The Point Four-ward: Blank From Point Blank Range

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) Following the Cavs’ 110-107 overtime win over the Mavericks on Tuesday night, the big story in Big D was about the three ball that went in.

Now, it’s true. Kyrie Irving splashed one in from mega distance to put the game away. But the Cavs may never have been in the position of needing heroics if they’d made the shots that teams are supposed to make with much more relative ease: the ones that come in the painted area closest to the basket. Instead, the C-Men of the Cuyahoga (just something I’m trying out… maybe… or not) bricked bunny after bunny, especially — and for the second straight game — in the second quarter, squandering the chance to put some distance between themselves and the home team.

Maybe part of this is playing on the road, but it’s now been two games where the Cavs have made things more difficult on themselves by missing easy buckets. Most people probably expected the Mavericks game to be competitive, but a shot chart like this one—

—kept a plucky Sixers squad in a game that saw the Cavs shoot 28% from the floor in the second, including a number of clankers and near misses from point blank range (and also included a terrible three point attempt by center Timofey Mozgov… but that’s for a different narrative).

2.) Against the Mavericks, the Cavs started off the second quarter with Matthew Dellavedova pulling up on a fast break and finding only iron for his five-footer. Then, Kevin Love launched a turnaround fade-away over 7-foot Dirk Nowitzki that popped like a kernel in hot oil before falling out. Later, Mozgov had his dunk attempt rejected by the rim and the Cavs saw the Mavericks stretch their lead to eight points.

All in all, the quarter looked like this—

Credit the Mavericks for decent defense, but none of these misses were necessarily the result of that. The Cavs just flat-out missed. In fact, over the last two games, the Cavs have been shooting a less-than-stellar 44% on their two-point shots. Considering how well LeBron James and Irving get to the basket, how effective Love can be in the post and the Delly-to-Tristan Thompson lob, 44% is leaving a ton of points on the table.

In fact, one of the reasons the Cavs were able to take the game in overtime wasn’t because Irving finally discovered his three-point touch, but because, as a team, they discovered their touch on the much closer shots. Take a look:

James, Irving, Love and Thompson each converted their points in the paint in overtime, setting the stage for Irving’s dagger.

With the team headed into a tough back-to-back at San Antonio and at Houston, the Cavs coaching staff has to feel the pressure not just to get the Cavs easy shots, but… well, to get them easier easy shots. In games like tonight’s game against the Spurs or Monday night’s rematch against the Warriors in Cleveland, the Cavs cannot afford to keep points off the board.

3.) Against the Sixers, Richard Jefferson was in danger of falling victim to the Cavs second quarter close-range woes. His first shot of the quarter was a soaring left-handed layup that soared — like most of the Cavs’ shots at that point — just a tad short.

Jefferson made sure his second attempt went down in my favorite non-LeBron shot of the game.

[clears voice for best Austin Carr impression]

I hope they’re hungry for turkey here in Philly, ’cause Richard Jefferson just brought the stuffing!

Jefferson finished the game 1-2 from the field for three points in 12 minutes of action.

4.) The brief, forgettable run of Smokin’ Joe Harris, Cleveland Cavalier, has now come fully to a close. The 6-6 swingman from Virginia, brought in by GM David Griffin to be the team’s dead-eye shooter-in-development saw his time in the wine and gold cut short due to surgery on his right foot, the emergence of Jared Cunningham, the Much Danger Ninja, and… well, the fact that the eye he used to guide his three point shots was too lively, never quite dead enough to be consistently dead on.

This season, Harris played in only five games, averaging 0.6 points on 25% shooting. Put another way, he hoisted up just four shots in the first two months of the 2015-16 season — all of them threes — and made one. Harris seemed liked by his teammates and wasn’t afraid of putting in the work (even a casual eye test could show that Harris had gone a long way in sculpting his body in just over one full season as a pro). But, at the end of the day, it came down to the exorbitant luxury tax Cavs owner Dan Gilbert was paying and the fact that Cunningham — a training camp invite on his fifth team in four seasons — was able to crack the rotation while Harris could not.

On January 7, when it was announced that the team would guarantee Cunningham’s contract for the rest of the season, Cleveland.com’s Chris Haynes wrote:

“If the Cavaliers don’t make any changes to the roster, Cunningham would cost the team about an extra $3.8 million in luxury tax dollars on top of the $170 million or so they’ll fork out.”

The amount the Cavs are expected to save in luxury tax payments now that Harris has been moved? Yep, about $3 million. The Cavs evened their payroll with the move and kept the end-of-the-bench player who could actually help them now.

Also, as first reported by Haynes and then mentioned the Live Thread for Tuesday’s game against the Mavericks, there is another possible reason for parting ways with Harris. The move opens up a roster spot, meaning that the Cavs can be active in the period following the trade deadline when players are bought out and become free agents.

Who might the Cavs look to add with their open roster spot? Well, Ray Allen still has yet to officially retire…