Recap: Pelicans 123, Cavs 101 (or, For the Birds)

Frustrating… annoying… pointless… those are the common interpretations of the idiom in the subtitle of this recap, and they couldn’t be more fitting. Even the context of this game was essentially for the birds. After all, an early season roadie to the Big Easy (where nothing is ever remotely that for the wine and gold), sandwiched between arguably the biggest college football game to date this year in the Buckeye state and a pivotal Game 4 of the World Series is nothing to get all that excited about.

As sparsely populated as the live thread was, it was probably for the best that so few had their attention focused on the clunker of a Saturday evening the Cavaliers wound up perpetrating. Once again, their lack of defensive effort, sloppiness with the ball and cold three point shooting (for the most part) left you wondering if the guys just hung out on Bourbon Street the night before. No, they didn’t give up their new scarlet number of shame (17) quantity of three pointers, but likely that was because the game was all but over midway through the fourth. They still surrendered 13 triples (42%), but had the added dimension of also getting destroyed in the paint by the Behemoths of the Bayou… Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins.

If you’re looking for good news… you’ll probably want to just scroll towards the bottom, because the positive takeaways were few and far between.

What I expected to be the issue going into this one never really materialized, in that Iman Shumpert didn’t completely embarrass himself in his first start of the season. Why he was starting is a Ty Lue head-scratcher in itself, but he did hit an early three and played with some energy. He and Kevin Love helped stake the Cavs to an early lead… but it didn’t take long for the Pellies to start canning everything in sight. With AD and Boogie controlling the paint, Jrue Holliday and E’Twaun Moore took turns raining down threes against the Cavs’ under-rotating, sagging perimeter defense. Before you could say Buckwheat Zydeco, New Orleans had a 35-22 lead through one.

Buckwheat Zydeco

In the second quarter, the Pelicans continued to do what most young teams have done to the Cavs thus far this year… namely try to run them off the court and push the pace like maniacs. The only thing standing in the way of this being a complete feather-dusting in the first half was a serious dose of Vintage Wade. Yes, Flash was back (so basically a literal “flashback”) to his old tricks in his return from a knee contusion. He hustled, he made shrewd passes to set up teammates, he got to the rack and he even threw one down with that old Wade authority…

Still, it was only enough to help keep the Cavs within spitting distance of the big birds, as turnovers, defensive lapses and a general unwillingness to scrap for 50/50 balls left them trailing by the same 13 points they were down after the first quarter. The birds led 65-52 at the half.

The lone bright spot of the competitive section of the game came in the third period, as the Cavs came out of the break looking like they actually had a plan… and the desire to execute said plan on the defensive side of things. They harassed the Pelicans, and switched with vigor, forcing them into taking wild and off-balance threes. While this was happening, LeBron started facilitating and Kevin Love got hotter than a beignet fresh out of the oven. Kev hit three of his five triples in a three minute stretch, his third one giving the Cavs their first lead since early in the first quarter. In all, he scored 11 of his team high 26 points in the period, and the Cavs looked like they were about to take control of the contest (even JR Smith knocked down a rare triple) with a 21-7 run. And then, faster than you could say Lake Pontchartrain, The Brow came awkwardly tumbling into the back of Kevin’s knee, sending him to the floor and eventually the bench. Love would return, but from that point on, the Pelicans righted their ship and rebuilt their lead to 89-83 at the end of three.

Lake Pontchartrain

Going into the fourth, LeBron had already played 31 minutes (after staying on the floor the entire third quarter), so it was up to DWade and the bench mob to try and close the gap again. Unfortunately, Anthony Davis decided to go berserk… and before you could say crawfish étouffée (I told you to scroll to the end)… he poured in 12 points (including two long range threes) to spark a 13-3 run that effectively put the game into garbage time. There was no need for LeBron to return, and thankfully, Ty Lue for once agreed… emptying his bench and giving some run to the young’n’s. The final few minutes provided one other highlight of the night, as Cedi Osman not only brought a ton of energy, but also scored his first official NBA bucket on a terrifically athletic move…

👀 @cediosman https://t.co/ZWc9Wjv3KO

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 29, 2017

Yet, the Pellies continued to add on against the third teamers, providing the final 22 point margin… that honestly could have been much worse if not for the brief burst of effort in the third.

The Evil

Another young opponent… another team that forced the Cavs to play their uptempo run and gun pace. The Pelicans got off 92 shots to the Cavs’ 78. Some of that was due to the rebounding disparity (45-37), but also the 17 turnovers the Cavs committed. Teams are finding that it’s very easy to run on the Cavs and get fairly wide open threes just by moving the ball a little. Case in point, 33 of the 49 buckets New Orleans made were assisted.

And, speaking of not being able to stop scoring, even though the Cavs didn’t give up the 17 threes that has become their norm, they still allowed four different Pelicans to make at least 10 or more shots, and all four of them scored at least 24 points. When it came down to it, they had no answer for Davis or Cousins, but they also allowed Holliday and Moore to shoot the lights out… relatively uncontested.

JR Smith and Tristan Thompson have become non-factors since rejoining the starting lineup… and tonight was no exception. As opposed to other recent nights, JR didn’t miss a lot of shots… mainly because he only took three. It’s obvious his confidence is in the tank right now, as he often looks gunshy when he has the ball. TT was fairly quiet and ineffective against N.O.’s jumbo front line, and he certainly didn’t help the spacing of the starting unit, as LeBron seemed to find few holes to drive through early on.

The demotion to the bench also didn’t go so well for Jae Crowder, as he had maybe his poorest night in a Cavs uniform (five points on 2-7 shooting, 1-5 from deep). He shot one wide open corner three so badly, it missed the rim by several feet… on the opposite side. Here’s hoping it’s more due to a readjustment to playing with different guys rather than a mental/emotional slump from being benched.

I get that injuries have provided some challenges for Ty Lue to find a consistent starting five that can click together, but benching Crowder and starting Shump (even if the two weren’t completely related) makes little sense. Obviously, this is the time to tinker with lineups to see what works, but lately not much really has. We’ll see if Derrick Rose and his ankle can make it back for tomorrow’s game.

The Genius

This was a great bounce back game for Kevin Love… at least it was shaping up to be before he got his knee buckled by The Brow. Love finished with 26 points in just 27 minutes on 7-12 shooting, including a red hot 5-6 from three. He also pulled down 11 boards and even hit a perfect 7-7 on free throws. Who knows what might have happened if he wasn’t forced to exit with five minutes left in the third. We’ve seen how long some of his hot streaks can get.

I populated the thread tonight with a whole new slew of tributes to “Vintage Wade” for a reason. The man looked positively spry coming back from his knee bruise, keeping the Cavs afloat and leading the bench with 15 points on 7-12 shooting. He got to the rack, threw down a dunk and even hit a rare three. Without Wade, the Cavs lose this one by 40.

Weird night for LeBron. Even though he still mostly stuffed the stat sheet (18 points, 6-11 shooting, eight assists, five boards), he looked stymied by the length and athleticism of AD and Cousins. To be fair, he really didn’t have any offensive weapons to feed (other than Kev) for most of his time on the court, which ended prematurely as things got quickly out of reach in the fourth. Provided he plays the second night of the back to back tomorrow, I’d expect him to come back strong against the Knicks.

The bench in general was solid again, outscoring the Pelicans’ bench 42-9. It’s a little misleading since New Orleans stuck with their starters for the bulk of the minutes, but still, the Cavs got good production from Wade, Korver and Green, and even the Jedi chipped in at the end.

The Who Gives A Flock

I won’t say this was a complete waste of a Saturday evening… but it was close. Some of the same issues that arose last season are starting to percolate to the surface again with this team… namely the issue of not seeming to care about regular season games in October/November/Early December. While the defense is clearly an ongoing problem that requires some serious scrutiny, and so is the challenge of finding units that can work together and get in sync offensively, there just seems to be a general malaise that hangs around this team. It’s all well and good for the Cavs to chalk this one up for the birds… but if that’s going to be their prevailing approach, it certainly makes it hard to care.

Until next time…

Crawfish Etouffee