Recap: Heat 108, Cavs 97 (or, There’s always a bright side)

The current hype train around the Cavaliers recent over-performance may have colored my prediction for this game just a bit. The Miami Heat are in the top three of the Eastern Conference for a reason and they showed that right from the starting tip.  Three quick triples to start the game 9 – 0 served as a quick gut punch to the Cavs and despite a bit of push back Cleveland still ended the first quarter down 34 – 22.

A twelve point deficit is not a completely devastating start, but it is also less than ideal.  Things looked better to start the second quarter and the Wine and Gold showed the typical fight we have grown used to as they quickly clawed back into the game.  The comeback didn’t last long though and the second quarter ended up as basically a mirror of the first as the Heat beat the Cavs again by 34 – 22.

At this point most people would expect Cleveland to go down like they were hit in the face with a helmet or something.  They didn’t.  One of the biggest joys of watching this team this season has been their unrelenting fight and spirit.  Both teams exchanged blows coming out of halftime and despite going into the fourth quarter still down 20 points, the Cavs managed to at least win the third quarter 30-26.

Winning one quarter after losing the first two by 12 each isn’t much in the realm of moral victories, but then the fourth quarter happen.  Suddenly the Miami Heat offense that had been scoring at will all night were miraculously held to just 14 points in the fourth quarter.  Strangely compared to last year, the thing that gave the Cavs a chance late in this game was actually their defense and the only thing that stopped them was their offense. Ultimately Cleveland fought back to within 10 points several times but missed several opportunities to crack that barrier and eventually fell by 11 points to one of the top teams in the East (with at least a Cavaliers game best final quarter of 23 – 14).

Cleveland’s fourth quarter defense is starting to become a major weapon for a team that was expected to at best improve their defense incrementally from last year.  Holding the 76ers to a 16 point fourth quarter on Tuesday and then the Heat to 14 last night shows a hugely encouraging ability for such a young team to really lock down their competition in crunch time.  Unfortunately, much like the game against the 76ers, during that defensive stretch the Cavs also stagnated on offense and missed several open shots and good opportunities.  The optimistic take on these late game stalls is that Cleveland’s youth needs time to develop the ability to better execute down the stretch.  Hopefully also Beilein will be able to implement more and more of a system for the young team so that they have a few more reliable options to use when they desperately need to score in the clutch.

For Miami, no one player was entirely a “Cav’s-killer” outside of the sweet shooting of rookie sensation Kendrick Nunn and his 23 points to go along with five rebounds and eight assists (62.5/50/– shooting splits and with only two turnovers).  The rest of the Heat had pretty balanced scoring with five other players cracking double digits.  Allowing the team’s overall shooting splits to end up 54.4/40/90.9 is a problem, especially considering that those numbers were brought down by an inefficient fourth quarter.  The other rookie standout, Tyler Herro, also had a successful and efficient night of 16 points shooting 57.1/50/100 and illustrates that Miami has done a wonderful job so far this year in mixing rookie potential with solid vets and a star player in Jimmy Butler.  Cleveland would do well to keep an eye on Miami’s progress over the last several years for ideas on how they too can rebuild post LeBron without resorting to years of bottom feeding like the 76ers over-hyped “Process”.

Moving on to the Cavaliers there is assuredly a bright side to this game.  Beyond the fact this team refuses to give up when plenty of “lower tier” teams would have just rolled over, several players had good performances worth noting.

Kevin Love had a rough shooting night (ending up going 6/16 overall) but was well used as the leader and finally had the usage to prove it.  Only Collin Sexton had as many shots as Love and would have been better served deferring a couple of those shots to the All Star leader.  Kevin ended with a double double on team highs of 21 points and 10 rebounds and his back to back threes in the fourth quarter brought the Cavs to within 10 points giving the team some hope until their offense sputtered to a stop.

Darius Garland didn’t have a particularly good game but his outside shooting was a good sign.  For a player that was ostensibly drafted for his outside shooting touch he hasn’t really been taking a lot of threes.  Watching defenders sag off of Garland only to have him drive into traffic anyways has been frustrating up to his point and so seeing him take seven threes (and make three of them for 42.9%) was very encouraging.  He continually has looked like he wants to get himself going on close shots before starting to shoot from distance but he has these priorities mixed up.  NBA defenders continue to give Darius trouble when dribbling into the lane, whereas an open shot of 28 feet in the NBA is the same as an open shot from 28 feet in college (or high school for that matter).  When Garland starts to make teams scout his long range shooting and fear it he will quickly find all the room he needs to make easier drives to the hoop whether it is to score or to set up his teammates.  If he spends the next month doing very little offensively outside of shooting six to ten threes at a decent percentage the entire team will be thrilled and the rest of the year will become progressively easier for the rookie.

Cedi Osman had another rough shooting night, proving that he will likely always be something of a streaky outside shooter.  Despite going 1/4 from deep he did manage to have some nice finishes in the lane while also racking up seven rebounds.  Osman still shows better passing and playmaking instincts than the team is utilizing and it is a good sign to hear Beilein’s post game comments about needing to get Cedi the ball more.  People continue to argue about what Cedi’s eventual role will be in the future for this team but most everyone can agree that best suited role is not that of a 3 and D wing.  Improving his shooting and defense will always be important and a part of his value to the team, though limiting him to the weaker parts of his game does a disservice to the potential many see in the young Turk.  Especially on a team full of guards that are not known specifically for their playmaking and more known for their shooting, Cedi can be used much more efficiently as a pressure release valve to mix up the offense and get players like Sexton and Garland more catch and shoot looks.  Beyond that Cedi is typically much more reliable on post entry passes to Love than the young guard duo.  Look for Osman’s role to continue to develop when Dylan Windler gets healthy and Coach Beilein has a true backup wing for Cedi so that they can implement plays that can be used for both the first and second unit (rather than teaching plays that can only really be used with one guy (Cedi) on the entire team).

Larry Nance Jr. was the other main standout for the Cavaliers last night.  He didn’t make either of his two triple attempts but he did end up with 14 points on 6/9 shooting overall to go along with eight rebounds.  Sadly he was forced to leave the game early after an uncalled foul had his already injured thumb slammed against the rim by poor block attempt.  LNJ continues to fluctuate a bit in his fit with a more perimeter based role but his defense and overall toughness has been invaluable.  Nance still needs to work on his finishing touch when driving to the rim for his new role to become more natural.  If the experiment continues to evolve and grow, expect his assist totals to begin to climb back to last year’s numbers.  In the meantime, I agree with Nate that it would be worth attempting to play Larry at the 3 in some late game lineups.  His size and athleticism on defense could be valuable down the stretch along with his playmaking instincts when the opposing defense is really clamping down.  Playing LNJ at the 3 would also be the only current way to give Cedi Osman a chance to play the Shooting Guard position that he actually grew up playing.  This approach wouldn’t work against some teams/lineups, but in many instances a lineup of Thompson, Love, Nance, Osman (or perhaps Porter) with Collin Sexton (or one of the other smaller guards) would provide scoring punch, defensive size, and plenty of support playmaking to surround a scoring point guard.  Nance may never develop into a reliable true wing but this is the time to try.  Hopefully Nance’s re-aggravated thumb injury isn’t too serious and the Cavs can continue to experiment with all the various ways he can be vital to the team.

There were a couple of unfortunate low points to last night’s game (beyond the score).  Thompson only played 22 minutes and ended with his worst statistical game yet.  I’ve search for any report on a possible injury that kept his minutes down but the internet is too clogged up with bad gossip articles about TT to find any real basketball information.  Other than Thompson, Sexton had a rather poor showing.  The Young Bull still put up 15 points, but his shot was often off and he just seemed a bit out of sync with the offense for much of the night.

The rest of the Cavs did not have particularly notable games outside of some impressive defensive flashes from Kevin Porter Jr. and the oddity that is Matthew Dellavedova’s knack for carrying a team high +/- of +11 while still providing close to no scoring threat this year.  All together this was the type of game that was inevitable and yet encouraging in a rebuilding year.  Young guys showed potential but hit road blocks.  Veterans provided stabilizing force but couldn’t carry the team by themselves.  Either way, if the Cavaliers can still show this much fight and plenty of hope in a game that they trailed throughout, then at least they will continue to be a fun and exciting team to watch as the develop and grow towards the future.

Next stop is on to a rematch with Philadelphia to see if the Wine and Gold can put up the same fight and maybe hit a last second shot to win it all this time.