Recap: Nets 113, Cavs 107 (Or, At Least The Cavs Had A Comeback/The Nwaba Game)

The Cavs don’t need to win. Honestly, they need to lose. I know the lottery odds have been leveled, but at the end of the day Cleveland needs to lose more than the Bulls to make sure they are in the bottom three of the league with a 14% chance at the number one pick. All we as fans can ask for is entertaining loses, and this game delivered.

The Nets dominated the Cavs in the first quarter forcing eight turnovers to outscore them by 11 points. Cleveland hung tight and fought back though.

David Nwaba had a filthy run in the second quarter getting 11 points to help bring the Cavs back into the game. He finished the night with 22 points on 9-13 shooting, a career high. In the second twelve, he really showed he knew how to let the game just come to him. He earned four of his points off transition buckets. He hit a wide open three-pointer from a Kevin Love assist. He ripped the ball from DeMarre Carroll after he grabbed the defensive board right at the Cavs rim for a layup. And, he even got a tip in. Nothing was forced. The Cavs managed to tie the game with a 22-7 run at 44 points. However, the Nets ended up entering the half up five, 55-50.

In the third, Kevin Love took over for the Cavs with some good old fashioned lawyer ball. The Cavs got into the bonus with more than nine minutes left in the quarter. Love drew two fouls on 3-pointers and another touch foul for two shots. He hit all eight of his freebies and canned a tip-in and 3-pointer for 13 in the quarter. Ultimately, Love finished the evening with a solid 24 points, 16 boards, and four assists. His finishing line is even more impressive considering he had just three points at half-time. He did grab 12 boards in the first half though, which has to be noted. After three quarters, the Cavs led 85-80.

The Nets controlled the fourth though. Spencer Dinwiddie had 12 of his 28 points and three of his five assists in the fourth. He basically took whoever covered him straight to the rack every single time he touched the ball.

D’Angelo Russell played a wonderful game all evening getting 25 points on 9-20 shooting along with five assists. He went 4-8 from deep. Jarrett Allen also flashed hints that he will someday be a top roll-man in the league. He put up 15 points on 6-7 shooting. He has a knack for being around the rim when his mans helps the tiniest bit on defense.

Caris LeVert had 14 points on 5-12 shooting and scored five straight early in the fourth to pull the Nets ahead.

Larry Nance put up 17 and ten for the Cavs, while Jordan Clarkson added 14 points and seven boards. Clarkson went 3-5 from deep.

The Cavs started out the game super sloppy in the first quarter. They had eight turnovers and the Nets scored six from them; the Nets took five more shots overall in the quarter going 14-27. Offensively, guys just seemed to be standing around for the Cavs. They literally hesitated at every moment possible.

Cleveland had a huge problem containing Allen when he rolled to the rim. Two guys just kept ending up on the man driving. It resulted in plays like this:

The pick‼️
The roll‼️
The pass‼️
The finish‼️
The bench celebration‼️@Dloading + @_bigjayy_ #WeGoHard pic.twitter.com/M4UcnPJotJ

— Brooklyn Nets (@BrooklynNets) March 7, 2019

Notice how Russell draws multiple defenders. And, well, Nwaba just stands no chance against Allen with some momentum to the rack. All of Allen’s eight in the quarter came that way. Joe Harris was continually cutting and stressing the Cavs defense.

In the second quarter, the Cavs ramped up the defense a tiny bit. During Cleveland’s 22-7 run, the Nets forgot to roll to the rim. They settled for jumpers. They tossed the ball away three times. Their drive and collapse game was still there though if they would have gone to it.

The third quarter quarter was really all about free throws. The Cavs went 11-14 from the line, since they were in the bonus so early as mentioned above. Look at the old “banana in the tail pipe” trick Love pulled. He actually did it twice.

David Nwaba also went 3-3 from the floor and continued to take what was given to him. He hit a wide-open 3, used a DHO to get into the paint, and ran the floor in transition for two. The Nets would have been toast if D’Angelo hadn’t gone 3-4 from deep. He finished with 12 in the quarter.

The Cavs entered the fourth up five, but the Nets had a quick seven point run fueled by an Allen slam and a Caris LeVert 3-pointer and layup to take the lead. Cleveland then went down by 16 after Spencer Dinwiddie scored/assisted on 14 straight. Rather than try to get some easy buckets, the Cavs just jacked 3s till the death. The Nets won, 113-107.

Gripes

1. The Cavs defense at the point of attack needs to improve. Sexton and Clarkson in particular must fight harder to stop penetration off of screens. When they get beat, they don’t commit to chucking the roll man at all. They end up in no mans land leaving the Cleveland bigs out to dry as someone barrels to the rim.

2. Sexton had a poor showing this game. He went 4-13 and was taking bad mid-rangers again. He should know better by now. He was -8 for the evening, which was second worst on the Cavs.

3. The Cavs need to take care of the ball better. They had 18 turnovers, which led to 21 points for the Nets.

4. Dinwiddie is deceptively long. Look how he just gets arm slightly past Cedi’s body before his feet get past him to create a seal on the move.

5. Rodions Kurocs is deceptively fast. He had a nice slip screen to the rack in the first that caught the Cavs off guard.

6. The Nets do a wonderful job of keeping their offense in motion without it being overly scripted. Their players cut with purpose; Joe Harris is an especially good cutter. He may not have scored a ton off of cuts tonight, he had just nine points on 4-10 shooting and hit just 1-3 from deep, but he made his presence felt for sure.

7. Marquese Chriss is my least favorite Cav. He refuses to roll to the rim. He just sets screens and moseys about. He can’t play a lick of defense either. And, he can’t dribble. He had four freaking turnovers and two of them were charges.

Hypes

1. The Cavs actually outshot the Nets from deep hitting 16 3s to their 12. Depsite the Nets hitting 36.4% of their 3s, the Cavs did a good job running them off the line. They just hit tough shots.

2. Delly had a pretty terrible by the numbers game getting two points and three assists. But, he just does smart stuff. This is my favorite defensive play of the game.

In the play, Delly gets switched onto Ed Davis. As Davis pushes to the paint, Delly switches off of Davis onto the smaller Allen Crabbe. Crabbe is being guarded by the bigger Stauskas and he just moves onto Davis. It’s such a simple defensive move, but a lot of players don’t try to mitigate match-ups when they end up in a switch covering a man who is too big or small.

3. Not only does David Nwaba have a cool name, I’m team David all day, he is the type of player the Cavs could have used during the Finals runs. Nwaba is like that floor leveling stuff that just finds any cracks and fills them up.

4. Kevin hung hard all game even when his shot wasn’t falling. He fought on the boards all night.

5. This game may have been a loss, but at least it was an entertaining one. The Cavs are in Miami Friday. The Heat will be giving it all they have because they are on the fringe of the playoffs.