Recap: Cleveland 111, Denver 103 (or, Darius the Great)

In the words of Nuke LaLoosh, “Well that was a humdinger!” J and Co. were clearly expecting a timid Cavs squad to roll into Denver Saturday night, as the Nuggets loafed their way through the first half hour of the game. What they got was anything but. Cleveland jumped on Denver early and never stopped fighting, even as Denver ran off a 22-5 run to start the Fourth Quarter. The Nuggets came all the way back from being 17 down to tie the game halfway through the final frame. Cleveland weathered the storm and re-inserted Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson much earlier than normal, and the good guys had more energy than Denver who spent it all coming back. Cleveland rode a commanding performance from Darius Garland down the stretch, as he directed the offense to a six point lead with 90 seconds left before free throws and defense took the Cavs to victory.

Cleveland had seven guys with at least eight points, three double digit rebounders, and 30 points in the paint. To be fair, The Cavs don’t win this if the Nuggets weren’t as cold as the Rocky Mountains from behind the arc: an astounding 8-39 from distance while Cleveland was a measure better: 12-37. That’s the difference in the ballgame. Denver won the turnover battle 14-5, but Cleveland’s gang rebounding made up the difference. Cedi Osman had the best rebounding performance I’ve ever seen from him. His defense and hustle were off the charts. Though Kevin Love had a double double in the first half, it was the rest of the guys who crashed the boards in the final 24.

This one was a blast and it’s time to give out some player grades.

Cedi Osman finished with 11/12/4 and a game high +18. He sprinted back in transition more than once late to break up a two on one, and hit a huge three in crunch time. I rarely saw him out of position on D, and he was rarely even in the action as Denver went through their bigs or went after Sexton to try to score. As CLF noted on the live thread, this was the best rebounding game we’ve seen from the young Turk in some time. Grade: sicak tutkal – Turkish hot glue.

Kevin Love had a pretty solid outing, especially in the first half, when he put up 15 and 11. Kev was canny around the basket and used Jerami Grant’s defensive aggressiveness against him, as he got into Grant’s body with quick moves and then used pump fakes to get to the line. Love struggled from the floor in the second half, going 1-6 from from the field with a 4/4/2 line, and more than once he played defense with his hands down at his sides instead of up in the air, channeling the 2014 Cavalier version of himself. Grade: .75 Trae Youngs.

Submitting a serious reprise to his Detroit performance, Tristan Thompson was a rebound machine with 13 boards, six of them offensive to go along with his 18 points in 38 minutes. When Thompson wasn’t cleaning up messes or filling the lane for dumpoffs from Sexton or Garland, he was dribbling through the paint for easy looms, like when he dribbled around the whole Denver squad for a layup attempt that earned him a couple trips to the charity stripe. Thompson was once again a picture of focus at the free throw line where he’s been 9-11 over the last two games.

Thompson did his best defensively, and was stout against Jokic in the post. Though the Joker was 8-12, from the floor, Thompson did enough to delay him around the bucket and the Cavs sent help often enough to scramble the Denver offense. He and Love also held their ground on the d-boards enough to box out the Denver bigs and allow the Cavs to gang rebound on defense. Thompson relished his role as the team’s leader again, putting his arms around the two young backcourt-mates in the post game interview, making us all realize we’re going to miss T-Top, as his teammates call him, if he’s playing somewhere else next fall. Grade: Bitchin’ Camero.

As for the Cavs’ young guns, Collin Sexton was a much more willing passer this game, and amazingly, the ball came back to him when he did move it. Don’t get me wrong. He still had some 2017 Clarkson style possessions that made me want to throw the remote at the TV, and he still misses the easy short roll pass when teams blitz or the pick and pop pass when playing with Kevin. But Youngbull and Kev reached a detente of sorts late as Kev froze him out of a possession late, but gave it up a play or two later to get Sexton a triple.

The return of Sexton’s three point shot has been a big story over the last two games, and indeed he was 4-7 Saturday, filling the wing and the corner admirably to deliver catch-and-shoot Js. Sexton still got swatted twice, but he also had a couple difficult finishes and timely buckets late to balance it out. He also helped Cedi with the transition D down the stretch. Collin got pretty lit up by Gary Harris and Jamal Murray in the third and early fourth as Denver made its run, especially as the two taller players took him into the post or drove by him. Still, Sexton led the Cavs in scoring with 25, and hopefully this game is a blueprint for him to score without dominating the ball: transition, cuts, catch-and-shoots, and selective drives. He went 9-18 and was +13 in the game. As much as he drives me nuts, the Cavsiverse has gone too far the other way in denigrating him. He’s young. He’s bull-headed. But he has a ton of potential. Grade, Up-and-Comer.

The highest praise this game goes to the guy who I called a bust two months ago, Darius Garland. Darius was masterful down the stretch running the Cavs offense, both as a scorer and passer and delivered some beautiful dimes throughout the game: finding cutters, throwing slick lobs, Nashing the ball to deliver it to the Cavs’ three point shooters. Over the last 10 minutes Darius Garland scored or assisted on six of the Cavs’ eight field goals, including three straight buckets starting at the 3:11 mark. Darius used his herky-jerky style to hit a funky floater in the lane over the Joker, then he hit a ballsy fall-away, and then a Bibby-esque elbow J in the p/r to salt the game away.

Garland threw some ridiculous passes this game to end up with eight assists, including a lefty hook lob shot to a cutting Thompson. In addition, the offense just seemed to hum when he was in the game. He put up 18/0/8 and the only flaw in his game was 2-9 from deep. Darius took the shots he should have though, and forced more than one Denver timeout. I don’t think know if his act would’ve worked down the stretch against a team playing better D, but it was definitely his fourth quarter, and he justified the faith that a lot of folks had in him over my objections.

I’ve been taking to posting pictures of Darius I of Persia when Garland does something remarkable. I quoted this from Britannica.com last night.

Darius I, byname Darius the Great, (born 550 bc—died 486), king of Persia in 522–486 bc, one of the greatest rulers of the Achaemenid dynasty, who was noted for his administrative genius and for his great building projects.

Let’s hope that Garland is part of the foundation for a great rebuilding project, and develops into a genius with the ball. Let’s hope he isn’t defeated at the battle of marathon, and that his ascent isn’t quite so bloody. Grade: Crucible.

It’s worth mentioning that the Cavs don’t win this if Denver doesn’t have a pretty lousy night, especially from deep. Denver played down to the Cavs till the mid-third when they tried to turn on the pressure offensively and defensively. But with a double digit lead, Cleveland just kept trading baskets and Denver could gain no traction. Leading the Nuggets, Nikola Jokic was 6-7 from inside the arc with a 19/12/5 line, but after Denver clawed their way back in the fourth, the Joker was out of gas, and as Austin Carr put it “breathing through his mouth.” Tristan Thompson beat Jokic with conditioning. Grade: rookie Kevin Love.

Jamal Murray led Denver in scoring with 24/5/3, but was 2-9 from deep, and it wasn’t all Cleveland defense. Murray spent a lot of time flexing this game and was wearing Sexton like a cape in the third, but you got the feeling that he was a little more full of himself than he should have been when his team was behind by double digits in the third, reminding me a bit of KPJ flexing after a dunk when his team was behind by 1000 earlier this season. Let’s call this grade 10 St. Weirdos.

Cleveland doesn’t win this one without holding Will Barton to 7-18 from the field for 18 points. And they don’t hold down Barton or the Houston bench down without Alphonso McKinnie‘s 24 minutes. McKinnie might have played his best game as a Cav as he put up 10 points and had a couple huge steals, filled the lane, and scored on drives in the half court and within transition.  He had a couple big offensive rebounds to keep plays alive too. Let’s hope McKinnie gets to stick with this squad. Grade: one scrappy wing.

Finally, Brandon Knight gave this team eight big bench points and helped Cleveland bust the matchup and 3-2 zones Denver threw at them in the second half with some DEEP three ball shooting and a couple of assists. Cleveland slung the ball around pretty well to bust that junk, and showed some of the best play against junk defenses all year. Grade: 1 second round draft pick, which is hopefully what Cleveland could get for moving Knight to a team that could use him.

Ante Zizic played some admirable minutes with two points and six boards in just under 10 minutes, but the whole of Cavstwitter is wondering why the hell he’s playing in front of John Henson. Maybe JB is hoping that Ante will keep the bulkier bigs the Cavs have been playing the last couple games off the boards. Maybe the Cavs are trying to keep Henson from getting hurt before they can move him. Maybe we’ll see Henson against the Lakers. Grade: maybe.

As for the coaches, John Beilein got the better of Mike Malone, Saturday. He made the right move putting Love and Thompson back in early in the fourth when the Cavs were floundering. It was enough to stave off panic in his troops, and he trusted that his squad’s superior conditioning would outlast Denver, which is no small leap of faith in the mile high city. He also showed a lot of progress against zone defenses which earlier this season left Cleveland bewildered. This team got someone in the middle of the paint and swung the ball to the shooters who connected. If anyone needed this two game win streak, it was him. John Madden’s best contribution to western society is the quote, “Winning is the greatest deoderant.” Grade: two sticks of Degree.

The Cavs take on the Lakers tomorrow night. What I wouldn’t give for a win against LeBron. Until then, go Cavs.