Recap: Lakers 115, Cavs 108 (Or, If It Wasn’t for LeBron…)

The Cavs came to fight last night against the Lakers despite dropping the game 115-108 to go to 8-9 for the season. The Lakers needed a LeBron next level game to get this one. The King dropped 46 points on 19-26 shooting to go with eight rebounds and six assists. He canned 7-11 from 3-land and had 23 in the fourth quarter. James sealed the win after Collin Sexton turned the ball over with 1:21 left, and the Cavs down just five. LeBron found himself on the baseline 22 feet away with Sexton on him. He did two rather polite back down dribbles into Sexton (he could have bulldozed him) and then turned around to shoot over him and a closing out Jarrett Allen.  Austin Carr said exactly what anyone watching this game thought about James after that shot:

If it wasn’t for him tonight, the Cavs would win this game.

Anthony Davis had 17 points on 5-16 shooting to go with ten boards. Montrezl Harrell added 15 on an efficient 6-9 from the floor. But Lakers not named LeBron shot just 38% this game. James’ shooting was 40% of their offense. Collin Sexton led the Cavs with 17 points and six assists alongside Andre Drummond who had 25 points and 17 rebounds. Cedi Osman also contributed five 3s on his way to 20 points. Cedi’s 3s were a huge boost to the Cavs who entered the second half down 65-58. The Jedi hit three of his deep balls out of the locker room in the first four minutes of play. He was even leaning in on them in a Korver esque way as the Cavs outscored the Lakers 31-22 in the third. James was play-resting scoring only two points. Cleveland entered the fourth with a two point lead, 89-87.

That lead wasn’t enough, as the King went on to go 9-10 in the final 12 minutes for 21 points looking like a cheat code scoring from wherever he wanted. With 1:50 left in the game Issac Okoro drained a 3 to bring the Cavs within three. It came after Sexton drove and kicked, then got the ball back and repeated the action like a CD skipping, and got the ball back yet again before getting smothered by Anthony Davis after Jarrett Allen set a screen for him. He then tossed it out to Okoro who shot it over James.That was as close as it would get. Cleveland’s defense held relatively strong limiting the Lakers to ten 3s. And, they even out rebounded the just as big guys by four. Cleveland’s offense just wasn’t enough at the end of 48. The Cavs were in this one from their 22 points off of turnovers and overall grind. Also, shout out to Isaac Okoro. He had nine points, four boards, and two steals. He made James work a little bit and for a rookie that’s huge. He was in his face. This was a case of James just being that good at times. This game was a loss, but it didn’t feel like it. If there is anything to be taken away from the past week with the Cavs, it’s that they belong in this league. They aren’t a top tier team by any means, but they are at least nine deep and when Love gets back, they’ll be ten deep. This is no longer the G-Leaguers foray into the NBA group.

Three quick thoughts about the Cavs:

1. Respect. The Cavs are starting to get it. After what seemed like a job by the refs all of last season, the games seem to be getting called even. Cleveland is getting the calls that make other teams want to cry collusion. The Lakers had 23 fouls to the Cavs’ 25.
2. Did Andre Drummond have a growth spurt late in his high school days? I feel like this would be a story if he did, and I have never heard it, and one quick Google search came up with nothing. He loves to dribble the ball occasionally, which can be maddening, and he plays with too much finesse for being 270 pounds. Sometimes, it works, but I also think this is why he seems gassed. It’s harder playing soft. It requires restraint and that’s tiring, mentally and physically. When he’s laying guys out with his body it just looks so right. He needs to keep doing that as the season goes on, and he will be up for an All-NBA team. He still put up 25/17/1 due to the times he put his head down.
3. The 3-pointer is an issue on offense and a boon on defense for Cleveland. Hear me out, the Cavs need to take more 3-pointers. Cleveland ranks 28th in 3s made per game getting just 10.1. They rank 29th in 3s attempted taking just 28.2 a night. Everyone on this team can shoot the ball aside from Drummond and McGee. Lean into that and reap the benefits, J.B. Bickerstaff. Defensively, teams are shooting 38.8% from deep against them (28th) and taking about 34 per game (11th). The Cavs are contesting these shots and teams are getting lucky. The defense this team has put together should hold strong all year as opponent’s 3-point percentage rounds out to the average. The team is sixth in defensive rating after facing two of the best offenses in the Nets and Lakers and giving up 141 points against the Celtics. Damn, it feels good to type that stuff about the defense.

The Cavs take on the Pistons Wednesday. 

Nate’s Rebuttal:

First off, I’d argue with your point, David, that this game was called evenly. There were five free throws in the first half that the refs just gave the Lakers: a total flop on a left corner three by Markieff Morris, and then a nothing-but-ball strip by Allen on Davis gave them two more. Kuzma was taking two steps every time before he put the ball on the floor, and then Allen was getting the touchiest of travel calls. Meanwhile, this garbage on a Windler dunk wasn’t even called, let alone reviewed for a flagrant.

Dylan Windler throws subtle shade at refs for not getting foul call after slam on Kyle Kuzma: https://t.co/MXtVnPDfbB

— Cavaliers Nation (@WeAreCavsNation) January 26, 2021

I’m aware that there was supposedly some beef with LeBron getting into it with a a member of the Cavs’ front office who made a comment at the end of the third, but I’d argue that as much of this loss was on JB Bickerstaff.

LeBron said a member of the Cavs front office celebrated his miss at the end of the third. He scored 21 in the fourth.

"He was a little bit too excited about seeing me miss." pic.twitter.com/7gz8poJmRq

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) January 26, 2021

Bickerstaff ran an abysmal lineup with Sexton, Osman, Okoro, McGee, and Drummond in the mid third which led to this sequence.

You simply cannot turn the ball over on three straight possessions because your centers refuse to pass the ball to a guard, decide to bring it up, and then throw it away the rock. Part of this is on the guards who didn’t come get the ball, but JB not taking a timeout to ream his centers out before it happened a third time is ridiculous. As Leo noted on the live thread there was some “Coaching malpractice” by JB. CLF summed it well up in the comments.

Vogel benched Gasol because he was awful and went small and their wings killed us, JB’s big lineup was a joke…

McGee was -12 plus/minus in 13 minutes, and JB played our wings 57 combined minutes even though they were leading the team in plus/minus.

When the Lakers went small in the early fourth, JB stayed big with the Shaqtin a Fool version of Javale McGee who was a team low -12 with two turnovers and long range bricks at the end of the first and third quarters. JB even had the chance to sub Javale out before the end of the third for a better shooter as the Cavs had a baseline out of bounds play after the dribbling ridiculousness at the beginning of this clip. You simply can’t throw four possessions away in 12 minutes by running a big man who thinks he’s a point guard at power forward. Coaching fail.

another tremendous Point JaVale sequence. #JaValeAfterDark pic.twitter.com/lWDlLXfUl2

— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) January 26, 2021

Meanwhile, the starting four this game, Taurean Prince, Played just 26 minutes and was +8 with four dimes and one turnover. Yes, he just had seven points on six shots, but was defending, passing, and not throwing away the ball. Cedi Osman was also +8 with 20 points on 11 shots and was conspicuously absent at times down the stretch. Play your danged wings, JB!

Also, lemme talk about challenges. Bickerstaff failed to challenge two clear phantom fouls in the first half, then challenged a play he was unlikely to win in the second half on a foul by allen. He has to do a better job of keeping points off the board and challenging plays he can win.

Also, he should’ve been getting the ball out of LeBron’s hands late. Bickerstaff seemed to be going off a coaching handbook from two or three years ago when you could just live with James beating you over the top. You can’t anymore. On a pivotal possession with 1:34 left in the game, after Okoro had just hit a clutch triple to cut the Laker lead to 110-107, Okoro went under a ball screen on the right wing and James calmly buried the three. At that point James was 6-10 from downtown. You can’t go under when he’s this hot. You have to get the ball out of his hands and make anyone else beat you. A play later after Sexton turned it over (he’s got to stop doing that in crunch time), James got him iso-d on the left baseline. No double. Turnaround. Game over.

Other culprits this game: Sexton ignoring a wide open Windler, who looked very good in 17 minutes, but somehow only got two shots. As David noted, the Cavs have to get more three point looks for their three point shooters. There’s no excuse for only shooting 21 threes when you’re hitting 43% of these. Windler and Garland played a combined 46 minutes and shot zero threes between the two of them while Javale was 0-2 from deep (yes, I realize his foot was on the line for one of them). That’s unconscionably bad strategy and execution.

Also, can we talk about JB’s out-of-bounds plays? They’re terrible. The Cavs are having problems getting the ball in and getting any kind of look on OOB plays, especially on the baseline every single game (Javale’s end of third quarter heave being an example). It needs to be a point of emphasis.

Final issue was not necessarily JB’s fault: four and five point swings. Cavs would miss bunnies and the Lakers would race down to the other end and get a bucket. I counted three missed layups that led to 12 points worth of swing. There were probably more. That’s bad floor balance.

Sunday’s egg salad sandwich not withstanding Bickerstaff’s doing a great job of getting his team prepared to play, but missing the same kinds of little details he’s asking his team to execute on. In terms of coaching the game in front of him, it was the worst we’ve seen from him. His mistakes stood out. JB’s post game complaints about the refs were valid but seemed to be a dangerous kind of excuse making. You can’t make this many mistakes against the world champs and expect to win.