Pre-Cap: Chicago 118, Cleveland 108 (or, Final Auditions)

We’ll forgive you if you were watching the Tribe last night, and are just getting back here to catch up on last night’s Cavs action (I was too, which is why this is posting pretty late). Cleveland sat its starters and most of its rotations players as they took on Dwyane Wade, Rajon Rondo and the Chicago Bulls, Friday. A Cleveland starting lineup of Felder, Liggins, McRae, Holmes, and Corey Jefferson tipped off against Wade, Rondo, McDermott, the Geico Caveman (Robin Lopez), and Taj Gibson.

Surprisingly, the wine and gold raced out to 30-16 lead in the first 8:20 behind the shooting of Jonathan Holmes, the scoring of Jordan McRae, and some stifling full court defense by DeAndre Liggins. At one point, the Cavs went on on an 8-0 when after an Orange Mamba and-1, he stole the inbound, scored, and then Liggins stole the inbounds again. As if that weren’t enough, Rondo decided to pop Liggins with a forearm under his own basket, and lose the third consecutive possession with an offensive foul. The Cavs would end the first quarter up 35-26.

John Holland came off the bench to spark the Cavs in the second with a collection Swiss Army-Like drives, dishes, and threes. Rookie Paul Zipser of Germany, and Isaiah Canaan paced the bulls who cut the lead to nine, 63-54, Cavs at halftime. The Cavs starters kept up with the Bulls in the third until the 4:33 mark when after a Robin Lopez putback, Kay Felder and Jonathan Holmes went to the bench, and Chicago scored 12 unanswered in two minutes. Cleveland would never recapture the lead as Chicago’s starters+ Zipser went to the line 10 times before the end of the quarter. Fred Hoiberg must’ve really wanted this one. He let his starters beat up on the Cavs’ fourth string. The Bulls ended the third up 90-84.

The Fourth Quarter saw the Bulls go up by as many as 14 as German rookie sensation Paul Zipser went off, scoring 11 in the quarter, including a stretch with three straight scoring possessions. Jordan McRae tried to answer by throwing up a lot of bad shots (long twos off the dribble early in the shot clock). By the time Kay Felder checked back in to bring some semblence of order to the point guard spot (I know, right?), this one was over for Cleveland, to their credit, both teams (surely auditioning for roster spots) played hard till the end.

The Good

Link to the @espn latest on the story of the night: @TheRealJRSmith has a new four-year, $57M deal with the champs: https://t.co/W4TPbgTXIo

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) October 15, 2016

The Cavs’ deal with JR is backloaded, which means his cap number is about $12.8 million this year. The gang’s all here, and there’s absolutely no reason the Cavs can’t be the best team in the NBA this year.

Kay Felder had a very solid outing. Most impressively, he shot the ball better than he has in a Cavs uniform. He went 2-3 from behind the arc and 6-13 overall. He mixed drives, floaters, mid-rangers to go along with 7 assists and only two turnovers. Killer Shrimp was +11 in 28 minutes. He really controlled pace and darted around like a water bug. He’s ridiculously quick in the half court, and blazing in the open court. Defensively, Felder took better angles on the p/r, than he has been, though Chicago didn’t look like they were actively exploiting him the way Toronto was. Kay even knocked away a lob from Brook Lopez. As the video shows, Kay’s getting to be a much better finisher in among the trees. He also seems unselfish to a fault, and is great at setting up big men for open jumpers and passing as soon as he creates space for his teammates to operate in. Unfortunately, he’s passing to guys aren’t always good at doing anything with those passes. I’d rather he stay unselfish. That way Kay will shine with rotation guys.

https://vine.co/c8109b2a-7e2f-4f7e-a7b0-312da2faa2a8

DeAndre Liggins‘ point guard experiment seemed to be over. He mostly played off the ball and did what Cleveland will ask him to do in short stints of the regular season: intense defense, fill the lane, and hit open shots. He did all three, garnering 12 points, five boards, four steals. and was +10 in 30 minutes. He went 6-7 from the free-throw line too. Liggins has a shot to make this team.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg7DfrOden8

In his second preseason game John Holland earned himself another look with eye-popping 23 points in 30 minutes on 84% true shooting. Holland also filled up the box score with some gorgeous passes and some nice defensive plays to finish with three boards, three dimes, two steals, and a block. He really looked sharp on and off the ball: flashing a nice handle, a nice shot, and a really good feel for the game. Holland was -18, but much of that was due to being saddled with playing with the Cavs fourth string while they were getting drummed by Wade and Co. I want to see more from Holland, and maybe a shot at the point guard spot.

Jonathan Holmes had a nice game: flashing the ability to hit (wide) open Js. He had 16 points and six boards with two blocks in 32 minutes. Holmes was the Cavs’ best big, which wasn’t saying much. It’s a numbers game for him. There just aren’t enough roster spots. Hopefully Holmes had a nice audition for another team or the D-League.

If Taj Gibson‘s preseason stats are any indicator, he might be one to stash on your fantasy team. In 67 preseason minutes he’s got 49 points and 31 rebounds and is 26-37 from the floor. The exodus of Pau and Pebbles could mean good things for Taj. He’s 31 but plays like he’s 28.

Rajon Rondo was 2-3 from three and had a line of 20, six, and six (and six turnovers). He still had a few bonehead plays. Dougie McBuckets looks like he has the best J in the league. It’s really got a beautiful rotation on it. Robin Lopez feasted on the Cavs’ undersized bigs, grabbing 7 o-boards in in 21 minutes.

Paul Zipser won the game for the Bulls going +16 with 18 points on 91% true shooting. He has a good shot and is quick to the hole on cuts and straight line drives. He hasn’t had many minutes this preseason, but the 48th draft pick of 2016 looked really sharp – think young Austin Croshere. Can we get a scouting report, Ben Werth? On a team with only Jimmy Butler as a real small forward, the Zipser could get some minutes. Plus, his moniker is fantastic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icf2aG2kjCk

The Bad

Toney Douglas is everything David Wood says he is. The unrepentant shot hunter was 0-6 tonight and a game low -24. His defense and his offense both stunk. Markel Brown was a similarly bad 1-7, and I remember a couple of terrible defensive lapses. They let Isaiah Canaan and Jerian Grant eat them up. Especially disappointing was Brown who’d made some nice plays earlier in camp. I see a future in Europe for him.

The Ugly

Well, first, there’s this: the Cavs blowing a 3-0 break…

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

Jordan McRae is a maddening player. On one hand, he has a brilliant ability to draw fouls, score in the half court, and find creases in the defense. On the other hand he has Kobe’s shot selection without the athleticism. So many times, Jordan just appeared to say “Eff it. I’m getting mine” and would just jack up a shot, and like I said earlier, the pull-up long twos in transition were horrific. The shot chart shows you everything: 4-12 outside the paint. And still, he scored 19, added five dimes and three steals and was +9 for the game. He seemed to consciously be trying to move the ball, but when the going got tough, he tried to force the action, which helped the Bulls immensely.

McRae will be fine as a bench scorer, but I wonder if he’ll be able to deal with the lower minutes and inability to shoot himself into a rhythm that comes with playing off the bench. I hope he can, even if it’s so the Cavs can include him in a mid-season deal.