Recap: Cavs 115, Clippers 102 (or, Hacking the System)

Today was a weird day. It started with a notice that one of my credit cards had been compromised. Then a parking ticket was waiting for me after lunch due to a malfunctioning meter. My plan to take off early from work to catch the majority of the Cavs and Clippers at home was foiled by a fender bender on the freeway. And, finally, my server glitched out and prevented me from accessing the C:tB website for much of the night. I wound up feeling like my entire day had been hacked by the universe at large.

Fortunately, the Cavs did not share in my ill-fortune, as they employed an entirely different method of hacking, along with a continuation of systematic ball movement and defense, to dispatch the Clips with relative ease. The only real glitch for them was the hot shooting of L.A.’s potent guard rotation of Chris Paul, J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford, but they were able to counteract that with a brute force attack of their own on the boards and nets. And, while my preference when watching NBA games is for them not to devolve into long periods of large men unsuccessfully attempting endless free throws, as long as the league is determined to stand by and allow games to be hijacked with nary a rule change in sight… teams might as well take advantage. At least my DVR didn’t fail, so I could skip the barrage of bricks…

Multi-User Operating System

After the crash of Black Monday, and the hard reboot against the Nets on Wednesday, the Cavs’ offense was finally back and humming along against the Clippers. In the first quarter alone, all five starters received multiple touches and seven Cavs scored. The ball was whizzing from one side of the court to the other, and all but three of their 11 baskets in the period were assisted. J.R. in particular had his shot wired in from the start, draining two deep threes, and hitting four of his first five attempts.

https://vine.co/v/ieDUgTZMpLm

Meanwhile, the Cavs’ big three were masters of multi-tasking, as they combined for 13 points, five boards and three assists. Even though Kyrie had to sub out early after some early foul trouble while guarding Chris Paul, Delly backed him up, dropping in a pair of floaters and dishing a pair of dimes. The guys in the home whites were in constant motion, cutting to the ball and looking for the extra pass. Even Moz got off to an assertive start. Unfortunately, the Clippers were able to keep pace, as CP3 racked up points faster than a CPU (he scored 12 straight during a four minute stretch). He also attacked the Cavs’ defense like a malware program, spreading out the damage with four assists in the quarter, including one on a Jamal Crawford shot that grazed the rafters at the Q to give L.A. the lead after one, 31-28.

Micro Processors

The Cavs went ultra small to begin the second quarter, featuring a three guard lineup of Kyrie, Delly and Shump, along with James Jones and Tristan Thompson. This unit (with J.R. subbing in for Delly after a couple of minutes), after giving up a wraparound three to Crawford that capped his eight point solo burst, used their quickness, speed and defensive intensity to outscore the Clips 11-4 over the next four minutes of the frame. Kyrie chipped in seven in the period with two assists, and was able to not only keep the ball moving, but also helped put the Clips over the limit by drawing fouls. TT abused Cole Aldrich inside, using his multi-purpose ability to clean the glass and get to the line. He hit four straight free throws at one point to give the Cavs the lead. CP3 checked back in to relieve an overmatched Austin Rivers, and scored four quick points, but the Cavs countered with LBJ and KLove. Kevin got to the line and Bron got to the lane twice each… including this nifty touchdown pass…

https://vine.co/v/iej7UKx7Ypd

J.J. Redick did his best to corrupt the Cavs’ expanding lead with a six point jag at the end of the quarter, but the wine & gold kept the ball moving, resulting in an easy 5-footer for Moz and a layup for Delly. KLove got to the line one more time by backing down the corpse of Paul Pierce to close the scoring. Cavs led 59-50 at the half.

The Firewall And The Hacktivist

For the first half of the third quarter, Timofey Mozgov made his presence felt. He solidified things under the hoop and provided the last line of defense required to help prevent unauthorized access, and change the direction of shooters and basketballs alike. Moz even rejected the Truth’s final attempt of the night… sending him to the bench scoreless (0-5). And, on the flip side, Timo continued his offensive output, knocking down a couple good looking jumpers (to go with a free throw) for seven points in the quarter. He even got a high handoff from LeBron that he threw down with authority…

https://vine.co/v/iej1YB6r0A1

CP3 and Crawford cut the Cavs’ lead down to seven with back to back buckets after the Cavs went a little stagnant and let up on their defensive pressure, but J.R. Smith once again re-defined the term “halt and catch fire” by hitting the fourth of his six triples in the game. Still, not wanting to take any chances, David Blatt sent his designated “hacktivist” Champ into the game to start bearhugging the charity stripe offender, DeAndre Jordan. Despite having Cole Aldrich at the scorer’s table, ready to end the carnage, Doc Rivers curiously left his big man in to suffer (along with the viewing audience) through the inexorable final two and a half minutes of the period. While D.J. clanged five of his eight freebies off the iron… in between, LBJ tossed in seven points on the other end to push a nine point lead to 16. Cavs up after three, 88-72.

Hacking The MotherBoard(er)

The Cavs didn’t quite go as ultra small to start the fourth as they had to start the second quarter, keeping KLove and TT in to join the three guard unit of Kyrie, Delly and Shump. The results weren’t quite as good either, as they allowed the Clips to spam their way back into the game with a stretch of lazy defensive rotations (looking at you Kyrie), questionable shot selection and plain old bad luck (TT had a putback slam that was ruled basket interference and probably could have gone either way). Kevin Love did get a timely steal that led to maybe the slowest clear path chase down foul in history… although he could only convert one of the free throws. Despite letting L.A. cut the lead down to six, this unit did buy about five minutes of game time rest for LeBron. Once he checked back in, LBJ found Love for a crucial corner three that stopped the Clipper run in its tracks. Not content to let the Clips get any momentum back, Coach Blatt once again resorted to the Hack-A-DJ strategy. In hindsight, maybe Doc should have encouraged DeAndre to don his Mother Hooper dress and wig… after all, maybe the Cavs would have been more hesitant to hack a lady… In any event, during DJ’s 1-4 abuse of the free throw line, LBJ dished out two more assists that ended in treys for both KLove and J.R., effectively ending the Clippers’ chances and hastening the advent of garbage time. Just before the benches emptied though, there was one more J.R. Swish that was a microcosm of the ball movement featured by the Cavs in this game… where all five guys touched the ball following a free throw miss…

J.R. SMITH ON FIRE🔥🔥🔥#CavsNation #Cavs #Clippers #NBA pic.twitter.com/TtLavJJHVG

— Cavs Nation (@CavsNationCP) January 22, 2016

The Evil Corp

The Clipper back court, and CP3 in particular, got pretty much whatever shot they wanted… at least in the first half. The Cavs did tighten things down a bit in the third, but overall L.A.’s top three guards shot 23-40 (5-12 from downtown) for 63 of the team’s 102 points. Chris Paul absolutely shredded whoever tried to guard him, and added nine assists to his tally. Granted, the Clipper guard trio has been lighting up most of their opponents during this Blake Griffin-less stretch of games, but the Cavs are going to need a better defensive effort from their back court than what they showed in this game.

Though the Cavs didn’t have a ton of turnovers, the ones they did have came from unusual places. The primary ball handlers (Kyrie and LeBron) only had one between them, and that belonged to KI. Kevin Love had a game high five turns, Delly had an uncharacteristic three, and TT also had a couple. The carelessness probably kept the game a little closer than it could have been.

A bit of the malady that nearly bit the Cavs in the Rockets game last week appeared again briefly in the fourth quarter. Weary legs may have been part of the reason, given the back-to-back situation, although it might have also been the Cavs just taking their foot off the gas a bit too soon against a good and still dangerous team. Bleeding away 10 points off a 16 point deficit, instead of holding or pushing the advantage is not a hallmark of a championship team. Thankfully, LeBron, Kevin and J.R. restored order before the lead evaporated completely.

I’ve never been a fan of the Hacking Strategy. I think it’s a ridiculous, unnecessary loophole in the rules of the game that has been exploited since the days of Don Nelson. But, until the NBA does something to change the rules, it will continue to be begrudgingly utilized by coaches to achieve an advantage when facing teams with woeful free throw shooters. Purists will argue that big men should just practice more, or shoot granny style… but I really just hope that it’s something that goes away in the near future.

There were some comments on the thread that there should be an asterisk next to this win for the Cavs, since the Clippers were without Blake Griffin. I disagree with this assertion for two reasons… 1) If you do that, then you’d have to put an asterisk next to every game the Cavs lost without Kyrie; and 2) The Clippers were 10-1 prior to this game when playing without Griffin during this stretch, and are playing some of their best basketball of the season.

The Genius Bar

The systematic ball movement by the Cavs for the majority of the game was superb. The ball whipped side to side, cross court, and both inside and outside for easy looks and buckets. There were a ton of hockey assists and extra passes to find the open man, and the ball rarely stuck or stopped moving. The Cavs wound up with a terrific total of 29 assists, 12 of them coming from LeBron against zero turnovers. When this team shares the ball, good things are bound to happen.

The Cavs not only dominated the Clips 29-19 on the assist front, but also on the glass 47-35 (14-8 offensive) and on points in the paint 42-34. They let CP3 go off from mid to close range, but held L.A. to just 24% from beyond the arc. Meanwhile, the Cavs shot a robust 50.6% from the field, and 46% from downtown.

Everyone in the starting lineup had a pretty terrific night. They all hit double figures, and were all positive on the +/- ratio. The bench was outscored (not a huge surprise with Crawford coming off of theirs), but wasn’t needed as much with the production of the starters.

LeBron had a pristine, efficient and stellar outing, shooting over 50% (9-17) for 22 points in 35 minutes. He pulled down five boards and had an amazing night handling and distributing the ball with 12 assist to no turnovers. He was patient and got the ball to his teammates in locations on the floor where they could thrive and succeed. He was a leader in every aspect on the floor.

Kevin Love had his second stand-out game in as many nights. He played with energy and assertiveness, putting up 18 points on 10 shots, with 16 boards. He also drew fouls and got to the line eight times, making seven. Any night the Cavs can get this kind of output from KLove should result in a W.

J.R. was en fuego in this game. He out shot maybe the hottest three point shooter in the league (not named Curry) in Redick, and seemed locked in on both ends of the court. Give him a remarkable 8-12, and 6-7 from deep in the Q! Honestly, if Earl doesn’t get an invite to the Three Point Shootout in Toronto for All Star Weekend, there should be some sort of organized protest. The dude is showing himself to be one of the best ever…

Kyrie got into some foul trouble early, and had a hard time staying with CP3 (who didn’t?), but stuck with it, and started to get his shooting touch going as the game wore on. He seemed to have more success on both ends against Doc’s kid (who doesn’t?), but he still wound up with 21 points… even if it took 18 shots to get there. It seemed like another step in the right direction offensively, although he does have moments where he loses focus on D. I loved that he was looking to get the ball down low to KLove more often as well.

This was another strong game for Timo on both ends of the floor. It was obvious that his confidence started to grow as he knocked down jumpers and even got a couple of throwdowns off of high handoffs from both Kyrie and Bron. He and TT combined for 19 points and 17 boards, and together they manned the middle well, shutting down the Clipper bigs. The only downside was the penetration allowed to CP3 and Crawford, although that did clear up a bit in the third quarter.

Coach Blatt continues to tinker with his matchups and rotations (in a positive way I think), and made some good adjustments throughout. The ultra small ball lineup featuring James Jones at the 4 and TT at the 5 worked really well to kick off the second quarter. And even though the alternate small ball lineup to start the fourth didn’t work quite as well, it still bought a measure of rest for LeBron. As stated above, I’m not crazy about the hacking approach, but clearly Blatt executed the strategy at the correct moments where it was most effective, taking the Clips out of their momentum as they were closing the gap.

Parting Shot

Blatt also gets points in my book for standing up for his players in his pre-game comments, where he was fiery in pushing back against the national media narrative about his team’s shortcomings following the embarrassing loss to the Warriors…

“I hear a lot of far-reaching conclusions and personally I don’t like it, but there’s nothing I can do about it,” Blatt said before the game. “Because I’m not the one that’s saying or doing those things. I think this team has done pretty well dealing with the adversity that we’ve had. I think this team is in pretty good position, although people choose to overlook that, which I don’t think is fair.”

Good for you coach… I like it when you get fired up!

GO CAVS!