Recap: Cavaliers 98, Magic 89(Or, Just Keep Doing That)
2014-12-26
The Cavaliers climbed back from a mild deficit to defeat a young Orlando Magic squad. The Magic have some fantastic pieces with which to work, but without a dominant player, and very short on shooting, they struggle to finish games. This one was no different. Orlando scorched the nets in the first quarter setting a season high in points and percentage. Cleveland took the body blows and rallied behind the strong performances of LeBron James, Dion Waiters and Kevin Love.
1st Quarter: With Kyrie out with a bum knee, Matthew Dellavedova started at point guard. The game started sloppily with both teams committing silly turnovers on their opening possessions. The Magic broke the early seal as Tobias Harris caught LeBron napping on a weakside flash to the middle. It is always jarring to see another wing player with LeBron’s size, power and speed. Harris is obviously not as skilled as LeBron, but he matches up physically as well as anyone in the league. King James displayed that skill level disparity as he split the pick on roll on back to back possessions. The first led to a drive and kick to Kevin Love for three. The following trip down, LeBron channeled his inner Uncle Drew by throwing some ridiculous english off glass.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TML8fg4qRc#t=33s
Unfortunately, when James didn’t drive off PnR action, he held the ball. Someone needs to remind the Cavaliers that the triple threat position isn’t threatening if you give the defense time to zone up the strong side. Time after time LeBron and Kevin Love received the ball on the block extended only to stop all ball movement. Though both players were able to convert some tough jumpers, neither did any damage going to the bucket.
Defensively, Cleveland dared the Magic to shoot from the outside. The Cavs went under every PnR and sagged off ball screens. Against the first Magic unit, it was effect. When Evan Fournier and Channing Frye checked in, it was less so. Victor Oladipo consistently hurt the Cavs with swift off ball cuts to the rim. He also had a nasty layup after rejecting a massive double screen. Nice stuff.
Kevin Love had it going early and finished the period with 13 points. Blatt subbed Marion for Love at the 4:27 mark, before bringing Love back to spell Tristan. The offense stalled during Love’s absence. Meanwhile, the Magic had 16 paint points and shot a sizzling 72% from the floor. Still two And 1s from Kevin and Dion and a great charge taken by AJ Price kept the Cavs close. After one, 32-27 Magic.
Point Guard Pointing
2nd Quarter: Cleveland started the second quarter with Price, Dion, Miller, Marion, and Love. Waiters gave a taste of what was to come with an easy dunk off an inbound play. Dion clearly was in attack mode from the opening tip, but the second quarter displayed the kind of talent that teases his apologists and critics alike. He picked up a technical after arguing a no call on his only miss of the quarter. The rest of the quarter, and really the first half in general, was an ode to Dion’s smart offense. Waiters went four for five in the paint mixing sweet hesitation dribbles with mini euro steps. If the shot wasn’t there, he whipped the ball out to the perimeter for three ball opportunities. At the 7:47 mark, he split a PnR trap, pass faked to the perimeter and netted a sweet tear drop in the lane. It was a thing of beauty.
The Magic fought off Dion’s brilliance in the first part of the quarter with a barrage from Ben Gordon. He can’t win the “Random Bench Dude Who Torches the Cavs” award for the night. He will never by random after his 2009 playoff performance. But Mike Miller had no shot at stopping him. Blatt called a quick time out, sent Delly in the game, and the flame was extinguished.
The Cavaliers’ defense stiffened and Dion, Miller, Matrix, Love and TT produced a 16-6 run, eventually knotting the game at 45 a piece. Love had 17 and Dion rocked 13 first half points. However, Dewayne Dedmon was working his tail off on both ends for the Magic. His baseline jumper ended the first half scoring at 53-49 Magic.
3rd Quarter: David Blatt made a point to get LeBron a post touch on the opening possession of the third quarter. It resulted in an missed open three from Mike Miller. Missed open threes became the theme of the period as the Cavs missed six WIDE OPEN bombs. Kevin Love and Mike Miller did convert a few. On one hilarious YMCA possession(1:46 of above video), Mike caught a feed in the corner, upfaked, took the slowest oldest side dribble I have seen in an NBA game, and drained from deep. This game could have gotten ugly very quickly for the Magic. LeBron was firing cross court pellets setting up great looks. Delly drive and kicked to uncontested shooters. Had the Cavs been in the least bit hot, the game would have been over in a few minutes.
Instead, it required a bit more work. Vucevic picked up his offensive scoring game. Oladipo had a sick jam in transition with ‘Bron in the frame. The Magic had good energy until the middle of the quarter when the Cavs turned up the D. LeBron gave the wine and gold their first lead since the opening quarter at 4:41 when he stole a cross court pass and finished a strong man’s And 1. To the Magic’s credit, they responded with a quick 9-0 run to push the lead back to 74-65. Cleveland converted their foul shots(Delly had his first foul shots of the season!!!) in the bonus to cut the deficit to 71-75 heading to the fourth.
4th quarter: Cleveland began the quarter with Dion, Delly, Miller, Matrix, and Tristan. The unit started with good bounce. A putback from TT and a nice dish and finish from old timers Miller and Matrix tied it up at 75. After a wild post heave from Marion, LeBron checked back in for the veteran. The very next possession the Cavs stole the rock. Bron’s subsequent dunk turned the Magic’s 15th turnover into the Cavs’ 19th such point.
David Blatt decided to ride this lineup. LeBron got his mid-range step back game going and the defensive pressure intensified. With only one true big on the floor in Tristan, the defense relied on switch and swarm. Dion played some of his finest defense of the season stripping Tobias Harris on the block and snuffing out a Fournier drive to the rim. Delly seems fully recovered from his flu. He navigated screens well, following the directive to go under all PnR involving Oladipo.
LeBron continued to orchestrate on offense with pinpoint cross-court passes leading to open threes or driving lanes. Dion lost his hot stroke around the rim, but a missed layup counted as a “Kobe assist” for a Tristan And 1. Seriously, how many times have I written that? The Cavaliers converted at least five old fashioned three point plays. A left corner three from Mike Miller pushed the lead to 84-80 and Cleveland cruised from there.
Thoughts: Kevin Love played a nice game defending Vucevic in the post. His 13 first quarter points were huge. Yes, it might be considered weird that he didn’t play in the fourth quarter, but Love still played 33 minutes and dropped 22. He could have made more of the many open three attempts. I would happily never see his arms crossed in front of him again. I sometime question whether he can shoot with his left hand. Still, he had a nice night.
cat meme? oh no
LeBron was a bit sleepy at times on the defensive end. He lost Harris on weakside cuts, and was late in PnR recovery. But, in the second half, Bron completely dominated. He passed to whomever he wanted. He drilled from mid-range off the bounce. He converted roughly 534 And 1 opportunities. I both love and hate his high-stepping.
Tristan had a quiet game as a starter, but played a very solid second half. He battled well with Vucevic. His six offensive rebounds were huge as always. His help on the weakside continues to improve.
DION!!!!! Just do that. Please, Dion. We are all begging you. Solid defense. Attacking with power and pace. Point guard instincts with force. It is exactly the kind of Dion that gets people excited. Kudos to Blatt for keeping him in a reserve role even with Kyrie out. Don’t be fooled by the 6-14 line. This Dion was sublime.
Marion can still contribute as a small ball four against certain teams. Now that he is free from manning the two, he looks decent.
The Cavs attempted 30 threes in the game. 25 of them might as well have been practice shots.
The Magic hurt the Cavs with weakside cuts. The Cavaliers must play zonesque ball without a dominant rim protector, but they can’t lose their man so frequently in an attempt to overload. They did a much better job in the second half.
24-26 from the stripe. That’ll do.
HOUSTON (CBS HOUSTON) – On Wednesday night, Tarik Black had the best game of his young NBA career. It wasn’t expected, either. After all, Black was facing a man he hopes to emulate – the Grizzlies’ double-double machine, Zach Randolph. Randolph came into the game averaging a double double for the ninth time in his career. He entered Wednesday ranked fourth in the league in rebounding. Yet, it was Black who scored the double double and the win on game night. For the undrafted rookie out of Kansas, that double double was a career first. Black’s nine offensive rebounds actually… Read more »
Anybody that can push Zach Randolph around a little is ok with me.
Add me to the list of fans that would like to see the Cavs give Tarik Black a shot.
Just saw that Dante Exum and Marcus Smart are both averaging a little over 5 points a game. After seeing how rookies fare in the NBA, anything Wiggins does is impressive.
Apparently LBJ was in a “chill mode”. That answers a lot of question about LBJ play this season.
EVIL–was thinking the same with the pistons ( which we could have gotten them sooner ) seems like after letting smith go they are playing better—their 2 bigs ( drummonnd/ Monroe ) could be hard to stop —cols I have to support you on this one also
People complaining about LeBron are nuts. He’s great and the cavs sucked without him from 196-2004 and 2010-2014. The only good period of cavs basketball the last 20 years had Lebron.
Everyone agrees LBJ is great. As a simple matter of logic, it then follows that everyone agrees that having LBJ is much better than not having him. BUT when you think about why the Cavs are struggling RELATIVE to their VERY HIGH expectations, its clear that LBJ’s decline in offensive efficiency (TS% down 6 percentage points) and very inconsistent defensive effort are legitimate factors to explore. This team only wins championship if LBJ is super elite on both ends. Saying that doesn’t mean I think LBJ is not great. It is just the reality of this team, and how competitive… Read more »
50% agree with Cols. Disagree part: For most of the 1808 years from 196 to 2004, the records of the Cavs are pretty slim, but there are some highlights: The Nate Thurman year was great. Without Jim Chones’ injury and the refs doing everything for Boston, the Cavs win that year. They might have been the best team in the Brad+Mark era, but ran into bad luck and the league’s plan to increase popularity by promoting MJ. Also, the Phils+Mills+Hill era was fun, and they were always upsetting top teams. Agree part: LeBron is easily the best player of his… Read more »
If (or when) Lebron has to sit out an extended period of time for the Cavs, these people are going to get a wake up call about
Obviously, Lebron is older (quite possibly declining from his peak) and isn’t going to play at flawless level all the time. Yet, the season is marathon for vets. Some people go overboard with the Lebron is killing us comments.
Again, I am one of “these people” who is concerned about LBJ’s play. I still think he is the best player on the team by a long shot, and one of the top few players in the world. But there is no denying he is playing at a lower level this year, and that the drop off is striking in how quickly it occurred. Not sure why we can’t agree that all of those things are true at the same time.
Even though this game shouldn’t have been close (and wouldn’t have been had a few more of the open threes gone in), it was a terrific balm to soothe the remnants of the Miami loss. Without Kyrie and Andy, other guys stepped up and gave energy and effort on the second night of a back-to-back. KLove played good D at the start and paced the Cavs offensively in the first half. TT and Dion brought terrific energy and effort on both ends, and LBJ saved up his energy early for a late virtuoso push on both ends of the floor.… Read more »
A road win is always a good win.
Kevin Love is only 25.. His legs should be fine, but I acknowledge your point, EG
Back-to-back took the legs out of the shooters, I guess. 26.7% from 3. Ouch.
Watching LBJ feinting and jab-stepping for seemingly hours on end is already like scratching a bleeding mosquito bite, and its only December. Of course, he won us the game in Q4, so who am I to judge.
Do you think we’ll put in for a cap exception with Andy out for the year?
I can only assume that they took so many threes because they were just that wide open on the shots. As Ben says, if they’d hit even a few more of those, they’d have run away with this game early on. Their offense was much more effective when Dion and LBJ chose to attack the basket though, and I’m glad they finally did that with regularity to put the game away.
hot sauce—agree with you– wind(bag ) always once to be the so called ” center ” on a scoop —will let his ” assumptions ” create inaccurate rumors—-why not ask blatt his reasoning for love not playing / and I am sure he would get a more accurate response—-guess we had better get used to it because I am sure the entire season reporters will be ” creative ” trying to initiate a scoop—-good win last night——see Houston released/ put on waivers their rookie post player ( blalik I think )–7′ good rebounder / decent rim protector/ athletic—-might be a… Read more »
The player is Tariq Black and taking his stats at face value he is a massive upgrade over the ghost of Brendan Haywood. He was getting 15 minutes a game with 12 starts. I think we can believe that he can run like a 23 year old. Very few blocks but he’s 6’11” so there is hope there. The Heat could also use a warm body and presumably someone else might take a run at him but if Josh Smith can pass to the Rockets then I live in hope. They’ll still keep Brendan’s specter and release A Kirk, we… Read more »
Good call on Tarik Black. Guy certainly deserves a tire-kick/cup of coffee with the Cavs. 6’11 and 250 is some pretty good size. I remember a little of watching him play at Memphis and he was definitely a force in the middle for those teams. Never understood why he transferred to Kansas that last year. As an extended college player though, he’s probably a lot more seasoned than some other young bigs. Seems like he got high praise in Houston even after they released him, his skill set was just redundant there with Howard and Motejunas.
Random comment about something that really annoys the heck out of me: I know CtB have a nice relationship with Windy, and I truly try to be objective about Windy, but twitter exchanges like those below really make it hard for me to understand what he is thinking. The exchange starts with Smmons trolling hard for a story about Love being a bad fit in Cleveland, even though Love was clearly happy with the win and clearly happy to hang out on the bench when the team was playing great ball. Wndhorst then jumps on board and makes a really… Read more »
They have to maintain their relevance. It’s what they get paid to do. It’s all vague to begin with so their objectivity remains in their observations regardless if you disagree with the assumptions they are making.
Kevin – what assumptions are they making that you think i disagree with? What I disagree with are their conclusions. The logic of Simmons tweet is as follows: Kevin Love didn’t play 4th quarter (fact) therefore his future as a free agent is in question (conclusion). What I disagree with is the conclusion. Kevin Love not playing in the 4th quarter had nothing to do with his happiness with the Cavs. If anything, his excitement over the win solidified his commitment to the Cavs. The logic of Windhorst tweet was: Kevin Love didn’t play 4th quarter (fact), teh Cavs had… Read more »
I don’t listen to those guys because they aren’t reporting or informing, they’re stirring things up. There are dozens of news outlets out there and the ones that get play are the ones that make bold statements (Colin Cowher) and those that create controversy. Windy has made many bold statements concerning the Cavs that have stirred things up – but has just been wind. Don’t pay any attention.
I agree with the feeling of being annoyed by such comments and reports about the Cavs. It is like the pesky mosquito that keeps buzzing your ear when your trying to focus and tie your fly, or at least for me. They seemed to be geared for the uninformed masses not the Cavs fans. Anyone who watched the game witnessed a completely involved Love on both ends of the floor. And watching him totally engaged from the bench the whole qtr told me he understood the decision and was quite fine with it. I am learning to read only selected… Read more »
I used to like Windhorst back when he was the Cavs beat reporter. He was always on top of things and seemed to do his job remarkably well by almost always having the most relevant information first. Even though it annoyed me a little that he basically left the Cleveland media behind for ESPN the same time LBJ did so he could continue to cover him with the Heat, I respected that he (like LBJ) was a local kid who made the leap to a better opportunity. Then he seemed to become a lot more sensationalistic. Maybe he got caught… Read more »
I’m glad you brought this up and did it the right way. Yes it is annoying because it is transparent what they are doing. Trying to create a sensational story for “clicks” on the internet. No one does that better than Bill Simmons especially regarding the Cavs. Windhorst is doing the same but in a back door kind of way. He didn’t say anything that wasn’t true in that remark that the Cavs had their best defensive game in that quarter without Love BUT he also didn’t mention (to balance the story) Cavs have had their very best offensive games… Read more »
Under 40 minutes from Lebron and under 35 from Kevin Love while Kyrie is sitting was a very very positive sign that Blatt has learned there are more important things than iso-scorers at the end of a game. We only need 2 guys who can get their own shot at most…2 guys who can spot up…and one beastly rebounder. Tristan covers a lot of sins at the end of a game.
Great point on Tristan. He saved so many possessions in the second half of this game. He also (with some help from KLove early) held the double double machine Vucevic to a pedestrian 12 and 8. Loved his comments after the game as well. Great to hear a player punctuate his post game interview with GO CAVS!