Recap: Cavs 125, Nuggets 109 (Or, Winning The Right Way)

Joshua Gunter, cleveland.com

The Cavs started the night out with LeBron James stealing the ball from Wilson Chandler and the team racing down the court to whip the ball around for a completely open DeAndre Liggins’ 3-pointer. The shot wouldn’t go down, but that sequence started the Cavs out on the right foot. They rotated the whole night on the defensive end and held the Nuggets to just 40.2% from the floor. Offensively, they kept the ball moving. They had 30 assists on 46 made baskets hitting 54.8% from the field and making 15 3s.

LeBron James controlled the pace of the game dishing the ball 12 times while getting five rebounds and 27 points on 11-16 shooting. Kyrie also had 27 points, but it took him 24 shots to get them. He had five assists and was 5-11 from downtown. The Nuggets were led by Nikola Jokic. Jokic pounded in the paint and no Cavalier could stop his post moves. He put up 27 points hitting 50% of his attempts. He also had 14 rebounds. Gary Harris had a fine night too putting up 16 points, hitting three 3s.

The night started out fairly even for both teams score-wise, but the Cavs were playing well getting out in transition for seven of their first 11 points, while the Nuggets seemed to hit lucky contested shots throughout the quarter. After scoring a 3-pointer in transition, DeAndre Liggins rebounded a Denver miss and whipped the ball to Irving down-court for the 10th and 11th points off a layup.

Beautiful pass. #DefendTheLand https://t.co/vRF6xN2zti

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 12, 2017

TT followed that beautiful play up a few later with a put-back dunk off of a Love missed layup.  A little bit after that LBJ took a charge from a full fast breaking Wilson Chandler. He followed that up by driving by Nikola Jokic for a layup. The King had six of his own and handed out two assists, but Irving did even better getting 11 points, driving multiple times, pulling up from mid-range, and draining a give and go 3-ball from Korver. The Nuggets stayed in the quarter by going 5-12 from deep. Jameer Nelson and Harris both knocked down two contested 3s each. The Cavs went into the second quarter down, 33-28.

For the second quarter, Tyronn Lue trotted out James, Channing Frye, Derrick Williams, Richard Jefferson, and Kyle Korver, and it went surprisingly well. The King looked like he was hypnotizing the Nuggets to let him penetrate and scramble their defense. The King abused this privilege regularly. He got an assist 30 seconds in after driving and found Richard Jefferson cutting. LeBron scored seven of the first 19 and assisted on 10 of the other 12 points. James seemed to know exactly which Nugget was crashing down leaving his assignment open from 3-point land.

The King checked out with 4:37 till half-time after throwing KI a TD pass which KI tossed to Williams for a huge slam putting Cleveland up, 49-44. The teamed continued to use LBJ’s hypnosis of the Denver D to create chaos and find open shooters. Korver scored five using a TT screen to get free for a trey and a deuce.

Cleared for takeoff! ✈️#CavsNuggets | #DefendTheLand https://t.co/6iFqlLvoD1

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 12, 2017

At halftime, Denver was down 55-59.

The Cavs opened the third quarter on a 18-0 run during the first five minutes. The Big Three all chipped in notching assists and  buckets. Love started the pass party when he caught an LBJ kick out and then tossed it to Irving who was open for one of his three made 3s during the run. Love also hit Liggins with a touchdown pass. The King served Love with the 3-pointer that finished the 18 point explosion.

On a roll to open the third! 🙌#CavsNuggets | #DefendTheLand https://t.co/E4cGKnRR88

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 12, 2017

With just 5:11 to go, LBJ dribbled into a 3 to put the Cavs up 21. The Nuggets didn’t manage to score much more efficiently the rest of the quarter, but Harris and Nelson once again kept the Nuggets from getting blown away by hitting four contested two pointers where guys all had arms right in their faces. Will Barton capped the quarter with a 3-pointer to bring the Nuggets a little closer, 78-92.

LeBron sat to end the third, so he got to start the fourth quarter with the scrub squad, the same one he led in the second. He had to do the heavy lifting again, and didn’t disappoint initially. He started by taking Juan Hernangomez off the dribble for an And-1, but James settled a for a missed jumper a minute later, with Juan on him again. The King did his usual attack and hit up an open guys behind the arc thang, netting the team 11 points, but he also carelessly turned the ball over three times. Each of the turnovers came when the Cavs were trying to push their lead past 13, so the King could go rest.

Jamal Murray really showed out for the Nuggets late in the game. He had 16 points in the fourth. He drew a 3-point shooting foul on Korver coming around a screen and pulled up unexpectedly to draw the foul. After hitting all three freebies, Denver was down just 11 with 6:20 to go. That’s the closest they would get, as Cleveland just kept making plays the rest of the game.

The best came when Love grabbed an offensive board, dribbled out of the traffic in the key, and found a cutting LBJ for a Kraken-esque slam to put Cleveland up 15 with five minutes to go and effectively seal the Cavs’ big 125-109 victory.

❤ to 👑 #DefendTheLand https://t.co/mn5D5oTmtg

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 12, 2017

Gripes

1. The Cavs turned it over 15 times. At the start of the fourth quarter, the King’s three turnovers contributed to the Cavs’ inability to get a sizable enough lead to sit him until they went up 18 with 3:44 left.
2. Lue subbed the King at that point, while Irving and Love remained on the floor. Lue ultimately needs to trust the team more. The Cavs entered the fourth up 14. He should have at least attempted to rest the King who ended the night playing 33 minutes when he easily could have played less than 28 if he sat the final frame.
3. Nikola Jokic put up 27 points and had six offensive boards. Tristan Thompson and Love couldn’t stop him when he was able to turn his shoulders into the paint. Jokic has a great future in the NBA, and if his post game keeps developing he’ll easily be one of the best offensive centers in the league.

Hypes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4F-bJFoW9w

1. LeBron was a monster. His 12 assists were well earned. He sees so much that other guys can’t. For most players a drive and kick means they get deep into the paint and toss the ball out when a defense has completely reacted leaving a guy open. LeBron demands so much attention and is so quick at reading defenses, he can take just a few forceful dribbles towards the hoop to find a 3-point shooter, who has enough time to shoot it. He was a team high +26.
2. He even attacked mismatches the right way tonight. Except for a couple of “settle shots,” when Juan Hernangomez or Nikola Jokic ended up on James, he wasted little time driving to find the open guy behind the arc.
3. The Cavs responded when LeBron drove and kicked. The Cavs’ shooting gallery went 15-30 from deep.
4. Despite the 3s falling, Cleveland played defense most of the night. The Nuggets just kept reaching deep and random guys like Nelson, Murray, and Harris were able to make timely buckets. If the Nuggets were full at full strength and had gotten the same performances from those guys, the Cavs might have been in trouble. If those guys hadn’t hit unexpected shots, the Wine & Gold would have won by forty.
5. The Cavs’ role players are actually being role players. None of them stood out tonight for being amazing or terrible. They just did what they were brought in to do, and that’s really what Cleveland needs most nights. Korver was 6-9 from the field and 2-3 from downtown for 14 points. He was coming off of quick flare screens from Thompson all night and hitting nearly every time he had any space to shoot. TT had 13 boards and 13 points. Two of his shots were assisted, one was a solo effort, and the other two were tip-backs. He was a true garbage man. Channing Frye hit two of his three 3-pointers and sucked a big out of the paint when he shared the floor with the King.
6. This was a great win for the Cavs. They played defense the whole game and made it through the times when some Denver guy would randomly make some tough buckets. Their patience on offense even paid off. All the guys that played were able to contribute without having to do more then they were capable of.
7. The best thing to come from this game is the LeBron and scrubs lineup. LeBron was able to be +26  tonight because the scrubs were making their shots and getting stops. The King dribbling with four shooters surrounding him is impossible to contain. If a team doesn’t want to give up a 3, they don’t help into the paint. When they do that though, LeBron faces a single defender, a defender whom he can usually beat. The issue in the past with these types of groups was that they couldn’t defend. Tonight, they did. Lue needs to see if this group is real as the regular season goes on.
8. Derrick Williams had another strong performance. He was 2-3 for seven points and looked to run down the floor whenever he could. James is noticing how well Williams is adjusting:“We hope this is a long-term thing, even though he’s on a 10-day contract, we believe it’s going to be long-term. We hope this is a place that can help him grow and make the next step. He’s 25 years old — it doesn’t seem like it because I’ve been hearing his name for so long. He hasn’t even gotten to his prime yet.”

Cleveland is in Minnesota on Tuesday to face the Timberwolves.