Recap: Hornets 106, Cavs 97 (or, Dig Your Own Hole)

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” wait a minute… Do you guys ever get that sense of deja vu? Like you’re reliving the same day, or game over again? And, here I thought Groundhog Day was yesterday. Didn’t that finicky rodent see his shadow or something? Wasn’t there supposed to be good weather ahead? A fast-forwarding to Spring? Well, apparently someone forgot to tell the Cavaliers (and me for that matter), since I feel like I’m writing about the same kind of game they played the last time out… again. It’s hard to say what the cause of all this is… maybe their alarm woke them up too early to the dulcet sounds of “I Got You Babe!”… maybe the people at their hotel were too annoying… maybe Ned (Ned! You know… Ned Reyerson!) accosted them and they were too distracted to miss that icy puddle this time (watch out for that third quarter guys… it’s a doozy!). In any event, the only real difference between Monday’s game and last night’s game was the outcome. I guess some holes are harder to dig out of than others…

Well, what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn’t one today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK4Heo06NXs

Instead of rehashing the full blow-by-blow of this one, since it was so eerily similar to Monday’s contest with the Pacers, here’s a general overview with a couple of highlights that stood out…

The Cavs got off to another hot start shooting the ball, hitting their first three shots, and seven of their first 10 attempts. The only real difference was that Kevin Love wasn’t quite as red hot as he had been for the previous few games, making only 2-6 in the first quarter. Still, they took an early advantage on the Hornets (who were missing their star PG, Kemba Walker, due to a knee injury). They managed to move the ball around on offense, yet their defense once again came up short as they failed to control the paint or the glass. Actually, that’s an understatement… they got destroyed on the glass 18-7. This allowed an injury depleted, yet scrappy Charlotte team to hang around and keep things deadlocked after one. The only reason they didn’t take the lead was due to this fairly remarkable block by J.R. Smith (remarkable not only in quality, but also because J.R. wasn’t called for a foul)…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbWzijuQH3Y

The two benches squared off to start the second, and for a minute, it looked as though Tyronn Lue might break free of this rotational loop and lengthen his reserves. After all, Matthew Dellavedova was out with a sore hammy, so it was time to blow the dust off of Mo Williams… at least for a little while. Though he did hit a three towards the start of the period, Mo didn’t hit much else… and he certainly couldn’t stop the Linsanity on defense. It didn’t take long for the Cavs’ starters to all check back in, and that was when the Hornets’ bench really went to work behind former Badger, Frank Kaminsky. Frank “The Tank” went streaking for 10 points in the quarter to help give Charlotte a three point lead with just under three to go. But, a LeBlizzard of buckets and dimes fueled a 13-1 Cavs run to close out the half… capped by this ball-movement gem to beat the buzzer…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnsrVMb2iRY

The third quarter saw the Cavs bust out their shovels in a major way to dig themselves a replica of the hole they put themselves in on Monday night. Using a deadly combination of listless defense with a ball-sticking offense of ISO and two-man pick and roll, they got outscored 33-17 by an inspired Charlotte team. The Hornet outside shooters knocked down threes… their slashers slashed to the hoop… their big men packed the paint and they crashed the boards harder than the truck Phil drove over the cliff in Punxsutawney. Despite using a couple timeouts this time, and even inserting Anderson Varejao for a stretch, Coach Lue couldn’t seem to come up with a lineup to counteract this third quarter malaise. At the end of three, the Hornets had turned a nine point halftime deficit into a seven point lead.

Despite the Cavs’ best efforts to make things more competitive in the fourth quarter, no amount of furious digging could fill the hole back in completely. Every time Kyrie or LeBron got a little traction on their drives, or the threes started falling for J.R. and KLove… they just couldn’t seem to make stops on the defensive end. They again hemorrhaged rebounds to Charlotte, and also committed five of their eight turnovers for the game (they had zero in the first half for the first time since 2009). Unlike Monday night, they were unable to get the margin much closer than six points, and things even got heated with former teammate, American Patriot, and man bun sporting fake tough guy, Spencer Hawes…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXD4wbcE_FU

The hole proved too deep to escape this time, and despite another heavy load of minutes for the starters, the Cavs suffered just their second defeat of the Tyronn Lue era (and just their fourth in their last two dozen games).

Don’t you have some kind of a line that you keep open for emergencies or for celebrities? I’m both. I’m a celebrity in an emergency.

LeBron James had a 21-game personal winning streak against the Hornets coming into this game. He hadn’t lost to them since his first stint with the Cavs back in February of 2010, a span of nearly six years to the day. Despite logging yet another milestone, this time passing Kevin Garnett to move into 16th place on the all time NBA scoring list, he had a relatively inefficient night (by his standards), needing 21 shots to get his 23 points. He did add six assists and six rebounds, although only three dimes and one board came in the second half, after his burst to close out the first. Bron clearly had some issues getting free of a healthy Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, and also had a tough time boxing MKG out on the glass (and that’s when he was trying). At least LBJ acknowledged the ongoing seriousness of the team’s third quarter struggles…

“We’re s*** in the third quarter right now,” James said. “We need to figure it out. I don’t know what it is. I know Coach and the coaching staff are trying to pinpoint what the case may be. We’re doing a good job of playing great basketball in the first half, but our third quarters are pretty awful right now. We’ve got to figure that out.”

I’m betting he’s going to swerve first.

On the positive side, Kyrie sort of had his shot working in this game (10-17 for a team-leading 26 points), and he did wind up with five assists against just one turnover. On the negative side, Irving played like he had blinders on in the second half… continually trying to find ways to get to the rack (even if it was one on three), instead of looking to kick it out to an open shooter. He was also pretty awful in the individual defense department, as he was the primary culprit in letting Jeremy Lin swerve through the Cavalier defenses at will. Granted, he didn’t exactly have a whole lot of help with Delly sitting this one out and Mo doing his usual saloon door routine, but Kyridiculousness should never be trumped by Linsanity.

Don’t drive angry. Don’t drive angry!

If you were paying attention… all three of the highlights in the game recap section featured J.R. Smith. The first two were J.R. doing productive things, and the third was J.R. doing a destructive thing. On the face of it, it seems like just another bonehead move by Swish, as he blatantly retaliated against some Spencer Hawes aggression, earning himself his second technical foul of the season. Digging deeper though, you have to be kind of impressed with J.R. as the one guy who seems to consistently bring fire and energy to this team. At various points of both this game and the Monday night game, it was as if J.R. was the only guy in a wine & gold jersey who wanted to fight back. It’s also palpable to see how much he already has to hold himself back from getting too overheated with reputation foul calls and opponent aggressiveness/goading. Here’s hoping that J.R. can continue to harness his passion and funnel it into the positive side of the game rather than the negative. Even on an off shooting night (14 points on 14 shots), he still swiped four steals, three boards and used five of his six fouls trying to stop the Hornets.

If you gotta shoot, aim high. I don’t wanna hit the groundhog.

The open shots that Kevin Love was hitting in the last few games just didn’t seem to want to fall this game. Per usual, Kev got the majority of his touches early in quarters, but he had trouble converting his open looks outside (2-7 from downtown), and even inside against Cody Zeller and Frank Kaminsky (2-5 inside the arc). The 12 total touches were down about a half dozen from the previous few games, and even though he pulled down a dozen boards, it seemed like there were more than a few that got away from him on poor box outs. KLove did have a couple of terrific blocks (one on Zeller and one on Lin) in the early going, but neither he nor Tristan were able to lock down the lane for the most part on defense.

You wanna throw up here, or you wanna throw up in the car?

As mentioned above, the Cavs got absolutely destroyed on the glass 49-28. They also lost the offensive rebounding battle by a landslide, 11-3. MKG did a lot of the damage with a game-high 13, but Charlotte rebounded well across the board with eight different guys nabbing at least four caroms each. Canadian Dynamite fizzled out in this department with a paltry four total rebounds, and was less visible than Punxsutawney Phil’s shadow despite playing 34 minutes. TT scored only four points, laid out the welcome mat for the most part in the paint, and generally had one of his more forgettable days at the office. It’s fairly apparent that he’s got more inherent value when Delly is on the court to get him going with a Loaded Wombat or two. TT’s disappearing act was also a factor in the Cavs getting outscored 44-34 in the paint.

What would you do if you were stuck in one place and everyday was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered?

At one point in the third quarter, I felt like I had stepped into a time loop back to 2009. That’s because Mo Williams and Anderson Varejao were both sharing the court with LeBron James… at the same time. Though a rarity this season, this lineup was on the floor due to injury (Delly) and ineffectiveness (TT and Moz). Both guys must feel like nothing they did mattered all that much, however, as the parallel to 2009 also included a harkening back to the third quarter struggles that Mike Brown coached team encountered in those days. On the whole, Andy did bring some level of energy and defense, but only received seven minutes of time, which seemed too little to make much of an impact. Mo got a bit more run (appearing in the first half as well for a total of 11 minutes), but didn’t take much advantage of Delly’s absence. His shooting (2-7 for five points) simply wasn’t enough to balance out his woeful attempts at defense. It would be great if Coach Lue could find more optimal situations to play these guys, but that doesn’t appear to be likely.

I don’t see any other way out. He’s got to be stopped. And I have to stop him.

If only someone in a wine & gold uniform would have adopted Phil’s extreme assertion with respect to stopping the Linsanity in this game. This wasn’t Kemba Walker torching the Cavs for 24 points on 7-13 shooting and 8-11 from the line… it was floppy-haired Jeremy Lin… you know, the guy the Lakers didn’t want anymore? Jeremy must have thought he’d been transported back to New York circa 2012, the way he was carving up the Cavs (yet another reason the Cavs missed Delly). And, he wasn’t the only one… Frank “The Tank” Kaminsky had one of his best games (7-8 for 15 points and six boards in 24 minutes for a team-high +12), and MKG had himself a double double (11 points, 13 rebounds). Overall, the Hornets shot almost 50% from the floor, and attacked the glass with abandon.

Can I have one more of these with some booze in it, please?

I don’t know if Ty Lue drinks… but if he does, I imagine he could have used a couple after this one. Whatever is happening in the locker room at halftime lately sure isn’t likely helping his mood. For the second straight game (third if you count the run that San Antonio made on Saturday), the Cavs came out flat and almost completely ISO dependent to start the third quarter. Maybe it’s hubris from being up big at the end of first halves, maybe guys really are tired and out of shape, or maybe it’s just a focus and attention issue. In any event, it’s becoming a growing concern, and one that Lue needs to start finding some solutions for in the near future. In addition, Coach Lue’s rotations are inconsistent at best at the moment, with way too much reliance on big minutes for the starters, and not enough spacing out of the big three. At some point, he’s going to have to make good on his claim that he’s going to expand the rotation and keep the bench in shape and useful. Granted, the bench was without Delly tonight, but they were outscored as a group 39-18 by the Hornets. On top of this, the defense has been noticeably worse since Lue took over. Maybe it’s suffered because he’s had to focus more on his plans to incorporate the motion offense, but you would think bringing in a defensive coordinator of sorts would have helped bolster things. The rim protection in particular sorely needs to be addressed.

Am I right or am I right? Or am I right? Am I right? BING!

In many ways, Delly is the Ned Reyerson of this team. He may not seem like much on the surface. He may be annoying (more to opponents… well, and some stubborn Cavs fans). He’s certainly persistent. But, just like in the end of this sequence of encounters, you really do miss him when he’s not there every day. And, he’s absolutely the guy you want when it comes to providing insurance. I don’t know if Delly would have made a difference in the final outcome of this game, but I’m positive he would have helped the Cavs make it a much closer game. His impact on the defensive end, as well as his distribution abilities on the offensive end (particularly to TT) would have been felt measurably.

Well, at least the Cavs can spend the next four games, and most of the rest of the month, back in the friendly confines of the Q, figuring out how to stop digging these kinds of holes for themselves. They’ve got a decent test on Friday with the Celtics coming to town. Until then, I’ll leave you with a few words from @CavsDan himself (who seems to have picked up nicely on the Lue pun theme)…

No NBA team can be taken lightly. These are the best players in the world.I'm confident tonight will be a LUErning experience for our @cavs

— Dan Gilbert (@cavsdan) February 4, 2016