Recap: Cleveland 108, Thunder 98

In a not a very emphatic win, the Wine & Gold hit 16 threes, gave up only ten points off turnovers, and allowed the Thunder to shoot just 39% from the field. Notice, I said allowed and not held. This was a game where the team that wanted to win probably could have asserted themselves and got the “W” very easily. Fortunately, the Thunder didn’t buckle down, and the Cavs had the edge from the three point line.

First Quarter

The game opened up with Kevin Durant and LeBron James trading missed running mid range shots. The King then nailed a mid ranger to get the first score. OKC shot 0-8 to start with Serge Ibaka taking several threes and Timofey Mozgov getting a “ROAR” block on Westbrook. Durant hit a three after three minutes to get the Thunder on the Jumbo Tron. The Cavs had a few memorable plays featuring Mozgov. After a made layup by Durant, Mozgov darted up the floor, somehow held onto the ball while barreling into the paint, and then found J.R. Smith in the corner for an open three. That put the Cavs up by two with six minutes left; however, the Thunder shot 8-12 for the rest of the quarter. The Cavs were just 3-14 and had five free throws during that same stretch. They ended up down by six, 26-20. The Thunder made sure to take advantage of two late Cavs turnovers, and the Cavs made sure to miss two of their three second chance shots during the closing minutes. The lone highlight of the quarter came here. Mozgov intercepted a Westbrook pass, and he earned a hockey assist after his dish to Smith found James in transition for two.

Second Quarter

Maybe LeBron felt the game slipping away, or maybe he just wanted to dribble a ton. The King went Le-Iso and scored or assisted on the Cavs first 12 points. Tristan Thompson added four garbage clean up points to the King’s iso campaign, and the Cavs were up by five after six minutes. The Thunder led the general Ibaka campaign where he shoots a ton, and they somehow froze to death facing Cleveland’s tundra defense. The Tundra defense involves moving slowly with your arms down. It worked until the Thunder hit some shots.

OKC briefly tied the score with a Dion three in Kyrie’s face and a Durant fast break layup, but the Good guys survived. Cleveland went on a quick 8-0 run where Kyrie and Smith both hit 25 plus foot threes. The King’s Men tried to stretch their lead, but Durant couldn’t miss during the final three minutes. LeBron posted up and forced the Cavs to finish the half strong by getting J.R. a three pointer. James then finished the quarter with a layup over Durant. Cavs up, 57-49.

Third Quarter

The King missed a layup, but the Mozgov recovered it and J.R. Smith then hit a three. That didn’t create any momentum though. Westbrook nailed a jumper at the top of the key and stole the ball for an oop to Durant on the following two plays. The Moz then helped the Thunder by setting a moving screen; however, he ended the Thunder’s 6-0 run after K. Love zipped him a pass in the post. He went up hard, and got fouled harder by Kendrick Perkins. Moz got a tech for yelling. The next possession Timo seemed energized. He set a crazy hard pick up high for LeBron before crashing back down to get another post touch. Perkins fouled him again. Love played some great ball during the quarter and scored two threes for the Cavs off passes when no one could score. Cavs still up, 70-65

Tristan welcomed Dion’s weak layup attempt to Cleveland by going CANADIAN NUCLEAR Bomb on the ball at 2:46. However, Dion got the last laugh as he blew by Kyrie two times in row for layups a few plays later. Love and Matty D drained back-to- back threes off Kyrie passes, and then Kyrie put a shot in with no time left to help the Cavs go into the final twelve with a lead,83-78.

Fourth Quarter

A mini LeBron/Dion battle started the quarter: a patented Saint Weirdo pull-up mid-range brick against the King, a LeBron  three in Dion’s face (the first of his eight points in the quarter), and then a Dion blow-by against ‘Bron that sent Waiters to the line. Iman Shumpert saw a little bit of time, but quickly was pulled as he gave up a turnover and looked sloppy. However, Shump did chase down the turnover he gave up and prevented a fast break. Neither team could score. Both took two minutes breaks from doing so, but Kyrie broke the Cavs slump with a three off an LBJ shot/pass (not sure which) that was deflected by Durant. That put the Cavs up by 12 with seven minutes left. Cleveland didn’t score for another 120 seconds, but the Thunder somehow could only make up four points. No team really wanted this one, as the only plays ran consisted of isos for LeBron, Durant, Westbrook, and Irving. To seal the game, Love embraced the team mentality from the three line and found Thompson down low for an easy layup that put the Cavs up by 12 with two minutes left. Cavs won it in boring fashion, 108-98.

Gripes

1. Kevin Love played a great game. He made 5-7 from three, and they were all open (he did have two turnovers in his three three pointer third quarter). He made one shot from the post and was fouled his two other trips down low. I want to see him do more of that. He should be getting touches in the paint and also have opportunities to run the team from the high post. He is too talented to be a spot up shooter, and if for some unknown reason that’s what the Cavs want him to be, he better be really good at it like tonight. This is a gripe because Love should be so much more on this team.

2. Durant and Westbrook sort of got into the paint at will. Although, they couldn’t do much during their time there. They only had 52 points on 49 shots. However, they did get 20 combined assists.

3. Iman needs to do some ball handling drills. He looked like he could barely dribble at all coughing it up two times. He also got stuck on some screens. He might just need to get himself into game shape. Overall, he appeared to try on defense and looked proficient making his man go towards help defense.

4. The Cavs defense was not amazing tonight regardless of the fact that they held OKC to 39% shooting. The Thunder missed a lot of open threes, and the Cavs had eight blocks, which sort of skewed OKC’s field goal percentage.

5. The team shouldn’t be running so much iso at the end of games. They went scoreless for a few minutes during the fourth, and David Blatt should have helped them out when that happened.

6. This defense has one more step to make. Guys need to help out Mozgov and Tristan when they go for a block. Someone from the backside has got to rotate to Tristan or Timo’s man so that there isn’t a wide open offensive rebound opportunity See here. Help your brother out. The Thunder scored a few different times because no one helped the helper.

Hypes

1. LeBron is going back into the post, and it’s so beautiful. Whenever he touches the ball there, he gets double teamed. Why not try to do it more? Good stuff happens when he turns his back on guys close to the basket (as opposed to 22 feet out). ‘Bron seems to like the left side just like Love. Maybe Blatt can make some plays for them to get the ball there and not play them together anymore. I wouldn’t mind them not playing together if they both posted up more.

LeBron had 34 points, five assists, and seven rebounds.

LeBron’s shot chart

2. The three ball was going. The team should be able to shoot above 36% without any problems. They got a lot of open looks and shot 44% today: 16-36. The Thunder shot just 10-30.

3. Matty D sort of slowed Westbrook down during the few plays he got to cover him. J.R. Smith honestly did a respectable job covering Kevin Durant. I never saw him get torched..

4. Ibaka shot nine threes and made three of them. The Cavs let him and that was really smart of them. Ibaka is much more efficient as pick and roll finisher, but he didn’t do it as much as he could have.

5. Tristan was the man of the game for the Cavs. He made just three field goals, but shot eight free throws. He functions no matter what situation he is put in. He had 11 boards, three blocks, and finished a game high +22, an indicator of his constant hustle.

6. Timofey Mozgov scored just two points and had only six boards, but he tried to block every shot that came his way. Furthermore, he was involved in five of the seven Cavs fast break points.

7. The Cavs didn’t have a lot of opportunities to get out on the fast break, but they played with awesome pace. LeBron and Kyrie tried to keep the offense sprinting,  while the Thunder were playing transition defense. It resulted in a ton of early shots, but that’s what the Cavs need to be doing.  I appreciated how hard they ran back when the Thunder managed to get out on the break.

8. At times, the lack of defense made the game feel like a ping pong match. Shot after shot was being hit. This game was sort of fun to watch during those stretches.