Recap: L.A. Clippers 128, Cleveland Cavaliers 103 (or, Clawed)

Cleveland had no one who could guard Kawhi Leonard, and the Claw used the Cav’s lousy three point pressure to score 43 in 28 minutes. He could’ve had 50 if he’d wanted to play the garbage time fourth, but it was 106-71 at the end of three, and that might have been excessive. On the second night of a back-to-back the Cavs were dominated in the interior, as the Clippers put up nine blocks in three quarters and were outrebounded 53-30. Though Larry Nance returned in Kevin Love’s absence, Tristan Thompson registered one of his worst games of the season with a 0-fer in the scoring column.

Despite the lack of bodies, Tristan probably should’ve sat and the Cavs should’ve just taken their lumps. I was a little baffled that TT played a bunch more minutes in the first half than Henson, when he clearly didn’t have the juice. Beilein’s rotations seemed haphazard. Regardless, we judge the team that played, not the one we wanted to play.

Cleveland did hang for a bit, and closed the first down just 26-31. With three minutes left in the first half, and Cleveland down three, the Clips went on a 13-0 run, mostly aided by Collin Sexton playing too much point guard, and Garland taking bad shots. L.A. never looked back and won the third 40-19.

Garland was absolutely humming in the second quarter with seven points and four dimes in the last two minutes of the first to when he subbed out. Garland finished with his first career double/double with 14 points and ten dimes. He also was last in plus/minus at -24. He went 5-16 from the field, and part of the issue is that when the home run pass isn’t there, he can hold the ball and not move it to someone who can make a hockey pass or reset the offense. He took a lot of “I’ve got nothing. I might as well shoot.” looks.

Collin Sexton played the classic “scorer on a bad team” role. When he was moving off the ball and taking hand-offs to the rack, or putting up catch-and-shoot Js, he was great. When he was dribble-driving in isolation or in the p/r he wasn’t. He was blocked at least three times, and still finished 10-18 and was 4-6 from deep for 25 points, but he was a disaster in the p/r and stared teammates down without passing to them more than once. And defensively? A traffic cone, much like his rookie counterpart. His nice plays don’t outweigh his bad ones. Oh, and he was permanently cast in bronze on a dunk statue delivered by Ivaca Zubac.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h1MqYlKs8pc

Cedi Osman needs to be the other primary ballhander when Garland is on the bench. Cedi ran the offense early and can score with or without the ball. He canned 21 on 13 shots, and was red hot from downtown (5-8, with one of the misses being an end of quarter heave). He even looked like he might drag Cleveland back into contention in the third when he canned two early triples. You know you’re hot when your team is running Kyle Korver pindowns for you. But he only grabbed three boards while Sexland snagged just one. When your starting power forward is Alphonso McKinnie, that’s not going to work.

McKinnie had a nice night again with 7/5/1 while only going -3 as a starter at power forward. He should’ve played more than 20 minutes, but was a bit handcuffed by foul trouble. He did have some nice baskets. When he or Henson weren’t in the game, the Cavs struggled on D.

Nance was back, but the dude’s got to take more than one shot in 18 minutes with an 0/3/4 line. I’ll give him a pass for coming back from injury but, shoot your shot, Jr.! John Henson played fantastically with a 10/7/2 line w/ 3 blocks off the bench with his go-go-gadget arms. 1-5 Dante Exum, not so much.

This is a bad matchup for Cleveland because you have to run your offense and use the Clippers’ aggression against them. Cleveland’s not good enough to do that. The Cavs got no love from the refs either. Lobbying for a fairly called game was a lost cause. The Clippers foul you constantly and dare the refs not to call it. Cleveland plays the opposite, and there was more than one play where the Clippers flopped on some minor contact and got to the line on one end and then the Cavs hip checked with no calls on the other end. But I digress. Cleveland was never winning this one.

Kawhi was unstoppable, especially because Cleveland refused to guard him at the three point line. Terrified of his drive game the Cavs let Leonard go 6-10 from deep and finish with 43/3/4 and just one turnover with two blocks and a steal. He was +39. When he wasn’t drilling arrow straight triples, he was getting to the midpost and hitting Jordan Js, or dunking through three guys in transition. Prime Claw. He’s in the discussion for best player in the association, and he’s in mid-career, IDGAF about the regular season LeBron mode. The Clips are gonna be a ridiculously tough out in the postseason. If they get matched with Houston, they’ll eat their lunch.

Remember when I said the Cavs’ bench had a shot? That was before I remembered the Clips run two 19 ppg scorers of the bench in Montrezl Harrell and Lou Williams. Sweet Lou only needed 13 shots score 24. Henson did ok on Trez, holding him to 12, but he did have some monster thumps. Starters Zubac, Shamet, and PBev all scored double digits despite playing just 24 minutes. There were a LOT of dunks.

So the fourth was all trash time. Dean Wade looked bouncy, filling the lane with 6/8/1 in 14 minutes, while Delly looked to reclaim his rotation spot from Brandon Knight who was an abysmal 0-6 while Dellavedova hit a pair of honest-to-god triples in a 14 point fourth quarter and is still far and away the best passer on the team (sorry, Darius). So at least there’s that.

Cleveland gets to take on my pet squad, Memphis, Friday who are a damned site better right now than when the Cavs beat them Dec. 20th (the Grizz took down the Rockets Tuesday). Then Cleveland closes out the road trip in Chicago on Saturday. If they can finish the trip with three or four wins, that’s progress.