Recap: San Antonio 118, Cleveland 115 (OT) (Or, Jekylll and Hyde)

In the words of John Krolik, “This one stings.” Cleveland rode a roller coaster all the way to overtime and came up just shy of the win after coming back from a nine point deficit with five minutes left in regulation. It was a frustrating game that saw both teams avoid playing defense for long stretches, and was defined by the maddening paradox of LeBron James. He was fantastic driving the ball, but was turning it over like a line cook at IHOP, and playing defense like bad AI from NBA Live ’98. Of course, James was a big reason they got to overtime, as he drained a 30-footer to tie things at 107, and then took over the defense on Kawhi Leonard and shut him down. It made one wonder if LeBron had played 30 minutes in regulation instead of 40 if he’d have given a crap for more than 3 minutes of that time. Ultimately, though, the turnovers, 10 missed free throws, and Kawhi Leonard’s 41 points were too much to overcome.

Hot takes aside, this was a fascinating game. The Cavs raced out to 33-22 lead at the end of the first with a parade of threes and dunks. The Cavs defense actually looked passable, but much of that was due to the Spurs missing open shots. Offensively, Tristan Thompson and Channing Frye feasted inside on the attention given to the Cavs’ shooters, and TT looked especially dynamic.

The dominance was short lived as the bench couldn’t hold a lead in the second. The teams spent lots of time trading baskets. Kyrie and Tristan had the two man game in effect. Kyrie was yo-yoing the ball hesitating and feeding TT with sweet pocket passes for the trailing slam, or TT was slinging the rock back to Kyrie for a reverse layup. And when the defense would collapse with Tristan, Kyrie would pull up for a 12-footer that looked automatic. This wizardry continued to the fourth quarter.  Meanwhile, LeBron was isolating, driving, posting up, and whipping the ball around. Kyle Korver buried two triples in the span of 40 seconds off dimes from James.

But in the second and third rookie point guard, Dejounte Murray was lighting up Kyrie, especally on the pick and roll. Murray finished with 14 and 6 dimes on 7-10 shooting. The King was barely guarding anyone: Leonard, Murray, Kyle Anderson, Ginobili, it didn’t matter. He waived weakly at them all. There wasn’t much defense played by the Spurs either. At one point in the third, Cleveland had made 6-8, and the Spurs had made 7-8.

At the beginning of the fourth, it all went to crap. Despite the effectiveness of Kyrie Irving, Liggins, and Shump three guard lineup, coach Lue decided to roll with a gassed LeBron to start the quarter. The Cavs’ hard won six point lead evaporated as LeBron turned the ball over twice, and Kawhi Leonard started going nova with drives, threes, and free throws. The Cavs could’ve matched baskets, but LeBron was passing up layups and kicking it out as Kevin Love and his bad back clanked shot after shot. (Kev was 3-11 from deep). Cleveland scored three points in the first five minutes, and the Spurs kept scoring, until finally a Patty Mills three extended the lead to 103-94 with 5:50 left.

Then, something crazy happened. The Cavs started playing defense. Love finally made a three. And LBJ drained 3-4 freebies. Suddenly, it was a three point game with a minute left. After LeBron locked down Leonard, he launched a 30-footer that was pure string music and tied the game (queued up below).

https://youtu.be/eHfgW7sAesQ?t=69

LBJ locked down Kawhi again, and then the Cavs played for the last shot of regulation. Sadly, what looked like a well designed play ended with LeBron taking a fadeaway from the left wing that left us all reminded of Game 1 of the 2015 finals. Lots of us wondered why we didn’t see Kyrie as the ball-handler in the pick and roll, since that pull-up was so automatic. Even Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy shared that thought.

Cleveland drew first blood in OT with an Uncle Drew 22-footer, then 19-footer, Kawhi answered from the floor and from the line. Kyrie put the Cavs up again from 15 feet, but a weird bounce and an offensive rebound by Ginobili led to a Patty Mills three that shifted the momentum. LeBron was visibly irritated after. Aldridge pushed the Spurs’ lead to 116-113 with a patented mid-ranger, and Kyrie missed the answer three. James tried to answer too with a three from the same spot he’d tied the game with at the end of regulation, but that kind of serendipity was not to be.. Then, after an Irving offensive rebound, and a timeout, James threw a pass to the left corner expecting Irving to be there, but the ball bounced out of bounds while Irving was 10 feet away. James shot daggers at Kyrie. Hard to know who to blame there.

The game seemed over, but somehow in the space of 13 seconds, LeBron forced a jump ball on a tie-up with Kawhi Leonard. Cleveland lost the ball when Kevin threw it behind his back falling out of bounds. Kawhi Leonard grabbed the ball and motored for a dunk. Despite being up five, Kyrie got a Layup, LaMarcus Aldridge missed two free throws, LeBron got a rebound and called a timeout, and K-Love ended up with a wide open look from the right corner with .9 seconds left… which fell harmlessly three feet short of the rim. Yeah. This game was nuts.

Thoughts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7SFsDhhZ54

I know I talked a lot about Jekyll and Hyde James, but it can’t be understated how inconsistent his effort was from possession to possession. It showed in the box score, as he was the only starter in the negative while on the floor, -16 for the game. His seven turnovers were absolutely brutal, and of the dribble off his foot and pass to no one variety – errors of carelessness, not of effort. And yet, he’s so frustrating because he can be so damned brilliant offensively and defensively. He’s the best basketball player in the world! (when he wants to be). But he was outplayed by fellow superstar Kawhi Leonard. Leonard finished with 41 on 61 TS%, five rebounds, and six assists. True, he almost matched LeBron with six turnovers of his own, but he just seemed so much more… consistent. Defensvely, LeBron, until the final minute, was slow picking up in transition, closed out haphazardly, consistently lost his man on switches, was a disinterested help defender, and failed to box out. Just watch Leonard’s highlights for examples.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyh_uGPEM-8

Kyrie Irving seemed like the best player on the floor for Cleveland, and his p/r game was tight all night. Yet Cleveland didn’t go to it down the stretch when it they desperately needed a hoop.It’s not as if LeBron stunk offensively, either, 11-16, 29 points, 7 dimes… But Kyrie just seemed so electric and the team seemed to do better when he had the ball in his hands. He had 29 as well, and nine dimes, but only two turnovers. He even had a couple nice defensive plays and seemed to turn it on as the game went on after getting lost on D early. Still, he missed several pull-ups threes lae that would’ve won the game. I wish they’d have just put the ball in his hands and let him run pick and roll. It was baffling that Lue didn’t.

The Cavs’ bench was pretty anemic. They were outscored 27-19. Kyle Korver was -20 for the game while “slo-mo,” Kyle Anderson was +19 for the Spurs, despite just two points. He was breaking stuff up all game. The Cavs bench just bled points. Channing Frye can’t defend. Richard Jefferson is afraid to shoot threes. Korver didn’t look bad, but he was still -20 and a part of the general defensive awfulness. DeAndre Liggins actually looked like a competent backup point guard, and he set up shooters well. and even finished at the rim. But guys missed shots when he fed them.

As much as I’ve ragged on Iman Shumpert, he was and has been solid the last few games: 11 points 3-5 from three, +19. He still had a rough turnover, but hey, he’s cutting them down. The other real star of this game though was Tristan Thompson. TT was a fantastic off the ball, canning 7-13 on rim rolls and weakside cuts after setting screens for shooters. He also added 12 boards (five offensive) and defended pretty well on switches and as the primary defender on Aldridge. I also really appreciated him not kowtowing to the King (see below)… but ugh. His 0-4 from the charity stripe hurt.

Much was made of Kevin Love’s 3-11 from three and his many missed triples in the fourth and the game tying shot in overtime. Still, it’s hard to fault the guy who was coming off his first game back from a back injury. Further, his 10 defensive rebounds were important and directly contributed to his +26 for the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erffaiamRVo

The Spurs are ridiculous. Tony Parker gets hurt and Dejounte Murray drops 24 against the Nuggets and then 14 and six dimes against the Cavs. I’ve always been jealous of the way the pick up quality guys at the end of the first and second rounds. It looks like they might have done it again.

Finally… Lordacious, if I were LeBron’s teammate, I’d get pissed when he shot me daggers for his own screwups. There was one telling exchange at 2:46 in the fourth when James and Thompson switched and LeBron just stood by the right side of the basket while Aldridge slid over to the left and dunked a putback. Tristan was barking at LeBron for his lack of a rebounding. It was one of the many plays that might have led to a Cavs win if it had gone differently.