Recap: Golden State 132, Cleveland 98 (or, as bad as Dick and Shore)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2kGOCs3Z80

As I sit here, it’s the beginning of the fourth quarter, and the Cavs are down by close to forty. There’s no chance the Cavs are coming back, and really, there was no chance the Cavs were coming back after the first quarter. Tonight, the Warriors proved that the Cavs are not on their level. I’m not sure anyone is. If you’re a Cavs fan and you have this DVRed, don’t watch it. You’re better off spending two hours watching Pauly Shore and Andy Dick in the 1994 classic, “In the Army Now.” I linked it here for your viewing pleasure. This Cavs game has been worse than that movie.

First Quarter: Cleveland came out like liquid nitrogen, and the Warriors came out like hot magma. The Cavs started Mozgov over Thompson to counter Bogut, so Curry found Bogut inside, then hit a three from 28-feet, while Klay Thompson canned five points worth of long jumpers. It was 10-2 before the first two minutes were up. Timo hit some nice buckets around the basket, combined with a 17-footer, and JR ran in off the line to make it 15-11 before a Dubs timeout. That was the closest it would be for the rest of the game.

Steph got a pass coming off a screen on the right wing curl and swished the first of a few dozen triples from that spot. A couple plays later, the Cavs tried to trap the Curry/Green pick and roll, and Green rolled HARD straight at Mozgov who was hapless as Draymond found Ezeli for layups on two straight gorgeous passes. I noted, “Wow, LeBron is not crashing down to help with that at all.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RhEFye7fio

The Cavs tried to stay close, with JR getting inside and scoring on isolations, but though the jumpers were falling, you’re never going to beat the Warriors relying on long twos. Steph Curry drained two more triples to close the quarter and prove my point. He put the Warriors up 34-21.

The Second Quarter was a reenactment of Andy Dick’s career. It was brutal. LeBron continued to fail to make defensive rotations, Kevin Love was a ghost defending the pick-and-roll, and Kyrie spent the bulk of many possessions dribbling around like a tweaker roaming through a trailer park. LeBron and Kyrie routinely refused to move the ball around the perimeter and tried to go one on three, etc., settling for long twos. I saw very few attempts to post up Love or to put LeBron in the post with a well-spaced offense. It’s hard to point to specifics because it was all so awful. Trying to pick the worst moment of the Cavs’ “play selection” was like trying to choose between Andy Dick classics like Dr. Doolittle 2, Employee of the Month, and Lion King 2: Simba’s Pride.

Andy played in the second and was the lone bright spot, bringing some energy and passion in the early going. Unfortunately, he couldn’t counter Kyrie’s long twos and bad passes, Draymond Green hitting triples in Love’s eye, and Cleveland’s old nemesis, Shaun Livingston. The deficit was at 12 before three straight buckets at the basket by Shaun, Iggy, and Draymond sparked a 14-1 run. LeBron kept refusing to rotate off his man on defense, and the Cavs kept running baffling possessions that resulted in turnovers and bad shots. Cleveland was completely unprepared for the Warriors’ defensive intensity, even when James slid to the power forward spot.

The Cavs refused to make smart fouls to prevent layups or to send a message, and instead gave Golden State And-1s. It didn’t help that the levels of contact allowed by the officials seems to be completely tilted in the Warriors’ favor. LeBron kept getting throttled when he went inside, while Mozgov and Thompson weren’t able to move without getting fouls. Tristan picked up his fourth with just over three minutes to go. The number of times the Warriors fouled the Cavs on jump shots this game without getting a whistle was more baffling than the fact that Dick has 136 acting credits.

The hits kept coming with moments like a wide open Ian Clark three to push the lead to 30. Cleveland cut into it when Love hit a three (immediately answered by another Draymond three in Kevin’s grill), and JR and Bron canned inside buckets to make it 70-44 deficit. UGH.

The Third Quarter was more like Pauly Shore’s film career than Andy Dick’s. LeBron threw away the first possession, then Kevin Love threw up an airball (in which Draymond fouled him but was not called). And finally, JR got ejected for the most BS flagrant foul you will ever see in the NBA for running through a screen and knocking over Harrison Barnes. (It will be rescinded but the refs wanted to kick him out before things escalated). In the words of EvilGenius, “The NBA refs hate JR more than the Manitowoc Sheriff’s Department hates Steven Avery.” Barnes hit the freebies, and Curry hit a triple after throwing LeBron to the floor to give Golden State a five point possession.

https://youtu.be/wbasBD2uYxE

And, this is how good the Warriors are. After Irving hit a nice triple behind a Love ball screen to cut the Dubs lead to 32, Luke Walton called a timeout to cool him off. Coming back from commercial, Kevin Love gave us one of the the most incompetent defensive possessions of the season. Here’s Kevin’s tribute to Pauly Shore’s moving soliloquy in Jury Duty.

https://vine.co/v/iOLFbZHA60V

The ridiculous officiating continued when LeBron got a tech for pushing Festus Ezili off him after the King got walloped, Steph Curry baited the ref into an offensive foul on LeBron when he was holding Bron’s Jersey, and Festus Ezeli ran fullback lead plays with bulldozer screens on the off-tackle dive play.

https://vine.co/v/iOLKl6vtTtH/embed/simple

Mozgov’s butter fingers returned, as he dropped multiple passes, missed multiple dunks and layups (some on uncalled fouls) picked up his fourth foul, and got out-rebounded by Draymond Green. At a certain point we all wondered why the starters were still playing. Pop would have benched these scrubs who were losing 104-67 at quarter’s end.

As I wrote this, a Fourth Quarter of garbage time happened, and the Cavs scrubs eked out a 31-28 period, mainly behind Delly’s three dimes and six points in the period, a James Jones sighting, and solid contributions from Shumpert, Cunningham, and Varejao.

There’s lots of thoughts on this one, and lots of frustration for Cavs fans who could rightly argue that Cleveland didn’t match the Warriors’ intensity or execution. I quote Tom Pestak here who replied when I asked if this game could get David Blatt fired.

Yes it could. There’s a problem right now. The Cavs at their absolute best can not play basketball like this. They never have. Assuming this is the Warriors’ ceiling – the Cavs cannot beat this. Blatt could get fired. Big changes may be coming..

I remember Bill Simmons saying “Did we just kill basketball in Cleveland?” After LeBron tore the jersey off. Are the Warriors going to kill the LeBron 2.0 era? They’re younger, hungrier, smarter, tougher, and more skilled. This sucks.

Ben Werth chimed in.

As far as Blatt goes. I am an apologist, but yeah. Love and Kyrie have been abjectly horrible on the defensive end. Hilariously so. Pop would’ve killed’em. Tristan hasn’t been much better. TT doesn’t come up to the level of the pick on D, so Curry shoots over the top. Love blindly blitzes the pick with a sh***y angle leaving Green with that same damn 4 on 3 that he always gets. Which of our writers is a bigman? I’m pretty sure I could run a successful PnR with one of you against Kyrie and Love. I’m only half joking.

And he’s so right. Curry went off for 34 points, and 7-12 from three, because the Cavs’ guards got absolutely zero help from the bigs on Curry on things as simple as off-ball curl screens. I heard a lot of complaining about Delly being ineffective on defense and offense, but defensively, save Andy, the bigs were a complete liability. Offensively, he rarely touched the ball early as Bron and Kyrie dribbled the air out of it, or Love just threw it away.

To go along with that, the Warriors have gotten to the point where they get an unbelievable advantage from the officials. The amount of contact they’re allowed to get away with versus their opponent is patently unfair. I tried to argue against this with Ben Werth, who said, “I am so tired of seeing the Warriors get away with twice as much contact as their opponent. It’s getting silly now.”

I replied.

The Cavs don’t fight back, Ben! They just take it. Throw hard fouls on Curry, give it right back to Draymond. Tell the refs what’s what. If you lose, you lose, but at least you can say you played hard. Take a foul, get a fine. But give a ****.

Ben countered.

I agree to a degree, Nate. But a lot of it is just totally lopsided calls. In EVERY Warrior game. They do a great job of establishing a physical culture, but there is limit to my patience. If we are going to let them hack the **** out of LeBron every play, hold on every screen and box-out, fine. Just don’t call ticky-tac crap against Tristan or any other poor opponent of the Warriors. I would have been ejected already if I were on the team. I dunno. Maybe that is what it takes.

So yeah, Ben convinced me that teams are playing 5-on-8 when they’re playing the Warriors. But the Cavs don’t do themselves any favors. Something just seems “off” with this team, and they’re not going to win playing like they’re playing. The Warriors have extra gears and the Cavs haven’t matched it yet this season. Kyrie needs to study the playbook. LeBron needs to get off the ball and actually run the playbook. Kevin Love needs to bulk up, start finishing, and they need to get him the ball at the elbow. Someone needs to slather Mozgov’s hands with stickum. J.R. Smith has to stop taking stupid fouls. Everyone needs to stop letting people have layups, and put some opponents on the floor. And, for God’s sake, figure out the pick-and-roll defense.

Yes, there are plenty of bones to pick with Blatt, but he can’t make jump shots, he can’t make the bigs play defense at the level of the pick. All he can do is sub guys in and out and give them information. The players have to buy in. And, if they won’t, Cleveland should find a coach they will listen to.

I know. This is just one game, and lord knows the announcers last week mentioned how hard it is during that first game after a road trip, but I hate this feeling like the Cavs are figuring out excuses before they play the games. And yeah, Andre Iguodala just kills the Cavs. Iggy had 13 points total in his last four games and tonight he bagged 20 after going 7-8 from the field. Cleveland’s snakebit against this team. They’d better obliterate the Nets. If they don’t, maybe they can trade Love for Thad Young. I don’t want this season to turn into the as yet unreleased Andy Dick/Pauly Shore sequel, In the Army Again.