Recap: Cavs 105, Wizards 94 (or, They Can Defend When They Want To)

[Editor’s note: due to a schedule snafu, we had two different writers post recaps. In my Solomon-like wisdom, I split the baby. Mike Schreiner’s appears here, while John Krolik’s appears in the comments section.]

The Cleveland Cavaliers followed up a trip to the White House on Thursday to celebrate their NBA Championship by taking on the Washington Wizards. Coming off their first loss on the season on Tuesday, the Cavs were looking to continue their celebration by getting back on the winning track. Meanwhile, the Wizards were going for just their third win of the season, but second in a row after blowing out the Boston Celtics on Wednesday. It was a game in which each teams stars were shining on offense, and luckily for the Cavs, they have more stars than the Wizards.

First Quarter

No Bradley Beal for the Wizards tonight with a hamstring tightness, so Marcus Thornton started in his place. The pace was slow early as both teams struggled to score. This wasn’t so much because of good defense as it was both sides missing open shots and showing little energy to start the game. The Wizards began to start hitting their jumpers, while the Cavs were able to get to the rim. Kyrie Irving struggled early, missing a free throw, layup, and turning the ball over, helping the Wizards take a five-point lead after Wall hit a mid-range jumper that Irving barely contested. Coach Tyronn Lue quickly called time after this.

It would be nice to say that the Cavs began to shot more energy out of the time-out, but that wasn’t the case. Irving and Smith hit a pair of threes to keep it close, but Cleveland continued to put in little effort on the defensive end. Irving was having one of those nights where he stuck to every screen and Wall torched him for it, making five of his first seven shots for 10 early points. Luckily for the Cavaliers, they have LeBron James, who hit a three and then scored in the post to tie the game at 21, forcing Wizards coach Scott Brooks take take a time-out of his own.

Iman Shumpert came in for James and the Wizards immediately took control of the game, going on a 10-1 run and seemingly scoring at will. Kelly Oubre—he of 4.2 points per game average—had six points in the first quarter just by playing harder than any of the Cavaliers near him. Possibly looking for some energy and a scoring spark, Lue inserted Kay Felder into the game, and the rookie point guard scored on a a double-clutch layup with 2.5 seconds left. Unfortunately, the Wizards still led 31-26 at the end of the quarter as the Cavaliers allowed the Washington to shoot 62.5% from the quarter, including 14-of-20 on two point shots as the Wizards did an excellent job of pushing the ball and scoring in transition.

Steal and soar for @KingJames! #CavsWizards | #DefendTheLand https://t.co/8WS350CJFK

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 12, 2016

Second Quarter

The Cavaliers started the second quarter with Felder, Shumpert, James, Dunleavy and Frye. Much like the start of the game, both teams struggled to score early, but it was more missing open shots than any kind of good defense. Channing Frye missed a few bunnies at the rim, and the Wizards continued to push in transition, helped by the Cavaliers turning the ball over ten times in the first 15 minutes of play. Like Irving, Felder struggled with getting around screens, highlighting the Cavaliers’ need for a point guard who can both create offense and defend adequately. Mike Dunleavy also missed three straight threes, and the Cavaliers were unable to generate any second chances. While the Cavaliers went cold, the Wizards stayed hot, extending their lead to twelve points halfway through the quarter.

Coming out of a time-out, the Kyrie Irving converted a pair of and-ones to pull the Cavaliers within six.  John Wall converted an and-one of his own, but the Cavaliers’ effort on the defensive end began to pick up a bit, and they slowly whittled away at the Wizard lead. Three straight buckets by Kyrie and LeBron then pulled Cleveland to within one. Wall answered with another jumper of his own, but an and-one by Kevin Love—that Marcin Gortat complained about to everyone in the Verizon center who would listen—tied the game at 54. The officials then decided to extend the half a letting both teams parade to the line. The Cavaliers got there more, and were able to take a 58-56 lead after an ugly first half. The Wizards were still shooting 55.6% from the field,  but the Cavs were able to hold them to 11 points over the last 6:19 of the quarter. Irving, Love, and James combined for 39 points, while John Wall led all scorers with 23 points on 11-of 17 shooting.

Shumpman up to something!#CavsWizards | #DefendTheLand https://t.co/2l5fS0gtDP

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 12, 2016

Third Quarter

The Wizards scored first on a jumper by Otto Porter, but Kyrie Irving responded with a three of his own to put the Cavaliers back ahead. The Cavs continued to show more energy than they had early in the game, but a series of miscues, including turnover by Kevin Love and a missed layup by LeBron kept the Wizards in the game. A Kyrie Irving three gave the Cavs a five-point lead, but J.R. Smith was called for a flagrant-1 foul on Thornton that allowed the Wizards to cut it back to three. To his credit, Smith kept his cool, and promptly hit a three from 25 feet to give the Cavs their largest lead at that point. The Wizards increased their defensive intensity, causing turnovers and contesting everything near the basket, and the Cavs were not quite able to pull away. The Cavs matched Washington’s effort on the defensive end, and a pair of free throws and layup by Kevin Love pushed the lead to nine before a layup by Gortat. Irving quickly responded with a jumper of his own, and a three by Smith gave the Cavs their first double-digit lead of the night. Trey Burke countered by drawing a foul on Smith for an and-one, but the Cavaliers led 84-75 heading into the final frame. Irving and James each had 21 points, Smith had 17, and Love chipped in 14 points and 16 rebounds. Wall was held scoreless for the quarter to stay at 23 points, while Markieff Morris chipped in 20 points for the Wizards.

Fourth Quarter

Iman Shumpert started off the quarter by missing a dunk—feels like I’ve written that before—but was fouled on the attempt and converted both of his free throws. The defense of the third quarter seemed to go out the window for a bit, as both teams traded buckets. Tomas Satoransky converted a pair of free throws and later hit a pair of jumpers before Lue called time. Another jumper by Burke pulled the Wizards to within five, and the momentum seemed to shift their way. LeBron hit a pair of free throws to stop the bleeding, but Kelly Oubre forced a turnover by Love and dunked on the other end. Another three by Irving, and a layup by James quickly pushed the Cavs’ lead back to ten before Kevin Love then had the shocker of the game when he missed a pair of free throws, followed by James splitting a pair by making the second. The Cavs still led by ten, but weren’t quite taking advantage of the opportunities the Wizards were giving them to put the game away. Wall hit a pair of free throws and a three, but the Wizards were hit with their second delay of game warning of the contest. Irving converted a technical free throw followed by a layup on the ensuing possession to push the lead back to eleven, and that’s where it stayed as the Cavaliers were victorious 105-94. LeBron James led the way with 27 points, 10 rebounds, five assists and two blocks, Irving had 29 points and six assists, Love finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds, and Smith chipped in with 17 points on five made threes.

LeBron with the volleyball spike.#CavsWizards | #DefendTheLand https://t.co/tiHa5RfeDp

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) November 12, 2016

Things I Noticed

Live by the three, die by the three. On Tuesday against the Hawks missed threes killed the Cavaliers. Tonight, 14 made threes helped carry them to victory. Given the shooters Cavs general manager David Griffin has surrounded the Big Three with, it’s hard to see this part of their game any time soon.

Neither team was very happy with the officiating tonight. Often people think of poor officiating as officiating that favors one team over another. In many cases, it’s simply officials doing a poor job of calling the game on both sides. Tonight was an example of that.

Mike Dunleavy has  no confidence right now. He missed all three of his attempts from deep and seemed to alternate between rushing his shot and being afraid to shoot at all. Of more concern, the Cavs were -12 in Dunleavy’s 13 minutes of action tonight. Some of this is to be expected. He’s playing in a new system and is coming off the bench for the first time in years. While it won’t be pretty, the only way the Cavs can help Dunleavy is by sticking with him as he works to find his stride.

The Cavs’ defense was still a mess a mess in the first half. While their offense will be enough to win more nights than not, a great team has the kind of defensive habits that will help it win on the nights their shot isn’t falling. These issues seem to be due to effort rather than scheme, as they did an excellent job on the Wizards in the second half of tonight’s game. In particular, Iman Shumpert was tremendous in holding John Wall to just five second half points. We’ll talk more about Shump’s value soon.

Is Bradley Beal really any good? That might be overblown, but whether or not Beal plays just doesn’t seem to affect the Wizards that much. In many ways, he seems to be a smaller, more injury prone version of J.R. Smith. Now J.R. is a fine player, but he would never get the kind of hype that Beal does. There isn’t much evidence that Beal has much of an impact in terms of winning, and I’m just not sure that one of Gortat, Morris, or Porter aren’t more valuable.

All the Cavs cheered and doused LeBron James with water postgame to celebrate him becoming the youngest player to 27,000 points.

— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) November 12, 2016

Fifty years from now, when LeBron James is older than Jim Brown is now, people will still be talking about him. He’s easily the greatest Cleveland professional athlete of my lifetime, and will go down as one of the greatest athletes in the history of modern American sports. Enjoy this man every time you see him compete, because we’ll miss him so much when he’s gone.

Friday’s win, combined with the Hornets’ loss to the Raptors, put the Cavaliers back into sole possession of first place in the Eastern Conference. They’ll be back in action Sunday afternoon when the Hornets come to Quicken Loans Arena for what should be an entertaining contest between two of the best teams in the Eastern Conference.