Recap: San Antonio 110, Cleveland 94 (or, New Team, Same Coach)

Cleveland hung with the Spurs for three quarters Sunday afternoon, but ultimately were out-executed, out whistled, and out-coached by the Spurs, the officials, and Greg Popovich, respectively. Cleveland struggled to score against a stout San Antonio defense all afternoon, and when they did get open they were as cold as Lake Erie in February. The Cavs finished 8-34 from three point land, while the Spurs went 9-19, and also ended up with a 32-14 free throw attempt superiority.

Yeah, the officials were unkind in this one. The Spurs seemed to get every touch call while the Cavs had a hard time getting a whistle at all. LeBron was unpleased after the game.

That being said, when you shoot 34 threes instead of attacking the basket, you’re not going to get as many calls. Additionally the Spurs worked their offense and took care of the ball, finishing with 22 assists and 11 turnovers, to the Cavs’18 dimes and 15 turnovers. While some of this comes down to the Spurs’ getting away with a lot more defensively, the bigger difference between these two teams is that the Spurs trust the pass and move the rock till they get an open shot. The Cavs seem to want to make home run passes and shoot after two, one, or zero passes on offense. They trust the dribble more than the pass, and seem to want to make the assist that ends up in the stat sheet rather than the hockey assist that ends in an open shot.

LeBron’s six turnovers were evidence of that mentality, and also evidence of the Spurs length on defense. They consistently jammed the passing lanes and overplayed the strong side. The Spurs recovered quickly to the weak side, and when they didn’t, the Cavs bricked. This isn’t to say there weren’t some great moments by the Cavs’ offense.  LeBron James was evidence of this with 33 points, 13 rebounds, and nine assists to his credit but he had little help.

Jordan Clarkson added 17 and Jeff Green 14 but they gave up more than they gave. Combined with Tristan Thompson (six points 13 boards), the three all posted a team low -10 in the plus/minus department. It was baffling then that the one guy (Larry Nance) who’s been playing better defense than anyone on the team sat after getting his fourth foul at the 10 minute mark, never to return.

dRTG Today
Nance on: 94.5
Thompson on: 114
Green at C: 135.9

— Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) February 25, 2018

The fourth quarter had started out innocently innocently enough, with the Cavs down just three. One of many horse-BLEEP calls happened shortly thereafter as Jordan Clarkson closed out, Danny Green pump faked, jumped sideways and backwards into Clarkson in the left corner, earning the former Cavalier three free throws. That started a particularly dreadful stretch for Clarkson and Korver.

After the foul on Danny Green, Clarkson drove, jump-passed to no one, and started a Dejounte Murray runout. Then Kyle Korver got the ball taken away like he was an eighth grader by Rudy Gay, leading to another Murray runout. Murray drained a J, and a after a Ty Lue timeout, the Cavs ran an inexplicable play: a pick-and-pop for Jeff Green. The explicable brick ensued.

After grabbing an offensive rebounds (over Green), Gasol drained 20-footer to complete a 10-0 run. Kyle Korver hit a three to cut it to 87-79 but despite three cracks at the basket, the Cavs somehow gave the Spurs another fast break against a hapless Kyle Korver. Still, the Cavs were in striking distance, but Kyle was so off he was missing technical fouls (yet Lue left him in). The Cavs kept fighting and LeBron offered gems like the below dunk, but the Jeff Green at center experiment was helpless to stop the Spurs. Check out the second highlight here, a ridiculously gorgeous pick-and-roll by Aldridge and Murray.

Despite his inability to do anything to stop Aldridge (27 points, six rebounds) and/or Gasol (11 and seven), the Cavs rode with Jeff Green (14 points) down the stretch. They did manage to cut the deficit to eight behind a Green hook shot and a Korver three. Unfortunately, Patty Mills answered immediately after with his own three, as Aldridge caught Clarkson on a very obvious double down and kicked it to Mills for an easy left wing triple to push the Spur lead back to 11. Clarkson answered with a couple buckets, but the Cavs could never claw much past a ten point game, and an Aldridge hook shot, two Mills freebies, and a turnaround J from LaMarcus put the Spurs lead at 16 with just a minute and a half to go.

Finally, after running the same lineup for nine straight minutes, Lue subbed in Osman, Zizic, and Holland for the final minute of garbage time, and game expired 110-94.

Ugh.

Ty Lue running a lineup that clearly didn’t have the athleticism or defensive ability to match the Spurs for nearly nine straight minutes was… problematic. Unfortunately, Cedi, J.R., George Hill, and Rodney Hood were a combined 6-27 on the night, so it’s easy to see why Lue didn’t trust them. But despite the four fouls, it was easy to see that Larry Nance was the best defensive player the Cavs had on their roster. The fact that he only played 15 minutes was a bit daft. Nance was also an offensive force as the Cavs ran their offense through him in the high post, and he started more than one fast break.

In 15 minutes, Nance had four rebounds, four assists, four points, two blocks, and two steals, his absence was baffling. Further, as many noted, and has been the case from even before the trade, the Cavs seemed to not have much of a plan on offense, and still turn the ball over too much. That’s on the coach.

LeBron James is still a brilliant offensive player, but as has often been noted, he makes everyone a role player. These new guys clearly haven’t learned how to play with him, as we see a lot of folks standing around still and where to go on offense and defense. Some of this is expected, as the Spurs operate as a well oiled machine, even when missing their best parts.

Also, a good coach would have gotten a tech with as bad as the officiating was in that game, and as good as Jeff Green as been for parts of the season, he’s no center. Lue’s attachment to him has clouded his judgement on his play.

Kyle Korver looked ooooold this game.

Meh

It will get better. The Cavs can’t shoot this poorly forever. One thing that will help them will be to realize that they aren’t the rockets, and they have to attack inside before they can loosen up the outside. Despite his meh defense, at least Tristan Thompson is actually rebounding.

Jordan Clarkson scored 17 points on a decent percentage, but the three turnovers hurt.

Yay

LeBron James is still really good. He has started using his left handed more and more, including from both sides of the basket. He scored 33 like he was 21 years old. He’s just got to stop turning the ball over.