Recap: Detroit 106, Cleveland 90 (or PLEASE. Stop. Dribbling.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vZ3bw0ElPU

If you looked at this game at the beginning of the year and wrote “scheduling loss” on your calendar, you had it mostly right. A night after besting the Warriors in a Finals re-match, the Cavs traveled to Detroit and opted to rest LeBron James. Cleveland limited the minutes for most of their players with Shumpert being the only Cav over the half hour mark with 33. They did not, however, limit the turnovers as they gave away the rock 21 times while shooting 38% from the floor.

Cleveland gave up the first eight points and were down by as many as 14 with three minutes left in the first half. The lead should have been more for the Pistons as they missed a slew of point blank layups before a rally by the unlikely lineup of Kay Felder, Kevin Love, Mike Dunleavey, DeAndre Liggins, and Tristan Thompson cut the lead to just 50-46 pistons to end the half. The half was capped by yet another brilliant (or lucky) Tyronn Lue inbounds play after a time out where Dunleavy snuck behind Baynes for an easy layup.

Tristan and Kyrie immediately cut the Piston lead to just one to start the third, eliciting one of my favorite NBA moments: the Stan Van Gundy rage timeout. This one came just 45 seconds into the third. Unfortunately, the Hedgehog’s manic gravelly scolding worked. Jon Leuer looked like K-Love lite as he laced a triple to push the lead, and Kev answered with a triple of his own with Leuer draped all over him adoringly. Cleveland would never lead, and the 55-54 deficit at 8:15 in the third was as close as the game got, as www.pleasestopdribblingshump.com entered the game and Cleveland just started getting foolish putting the ball on the floor, turning it over more than a bad omelette chef.

It all started when Kev tried to go behind the back and it was pilfered by Tobias Harris, and then Leuer scored in the half court off a KCP dime and converted the three-point play the old fashioned way. The Love/Leuer battle continued with Love getting a block at the rim and drilling a three only to have Leuer answer with another triple, while Reggie Jackson and Kyrie had their own duel that Reggie won as KI settled for 24 foot bricks and Reggie walked into transition threes. But that was all superfluous to Iman Shumpert’s spastic imitation of a competent point guard.

Over and over again like the bad NBA version of Groundhog Day Sumpert abandoned any semblence of running an offensive set. Instead, he’d execute straight line drives that resulted in bricks or turnovers. He’d dribble the ball in isolation, lose it, jack up a bad shot. He’d charge into the teeth of the defense and throw the ball to no one. He’d give the ball to guys in terrible positions as the shot clock was winding down, forcing them to fart up a stinky shot clock buzzer brick. Shump was unwatchably, incompetently bad, and his crappiness infected every teammate when he was on the floor. Iman was -24 on the night with four turnovers, and his 4-10 from the floor somehow gave him the confidence to think he was doing something right. He wasn’t.

As the third quarter wore on and Love, Channing Frye, Mike Dunleavey, and Kay Felder were forced to share the floor with Shump, the lead kept growing for Detroit. Detroit kept using their athleticism and quasi-illegal Aaron Baynes screens to set up and hit jumpers of the two and three point variety. This was all despite missing a half dozen bunnies around the bucket. By quarter’s end, Shump’s crappines, Kev’s bad passes, Kay’s inability to shoot, and Channing Frye’s defensive gator arms had Detroit up 76-64.

The Fourth opened with a Dunleavy pass to Stanley Johnson and a Tobias Harris triple. After a couple Kay Felder pity free throws, and Kyrie Irving came back in the game which caused Shumpert to not let him touch the ball and instead pass it to the Pistons. Another Kyrie missed layup (he was pressing at this point) and a KCP three, the Piston lead was 17. Cleveland kept missing bad shot attempts and Detroit kept hitting jump shots from three and everywhere else, and before long the Piston lead was 19. Lue called off the dogs at 5:39 and let the scrubs play it out. Pressure off, Kay finally made a jumper or two, the only noteable highlights of five and a half minutes of painful painful garbage time.

The Good

Kyrie Irving tried, but his 18 and eight assists could not overcome his tiredness or Iman Shumpert. Irving had some brilliant finishes and passes, but it was a lot to ask, tonight. DeAndre Liggins only played 18 minutes, and his complementary ability to not do anything stupid was missed. ‘Dre was the only starter in the positive with +9, but provided no scoring. Kevin Love was solid with 17 and 14, but his five turnovers came from hard traps by the Pistons, and just bad decisions by Kev. Still, Kev’s defense was ok when he wasn’t losing three point shooters. He finished with two steals and a block, but his legs were tired too.

Channing Frye‘s offense was needed: 11 points on 4-8 from the floor, but he had the turnover blues too (3).

Jon Leuer was a poor man’s K-Love, and does a great job of playing within himself and not doing too much. He executes effectively, and always seems to be in his spot offensively. He’s a quicker roll-man than Kev too, but he’ll never be the rebounder that Love is. Leuer was +21 on the night and the Leuer, Morris, and Drummond front court is big enough to give a lot of teams problems.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope was great on both ends of the floor, pressuring the ball, rotating well, and grabbing three steals to go with his 18 points on 11 shots. His 4-6 shooting was all the more impressive because the Cleveland closeouts were decent. Tobias Harris was similarly hot off the bench with 21 points on 14 shots. In fact, Detroit’s 16-28 shooting behind the arc was the biggest factor in the game. Only Drummond shot less than 50% from three, and that was a buzzer beater attempt. Cleveland did a decent job on closing out the wings, but Jackson’s transition threes, and the Piston Forwards killed the Cavs.

The Bad

Check out some of these Iman Shumpert plays. The failed LeBron impersonation: fadeaway baseline two with 11 seconds left on the clock. My favorite: the drive and pass to no one. For your consideration: dribble out the shotclock and launch a 27-footer. Here’s Shump throwing up a molten sphere of garbage after going against two guys on a drive. How about Shump playing like he’s in a junior high AAU game? The funny thing is all anyone will remember are his three highlight plays: a sweet reverse, a rim-rattling dunk, and a step-back three (see the highlights above). The problem was everything else was so awful. For the love of God, Iman. You’re not Kyrie. You’re not even Delly. Know your role, keep it simple, move the ball, and for the love of God. Please. Stop. Dribbling.

Kay Felder can’t shoot. His inability to hit a shot outside 20 feet makes him about worthless, and yet, I’d still rather see him run the point than Iman. At least Kay isn’t in love with his limited offensive repetoire. At least he runs actual plays. And Kay got to the line eight times (there were a couple gifts in there, though) He’s just so smal. He bounces out there like a pinball and can’t ever seem to get quite set enough. If I’m Griff, I’m still looking for another point guard.

Tyronn Lue‘s coaching was pretty head-scratching. Clearly he caved to Gilbert’s edict to play Kay in front of his home town of Detroit (and props to Lue for doing it), but Lue’s decision to roll so long with Iman over even McRae was maddening. Sometimes he seems to ignore what’s happening on the floor for sticking to a rotation that isn’t working. But, also, on nights like tonight he’s trying to make chicken salad out of chicken s**t. Still, would’ve liked to have seen them run more plays for TT whose speed and rebounding seemed to flummox the Pistons.

The Ugly

Cleveland should’ve lost this by a lot more. Andre Drummond was 5-14 from inside three and Marcus Morris was 3-10 inside the arc. And it wasn’t that he Cleveland D was that great. There were just a lot of rim-outs. Drummond added 17 boards, and his ability to control the glass lets Detroit leak guys out to get in transition, but thankfully the dude has the least amount of touch in the NBA. He was 1-7 at the line to go with his collection of bricks.