Recap: Portland 129, Cleveland 110 (or, Blitzed and Blazed)

This game was possibly Andre Drummond’s last in a Cavs uniform, but it was hardly a loss that could be pinned purely on his flaws. From a systems perspective there was no way Cleveland was going to walk out of Portland with a W.

The Cavs preceded this game with two road losses – a close but disappointing loss to Suns and an abysmal blowout against the Nuggets. To say that things were trending wrong would be an understatement, but, as Nate Smith has noted, the organization is no stranger to being in this kind of place.

Portland, on the other hand, was on the second night of a home back-to-back and a confidence-bolstering victory against Philadelphia, the leading team in the East, doing so without CJ McCollum or Jusuf Nurkic. Their big man Enes Kanter came in to the game sporting three stitches from a nasty elbow from Robert Covington. A very hot Carmelo Anthony had notched 17 points in the fourth quarter the night before to bury Doc Rivers’ and the  Sixers’ attempts to extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference.

Speaking of status relative to the broader league, Blazers TV announcers Jordan Keng and Lamar Hurd led into the game by describing the Cavs as ‘one of the worst teams in the East, and the NBA for that matter, but a team that can turn it on.’ Whether or not Cleveland was fielding a team that actually had a plan to compete in this game was up for question — certainly the Cavs wanted to pick themselves off of the mat from Denver and have a better showing.

Bickerstaff, entering the game with a 15-22 record as the Cavs head coach, started Taurean Prince at the four, a tacit admission that the Jarrett Allen-Andre Drummond pairing was not working. Drummond suit up at center, along with the young trio of Okoro, Sexton and Garland. In terms of kinks to the lineup, J.B. Bickerstaff made one notable change, giving Lamar Stevens some good run in a reserve role and providing the two-way player from Penn State a chance to show his stuff. Unfortunately, J.B.’s tweaked offensive roadmap for the starters did not result in an improved outcome.

The condensed version of this game is that the Cavs fell into an early hole, never got the deficit back to within single digits, showed a bit of fight in the third quarter, and didn’t have anything near the level of intensity or offensive production needed to be competitive with a cohesive unit. Gary Trent, Jr., got whatever he wanted, Okoro and Drummond both had terrible games, and Sexton was outplayed in the aggregate. Drummond was miserable and in foul trouble (ending with eight points, fivr rebounds and one steal in 17 minutes) but showed some flashes of his more typical performance in the third quarter.

First Quarter

The Cavs ate up the first 41 seconds on the game on offense, with no points to show for the approach of feeding Andre Drummond inside as the first option. Being an agent of chaos, in those seconds, Drummond missed a jump-stop over Kanter, plucked Dame Lillard’s pass out of the air, drove into three Blazers, missed another shot, and batted the ball another 3-4 times before lagging behind the consequent Portland fast break.

J.B. Bickerstaff did have a defensive game plan at the outset. He assigned the major problem set — Damian Lillard, who is averaging 29.2 points on 20 shots per game, which is Luka Doncic and Steph Curry territory — to rookie Isaac Okoro. Collin Sexton was put on Gary Trent, Jr., who was one of the major phenomena of the NBA Orlando bubble and who plays like a seasoned vet but is actually only in his second full year in the league. If this sounded like a recipe for a gouging of the Cavs, consider where this scheme left Darius Garland, namely, in a serious size mismatch vs. Robert Covington. Taurean Prince lined up against the insane leaping ability of Derrick Jones, Jr., the former Miami Heat product who is reliably flashy and a competent defender. In sum, at the opening tip, the Cavs were outmatched across the board and only had a hypothetical advantage at center, one which quickly evaporated.

On the opening Portland offensive possession, Damian Lillard was therefore faced with a buffet of possible ways to score. But why let Robert Covington have all the fun? Dame set the tone by immediately working around Okoro for an acrobatic layup. Okoro was picking up Lillard at the half-court stripe – the Blazers do a lot of ball movement and screens around the logo — but Lillard wasn’t the only long-range threat. Sliding around an Enes Kanter screen and communicating well with Drummond, Darius Garland  misjudged the angle in an effort to contest a Gary Trent, Jr. 3. Unfortunately Trent was shooting from a yard beyond the arc, not on it – and the smaller Cavs guard picked up a quick shooting foul on the perimeter.

Darius was unfussed and in no hurry after falling behind on the scoreboard, starting the next offensive action with 16 seconds on the clock. In general, without Cedi (who missed his only attempt in a paltry 7 minutes and never found a rhythm) and Windler pushing tempo in this game, the Cavs were sluggish in this game, slow to get across half court. Drummond tried something novel and passed the ball, pushing the ball into Sexton’s feet under the hoop for the Young Bull’s first touch which sent the ball out of bounds, a possession ending with a rushed and missed long two. Okoro and Drummond had a mixup which left  the lane wide open for the screener (Kanter) and an easy 2 for Portland. After another wild and empty Drummond  possession, Gary Trent Jr. drew a foul on Darius and canned the FT. Darius counters with a floater that goes in, without any ball movement. With the exception of periodic hacks on Enes Kanter, the refs were calling the game quite tightly, and Portland ended up a staggering 18 of 19 from the line in the first quarter.

Okoro accordingly checked out with two fouls at 9:20 in the first, getting Cedi and some size into the lineup. Sexton almost never feeds the sixth man upon his entrance to the stage, although Cedi was open in the corner, and the possession ended with a Prince travel call. Perhaps due to some shouting from JB, Sexton finally locked on to Lillard as a defensive assignment, but Cleveland still got abused inside by Kanter.

After a Cavs timeout, finally everyone touched the ball in rapid succession. Should it really take a timeout to establish this basic principle? For all of the think pieces about players “getting theirs” on the superstar trio of the Nets, a deeper dive on ball hogging and the 2018-2021 Cleveland Cavaliers might have a receptive audience. Drummond ended up as the ultimate recipient of all the ball movement, and after a nice wrap around pass from Cedi under the rim, Drummond had a split second to rise above for a very clear look at the rim, which he got. Unfortunately instead of jamming, it he threw it hard off the backboard, resulting in no points for either the team or his stat sheet. Lilliard proceeded to glide by Prince for a scoop shot. Although Darius Garland did not produce a manila file folder from his cloaked sleeve, he was clearly taking notes, having been denied an in-person demonstration of teardrops and scoop shots from one of his role models in Phoenix, Chris Paul.

Sexton promptly forgot directions conveyed in the timeout about ball movement, hoisting a too-strong floater early in the shot clock. Fortunately for the Cavs, Lilliard seemed to take this as a personal challenge and bricked a long three. Taurean Prince returned the favor twice, by shooting the ball too strong and then too short on successive trips. No one in Cleveland had remotely found their range, nor were they making stops, nor were they even in the same gear as the crisp-passing, sharp-cutting Blazers.

Derrick Jones, Jr., having been quiet from the tip, suddenly swelled into a massive leap into space going above the square and nearly posterizing Drummond, again.

Mercifully Jones’ audacious (perhaps we could call them Morantian? or Ja-like?) talons did not latch onto the ball, resulting in yet another foul on Drummond. This sent the tallest man on the court back to huddle at the end of the Cavs’ bench and wall of Gatorade coolers, sipping on the bitter flavor of his achievements for the game thus far: all of a single rebound and a steal, and the Cavs -14 from the opening tip.

As he inserted Jarrett Allen, J.B. also put in Stevens in for Sexton, clearly trying to create a spark for the Cavs and a damper on the Blazers’ momentum. The Cavs ball movement immediately improved as Allen does not see himself as prime scoring option, but defense didn’t – Kanter got his third look at the rim as a roller and converted after an ugly 3 attempt by Cedi. At this point the beatdown was on — it was 20-4. At this point Taurean Prince made a wrestling move on Kanter under the basket, which was somehow not deemed not a flagrant.

Along with the insertion of Damien Dotson, the Prince incident seemed to wake up the Cavs, who went on a little eight-point run. Dotson made a pretty spin move and turnaround jumper, imitated successfully by Stevens, who was not at all shy about showing passion and working the refs. Jarrett Allen smothered a Lillard shot. Cedi seemed encouraged by Prince and engaged in what was probably some fairly personal and certainly non-Erdogan-related banging down low with Kanter. Sexton did some Sexton things and it was 25-12 Cavs with about 4 minutes left.

It somehow feels strange to write this sentence in 2021, but then Carmelo Anthony entered the game with a load of other subs and started scoring. Ex-Cavs swingman Rodney Hood made a clever left handed hook shot over Windler and had a smirk on his face for most of the game. And to think he could have stuck around to be a part of the post-LeBron rebuild…

The end of the quarter could have been worse, if not for some canny moves by Dotson and a couple of possessions saved by Windler diving on the floor or having a nose for the ball.  Unfortunately Windler was not shooting well, hitting the side of the backboard on his first open 3. After Sexton held for the final shot of the quarter and was blocked by Melo, Windler got handsy and ended up with the last shot of the quarter, giving the Cavs 23 in the frame, so at least avoided being doubled up by Portland’s 35.

Quarter 2:

Streetball commenced. Rodney Hood was feeling smooth, but so was Dotson, so they traded buckets. On defense, the Blazers were scheming to keep Sexton stifled, which meant Dotson had more open space in which to operate. Windler saved another possession, giving him four more rebounds than Drummond had at this point in the game (i.e. one). He was missing his threes but still letting them fly.

Drummond came back in with 7:30 left in the quarter, and Garland decided not to feed the big man, instead hitting on a long 3 (Cavs were 1-9 at that point from range). Drummond got his first bucket, picked up a third foul, took another feed from Garland for a deuce, hit a free throw, and got faked out of his shoes by Trent Jr.

Gary Trent Jr. SHAKES Drummond and scores! pic.twitter.com/tUgFCAB2se

— Deep Hoops (@deep_hoops) February 13, 2021

Drummond had a horrible start and no real highlights in this game, but he was effective in stretches. In one good defensive possession for the Cavs, he harried the inbounder to deny Lillard the ball, allowing Sexton to plow in, giving the Cavs to get some momentum at 57-45.

Having closed the gap slightly, bad things started happening. Lillard tricked Okoro into a touch foul by around another Kanter screen 30+ feet from the basket; Garland missed two shots after minimal ball movement; Drummond got rejected by Kanter. And Dame was Dame, nailing a mean step back shot over Okoro. Okoro tried to recover some mojo on the offensive end, but missed a reverse under the rim (his only attempt for the night) when in fact he had enough time to gather. Sexton’s doppelganger Simons hit a 3 on the move, widening the gap to 45-65.

At this point Colin tried to take over the game, which worked for a single possession in which he got a 2, leading to a satisfying Portland OT. You’re down 18 but the opponent still respects you, right? Sexton came out quite fired up, picking up Lillard full court. This was the most “Cavs culture” moment of the game — you are getting your ass handed to you, but you can still show maximum effort and pretend that massive hole you’ve dug doesn’t actually exist; you will never back down to anyone! Blazers TV viewers will have heard the Portland broadcast squad speak as if they too had drank the Sexton Kool-Aid, showing admiration for the Young Bull’s competitive spirit. Having given his all on one defensive possession, the soliloquy ended, Sexton was left alone, flat footed, in no-man’s land, left to stare blankly as promptly Gary Trent (who was calling for the ball, which was evident to everyone in the arena except for Sexton) canned a wide-open three in his vicinity to make it 49-70.

The imperturbable Garland responded by bailing the Cavs out from their terrible spacing along the weak side, rattling in another three. Adding insult to injury, Carmelo Melo buried his own three at the last-second and the Blazers entered the locker room to triumphant strains, having tagged the Cavs for their highest-scoring half of the year, leading 73-52.

3^rd quarter

The Cavs had a good third quarter in Phoenix and there was some life in the first 3 minutes of this one. But it was 85-61 after a couple of Gary Trent Jr. threes, in spite of some Drummond rebounds. There was a another needless confrontation between Lillard and Sexton, but the game was out of reach.

Concluding thoughts

Watching Anfernee Simons, the 24^th pick in the 2018 draft, perform in this game and against the Mavs shortly thereafter made real a point that Ben Werth has previously made on Cavs: the Blog. That is, Simons is an effective sixth man or sub on a very good playoff team. This might be Sexton’s ceiling, in spite of some of his bigger games in the past 13 months or so.

The Cavs second unit is developing some kind of identity underneath the storm and stress around the starters, although they have a very long way to go to hit “Herculoid” status. Windler’s long arms and overall hustle were bothersome at times for Portland. For some reason the even more defensively minded JaVale McGee never saw the floor in this game.

Isaac Okoro had a rough night. He had zero offensive production and didn’t make an impact elsewhere. He was 0-1 from the field, with 4 personal fouls, 2 rebounds, an assist and a steal in 27 minutes.

Darius Garland racked up a decent statistical line (17 points on 3-6 from three, 4 assists, 2 turnovers) as he has done since joining the Cavs in blowout losses when the stakes are low. He does look comfortable on the floor, but if the Cavs are going to truly develop him or Sexton, managing the flow of the game in games that are tight down the stretch would be nice. In Garland’s rookie seasons most of his explosive games came with the Cavs losing by double digits.

Has anyone written a piece about the Taurean Prince-Cedi Osman dynamic? It isn’t necessarily a zero-sum game given the fluidity of positions, but Prince is getting a lot of minutes and Cedi appears to be receding from the coach’s minds eye. Cedi is averaging 2-6 on threes per game over the course of the season, but his substitution pattern appears to be all over the place and finding a rhythm again is going to be a challenge.

.@_bigjayy_ has been very good on the trip, netting double-figure scoring in all three games – including an 18-point, 10-rebound effort in Denver and a 22-point night on Friday in Portland.
⁰#CavsClippers KEYS: https://t.co/X1ti8OKFND pic.twitter.com/0qFVXrmgeM

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 14, 2021

Some commentators were upset about the lack of threes attempted by the Cavs in this one, but at least two non-attempts can be laid at the foot of Jarrett Allen, who Evan Dammarell described in a recent Chasedown podcast as the franchise’s “shiny new toy.” Unfortunately Allen is still trying to figure out his new colleagues’ instincts, and he twice threw the ball to phantoms on the perimeter and out of bounds, not understanding which way shooters were cutting.

Finally, the Cavs’ exclusion from the bubble in Orlando continues to hurt, particularly when one sees the cohesion of a squad like Portland, as well as Phoenix. However, rosters have changed already and there is no such excuse when taking on Golden State, who was likewise outside of the quarantine perimeter.

The Cavs went on to Los Angeles, with Golden State and Steph Curry waiting in the wings.