Flashback Friday: The Meteor Shower

Though it took a LeBron sabbatical, a couple of shrewd trades from David Griffin, and a David Blatt inspired bowling trip to finally get the Cavs kicked up into a higher gear of consistency last year, there were a few glimpses of the awesome potential this team had, even while the calendar still read 2014.

Let’s flash back to the first such moment, which arrived like a comet on a Saturday in mid-November (during Game #8 of the young season) against the soon to be rising Atlanta Hawks. The Cavaliers returned to the Q for a second night of a back-to-back (their third already) following a furious comeback win over the Boston Celtics (after the Cavs were down by as many as 19 in the fourth quarter). The Cavs must have had some fire left over from the night before, since they started out hot, and then cranked up to a nuclear level against the birds.

It was a breakout night for the newly constructed Cavs. Records were set, the stars shone so brightly they earned a rare fourth quarter off, everyone played (and almost everyone scored), Joe Harris was like a straightjacket on Kyle Korver and A Clockwork Dion was in full effect…

Despite blitzing the Hawks by hitting their first six threes in a row to start the game, the Cavs initially only found themselves up 24-21 with three minutes left in the first quarter, primarily due to their one weakness of allowing inside penetration by the Atlanta guards. So, the Cavs decided they’d just have to keep bombing away, hitting three more to end the quarter, becoming the first NBA team in history to go nine for nine from beyond the arc in a quarter.

They didn’t stop there either, and hit their first two of the second quarter as part of a 41-8 run to scorch the Hawks at their own game (get the full flashback here to Tom’s terrific recap). In fact, the Cavs dominated almost every aspect of this game. In addition to outgunning Atlanta, they also controlled the glass, filled the passing lanes and shared the ball, racking up 49 baskets on 39 assists, an NBA season high to that point.

“Guys were hitting shots and we were feeding them,” Kyrie Irving said. “The ball was moving. Guys were hitting each other in their shooting pockets.”

LeBron had a second straight game of resembling the “ultimate weapon” version of himself, following up his hot-shooting (and to that point season high) 41 point performance against the Celtics with an even more insanely efficient 13-20 for 32 points in just 29 minutes of play. He also hit four of five three-pointers, including three in the first quarter, and added six boards, seven assists and one emphatic, ball-disfiguring, “Get That Weak Stuff Outta Here!!” block on Kent Bazemore that he chased with a salute to the fans.

“Coming off a back-to-back I didn’t want us to have a slow start,” James said. “I feel like the guys feed off my energy and I wanted to go out and be aggressive and see where it takes us. It got us to a huge lead.”

And feed they did…

Kyrie Irving chipped in 20 points on a blistering 6-9 from the floor (4-7 from three), to go with five assists, three steals and zero turnovers in 27 minutes. This marked the second game in a row where Kyrie did not commit a turnover (in fact, during this four game win streak, he only had two total turns in 148 minutes of play).

The only time Kyrie lost the ball was when he got fouled by Dennis Schroder…

Kevin Love scored 13 points, hitting three triples to go with six boards and five assists. The Matrix, still in a starting role early in the season, had one of his best shooting nights, going for 11 points on 5-7 shots. Even Andy, though he only finished with two points, pulled down 10 boards (four offensive) in just 21 minutes of play.

No starter played more than 30 minutes (Love), but they combined to shoot 30-51 (59%) for 78 points, with 26 boards and 23 assists. And, given the limited minutes for the starters, the bench also got their time to shine.

Joe Harris’ defense on Kyle Korver

Almost everyone contributed something to the effort, but the three guys off the pine who stood out on this night were Tristan Thompson (aka The Glass Monster), Joe Harris (aka Kyle Korver’s second jersey) and Dion Waiters (aka A Clockwork Dion). TT owned the glass when he was on the floor (seven in 24 minutes) and was even more efficient than the starters, going 6-8 for 15 points. Smokin’ Joe showed he belonged by getting four of everything (four threes, four rebounds and four assists) for a career high 12 points. More importantly, however, he superglued himself to Kyle Korver and used all six of his fouls to smother Atlanta’s resident sharpshooter. Korver, who had been averaging 16 points per game, wound up missing the only shot he attempted, and was held scoreless for the game.

But the biggest bench story was probably St. Weirdo. Here’s what I wrote at the time…

“Speaking of unselfish ball movement, Dion was acting like he was auditioning to be the poster boy of sharing the rock tonight. I said earlier in this thread that at times it looked almost like Blatt planted a chip in Dion’s brain to make him unable to shoot the ball (I kept expecting him to stop at the baseline and puke everytime he thought too much about shooting). The microcosm of this was the possession in the third quarter where Dion started with the ball, passed to Joe Harris twice, kept getting the ball back, drove the baseline and then amazingly found Kyrie open beyond the arc on the opposite wing for a three. Just bottle this game Dion and play this way all the time.”

Pass the ball, Dion…

In one of his more complete games in his final months as a Cav, Dion took 11 shots, hitting four of them for nine points, but led the team in steals (four) and assists (eight). He also led the team in +/- ratio with a stratospheric +45 in just 27 minutes. Combined, the bench trio of Dion, TT (+38) and Harris (+23) helped push the Cavs out to as much as a 43 point lead in the second half (120-77 with 6:20 left).

Almost everyone scored, even “Sweet” Lou Amundsen (two points), Will “Wild” Cherry (two points) and Brendan “Headband Worn Yo!” Haywood (four points), with the lone exception being (the newly departed) Mike “Mime Killer” Miller who didn’t attempt a shot in two minutes of play.

Overall, the Cavs set a team record by going 19 for 31 on threes, and the 19 makes were an NBA season high (to that point). Also, the 127 points were the most by a Cleveland team in a regulation game since Dec. 11, 1999, also against the Hawks.

In his post-game interview, David Blatt responded to a pointed question about the team’s progress in the early going. “Have we turned the corner?” Blatt asked rhetorically. “Heck, I didn’t even think there was a corner yet. It’s so early. It’s just so early.”

“Can anyone tell me where the corner is?”

He would turn out to be prescient, since the Cavs would have some rough sailing ahead, losing the next four games, and 17 of the next 31 before finally righting the ship. Atlanta, on the other hand, went on an unbelievable 35-4 tear following this humbling loss, to take a firm grasp on the Eastern Conference’s best record.

Unfortunately for the Hawks, ownership of the number one seed would not prevent them from ultimately being swept by the Cavalier juggernaut in the Eastern Conference Finals…