Recap: Cavs 114, Heat 84 (Or, Work Hard / Play Hard)

Woe to teams whose GMs pissed off LeBron – after vanquishing Phil Jackson’s ball-sticking Knicks, LeBron played with an uncharacteristically high energy level to help stifle the star-stripped Heat.  LeBron, Love, and Irving tallied a 3rd straight game where each scored at least 20 points, the first time that has happened in the NBA since the 2011 Heat.  It was the first time the Cavs franchise accomplished such a feat since the 70s.  Speaking of throw back, the Cavs donned the World B. Free-Era Orange Jerseys (which I love) and produced a hilarious music video of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”.

https://twitter.com/cavs/status/807386089203740672

We got Cavs Roll’d while the Heat got steam rolled.  It’s obvious at this point that Coach Lue is not afraid to stick his boot in the Cavs collective backside, but these guys sure do like to have fun.  And for a team that’s so prolific offensively, they seem to enjoy themselves the most when they strangle their opponents at the defensive end.  Tonight, the Cavs kept Hassan Whiteside from being an impact on offense.  Whiteside didn’t block a single shot and Erik Spoelstra pulled him for much of the second half and indicated a disappointment with Whiteside’s lack of impact in his postgame comments.  The Cavs stymied Goran Dragic for most of the night, and the Slovenian’s frustration was palpable after he was called for an offensive foul while trying to create some separation from the pesky DeAndre Liggins, who gave the Cavs another quality outing in place of J.R. Smith.  The Cavs put this one away in the middle of the 3rd Quarter with an aggressive Defense-into-Offense attack.  There are so many interesting, fun, or important things that happened in and around this game, and there wasn’t a lot of drama or narrative flow to the actual play, so in honor of Akron Beacon Journal Beat Writer Jason Lloyd, I’m going to offer my 20 Thoughts, after the Cavs Big-3 putting on all these 20×3 performances.

1.) Before the Game the Cavs Honored Legendary American and Proud Buckeye Colonel John H. Glenn Jr.  If you have never read the book or seen the movie The Right Stuff, well, you should.  John Glenn’s accomplishments could have been spread out among 5-10 people and all of those people would be lauded legends and heros for those remarkable accomplishments.  And he did it all himself.  In spite of all this, he was a very humble and gracious Ohioan.  There was one time he had to flex on a political opponent, and it’s one of the more underrated speeches of our time.  God speed, John Glenn.

A moment of silence for John Glenn.

Godspeed. pic.twitter.com/e7BHrwEpfN

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 10, 2016

2.) It was 80s throwback night and the Cavs really did the hell outta this!  They showed clips from the 80s as analogues to in-game highlights.  So, after a Shumpert triple, a Mark Price pull-up was flashed, and a vicious LeBron slam harkened back to John “Hot Rod” Williams (RIP).  The first thing I noticed in the game is that Michael Stanley’s “Tonight’s the Night” was playing in the arena during warm-ups.  This, along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme Song are the anthems of my childhood.

LEBRON. JAMES. pic.twitter.com/kcuH2foFTn

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 10, 2016

3.) Kevin Love leads the NBA in 1st quarter scoring and he poured it on all night.  What was slightly different than what we’ve seen from Love so far this season was how aggressive he was around the basket.  He fought for five offensive boards and at least three of those led to putbacks, all with Whiteside patrolling the paint.  The hesitation is gone with Love, and LeBron seems more eager that ever to set up the defense to get Love spotted up.  Love put up a rather ridiculous stat line of 28, 15, 3, 1, and 1 in just 30 minutes and it felt very much in the flow of the offense, not anyone making a conscious effort to get him more touches or anything forced.

4.) DeAndre Liggins led the Cavs with three blocks and added a steal to boot.  He fought through screens and chased Goran Dragic around the perimeter.  I really like how Liggins seems to have the lower body strength to bother players in the post but has the footspeed and quick hands to be a solid perimeter defender.  Just when the Cavs were in serious need of someone outside of the Big-3 to step up, Liggins has answered the call.

5.) Channing Frye was not available for tonight’s game as he was attending his Father’s funeral.  Our thoughts and prayers go out to Channing and his family during this tragic time.

6.) J.R. Smith missed another game as he recovers from his knee injury that thankfully doesn’t seem to require surgery.  With the Cavs missing two of their more prolific 3-point shooters, they put up 114 points with an old fashioned thrashing, outscoring the Heat in transition 19-6 and pounding them 50-40 in the paint.

7.) The Cavs HQ show with Mike Snyder and Brad Sellers showed Craig Ehlo’s game-winning 3-pointer that led to Joe Tait’s famous call “Yes Virginia!  There is a Santa Claus, and he comes from Lubbock, Texas!”  And then they nabbed Craig Ehlo on the phone to talk to him about that play and Joe Tait’s call.  Ehlo admitted he didn’t know what the “Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” was in reference to.  Being just 7 years old myself, I had no idea what it meant, or where Lubbock Texas was.  Hilariously, with Brad Sellers in studio, they showed Michael Jordan’s “The Shot” and then asked Sellers (who was the Chicago inbounder on that play) his take on it.  Poor Craig Ehlo – his tombstone is going to be “Here Lies The Guy That Michael Jordan hit The Shot Over”.  Apparently, he’s made some money off the highlight video being used in advertisements for Nike and Gatorade, saying tonight “I’m going to ride that horse as long as they’ll keep paying me.”  I always loved Ehlo, he was a quality player for those outstanding Cavalier teams.  We ranked him #19 on the all-time Cavs list two years ago.

8.) Kyrie Irving had 23 points on an efficient 15 shot attempts and punished the Heat in the 3rd quarter with 11 points including a filthy buzzer beating lefty layup.  I haven’t noticed atrocious defense from Kyrie the last couple games but I’ve noticed that with Liggins in the game, they’re sticking Kyrie on the off-ball perimeter players.  Good on Kyrie for keeping his intensity up these last couple games on the defensive end while he puts on a show at the bucket end.

The level of difficulty on this Kyrie Irving layup is ABSURD. https://t.co/rqg2MFcoTe

— Cavaliers Nation (@WeAreCavsNation) December 10, 2016

9.) Larry Nance showed up in studio to talk to Snyder and Sellers and admitted that his dominant Cavs teams were never very healthy come playoff time and he said if there was one thing they could have done differently it was not practice so darn hard throughout the regular season.  He said Lenny Wilkens tried to get them to take it easy but they were just so competitive and they loved going at each other in practice.  He and Ehlo talked about all the 3-point contests they used to have after practice.  Apparently Mark Price and Danny Ferry would team up against Steve Kerr and Craig Ehlo, but Larry Nance wanted in too.  Man I’m getting so nostalgic.

10.) The Cavs created some separation in the 2nd quarter with Iman Shumpert manning the bench unit.  Shump finished with 10 points and four boards in just 20 minutes but the Cavs were +16 during that time.  He had a sick spin move finish in the 2nd half and a highlight reel dunk in the 1st half.  His back to back 3s in the 2nd quarter is really where the Cavs seized control of the game.

😱😱😱 https://t.co/46lf11YkZH

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 10, 2016

11.) John Krolik was so close to awarding Kay Felder his Tarence Kinsey award – given to players towards which JK exudes an irrational passion.  The smooty lefty made three shots in four minutes of garbage time, trying to ensure that DeAndre Liggins doesn’t pass him in the Kinsey rankings.

12.) Tristan Thompson had a scary fall in the 1st half, but he’s an iron man and never gets hurt.  He, along with Kevin Love did a nice job of forcing Hassan Whiteside to receive the ball just far enough outside his comfort zone to do any damage down low.

https://twitter.com/CavsNationTV/status/807405454645002240

13.) Dion Waiters missed tonight’s game with a thigh injury.  I wanna live in a world where Dion Waiters is an all-star.

14.) Kevin Love was a game-time decision due to some back spasms.  My Dad sent me a text “I guess he’s a fast healer.”  Ty Lue joked about how Love is going to have to play through any back spasms going forward.

15.) The Heat played a dangerous game where they dared LeBron to beat them 1-on-1.  That’s another reason the Cavs didn’t have nearly as much inside-out 3-point attempts as they have so far this season.  LeBron definitely seems more interested in drawing help and finding teammates, but he reminded everyone tonight that he can, you know, score the basketball from time to time.

16.) WarriorsFan, you may recall LeBron’s isolation explosions of Games 5 and 6 from the Finals.  Give us your thoughts on daring LeBron to beat you.  A better strategy than letting everyone else get hot from outside?

17.) LeBron made a handful of turnaround fadeaways in this one and capped it off with a one-footed turnaround fadeaway in the 3rd quarter that Fred McLeod property identify as Dirk-inspired.  LeBron was supremely interested in putting his stamp on this game tonight.  He played 37 minutes, which some implied was too high for a blowout with a tough game looming against the Hornets tomorrow.  I’m confident LeBron and the Cavs won’t overwork him this season.

18.) Birdman got some burn to start the 2nd quarter with Richard Jefferson and Shumpert.  He had a real nifty putback layup off a bricked LeBron 3.  He looked quicker tonight than any other time I’ve seen this season.

19.) It felt like the Cavs were a rotation player or two short during the losing streak, getting very little out of the likes of Dunleavy, McRae, etc.  So it’s nice to see Liggins move into a low usage but useful perimeter defender roll with the Cavs getting prolific offense from The Big 3.

20.) LeBron moved past Elvin Hayes to claim the 9th spot on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.  He should pass Moses Malone sometime between now and Christmas and then Shaq will be the next in line to fall, but that won’t happen until late in the season.

RECORD ALERT: LeBron James passed Elvin Hayes for 9th on the NBA's All-Time scoring list #CavsNation #KingJames pic.twitter.com/y7GeX0VduU

— Cavs Nation (@CavsNationCP) December 10, 2016