Recap: Cavs 89, Celtics 77 (Or, Don’t Poke the Bear)

Jae Crowder clapped his hands and ran his mouth in the 1st half.  And to some extent, he backed up his tough guy bravado with a decent floor game.  The Celtics enthusiastically stuck to their m.o. – they pushed the pace, played physical defense, and liked every shot they saw.  Near the end of the second quarter, LeBron stepped to the free throw line after a hard (but clean) foul from Jared Sullinger.  As the King pounded the ball into the parquet hardwood, he told Crowder, the court jester, in no uncertain terms, that his jokes weren’t that funny, and he should shut his mouth for his own good.  In the end, the Cavs completely bullied the Celtics in the second half, grinding their VanGundian offense to a screeching halt, forcing hilariously out-of-rhythm deep jumpers, while gang-rebounding every miss, seemingly out of spite.  The Cavs’ offensive approach was tough, patient, and relentless.  By the 3rd quarter, the dam broke and the outside shots started dropping.  In the second half, the Cavs showed what happens when talent and grit become one flesh and the juggernaut is born.

UM, CAVS ARE JUST GOING TO DOMINATE NOW, OK? https://t.co/VKh6W413XI

— CAVS PLAYOFFS ENTHUSIAST (@WayneEmbrysKids) December 16, 2015

1st Half:

Right from the opening tip, LeBron got down a little lower, spread his arms a little wider, and let Jae Crowder know he’d poked the bear. Both teams played with an edge although it didn’t get chippy right away. Crowder, for his part, responded to the extra attention with seven deep Js and one shot in the paint. LeBron, conversely, responded with nine shots in the paint and one deep J. Both players were effective.  Kevin Love and LeBron handled the scoring load in the first quarter with a variety of nifty post moves and drives to the rack. The Celtics played almost exactly the way I described them in the preview – looking to push the pace, unafraid to jack up outside shots, and working hard at the defensive end. They’re a thoroughly scrappy team. Avery Bradley launched four 3s in the first quarter alone and you could just see that every time he touched the ball he wanted to fire away.  Credit the coaching staff for empowering him to heave, and credit Bradley for becoming a 43% tosser.  The Cavs read the scouting report and defended Bradley relatively tightly, and he still knocked down two triples.

The bench let the Cavs down a bit on the defensive end in the second quarter.  Andy Varejao had a highlight-reel dribble-drive spin-move that he converted.  The Cavs suffered a four minute scoring drought from that point, being forced (or conceding) into deep jumpers that wouldn’t drop.  The defense was mostly good, but you can only go scoreless for so long before it catches up to you.  The Cavs got down by as many as six before LeBron decided to go back into attack mode.  After a couple possessions where he got fouled and didn’t earn any whistles, LeBron went “Screw it, I’m driving” (SiiD) on Jared Sullinger and was hacked across both arms.  It was a hard foul and LeBron responded by stomping to the foul line.  As anticipated, the game had started to get chippy.  LeBron rolled his head (not turned, as turning his head would express “what did you say?” while rolling his dome thoroughly projected “Are you bleepin done yet?”) to the left and told Crowder what he thought of him.  I’ve seen both sides of the LeBron trash talk phenomenon.  He’s had a few duds, the Dirk coughing episode being the most notable.  And he also let DeShawn Stevenson get in his head at times, baiting him into jumper-fests.  But most of the time (Bosh girlfriend counterattack, Arenas free throw chat, desecration of the Garden in aught-12…), when LeBron taps into that tiny Gary Payton inside his soul, what follows is definitely a #LeaguePassAlert.

The Cavs trailed by six after two.  The back half couldn’t come quickly enough.  I wanted to see how a 31-year-old pissed-off LeBron behaved in the wild.  After the initial grogginess from the hibernation of half-time, LeBron completely mauled Crowder and the Celtics.

First half shot chart: LeBron vs Crowder.

Third Quarter:

To my surprise, LeBron let the Cs off the hook on the first few possessions with fadeaways and out-of-rhythm Js. Looking back, he was probably just testing his jumper to see if he could summon it for the final 24 minutes.  The Cavs looked a bit sluggish on D too.  They allowed Isaiah Thomas to draw a handful of CP3-fouls, and the only Cavalier highlight to speak of was a Delly-Oop to Mozgov who back-ironed the slam while getting raked, but it popped straight up and down.

Mozgov's dunk takes a lucky bounce – ESPN https://t.co/62cIxm0xCz

— Celtics aggbot (@the_Celts) December 16, 2015

The Cavs really started ramping up the defensive intensity.  At one point I saw either J.R. or Shump blow out a tire trying to furiously close out on a corner 3.  Fantastic wipe-out, and it was the harbinger of the Celtics demise.  LeBron sealed Crowder in the post and Kevin Love snapped a nifty post-entry pass over the Jester as LeBron banged it off the glass and in.  A few possessions later, LeBron came off a c-cut and received a tight pass from Kevin Love.  He took a dribble and started a full-speed, two-step, left-handed layup in traffic.  If the average guy tried to convert that shot with that momentum (LeBron is > 250 pounds) the shot would have either shattered the glass or caromed out to the 3-point line.  But LeBron, even in full-on grizzly mode, gently dusted it off the glass and in, like stealing honey from a tree.  It was the Cavaliers’ first lead since early in the 1st quarter.  From then, it was an onslaught.  This happened next, (this time in HD, although replay audio…)

Kevin Love + LeBron = TOUCHDOWN! #NBAVote#CavsCeltics on @FOXSportsOHhttps://t.co/7CsRercRlp

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 16, 2015

The dam broke.  J.R. Smith hit a quick-release triple, Mo Gotti popped one in from the corner, and Richard Jefferson splashed one with his “held-down-the-A-Button-Too-Long” trigger.  After the Cavs lapsed a bit near the end of the frame, Mo Williams slow-walked the Celtics into a coma, then accelerated by everyone and flipped in a layup as the red outline shone and the horn whaled.

The Final Quarter

Honestly, the difference between this game being a nail-biter and a comfortable double-digit trouncing was, in my opinion, a nice dose of Iman Shumpert to start the quarter.  Shump-man swished two spot 3s like it was nothing and played tenacious D at the other end, constantly bothering Isaiah Thomas into wild shots.  His quick hands turned a couple high-percentage opportunities into run-outs the other way.  Sadly, Shump left with a groin injury shortly thereafter.  But the damage to the Celtics was done.  Playing from behind, they rushed shot after shot like they were being rewarded for playing hot-potato with the side of the rim.  The Cavs, somewhat hilariously, gang-rebounded every miss.  They just completely bullied the Celtics into submission.  At one point, Crowder hit an “excuse me” 3 off a broken play and then Evan Turner hit a turnaround jumper from his sweet spot (right baseline) to cut the lead to seven with six minutes left.  And who would arrive to save the day?  None other than Mr. Doesn’t Even Play 4th Quarters himself, Kevin Wesley Love.  K Love pumped Olynyk out of the camera frame and went up and under for the Duncan-esque bank.  He followed that with a line-drive triple seconds later.  A quick 5-spot, and that was that.  I wound myself down from my living room frenzy (I love defense) by chatting up J.R. Smith’s intangibles with Dan Labbe.

@tompestak I'm always a little surprised how good he is at the little things when he's focused on doing them.

— Dan Labbe (@dan_labbe) December 16, 2015

Someone notified J.R. that we were praising his Vine-less, no-stats-all-star cred and he proceeded to throw up a 9-dribble crossover stepback.  Wet. Net.  Goodnight Boston.

https://twitter.com/HPbasketball/status/676954111628206082

Tommy Heinsohn is secretly part of Cavs Twitter. Just said a fully healthy Cavs team would beat the Warriors. You guys like him now?

— Yaya Dubin (@JADubin5) December 16, 2015

The Good:

Mozgov wasn’t great, but compared to his non-Orlando games this season, he was playable, and at times good.  He blocked a bunch of shots (felt like half of them became broken-play 3s for the Cs) and had a fantastic multi-pivot, turnaround 15-footer in the second half.  He protected the paint, and the tone that he, LeBron, and Love established resulted in a points-in-the-paint (PitP) domination, 44-24.

LeBron is finding ways to have outstanding floor games with a broken jumper.  Crowder is a big dude and a pretty physical defender.  LeBron got the best of him tonight.  Between his incredibly smooth left-handed finish that I chronicled, and a nifty spin-move in the 1st half, LeBron seems to be finding creative ways to finish below the rim.  Maybe he’s picking up a couple tricks from Uncle Drew.

Kevin Love carried the Cavs in the 1st quarter and he iced the game with a quick five in the 4th.  He showed some aggression with his inside-outside game tonight.  He led the Cavs with +20.

People were complaining mightily about Mo Williams in the first half, both his defensive shortcomings and his general chucktitude.  But I thought he did a really nice job running the offense in the second half.  Delly seemed a bit bothered by all the half-court pressure that Avery Bradley applied.  Mo succumbed to it at one point but he seemed more willing and able to try to cut into the teeth of the defense.  That got LeBron in motion, as opposed to waiting as a check valve on the perimeter, and it led to more interior passing and an inside-outside attack that led to the barrage of 3s that came at the end of the 3rd quarter.  Mo also hit that buzzer beater which quelled a mini run by the Cs, and he drained an important pull-up J after Olynyk had hit an excuse me 3 to cut the lead back to six in the early 4th.

J.R. Smith played a nice game.  I was very worried he was going to let his emotions take him to a bad place, especially when Crowder started clapping in his face and LeBron decided to cut off the line of sight.  J.R. dished out a couple of hard fouls during those moments and I feared the worst.  But he kept his cool and put in a very nice floor game.  He stuck some jumpers in the second half and played great D.

Varejao looked spry once again in his limited time.

The Cavs held Isaiah Thomas to 3-15 shooting and held the Celtics to 31 points in the second half (in Boston).  Money Mayweather’s BFF is now 13-59 on triples all-time against the Wine and Gold.  Keep on shootin’ Isaiah.

The Cavs pounded the Celtics and J.R. told Allie Clifton that Jae Crowder better not hold his breath waiting for an apology.  Jason Lloyd live-tweeted an obnoxious Boston fan’s missives, including this:

Celtics fan sitting behind press tables as Love works in the post: "Rip his arm out of socket! Who cares? Rip it out!"

— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) December 16, 2015

The Bad:

The Cavs gave up points to David Lee, which wasn’t so bad in this game but reminded me of the last time David Lee went off.  Ugh.

Delly had trouble running the offense, especially in the first half.  He airballed a floater too.  He played great D, but this was one of those games where you could see where Delly can be a liability on offense.

TT was a liability on offense as well.  0-2, and a complete non-factor on the offensive glass.  It seemed like he attempted 30 offensive rebounds and secured 1.  He did grab a handful of defensive boards, but the Cavs were only able to harness six offensive rebounds in the entire game, despite dominating the Celtics on the Defensive glass and in PitP.

Shumpert went to the locker room.  Crap.

Shumpert probably won't play Thursday vs OKC, but #Cavs don't believe it's as severe as last season's groin injury

— Jason Lloyd (@ByJasonLloyd) December 16, 2015