Recap: Indiana 119, Cleveland 99 (Threebies, Freebies, & Happy Feet +LT)

No Kevin Love meant no bench fours that were worth a darn for Cleveland. As much as he has been maligned by some Cavs fans, number zero in the starting lineup means that super sub Larry Nance has to start and that he can’t fill in at the backup spots the way he did before. Despite Larry’s ability to hit threes now, he’s not a knock down three-point shooter that strikes fear in the heart of defenses the way Love does. If Larry makes a couple, teams adjust, but they don’t start out tailoring their game plan around him. As such, the paint is much more packed for the Cavs little guards, and when you start a non-three-point shooter at the three and five spots like the Cavs did with Exum (despite going 2-3) and Drummond, it makes operating inside that much harder.

So it was that the Cavs’ offense was stymied at the beginning of Thursday afternoon’s match-up with the Pacers. This game was all about a decent start for Cleveland that devolved when Andre Drummond picked up a charge a minute into the game. I knew it would be trouble, and at 5:36 left in the quarter he exited with a second foul. Cleveland seemed to be hanging with Indy when Exum laced a triple shortly after to make it 15-16 before Oladipo answered, and Javale McGee authored a possession that was an exercise in futility. He tried three times to put back a Cedi miss, failed to get the ball in the bucket, got to the line, and missed both free throws.

Dotson, Garland, and Wade entered for Exum, Sexton, and Nance at between the two and three minute marks, and as soon as Wade checked in, the quarter fell apart. McGee failed to chase Sabonis to the three point line, and Domantis canned the open J. The Cavs traded one free throw make in four tries for an Aaron Holiday triple, lost McDermott after an offensive board for another trey, and then got carved up by the Holiday brothers (Aaron and Justin), and scored only a McGee hook and free throw over the final three minutes to leave the first down 32-21.

While the Cavs started the second quarter defending well, they couldn’t stop turning it over. Garland went down for six turnovers this game, and most of them were due to soft feeds on drives in tight quarters that got stolen by the Pacers’ active hands. Two of those were due to passes that wizzed by the bigs’ unsuspecting hands, and it’s hard to blame Garland for those. Still, the Garland/McGee pairing seemed particularly fraught with peril. McGee was often the target of Garland’s passes, and that often resulted in turnovers, misses, and failed trips to the free-throw line. Darius had some tunnel vision and should’ve kicked it to the perimeter more. Fortunately, the dude can shoot.

Garland strung his first triple at the 9:23 mark, and the Pacers were hanging with the Pacers who ran their whole bench offense around Doug McDermott’s shooting and off-ball movement, just like his Creighton forebearer, Kyle Korver. Aaron Holiday picked up a flagrant foul by just shoulder checking Drummond in transition, Andrew sank both freebies, and Darius hit another three for a five point possession, cutting the Pacer lead to just four!

Just as quickly, Exum lost Brogdon off-ball and Malcolm nailed a three, and the Pacers ran the Korver play to get a McBuckett three and a foul on a chasing Nance at the top of the key. Still, the Cavs were persevered, and as the shot clock ran down on the next possession, Garland nashed, didn’t force a pass, then calmly dribbled back to unleash a 30-footer that found nothing but twine as the shot clock expired. It’s moments like these that you salivate over his potential.

Unfortunately, the Cavs went ice cold after that. Indy tightened down the D, and Cleveland didn’t hit another shot for the next 3.5 minutes. Oladipo notched six in that stretch, including drawing a phantom third foul on Drummond. Only another seeing-eye hook shot by Javale broke the dry spell, but he joined Drummond on the bench with his fourth personal, and we all held our breath when Thon Maker entered the game.

LeThon got a generous no-call when he spun to the basket from the free throw line without a travel violation and put in a layup (it was a bad omen of uncalled traveling for the rest of the game). After Sexton smoked Doug McDermott for a filthy left hand layup on the right side, Maker got himself to the line for two more! Sexton hit a buzzer-beater three from the same spot Garland did a few minutes earlier, but the Cavs failed to close the quarter again as Sabonis got all the way to the cup to throw in a layup as the period expired (another bad omen). 57-51, Pacers.

As choppy as the first half was, the Cavs were in this one due to Sexton’s 13 points and McGee’s 13 rebounds, but the cracks were showing: Larry’s zero points, Cedi’s 1-7 brick fest. The Third Quarter was when the frustration really mounted, starting with a two minute scoring drought for the good guys, where they missed threes and shots at the bucket, while Sabonis got his shoulder into people and was allowed an unlimited amount of steps on every spin move. It also continued the trend of bad perimeter defense, often authored by Collin Sexton who got smoked in the p/r leading to a Sabonis spin cycle layup, and losing Oladipo on a relatively easy cut out to the three-point line.

Sexton got hot, making three straight for the Cavs in transition and on floaters. But as Ben Werth emailed me, his ability to ignore his teammates on the fast break is really annoying. He rarely rewards anyone for running with him. Still, despite a Brogdon triple, he managed to cut the Indy lead to 10 while Drummond patrolled the paint on D then, on O, found Larry for a statue of liberty dunk to cut it to eight and trigger a Nate Bjorkgren timeout.

Sadly, the Cavs would get no closer. A missed Drummond layup followed by three straight turnovers were sandwiched around a loose foul on Drummond. Domantas embellished the contact like a diva and diminished Cavalier hope. Brogdon, the Holiday brothers Borg Collective and Sabonis kept pouring it on with a brutal 16-3 run in five minutes before a Sexton trey cut the deficit to 18, and then he did one of those dumb Sexton plays where he makes me want to throw the remote at the TV. Youngbull tried to go two for one and jacked up a bad 18-footer with 25.3 seconds left, after which McDermott used to the Korver play to ignore the triple try and drive to the rim for a 88-68 Pacers lead, after which Garland held the ball for four seconds so as not to negatively affect his field goal percentage and to punctuate a quarter full of losing plays for the Garton back-court.

You’d think this game was over, but the Cavs did that thing where they play their starters against the other team’s bench at the start of the fourth to get back in it. They did a decent job defending, and despite Garland, Sexton, and Nance turnovers. Larry and Darius got hot and started scoring around the bucket and from three. At about the halfway mark, a filthy Garland reverse had cut the lead to 11 leading to a Pacers timeout.

In the middle of all this, there was an absolute horse**** foul call on Drummond that led to the big man picking up a tech. Here was Andre Standing outside the circle while Sabonis just launched his shoulder into him and drew a foul. This is where I get annoyed at J.B. Bickerstaff who has failed to use many coach’s challenges this year. This would have been a good chance to overturn a terrible call and at least show your player you’ve got his back. I know that it’s foolish to use your challenge too early on possibly innocuous plays, but this wasn’t one of them as it gave Dre his fifth foul. It was especially galling in that Bjorkgren appeared able to challenge two plays this game (for which I never caught an explanation).

Out of the timeout, Drummond faked a dribble hand-off at the top of the key then shorted a layup that Larry couldn’t put back, McDermott ran the Korver play then got a touch foul on a three try from Garland for two freebies. To say the Cavs miss Okoro would be an understatement. Dipo popped a three-ball between Sexton and Garland twos, and with the Cavs’ trailing by twelve with five minutes left, it would get no closer. The Pacer parade to the free throw line and Sabonis’ happy feet dance party continued. Seriously, how are you supposed to guard a guy that’s allowed to travel every play and throw his shoulder into you at will? At 19 points and 2:21 left to go, Bickerstaff ran up the white flag and put in the zoo crew.

Bolden banged in a few freebies, and Maker hit another turnaround to get to a 99-119 final.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0m2E2FzhnY

The Breakdown

Sexton can score (28 points), but he he really fails to get others going with just four assists. He’s the benefit of Nance’s largess (seven assists), but the Cavs’ starting front court of Exum, Drummond, Nance scored 28 between the three of them. That’s not enough, especially combined with just 21 bench points coming off particularly anemic shooting from Cedi. The Cavs’ guards have to get the bigs going, and everyone seems to be over-passing at times, and under-passing at others.

The Cavs’ 18 turnovers were killers, and Garland bench units seemed especially prone. But Garland’s shooting (5-7 from deep) was a revelation. CLF and I went back and forth on him in the comment section, but I didn’t think he was as bad as CLF did. It’s tough when you’re not pairing him with guys who want to score off the bench in Cedi, McGee, and Dotson.

The Cavs really miss competent wing defenders. Exum wasn’t that good in this one, and Garland and Sexton are always going to be undermatched, especially when the Cavs’ bigs can’t cover for their mistakes by being in foul trouble. The Pacers ran the Korver play to death for McDermott (18 points), and Cleveland had no one that could defend it. You’d think they’d get a big to hedge or pressure the entry pass, but the Cavs seemed clueless.

Oladipo (+21), Brogdon (+29), and Sabonis (+25) lines killed the Cavs. The Cavs held the backcourt pair to 10-27, but still got roasted in their time on the court. Part of that came down to free throw shooting, with the Cavs going 13-24, and the Pacers going 19-24 (with three uncharacteristic McDermott misses). Rebounds were roughly even, but this really came down to 22-18 turnover advantage for Indy, six freebies, and the Cavs going 12-23 from deep while the Pacers went 16-35: threes, freebies, and turnovers. NBA math is hard to beat. The Cavs need more shooting in the starting lineup, but they don’t have anywhere to scour for it.

It doesn’t get any easier tonight against the 5-1 Hawks who are NBA darlings right now. My advice: foul hard. Don’t let Trae (Harden lite), and his 15 free throw attempts per game get any cheap ones. If you foul, make him feel you. The Cavs perimeter defenders need to be more aggressive and meaner. Don’t let the bigs get all the fouls. Predicting a big of a bounceback as the Hawks look past the Cavs a bit. (Fingers crossed).