Recap: Cavaliers 113, Nuggets 108 (Or, LeBron James and The Joker)

Note: I’ve tossed in a mini From Distance, after the recap…

LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers kicked off a long road trip in the Mile High City Wednesday night against budding superstar, Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Let’s see how the Wine and Gold dealt with the thin air.

1st Quarter: The first quarter was a basketball clinic presented by J.R. Smith and Larry Nance Junior. Nance and J.R. played expert floor games on both ends of the floor leading to an early 16-8 get out. Nance’s sublime PnR defense stagnated any Nuggets attempt to find offensive flow. Smith recognized exactly when he was needed as a weakside crashdown defender, but never strayed from his responsibility when it was clear Nance was back to his assignment.

Offensively, the Cavs worked through Nance on the elbows, flowing into PnR handoff action with LeBron James. Nance’s well-timed rolls to the rim netted the Cavaliers multiple open three attempts after LeBron cross-court feeds. Smith made the defense pay for leaving him, drilling a couple bombs, moving the rock and creating for others.

Larry treated Nikola Jokic like Tristan Thompson has treated Al Horford. Nance made The Joker’s life miserable, bodying him up on the block, sliding his feet against dribble drives, and outrunning him all over the floor. When Junior checked out of the game with three minutes remaining in the first period, the Cavs were up 27-16 and poor Jokic was on the bench needing a calculator to tally his turnovers.

The second team featured Jordan Clarkson, Ante Zizic, Kyle Korver, and the return of Jeff Green. Jordan immediately Clarkson’ed it up by draining a long pull-up jumper. Zizic did a good job of patiently moving the ball and his feet on both ends to net positive results. When Clarkson drilled a pull-up three pointer with 37 seconds left in the quarter, I trusted that he was properly utilizing the “two for one” strategy. It’s easier to give him the benefit of the doubt when he buries the shot.

LeBron was boringly fantastic. He was less boring when he casually shot a fading left-handed jumper that softly dropped off glass. That guy. With 12 assists and only one turnover, the Cavs were cleanly taking care of busy. After one, 37-23 Cavs.

2nd Quarter: Zizic, Green, Korver, Cedi, and Clarkson took the floor for the beginning of the second period. Shortly after, Nance returned to combine with Cedi Osman for a PnR And-1 Cedi jumper. Defensively, the Cavs were confused by the Devin Harris. Green and Clarkson blew their coordination on multiple possessions leading to easy Nuggets buckets.

Lue took a quick timeout to restore a bit of defensive order and to call a play for Kyle Korver. Out of the break, Korver made good by drilling a three and playing amazing weakside defense on Mason Plumlee. Korver rotated early on a Plumlee roll to the rim, prevented the initial shot with perfect verticality and followed that up by stripping Plumlee’s mulligan attempt. Anyone who says Kyle Korver is a horrible defender isn’t considering team defense.

The game devolved into some sloppy nonsense from both squads with Clarkson happily making a playground style up and under. Jeff Green’s dirty jumper led Coach Mike Malone to stop play down 50-34.

LeBron, Nance, Jokic, and Paul Millsap all returned to the contest after the timeout. The Nuggets were still isolation heavy, but they finally got some three balls to drop. Millsap and Gary Harris led a 13-2 run for Denver before it was Lue’s turn to stop play.

This time, it was Nance who scored an out of timeout And-1 when he received a PnR pass from George Hill. The Joker still wasn’t able to get anything going from the field, but his offensive craft gave him a few trips to the line. Meanwhile, LeBron James decided it was time to get some buckets of his own.

LeBron most certainly recognized the “two for one” opportunity when he drilled his own pull-up three with 37 seconds left in the second. He completed the play by drilling a sweet little mid-range step back to close the half. The King’s 22 points helped to give the Cavs a 70-58 halftime score.

3rd Quarter: The third quarter began similarly to the first quarter with Larry Nance Jr playing perfect PnR defense. On the first possession of the frame, Nance saw that a last minute switch was necessary to prevent an easy drive. As Austin Carr often desires, not an early switch. Unfortunately, the rest of the period didn’t play out in the way the first did.

Denver came out with more energy than they did early in the game. More importantly, they decided to attack J.R. Smith in the Pick and Roll. Smith was fantastic in the first half as a weakside defender chucking the roll man. In the third, he was abused as a primary defender. J.R. didn’t switch or allow his man to show with any kind of clarity. The result was a Nikola Jokic eruption.

With the defense out of sync at the point of attack, Jokic was able to use his size to get lower into the paint against a scrambling defense. Once Joker found his touch, it didn’t matter that neither team ran extended play-action. LeBron tried to hold down the fort in the middle of the quarter with back to back threes, but game had turned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPy7uFw6uFk

In all, Joker dropped 17 feathery points in the third. A few missed momentum opportunity shots from Rodney Hood and Cedi Osman allowed the Nuggets to claw completely back into the contest. 89-87 with one to go.

4th Quarter: Nance, Green, Korver, Cedi, and Clarkson trotted out onto the court for the final period. I feel like I’m getting redundant, but Nance kicked off the quarter with another good defensive possession in which he had a deflection and a steal. Nance is for real.

Still, the Cavs defense wasn’t completely locked in. Jeff Green was a bit high chasing around screens allowing the Nuggets offense to get downhill. The burst allowed Denver to get their first lead of the night before LeBron James returned to action.

The next five or so minutes of game action saw Nikola Jokic dominate on the offensive end. The Cavs had trouble manufacturing real offense, but some “found money” plays bailed them out of a potentially dire situation.

After drilling an insanely deep three post Nance backtap, Kyle Korver took over on the defensive end. Yes, you read that correctly. Korver hustled into the correct positions, used his size to prevent easy shots, and seemed to anticipate where the opposing player was going to put the ball on multiple occasions.

In the fourth quarter, Kyle stripped, deflected, or stole seemingly every ball in his vicinity. Korver’s defense made up for Rodney Hood’s allergy to passing the rock as the Cavs struggled to maintain the lead against The Joker’s mastery.

Then LeBron James happened.

LeBron’s offensive arsenal was on full display. Yes, LeBron can do most anything on the floor, but even he has his pet moves.

a) Driving left for an And-1 off glass. Check

b) Drilling a deep left wing three LeBron Special. Check

c) Drive right to left into his patented fadeaway jumper off one foot. Double Check. And sweet baby basketball, that last one was ridiculous.

Even with what ended up being an incredibly entertaining second half from Nikola Jokic, the Denver crowd shook their collective head with bemused joy at The King’s performance. What a joy to watch.

From Distance Mini Edition

four point play….

1. A few years back, I severely strained my left calf. After two weeks, I could walk normally. After four weeks, I thought I was healthy enough to get back on the court. Nope. I immediately tweaked it and was out another month. In all, it took a solid six months before I felt completely comfortable leaping off the leg.

I know it’s silly to compare my silly body to an elite athlete’s. Like Nate said in the recent podcast, I’m sure my sport experience is exactly like the pros! Still, even with fantastic team doctors doing whatever they can for Tristan Thompson’s bummed wheel, there is little chance he isn’t still suffering from the injury at some level.

2.That being said, Tristan was horrible this season even before the injury. At Tristan’s best, he is a high level slithery offensive rebounder, a slightly above average defender, and a barely adequate roll man when served up perfectly. Early in his career, we all lamented how long it took Tristan to gather. He got his shot blocked at a comical rate. Mathew Dellavedova and Kyrie Irving eventually found timing with Tristan for a high handoff, but TT has NEVER been a great lob player. He was merely adequate.

It doesn’t really matter now what combination of previously poor roster construction and/or injury issues rendered Thompson relatively useless this season. At the moment, his play doesn’t warrant rotation minutes, let alone a starting position.

3. Who will start upon his return from injury is All-Star Kevin Love. I am more than excited to see what kind of high-low action we may see between Larry Nance and Love. Nance has already proven to be an incredibly useful player in a 4/5 PnR with LeBron as his partner. With LeBron off ball, Love’s passing and shooting could be devastating with Nance rolling hard to the rim.

Nance’s understanding of defensive rotation assignments should also partner well with Love’s Bball IQ. I, for one, think J.R. should continue to start at shooting guard when Love returns. Smith might love to shoot, but he sees the floor far better than Hood does upon receiving a pass. Let a defense figure out how to deal with a Bron, Love, Nance frontcourt without being able to rely on Hood’s inability to pass the ball.

4. If you haven’t seen Kevin Love’s Player Tribune piece yet, check it out. It’s easy for people to jump to conclusions when looking at another person’s behavior. By the time one actually begins to learn what is going on, there has already been a formed “narrative” that needs to be destroyed before any real truth can be learned.

These young men are not robots. They are not here only for our enjoyment. As much as they may seem like it on the basketball floor, they aren’t from a different planet. They are simply human beings who are really good at their job. I applaud Kevin for opening up over his mental health knowing that the national response won’t necessarily be universally positive.

It seems mental health issues are constantly demonized at almost every level. The average person is completely ignorant to the signs of the vast majority of the numerous illnesses. In recent weeks, there has been even more venom thrown at anyone who isn’t considered “normal”.

America is pretty miserable at preventive treatment for both physical and mental health. When our “superhero athletes” speak up about their own experiences, we all win. We learn more about what some of these issues are. They become more acceptable topics of conversation. We might even get to a point where more people can recognize and help solve an issue.

The vast majority of health issues do not make a person violent. The more we talk about them, the more we understand that fact,  and the more we can give each other the respect and care we deserve. As Kevin said, “everyone is going through something”.