Recap: Kings 103 Cavs 84 (Or, 36 Minutes of Garbage Time)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wh0WXxhN4_w

This loss was an especially tough one to witness. My PTSD from watching four years of LeBron James less Cavs triggered some pretty dark thoughts. This one was the scariest: “Pau Gasol scored 46 points for the Bulls two nights ago, and he’s not even their best player. I even lived in Chicago for a few years. Being born and raised in a city doesn’t really mean that much.” I’m here though and recapping, so I guess I’m still a fan.

The Cavs reverted to good old isolation ball as the mode of offense this game, and defensively, they refused to try. It was pathetic. DeMarcus Cousins boogied his way to 26 points on 11-23 shooting, and also had four steals, three blocks, and 13 rebounds. He made hook shots, drained jump shots, and whipped cross-court passes with five guys crashing to the paint to stop him. He even completed more fast breaks than the Cavs guards did. His partner in crime, Rudy Gay, added 23 points and did a little posting up of his own to show his wide range of non-Toronto appropriate basketball skills. When it was all finished, the Kings looked efficient mixtaping the Cavs in transition and letting Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love beat themselves with poor shooting and high turnover performances. This was a well deserved loss.

First Quarter:

The Cavs began the game trying to move the ball, and that created a wide open three for Love to brick on the first possession. He made up for it by sinking two short mid range jumpers in a row, the only type of shot he could make in the quarter. Cousins opened with two jumpers in a row too, which was scary because it pulled Timofey Mozgov out of the paint and exposed his inability to cover a mobile center. The Cavs then decided to go to the pig trough and see what being sloppy was all about. Love got position down low at the trough and was caught with food in his mouth, so Boogie ripped the ball from him and went coast to coast for an easy two. He looked like Ty Lawson running the floor. Gay grabbed a steal the next time down the wood and caught an oop at the other end to put the Kings up, 8-12.

At this point it got ugly. J.R. Smith chucked a three out of a panic timeout, and Boogie was treating Love like a term that is used for the weak in prison. The Kings stole a Smith pass two possessions later to notch six points off of turnovers with more than six minutes left in the quarter. Kyrie had to drill a long three to end the King’s turnover fueled 8-1 run. The Cavs offense turned into the Kyrie show for the remainder of the quarter. He dished an assist to Love, and proceeded to nail three threes. He needed to hit them to get a license to over dribble the ball, which he did a lot. On a positive note (see the intro video) Timofey Mozgov had a nice block on Darren Collison to enable one of the treys. The Cavs barely survived the quarter and should have been down by a lot more. Kings up, 29-30.

Second Quarter

The Good Guys started the quarter with the Irving on the bench, thus their entire offense on the bench. The Kings started the quarter utilizing the power of the Boogie to pull three defenders into the paint and create an open three. These 12 minutes were slowed down. Both teams combined to score just seven points in the first few minutes. Nonetheless, the Kings went on a slow motion 12-7 run to get to the 5:30 mark and the return of Kyrie.  DMC blocked a Tristan Thompson offensive board and TT Big Boy blocked DMC the following play. It was epic.

Kyrie did some work, and Mozgov enabled the clock punching with offensive boards and enthusiastic picks. Boogie showed his breadth of skills during the final few minutes scoring on a Kobe-esque “I’m gonna get you called for touching my cookie jar” jumper. Love scored the final Cavs points of the quarter at 2:48 by making his first three of the night. Then Smith was abused with some Rudy Gay post ups, there were two more turnovers, and five guys cheated into the paint to stop Boogie. The Kings ended the quarter on a seven point run, 44-59.

Third Quarter

The Cavs started this quarter obviously being told to play defense and move the ball. It sort of worked for a few plays. The defense got a block on DMC and caused a shot clock violation, but the offense just couldn’t score on open shots. The Cavs reverted to iso ball; it took four minutes for them to get a bucket. Boogie got another solo fast break, and the collective mind of Cavs fans did this:

Halfway through the quarter the Kingless Men were down 19 even though they scored eight points in forty seconds, led by garbage boy Timmy’s offensive rebounding and cutting. Cleveland traded shots with Kings the remaining six minutes to stay behind by 19. Love hit back-to-back threes and Rudy shot 3-3. At no point did I feel a run was going down by the Cavs. They were playing a 1-4 type setup; it wasn’t successful. Mind you, that is referring to their effort levels and not their offensive positioning. Cheers to Mozgov for not giving up with the Cavs down, 64-85.

Fourth Quarter

The Cavs started with ball movement again. Kyrie scored a quick two, and DeMarcus did the same. Kevin even had a big man +1 after managing to flip in a shot while being pushed down. The Cavs were getting open shots, but couldn’t make anything at all. In fact, they bricked five threes up until the reserves came in with around six minutes left, and the Kings up by 24. I honestly thought to myself that the Wine & Gold would go on a run behind Haywood and the reserves when the bench cleared. Haywood got blocked on his first shot, and I flashed back to last season. This is being a Cavs fan. Cavs lose easily, 84-103.

Hypes

1. This game yielded nothing to be happy about aside from Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov ran the floor like a champ and was the only guy on the team to actually attempt defense. He had two blocks, 12 rebounds (4 offensive), and 14 points. When everyone else stopped trying, he managed to keep hustling and not submit to the effort draining disease that is Cleveland Basketball.

2. No one got injured, and Kyrie and Love must have had fun, since they got to shoot the ball a combined 39 times. Shooting the ball is always fun.

3.David Blatt fired shots that were really well put. Jason Lloyd quoted him saying Love isn’t a max player when asked about the poor play of a team with two max guys.

“Well Kev’s not a max player yet, is he?”

Gripes

Rock Bottom is coming soon to Cleveland.

1.This team doesn’t try. I don’t even need to explain this. Watch any of the Cousins’ solo fastbreaks, and my point is proven.

2.Cousins is fun to watch. The man has it all right now. He had four blocks and looks to be in the right place defensively on a consistent basis. Offensively, he can do anything. He is probably the best posting big man in the league, but he can still shoot the ball well enough to drag other bigs out of the paint and into stupidity territory. He even runs the court like a point guard on the break. And, he makes the perfect pass when tripled or doubled.

3. It’s mind blowing that the Cavs had five fastbreak points and Boogie had four of his own. The Kings scored a total of 17 points in transition and had 22 points off of 14 Cavs turnovers. The King’s Men need to clean up their ball handling and transition defense.

4. More than one time in the game the Kings finished fast breaks with one guy going against three lollygagging Cavs.

5. Once again, the Cavs failed to shoot the three ball. They were 11-32 and three of those makes came during real fourth quarter garbage time.

6. J.R. Smith stunk it up: getting just four points and tossing the ball away four times.

7. The Cavs had just nine meaningful bench points tonight. The remainder were scored in the fourth.

8. Defensively, this team is bad individually. As a team, I think they’re serviceable covering and recovering on the pick and roll. The Kings must have recognized this because they constantly went at guys individually. Rudy Gay kept getting the ball whenever J.R. Smith was matched up on him. He did multi-million dollar deals from the post. DMC is always a handful, but the Cavs didn’t give their bigs enough of a chance to cover him sometimes when they would triple team the paint and give up threes.

9. Darren Collison managed the game for the Kings and didn’t screw up. That’s what he does. It would have been nice to see the Cavs try to disrupt him and get in his face more.

10. Kevin Love played like he was in a cartoon time traveling episode where his body was constantly being shifted to another dimension, and he didn’t know what to do. Look at this play during the second quarter. Cousins drives in from just under the three line and puts up a nice layup. It’s off, but Kevin doesn’t box out, so Boogie can go right up for it. No problem, Love has long arms. However, he makes it a problem when he is time warped into some land where the ball is a fireball, and he has to alligator arm it to avoid being burned. Boogie then grabs the ball and gets the put back.

10. Also, Kevin’s post moves look off. All big guys look calculated, but Love is looking like AOL dial up video calculated. His moves are so choppy.

11. This team might need to lose more. They’re currently 19-19 and in the sixth spot in the East. Miami is three games behind. If I were David Blatt, I would let them play without LeBron for at least three more games. Reality needs to set in for Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. The team can’t win with them not running an offense. This has been proven. Isolation ball can only get you so far. I don’t think Blatt is doing the best coaching job, but I don’t think the team is doing the best job of being coached either. Rock bottom hasn’t been hit yet. I want to see what happens when it’s reached because even LeBron can’t turn this team around right now.

The Positive Thoughts

I decided to ask my fellow Bloggers for a positive take on the game, so I could leave on a good note. Here’s what I got.

Tom Pestak: Mozgov looks like a key piece.

Mallory Factor: I’m trying to put together a positive sentence, but I can’t, because this team, frankly, doesn’t deserve it; the bench is horrible, no one can pass, and there isn’t a even a remote semblance of play calling.

Myself: No one got injured.