Recap: Cavs 111, Grizzlies 89 (Or, Kevin Love is Really Versatile)

In an away game, the Cavs handed the number two team in the West their biggest loss of the season. Memphis shot 44% and made only four 3-pointers. The Cavs, on the other hand, shot 51% and drained 14 3-balls. Kevin Love led the Cavs by keeping Marc Gasol from doing what he normally does offensively. Gasol struggled to get easy post points, pass to open guys, or even rebound. Love also destroyed Memphis offensively, making 10-13 shots for 22 points from everywhere on the court. He even had 10 rebounds to go with four assists. The Grizzlies couldn’t figure out how to defend him, or any of the Wine-and-Golders.  The Cavs led by as many as 29 points in the 3rd quarter, a quarter in which all 14 of their baskets were assisted.  It was the best ball movement of the season.  Let’s go to the action.

First Quarter

The Cavs opened the game by passing to Love in the post. Love was quickly scared off, and Kyrie dribbled the resulting pass out of bounds. Zach Randolph then came down the floor and drained an 18-footer on Timofey Mozgov. The Memphis game plan involved putting Love in defensive situations against big men. It didn’t work because Love stayed upright and fought hard against Gasol, who had seven points on seven shots in the quarter. Once Love hit a 3-pointer Memphis groaned out loud about which big got to chase him. Love scored seven in the first including two points from an epic cut to the rim that left Randolph staring at his back.

Overall, the Cavs offense sputtered early on in the quarter making lazy passes. They couldn’t even get out in transition or semi transition because Memphis kept knocking the ball away without always getting a steal.

Kyrie struggled getting all the way to the rim. He was blocked twice, but managed to finish out the quarter with a nice midrange jumper and a drive courtesy of a Kendrick Perkins moving screen. When Timo was trapped near the sideline, he hit a cutting LeBron James. Memphis thought Moz would panic when they pushed him to the edge, but LeBron got to the only spot a pass could be threaded and promptly assaulted the rim.

The Grizzlies methodically worked to get into the post, but, thankfully, were blocked three times/had Tony Allen trying to score there. Both teams banged defensively. The Cavs shot 42% while Memphis shot 41%. Cavs up, 22-19.

Second Quarter

Iman Shumpert did a nasty crossover to push his man back before stepping further away from him and draining a jumper. Beno Udrih then returned the favor. The King even nailed a step back 3-pointer, which, of course, warranted a follow up, heat check out-of-rhythm trey. Delly dribbled into a triple a few seconds later. Before I knew it, three minutes had passed, and the Cavs were up by eight off iso-action.

After Allen missed a fast break layup, Timo summoned his being tall skills. He grabbed a missed LeBron triple with his arms fully skyward and put it back easily. The next play he cut to the rim and threw the hammer down (with one hand!) when Delly tossed it up. Tony Allen, again, missed another layup, but he put the miss back to keep Memphis within eight.

The man behind putting Love on Gasol

The Cavs stayed ahead during the middle of the quarter because Love played A+ defense on Gasol. Memphis tried to come back through Marc, but Love caused two layup misses, was burned just once, and was subjected to one amazing unblockable turn around fall-back jumper. J.R. Smith did his part on Gasol too. He blocked one of his shots from behind and found Love for an oop in transition. Gasol still had seven points.

During the final two minutes, the Cavs went on a 9-2 run. Kyrie capped it with an And-1 jumper in the paint with one second on the clock. Good guys up, 54-42.

Third Quarter

The pain train rolled through the FedEx Forum this quarter. The Cavs scored their first points when Love rebounded a longer miss and whipped it to LeBron. The King found J.R. for a layup with tons of contact. Timo then got an offensive board; Love nailed the resulting open two along the baseline. Vince Carter thought the Timo board was dirty. He said so twice and must have used some bad words because he earned two techs and an ejection all from the comfort of his own bench.

The ejection didn’t spark Memphis. With 7:31 left, LeBron nailed a long ball from the corner after a possession featuring five passes. LeBron had enough time to stand, stand, take a dribble, spin the ball, admire his space, and then swish the corner-3.  This launched a 27-13 run. The Cavs figured out that they could simply move the ball, and the Grizzlies would eventually mess up trying to cover too much space closing out from the paint. Memphis was scoreless for nearly three minutes, while the Cavs made seven shots in a row: three 3s, two oops, one dunk, and one extra easy Love post up on Courtney Lee.

Beno Udrih kept the Grizzlies from looking like a college team. He had nine of the last 14 Grizzly points.

Matty D threw a veteran lead pass to end the quarter. With just four seconds left, Delly received the inbounds pass, winked at Kyrie, and delivered a ball that Irving laid to the glass a nanosecond before the buzzer sounded. Cavs entered the fourth up huge, 91-66.

Fourth Quarter

My favorite type of garbage time is the type where the Cavs keep their stars in and just kind of relax a little. This basura session started out as a brick fest. The Cavs missed their first four shots, but Tristan Thompson rebounded three of them and tipped out another one for a team rebound. Still, turnovers after multiple offensive rebounds meant no points. Tristan finally ended the scoring drought by barreling in from the 3-line and banking a heave in.

David Blatt pulled the starters with four minutes left. The Memphis bigs, Gasol and Randolph, didn’t touch the floor during the fourth. Here are some highlights from garbage time:

-There were eight Cavs turnovers, just two were from Kendrick Perkins

-Perkins made a jump shot from eight feet away that took four seconds to bounce around on the rim before falling down

-Shumpert missed a big oop and laughed

-Cavs won, 111-89

Gripes

1. The Cavs turned it over eight times in the fourth quarter, which is a tad sloppy. It’s always good to practice ball safety for the entirety of the game.

2. Beno Udrih seemed to get into the mid-range area with relative ease. Look at his shot chart. It’s from the 80s.

Hypes

1. Kyrie played textbook defense against Mike Conley. He held Conley to just two points during the first half because he fought around screens until he was in front of him again. Irving made sure to harass Conley the entire way around a pick with poking hands. The Cleveland bigs did an awesome job dropping back to make Conley think twice about any monkey business at the rim. Conley finished with ten points compared to Irving’s 24.

2. David Blatt decided to play Love on Marc Gasol this game. It paid off. Love’s defense this game was better than his offense, which was pretty good considering he had 22 points on just 13 shots from all over the floor. Love seriously banged with Marc Gasol and held his own. I only counted two baskets where Gasol flat out burned Kevin. Other than those, Love was contesting every single thing by moving his feet and keeping his hands to the sky. He also held Gasol to just three rebounds for the entire game. That takes some serious skill.

Love’s shot chart

3. Offensively, Love realized he probably couldn’t score down low with Gasol or Zach Randolph on him. He was denied trying to get position his first touch of the game. Instead, Love popped out, made open jumpers, and cut to the rim. He did everything non-mobile bigs hate.

4. The Cavs shot 14-34 from behind the arc. This is a result of them moving the ball. 71% of the 3s were assisted on.

5. How did the Cavs become so motion orientated this game? I’ll tell you. The Grizzlies play some great iso/post defense. So, the Cavs started moving the ball and looking like what David Blatt offenses are supposed to look like. They had 30 assists on 43 made shots. They also had just 11 fast break points. Memphis actually did really well slowing the Cavs down in transition allowing just six points off eight turnovers. However, when it came down to it the Cavs were able to pass so well in their half-court sets that the offense looked like transition offense anyways. They scrambled the Grizzlies defense that much.

6. Yea, the Grizzlies had 19 points off turnovers and still lost by over twenty points.

7. The third quarter was hot basketball relations for the Cavs. They made 9-14 buckets and each was assisted on.

8. J.R. Smith only scored 13 points, but his six assists led to 15 points. He played great defense, even recording a block on Gasol.

9. Matty D is back. He drained 3-4 3s, and handed out four assists leading to two Mozerati dunks.

10. Tristan’s 11 rebounds don’t show the true effects he had on the game. He generated three loose ball fouls, and drove Memphis nuts  when he touched what seemed like every other reboundable ball.

11. After the game, Kevin Love video-bombed LeBron’s post-game interview with Allie Clifton to wish his Mother happy birthday.