Recap: Mavericks 131, Cavaliers 111 (or, Final Fantasy)

The Light Warriors Cavaliers had a hard fought battle against the Dallas Mavericks last night and but for a final collapse in the fourth quarter were able to keep hope alive with one comeback after another.  Ultimately it was not to be as the Mavs put up a 14-2 run to start the last period and the Cavs eventually just fell apart. Thinking Cleveland could stay undefeated at home was a Final Fantasy.

Despite the loss there were plenty of positives and lessons to take from Cleveland’s first home loss.  Several players had good individual showings and if nothing else there were plenty of examples of what works and what doesn’t work for Coach Beilein to cut into film for his young developing team.  Luckily for Beilein he can say “S***” as much as he wants in practice and hope that not too many people heard him say it (when realizing the Mavs scored 131 points) in the post game press conference.

Before going in to the Cavaliers individual performances from last night, it’s only prudent to take a look at some of the competition they faced:

“Tiamat”

The many-headed dragon that was Luka Doncic was ultimately the author of the Cavaliers defeat.  Cedi did an admirable job guarding the Slovenian on ball as best he could but Donic just does too many things too well to be stopped by anything but a supremely coordinated defense.  Besides lighting up the scoreboard with 5/10 shooting from distance, Luka was also 4/7 inside the arc and a perfect 6/6 from the free throw line.  When he wasn’t scoring he was getting everyone else on the team involved to the tune of 15 assists.  Then not to leave any holes in his game he continued to lead his team in rebounds with 14 boards.  The Cavs best shot at stifling Doncic should have been in the rebounding department with the trio of Love, TT, and Nance, though they still fell short.  While the Cavs did get five turnovers out of Doncic that doesn’t much matter when Tiamat the Slovenian put up a 29pt/14reb/15ast triple double while shooting 52.9/50/100.

“Nitemare”

The second highest scorer for Dallas was the one and only unicorn, Kristaps Porzingis.  While the above pictured monster obvious looks like a unicorn, it’s name was actually a “Nitemare” which is also appropriate.  Porzingis’s 18 points and nine rebounds were major contributions for the Mavs especially while shooting 4/6 on essentially uncontestable triples, but his six blocks were a massive part of stymieing the Cavalier’s offense throughout the game.  The big Latvian was able to make ill advised Sexton drives into traffic look even more ill advised than usual and just overall helped to muck up any chance the Cavs had at developing a smooth inside out game.  It is a minor victory that Cleveland was able to keep Kristaps to 3/8 from inside the arc, though that was pretty much the only scratch in the “nitemare” unicorn’s hide.

“Ogre”

The third and final Big Bad that was able to smash the Wine and Gold was the massive ogre Boban Marjanovic.  The Serbian big man had seen only 11 minutes so far this year for Dallas, but after Cleveland got out to an early lead they unleashed all 7’4″ of Boban to smash the advantage away from the Cavs veteran frontcourt.  The Mavericks only needed a little over 15 minutes from Marjanovic to really turn the size advantage around.  Boban’s 12 points and eight rebounds were important contributions but most telling was his monstrous team leading +/- of +25.  Paired with Porzingis’s length and blocks Boban was able to club the life out of the Wine and Gold’s interior scoring.

Now on to the Light Warriors Cleveland Cavaliers cast of characters from last night’s game:

“Master”

Kevin Love was definitely the leveled up Master, able to deal the most damage on the Cavalier’s enemies.  He had multiple bursts of hot shooting to single-handedly keep the Cavs in the fights at several points.  Throughout the game he was continually a positive +/- and ended as the only positive Cavalier with a +5.  With a final stat line of 29pts/8reb/2ast/1stl he was typically the difference between being competitive and being embarrassed.  Unfortunately even a team high 35 minutes at +5 wasn’t enough to counter the staggering -25 that Cleveland was in the less 13 minutes that he sat.  This game provided a stark and sobering example of why the Wine and Gold had so much of a struggle last season and why the teams looks surprisingly more competitive with a healthy Kevin Love this year.

“Black Belt”

Tristan Thompson played the part of the lower level Black Belt to Kevin Love’s Master.  TT’s physicality, effort, and hustle were among the most reliable weapons for this young team even though he was unable to put up the “all star”-esque numbers that he did in the first four games this season.  His touch was a little off all night for his patented ambidextrous hook shots and so we wasn’t quite able to propel the team’s inside game as much as they would have liked.  Thompson still managed to put up a 11 point 12 rebound double double while also chipping in with four assists (third best on for the team).  Cleveland can’t reasonably expect too much more from Tristan on a nightly basis though his help defense seemed to be just a half step behind what we had grown used to early this season.  He still played the second most at just under 31 minutes and the fact that six of his boards were of the offensive variety kept the team afloat when shots were not falling.

“Wolf”

Coach Beilein’s “Wolf”, Jordan Clarkson, again had a productive scoring night albeit with a much different shot chart than usual.  Captain Bandaid ended the game only taking (and making) ONE single two point field goal.  One!  That is close to unbelievable from a guy that is so often criticized for chucking up inefficient iso shots and hijacking the offense.  ONE!???

Instead of chucking up bad or even questionable shots, JC just fired away from deep.  He ended the game an efficient and desirable 5/10 from three point land and was second to only to Love in providing the scoring punch to force the Cavaliers back from deficits.  Captain Bandaid didn’t have the assist numbers that he did last game, ending up with just one, but he continues to show evidence that he is sincerely trying to buy in to what Beilein is trying to build with this team.  Clarkson also chipped in a monster block as he continues to show some incremental improvement on defense and continues to argue his case for being one of the five Cavs that should be relied on to close out games.  Tying for the team’s second best +/- of -1 shows that Jordan Clarkson was a major part of any chance that Cleveland had at a victory last night.

“Fighter”

Cedi Osman was a hard working fighter all night long and put together a better game than his 10pt/4reb/1ast/1blk stat line while shooting 4/11 (and 2/6 from three) might suggest.  The First Cedi drew the assignment of guarding Luka Doncic and while Doncic’s monster stat line might also suggest that Cedi failed his assignment, that was simply not the case.  Guarding a multi-headed dragon like Doncic is about more than on-ball defense at the point of attack and Osman simply could not neutralize all the things that Luka was able to accomplish with his teammates.  For those that think Cedi is to blame for Doncic and the Mav’s success, a quick look at Cedi’s tied for team second best +/- of -1 shows that obviously something was working better when Cedi was on the floor than when he sat.  Coach Beilein was absolutely correct in the post game press to praise Cedi’s play throughout the game.  He played with fight and determination while keeping his head on his shoulders.  If Cedi’s ultimate NBA role is as a support player (either as a starter or off the bench) then last night’s game is exactly what he needs to do to ensure a successful career.  Additionally, Beilein seemed to trust Cedi to initiate more of the offense and it showed some promise when the team was stagnating.  Obviously Coach liked what he saw as he also commented on needing to find Cedi more shots in the future.

“Knight”

Brandon Knight had his second chance to make a first impression this season and had a considerably better showing than the previous game.  He started off with a couple of obviously rusty plays before redeeming himself considerably with back to back triples and ending the night shooting a respectable 3/7 from deep.  Knight still understandably seems a little rusty but he assuredly showed that he can still be a dynamic NBA player.  In just under 20 minutes he managed to lead the team with six assists while posting the fourth best +/-  (excluding Cook and McKinnie who only played garbage time) of -6.  It’s still rather uncertain how big of a role that Knight can ultimately have on this guard-heavy Cavaliers roster but it’s nice to see he can still contribute and even be relied upon when his number gets called.  Hopefully for both Knight and the Cavs best interest he can establish some value and get traded to a team that will give him a legitimate chance at restarting his post-injury career.

“The Rat Tail”

Collin Sexton and his “tail of a rat” offer the perfect segue to the youngest part of the roster.  For those not familiar with Final Fantasy 1, the rat tail was an item your party team needs to acquire to transform into the stronger high-level versions of their specialties.  A big part of this season for Sexton will continue to be his battle to expand upon his rookie success and turn himself into a more well rounded and complete NBA player.  Last night’s 4/14 shooting performance broke his 20+ game streak of scoring 16 or more points (he ended up with 10) and was hopefully one more in a series of lessons about the limits of his offensive game as currently constructed.  The young Light Warrior Cavalier consistently pressed the issue charging headlong into a Nitemare and an Ogre and needs to better learn how to use his party team to slay score on tougher opponents.  Sexton did have encouraging signs such as his six rebounds and only one turnover.  He simply needs to continue to learn that he will get his shots and they will be much easier when he can get the rest of his team going first around him.  The Young Bull has been showing signs of improved defense but last night also showed how much room he has left to grow.  This is not to be hard on the the young sophomore, he continues to show great growth and character, but he still has a lot of “leveling up” to do before he becomes a solid NBA veteran.  Hopefully soon he can exchange that rat tail for the massive boost he seems capable of.

“Garland”

Even more than the “Knight” image, this one is so on the nose that the metaphor doesn’t need any twisting or torturing.  Darius Garland had both a bounce back game and still a rather rough night.  His 1/4 shooting from three is still below what everyone is expecting, but such is youth.  Last night was merely his 11th game since high school (not counting preseason) and there will continue to be growing pains.  Garland seems to tend to try to get himself going from inside the arc before firing from deep and that continues to stunt his starts.  His twitchy stop-start dribbling is impressive and effective to watch, though he needs to continue to learn just how much more difficult NBA players are to score against than the competition he developed those moves against.  A huge part to Darius’s development will be when he can confidently fire from distance cold.  If he establishes his range early he will find it so much easier to achieve dribble penetration with simple opportunities to score or assist.  Garland continues to show a good attitude whenever interviewed and legitimately seems like the type of high character kid this team needs.  He just needs time and reps.  Defense will likely always be a struggle for him, but he has the potential to be prolific enough offensively that the Cavs will be happy to accept his defensive limitations.

“Red Mage”

Kevin Porter Jr. looks to be the Red Wine Mage of the Cavaliers.  For those not familiar, the Red Mage is a bit of a jack of all trades.  He has a combination of offensive magic, defensive magic, and decent physical toughness.  The Red Mage is just not particularly great at any of these things until he (with Collin’s rat tail) level’s up to become the Red Wizard.  Porter Jr. is definitely raw coming into the NBA this year but he also shows a massive variety of aptitudes that hints at a possibly transcendent player if he can put everything together.  So far he has shown defensive lapses and defensive greatness.  He has shown the ability to muscle into great close shots with contact and tendencies to take inefficient jump shots.  KPJ’s triples have started to drop, but not yet with consistency.  He’s even shown great playmaking vision, despite chucking up shots with blinders at times.  All in all, Porter continues to show why he was a great gamble at the 30th pick and he just needs the right team, coach, and environment to give him the best chance to develop.  It will be interesting to see what happens to his minutes when Windler returns, though either way these first six games have appeared to be a great start to developing a kid with loads of potential.

“Chaos”

The Final image for today’s recap is “Chaos”, the Final boss of Final Fantasy.  This is a catch-all for both the abysmal night that Larry Nance Jr. had and for the insanely hot shooting start that the Mavericks had.  There are more distinct arguments to be made for why these things happened.  It would be easy to blame Nance’s new role on his poor showing.  It would also be easy to simply blame the Cavaliers weak close-outs for the Maverick’s stellar shooting.  There is definitely a case to be made for each argument, but both include a heavy dose of Chaos.  LNJ’s changing role at the perimeter seems to have hurt his aptitude for running the offense at the elbow, but perhaps a balance can be obtained without entirely giving up on the the idea.  Dallas did have far too many good looks from distance, but they were still a bit lucky to have so many go in, especially early.  In a long season there will be plenty of time to dwell on and explore these ideas as the sample size grows.  Until then I choose to defer on over analyzing these aspects (especially LNJ’s horrific +/- of -33 ) and table them for the future.  Ultimately the Cavaliers were right in this game (despite the deficiencies) through more than three quarters.  One could even argue that the true difference was the hulking presence of one Boban Marjanovic.  Now it’s time to give them a chance to review their mistakes and see what steps they make tomorrow, such is the process in a rebuilding year.  At least they are still definitely keeping it interesting.

Until next time:

GAME OVER

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