Recap: Miami 99, Cleveland 84 (or, burn the game film or burn the loss into your skin?)

I hate losing. Until my 30s, losing was followed by temper tantrums, diatribes of epithets, and at least an hour of seething rage. The only thing I hated worse than losing was being embarrassed. Usually, if I was being embarrassed or someone was showboating me, I’d respond with forearm screens, very hard fouls, and body check box-outs. I’m not quite the same dervish of spitting, bloody, dirty competitiveness that I used to be, but I still hate losing and being shown up – and nothing channels my younger Tasmanian Devil self more than teammates who aren’t trying. Combining these personality traits with a selection of fine winter beers, led to a lot of yelling last night in the Smith living room.

The Cavs got boatraced in Miami. From the opening tip, certain Cavs played without fire, intelligence, engagement, and/or a sense of pride. It was painful to watch. True, the Cavs were playing without LeBron James. True, this game didn’t mean very much in the grand scheme of the season. And also true, the Cavs didn’t arrive in Miami till 5 AM Saturday morning, but I guess I expect professional athletes to think like me. I falsely assumed that Kevin Love would have taken this opportunity to assert himself and establish himself as a team leader and one of the best players in the league, in or out of LeBron’s shadow. That didn’t happen.

The first quarter saw the Cavs down 16-12 until LeBron joined the bench, which keyed a 14-2 Miami run, leading to a 34-22 first quarter for the Heat. Miami shot 76% that period. (not a typo). The Cavs would go on to trail by 27 midway through the fourth quarter, and Miami left their starters in till late to rub it in while the Cavs’ guys shot 37% for the game and 67% from the line. I turned off the last several minutes. It was a debacle.

Rants

There is a lot of blame to go around in this mess. Let’s start with David Blatt. He is missing little things in games. These things are costing the Cavs points on offense or defense. For instance, putting Mo Williams on Goran Dragic instead of hiding him on the worst offensive player on the floor… Also, the Cavs keep sagging so much on the pick and roll that the opposing guard can get wherever he wants. Cavs’ opponents are getting easy shots just outside the key because the defense is sagging to almost under the basket. The Cavs defensive rotations are also a mess. No one on defense seems to know where the help is coming from, and sometimes when it does come, there’s three guys on the ball, which means the rest of the offense is playing four-on-two. Finally, the Cavs offense seems to have no rhyme, reason, or focus when it’s not running through LeBron. Cavs don’t know if they want to make Love a focus of the offense or just run pin downs and curls for guards. The pick-and-rolls all seem ad hoc instead of focused on exploiting a weakness in the defense.

In addition, the Cavs went 6-28 from three. They have to figure out a way to get more shots at the basket. Teams are overplaying them at the arc. Maybe a little more Andy and a little less James Jones…

Why the hell did LeBron not show up on the bench till halfway through the first. Couldn’t they have used his leadership? What was going on that was more important than his team?

It’s hard to tell if the offensive problems are due to the coaching or the guards. But one enormous problem is Kevin Love. The guy played like a ninny last night. Blatt shouldn’t even have dressed him. Kevin refused to take shots and often passed the ball off when he had good looks, or even WIDE OPEN looks. Here, Love passes up a point blank layup to throw a behind-the-back pass out of bounds – possibly the worst decision by anyone in this game. Love has to be a playmaker and an offense scoring threat for the Cavs’ offense to succeed when playing without LeBron. KLove went 2-11 with three turnovers in 18 minutes and barely played in the second half. My only question is why did he play at all?

One thing that enraging me is Kevin’s complete unwillingness to put the ball on the floor against defenders’ over-aggressive closeouts when Love is spotting up for three. Love should be able to dribble drive past his defenders, but he absolutely refuses to do so. He has the skills to do this and bend the defense to him. He has a ton of options after this. He can get into the post, he can pull up from the elbow, he can drive, or he can pass to guys for open shots when the defense is forced to step up to stop him. But Love is bailing out the defense when teams close out, by pump faking and then passing back up top to re-initialize the offense. He needs to watch clips of Jefferson who has been making a living all season by faking and driving from the wings and the corners.

I thought Mo Williams would have success on the second unit, but there’s one thing I didn’t consider. Mo doesn’t seem to have nearly as much room to shoot when he’s playing with the bench guys. He’s the focus of the defense there, instead of being the third option when he’s sharing the floor with Love and James. Mo went 2-7 and had guys in his face for most of the game. And he still can’t guard anyone.

Timofey Mozgov was -28 for the game, but at least he tried to compete for large sections of the game. But he’s a victim of that over-retreating defensive scheme. He also got sold out by his teammates on more than one occasion. One play Timo dived out of bounds to save the ball to a disinterested Kevin Love who already started walking the other direction. Fortunately, Jared Cunningham stole the ball and dunked afterwards for one of the few bright spots in this game. (Jared wasn’t awful for once).

Even then refs and the scorekeepers were mailing this one in. The turnovers and the play-by-plays don’t even match what happened in the game on NBA.com. Further, the refs screwed up on the biggest play of the game. Green clearly shuffled his feet before driving and dunking all over the souls of the hapless Cavaliers. And yes, I know. I’m a sockless curmudgeon.

https://vine.co/v/i7KTxQmndv0

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I probably have too much J.R. Smith in me. I, like J.R., tend to react with anger and undirected aggression rather than intelligent focus. J.R. picked up yet another flagrant late on Hassan Whiteside. J.R. didn’t have a great game, but at least he cared. Maybe that’s our flaw. We care too much about every stupid little game and play. We don’t want to manage our energy for the rest of the season. I know I certainly don’t understand the rigors of playing three to four times a week and jetting across the country. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not remotely qualified to judge the effort, desire, and motivations of a pro athlete. Maybe this is one of those where you just burn the game film and move on. But I’m one of those guys that likes to let losses like this burn in. I don’t want to forget the feeling of embarrassment and wounded pride the next time I’m playing. That forces me to have better habits when I do anything. Winning’s all about finding ways to build good habits, right? Winning is a habit, isn’t it? I probably take this stuff far too seriously.

J.R., Timo, and Klove would probably just have been better off not playing. The Cavs probably should’ve just started the far end of their bench and conceded this one early. I’d rather see that then the half-donkeyed effort I watched last night. Smith wouldn’t have picked up a flagrant. Maybe it’s a Smith thing. We Smiths, J.R. and I, we just want to win and keep from getting embarrassed. In the words of Marcellus Wallace, “That’s pride ****in’ with you.” I still haven’t figured out whether, in the end, it’s better to “**** pride” or not. Marcellus says “Pride never helps. It only hurts.”