Recap: Cleveland 105, Orlando 99 (Or, That’s Why he Makes the Big Bucks)

Joshua Gunter / Cleveland.com

Cleveland was up by as many as 22 in the third quarter, and then eked out a victory as the Magic cut the lead to three late. Fortunately, the Cavs paid J.R. Smith earlier this October, and Saturday he started earning his money in crunch time. J.R. put up 11 in the last 3:31 to loosen the nets for the Cavs and help them pull away. Smith hit a trio of triples as the Cavs were struggling to score late, and Orlando strangely left Swish open. He added a couple game-sealing free throws to cap his night, and the Cavs and Indians kept their three game playing-on-the-same-night winning streak alive.

First Half: The game offered lots of highlights early: dunks, fancy assists, and plenty of threes. LeBron was driving, dunking, and whipping the ball around while Kevin Love was scoring inside and getting to the line. Chris Andersen had a very nice nine minutes as he dove to the rim repeatedly for dunks and free throws. Bismack Biyombo continued his thuggish ways, laying the lumber with three fouls (two offensive), and added a blown dunk, turnovers, and plenty of incredulous stares at the refs. Cleveland’s talent won out as they executed their plays crisply and used LeBron’s insane passing skills to set up guys for open jumpers and dunks. Cleveland also picked up lots of offensive rebounds, including a beautiful tip slam by J.R. Kay Felder went the length of the court at the end of the first quarter, hung, layed it up over Serge Ibaka to beat the buzzer and score his first NBA bucket.

Three LeVines put an explanation point on the first half. First, LeBron drove and threw down a thunderous two handed dunk while being fouled by Vucevic. Revelate.

https://vine.co/v/5pJbB2ZZteI

On the next, LeBron bounced an impossible bounce pass from the right block to Dunleavy in the left corner who tripled. Was that between Vucevic’s legs? Cripes.

https://vine.co/v/5pJHLzE9Y2b

Finally LeBron rose up while Aaron Gordon reached into the cookie jar and got whistled. LeBron hung, flung, banked in a trey, and then finished off the elusive four-point-play at the line. It’s not even fair.

https://vine.co/v/5pJDWHPX6pt

Cleveland finished the first 24, up, 62-45.

The Second Half saw Cleveland trade baskets with Orlando during a cold third quarter. Then the well dried up. Despite being behind 18 to start the fourth, Orlando outscored Cleveland 25-8 in the first eight minutes. Bismack was working the O-Boards, Jeff Green was canning wide open shots, and D.J. Augustin was carving it up with dimes. Meanwhile, Cleveland started the quarter 2-12, missing jumper after jumper, and put the Magic in the bonus early.

Enter J.R. Smith for an ice cold Mike Dunleavy. J.R. swished from the left corner off a King baseline feed, then after Evan Fournier buried a 28-foot triple to cut it to 88-91. To counter, J.R. rose up like he tends to do, and buried his second straight high hangtime threeball. Suddenly, the Cavs were energized on defense. They forced tough Augustin jumper and then a shot clock violation. Cleveland went to the King in the post on the next two possessions and got a free throw and a field goal out of it. Vogel, Bismack, and Fournier were clearly irritated by LeBron’s physical post play and complained vehemently.

Up seven, Cleveland looked comfortable until a Love block led to an Ibaka putback dunk, and then a J.R. miss led to two more Ibaka freebies. Fortunately, with 31 seconds left, Coach Lue drew up a beautiful play to get J.R. a jumper on the weak right wing, to catch Orlando cheating with three defenders on strong side to guard against a LeBron or Irving drive. A beautifully subtle Jefferson screen gave J.R. a wide open three to seal the game. J.R. and Kyrie sealed it with four twine tickling charity shots to make the final score 105-99.

https://vine.co/v/5p1MUtWKz9F

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

It was a little of all three for the Cavs tonight. Emblematically, Tristan Thompson was fantastic on the boards, grabbing 12 (four offensive) in 27 minutes. He was also a game high +11. But he couldn’t finish well around the bucket, going 1-4 and 0-2 at the line. Getting him a couple good looks early might not be a bad idea.

K-Love had 19 and 5, despite going 0-5 from three. He had good looks, just missed them. He did tend to force some of his passes, and the Cavs stood around on offense when Love got the ball in the post, contributing to his four turnovers. What impresses me is the way he’s been competing on defense, even as a help defender, but someone has to slide down and pick up his man when he helps.

James was electric in the first half and in Chill Mode for most of the second. He’s also settling and fading to his left again (not as bad as last year) on a lot of jumpers. He and the Cavs turned it on late for the win. Still, why he was playing 39 minutes on the back end of a back-to-back is beyond me. Yes, LeBron’s one of the greatest athletes in the world, but now is the time to develop the bench, not run the King into the ground. Let’s showcase McRae for a trade in these situations, Ty.

Kyrie notched a curiously high 37 minutes and scored 20 (7-18 from the field 4-4 at the line) in that time. He was solid for most of the game, but D.J. Augustin always seems like a tough cover for him. Also, Kyrie’s p/r defense, while better, is still bad sometimes. He still sticks to screens and doesn’t chuck the roll man at times. It just seems like a focus thing.

We’re seeing a lot more of the LeBron/K.I. pick and roll, with multiple permutations. We even saw a hard cut to the lane by the King instead of just setting for a switch mismatch (and we saw those too). The fear of the play set up the game winning three by J.R. More please, coach.

Kay Felder looked good, and was +10 in five minutes. He got the team up and into their offense quickly. Putting Killer Shrimp in towards the end of the first and third quarter to push the pace against tired starters might be a great strategy.

Birdman has been a pleasant surprise so far. He’s a solid bench big with his ability to shoot and dive. Plus, I think he terrifies people.

Shump didn’t spend as much time handling the ball tonight, and despite three steals he was a part of the group that allowed the big Orlando run. He has a chill mode too. I’m just gonna mention briefly that Delly had 14 points, nine dimes, and three steals last night. I’m not bitter. I AM NOT BITTER!!!

Orlando has talent, but they don’t seem to have any game plan or pecking order on offense. I was baffled that they didn’t get the ball to Ibaka against Love more. Ibaka was 7-12 with 19 points and seven boards in 31 minutes and seemed capable of a lot more. Part of this seems to be on Elfrid Payton who doesn’t seem to play with much of a purpose, and also on Aaron Gordon who seems completely miscast at the three. He should be on a team that runs for buckets, and a point guard who can get him the ball in transition – one who doesn’t have stupid hair.

After being visibly gassed at the end of the first half, Swish had his legs under him and showed that he was worth (given the market) what the Cavs paid him. His ability to hit threes, open or not, makes the Cavs’ offense ever so deadly. And that’s why he makes the big bucks.

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