Recap: Blazers 113, Cavs 105 (Or, Death By 20 Second Chance Points, 16 More Shots)

The Cavs lost by eight last night to the Blazers to give Portland their 11th win in a row. The score doesn’t paint the most accurate picture though. Cleveland was down by 15 with 7:09 left to play in the game. They then turned it on for about three minutes to get within three.

LeBron and Co. ripped off an 11-2 run featuring some things basketball fans know and love: passing, purposeful cutting, James whipping passes only he can, and some defense. Three of the five shots made during the stretch were assisted on by James and the other two were made by him. George Hill hit a 3-pointer to bring the game within three after LeBron got deep in the paint and drew the attention of three different Blazers.

The Cavs couldn’t make the full come back though. The Blazers bounced back with five points of their own, and LeBron missed a bunny at the rim that would have brought the game within three points with thirty seconds left to play.

It’s not a surprise the Cavs lost. That stretch from 6:30 to 2:58 was the antithesis of how they played nearly the entire rest of game, LeBron’s overall excellence excluded. During the run,  the Cavs allowed zero offensive rebounds, and amazingly the Blazers got zero second chance points. Funny how that works. The rest of the game Cleveland allowed Portland to grab 14 offensive boards which led to 20 second chance points and 16 more shots than the Cavs. That’s hard to overcome.

The Cavs assisted on three of their five baskets during that run. Players were actually cutting towards the basket after moving virtually zero feet if they didn’t have the ball in their hands the rest of the game. Cleveland had just 14 other assists in the game. James himself had just six assists for the game. It’s not to take anything away from him, but he was in score first mode for much of the evening. He put up 35 points to go with 14 boards, six assists, and three blocks.

Defensively, in their little run, the Cavs weren’t ending up with three or four guys covering one movement. Guys stayed in front of their assignments and contested shots.

Most of the game played out like the sequence below. People were rotating late and not doing the work they needed to do early on to prevent easy baskets.

The inability or desire to do the work was apparent almost as soon as the game started. In the first quarter, Cleveland struggled to stop Portland from scoring as they put up 29. With Jeff Green on Jusuf Nurkic, the Cavs coaching staff thought it was smart to use Jeff to trap on pick and rolls. Another Cav would bump down to Nurkic, while Green recovered. It created too many rotations for Cleveland to successfully execute. This didn’t necessarily result in Nurkic going off. He had seven points and ten rebounds, but he was a big part of the win for Portland. He was tipping balls constantly, and demanding multiple defenders’ attention when he was down low.

The Cavs stayed in it early on though because of LeBron and Kyle Korver. James had eight points and was running as soon as he got any rebounds, while Korver had ten points. And, if the league were fair they would make Nurkic retire. James absolutely slaughtered him on a dunk after taking screens from George Hill and Kyle. He even proved he was the better big man getting two blocks in the quarter.

KING! 😱👑

Season 15 – #AllForOne pic.twitter.com/xTJI4kjlxL

— NBA (@NBA) March 16, 2018

The second quarter played out much the same. However, CJ McCollum started to feel it for the Blazers. He put up 11 of his 29 points and was hitting just about every mid-range jumper he took and splitting the defense almost at will. LeBron continued his next level play, scoring nine straight at one point and finishing the half with another highlight set. He blocked Nurkic and Korver, and then used a time machine to dive like a twenty year old to save the ball. Then James nailed a turnaround jumper from the left block over Al-Farouq Aminu. Simply put my notes just said, “LeBron is a filthy moth**f**k**.”

The Cavs entered the the half down, 54-59.

The Cavs fizzled in the third quarter. After opening with a nice James to Green oop and two 3s, one from Rodney Hood and one from James, the team slowed. They had a three mintute scoring draught that only stopped when the Blazers delivered a three in the key technical, which Korver drained. The Cavs just couldn’t move the ball or get anything to fall. They had just four assists. Lillard and McCollum torched the Cavs every chance they could. They combined for 17. As you can see below, defense wasn’t a priority for Cleveland:

The Cavs entered the fourth quarter down 11, and hung around just enough to make the run mentioned above. By playing James at the five, Nurkic sat the entire quarter. LeBron’s old flame Shabazz Napier scored seven early in the quarter to extend the Blazer’s lead to 15. It should also be noted that Damian Lillard and McCollum combined for 11 in the quarter on 3-13 shooting. Again, the game wasn’t as close as it seemed and could have been much worse. The Cavs are lucky a lot of people are going to be box score watching this game, since it started so late.

Gripes

1. I’m going to try and keep this short. Again, the Cavs backcourt was outscored. CJ McCollum had 29 points and Damian Lillard notched 24. McCollum was 12-24 and Lillard was 7-20. They had 12 total assists. The Cavs backcourt of George Hill and Korver combined for 27 points and four assists.
2. The fact that Lillard and McCollum were chucking didn’t matter though when the team had 16 more shots than the Cavs, and that fact will lead to my rant of the night.
3. Here’s a fact: rebounding is about positioning. Rules like the over-the-backe make it so a smaller man may rebound the ball instead a bigger man if the smaller guy is located in the proper position on the floor and boxing out. The Cavs forgot this.
4. Here’s another fact: the smaller a player is, the earlier he needs to get into proper rebounding position. Small guys can’t shove another player out to get into position.
5. Tyronn Lue must not know this. Like I said above, he consistently had Jeff Green trap and then recover onto the big man down low, who, most of the night, had at least a forty pound advantage on him. Green wasn’t too interested in boxing out to begin with so that didn’t work well for the Cavs either. Green played 34 minutes and had 16 points and four rebounds. Just four rebounds at the “center” spot. He kept jacking shots instead of rolling to the rim. There’s a reason he’s open so often. Green had this to say per Jason Lloyd:

6. “It’s tough to shoot wide open 3s,” Green said. “But when you’re playing the 5 against a 5, they don’t know the certain rotations. So most likely a lot of my shots are going to be open. I just have to be confident, step into them and knock them down.”

7. Why didn’t Ante Zizic, who played phenomenal textbook defense in his six minutes of action, play more?
8. Lastly, the Cavs must move on offense. Even if guys would just walk from one side of the floor to the other, the offense would look better. The team is reverting to watch LeBron work mode again. Sadly, they go to watch Jordan Clarkson work mode too. Clarkson had 14 points on 6-12 shooting.
9. Kyle Korver ran 2.84 miles this game. That’s the most of any Cavalier. He’s turning 37 tomorrow. That’s not a lie. He also recovered the most loose balls tonight with three.

Hypes

1. Kyle Korver deserves props. He consistently moved all evening and played defense. He had 19 points and went 3-8 from deep. He does get beat occasionally, but it’s excusable. It’s a easy to appreciate a guy who gives one hundred percent effort and maximizes his skill set.
2. LeBron James had a fantastic game. It’s a shame the team isn’t capitalizing on his performances more this season, but this is the #seasonofwhy.
3. This loss was the result of injuries. The Cavs lack big men as it is and not having Tristan Thompson or Larry Nance available hindered them.
4. The Cavs face the Bulls tomorrow in Chicago. If they win, they would go 3-3 on this road trip.