The Point Four-ward: The Long Road Back (At) Home

Four points I’m thinking about the Cleveland Cavaliers…

1.) From the moment the words came out of Jeff Van Gundy’s mouth, I had a bad feeling about Monday’s game. During the broadcast of the Cavs/Rockets game from Houston on Friday night, the former Knicks and Rockets head coach was asked if, when he was a coach, he worried about where his team’s head was at during the final game of a long road trip. Was it a concern that the team had already checked out and were busy mentally reclining the seats on board the plane chartered to take them — at long last — home?

Van Gundy responded in two ways and neither one left me feeling secure about the Cavs’ Martin Luther King Jr. Day match-up with the Golden State Warriors.

He said that, more so than the final game of the trip, he was usually concerned with the first game back home. After nearly two weeks of constant travel, players tend to take their foot off the gas in order to recover from the inevitable fatigue that comes with criss-crossing this country like a brassiere. Also, while home definitely has its comforts, being back around family and friends can distract the players as they play catch-up with the duties and responsibilities they had to put on hold to take to the road.

In short, there are times when the road team can arguably have an advantage and the Cavs were hosting the Warriors on just such an occasion.

2.) But Van Gundy wasn’t done. He immediately qualified his previous statement, pointing out that if you had a team that was “serious” and “professional,” you should always expect them to show up ready to play.

That may be the most frustrating part for the Cavs, who allowed the game to turn into a drubbing that turned into a nearly-historic 132-98 loss. Just one game after everyone — players, coaches, fans, and media — were patting the Cavs on their collective back for a 5-1 road trip that was supposedly evidence of the team’s increasing maturity and mental toughness, they were quick to come unglued when the Warriors — and Steph Curry, in particular — started the game hot. The Warriors’ passing and movement on offense left the Cavs defense looking like a Lake Erie perch filleted and ready to fry. When the ball went the other way, the Cavs couldn’t help but hang their heads as every missed shot and turnover become quick and easy points for the Warriors.

Of course, this is what the Warriors can do. In the first half, the Cavs shot a respectable 46.3% from the floor (though only 1-4 from three), were only out-rebounded by one, were even on points in the paint (26) and found themselves down by 30 near the end of the second quarter. Yes, the officiating was extremely questionable, but the Cavs let that, along with the Warriors hot hands (61.9% from the field in the first quarter, including 63.9% from three) turn this one into a laugher (or, for us CtBers, a crier) real quick.

It was just one game. Yes, it was just one game. But it happened to be just one game in which the Cavs showed nothing even close to resembling championship caliber toughness, mental or otherwise.

3.) From the Akron-Beacon Journal’s Jason Lloyd:

“One veteran was talking before the game about developing a consistent style and sticking to it. The Cavs have a tendency to drift, to adopt a win-at-all-costs mentality. Sometimes their superior talent is enough to pull out victories against inferior teams. But the elite teams, the teams the Cavs compare themselves against, never waver from their system. The Spurs didn’t on Thursday. The Warriors didn’t Monday. They play the way they play, and while it might occasionally cost them a victory in the short term, they’re better off for it long term because of their identity.”

That’s something we’ve talked about here at CtB seemingly ad nauseam. In each of the Cavs losses to the Warriors (0-2) and the Spurs (0-1) the ball stopped moving the moment the Cavs sensed trouble. They seemed unable (or unwilling) to run a play to get any sort of easy looks. Even when LeBron James tried to take the ball inside, he was swarmed by defenders and was forced into shots that looked more like prayers than strong shots taken with confidence.

While a clear offensive system has yet to present itself (and may never to everyone’s complete satisfaction with ball-dominant stars like James and Kyrie Irving) it was the Cavs defense — particularly what’s been on display by Irving and Kevin Love — that has hurt this team the most this past week. When this team defends well, it tends to play with greater swagger on the offensive end. When they get rolled on defense, though, and the calls aren’t coming on the other end… that’s when this team starts to panic.

And panic, for this team, has a name: LeISO.

4.) But the good news is… wait a second, there’s good news?!

Yes, there is. The good news is that the Cavs get a tuneup game in Brooklyn tonight against a Nets team that has dropped eight of its last ten games, recently fired its coach and GM and doesn’t control its own first round pick until 2057 (I think). This is the same Brooklyn team the Cavs allowed to play them tough earlier this season, but — Monday’ game not withstanding — this is a better Cavs team than the Nets saw in December and it’s a team that must show that it has become mentally tougher this season by pulling off a really tricky task: both having a short memory and letting Monday’s game go as well as using that debacle to continue to grow together and improve as a team.

Following the Nets game, the Cavs kick off a four-game home stand with a couple of nice tests when they play host to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday and the Chicago Bulls on Saturday. Hopefully, the Cavs will be comfortable in The Q — and in their own homes — in time for those two.