Recap: Oklahoma City 117, Cleveland 101 (It’s Not Binary)

After this game, a fellow Cavs fan asked me on Twitter, “Are you even a fan. Every reply is just a negative comment. There’s never anything positive.” The question threw me. On one hand, it’s hard to find things to be positive about in a 10-game losing streak, on the other hand, I don’t want to be a total killjoy all the time. What is the point of watching these games if you can’t enjoy them? Is life too short just to pick out everything wrong with things? Or is the problem that a truthful assessment is just too painful when your situation’s this sh**ty?

No one who watches this team should be upset when people call the sh*t “poop.” It’s not just that the Cavs are on a 10 game losing streak. It’s the way they’re losing; they’re getting destroyed.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have failed to cover the spread in 13 straight games, tying the longest such streak in the last 32 seasons (2000-01 Cavaliers). pic.twitter.com/fqh3PQzCq5

— On Top of the Line Sports (@OTLSPORTS) February 22, 2021

That means that the Cavs are playing far below expectations of prediction markets, which are at least useful as a barometer of expectations based on past performance. The Cavs were no different in this game, and it came down to a few things: bad fouls, the bench, three balls, and mistakes at the absolute worst times. Underneath it all though, it makes you wonder if they give a crap, or if they’re just playing out the string. Could be they’re still recovering from a year of jarring changes and a brutal road trip in the middle of a meat-grinder of a year? A little of column a, a little of column b…

As for the game, Cleveland started out hot, going up 20-10 by the mid first, but OKC countered with a 27-12 run, and had few answers for Shai Gilgeous Alexander who exploited the Cavs’ drop coverage by rising up over the smaller Cavs’ guards from the three point line. When he wasn’t doing that, Shai spent the night getting Isaac Okoro to bite on pump fakes. Ike fell for the fake and flop twice, and then fouled Shai on another triple flop to personally send him to the line eight times. SGA would end up 10-12 at charity with a 31/4/9 line. The dude is a very tough cover, especially because refs give him a two step gather and two steps to drive after that. It’s slightly ridiculous. But Shai’s herky-jerky soon-to-be all-star who’s currently far more conducive to winning than the dude drafted over him, Collin Sexton. In this one, though, Youngbull mostly gave as good as he got.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MlYT7dP0Ptk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uT0rP-5Ul_s

Sexton was fine for the game, I guess. Got annoying tunnel vision at times, and had four bad turnovers, but he scored at an ok clip. Speaking of turnovers, the Cavs had an unforgivable three turnovers on out-of-timeout plays: you know, those special plays coaches draw up to get themselves an easy bucket and try to change the momentum. That’s inexcusably bad coaching and execution. Anyway, Sexton. He wasn’t the flaming dumpster fire he was against Denver, but he had 27 mostly meh points, finishing with 27/5/3, and -2.

The bench though, had a whiff of burning garbage about them. The Cleveland subs were outscored 52-9, with Damyean Dotson 0-4, Dylan Windler 1-6, and Lamar Stevens attempting zero field goals (did have a pair of freebies). The Cavs short bench rotation was routinely abused by Hamidou Diallo’s barrels to the rim (15 points) and Mike Muscalla ripping twine from the corner (13 points). When Javale McGee (4/2/0) is your best bench weapon, you’re in trouble.

Collin Sexton struggled running the offense when not on the floor with Garland. It’s hard to say whether that had more to do with the quality of Garland’s backups. That’s more eye-test to me than stats. It’s a bit belied by this.

Some fun stats from last night:
SexLand in 31 minutes last night: +8

Garlan & No Sexton: 8min/ -14
Sexton & No Garland: 11 min/ -10
Neither: 0 min

Seems encouraging for their pairing as constructed and shows Cavs really need another PG.

— Kocher (@jlkocher2) February 23, 2021

As currently constructed, Cedi Osman is the Cavs’ second best initiator. He should be the backup point guard until Dotson either figures it out or they get someone. Unfortunately, he was starting at power forward, and he’s not nearly as good when his shot’s not falling. That’s when the other big swing this game came from: the three point line. The Cavs: 8-35. The Thunder: 13-28. Cedi was especially frigid, clanking 0-8, outfreezing the cold Collin Sexton (1-6). I don’t care though. They gotta keep shooting. You can’t get better and more comfortable with letting it fly until you do it repeatedly, so just fire away guys.

Someone who did let it go? Isaac Okoro who buried 4-11 from deep, and his stroke looked much improved. He’s still overpassing and afraid of finishing on drives, but at least he’s gunning. Ice was also a little better at rebounding notching 12/5/1 with three steals, but still got the ball pried from his hands more than once. We documented Isaac’s struggles staying on the ground, but it was nice to see some offensive aggression. He’s not Haliburton, but he’s also been thrown into probably the worst situation for his analytics of any rookie. That Okoro hasn’t booked a flight out of the 216 says something about his character.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXMnjqM12X0

Darius Garland had a nice game with a lot of sweet passes: 21/3/8 with only two turnovers. A lot of those passes were lobs and looks to Jarrett Allen, who was sublime. Allen just finished 26/17/2 and a perfect 11-11 from the field. They weren’t all rim-rocking dunks, either. He had several beautiful, unblockable jump hooks. He’s such a pleasure to watch from the tip, and he logged a game high (and unsustainable) 42 minutes.

Mid Major energy, Dylan Windler posted another game where he looked every bit the part of an NBA player, except when it comes to putting the ball in the basket where he was an inexplicable 1-6. The ball flew out of his hands with all the touch of a young Christan Eyenga. Still, I’d like to see JB give Windler some of Cedi’s minutes at the four, and let Cedi do some playmaking on the second unit. Maybe switching them around and letting Dylan get some more catch-and-shoot would help. He did finally can a triple this game. Maybe we’ll see Prince and Love some at those two spots, Wednesday. Who knows.

So yeah. Another loss for a depleted team. They’re missing a backup point, their bench stinks (especially because Allen isn’t playing there anymore), and collectively, they can’t shoot. I still wonder why they haven’t brought a point or a power forward in on a 10-day. It wouldn’t have won this game. Maybe that’s why. Make or miss league, man.

Still, why do we watch this team? Am I being a total downer when pointing out how bad they are? I got in an argument today with someone comparing Collin Sexton to Donovan Mitchell based on the similarity of their numbers at this point in their careers. I find the comparison a bit ridiculous since Spida is 25 pounds heavier and an inch shorter, and was a vastly superior defensive player at this age. I think his point was that Sexton is a lot further along than we think he is. Maybe. I just don’t know if he’s a guy you’re ever going to be able to win consistently with or if he’s just a an empty stats scorer. I think the needle is closer to the latter. Others don’t. It’s not binary. Our expectations probably shouldn’t be either.

There’s a dichotomy between the hard core folks who just want to enjoy the team and those who are tired of excuses for abysmal play and want to watch a team at least play competitive basketball. I think we all missed Cavs ball so much, that playing so far below our expectations and seeing obvious things the team is doing and not doing that contribute to losing basketball is tough to stomach. I know that I just wanted the team to be as good as they could be so I could enjoy some basketball before we all died of the next pandemic, WWIII, or the climate apocalypse. Maybe that’s a bit fatalistic. Maybe.

But none of us knows the future, and I’ve been thinking a lot of being grateful for what we do have. I’m grateful for my health and my family more than anything. Basketball seems tertiary, but even so, we’ve got a perfect center and a team of high character guys to root for, who are flawed and young and hence prone to losing. But man, they all seem like decent kids. Heck, even the infuriating on-the-court Andre Drummond behaves off the court like an eminently likeable guy. These aint the jailblazers. So keep firing, gentlemen, and try to improve. If you don’t, if there’s any draft worth getting a top five pick from, it’s this next one.