Recap: Kings 116, Cavs 112 (Or, Boogie Be Dancing)

Not only was LeBron without another “playmaker”, the Cavaliers were also without Richard Jefferson against Dave Joerger’s squad. LeBron did his best to make up for both as he calmly dropped 24, 13, and 11. Unfortunately for Cavs fans, that wasn’t enough to prevent DeMarcus Cousins and the Kings from leaving The Q with a victory. Let’s get to it.

With DeMarcus Cousins guarding Kevin Love, the Cavaliers ran Boogie through a gauntlet that featured two screens that merged seamlessly into a Kyrie Irving Pick and Pop. Kev was rewarded with a wide open left corner three which only found iron. Sadly that missed bucket was the best Cavalier action of the quarter. The Kings ran off-ball screens to free Boogie for drive and kick action and simple straight line drives. Iman Shumpert gifted an And-1 to Garrett Temple when the former simply rejected a screen to head directly to the cup. Tristan Thompson had trouble preventing Boogie from bully crossovers into the paint. On the other end, Cousins harassed Love into turnovers and bobbled possessions. Ty Lue called the first timeout of the contest after poor weakside communication netted the Kings a Darren Collison three and a 10-0 lead.

Out of the timeout, LeBron James had a pointblank post layup rattle out before the Kings’ sloppiness and Cavalier transition offense gave the Cleveland fans a reason to cheer. A 17-1 Cavaliers spurt put the Wine and Gold back in front. Shump’s three first quarter bombs helped mitigate some horrendous defensive mistakes. But in general, the Cavs’ first quarter scoring came in transition, off broken plays, or by Sacramento brain-laspe. There were few well run offensive sets that ended in a made bucket. Defensively, they did clamp down a bit in the middle of the quarter, but the individual defense was mostly inadequate. After one ugly quarter, Cavs up 26-22.

2nd Quarter:

The second period featured a lineup of Kay Felder, Kyle Korver, LeBron, James Jones, and Channing Frye. “Horns” moved into a beautiful Korver/Bron middle PnR with LeBron as the roller leading to an open left wing three for Frye. That kind of action is simply lovely to watch. When Kyle gets that dribble hand-off, the defense is forced to rush him in fear of his threeball. That allows LeBron frickin James to roll alone down the middle of the paint. Game over for any defense.

Still, the contrast in athleticism between the two squads was stark. With rookie Malachi Richardson, Willie Cauley-Stein, and even old man, Matt Barnes, the Kings moved too quickly for the Cavs geriatric squad. The Kings consistently attacked Felder on the offensive end. Ty Lawson must have enjoyed feeling like a big man for once. With LeBron in chill mode, the athleticism was the difference as the Kings got loose balls and easier drives to the paint. When Kyrie checked back in for Felder, his defense didn’t quite make it to the scorers table. Ky was a step slow defending the PnR and Cauley-Stein’s rolls to the rim continued to break down the Cavalier defense. Imam “shumped” anyone’s ability to get excited about him by getting absurdly lost on an Afflalo three. That possession might get the award for worst double team of the season.

On the bright side, Kyle Korver had his jumper set on automatic, running around screens and destroying nets. When the defense got too tight, he found Kyrie for an easy layup. That was about it for the bright side. Collison’s three before the half gave the Kings 31 second quarter points and a 53-47 advantage.

3rd Quarter:

After only taking four first half shots, it was clear that LeBron was ready to attack the rim. The King took it to the Kings with some Boris Diaw-esque slow-motion drives to the cup. Bron used good footwork and a better understanding of the “gather” dribble than I have to pivot his way(without traveling?) to 10 early quarter points. Kyrie also looked to attack the rack with more consistency. Before the first stoppage of play, Ky and Bron helped give the Cavs a 61-60 lead. Defensively, Cleveland continued to baffle defensive enthusiasts with incoherent rotations. They soft-trapped Arron Afflalo 30 feet from the rim for no apparent reason, crashed the roll man from every angle leaving the weakside wide open, and generally hung around looking introspective. Sacramento took advantage of the mindless play by hitting mid-range shots and bullying themselves to the rim. Darren Collison’s onslaught continued from both sides of the arc as the Cavs’ defense simply could not decide how they wished to defend the PnR on a play by play basis. Frye was too low “icing”, Tristan was too high on the show, Shumpert was hopping out of position nearly every possession, and the weakside wasn’t shading to protect passing angles. Not a great combo.

It was a good thing that Cleveland started raining jumpers from everywhere, or this one could have gotten ugly. Instead, Kevin, Shump and Channing locked in from distance to keep the Cavs ahead. TT did a good job of either finishing at the rim or kicking out for good ping pong passing on the perimeter. Sacramento clearly decided to let Shumpert shoot the rock and he made them pay by drilling two more jumpers in the third. With one to go, 82-79 Cavs.

4th Quarter:

The same unit that began the second period trotted out for the fourth. This time LeBron was completely engaged nullifying any athletic disadvantage. The Chosen one was all over the floor, dishing, rebounding and dunking his way to a triple double.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_auPqGCP5f8&t=3m25s

Shortly after, Kay Felder bobbled a ball out of bounce and James Jones missed an open three that could have made it an 11 point game. Instead of coasting to victory after the tidal force that was LeBron James, the Cavs stumbled and Afflalo hit his patented corner three.  A likely 102-89 turned into a slim 97-94 lead causing Lue to burn a timeout.

Cousins did a solid Dirk impersonation drilling a fall away jumper to give the Kings the advantage. From there, the teams seesawed back and forth before Cousins shot up a wedgie three. The Cavs secured the subsequent jump ball and Bron hit a couple from the line to push the lead to three points. A somewhat controversial non-call on a LeBron gave the Kings a chance to cut into the lead. That chance was seemingly never ending. Between fouls and balls out of bounds, the Kings had about five attempts on possession. Cauley-Stein finally threw down a jam to make it 103-102 Cavs.

LeBron ran a PnR with Tristan that ultimately resulted in an open right corner three for Korver. His shot was long, but Kevin secured the rebound leading the Kings to foul with only 12.4 seconds left. Shockingly, Kyrie split the pair. Sacramento went to Boogie for the last shot. He calmly drove left all the way for the layup. The help defenders were understandably glued to three point shooter to avoid a loss, but it would have been nice see a little more resistance on a such a crucial play. The Cavs were left with 3.4 seconds in which to work, but Boogie flexed his defensive chops by knocking away the inbound pass. 104s heading to the extra frame.

Overtime:

Lue ran the starting lineup with Korver in place of Shumpert. He promptly missed a wide open left corner three. The Kings couldn’t convert either. Both teams scuffled about until Kyrie broke the seal on a lefty layup in the lane. Kevin Love’s left wing three followed a couple traded buckets to force a Kings timeout. 111-106.

Out of the timeout, Boogie’s relentless attack on the rim produced a layup, but also a sick block by Tristan. Boogie answered that with a block of his own and a sweet baseline spin move. Dude can play. The rest of the Kings finally decided to show up to the party with a steal off a LeBron backdown that resulted in a Collison transition layup. 112-111 Kings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZoFn6OOmhV0

Cousins got whistled on an attempted steal giving Love a couple trips to the stripe. As was the theme of the night, he split the pair. Everyone in the building assumed Cousins would take the next shot, but instead he found an open Afflalo on the weakside right wing.

LeBron took his left wing special from deep to try to tie the game. He was a half step too deep. Though the Cavs got the offensive board, Korver fumbled away the rock. Ball game.

Thoughts:

Let’s get this out of the way first. The Cavs only hit 17-34 from the stripe. No, not from behind the arc. I’m talking from the free throw line. That it atrocious, and uncommon. Not a lot of high level analysis needs to be attempted there. James Jones went 2-5. Enough said.

Shumpert had a nice shooting night, but continues to play losing ball. His defensive “hop around like a crazy person” routine gives the illusion that he is giving good activity. His “shumps” are pretty awesome to watch. But he is out of position on nearly every possession. He plays awful angles, bites on the tiniest of fakes, and doesn’t seem to have an awareness of his defensive shading assignments. Korver did lose Barnes for a moment on the Afflalo three at the end, but there was no reason that Shump needed to come off his guy to softly pick up a non threatening player like Barnes as he comes up through the lane. Kyle should have been better attached to Barnes, but Shump has to understand what is the bigger risk. This is only one of maybe 10 examples you can give every night for Shump. It is infuriating. When his shot is falling, he can still give you a plus on an evening. But make no mistake, he did not have a good game.

Korver doesn’t quite know what his defensive responsibilities are yet. But can you really blame him? How is a guy supposed to come into a new situation and deliver on that end of the floor when his teammates are randomly floating around. He is not without blame, but he hasn’t been the disaster that people are claiming. He will be fine.

The Kings are so weird. They have a lot of talent and are likely better off with Gay out of the lineup. Putting Cousins at the four with Koufus in the middle isn’t always great, but they are certainly intimidating on the defensive end, even if not always effective. Malachi Richardson was so smooth. If they really have something with him, they have a chance to compete for a playoff shot. Cousins is that good.

The Kay Felder over DeAndre Liggins experiment was simply to give LeBron some more “play-making” on the floor. And not surprisingly, it didn’t go marvelously. Kay, no matter how much fun, is just too small. Unless LeBron is willing to completely hand him the reins to that second unit, there is no point of playing him. Until next time.