Not a Recap: Cavs Lose Home Back-to-Back to Thunder & T-Wolves (or, Losing Kevins)

The Cavs’ biggest losses this weekend didn’t show up on the scoreboard. First, Cleveland lost to a better coached, better prepared Thunder team on a night that Cedi, Darius, and Collin combined to go 10-24 from three. At the end of the first half, a petulant Kevin Love threw his arms up in disgust at not getting the ball and then rifled a pass to Cedi Osman, who was fouled for three freebies. Honestly, I didn’t think there was all that much there.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32rAvuXg1IY

Osman still caught the ball, and Love wasn’t trying to take his head off or anything. It was pretty pedestrian. The team rightly chose not to fine him, after fining him $1000 for a temper tantrum at the bench during the Raptors game. While Kev will lose no money over his poor body language, Saturday, the team lost further trade value in their disgruntled asset. The organization seems to continue to use that value the longer they try to both embrace having a star veteran and tanking (or, playing Collin Sexton through his mistakes at Koby Gilbert’s request – depending on your conspiracy theory).

The Cavs lost the game in odd fashion: getting slightly out-rebounded by the 28th ranked rebounding team in the league, the Thunder, and only committing a respectable (for Cleveland) 13 turnovers. Cleveland gave up 18 offensive rebounds and lost the battle 52-42. They also were 14-17 at the free throw line while OKC was 21-26. The Cavs hung close, and the lead was down to eight in the early fourth before OKC went up 19 with five to go.

At the least, Darius Garland looked awesome on offense with a 20/1/7 night. While Collin Sexton raced to the rim and regained his three point shooting form to notch 30/5/2 on just 22 shots. Dante Exum had a couple “wow” passes. Cedi Osman was on fire (and didn’t get the ball enough) with 22 on just 13 shots. Kev was a pedestrian 12/3/1, and TT went 1-7 despite 14 rebounds. Remember when we were pushing TT for the all star game? Yeah. Not so much.

ThebCavs were outplayed by Steven Adams who owned TT on both ends of the floor and put up eight offensive and eight defensive rebounds. The Umlaut continued his campaign for sixth man of the year with 22 off the bench while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander lost the scoring battle with 22 to Collin Sexton, and won the war +16 to Collin’s -5.

Sunday night took a darker turn as Kevin Porter Junior suffered a non-contact knee injury in the early first and was helped off the court. Cleveland awaits the results of an MRI today, and all else from that game pretty much pales in comparison to that. That loss stung, and all we can do is hope for the best for a player who seemed so promising.  Prayers up, KPJ. Update: KPJ has a knee sprain and will be re-evaluated in two weeks (WHEW).

The Cavs were missing their top three bigs: Love, Thompson, and Nance as they took on the KAT-less Wolves, and were getting trounced by 25 points by the third before Dante, Zizic, and Brandon Knight went Captain Insano off the bench to execute a 32-6 run and regain the lead in the early fourth. Much like previous nights, when the bench ran out of gas, the starters didn’t have much either. The Cavs were outscored 22-6 over the final 8.5 minutes, as Wiggins, Gorgui Dieng, and Jarrett Culver pushed the Wolves over the hump.

Defense and turnovers were the Cavs’ issues against Minny, as all five T-Wolves went for double digits, including 22 on 10 shots for Dieng and 21 for Napier. Cleveland had another 20 turnover outing to contribute to the cause. Dante and Ante shined, though, with a career high 28/3/2 line and a 15/12/2 line in just 24 minutes and change for each. They both deserve more playing time while Collin Sexton and Cedi were -25 and -35 on the night. Please god, play Ante more at the five, and Cedi less at the four.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IendJjDpeW8

In other news, you may have noticed the difficulty we’ve had covering games and delivering content of late. We are all busy and have schedules that don’t accommodate covering basketball seven days a week. To that end, if you do have some time and would like to to contribute to recaps, content, whatever, please reach out to me at oldseaminer@gmail.com. I’m a willing coach and mentor. This is your blog as much as it is ours, and we may need you to help it thrive. As always, go Cavs… and get well, soon, Kevins.