Recap: Cavs 107, Sixers 100 (or, LeBron Can Jump High and Break Records)

LeBron James and the rest of his Trick or Treat party went to Philly in search of their third straight win. After two dominating performances against the Grizzlies and Heat, the Cavaliers’ defense looked poised to destroy an inept Philadelphia offense. Philly coach, Brett Brown was excited to see more of his young talent in the starting lineup. For the first time, second year guard, Nik Stauskas joined rookie center, Jahlil Okafor and the high-topped Nerlens Noel to challenge a veteran Cavaliers squad. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter:

Though it didn’t lead to a bucket, the Sixers first possession of the game was telling. Sauce Castillo, aka Nick Stauskas, came around a high screen with J.R. Smith trailing too loosely behind. Stauskas has a nice right hand hesitation dribble and used it to get all the way to the rim before dropping it off to an ill-prepared Jahlil Okafor. The rookie bigman didn’t finish, but the theme was established. The Cavs were a step slow.

Some early outside shooting from Kevin Love and Mo Williams helped the Cavs build a 15-11 lead halfway through the quarter. It could have been larger, but the Wine and Gold were sloppy with the rock. Even when play action was good, turnovers and some missed open looks kept the game close.

From the 6:26 mark on, it was all Sixers. Nerlens Noel led the charge with an absolutely dominant stretch. The young pogostick showed off his full game: smart hard cuts to the rim, passing out of double teams for a three bomb, trapping and recovering to provide great help, and even a silky smooth 16-footer from straight away. His only misstep came on a botched breakaway after he ripped Andy’s dribble. The kid was a beast. The Cavs looked like they had had a great Halloween party while the young 76ers were active, excited and smart. Philly closed the quarter on a 21-3 run. After one, 32-18, Sixers.

2nd Quarter:

TT, Love, RJ, Delly, and Jared started the period looking to cut down from the eight first quarter turnovers. Mo and LeBron subbed in rather quickly for Jared and RJ thereafter. Finally, the Cavs began to show some life on defense. With Nerlens Noel on the pine, Cleveland climbed back into the game. With better defensive energy and a concerted effort to punish the skinny guys in red, the Cavaliers attacked the paint. Williams and Dellavedova finished directly at the rim in consecutive possessions. Teams continue to play Delly for the pass allowing him easy finishes. Kevin Love bully-balled Jerami Grant for an And-1 that cut the lead to six with 6:46 remaining.

Mozgov had a fantastic block on an Okafor dribble drive, but the freshly reinserted Nerlens Noel came away with a second chance dunk. Okafor went on a bit of a tear wowing the home crowd with his post/faceup footwork. It must be nice for Sixers fans to actually have a young bigman draftee play in his first season.

My favorite play of the quarter came at the 3:50 mark. Mo dribbled left into PnR action with TT. On the weakside, Jared Cunningham set a backscreen for LeBron. Mo’s sweet left-handed feed off the dribble hit LeBron for nice reverse finish. Teamwork.

David Blatt went to James Jones and Much Danger Ninja to close the quarter. It worked out beautifully. JJ hit a three and MDN played some terrific defense to close the gap to a respectable five. 54-49 Philly.

3rd Quarter:

With J.R. out of the game with a knee contusion, Mathew Dellavedova got the second half start. Delly drained a right side three off of another LeBron James cross-court pass. Mo brought the Cavs all the way back with steal and finish to knot the game at 54. Mozgov began to establish himself on the defensive end blocking or altering Philly’s shots. The screws had been tightened and the Sixer youngsters lost a bit of confidence.

Cleveland pushed the tempo off defensive stops. Fred McLeod mentioned a phrase from LeBron that sang beautiful music into my ears. “Pace and Post!” The Cavs did just that with aggressive ball pushes followed by bully post seals. Love, Mozzy, and LeBron all worked early in transition to get low position. Delly and Mo made some fantastic entry passes that led to many buckets. Basketball is fun.

James Jones checked in for Love and promptly drilled a couple three balls. The Champ continues to provide more than we thought he would when the Cavaliers signed him. His buddy, LeBron took a break from his triple double chase to go after 25,000 points with a steal and dunk. I haven’t seen his head this high in awhile. After three, it’s 82-72 Cavs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDo174iabRg

4th Quarter:

Delly, RJ, LeBron, Champ, and TT trotted out to continue the beating. After a sweet turnaround jumper from LeBron, Tristan and Mathew combined their hustle to grab another two points. TT kept a second chance ball alive, diving to the floor. Delly swooped in to pick up the loose ball and returned it to Tristan for a…..jumper! Ok, it was the short left elbow variety, but still.

Then LeBron decided to entertain the poor suffering Philly fans. There was this:

Delly realized he hadn’t “carried the one” and he needed to get LeBron another point to clear 25,000. Mathew is an Australian gentleman, so he served up this Delly-Dime:

The crowd appreciated LeBron’s accomplishment, so he stayed in the game to entertain them a bit more. Clearly having fun, LeBron bounced around on defense and showed the talented young Mr. Okafor that he needs to be more careful with the ball. It was a fun flurry of energy before The King subbed out one rebound shy of a triple-double.

The Cavaliers used the next few minutes of gametime to get Mozgov some practice. He couldn’t quite finish on the offensive end, but he was getting great deep position. On the defensive end, he was eating people up. Timofey was only credited with four blocks on the evening, but he must have severely altered another dozen. Okafor was able to finish a few of them, but it was good to see Mozgov get some rust off.

Credit Philly. Their bench guys didn’t give up. It took some heady play from Dellavedova and a dagger three from the Champ to officially end this partially entertaining game.

Liberty Bell Notes:

Nerlens Noel is a real player. He certainly dropped off as the Cavs finally woke up, but he owned the first quarter. I don’t think he makes too much sense with Okafor on the offensive end, but defensively, Noel covers a lot of mistakes.

Speaking of Okafor, he is quite bad at everything except scoring the rock. Dude can certainly get his, but his floor game is a travesty at the moment. He has no idea how to roll or pop on the offensive end. He completely spaces out on the defensive side. He can learn how to be a better defender. Most analytics show that centers get better on that end with age. To be fair, he also has more NBA face-up game than I thought. Philly’s starting frontcourt composition will be a very interesting question in the future, even without Embiid in the mix.

I’m glad Nik Stauskas was freed from Sactown. He will have every opportunity to be a high usage player in Philly. His hesitation dribble going either direction is underrated and his shot mechanics are lovely. Sauce Castillo has a future.

Free Stamp Notes:

I’m glad Halloween came before a game against the Sixers and not a real team. The benefit of team bonding is more important than one game of 82. Just ask the 2014-2015 squad about their bowling prowess. That being said, it sure is nice to come away with a victory after that kind of start. The Cavs played defense like zombies in the first quarter. It didn’t matter. A 76-43 run in the middle of the game cured that ill.

Congrats to LeBron James on becoming the youngest ever to 25,000 points. I love that he did it in a game in which he recorded 11 assists. LeBron really showed some elevation on those dunks. No one will talk about it because it isn’t a juicy story, but his back is fine, folks. 22, 11, 9, 4 and 2. Yeah, fine.

My favorite Kevin Love is mean Kevin Love. Mean Kevin Love looks like a GQ model and knocks skinny post defenders back three feet before dropping little jump hooks through the twine. Numbers aren’t everything(as Austin Carr hilariously riffed on in a classic old man moment). Love didn’t hit a three and only had eight rebounds. His defense in the first quarter was particularly sleepy. But, his effort and basketball positioning fueled the huge run.

“Pace and Post!” I just wanted to say that again.

Mo had a nice shooting evening going for 21 points on only 10 shots. I would still prefer he take fewer deep jumpers early in the shot clock, but as Austin Carr said, and I paraphrase, “Numbers, eghemm, no! grumble, grumble. Heart, yes!,,,cough, weez, Shoot it!” Someone’s been golfing with Chuck Barkley or something.

Delly led the team in minutes with 34. He almost had double digit assists again with nine. One of my favorite things about Mathew is the way he understands how the game clock works. It doesn’t stop after made baskets until under two minutes to go. Right after the Sixers cut the lead to 10, Delly and Jones conspired to burn seconds off the game clock. They took their time getting the ball. Jones rolled it in and Delly waited as long as possible before touching the ball to initiate the shot clock. It was at 2:17 when the ball went through the hoop. The shot clock started at 2:03. Delly is great and I should have taken him instead of Andy for Cavs: The Fantasy League. That’s included in our scoring system right?

Until next time.