Preseason Recap: Boston 118, Cleveland 72 (or, Kevin Love Exhibit A)

Life is often full of disappointing reality checks.  Examples of this are the Cavs Sunday preseason game against the Boston Celtics, and the fact that I signed up to recap this dumpster fire of a game before knowing just how bad it would be.

There are many reasons the Cavs were less than an NBA team for this game.  The most obvious of these reasons, Exhibit A, is the lack of Kevin Love.  It is not Love’s fault that Collin Sexton regressed into Rookie Collin Sexton.  It is also not Love’s fault that Cedi Osman forgot how to shoot.  It is even not Love’s fault that all of the Cavaliers seemingly forgot how to effectively pass the basketball.  This game had countless mistakes (well, I guess one can count the 27 turnovers), but it is hard to ignore the fact that these mistakes were exacerbated by the lack of one Kevin Love.

The fact that the Cavaliers too nearly four minutes to score their first basket was surprisingly not even close to the worst aspect of this afternoon game.  It actually took both teams awhile to get going, and so it just seemed like an awkward but balanced start.  After the first points hit the scoreboard was when the torture truly began.  By the time the first quarter buzzer sounded the score of Cavs 17, Celtics 22 was actually not that bad.  Then there was a 9 – 37 second quarter that firmly sealed the game as nearly unbearable.  Reliable playmakers like Dellavedova and Larry Nance Jr. made amateur mistake after mistake, not to mention the even worse mistakes of the “less reliable” passers.  Even when the offense managed to eschew obvious mistakes, the Cavaliers invariably missed easy and open shots again and again.

To avoid belaboring a tough and often painful loss, there are a few pieces of evidence that can be taken from this slipshod preseason skirmish:

Exhibit A:

Kevin Love makes the Cavaliers better in more ways than might be obvious.  Without Love in the lineup there is no pressure release valve.  This difference was also evident in the previous game against the Pistons.  The Cavs were soundly drubbing Detroit through most of the game, but down the stretch they were able to be pressured and broken by a Detroit lineup that should not have been that superior.  Such are the perils of a team full of rookies and youth with a brand new coaching staff.  When things go wrong there is nothing to fall back on.  Rookies (or almost rookies) will make rookie mistakes and there is no one to save them from themselves.  Even usually reliable playmakers like Dellavedova will have trouble running a young offense when shots aren’t falling.  Ultimately this is why even rebuilding teams need some veteran leadership.  Without reliable options to fall back on, when things go wrong they can easily just keep going wrong.  The Cavaliers may or may not end up trading Kevin Love during the course of this rebuild, but games like this must illustrate the value such a player has towards stability and maintaining watch ability during the “process”.

Exhibit B:  A rebuilding team like the Cavaliers missing multiple key players will get absolutely trounced by a playoff team that is not missing key players.  This of course is obvious but easy to overlook.  While the Cavaliers were without the services of Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, Ante Zizic, John Henson, Darius Garland, and Dylan Windler, the Celtics were essentially at full strength.  Boston did not need their full lineup of stars to close out the game, but in the fourth quarter when it was youth vs. youth Boston only outscored Cleveland 32 to 29.  This again is not to excuse the litany of mistakes that Cavs piled up throughout the afternoon, but it does provide context.  Dellavedova and Nance are less effective playmakers when they do not have reliable scorers to make plays for.  Sexton is barely past his rookie year and still trying to develop NBA quality instincts.  Cedi was just off in general all game. On top of all of this, at all times there was at least one Cavalier on the court that is unlikely to be part of the team going forwards.  In summation, NBA vets will typically embarrass NBA rookies and G League players.

Exhibit C:  Live by the three, die by the three.  Most everyone agrees with Beilein’s emphasis on the Cavaliers shooting more threes this season.  The Cavs drafted three 40% + three point shooters.  The plan makes sense, but when the shots aren’t falling, things can get bad.  This is exacerbated by the lack of a veteran scoring presence and the overall learning curve of a young team with a new coach and system.  A final total of seven made threes out of 40 attempts is bad enough, but that was after a relatively “hot” shooting run at the end of the game.  Hopefully this kind of future disaster can be avoided with experience and a fuller roster, though the increased reliance on three pointers is always a risk.  Houston famously missed 27 threes in a row against Golden State in the 2018 playoffs.  It happens.

Exhibit D:  Defense.  Yeah.  There were a lot of mistakes.  The above lineup issues obviously factored in to a lack of defensive cohesiveness and effectiveness.  Beyond that however, transition defense is a lot more difficult.  With the Cav’s countless missed shots and 27 turnovers they were essentially defending the entire game in transition.  Their defense was bad, but it actually could have been worse.  “Could have been worse” isn’t exactly encouraging but at least it’s something.

Exhibit E:  Beilein needs to train his “wolves”.  Jordan Clarkson and Kevin Porter Jr. are currently the players that most fall under Coach Beilein’s title of “wolves” that “hunt shots”.  While that carries value, it also carries danger.  Porter is raw and JC is JC, but Beilein is going to need to find a way to teach them when to hunt and when to stop chucking.  There is plenty of time to sort this out before Porter learns too many bad habits.  Hopefully that will be part of Beilein’s system going forward.

Exhibit F:  I already missed Garland.  Maybe he wouldn’t have made a difference, but in the previous two games Garland managed to rally the team and get the offense under control.  The Cavs seemed to miss his presence at the end of the Detroit game and one can’t help but wonder if Garland could have helped bring something together for the Cavs during their extended offensive slump against the Celtics.  It is too early to be sure, but not too early to wonder.

Exhibit 10:  JP Macura, the Cavalier with the team best +/- of -3 is currently on an Exhibit 10 Contract.

Breaking with the Exhibits, at least there is the comfort that Sunday was a preseason game and will soon be forgotten to even the statistics of NBA history.  While there were plenty of red flags it was also just one meaningless game.  Cleveland has the chance to avenge this black eye on Tuesday and hopefully I never write about another court proceeding ever again.

Congrats to anyone that made it through the game and congrats for making it through my evidentiary discovery.  Let it be a one time thing.