Recap: Cleveland 110, Denver 101 (or, Doing What You’re Supposed to do Works)

The Cavs won. There will be no three game losing streak and no mass media panic about the state of the team. The King looked exactly like the best player in the game does. He did whatever he wanted the whole night. During the first quarter, he wanted to get guys easy shots, so he passed to get six assists. During the second quarter, he wanted to score a little bit. He played some iso ball, missed shots, and finally scored four in a row. During the third quarter, he wanted to keep the Cavs momentum going, so he made two layups. One of them utilized a spin move, which mesmerized the Nuggets so much they relaxed defensively. In the fourth quarter, Kevin Love was tired, so whenever it was possible LeBron switched onto Love’s man and defended anyone posting up. He then sealed the game with two layups at the end to make sure the Nuggets couldn’t win. The King finished the game with 22 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds. He made sure the Cavs didn’t trail at all after going up by two points in the beginning of the first quarter.

1st Quarter: Every single person watching this quarter was witnessing a David Blatt dream. The Cavs moved the ball astonishingly well. Every single man was moving even if they weren’t involved with the initial pick and roll or a cut to the rim. The Cavs had six assists on their first seven field goals. Early in the action, Anderson Varejao went to the line on two consecutive possessions just from running hard to the rim and facilitating great ball movement. Tristan Thompson got some offensive rebounding tip in foul points and even received a half court lob from The King. He threw the hammer down with such ease that it was if he were throwing a marble down. Austin Carr was proud, I’m sure.

Defensively, the Cavs shut Denver down. The Nuggets shot 32% and had to rely on Randy Foye making a tough eight points to not be down by 26.

Dion was definitely shot jacking, but he drove to the rim extremely hard. With four seconds left in the quarter, he turned on his rocket boots and shot towards the rim, but then Darrell Arthur turned into a missile defense system that decided to push Dion out of the sky. No one ran to sucker punch Arthur, but Thompson ran to Dion. The Neon Man somehow made that layup and missed his second flagrant 2 continuation free throw. Arthur made a walk to the locker room because he earned an ejection.

Dion got hacked a second later when the Cavs rebounded his missed foul shot, and he cut to the rim. He sank one of the free throws. Shawn Marion had eight points in the quarter, while Andy had nine points, Love had six points, and LeBron had six assists. Cavs up, 38-20.

2nd Quarter: The Cavs defense started a little sloppy and allowed Danilo Gallinari and Foye to score a quick five points, but the Cavs weathered that burst. Tristan made a driving layup and then saved a pass under the rim by jumping to it and whipping it out to the wing. The ball then found its way to Handy Andy who passed to Irving then slithered into the lane to get an easy two points. Midway through the quarter the Cavs offense sputtered when LeBron turned into iso-machine 2.0. (Dion is version 1.0.) LeBron missed four non-consecutive shots, although they were sort of warranted. Timofey Mozgov kept getting switched onto him. Denver went on a 7-2 run around this time to get within nine. LBJ didn’t feel that was civilized and hit a driving layup off a quick rebound outlet pass. He then hit a three right after Joe Harris stole the ball the next play. The Cavs ended the quarter up, 58-45.

3rd Quarter: Kyrie got a quick six points in two minutes. And, the Cavs were up by 15 as Denver called a panic timeout at the 10:06 mark. The Good Guys played solid offense, and Kyrie made sure to keep guys involved. He found Andy cutting to the rim at a crazy angle where the Sideshow had to contort under the hoop to sink a reverse layup. Foye kept the Nuggets in this quarter. He kept driving and getting into the paint where he made the right decisions to earn four assists that led to eight points. At the 3:15 mark, LeBron brought the ball up and just drove into Danilo Gallinari for an and-1. Ganilo looked like a super ball being cranked of a softball bat/LeBron’s biceps . The King came down the court the following play and pirouetted int a spin move that made me giggle like a teenage girl. The Randy man finished the quarter with two threes to cut the Cavs lead to just 14. Love had six points out of the post. Nuggets down, 85-71.

4th Quarter: Mike Miller opened the quarter with his first three pointer as a Cavalier. The lineup to start this quarter was weird: Miller, Marion, Thompson, Dion, and Irving. That lineup didn’t last long. Alonzo Gee burned the Cavs at the rim two times in a row for four points of one made basket and two free throws. Then the Wine & Gold had a twenty four second violation from over-passing before Foye got Jusuf Nurkic two points on a roll to the rim. Denver was down by just nine at this point, so the Cavs called a timeout. LeBron came out of the TO hot and scored four unanswered points. Erick Green of the Nuggets then responded with four points. The Nuggets got within six points with four minutes left, but Neon Dion sank two shots in row to stem the run. Foye chucked a long three to get Denver within seven around the one minute mark, but LeBron came through down the stretch taking the ball to the rack two times in a row to seal the game. The quarter seemed like it was always in the Cavs control, and although they let a large lead slip a little, it seemed to be the result of fatigue and not poor play.

Thoughts

1. The Cavs moved the ball beautifully. They were truly Spursian at times. They did play iso ball at times too, but it was more effective because guys felt they didn’t have to score in order to keep the team in the game. Denver couldn’t game plan for it. The Cavs had 25 assists. In the first quarter, the Cavs had nine assists, but if Tristan and Andy could have converted their rolls to the rim, the team would have had 12 assists. Irving managed four assists. He took 11 shots the whole game and was trying to create off of pick and rolls.

2. This is a dirty play that’s good. Irving dribbled the ball like it was a yo-yo before putting in a layup with Denver collapsing around him during the third quarter

Dion just loves the 19 foot jumper.

3. This is a dirty play that’s bad. Arthur pushed Dion out of the sky for no reason. Dion had a weird night. He shot 6-14 for 17 points. He took far too many mid-range shots. If he could cut those shots out of his game, he could be one of Blatt’s favorite players. Each midrange shot is not in the game plan and typically involves Waiters just stopping a drive to the rim short to shoot the ball. Waiters had two clutch shots in the fourth quarter, including this momentum changing dunk.

4.The offense is utilizing off-ball cutters much more. Every pick and roll seemed to be accompanied by someone attempting a baseline cut or moving to the corner for an open three. It resulted in some great assists. Here’s a my favorite sequence.

5. Marion has trouble dunking these days. On more than one occasion he went up for what appeared to be a dunk and then had to finger roll the shot in. He had a good day though shooting 4-6 to get ten points.

6. Kevin Love is finally getting touches where he likes them. He was posting a lot outside of the paint area on the left and right hand sides about ten feet from the hoop. Love got fouled often from this spot and sank his shots. He shot 0-5 from the three line, which obscures his shooting line of 6-16 for 19 points.

7. TT and Andy are so great at rolling to the rim and being where they need to be. Three of Thompson’s four made shots were assisted on while all six of Andy’s six made shots were assisted on.

8. The Cavs defense played so much better because people covering the ball handler on pick and rolls reacted and fought over picks much more quickly. This allowed the big man trying to slow the ball handler down to take one less step away from the pick and not take as much time to recover to his defensive assignment; that let the back line rotation just bump the roll man (as opposed to covering him) without being too deep in the paint to return to the person they were originally covering. Less crazy rotations left less guys open tonight.

9. At the end of the game, Love was gassed. Blatt was letting him switch on pick and rolls, so LeBron would end up on the big man in the paint. This resulted in a few of the Randy Foye points and Wilson Chandler points in the fourth quarter.

10. Foye is a phenomenal scorer. He blew by Waiters, Joe Harris, and Irving without the help of a pick. Randy actually seemed better at getting into the lane when he didn’t have to make a turn around a pick . His six points at the end of the third quarter were a big part of why the Nuggets were able to get within six of the Cavs in the fourth. His four assists in the fourth quarter also kept Denver’s offense from becoming stagnant when outrageous shots weren’t going in.

11. The Cavs really hustled down the court on fast breaks. Oftentimes, even after some makes, four white uniforms were under the rim before the Nuggets made it down the court.

12. The numbers tonight were great. Seven Cavs scored over ten points, and the Great Guys had just eight turnovers for the night. The Nuggets shot only 37% during the first half. For the game, they shot 47.1%. Utah shot 50.7% against the Cavs. There is improvement happening.

13. LeBron is leading by example. On defense he was in a ready stance, and he was continually fighting for the ball. Look at this play where he lost the ball. He was trying to will it back. I love that type of intensity.

14. Mike Miller had two open looks during the first quarter and just couldn’t sink them. The Cavs really need him to convert any threes he gets, and he only made one of four for the night. The team shot 26% from behind the three line.

15. Blatt is still playing the Big Three too much. LeBron and Irving both played nearly forty minutes.

16. Neon Dion stayed in the locker room for the National Anthem at the game in Utah for religious reasons he told the Northeast Ohio Media Group. He has decided to rededicate himself to his Muslim faith. Dion stood next to the team during the national anthem against the Nuggets, but he doesn’t want to talk about it.

“I don’t really want to talk about that, my religion,” he said. “I don’t really want to talk about that. I want to talk about basketball.”

Conclusion:

When I got home from work, just twenty minutes before tip-off, I walked into my apartment to find that my girlfriend had bought us a new TV. I also predicted/bet the Cavs would lose tonight. The Cavs won handily. Did christening the new TV with the Cavs and betting against them have something to do with this win? I’m not sure, but if I find out it did, you can bet I’ll buy a new TV for any game sevens of the playoffs.

The Cavs most likely won because they were the better team.  They executed their offense and defense perfectly to take advantage of a Nuggets team missing their best player, Ty Lawson. This was the game the King’s Men needed. It helps a ton to see what you can be even if its against a poor opponent.