Recap: Cleveland 112, Memphis 107 (or, Becoming)

If your preseason predictions had the Cavs’ win totals in thirties and forties, this was the type of consistency you envisioned: Kevin Love leading the way against a mediocre squad with lots of contributions from youngsters like Ante Zizic, Cedi Osman, and Collin Sexton. The Cavs came out early and smoked the Grizz for 37 in the first quarter, played unevenly for two more quarters, and – despite no Love in crunch time due to a minutes restriction – out-executed Memphis and held on for the win in the fourth quarter.

And yes, Kevin Love was sublime in this one, going off for 32 points in 24 minutes and splashing 6-9 from three and 8-8 from the line for an absurd 86 TS%. Add in 12 boards, a block, a steal, and a game high +14, and it’s easy to see why so many Love memes were sprinkled throughout the live thread. Kev just looked better than any other player in this game. When Love was in the post, the Cavs fed him, and he bent Memphis’ defense, or converted on postups. When he was in the pick and roll, he slammed it home as the roll man. And when Love was on the wing, he did his best Kyle Korver impersonation by coming off the screen and nailing triples on the curl.

K-Love passed Channing again for the career lead in triples (Frye had regained the lead during Love’s injury) and tied Richard Jefferson on the list. Kev looked thrilled to be back close to full strength. The Cavs were all so much better when the pride of Lake Osweego was on the floor. Kevin reminded the preseason optimist in all of us that we aren’t completely crazy. I don’t have the on/off stats, but the Cavs’ rebounding was soo much better with Kev’s presence if othing else than from a positioning and hands standpoint. As a team, they outboarded the Grizz 61-49, and if memory serves me at all, the times the Cavs were having the biggest problems came when Love was on the bench, and no one bothered to box out Joakim Noah. Jo had four offensive rebounds and a slew of drawn loose ball fouls.

https://youtu.be/9h5ZsNj6Jps

As great as Love was, the game’s most exciting stretch came when he left in the fourth quarter. As soon as Kev hit the pine in the third, Memphis rallied from 15 point deficit with a 27-9 run before Love reasserted himself in the early fourth. He exited at the 5:23 mark after a sweet dunk, another triple, and a ridiculous volleyball bump assist from Delly to Collin Sexton triggered a Memphis rage timeout and gave the Cavs a five point lead.

More than one commenter thought the young Cavs would fold when Kevin’s minutes restriction took hold. Upon Love’s exit, a 9-2 run by Memphis capped by an “Are you kidding me?!” Jonas Valanciunas buzzer beating triple from the left corner, seemed to confirm those fears. But with the Cavs down 103-101, Cedi Osman Korvered a triple and 17 seconds later raced down the floor for a one handed jam courtesy of the Youngbull. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the Jedi dunk one handed. Osman finished with just 11/4/2 but this winning stretch was as important as any.

Collin Sexton sealed the deal 40 seconds later when he lulled Avery Bradley to sleep and then swished a gunslinger’s step-back triple to put the Cavs up six with a minute left. In case you’re wondering at home, Yes. Collin Sexton’s J is for real. Sexton played one of his better all around games with 20/6/5, went 4-6 from deep, and attacked the defensive glass throughout the game. He secured one of the game’s most important rebounds when he went high in the air to grab a Mike Conley missed triple and secured it despite being sandwiched between Jonas Valanciunas and Ante Zizc. Sexton played under control and attacked with regularity. Most importantly Collin shot triples instead of mid-rangers. He also made several good passes on his way to five dimes, despite four turnovers. The turnovers are going to happen, but finding teammates in position to score rather than positions to bail him out when he gives up his dribble, is what is key to Sexton’s progress.

Defensively, Sexton was still pretty haphazard, and part of Cleveland’s general problem of switching all over the place on the backside. He ended up on a much bigger player more than once and didn’t have any recourse but to foul or flail at a layup, but he took some baby steps this game.

Not taking baby steps, but taking big, giant Croatian man steps: Ante Zizic. Double Z turned in one of his best performances of the season by scoring 18 with ten boards in just under 30 minutes. He hit putbacks, long push shots, jumpers from the nail, safety valve baseline Js, and 6-7 at the line. Ante’s roll timing was note perfect throughout the night, and he displayed fantastic hands and footwork catching and finishingbtwo of the filthiest dimes of the season from Brandon Knight and Matthew Dellavedova (below). Most importantly, when the Cavs were hemorrhaging rebounds to Joakim Noah and Co., Ante came in and gave them a big body to bang inside and help secure loose balls. ZZ grabbed two big boards in crunch time.

Zizic might have lost the individual battle to Jonas Valanciunas (25/11/1), but big V needed 19 shots to get that number, and Ante just 7. More importantly, Ante was +10, and Jonas was -6. Standing side by side, I realized Zizic is actually an inch taller than Jonas, and still has some filling out to do. Ante did have a couple bad offensive fouls down the stretch when his screens sent Mike Conley to the floor, but he conformed to my cardinal rule: if you’re going to foul someone, don’t injure, don’t get a flagrant, but make it hurt. Did ZZ ever. When he gets regular minutes, God’s own widow’s peak can be a very efficient, fundamentally sound player who can give the Cavs a physicality they sorely lack. Here are those dimes and finishes, and a takedown of Conley for good measure.

That Knight dime might have been the best of the season, and Delly topped it just 13 minutes later. It was this kind of passing that showed the Cavs at their best, Saturday, as they racked up 25 dimes. No one was more emblematic of that than Matthew Dellavedova who found six beautiful dimes to go along with his 10 points and who played down the stretch instead of Jordan Clarkson. Matt finally got off the schneid from downtown, even though he only went 1-4.nHe’d been in a 1-14 stretch before this game. Delly had the flob working too, converting it twice, and should have also had a left handed finger roll bucket to his credit.

Unfortunately, the officiating chicanery that has plagued Cleveland late in games reappeared. With 31 seconds left Delly threw up a tricky lefty, and had it swatted by Jonas Valanciunas, but it was ruled a goaltend on the floor. After three minutes of replay which seemed to show the ball descending on its downward arc before being knocked out of the air (it was close), the officials yet again overruled the call on the floor with no video evidence to the contrary and awarded the ball to the opponent (this happened on a possession call in the second overtime of the triple overtime Nets game too). Never mind that the stoppage of play on the floor allowed Cleveland no attempt at an offensive rebound.

Fortunately, Matt hit 3-4 from the line in the last 17 seconds to ice the game for the Wine and Gold, and directed the defense to be good enough to win. Delly played over Jordan Clarkson late, mainly because Clarkson was a shot-hunting dumpster fire, and showed that while he may be a good scorer on a bad team, he is one of the losingest players in league history. Clarkson was 2-10, 1-6 from three and 5/1/1 in 22 minutes. He was a black hole: chucking and hijacking possessions to throw up bad pull-ups early in the shot-clock throughout the night. In fact, he was a part of the garbage lineups that blew a big lead in the late third which contributed to his -7. Perhaps JC was still reeling from his purported role in the Tristan/Khloe breakup.

Marquese Chriss was similarly bad for Cleveland, and just looked completely unfocused: failing to defend the simplest plays, biting on every pump fake, and failing to finish around the basket on the easiest of looks, and chucking his way to 1-5 from downtown for a 6/6/1, -5 line in 11 minutes. As I noted during the game, I’m not losing any sleep over Marquese Chriss. The Cavs are going to have too many big men next year as it is. John Henson when healthy is the player that we hope Marquese could become. This stretch where he bricks, stands there and watches Noah run by him, and then stands there and watches Noah dunk is emblematic of why his last two teams gave up on him.

No one, though, was worse than Nik Stauskus, who seemed completely outmatched yet again, and is making us all question Koby Altman’s decision to guarantee his deal for the remainder of the season. Sauce was 0-2 with one board, and somehow -8 in the five minutes where the Cavs Rodney Hooded away a lead in the early second. Bring back Deng Adel.

For Memphis, we mentioned Big V who had a stellar night from the floor, and who AC and Fred noted always seems to be able to just drip the ball over the rim, but the Grizz also got a gladiator night from Mike Conley. Despite being the focal point of the Cavs defense, Conley gritted his way to 18/5/2 with three steals in 30 grinder’s minutes. Justin Holiday looked solid with 10 points in 26 minutes but didn’t do much more than score while starting PF Ivan Rabb was a surprisingly willing passer with 8/3/4. The other starter, Avery Bradley was totally forked. Sexton smoked him to seal the game and Bradley was 1-5 and -19. Yikes.

The Grizz were carried by their bench – Specifically by ole Jo Noah who destroyed Cleveland in the third and who completely outplayed Larry Nance who put in one of his worst games in recent memory. While Larry was 2-6 from the floor and part of the lackluster late first half group, Noah went 16/7/4 in 23 minutes and added two blocks and a steal. He also got the Grizz into the early bonus with his activity and the Grizz the lead with his energy. Also playing well for Memphis: Delon Wright who was a game high +14 and went 15/7/3. He could be a nice piece for Memphis’ future.

Not so good? Chandler Parsons who had a decent stretch in the second quarter (against Nik Stauskus) but who combined with CJ  Miles (now with Dadbod) to go 2-13 from the floor. Man does Memphis have some bad money tied up in Parsons.

Kudos to Larry Drew who has his team playing better every game and who rightly sent JC to the pine early, Saturday. Cleveland has won 3-4 and are a bad call in Brooklyn away from a four game win streak. They take on the scorching hot Trailblazers tomorrow who’ve won seven of ten and sit at 36 wins: good enough for fourth place in the West. We’ll see how Cleveland stacks up, and if they’re becoming the team we thought they could be.