really? You saw nothing offensively from him to build on? Oh and I’d say his plus/minus was a pretty significant “contribution” to the box score. Jesus, it has been so tiresome over these last few years to have to argue with the lazy, cynical posters about TT, Dion and now Bennett. Yet clearly it is not going to end even though those same posters (and mods) have been mostly wrong when it comes to TT and Dion. I also don’t understand what people don’t understand about upside. Faired had limited upside. TT did not. Barnes had… Read more »
Guys like Bennett are always going to be behind guys like Fournier.
I agree Nate….getting excited about a box score like Bennett had last night show how friggin desperate we all are to see something…ANYTHING….positive from him.
RE Bennett: it was the first game where he didn’t look like he was going to release his bowels all over the floor. A couple nice moves in the post and a jumper in rhythm IS progress at this point. Defensively though ARGH….he was about 6 steps behind Fournier on one hedge and recover play. Watching him scamper back was great comedy though
How bad is Bennett, that we’re celebrating a 2-5, five point outing, with absolutely no other contributions to the box score, as his best game of the season?
“-Next up: Clippers.”
Cavs play Hawks on Friday.
Also, Kyrie had a good game. It’s okay to nitpick, but let’s also give him some credit. No one cares when Dion shoots 2-8, but Kyrie is expected to play like LeBron James every night.
I am not as thrilled with Kyrie cuz I saw a while bunch of over-dribbling leading to wasted possessions in the late 4th. Also when Kyrie came in in the 4th he froze Dion out for like 4 straight possessions. That unit without Bynum in the 4th worries me cuz Kyrie is still looking to hero ball it… However, this was our first real glimpse of the Cavs as versatile, tough match-up we have seen this season. That is with Miles missing everything too! I thought Bynum got fouled a lot but got few calls. Like Shaq, he is so… Read more »
Great recap, Robert. Really liked the game, it it was awesome to see the Cavs take advantage of scheduling (the Nuggets being on the back-end of a two-nighter) and also to see them get some love from the refs. It feels like the Cavs were due in both those departments. The points about turnovers were spot on. As been apparent all year, if the Cavs can stop turning it over, their offensive rebounding will be very hard to counter. I really liked the fire from Bynum, especially in the third quarter. And that flagrant was pretty bogus. It was a… Read more »
I’m all about the “stress-free 4th quarter” (relatively or not)…I would’ve punched a wall if we lost the Chicago game…so many games (last season) lost in the 4th.
Almost all the credit goes to Defense and Rebounding. I’m not sure if the defense will be able to keep it up, but with Andy, TT, and Bynum, we should be winning the rebounding battle nearly every game. Glad to see we had focus there, but I don’t know why we haven’t been winning that for the majority of the year.
Cavs fans are so up and down. On the last podcast it was mentioned TT has no trade value. How can anyone think Varejao ever had trade value and not think TT has trade value. At his age TT is lightyears ahead of what Varejao was. We went from TT having no ceiling to having no trade value. We should make zero judgments until early Jan. If this early season showed us anything it is that getting the 7 or 8 seed would spell very bad things for this teams future. This team is in the horrible land of mediocrity… Read more »
OH yes agree Cody. I kept yelling in last 2 mins. No Hero Ball Kyrie. You got this!
I was doing some serious fist pumping when Bennett scored his two baskets. That’s something that can be built on!
Let’s also give them credit for passing the ball more late in the game, instead going hero-ball to close out like they did in New Orleans.
The other good sign is that the Cavs won a game by double digits and Brown limited Varejao and Bynum to under 30 minutes.
My takeaways from last night: In that 3rd quarter, Andrew Bynum looked quasi-unstoppable in the post against single coverage. That is exciting. Kyrie Irving is begrudingly working hard on the defensive end on every possession. He looks like Uncle Drew when he gets screened (his back contorts and he looks like he’ll need an extra icy-hot patch) but, for the most part, Fly Paper Picks seem to be a thing of the past regime. Before Mike Brown, the Cavs probably would have lost this game. Offensively they scored less in each quarter and managed only 42 points in the second… Read more »
I loved the defensive effort. On FTS, they praised team defense, and while I thought the team defense was great, individually Dion, Kyrie, and Jack were great. The only few times I remember our guys getting beat is by a few crazy Nate Robinson Layups. @Rodney Mac I think the reason why he kept in Jack especially long tonight was because of his defense. He had a sequence where he had like three blocks in two possessions. It’s nice to see this team win without Dion, Kyrie, or Jack playing at their full potential offensively. It;s really interesting to see… Read more »
I know we have all been bashing Brown (me included), but I think his experimentation with rotations has led to the higher quality ball we have seen the last two games – he now has two units that make a lot of sense and are both very good. That first unit, with Gee becoming a more consistent 3 shooter and with Bynum asserting himself download, is really well balanced now. And shifting Dion to the second unit with Andy really makes that unit dynamic. And I like Bennett and Clark combo there as well. Brown said after the game his… Read more »
Two bullets: 1. The officiating was very much in our favor tonight w/ Andy being the primary benefactor. Several touch fouls on Miller & Fournier as well, while Bynum was throwing bows all night. Over an 82 game season it will go both ways, so nice to see one break for the good guys. 2. Pre season, one of our biggest (supposed) strengths was going to be our Offensive rebounding. When you turn the ball over as much as we have, that completely negates this strength. I remember in LY’s playoffs, the easiest baskets Miami would give up were on… Read more »
Most of the Cavs big points came through Bynum or on offensive rebounds, which is why their assists were so low. Andy was the only Cav really shooting well (TT had a nice night as well) but it was the rebounds that won them this game. They just crushed an average rebounding team all night long. One note- Clark had a really good game. He was only out there for 14 mins, but he was very solid and didn’t do his dumb dribble drive turnover. 4 rebounds, 2 blocks, 3 points, barely notice him. He is steadily turning into a… Read more »
Great game. One thing that keeps driving me nuts though is how much he plays Jack. Especially with Gee. They just don’t provide enough shooting (or driving ability) to play them both at the same time for extended stretches especially closing out games and halves. Reminds me of when Brown would play Snow Newble and Varejo at the same time way back when
Finally a great game to watch! I loved how Bynum has shown glimpse of enjoying to play basketball and being dominant over players like JJ. And they are actually going after offensive rebounds!! Can’t believe Andre Miller is still around. and OH YEAH you know TT wanted to show up Faried tonight. A little gotcha back from All Stars I think. LoL I am wondering though about Kyrie’s interviews lately?? Does he seem somewhat snarky when asked about good his team mates are doing? Or is it just me.? Very robotic answers and how he expects them to play like… Read more »
Next up, Atlanta