Recap: Cavaliers 128, Rockets 120(Or, Three is Better Than One)

The City of Champions may need to wait another game to claim World Series hardware, but Clevelanders were still treated to a victory last night. The defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers won its fourth straight game to start the 2016-2017 season by outscoring James Harden’s Houston Rockets. The free-flowing, low stress affair was a pleasant diversion to the nail-biting anticipation felt down the street at Progressive Field. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter:

The game’s first bucket came off a standard issue baseline screen that freed Kevin Love to establish good left block post position. Unsurprisingly, Ryan Anderson struggled to guard an aggressive Love. Kevin displayed his full post game early, hitting the Rockets with 10 first quarter points on a variety of moves. LeBron was in complete offensive chill mode, allowing almost all action to take part on the opposite side of the offense. Neither team could figure out how to stop the primary action of the Pick and Roll game. J.R. Smith couldn’t deter James Harden from consistently getting into the teeth(mouth? there certainly weren’t any teeth) of the defense. The Beard dropped 13 first quarter points of his own. None was particularly difficult as J.R. and TT could corral neither ball-handler nor roller. Tristan needed to come to the level of the pick to limit Harden’s drive options, but he settled mostly in deep “Ice” position. Normally, that is a decent plan against non-shooting roll men. Clint Capela certainly qualifies as such, though Nené is a mild threat from outside. But a defense can’t give Harden that much space. His timing is too good. Still, a non-defensive start from both teams allowed for a rarity of all rarities: a Kyrie Irving non-transition dunk!

Tristan Thompson caught a nice half-court alley-oop from LeMagic James. Tyronn Lue brought Iman Shumpert and Richard Jefferson in to give Bron and Kev an early breather. Shumpert decided it was a good idea to take an off-the-playground-dribble deep three just to remind everyone that even though his hair is reined in, he is still Iman Shumpert. Kevin later checked in for Kyrie so he could abuse poor Sam Dekker on the block. Despite Love’s success, Cavs trailed the Rockets 35-29 after one.

2nd Quarter:

Channing Frye, Mike Dunleavy, LeBron, Richard Jefferson, and Shumpert took the floor for the second period. LeBron immediately bullied through the post for his first two points of the evening. Corey Brewer answered with a Hakeemesque post touch of his own against Dunleavy. I’m going to assume that that is the last time the previous sentence will ever be stated. RJ and Frye pick and rolled(yes, rolled!) into an easy Frye layup. Did I mention that no defense had been played yet? A couple three balls from Channing and Mike knotted the contest at 41-41.

LeBron James punctuated a 14-2 run with two offensive rebounds and a strong man dunk to push the lead to six halfway through the quarter. The King is a big strong man. Kyrie grabbed a piece of the fun by drilling an early offense right corner three to extend the run.

James Harden stopped the bleeding for Houston with a tough finish off glass, some well earned free throws, and another easy drive. He wasn’t done. Harden drove and dished his way to 22 points, four boards, and eight assists for the half. Fortunately, Uncle Drew made sure to balance Harden’s attack with 15 second quarter points giving him 21 for the half. The first 24 minutes were really well played, eh, for a pickup game. Oh Mike D’Antoni, welcome back to the NBA. 63-59 Cavs.

3rd Quarter:

Fantastic transition offense netted J.R. Swish a left corner three. Meanwhile, James Harden continued to thread beautiful passes through absurdly tight windows to keep the Rockets humming on offense. It also helped that the Cavs occasionally forgot to guard The Beard in transition. His three ball put the Rockets back up 71-70 four minutes into the frame. KJ McDaniels chipped in with tough defensive effort and by throwing down an alley-oop from Harden.

After mid-quarter stagnation, Channing Frye showed off his righty hook in successive possessions before Nené showed off his extended three point range. He looked good doing it. With cool graying dreadlocks, Hilario reminded me of this masterpiece.

James Harden drilled a step-back three to close the quarter’s scoring. Cavs up one at 85-84.

4th Quarter:

Frye, Dunleavy, RJ, Shump and Kyrie started the quarter against a Hardenless Rockets lineup. The first three minutes of game action was rather dull until Shump faked and drove for an “excuse me” jam. Mike Dunleavy made his entry for the dunk contest a few possessions later when he gathered in transition and fired the ball through the rim with the power of a thousand suns.

James Harden checked in after the timeout and immediate fed Eric Gordon for a right wing three. It really is amazing how easily Harden gets people shots. The Cavs had an immediate answer. In about as long as it takes you to read this sentence, Iman Shumpert, Mike Dunleavy and Kevin Love drained nine points to give the Cavaliers a bit of breathing room at the six minute mark. The Rockets didn’t much care about ten point disadvantage. Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza got hot from deep pulling Houston within four under three minutes remaining. After the Rockets’ 17th bomb, this one from Ryan Anderson, the Cavs were only up two. King James took care of that quickly with a three dagger of his own. After some Harden foul shots cut the lead to three, LeBron found Swish in the right corner to salvage a broken play. Swish hit nylon with 1:09. The Cavs dodged a couple bullets from the Rockets before Kyrie put the game to bed with a deep right-wing three with 34 seconds remaining. It was all academic from there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntabdXOY5y4

Thoughts:

James Harden is a straight up beast. He has been generally otherworldly on the offensive end for the last few seasons, but the additional shooting power that flanks him this year makes The Beard almost unstoppable. People will complain about his style. They will look at the boxscore and scoff at his free throw attempts. Those fouls are mostly correct calls. The guy is simply a savant at drawing contact. Like it or not, that is a talent for an NBA player. 41, 15, and seven on only 20 shot attempts is a pretty nice night for a legit MVP candidate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgvfc2rkxj4

That being said, Mike D’Antoni will undermine the defensive integrity of any team he coaches. Jalen Rose often talks about how little D’Antoni cares about that end of the floor. Sure, you could argue that the Rockets offensive start is due to D’Antoni’s system. He certainly doesn’t hurt them on the offensive end, but I think the shooters they brought in make a bigger difference than a perceived uptick in pace. It will be fun to watch the Rockets in the regular season, but they aren’t beating anyone in the playoffs unless they play both ends.

Speaking of which, the Cavaliers won another game in which they struggled on the defensive end. I already mentioned how Tristan needed to come up to the level of the pick. The Cavs have also been reticent to really chuck the roller from the weakside. Unfortunately and fortunately, any criticism of the Cavs’ defense can be easily refuted by the phrase “they’ll be fine when it counts”.

56 points on 35 shots. Kevin and Kyrie are part of a true big three this season. With LeBron in Magic mode, more shots are going to the Cavs’ other stars. So far this season, they are delivering. Even Bron’s 36 minutes played are deceiving. He barely broke a sweat before the second quarter. The Cavaliers are spreading the wealth and doing it efficiently. For example, seven different guys connected to go 16 for 32 from deep. That will get it done.

Game 7 for the Tribe tonight. I hadn’t felt any impending doom throughout the entirety of the postseason until today. I felt it for all of one minute. Then I watched various videos of Cavs fans celebrating after Kyrie’s “Shot”. All is well in the world. The fact that last night was a blowout actually helps for Game 7. The bullpen is completely fresh. In Tito we Trust. Go Cleveland!