Recap: Portland 123, Cleveland 110 (or, Fun While it Lasted)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhsK6s-wbF8

This was a yo yo of a game. Cleveland came out completely flat. They were down 14-0 after the first five minutes. The Cavs got dragged back to relevancy by the bench, mounted an improbable comeback against the number four team in the West, then cut the diff to two with nine minutes left, then to three with five minutes left, and then got stuffed back down in a hole by a 17-0 Blazers’ run that ended any pretense of Cleveland actually winning this one. Still, watching the Cavs hang with an elite NBA squad was fun while it lasted.

It was easy to tell from the start that the Wine and Gold weren’t used to this caliber of NBA team, as Portland’s physicality and execution overwhelmed the lackluster Cavs and sapped their energy in the early going. Nance, Delly, Marquese Chriss, and especially Jordan Clarkson brought the bench mojo for the Cavs as they turned their juice into the occasional stop and enough points in the first half to stave off a total evisceration.

But dear God. Portland simply didn’t miss in the first half. Yeah, they hit a lot of open looks, but they also hit contested looks, end of the shotclock looks, and pretty much anything else they threw up. The Blazers went 11-13 from downtown 15-25 from inside the arc, and 8-8 from the line in the first 24. While the Cavs controlled Lillard, the pride of Stark County, C.J. McCollum went off for 22, going 7-8 from the field while joining Seth Curry in shooting 4-4 from deep.  The Village Brute Squad known as Yusef Nurcic owned the paint, too gooning his way to 8/5/3 in the first half and putting up a whopping +23 for Portland. The Cavs could do nothing inside. By the end of the first two quarters, Portland was up 71-48.

You could be forgiven if you turned this one off at halftime, and if you did, you missed an amazing third quarter. Cleveland got into the bonus with 9:42 as the refs finally started calling some of the fouls they weren’t calling in the first half against Portland. A three foul possession for the Cavs didn’t hurt either. Cleveland shot just 11-25 this period, but went 12-13 from the line and were clearly frustrating the Blazers who expected them to go melt back into the night. It also didn’t hurt that Portland went cold, going 0-6 from three and 5-18 from the floor along with four turnovers to Cleveland’s zero.

Nance and Love showed up, each dropping seven in the period, all inside, but it was really team ball and hustle that won the battle for the Cavs. Cleveland just kept outworking, outhustling, and outrunning Portland who could not stop committing dumb fouls. This Junior finger roll is indicative of how fun this 36-17 quarter was. It was only topped by a Delly trey with .8 seconds to put an exclamation point on the period.

The Fourth was equally fun. Steady Cedi Osman who’d been balling all night (27/7/3), got hot and started attacking like a maven and getting to the line or the cup. This lefty finish caused a Portland rage timeout and brought the Cavs to within three.

Sadly, the Portland onslaught that ensued was swift and merciless. Four triples, a layup, and three freebies, and it was over.  Lillard who was trapped in the P/R the whole second half got hot and finished with 21/4/8 while the Cavs slowed down McCollum, he still hit a dagger late to finish with 35/7/2 as Dame and C.J. combined for 56. Cleveland’s starting backcourt, Sexton and Knight, combined to go 11-32 for 30 points with just two dimes. Yikes.

Nance finished with 10/5/5, Love with 18/12, and JC with 19/5/2 on 18 shots. It was a fun 20 minutes of the second half, and a glimpse of what the future could be like. But Knight is forked and Collin is still lost on D, and until those things are fixed, we’ll be stuck with entertaining losses.