Recap: Cavs 107, Thunder 91 (Or, Grading on a Curve)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q991ZOpoVjE

The Cavs used two Kyrie Irving-led bursts to separate themselves from the Oklahoma City Thunder during a Sunday matinee matchup that saw LeBron James tally his 20,000th point as a Cavalier.  Kevin Love did not return to the game after halftime and will not travel with the team to Dallas.  He’s going to get an MRI on his ailing back.

1st Quarter:

The first quarter was like watching a bad pickup game – plenty of exercise running up and down and very few makes.  Both teams keyed in on the isolation scorers which led to a bevy of wide open 3-point shots.  Combined, the Cavs and Thunder missed all 15 shots from beyond the arc in the 1st quarter.  Kevin Love and Iman Shumpert each went 0-4 in the frame.  After 1, the Thunder led 24-22.

2nd Quarter:

Kevin Love checked out a few minutes into the quarter and did not return due to his back.  This quarter looked a lot like the first as both teams struggled to make outside shots and the game had a sort of frenetic half-court pace with a lot of dribble drive action.  The refs let a decent amount of contact at the rim and LeBron and Westbrook had trouble converting a lot of “screw it, I’m driving” attacks.  LeBron was able to clear some space after driving into the paint and scooped a righty layup in for his 20,000th points as a member of the Cavaliers franchise.  Iman Shumpert knocked down a couple of triples but the game had no rhythm to speak of in either direction.  Kyrie had a nice crossover on Westbrook that earned him and and-1 and some “oohs” from the faithful.  He also had what I’m going to refer to as a “Zach Lowe Special” dime (Lowe labels them “Egregious Non-Rondo passing up of layups”) where he drove through the defense, found himself alone with the basket, and instead of attempted a layup with a ~90% chance of success, he kicked it to Shumpert in the corner who drained the 3 that in that situation was worth less expected points before it went in.  With the score tied at 43 with under three minutes to go in the half, the Cavs finally broke it open a bit, turning defense into offense.  Richard Jefferson got a transition layup after Westbrook’s pass was stolen by TT and then RJ came up with a swipe of Domantas Sabonis which led to a transition foul on Shumpert.  Kyrie hit a mid-range pullup, Shumpert hit a transition 3 off a long rebound outlet pass from LeBron, and a Kyrie steal led to a LeBron transition shooting foul.  The Cavs went on a 15-2 run to close out the half and it was punctuated by a vicious block by Tristan Thompson on Russell Westbrook.  58-43 at the break.

https://twitter.com/CavsNationTV/status/825821864295485441

3rd Quarter:

Another pick up game quarter.  The Cavs had a 4 minute scoring drought and they decided to just stop defending Thunder players spotted up on the arc.   Just tons of missed shots.  Westbrook kept-on putting his head down but Shumpert did a decent job being physical with him and Westbrook wasn’t able to convert much at the rim with TT patrolling.  The Cavs scored 22 and the Thunder scored 20.  The Cavs appeared to have the game in the bag after Richard Jefferson threw down a dunk off a nifty LeBron dime to put the Cavs up 19 with under three minutes in the 3rd.  They went into the 4th with an 80-65 lead.

4th Quarter:

The Cavs let the Thunder right back into the game to start the 4th quarter.  With Russell Westbrook on the bench, the Cavs ran with LeBron, Kay Felder, Channing Frye, Kyle Korver, and Richard Jefferson.  It was an awkward three minutes, as LeBron held the ball on the wing and waited for Kay Felder to set screens, Kyle Korver and Channing Frye rushed 3s that lead to long rebound run-outs, and the Cavs defense was as bad as the lineup would indicate.  An 8-0 run brought the Thunder within seven and the Cavs called timeout.  Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson, and Iman Shumpert subbed in for Korver, Felder, and Frye.  Russell Westbrook subbed in for Victor Oladipo who had just hit a big 3-pointer.  With the Cavs mired in the half court malaise, LeBron took a terribly forced out of rhythm mid-range J out of the timeout.  Westbrook, isolated on Tristan Thompson, missed a pull-up 3 that would have cut the lead to 4.  Kyrie promptly drained an isolation mid-range J, or, when they really just needed a bucket and looked lost generating easy offense, Uncle Drew got a bucket.  Westbrook made one layup and hit one of two free throws and that was the extent of his impact the rest of the way.  For the Cavs, Shumpert hit two more big 3s and Kyrie found Tristan on a slick wrap-around pass for a dunk.  Kyrie also stepped into an excuse-me 28 foot 3 because the Steven Adams didn’t feel like getting burned for a third layup in the quarter.  The Cavs prevailed 107-91.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvQiJvrv9OI

Thoughts:

A few weeks ago when pundits were discussing Kyrie Irving’s inability to win games without LeBron, they meant in games when LeBron was a DNP.  But by the 4th quarter, LeBron was basically an on-the-court DNP, as he has been at times in recent weeks.  Brian Windhorst went on a substantial rant about LeBron’s minutes in his most recent “Hey Windy” podcast and he resolutely believes LeBron is completely gassed right now and it’s obvious in 4th quarters.  Well once again, the Cavs 4th quarter lineup looked ill until Kyrie Irving came along with the cure.  The ability he flashed many times tonight, getting buckets in a vacuum, is a trump card of sorts when the preferred motion offense is non existent and the Cavs struggle to generate any easy baskets.  But Kyrie was much more than that today.  Somewhere David Wood is smiling.  Kyrie freelanced when he was in isolation to break ankles, and lace one-legged step backed Js, but otherwise he used the pick and roll very wisely and deliberately.  He found Tristan rolling multiple times for pop shots and dunks, he hit LeBron on a flare to the baseline, and all told he tallied 10 much-needed assists.  Tristan finished 7-15 from the field and made all five of his free throws.  He also looked particularly active patrolling the paint, snagging six offensive boards and blocking four shots.  The Cavs seemed to look for him as a viable offensive weapon in the pick and roll the way Delly did at times last season.  He delivered.

Kyrie shares the game ball with Iman Shumpert who had an outstanding game.  Not a Cavs-fans-said-he-had-a-great-game game, but an actual outstanding game, of which he has had few this season.  The Cavs finished a putrid 8-29 from 3 and Shumpert was responsible for five of those eight.  A few of them were no-hesitation transition triples and he just buried them.  He showed off his isolation defense prowess, forcing Russell Westbrook into a series of strongly-contested layups.  He was physical with Westbrook all night and deserves as much credit for Westbrook’s 7-26 shooting as any other explanation, including Billy Donovon’s explanation that Westbrook was just missing.

With Kevin Love missing the second half the Cavs got a boost from Richard Jefferson.  He did a nice job being an offensive opportunist and finished 4 of 5 from the field.  Kyle Korver finished 1-7 from the field and 1-6 from downtown.  He was 0-2 from 3 in the 4th quarter, putting him at 6-18 as a member of the Cavs.  Hubie Brown commented that the Cavs don’t really set down screens or send guards curling around perimeter screens to free them up for 3 pointers and that this was creating discomfort for Korver.  He’s right about that action, and we’ll see whether they re-structure some of the offense to feature this.  Ray Allen did it in Miami so it’s not like LeBron has never played with a player that thrives with these sets.  But you’d like to think that Korver could hit a few of these spotted up 3s when he’s not really being tightly defended.

Coach Lue has been getting some criticism lately for his lineups and rotations.  Thankfully he didn’t wait too long tonight to end the Felder, Frye, Korver experiment after the Thunder’s 8-0 run cut the lead to 7.  That said, my biggest frustration with with the Cavs recently is their inability to use LeBron James as a roll man in lineups where he’s playing with the second unit.  Defenders are staying home enough on the shooters and LeBron is stopping the ball and asking for screens from Felder or Liggins and it makes no sense.  Why would anyone need to worry about Kay Felder flaring out after setting a screen for LeBron?  They wouldn’t and they don’t.  And Felder isn’t exactly setting picks like Darnell “D-Block” Jackson.  Felder is passable as a ball handler and his 18-foot pull up J has to be respected.  His catch and shoot 3 does not, nor does him rolling to towards the hoop.  LeBron, on the other hand, catching a ball 13 feet from the basket with a few defenders scrambling is a great way to generate easy baskets.  The Cavs really need to work on this or if they are too stubborn, then abandon playing Felder next to LeBron.

While Kyrie’s offensive performance was All-NBA tonight, the Cavs didn’t play a particularly impressive game and were fortunate that the Thunder were 0-15 from 3 in the first half, because a lot of those 3s was wide open.  Neither team played great team defense and were mostly focused on making life difficult for the high usage dribble penetrators.  Westbrook faltered, LeBron got tired of not getting calls in the first 3 quarters and started settling for bad jumpers, and Kyrie Irving just tortured the Thunder all night.  If we’re grading on a curve the Cavs get a B for winning, but they won this game largely because the Thunder missed so many makable shots.

Another January game, this time a W.  Let’s hope Kevin Love’s back issues are temporary.