Weekend Recap & Live Thread: Cavs vs Knicks

It was a tough weekend in Cavsland. Cleveland suffered a tough but competitive loss in Memphis, Friday and then one of their worst losses of the season, Saturday night in Chicago. In each there was a quarter that doomed the Wine and Gold. In Memphis it was a disastrous 38-20 third quarter punctuated by 0-6 shooting from Darius Garland and a 16 point explosion from Dillon Brooks. In the windy city, the Cavs collapsed as Darius starting giving the ball away to everyone in Cook County including random homeless dudes on the street. Garland had eight of Cleveland’s 26 turnovers on the night, as the Cavs threw away the rock 10 times in the fourth quarter to fuel a 31-17 final frame for Chicago. Zach LaVine put up 21 of his 42 in a final 12 minutes that made Cavs fans want to throw their remotes through their televisions.

I was incommunicado most of the weekend and didn’t get to catch up till today. What I saw when I did was some controlled, steady scoring by Collin Sexton in both games followed by hero-ball lunacy down each stretch. Youngbull dropped 28/4/6 on 25 shots Friday, and 26/7/2 on 17 shots Saturday. 2020 has been very kind to Collin’s shooting, as he’s putting up solid shooting splits of 47%/48%/90% for a 57 TS%. He still manages 2-3 blocks against per game, and teams wave the red flag dare him to charge in, and then swat him at the rim in crunch time, knowing he’s not going to make a good read. Defensively, Sexton had the most comical play of the game in Chicago when it looked like he forgot which basket was his down the stretch with Cleveland down one, and allowed LaVine to get behind him on an inbounds for a three-point-play which basically iced the game. He has all the competitiveness in the world, and tunnel vision on both ends of the court.

He’s the anti-Ja Morant, a guy who just let the game come to him for three quarters and did enough to close on Friday. It did get a little dicey with five turnovers to go with his 16/8/5 box score. More impressive to me was Chicago’s Kris Dunn who has quietly become one of the NBA’s best defensive guards, and had play after play on defense down the stretch to go with a 10/3/4 line.

Darius Garland pitched two stinkers in a row, first with his 0-6 third in Memphis and then with his eight turnover and abysmal defense in Chicago. Both games saw some pretty poor body language at times, and some even poorer defensive hustle as Garland refused to even try to contest fast breaks or force his opponent to earn their buckets at the line, and just stopped running about 10 feet beyond the half court line. It’s the kind of thing he’d be running suicides for in high school, and it’s pretty unacceptable he’s allowed to do it at this level. Further, Garland has got to start setting up for catch-and-shoot Js closer to the three point line. It’s simply laziness and lack of focus that causes Garland to catch the ball six feet behind the line and launch triples from 28 feet instead of 24. He needs to watch clips of Sexton and Love and how they’re set up in the right spot ready to shoot when they catch the ball.

Cleveland had a total case of the yips Saturday in Chicago, blowing a 19 point third-quarter lead, as turnovers mounted, defense faltered, and anyone not named Collin Sexton was afraid to take a shot. It was embarrassing. Still, if we focus on the positive, Kevin Love had a really great first half in Chicago with 23 points, and 48 points on the weekend. He didn’t shoot well in Memphis, but was 9-13 from the free throw stripe. He still isn’t getting his hands up consistently on defense, but at least he’s scoring, and he had some affection for Collin Sexton throughout the first half of the Bulls game.

Tristan Thompson got into it with fake tough guy Jae Crowder in Memphis. TT smacked him on the butt in the third, and got his second tech of the night for an early exit. It was for the best. TT Stunk. -28 in 24 minutes and 1-5 from the field. He was better against the Bulls with 14/8/2 but joined Collin Sexton in the four turnover department, as both guys just put the ball on the floor too much with too many defenders around.

Thompson was the victim of a BS offensive foul call late, and the officiating was abysmal in Chicago, especially on replay. Kev drove on Lauri Markkenan in the late fourth, got an and-1 and then Jim Boylen challenged the call, got the foul reversed despite three obvious actions by Markkenan that could’ve been called a foul. It was pretty ridiculous because the charge Kev took earlier the game was called a block even on a Beilein challenge, and a milimeter of contact by Love’s shoe over the line had a three ball changed to a two in the second quarter as well. In case you’re keeping track, that’s a point and a free throw taken off the board for Cleveland by replay on very thin evidence.

But it wasn’t the officials that caused 10 fourth quarter turnovers, the yips, or an inability to guard LaVine. It was just a lack of focus, too much dribbling, and an unwillingness to make the easy pass and move the ball. Against Memphis, Dillon Brooks destroyed Cleveland mainly with catch-and-shoot Js, and losing Cedi Osman, Sexton, or Garland.

Fortunately in both games the Cavs had pleasant surprise Alphonso McKinnie. McKinnie is absolutely the best (and only?) Cavalier bench wing and just brings relentless energy. Whether it’s a 12 point, 10 rebound game versus Memphis (+20!) or a nine point, eight board night against Chicago, McKinnie’s been an absolute revelation off the bench and has filled in admirably in Kevin Porter Junior’s absence, especially on the offensive and defensive boards. He’s frankly the best perimeter defender on the team and one of the better finishers, whether driving from the short corner, thumping a putback, or filling the lane. Larry Nance also had a nice game off the bench against Memphis with 7-8 from the field, but stopped looking for his shot again against the Bulls, and was one of the fourth quarter Yippers.

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We’ll see what happens today with an early start after a road trip. Dennis Smith Jr. and RJ Barrett won’t be suiting it up for the Knicks. While Zizic and Knight are listed as out, while Henson is listed as questionable. Hopefully the Cavs can get a win back in this tank battle, since they should’ve had at least three on the road trip. Go Cavs.