Recap: Cavs 106, Hawks 110 (or, Too Deep A Deficit)

It was bound to happen eventually. Nobody expected the Cavs to go undefeated this season, and it’s not as if that was their goal anyway. Given the level of intensity they’ve seen from several of their Eastern Conference foes in the early going, it’s not a surprise that an off shooting night by the Champs could very easily provide the first stain on their loss ledger. And, they’d have to try extremely hard to have a worse shooting night than the one they had against the Atlanta Hawks on this Election Tuesday. The hole was dug early, often, and frequently from deep in the Q. Unlike in their previous six games (where they averaged 29.5 points in the first quarter), the Cavs got off to a slow start and didn’t afford themselves a cushion for their collective chill mode standard operating procedure. As a result, the focused Hawks were able to pull off (now that the polls are final) the second biggest upset of the night.

Early Returns

When Kent Bazemore got the game going with a bucket off a high pick and roll, it seemed that he might be in for a decent night (he was). On the Cavs side, LeBron was in Magic mode, getting the ball inside to TT, who was fouled but promptly missed both freebees. It was easy to see early that this might not be Tristan’s night against Dwight Howard (it wasn’t). Kevin Love was active again early, drawing a goal tend call off of Howard and playing some solid defense. Then, JR Smith nailed a triple and it looked like a good omen (it wasn’t — he missed eight straight threes before hitting his final one). Dennis Schröder (heretofore referred to as The Umlaut because I hate searching for the “o” with the two dots) returned the favor with a pretty wide open three. To be fair, the scouting report on The Umlaut has been to give him the outside shot (on this night, the scouting report was wrong). While both teams were fairly cold in the first quarter (37% for the Cavs, and 38% for the Hawks) both point guards seemed to get what they wanted, with neither being able to stay in front of the other. Halfway through the period, Howard got hit in the lip and had to adjourn to the locker room for stitches. With the big man out of the game, Mike Muscala tried to do his best impression on a putback dunk… and almost killed himself in the process. Not to be out-dunked, Kevin Love threw down a rare hammer off a terrific pass from LeBron…

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

A touchdown pass from LBJ to Love also followed before the Cavs lost The Umlaut again for another three. Kyrie made up for his defensive lapse with a little Eurostep magic, but the low scoring first quarter ended tied at Barbara Walters (or hindsight if you prefer)… 20-20.

Losing the Swings

The second quarter curiously began with Tyronn Lue running out the “no stars” lineup of Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, Mike Dunleavy, Channing Frye and Tristan Thompson. As unusual as it was to have all of the big three on the bench, this unit actually did a decent job to start. There was some great two man action between the Shump Point Guard Experiment and Channing Frye with the clock running down. Frye also made a great move off the dribble for another floater in the lane. Aside from giving up another Bazemore three and some Muscala drives, the “no stars” played some tough defense. It was highlighted by this Shump steal and run out (which followed his lone triple)…

https://vine.co/v/5jpUK6Lgdlp

Afterwards, Kyrie bounced a shot about 15 times off an elastic rim to give the Cavs a five point lead (their biggest of the game). Dwight returned with four stitches holding together his lower lip and proceeded to wipe out Kyrie on a devastating screen that sent Uncle Drew to the floor. With Ky still on the ground, The Umlaut decided to mouth off about it and the Cavs converged on him en masse like a street gang, resulting in a TT technical. It didn’t seem like much more than a quick and heated exchange, but the combination of this and Dwight’s return fueled a significant Atlanta run for the remainder of the quarter. The Cavs resorted to double teaming D12 heavily, and he simply flashed back to his Orlando days (circa 2009) to kick out to the shooter for a three (in this case Bazemore). Meanwhile, the wine & gold stopped moving, and started jacking up contested threes while giving up wide open looks to the Hawks on the other end. Dwight was also a monster on the boards (17 for the game), and limited the Cavs to one and done. With the Cavs not being able to buy a three (they finished the half 4-21 from deep), the Hawks closed the second on a 24-8 run to swing a five point deficit into an 11 point lead… 53-42.

Attempts to Rally

Sadly, it was more of the same result to start the third. The Hawks continued doing what the Cavs usually like to do, i.e.: grabbing boards and running for fast break points. The Cavs were still ice cold with their shooting (down to 32% at one point), and continued to allow The Umlaut to blow by their perimeter and paint defense. About four minutes into the third, Cleveland found themselves facing a game high 18 point deficit. The best offense they could muster was getting the ball to KLove in the post so he could bang and go to the line (he wound up 10-11 from the stripe for the game). Beyond the post play, it was also a terrific steal by Love that sparked the first rally in earnest by the Cavs in the period. The steal (which probably earned Kev some wicked floorburns) led to a pass by Kyrie through his legs in transition to a driving LBJ for an and one layup.

Here come the @Cavs on @NBATV! #NBARapidReplay https://t.co/L0cyp9I00y

— NBA (@NBA) November 9, 2016

A three from LeBron suddenly cut the Hawk lead to 10 as the Cavs turned up the defense and started forcing Atlanta turnovers. After a Frye three, LBJ executed a drive to the left and a drive to the right to cap a 15-3 run for the Cavs. After scoring just two points in the first half, LeBron had 16 in his third quarter surge. Then, it was Kyrie’s turn to flash a little defense.

Kyrie with the SWAT on @NBATV! #NBARapidReplay https://t.co/Us6aOnTeYW

— NBA (@NBA) November 9, 2016

Who knows, he may even have trash talked The Umlaut in his native language with something like “BEKOMMEN, DASS SCHWACHE SACHEN HIER RAUS!” — which roughly translates to: “GET THAT WEAK STUFF OUTTA HERE!” (apologies to Ben and the German contingent if I butchered that). Of course The Umlaut responded, however, by digging a ball out of a baseline scrum on the next possession, racing down the floor and finding a wide open Muscala under the rim for an easy dunk. Still, Kyrie and LBJ continued to attack the rim with abandon, so even though they were just 6-29 from three… they were keeping it close. Channing and JR hit threes that pulled the Cavs within a basket, but a bonehead play by Shump on Bazemore/poor bail out call by the officials (depending on your perspective) cost them three at the end of the quarter. The Cavs did manage to cut the deficit, but still trailed 84-79.

Losing the Race

If you thought the Cavs might build on their furious rally to close the third, you’d have been mistaken. Despite the new life for the wine & gold, they started the fourth cold again, while the Hawks continued to hit their shots. Perhaps frustrated by this, the Cavs committed several fouls, almost assuring they’d get in the penalty early. Instead of bringing his MFQ skills to the situation where he typically shines offensively, Kyrie had several shots rim out, and had trouble staying in front of some dude named Malcolm Delaney. Then Paul Millsap nailed a triple from Shaker Heights and decided that maybe he’d like to be the MFQ instead. Suddenly, the lead was back out to 15 as the Cavs missed another rasher of heaves from downtown and KLove got absolutely erased on a blocked shot by Howard. Just when things seemed at their bleakest, though, the real MFQ decided to show up. Kyrie scored on three straight drives, and the Cavs started making another run, while taking advantage of a few more Hawks turnovers (they coughed it up 19 times, 12 of which were Cavalier steals). Channing Frye drained another three to keep it close, but the Cavs missed on several others to get closer. The Cavs did cut the lead to three following a KLove “banana in the tailpipe” move on Howard, but the Hawks countered with back to back threes from Schröder and Bazemöre (whö cömbined tö scöre 51 pöints — okay, fine I used a bunch of them, happy?). Kyrie and LeBron hit their own back to back threes to cut it back to three, but Millsap hit what appeared to be a backbreaker jumper to push back to five.

The Cavs wound up with an inbounds play under the hoop on the next possession, and Ty Lue didn’t disappoint with his call that led to this KLove AND ONE…

https://vine.co/v/5jDrI3XawTZ

With just over 25 seconds left on the clock, the Cavs chose not to foul… but made the crucial mistake of leaving Bazemore wide open. He surprised Frye by shooting instead of driving with six seconds left… and drilled the shot. After one last Kyrie heave came up short, so did the Cavs… 110-106 for their first loss of the season.

The Evil:

All the Shooting. To say the Cavs’ shotmaking tonight was abysmal would almost be an understatement. As a team, they shot just 37% from the floor, and a miserable 26% (11-42) from deep. The big three weren’t bad inside the arc (LeBron 6-12, Kyrie 10-20 and Kevin 7-13) as they all shot 50% or better on two pointers. The problems came from downtown, where they were a combined 3-16. Adding to these woes in a significant way was JR, who shot just 2-13 (2-10 from deep) and Channing, who went 5-15 (3-8 from beyond the arc). Some of this is a credit to the Hawks for contesting many of these shots, but it was also just a rough night for the Cavs’ sharpshooters.

All the Rebounding. The Cavs got out-rebounded 50-39, and it felt like a larger margin. Kevin Love (12) and Lebron (9) still got theirs, and Frye chipped in seven off the bench, but TT (two) was a non-factor against Dwight Howard, who had a game high 17 boards (even though he missed time in the first half getting his lip stitched up). Tristan’s line was a forgettable one with zero points, two boards and a -14 in just 25 minutes. Howard seems to present larger issues than the departed Al Horford, whom TT used to dominate. The Cavs actually out-boarded the Hawks on the offensive glass (13-11), so small victory there I suppose.

Most of the Defense. Sometimes, teams just get hot. And, the Hawks were one of those teams in this game. They shot 50% for the game, but close to 60% after the first quarter, and knocked down 38% from downtown. But, they were the recipient of some very wide open looks from the Cavs, who seemed to sag off of Atlanta’s guards in particular. The Umlaut is not a historically good three point shooter (just 32%), and Bazemore is only a little better (35%), but they made 7-12 from deep against the Cavs. The Umlaut also had his career high with 28 points, as he, Bazemore (25) and Millsap (21) combined to score 74 points. Kyrie again had trouble staying in front of the Hawks guards, but so did JR and Shump. And, the Cavs interior D was unable to provide enough rim protection once the speedy Atlanta guards got by the perimeter.

The Genius:

The Resilience. Even though they were down several times in this game, the Cavs continued to fight back and never waved the white flag. There were a number of times they could have packed it in and resigned to their first loss, but they overcame their poor shooting to stay close until the end. Despite scoring only two points at the end of the first half, LeBron turned on the jets, going off for 21 in the second half (16 in the third quarter comeback). He also finished with nine boards, five assists, three steals and just one turnover. Kyrie, for all of his struggles on defense, still paced the team in the first and fourth quarters, notching a game high 29 points. He ultimately gave as good as he got from The Umlaut, not only in scoring but also with four assists, a steal and zero turnovers. Kevin Love also had another strong game in a string of them, chipping in 24 points, 12 boards, three assists and two steals (one of which turned the momentum in the third quarter). Kev’s work on the block, even though he got blocked a couple of times by Howard, helped keep the Cavs in it during the rough stretches. Even JR and Channing with their sparse shooting, still hit a couple of big threes when it mattered. If just a couple more fall, the outcome is likely different.

The Ball Control. The Cavs racked up 12 steals as a team, and turned the Hawks over 19 times. On the flip side, they only allowed one steal by Atlanta, and only committed six turnovers for the game. These were the outstanding numbers that helped keep the Cavs in the game despite their horrendous shooting.

The Attacking. A large part of what got the Cavs back into the game after being down 18 in the third and 15 in the fourth, was their ability to attack the rim when the outside shots just weren’t falling. They were 21-25 from the line (and two of those misses were by TT). There were certainly shots altered by the presence of Howard in the middle, which probably also led to an exorbitant amount of outside shots early on as well. Yet, they were able to get to the rack when they needed to in the end, and it might have been enough had they been able to shut down the Atlanta guards better.

Parting Shot:

As I said in the opening, they weren’t going to win them all. This was a game they seemingly had no business even being close at the end after being down by 18 in the third and 15 early in the fourth. It’s kind of amazing they shot as poorly as they did and still were down by just two with 25 seconds to go. Ultimately, this loss might be good for the Cavs to keep them semi-focused as the regular season wears on. After all, perfection (or even near perfection) doesn’t necessarily do anyone any good… just ask the Warriors. Atlanta was probably due for a win over the Cavs after losing the previous 11 straight. They played a focused game and their backcourt stepped up to shoot the ball extremely well. The odds of that happening during a seven game series are quite a bit longer. There will be more games like this one on the schedule, but as long as the Cavs can stay healthy, they’ll still win much more than they’ll lose.

As far as the other significant outcome from tonight goes, just remember…

On the way out of Kent. pic.twitter.com/gE3Dy9yuJy

— Tom Withers (@twithersAP) November 9, 2016