Recap: Cavs 100, Hornets 93 (Or, the threes beat the bees)

Overview:

After spending the first three quarters in a shootout with the Hornets, the Cavaliers improved to 8-1 on the season after outscoring the Hornets 29-21 in the fourth quarter. LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Iman Shumpert all had at least 15 points, and Channing Frye led the Cavs with 20 key points on 6-12 shooting from beyond the arc.

The Breakdown:

Definitely a tale of two games in this one. LeBron spent the first three quarters as Dion Waiters wearing a LeBron James suit, floating around the perimeter, firing up jump shots, and making none of them — he was 2-10 from outside the paint on Sunday, and both of the makes came in the 4th quarter.

Fortunately, Kyrie stepped in as a sort of smaller, less efficient LeBron, finding a lot of success going directly at the Hornets in the pick-and-roll and either finishing, stepping into a rhythm pull-up, or finding an open teammate. He even had a turnaround or two out of the post, and completed the LeBron experience by pulling up for a heat-check 28-footer with 18 seconds on the shot clock for absolutely no dang reason.

Also, Kevin Love averaged out his shooting woes from the previous game, knocking down 2 threes, hitting a pull-up, and actually getting some easy baskets at the rim — 17 points on 10 shots in 26 minutes from all over the court.

Defense was a serious issue for the Cavs in the first half, particularly in the second quarter — the Hornets were getting into the paint at will and either finishing or kicking the ball out to wide-open shooters. The Cavs compounded the problem by playing frustrated on offense in the second quarter, and watched a 10-point lead evaporate as they played one-and-done ball on offense.

The Cavs managed to lock up on defense in the second half, and in the fourth quarter, they were able to pull out the win thanks to two things I don’t think would have happened if the team didn’t have fresh championship rings on their fingers.

The first championship move came from the bench. Ty Lue has given Frye/Jefferson/Dunleavy/Shumpert/James-type lineups significant time in the fourth quarter of almost every game this season, and on Sunday, when a small-ball lineup of McCrae/Shumpert/Jefferson/James/Frye gave the Cavs the lead, Lue decided to stick with it for the entire quarter, leaving Irving and Love on the bench as the Cavs closed out the game. In every major sport, head coaches often make the move least likely to get them fired than the move most likely to win them the game. Sitting Love and Irving in the 4th tonight shows me that Lue is confident he has a mandate from the front office, and has the confidence that his players have fully bought into what he’s doing. Very encouraging.

Then there’s LeBron James, who, after 3 quarters of playing like absolute garbage, went ahead and scored or assisted on 24 of the Cavs’ 29 points in the fourth quarter. In the past, LeBron has let missed shots get into his head and have a snowball effect on him, but tonight he remembered he has 3 Finals MVPs in his trophy case, trusted the shot that hadn’t been there for him all night, got aggressive driving to the basket and getting into the post, and made the reads to the open shooters when the defense reacted to him. Very good short-memory game from LeBron.

I do feel like I’m burying the lede here, so let me say it: Channing Frye is the dude. From J.R. Bremer to J.R. Smith, I’ve watched GMs in Cleveland and Miami try to surround LeBron James with spot-up shooters for the past 13 years, and I haven’t seen a spot-up shooter more automatic than Channing Frye. Yes, that includes Ray Allen. Allen was a lot better at finding ways to get open for three-point shots and a much better overall player, of course, but Channing Frye just does not miss when he’s open. He catapault flicks that thing up there, it gets about 4,000 RPMs on it, and it finds the absolute center of the net every time if he has space and his feet are set. Again, he’s not as dynamic a catch-and-shoot guy as someone like J.R. Smith, but he does have a quick release, and again, not missing is a big part of being a good shooter. What a nightmare for big men who have to stick to him at the 3-point line whenever he’s on the floor.

I do think this team has fallen in love with the three-ball a little too much in the early going, but I’m not talking about Channing Frye. Open 3s for Channing Frye are layups that count for extra points. And Channing was making plays on defense on Sunday night, too! He was absolutely a big part of cooling down the Hornets in the second half, and held his ground at the rim way better than any other 48% three-point shooter you’re going to find.

Also kicking ass is a one Iman Shumpert. He’s pushing the ball, nailing his catch-and-shoot threes, attacking the rim and finishing when he gets a lane, playing great defense, and even starting to hurt teams shooting it off the bounce. He’s not a pure point guard, but I don’t care. He’s been invaluable with Dellavedova gone and Dunleavy and Jefferson struggling from 3.

Speaking of Dunleavy, his stay in the Twilight Zone continues. He just can’t buy a basket, and he’s getting destroyed on defense. To quote Austin Carr (I swear to god he said this tonight) he needs to figure this out sooner or later…quickly.

Something I’m going to keep an eye on going forward: Tristan Thompson is hunting offensive boards, and I think it’s hurting the offense. He makes his initial duck-in on the pick-and-roll or whatever action, and if he doesn’t get the pass, he tends to just stay in the lane and wait for the shot so he can fight for the rebound instead of rotating back out of the lane and giving his teammates room to work in there. For example, when Love comes in on a pick-and-roll action with Irving after Kyrie doesn’t give Tristan the ball on the initial dive to the basket, he’s got his defender, Thompson’s defender, and Thompson himself all inside of that paint. That’s a lot of human being in a relatively small area, and Love isn’t the best finisher for a big man to begin with.

I realize that Tristan makes his money getting those offensive boards, drawing loose-ball fouls, and generally causing havoc after Cavalier misses, but the other edge of that sword hurts the first unit’s spacing, and it’s fairly sharp right now. He doesn’t need to add a Haslem/McDyess jumper or anything like that — just keep moving when the ball doesn’t come to him, set screens, look for opportunities to cut again, and dive in hard for that offensive board after the team has taken its best shot.

Hey, it’s Jordan McRae with a clutch floater! That was his only basket on 4 shots in 14 minutes, but he mostly stayed out of the way offensively, Kemba was quiet while he was on the floor, and he was part of the lineup that closed out the game. He doesn’t excite me like, say…

…KAY FELDER SIGHTING! Two games in a row! The Dope Kay Felder thing in Sunday’s game came when he got the ball up top, put on some Allen Iverson-style crossovers with the film speed accidentally set to fast-forward to get past his man and draw defenders to the baseline, where he found Channing Frye with a skip pass for an open three in the corner, which Frye of course made. He missed two layups, and we’re still waiting for Felder’s first made jumper in the NBA, but he is still the absolute best.