Preseason Recap: Detroit 109, Cleveland 105 ( or, Whistle While you Work)

Heigh Ho! After controlling most of the game, Friday, the Cavs held a 10 point lead going into the fourth, and a nine point lead with four minutes remaining. Unfortunately, a ball hogging stretch by Jordan Clarkson and Kevin Porter Junior stymied the offense to start the fourth, until Tristan Thompson and Collin Sexton pushed the lead back up and the team relaxed.

Then came a crunch time stretch of too many offensive possessions that ended with ice cold clankers by Cedi Osman or Matthew Dellavedova, combined with good shooting by Detroit (and bad defense by Cleveland). A missed box-out by Jordan Clarkson led to a putback dunk by Svi Mykhailiuk to give the lead to Motor City with a minute left. Seconds after an ill conceived Delly floater, the Cavs failed to guard Bruce Brown in transition and he waltzed in to extend the lead to three.

A disgusted John Beilein called timeout and drew up a look that led to Sexton drilling a right elbow 20-footer to cut it to one. Then, the old man without a guaranteed contract, 17 year veteran Iso-Joe Johnson, got Larry Nance on his hip and nastied up a floater from seven feet out to push Detroit’s buffer back to three with 18 seconds left.

Sexton got free in transition and airballed an open look from the top right of the break as the Cavs watched the ball and the game sail out of bounds. After Bruce brown split the freebies, Collin missed a left side layup where he maddeningly eschewed the glass, and that was that. It was concerning that the Cavs were rolling down the stretch with five starters (sans Kevin Love) while the Pistons trotted out Bruce Brown and deep bench dudes.

A main story of this game was the inordinate amount of whistles in the first two quarters for ticky tack crap. The whistles then got swallowed in the third and fourth when guys were getting shoved out of bounds on cuts. It was a pretty ragged first half. We’re talking 24 turnovers, 30 personal fouls, and 27 trips to the line between the two squads before halftime. There was literally a whistle about every 30 seconds: travels, offensive fouls, off ball screen fouls, delay of game… It was painful. I wore out the “skip ahead 15 seconds” button on the old remote.

The Cavs did their work while the refs whistled, holding Detroit to 43% from the floor while they shot 51% and 8-17 from downtown.  Kevin Love led Cleveland with nine in nine minutes, while Brandon Knight came off the bench for 11. Andrew Drummond was a load as always and put up 12 and 6. When the second half came around Cleveland played well for 18 minutes, and horribly for six. Since we’re going with a Snow White recap, I’m gonna break these guys down into some categories.

Bashful:

Tony Snell joined Pistons Starters Drummond, Reggie Jackson, Bruce Brown, and Markieff Morris. While the other starters put up 48 shots, Snell was 0-1 in 18 minutes. For Cleveland, Darius Garland didn’t show us much either, with just three shots and two dimes in 11 minutes. He did go +13 though, mainly because he wasn’t Jordan Clarkson.

Grumpy:

Tristan Thompson has been taking it as a personal challenge to beat up on bench bigs so far this preseason, and he was barking at Detroit’s Christian Wood in the middle of the fourth as he took him to the woodshed to set up right and left handed hooks to push the Cavs lead up to nine before the collapse. Tristan’s floater and hook game were butter as he put up 15 and eight, including four o-boards, and he battled for loose balls as well. A grumpy TT is an effective TT.

Sleepy:

Part of that collapse was the entry of Thon Maker who replaced Wood to quietly control the paint on defense and the boards, and even flashed a nice 3-ball to go with a game high +20 on the night. Tim Frazier and Svi Mykhailiuk joined him in the quiet contribution department. Svi had that tip slam to take the lead, and Frazier hit a huge triple late as the pair went +11 and +12 respectively with nine combined points in limited minutes. Detroit has quietly added some solid bench guys with long term potential in Svi and Thon. Check out some of their plays below.

Happy:

No one should be happier than Brandon Knight right now. He looks the healthiest he has in years. Knight’s 11 points were gravy in the first half. OK, well maybe one person is happier: Andre Drummond, who could fall out of bed and put up a double double, was the most unstoppable player this game, and for the most part played at half speed and still controlled the game to the tune of 15/8/3 in mostly first half minutes. Oh, and he’s currently negotiating for a contract extension that could pay him “up to $190 million over five years.” Yezus.

Also happy? Miami’s Bruce Brown who is fighting for a starting role and put up 15/5/7 in 25 minutes, scorching most everyone who was put in front of him on forays to the rack and to the free throw line.

Sneezy:

Something was up with Cedi Osman‘s shot, that’s for sure. Maybe he had a cold. Cedi was 2-8, 0-3 from deep and missed mostly open looks. It was frustrating, but he also looks like the best playermaker the Cavs have in the starting lineup. It would be great if the Cavs had another wing besides Cedi and KPJ, but they don’t, which pretty much forces Cedi to start at the 3. If they could move him to the 2, it would solve so many problems defensively and create matchup problems for opponents when he’s on offense. He runs p/r better than anyone Let’s hope he stops sneezing during his J.

Matthew Dellavedova‘s fits seem more innate. He is a below average finisher and when his three ball isn’t falling, teams can sag way off. He can also look like a pylon against quick, aggressive guards. Derrick Rose, Bruce Brown, and Reggie Jackson combined for 45 points on only one three pointer. The Cavs’ guards were routinely beat on drives and p/r, and Delly couldn’t defend without fouling. He also couldn’t get buckets when the Cavs needed it late, as that floater was just not a threat. Delly was a game low -11, and though he helped pick up the offense when Clarkson and Porter were hijacking it in the fourth, Delly’s lack of a threat to score helps defenses sag off him. He’s gotta play better, or this could be his last year in the association.

Dopey:

Argh. Jordan Clarkson had some mind numbing possessions where no one else touched the ball. If Beilein wants the ball to move without the dribble, Clarkson was the wrong guy to make the “wolf” in his offense. JC drives me up the wall with his dopey game. His box score didn’t look that bad with 10/1/3 and -5 on 9 shots, but he had me yelling at the TV more than once.

His habits also wore off on Kevin Porter Junior who also went iso too often and mostly took bad shots to the tune of 2-6 from the field and -8, and mostly not good defense. The Cavs need KPJ to be a garbage man: score in transition, catch and shoot, drive on bad closeouts, and get some putbacks. Don’t try to do too much on offense. When he gets shot happy, he gets a little cringy. But you know what? Even dopey was loveable, and, OMG this dunk by Porter was loveable.

Doc:

The steely eyed leader of the the band, Collin Sexton was a quiet assassin this game. His shot was dialed in: 6-13 from the field and 9-10 from the line for 24 points in 26 minutes to go along with four boards and a couple dimes. Unfortunately, he came up short late, and he has to learn to use the damned glass on layups. Still, he had some old man buckets, including a filthy little push shot on a crossover in the lane. He was very solid this game. The Cavs need to let him run more plays instead of being the secondary creator. They need to see what he can do.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5foK1RU7Kjs

The other quiet leader this game was Larry Nance Jr., who quite frankly needs to have the ball in his hands in the high post more. The focus away from that excellent part of his offensive game from last year is hurting the team’s O and enabling KPJ and Clarkson to be chuckers. Nance needs the ball closer to the basket more often and shouldn’t be on the wing so much. Let him see the whole floor instead of a tilted floor and run the offense. Nance had 6/11/2 in 28 minutes, but only got five shots. His usage is too low.

Snow White:

Kevin Love scored effortlessly in the first half, but Kev always knows how to take advantage of whistling while he works. Yeah he was 0-4 in five second half minutes, but he looked fine when he needed to. With two exhibition games left against the wicked witches in Beantown, put Kev under glass till the regular season. I don’t care if it makes the dwarves cry.