Final Preseason Recap: Cavs 113, Magic 106 (or, Yes Way Jose!)

First off… if you haven’t had a chance to check out Mike’s terrific Richard Jefferson tribute, make sure you go there first. As you may have heard, both RJ and Kay Felder were dealt to the Atlanta Hawks just before the game tonight, but because the deal wasn’t fully finalized, both of them had to be spectators for their last game with the team. Both are class individuals, and both will be missed… but probably particularly RJ who was part of the heart and soul of the 2016 Championship squad. Best of luck fellas wherever you wind up… we’ll miss you around these parts.

Now, onto the game at hand. After going winless for the first four tilts of the preseason, the Cavs finally decided enough was enough, and took down their perennial punching bag, the Orlando Magic in semi-convincing fashion. With LeBron sitting out after tweaking his grouchy ankle in his 30 minutes of play against the Bulls on Tuesday, and Kevin Love being a late scratch due to some general tightness, the red and yellow went with an unorthodox starting five. Channing Frye got the nod in Kev’s place, and Iman Shumpert got the spot start for LBJ (reportedly, JR Smith told Coach Lue that, despite his frustration at losing his starting job, he’d prefer to stick with his second unit pals). They joined Derrick Rose, DWayne Wade and Jae Crowder to begin the game, and the increase in ball movement and decrease in turnovers was noticeable from the Chicago game.

As they’ve done a couple of times before in the preseason, Rose and Wade turned back the clock and looked very much like their respective 2011 selves. Rose seemed to reach a higher gear, driving through traffic for layups and dishing out three early assists. He scored nine points in nine minutes on 3-4 shooting with zero turnovers… and showed why we might not miss a certain shade-throwing flat-earther this season with this gem…

Too quick. 🌹 pic.twitter.com/oNbdzEXSky

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) October 13, 2017

Wade might have had an even better night, pouring in 15 points in just 12 highly efficient minutes on 5-8 shooting (4-4 from the line). He even knocked down a triple and swatted a couple of terrific blocks. Perhaps most impressive, however, was the old school manner in which he scored a pair of buckets in the first quarter. One was a Magic-esque mini-hook, and the other was an MJ-style up and under scoop shot. I’m not doing them justice in describing them… so here they are…

Veteran buckets ⚡️⚡️ pic.twitter.com/AQAIXtK9Ba

— NBA (@NBA) October 13, 2017

The remaining starters had a rougher go of it. Channing, possibly bummed out at the prospect of losing his Roadtrippin’ pod pal RJ, didn’t get off to a great start defensively against Nikola Vucevic, but did recover to snag a team high 10 boards to go with six points. His defense also improved as the game wore on against the second and third teamers he’ll be typically mopping up against during the regular season. Crowder had a relatively quiet night with four points in his 13 minutes, and wasn’t really called on to do much more than play switchy defense to compensate for Channing and the undersized Wade at forward. And Shump… well, probably the less I say about him the better. His 28 minutes on the floor were mostly uninspiring, as he bricked away at a 4-13 clip (0-3 from deep) with three turnovers and eight points. He did manage to pull down seven boards, have a nifty assist and rip a steal, but there was far too much of him as the primary ball-handler/unintentional focal point of the offense.

As they did against Chicago, the second unit showed up to play in a big way, with Jeff Green, JR Smith, Tristan Thompson, Kyle Korver and Jose Calderon all bringing energy and scoring punch. Green did lots of little things to help the Cavs outmatch the Magic second unit. Though he only shot 2-8 from the field, he did get to the line to go 4-4, and stuffed the stat sheet with five boards, four assists and three steals to earn a team best +13. I did notice that Green is often much better when he’s either rolling to the rim or catching and shooting… he gets himself in trouble when he tries to create on pull up shots. Smith eschewed his normal role as a three point gunner, and did his best DWade impression making 3-5 silky midrange jumpers. Korver found his stroke a bit more, going 3-9 with 11 points, and was active on defense. TT somehow snagged six boards in just eight minutes, and crashed the glass to clean up a Green misfire. Tristan should routinely abuse backup bigmen this year.

But the standout of the night was one of the men who was possibly on the bubble to make the team at various points of the preseason, the cajoled senõr himself… Jose Calderon. Depressed Tribe fans would have had a wistful blast chanting “Jo-se! Jo-se! Jo-se! Jo-se!” as they watched Calderon explode in the third and fourth quarters to score the majority of his team high 18 points. He hit three triples in the third period alone (4-6 total) including one to beat the quarter buzzer. Overall, he hit a red-hot 7-10 shots and dished out five assists in 30 minutes of play. Quite simply, the Cavs very likely go winless for the preseason without Jose’s contributions on this night. His shooting display frankly made me wonder why he doesn’t look for his shot more often. Si senõr indeed…

Jose Calderon banks in the buzzer beater for the @cavs! #NBAPreseason pic.twitter.com/wZJHyAUuSs

— NBA (@NBA) October 14, 2017

The rest of the mop up crew actually fared pretty well also, with the lone exception being Cedi Osman. Poor Jedi wound up with a goose egg on the shot chart (0-5) and looked a bit overmatched and out of control. He did finish with five boards though, so not a total washout. The resilient Kendrick Perkins was a walking moving screen, but did have a couple of nice buckets, a few boards and brought some toughness, despite four turnovers. Yet the two standouts of the third line were Ante Zizic and John Holland. Big Z 2.0 was a perfect 4-4 from the field for 10 points, and had some very nice moments of rim protection. And, Holland looked very smooth going 3-3 from downtown for all nine of his points. Both of these guys intrigue me with their skill sets, and seem like they could be surprisingly useful pieces as the season wears on.

Not much to say about this Magic team… other than they are more liable than not to throw a wrench into the value of the Nets’ pick the Cavs now own. When the “star” of your team is Aaron Gordon and your best bench player is Bismack Biyombo… you’ve already punched your lottery ticket. Expect to see Elfrid Payton and Vucevic on the trading block before the deadline (as well as probably a few other vet pieces).

And, that’s a wrap on the 2017-18 preseason. The Cavs finally won one… but they lost RJ and Killer Shrimp. Next up, the Cavs get a chance to show Kyrie and his new team just how great a sports town Cleveland really is. Let’s just hope LeBron’s ankle is back to it’s kevlar self by then.

Here’s a special throwback in honor of the cajoled senõr himself…

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

Until next time… GO CAVS!