Belated Recap: New York 123, Cleveland 105 (or, Impotence in Sexland)

It was bound to happen. You knew that eventually the Cavs would choose to rest Kevin Love on the second night of a back-to-back, and the positive plus/minus numbers that Kev linchpinned for the starting lineup would deflate. Boy, did they ever. I often wondered how the Cavs could be putting up such great lineup numbers for their starters when most of the other lineups weren’t good, and when Collin Sexton and Darius Garland repeatedly failed the eye test. Monday night, we saw why. Kevin Love’s gravity, unselfishness, rebounding, passing, screens and general excellence were holding the starting unit together, and without him, a team that Cleveland embarrassed in New York just eight days earlier throttled the Cavs’ starters and owned the game.

The oversized Knicks trotted out Marcus Morris, Taj Gibson, RJ Barrett, Frank Ntilikina, and Julius Randled the Cavs’ undersized backcourt to death. They hounded the Cavs’ tiny guards all night, giving them little space to operate and forced 20 turnovers, scoring 32 points off them. Kevin Porter Jr. moved to the Small Forward in Kevin Love’s absence, and was the lone bright spot among the starters, mainly because he played deep into the game without them. Cedi Osman struggled early, turning the ball over repeatedly and finishing -32 in just 22 minutes. Osman did manage eight boards, but the Cavs’ small ball squad gave up a whopping 19 offensive rebounds to the Knicks who grabbed 14 of those in the first half.

The Cavs outshot the Knicks 48%-45%, but that doesn’t really matter with a 19-10 offensive rebound disparity. And don’t think the terribleness was limited to Osman. Collin Sexton is quickly becoming one of my least favorite players to watch in the NBA. Sexton’s ability to stare down an open teammate and then choose to dribble into a mediocre shot instead of passing and cutting is really maddening. He also sets very halfhearted screens. His offensive ethos seems to be “I gotta get mine.” That ethos isn’t the worst thing in the world. I believe Sexton genuinely wants to win and be a good teammate, but he thinks he has to do it through hero ball. He doesn’t.

On his last look of the game, Sexton ignored an open Zizic posting up on the left block to throw up this turkey: a finger roll heave after taken off just inside the free throw line against a guy four inches taller than him.

When Sexton gets frustrated, he falls back on old habits Ben Werth identified a year ago, like jumping way too soon for layups. He and the Cavs as a whole also take inordinate amount of floaters. Sexton is second worst in the league right now when it comes to having his shot blocked, at 1.8 times per game, trailing only Ja Morant. It’s slightly amazing that Sexton is even shooting 44% from the field given this.

Collin was 5-13 and could be a game changer if he learned to move without the ball and play like Curry: screen, give himself up, and pass and cut. He’s sooo much better without the ball in his hands, finishing plays as a cutter and spot-up shooter than he is as a dribbler.

Sexton finished the game -29 as did the now scouted Tristan Thompson. There was a time people weren’t expecting Thompson to put the ball on the floor. They do now, and the Knicks hounded him into five turnovers because of it. The Cavs got it to him in the middle of the offense several times, but the pressure and Thompson’s general lack of focus piled up. I imagine he is as frustrated with the offense as everyone else. The most brutal part of the game for Thompson though came when Julius Randle started tearing his limbs off and eating Thompson alive. Randle was 30/7/4 and destroyed whoever the Cavs put on him, but Thompson was in the frame early and often. Highlights regularly ended with Thompson writhing on the floor like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Five games in a week is going to leave Tristan limbless.

As for Darius Garland, he had some nice moments, but he’s 12, and like ever other starter, got destroyed defensively, going -27. Garland at least started taking some three point looks and went 2-5 on the game. He has to make teams respect his outside game before he’ll be able to get inside. Still, he finished with just two dimes and two turnovers, mainly because his passes are just off the mark. He and Sexton just don’t have a good chemistry together and the amount of times Sexton left him and others with the ball and just a few seconds left on the shot clock with multiple bigs in their face was… frustrating. Garland went 4-9 and one thing is absolutely clear: he is infinitely better with the right hand from the right side than he is from his left. He’s so much more assertive and comfortable driving and finishing right (see this season’s shot chart below).

The team’s other starter, Kevin Porter Junior keeps finding ways to surprise. After a fairly cold shooting month, KPJ went 3-6 from downtown this game, and the Cavs surprisingly shot 47% as a team from deep. Porter was impressive offensively with 18 and four, and seemed like a willing passer. He also turned on the jets and finished a couple and-1s. Porter could’ve scored more, but after missing his first freebie of the year, went 3-8 at the line on a night when the Cavs shot 16-30 from charity. Combine that with giving up 19 offensive rebounds and 19 turnovers, and there’s your ballgame.

The weird thing about this game was that as bad as the starters were, the bench was that good. The lineups seemed platooned for no good reason, and this was not Beilein’s finest game. Cedi at the four was clearly NOT working, but we didn’t see G-League power forward Dean Wade until garbage time. All of the Cavs bench guys finished positive in the +/-, and some were really impressive.

Alphonsoe McKinnie, Jordan Clarkson, or Brandon Knight ought to be starting at one of the Cavs’ guard spots, as the Garton combo just aint working. They have no chemistry, the both want the ball in their hands all the time, and they can’t guard any lineup. McKinnie put up his second decent game in a row with a 14/6/1 line in 30 minutes and went 3-6 from downtown. He brought the energy on both ends and just seems like a pro who knows how to play. Clarkson had another solid outing, 13/2/4 and +4 on 7 shots.

Brandon Knight had a semi-humorous outing, launching eight “get me the eff out off here” triples and canning four of them to post a 12/3/2 line, he also nutmegged a pass to Zizic for one of those dimes late in the game. Zizic was dependably large with five and six boards and a team high +14. They honestly should’ve tried to play him and Thompson some before the game got nuts. Even Delly had a decent night, as he found water in the desert for only his second triple of the year, added two dimes, and brought some sanity to the offense whenever he checked in. Also, he actually boxes out and sets screens.

The bench’s only big flaw was their insistence in challenging Mitchell Robinson at the rim repeatedly as the long Knick finished with four blocks. For the Knicks, Marcus Morris dumb twinned his way into 13 trips to the free throw line to finish with 23 while Taj Gibson added six o-boards.

I guess the only other thing of note this game was that Beilein successfully used a coaches challenge to overturn a terrible charge call on Garland at the end of the 3rd. Marcus Morris Sr. looked like a breaching seal as he tried to throw his chest into Garland on a drive, and Beilein turned what was called a charge on the floor into two freebies for the rook (which he missed).

The most concerning thing about this game was that it felt inevitable. The Cavs don’t want to beat the moribund Knicks twice. They can’t finish better than tenth worst and keep their draft pick without some lottery luck, and if that happens, how will they draft another short point guard? So the Cavs benched Love and trotted out a lineup that is designed not to win too many games.

I often wonder if it would be better if we just abolished the draft because it’s making the three major sports almost unwatchable for fans of struggling teams. Teams are doing intentionally dumb things to lose. The only comical thing is that the best team in the association this year at doing it conned the richest fans in the NBA into ponying up the GDP of a Carribean nation to watch Draymond Green and a bunch of E-Leaguer’s tank their way into a high lottery pick.

Meanwhile, many of the best rookies in the association are old guys like Kendrick Nunn. Maybe the NBA’s ratings are flagging not because they don’t have enough exciting young players, but because they just have too many young players who don’t know how to play basketball yet, while a point guard in a linebacker’s body like Russ Westbrook runs around and destroys them. (I watched Russ last night; that dude is swole). Getting rid of the under-19 rule will actually make this worse. The Association should push it up to 20 or 21 and partner with major colleges instead of competing with them.

Anyway, the problem with tanking is that I don’t know if Beilein is any good. Cuz a good coach would’ve adjusted much sooner than he did that game and gotten some size on the floor sooner. But I don’t know if he did it on purpose or not. His team doesn’t seem to know either and looked just as frustrated as I am. Ultimately, he’s going to have to adjust because Sexton and Garland playing together isn’t going to work long term or short term.

The NBA has already adjusted. Small ball is already dead. They maimed Steph Curry. The lil’ backcourt Blazers are 5-9. Phoenix went out and got a tall point guard and is good. You’re never going to beat a pair of beasts like Harden and Westbrook with two 6-1 guards unless you have major strength and length on the other end of your lineup (Toronto). Even the Knicks figured it out. The NBA is too fast and strong and tall for that to work anymore. Cleveland missed the memo or they’re doing this on purpose. Size matters. When your lineup choices are explained by incompetence or being too cute by half, it’s no wonder some choose to turn off their TV – or roll over and go to sleep.