Recap: Cavs 104, Knicks 101 (Or, Mr. Fourth Korver)

This roller coaster game provided a little bit of everything for the Cleveland Cavaliers. At one point in the third quarter, I would have turned ot off if I wasn’t recapping it. The Cavs displayed numerous levels of effort throughout the night which continues to be frustrating as a fan. They seem to be able to compete at a high level when when they want to, but haven’t put it together for an entire game yet this season. Coming off a tough fought win against the Mavericks, the Cavs seemed poised and ready to take care of the Knicks. The team was relaxed and ready to roll Monday morning as shown in the viral video Lebron posted to social media, which showed he and his teammates riding the New York subway back to the hotel from practice.

The game started off with Porzingis getting an easy mid range jumper over Crowder. He is such a bad matchup for most teams in the league as his size and range are a lethal combination that makes him nearly unstoppable. However, the Cavs brought the defensive intensity and the most active hands I’ve seen in quite some time getting deflections and steals on a number of possessions in the first quarter. Crowder did the best he could against Porzingis and drew an early offensive foul. A few possessions later, Crowder went strong to the hole and drew a key second foul against the Zinger with 8:22 left in the quarter, and completed the three point play (queued up below).

JR Smith looked to be enjoying his time against his former team as he knocked down shots early, was very active on the defensive end, and helped the Cavs run out to a quick 16-9 lead. Hornacek rallied his troops after a timeout and the Knicks fought their way back as Cleveland fell back into their lazy and turnover prone ways. Towards the end of the first quarter, DWade found LeBron for a nice dunk and conveniently Frank Ntilikina was nearby afterwards trying to receive the inbound. Lebron stood his ground and it led to this altercation below. The first quarter ended with the good guys up 25-22.

The Knicks came alive in the second quarter as they took exception to Lebron showing up their teammate. Frank Ntilikina was a very active defender and forced a nice steal against JR Smith and almost had a clear path foul. This caused a rather long stoppage in the game which gave Lebron some additional real time rest. There was a scary play involving Jeff Green where he was pretty much tackled on a drive by Kyle O’Quinn. It looked pretty bad but Jeff was able to get up and walk off the court under his own power and returned later. There wasn’t a foul on the play, but rather a tech…on Isiah Thomas! Thomas had some words with official, Tony Brother’, and was was very engaged on the tonight. Thomas looks to be chomping at the bit to return.

Lebron was able to rest from the end of the first until 6:10 left in the second quarter. At this point, the game was tied at 29. A few turnovers, a tech on Wade and the porous defense attributed to a 14-2 run for the Knicks which culminated with Tim Hardaway Jr. knocking down a three and showing off his dance moves directed at the Cavs’ bench. Cleveland struggled to get anything going on offense for the remainder of the quarter and the Knicks were up 51-38 going into half. As you can see in the shot chart below, Cleveland was missing everything and the group of Lebron, Crowder, Wade and Korver all were -10 or more for the period. Keep this in mind for the fourth.

Cavs’ second quarter bricklaying contest

The second half started off better for Cleveland as Lebron found Crowder for a nice spot up three. Jae was more aggressive on the offensive end but there were still moments of hesitation. He had a few open catch and shoot threes that he passed up or dribbled into when he didn’t need to. The Cavs got as close as seven points early in the third but Iman Shumpert continued to contribute very little to the offense and things became stagnant. The Knick lead extended to 17 points at 47-64 and Ty Lue went with the hockey lineup substitution and benched all of the starters.

I was hoping for a Cedi sighting with Cleveland up 20, but instead his appearance came with them down 17. This unit brought some energy, mainly from Korver and Cedi but struggled early. Wade and Green bricked a few midrange jumpers, and combined with little ball movement, the Cavs looked like they were ready to throw in the towel. Frye attempted to play defense but was simply overmatched against Kanter’s post moves.

The lead was up to 23 (This is when I was ready to turn it off) before Korver found Cedi on the left corner with a nice cross court pass and Cedi knocked down the spot up three. Wade completed a three point play and things started to look up. However, Frye decided to pull an anti Delly move and took a foul on Ntilikina after a steal although the Cavs defense was already back and the Knicks were in the bonus. Can we somehow trade Shump for Delly please? Frank split the pair and the second unit miraculously managed to cut the lead to 15 by the end of the quarter. 61-76 Knicks.

Interestingly enough, Lue keep this same group of Wade, Korver, Osman, Green and Frye to start the fourth. I am not sure if he thought they gave them the best chance to win or if he was just down with the starters like Love, Crowder and Shump who all struggled tonight. Wade managed to find Korver for a wide open three, but he missed it. Frye was active on the glass and earned a loose ball foul led to Wade hitting a vintage step back jumper. Lebron then checked in for Osman at 10:35 with the game seemingly within reach. Both teams traded baskets for a bit and then Korver saw had a triple drop cutting the lead down to 12.

This led to the most depressing sequence of the Cavs season thus far and made me miss Kyrie the most. Lebron found Korver for a wide open three on the left wing which he bricked. James grabbed the offensive rebound and found Jeff Green wide open in the left corner – another brick. Lebron then grabbed another offensive rebound and found Korver now on the right wing wide open and he missed again. Kyle was active the entire game and covered an amazing amount of ground on this possession, unfortunately the other three guys on the floor just stood around. Kyrie would have hit one of those shots, most likely the Jeff Green corner three. Lebron very visibly slumped his shoulders and head after this possession and it looked to be game over  with  Cleveland was down 14.

But Tim Hardaway missed an open three at the top of the key after a Cleveland turnover. Lebron found Frye for a left corner three which he nailed. Lue brought JR smith back into the game for Green, now having a lineup of Wade, Lebron, Korver, Frye and Smith, with the Cavs down just 11. Love, Crowder and Shump were MIA the entire 4th quarter.

The teams traded baskets and the lead was 13 before Korver hit another three. Something intriguing developed, as Lebron decided to defend Porzingis and blocked his shot. The crowd at MSG had been on Lebron all night and he looked to be taking it personally. Porzingis continued his flopping ways, which AC was quick to point out on the telecast and drew a couple of cheap fouls but it didn’t translate to points. Lebron then converted a three point play and the lead was down to 7.  The Cavs continued to be active on defense with Wade and JR getting a steal and Korver was shooting flames. The lead was down to four but Porzingis hit a triple which seemed to kill the momentum. But on the next possession Korver was the benefactor of  a very friendly bounce MSG bounce (shown below). Everything was going right for Kyle as he was 5/8 from three in the fourth and finished with 21 points for the game. 18 of them though came in the fourth, when the Cavs needed them the most.

A couple of stops combined with two three pointers from Smith and Korver managed to cut the lead to two with 3:25 left. Cameras then cut to a pumped up Isiah Thomas on the bench who was fully engaged this entire game. The Cavs play the Celtics at TD Garden on Wednesday January 3rd, I have to imagine IT3 has that game circled to be back for. Knicks pushed the lead to 5 but Porzingis missed three free throws late which kept the game close. He missed both of the freebies after what looked to be an exaggerated flop after Wade hooked him a bit. This may have been a little justice from the basketball gods. Frye then hit a trey to tie the game with two minutes left.

Lebron found JR for an open right corner three but he put a little too much on the shot but Wade was able to grab the offensive board. This brought us the possession that everyone was waiting for. Lebron found himself matched up with the Unicorn one-on-one on the left wing.  Lebron opted to dribble back a bit and then nail a step back dagger three on Porzingis seen below.

Cleveland smartly found Korver to nail a few free throws and push his scoring total to 21 (19 on the fourth) and to push the lead to five. Unfortunately, Lebron was fouled  down 3 with 4 seconds left and missed both free throws. He managed to grab his own miss and secure the win for the Cavs. The shot chart for the Cavs in the 4th was a much better example of basketball in 2017. I just don’t see how this team eliminates the bad mid range shots with the current roster construction, but things seem to go much better when Korver, Lebron and Smith share the floor.

I think we can all agree with Isaiah Thomas after this win…

Final Thoughts…

• Crowder, Love and Shump all struggled this game and the Cavs still need to find a solution at point guard other than Shump or Rose.
• Yes the Cavs won, but part of me wonders if them losing by 20 tonight would have done more good for the team long term. The pieces don’t seem to fit right now and the team is flawed. This victory was nice, but should it really be this hard?
• Is there anyway to have a starting five that includes Korver, Smith and Lebron? The combination has proven to be deadly late in these games.
• Would it be crazy to try to get Boogie from New Orleans for TT/Love + Cavs or Nets pick? Boogie would allow Cleveland some additional flexibility and I am worried about Love’s contract although it is under the old CBA. The Pelicans are looking decent right now but they are an AD injury away from tanking. Granted, we would then most likely have to try to sign Boogie to the new max, but the Cavs need another big who can roll to the paint and provide some rim protection. Maybe it is Monroe…

Cavs visit the Hornets next on Wednesday (ESPN GAME!) who are dealing with their own fair share of injuries.