Recap: Mavericks 104, Cavs 97 (Or, Feelings of anxiety are bigger in Texas)

Overview: The Cavs turned in a lackluster performance on the road against the Dallas Mavericks, falling behind by double-digits late in the fourth quarter before emptying their bench and ultimately losing 104-97. Harrison Barnes led all scorers with 24 points, and LeBron James led the Cavaliers with 23 points, 9 rebounds, and 9 assists.

The Breakdown: 

Oof. One of those games where you kept waiting for the Cavs to snap out of it, then realized that it wasn’t going to happen.

Kevin Love being less than 100%, or out of the lineup completely like he was tonight, has probably been the biggest factor over this tough stretch. The Cavs do so much through him offensively, whether he’s spreading the floor, at the elbows, getting a cheap one down low, or dumping in the occasional jump hook, and he’s just as important on the boards and defensively. Without him, the team becomes less than the sum of its parts, and the parts themselves weren’t even particularly impressive tonight.

On that note, we pretty much got the evil versions of LeBron and Kyrie tonight, despite the former ending up with a respectable game on the stat sheet.

Honestly, LeBron needs a rest. It won’t come on Wednesday, because that’s a national TV game, and the Cavs should probably get out of this slide before they think about resting, but he still needs a rest. LeBron was able to get to the rim in transition and in the half-court and find some easy baskets, but he was 1-9 from outside the paint, gave it up 5 times, and wasn’t in the flow of the offense at all in the second half. In the third quarter, his gameplan was to bring the ball up the court and fire up a long jumper, and in the fourth quarter, his plan switched to “throw the ball as hard as you can at a three-point shooter without driving first.”

On defense, the less said the better. He jumped the passing lanes twice, but he was completely somnambulant on his rotations, allowing for easy three-pointers and cuts to the basket while he stood in no-mans land. Long story short, these are games LeBron has historically been able to take over, and he didn’t come close to doing so tonight. It might be time to officially say that LeBron has won his last regular season MVP, which is a bummer for me because “Will LeBron win the regular season MVP?” is my favorite way to stay engaged during the regular season.

Kyrie didn’t fare any better, going 7-21 from the field, forcing jumpers and drives, and ending up with 5 assists against 6 turnovers. He got outplayed by Yogi Ferrell, which is not a thing that should happen. There were at least two occasions where Kyrie got into the paint and LeBron made a hard cut to get himself wide-open for a dunk, but Kyrie didn’t see him and forced up a bad shot instead, which are the plays that make you crazy from Kyrie.

Honestly, there’s not much more to the story than that. The Cavs offense devolved into Kyrie and LeBron vs. The World, and both of them played horribly. That’s a recipe for disaster.

On the other end of the ball, the Mavericks didn’t do much, but it was enough to beat what the Cavs were throwing at them. Harrison Barnes, whom you may remember averaging 9 points on 35% shooting against the Cavs in the Finals, scored 24 points on 9-16 shooting, with most of his baskets coming on smooth midrange jumpers. Wes Matthews took advantage of LeBron’s horrible defense to toss in 21 of his own, Seth Curry somehow added 16 despite not shooting well from the outside, and Yogi Ferrell, currently on a 10-day contract, tore up the Cavs from everywhere on the floor, presumably in an effort to troll the hell out of David Griffin.

Speaking of Griffin, he’s apparently trying to move Jordan McCrae in a deal for a backup point guard, which may explain why Agent Orange was back in the rotation tonight over DeAndre Liggins and Kay Felder, ending the game with 11 points on 5-9 shooting in 30 minutes of floor time. Not much to report — he made some tough jumpers, didn’t really drive or pass the ball, and his defense was bad. Pretty much the same McCrae we’ve seen all year, with the exception of the made jumpers.

Korver apparently took my pre-game advice about hunting for his shot too much to the extreme. He didn’t have any plays called for him, and finished the game with 2 field goal attempts in 26 minutes, one of which was a made 3. He also does not look great defensively.

That’s all I really have to say, because I’m ready to move on from this game. Richard Jefferson looks great, Shump’s wide-open looks went away, Tristan Thompson had 0 shots and was a -22 in 26 minutes, and seriously where did Yogi Ferrell come from he got cut by the freaking Nets earlier this year and came into the game shooting 36%.