Recap: Cavs 110, Hawks 108 (or, a Tale of Two Teams)

The “Two Teams” are both the Cavs.  They shared the spotlight tonight almost equally.  From the moment Mozgov was replaced by TT at the 5:37 mark of the 1st quarter until LeBron’s overwhelmingly violent dunk at the 2 minute mark of the 2nd quarter, the Cavs played as well as I have ever seen them in the LeBron 2.0 era.  From that point on the Cavs self-destructed at both ends until the Hawks erased the entire 20 point deficit by the 5 minute mark of the 3rd.  From that point on it was a like an even playoff game between two gritty but flawed teams.  With under 40 seconds both teams got easy layups: LeBron for the Cavs and Teague for the Hawks.  Then LeBron forced an awful off-balance 18-foot jumper going right (he’s not comfortable going right) that he missed.  With plenty of time left, Teague couldn’t even get a shot off, with Shumpert striking again.  In OT, the Cavs’ best strengths (rebounding, LeBron, TT versus undersized bigs) were enough to escape.

The Start:

Mozgov just kills the Cavs.  I hate typing that, but there’s no way around it.  Tonight I saw the same thing unfold over and over.  Horford would flare to the top of the key.  He would receive a pass.  Mozgov was late closing out.  Horford would pump fake.  Mozgov would THEN close the gap, giving Horford and easy blow by.  Mozgov would slam on the breaks like a cartoon character drifting 100 feet horizontally off a cliff before gravity inevitably kicked in.  The Cavs would scramble and Mozgov would try to pick somebody up.  But the Hawks were all in motion, so Mozgov lunged this way and that way and it was completely ineffective.  The Cavs fought through it and the demeanor in both teams was aggressive and determined to get the W.  When Kent Bazemore tried to dunk over LeBron and landed squarely on his back it added even more of a sense of urgency for the already focused Cavs.  19-14 Hawks.

https://vine.co/v/ijvz7Ierwm3

The Team That Could Win it All:

From the moment TT checked in the Cavs become an offensive juggernaut.  They swung the ball faster than the Hawks could recover and hit three straight 3s: two deep ones by J.R. and one by Kyrie.  Then Delly checked in for Kyrie and the Cavs completely shut down the Hawks.  Atlanta started settling for out of rhythm jumpers because they honestly couldn’t muster anything better.  The Cavs switched the pick and roll perfectly, contested every shot, and gobbled up every rebound.  And then they’d run out and pick the Hawks apart at the other end.  If they missed a shot TT would just grab the offensive rebound.  Delly played with an uncommon aggression that worked well at first (near the end of the first quarter) but bit the Cavs in the middle of the second (back to back turnovers).  J.R. checked back in for Delly and connected on more deep triples.  LeBron finished YET ANOTHER insane alley-oop from J.R. where the pass was terrible but LeBron still found a way to convert.  Finally, LeBron ran right down the middle in transition, received a bounce pass from Kyrie, and forced parents everywhere to shield their children from the gratuitous violence.  The Cavs were aggressive, athletic, crisp, unselfish, trusting, and purposeful.  They made the Hawks, a good team, look terrible.

https://vine.co/v/ijnLmawzEmr

The Team That Could Get Bounced in the 1st Round:

The Cavs lost the last 2 minutes of the quarter 7-0.  They succumbed to turnovers, got a little too aggressive (missing layups that were doomed due to positioning) and committed some bad fouls.  Then the third quarter started.  The roles reversed almost perfectly.  The Hawks married aggression and crisp passing on offense and swarmed the Cavs on defense.  The Cavs resorted to jacking up out-of-rhythm 3s, LeBron included (temporarily abandoning the last couple of weeks of punishing teams inside).  Kyrie missed all five of his shots.  Kyle Korver shook free for a few triples and the Hawks recovered any shots they missed.  The Cavs were completely shell shocked.  To blow a 20 point lead in less than 12 minutes of game time in a game when everyone is healthy and the team is locked in trying to make a statement is an indictment of the Cavs poor habits and lack of trust in the offensive execution that gave them the 20 point lead in the first place.

The Team that Won The Game:

If the kind of play that generated a 20 point lead was characteristic of the best the Cavs can be, and the kind of play that bled out characteristic of the worst, the back and forth that ensued from late in the 3rd quarter through overtime is really who they have been this season.  A talented, sometimes feisty, mess of a team that has serious chemistry issues on and off the court.  A team that is good enough to go far in the playoffs, but will not defeat the Warriors or Spurs.  And they’ll have their hands full even representing the Eastern Conference in the finals.

The Cavs collected themselves after the Hawks took the lead in the 3rd.  LeBron went back into freight train mode and TT came along for the ride.  Then the Cavs defense locked in.  They stymied the Hawks and built up an 11 point lead early in the 4th.  But the Hawks wouldn’t go quietly.  LeBron took a 2-and-a-half minute pit stop before being summoned to try to keep the Cavs in control.  On the Cavs first offensive possession, Iman Shumpert took an ill-advised running layup that he completely blew.  Jeff Teague drove and scored.  On the next possession, Kyrie dribbled around like a fool and jacked up a deep jumper that he badly missed.  Worse, he jogged back haphazardly and pointed ahead for someone else to pick up his man.  But he didn’t really pick up anyone.  The Cavs, in a bit of confusion, allowed Korver to fill in some open space in transition (not far from Kyrie).  He drained it.  At this point, LeBron looked like a rabid dog about to chew off its own leg.  He demanded the ball and ran up and fired a terrible 3 from the top of the key.  For once I didn’t blame him.  He was consumed by his emotions at that point and wanted to make it up all at once.  His missed badly, and the Hawks ran down and Jeff Teague shot (almost like a flick) a flat-footed 3 that went in.  A.C. and Fred couldn’t believe it.  LeBron looked quietly enraged, and his body language indicated he was stewing: “we are NOT losing this game.  Not this game!  Not when I have completely dominated and we had a 20-point lead.  This garbage ends now.”

This time up the court he was a bit calmer, and the Cavs executed some offense, with LeBron finding Kevin Love and Love, surprisingly, displaying the confidence to finally pull the trigger on a contested 3.  He buried it to bring the Cavs back within one.  This time Teague got a bit out of control and went for the dagger.  He clanked off the glass (no rim drawn) and it was a grind to the finish line.  There would be no daggers tonight.  Both teams had their head scratching moments.  After passing up a couple open 3-point looks, Kevin Love finally decided to fire away with a deliberate release from the right corner.  He was blocked (out of bounds, not tipped) by Kent Bazemore.  The Hawks had a possession that ended with Thabo Sefolosha firing a transition 3 when the Hawks had a 2-point lead with under a minute, taking only a couple seconds off the game clock.  To make matters worse, they let TT leak out behind them and LeBron found him for an alley-oop!  Two high risk, high reward attempts, with the LeBron to TT connection being a much smarter decision given the personnel and the fact that the Cavs were behind and didn’t want to burn clock.

The Cavs got a stop as Horford missed a contested shot at point blank range.  LeBron drove and scored after Bazemore flopped.  Kyrie wound up on an island against Teague at the other end and was blown by.  (It was bad.)  LeBron dribbled around and looked to drive right despite the fact that the Cavs had two players running into each other in the right corner trying to figure out where to move.  Eventually the space cleared and LeBron took a one-legged, driving-right 18-footer that never even got above the cylinder.  With about 5 seconds left, Iman Shumpert stole the ball from Jeff Teague as he tried to blow by.  I was completely flabbergasted that Kyrie Irving, out of a timeout, was still on the court for DEFENSE in those final possessions, given everything else that had happened up to that point.  I wasn’t alone.

If Dellavedova is in this game, instead of Kryie it's already a Cavs win. The lack of even caring on D is killing them.

— Russillo (@ryenarussillo) April 2, 2016

https://vine.co/v/ijvIugh9Xuz

In Overtime, J.R. Smith banked in a 3, and to give you a sense of how badly the Cavs wanted to win this game, he didn’t even smirk or shrug on his way back up the court (just stone cold focus).  After a gritty offensive board from TT, Kyrie stroked a right corner 3 off the broken play.  Kyrie wasn’t done missing shots or getting his shots blocked, but LeBron and TT refused to let the Cavs lose.  They connected on this sweet dish (below) from LeBron to break a 102-tie.  Nice job by J.R. Smith to screen TWO Hawks players to start this play.

https://vine.co/v/ijvFgtFg59g

Maybe Lue learned a lesson.  He substituted Delly for defense and brought Kyrie back in for offense.  Uncle Drew protected the ball and hit the free throws down the stretch to keep the Cavs ahead.  The Hawks still had a chance to tie in OT but Al Horford was the choice to fire a 3 from the top of the key.  He missed, and LeBron chucked the ball down court like he’d just won a playoff game.

The Optimist in Me:

LeBron’s athleticism is transcendent again.  He looks as springy as I’ve seen him in the last 4 years.  He was unstoppable going to the hoop tonight.  He remains the greatest passing SF of all time.  Tonight, he passed the Big O on the all-time scoring list.  He finished a ridiculous alley-oop from J.R. that was so far gone I almost lost my mind.  He had this play where he accelerated through the Hawks while dribbling, reminiscent of 2009 (minus some kind of posterization).  He hasn’t been the best player in the NBA this season. But, he might be the best player in the playoffs.  He just looks primed for a devastating run.  (He’s hitting his free throw lately too!)

https://vine.co/v/ijn237ZhmHL

Tristan Thompson owns the Hawks, and any other team that trots out small-ish big men.  He was awesome tonight.  His block on Millsap at the rim was huge.  His offensive rebounds late saved the Cavs.  He had the alley-oop late in regulation and the heady weak-side cut dunk from LeBron in OT.  His rebounding and switching on defense are valuable playoff skills.  TT and LeBron combined for 30 of the Cavs 57 rebounds tonight.

J.R. Smith is finding ways to be valuable off the ball (that screen for LeBron in the vine) and when he’s sticking those spot-up 3s from downtown the Cavs rise to a different level.

Channing Frye appears to be a great pickup.  The Cavs are so deep and they have so many shooters to surround LeBron come playoff time.

https://vine.co/v/ijvi5XezhEw

The Pessimist in Me:

Kyrie Irving was awful tonight.  I don’t care.  His chemistry with LeBron was abysmal, and I do care about that.  Why isn’t this getting better?  Why did they run into each other while LeBron was trying to set a pick for Kyrie late in regulation?  Why did Kyrie jog back after missing a ridiculous long jumper after dribbling all over?  Why in God’s name was Tyronn Lue so determined to keep Kyrie on the court late in the 4th quarter when he was having a terrible game?  Delly had a few bad turnovers in the game when he was being overaggressive.  But on the whole he played pretty well, especially defensively.  He led the Cavs in +/- with +13 while Kyrie was -13.  I felt like Lue could have done more to keep all these double digit leads from slipping away.

Kevin Love fades in games.  He was scared to shoot late (although he did hit a huge 3 to bring the Cavs back to within 1) and is a liability on defense and on the glass (somehow).  The chemistry between he and LeBron or he and Kyrie is limited to flaring out for spot-up 3s which he’s not converting at a high enough rate, or the times when the offense works through him near the elbow to set off a positive passing sequence.

Unfortunately, almost every good offensive trait of the Cavs vanishes when they tighten up.  I’m not saying LeBron or Kyrie Isos (or, Dear God, Shumpert isos) are always a bad decision.  But the Cavs have not shown the offensive transcendence that was expected with a LeBron-Love-Irving trio that could offset the defensive weaknesses associated with Love and Irving.

The Pessimist in me now believes that the Cavs best chance to be the last team standing rests on them morphing into a defensive juggernaut like they did last season.  That WILL NOT happen with the current coaching, minute distributions, or overall approach.  People keep talking about how the Cavs will flip switches.  I don’t disagree that they will have an unbreakable focus and intensity (because I can talk myself into anything) and that LeBron may be enough to lead them to the Finals because he’s LeBron.  But what switch is going to keep LeBron and Kyrie from running into each other when LBJ is trying to set a screen for Kyrie?  What switch is going to make Mozgov playable?  What switch is going to give Shumpert handles?  What switch makes Kevin Love get stronger as the game goes on?  What switch gets LeBron or Kyrie to trust the offense when things start to go south?

when someone on twitter yells at you for not watching a show they love pic.twitter.com/kapERM43PY

— alex (@steven_lebron) April 2, 2016

Bottom Line:

The Cavs showed me everything tonight.  They showed me what it is that makes them a great team.  And they beat a good team while on the second night of a back to back on the road.  That’s good!  They also showed me that even when they are completely engaged and wanting desperately to make a statement (44 min for LeBron), they have habits that can undermine them.  They really are their own worst enemy.  At this point we all need to hope and pray that Love and Irving start getting hot from outside.  The Cavs show no signs of throwing up fewer 3s and I’m not sure what other switches can be flipped.

Haiku Recaps from You:

Our own coach is lost
He can’t even call timeouts
And lets Kyrie play

I screamed like crazy
First half made me so happy
old habits die hard

Growth game say some
What do they see
Cavisiest Cavs to me

Perfect symmetry
Irving was minus 13,
Delly plus 13

Seeing no progress
Looking forward to late May
Ill have more free time

Kyrie’s defense sucks
Its ruining Cavs’ chances
No defense, no rings

Gather all rebounds
You Ambidextrous ball fiend
Haunt the Hawks’ nightmares

Tale of two halves here
Reflects the entire season
No defense, no rings won

Ball movement builds lead
Iso ball spells the Cavs doom
Ugly OT win