Recap: Jazz 114, Cavs 75 (or, Hartenstein Arrives + LT)

As wretched as the score was in this game for Cleveland, this game told us a lot about the Cavs.

After the trade deadline, a number of franchises are dealing with integrating new personnel into the squad. Add injuries and Covid, and the business of sorting out continuity and change gets difficult. What isn’t difficult to assess is how yawning is the chasm between the Cavs near the bottom of the Eastern Conference and the top tier of the Western Conference. Even if you drink the very strange yet strangely clickable Kool-Aid narrative about the Cavs modelling their backcourt after the Jazz (which verges on trolling after losing by 39 points), it’s obvious…

Outside of the organization marketing bubble, this game was mainly about giving Isaiah Hartenstein some minutes at center. Readers will already be aware that all of the Cavs other options at that position have been cut (Thon Maker), traded (JaVale McGee), injured (Kevin Love), concussed (Jarrett Allen), ill (Larry Nance Jr.) or being paid to be injured for the Lakers (Andre Drummond). And unfortunately the Cavs’ shiny new 2023 and 2027 second round picks from Denver acquired in the McGee trade are likely still in the 7th or 10th grade and could not suit up.

The good news on Hartenstein is that he can rebound – ending up with 14 total rebounds, just barely getting edged in that category by Rudy Gobert’s 17. Hartenstein can pass – a deeper dive on his third quarter, which is when he had his most sustained run, will take a look at five of them. He may – may — have an outside shot and the other the guards look a lot better with him on the court; he may be an upgrade. Finally, JaVale McGee was never going to be a long term answer for this team at the backup center position, so in the long quest for continuity (apparently 25-year-old Ante Zizic was not the answer) maybe the 22-year-old German-American is the guy.

The bad news is that Hartenstein still fouls like crazy. He also falls down a lot, ending up on his ass on nearly half a dozen plays in this game alone. And regarding his relationship with teammates (in search of the ever-elusive ‘culture’ Holy Grail) and chemistry it is clearly going to take some time to develop. But the passing — it was brilliant, and although the rubble was everywhere, total desolation for Cleveland, there was a little ray of light there.

First Quarter

In the battle for the master narrative of growth and small statistical victories amid the carnage, let us not forget that Hartenstein won his first jump ball as a Cavalier. There would be more where that came from – Gobert would get beat again on a second-half jump ball. Advantage Cavs!  In the coveted jump ball category, Cleveland smashed the Jazz in this game, doing so without JaVale McGee, and Gobert will have to live with that humiliation until the next time these two teams meet, either next year or in the NBA Finals. Fire up the press releases.

Back in reality where statistics are part of a context which might meaningfully affect the final outcome, much was made of the fact that Hartenstein gathered two fouls 38 seconds into his Cavs debut.

The first one was pure nerves.

The second one, 38 seconds into the game, was Gobert being cagy, flopping (without falling down) and getting a very generous whistle. So Hartenstein came out, saddled with the smallest possible sample size — the Cavs press release said he had to leave “in the first two minutes” of action .

Hartenstein re-entered the game with four minutes left in the quarter. By this time the Cavs were down 11 and assuming the position for a sustained beatdown, so the nerves should have cooled. Ironically, in his first start for Cleveland, Hartenstein’s early fouls allowed him to get into the game when he might normally have done so as a backup, meaning he was matched up more with his natural peer group of backup centers – in this case, Derrick Favors. Darius Garland wasted no time using Hartenstein’s size and mobility to buzz around the basket for two straight buckets. Hartenstein played with fate, almost fouling Jordan Clarkson on a perimeter three, but then the bell tolled; Gobert was back.

This time Hartenstein had a plan. “I’ll flop,” he seemed to think, smiling a little bit to himself. But when he carried out his cunning plan and used Gobert’s forearm shiver to throw himself into the paint, no whistle resulted. Viewers were treated to the first of what seems to be destined to be a long line of instances of Hartenstein on the floor, “chuntering from a sedentery position”.

Niang then hit a three thanks to Hartenstein being on his bum and a Taurean Prince late rotation. On offense, Hartenstein shouldered some of his big man load with authority, powering into Gobert with a confident but unsuccessful offensive take inside. Then he splashed a three, and it was smooth. There was much rejoicing. The Cavs backup center of the future had arrived.

Welcome to CL3, @ipjh55! #BeTheFight pic.twitter.com/A9QZT6kVFf

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) March 30, 2021

Second Quarter

In the second quarter Hartenstein was limited to two minutes of action. Fortunately Taurean Prince was in the game to look even more discombulated than the new guy with no underwear and zero practices under his belt; Prince was rusty at best in his  9 minutes on the court. Prince travelled, had another late closeout on a Jazz three, then literally jumped out of bounds laterally thanks to a Joe Ingles ball fake. Perhaps he was acting out a deep subconsious urge to be sitting on the Jazz bench.

In his short run in this quarter, Hartenstein went straight at Gobert again, on a double clutch shot that missed. Since the Cavs big man was on his ass under the basket begging for a whistle, the Jazz decided to run, leaving poor Damyean Dotson to hold back the human tide that is Rudy Gobert under the Cavs hoop.

Running about three seconds late on the play, Hartenstein decided to jog straight into the paint rather than sprint to the wide open Niang on the perimeter. So the new guy arrived at last under the hoop to try to explain to Dotson what he was thinking. Damyean really didn’t want to hear it. On the next possession, Hartenstein tried to fix things by shooting another open three, which was an airball that, generously speaking, might have gotten about a yard from the rim. J.B. took him out, sending in Dean Wade. However, in a small victory for the Cavs predilection for touting individual statistic performances in bad losses, Hartenstein got 2 two rebounds in the quarter. Go Cavs!

Third Quarter

By this point the Cavs were down 20+ points, but no one on the court was really mailing it in. The Jazz put in their G-League point guard to pick up Sexton or Garland full court. But Cleveland had also had a chance to do some planning at halftime – being all in the same room and at the very least warmed up was advantageous.

It was in this quarter where Hartenstein had his most sustained and successful run with the Cavs. He made a nice dump pass to a cutting of Garland at 10:45. He won the second of his two jump balls versus Colbert. When Sexton stepped into a midrange shot that was blocked by Gobert, the Cavs center tipped it back out. He had a nice feed to Garland inside. His action on a high screen with the two guards it made that could mean that Garland could feed Sexton for a bucket —  how often does that happen?

He blocked a Gobert shot – let me say that again – Hartenstein blocked a Gobert shot – but then fell down for the third time, allowing Gobert to score. One of the nicest highlights for Hartenstein was an excellent skip pass to a backdoor-cutting Wade for an easy 2. Forget all the sarcasm, this passing touch is not to be minimised– although there are a lot of things that the Cavs need, Hartenstein does tick a lot of the boxes.

Hartenstein had seven assists in this game. Unfortunately Donovan Mitchell preceded to sell a moving screen even though Hartenstein wasn’t moving at all, putting him back into foul trouble. In the end, probably more concerning than the fouls was the half a dozen times he ended up on the ground.

Fourth Quarter

In the fourth quarter the Jazz kept Gobert in for the first couple of minutes, meaning he blocked a Dotson three pointer then finally trudged off the court. Mainly the Jazz ended up debuting a few new pickups in this quarter. These included the Turkish journeyman and three-time Buck Ersan Ilyasova at center, a step slower than Hartenstein and Isaac Okoro, Matt Thomas (about whom more below), Jarrell Brantley, Miye Oni, and and two-way player Trent Forrest (who picked up the Cavs guards full court on many a trip).

The only Cavalier to play the full frame was Broderic Thomas, but Hartenstein logged another nine minutes. Sexton had a ridiculous backward bucket and-one, and played a few nice two man sequences on the perimeter with Hartenstein, as well as dumping him a pass down low. The Jazz TV crew, much maligned, gave some grudging respect to Cleveland, saying “the Cavs continue to power it inside,” which is about all they could do with Gobert out and no one shooting threes particularly well.

Hartenstein will need to learn to get out of the way if Sexton wants to corral a loose board and charge full-speed up the court to attack the hoop. He fed Lamar Stevens for a nice swished three. The Stevens three is becoming a nice fixture in the offense. J.B. still never runs plays for Okoro so whole half-quarters go by without him doing much on offense, although he missed a chance for an alley-oop from Hartenstein. The Cavs’ new center got tired at this point and failed to box out a Jazz player who had failed to stay seated after a non-call flop, and theatrically missed a late grab at a Jazz pass, making faces at the Cavs bench instead of recovering to help on defense. His final pass was a gorgeous bowling-style pitch to Okoro, who for some reason did not turn to lay it in but threw it to Darius in the corner.

Garland ended up doing a load of dribble moves in front of the now very-well rested Donovan Mitchell which the two of them discussed at some length after the horn sounded. The Cavs narrowly lost the G-League battle in the fourth quarter, putting up 23 points to the Jazz third-string unit’s 24.

Randoms

In a podcast after returning back in Cleveland from Utah, Chris Fedor discussed how insane it is to judge this Cavs team on a single game.

Wine and Gold Talk Podcast with @H_Grove: Evaluating #Cavs GM Koby Altman. The challenges of keeping a clear-eyed view during a rebuild. What’s up with Kevin Love? https://t.co/7cJWebJeej

— Chris Fedor (@ChrisFedor) March 31, 2021

So perhaps we could compare this game with the last time the Cavs played against the Jazz, on January 12th in Cleveland. The first impression one gets is that the Cavs lineup for that game looked completely different. The Cavs, no surprise, also got beat down in that contest. But in the earlier game they at least had an experienced answer for Gobert — namely a battery of bigs in JaVale McGee, Larry Nance, and Thon Maker. (Drummond was out with an achilles injury, and Sexton was also out.) And so the Cavs featured Cedi Osman logging nearly 38 minutes (17 points, 0-6 from three), JaVale McGee played about 21 minutes as a starter through whom they were running the offense in the first quarter. Cleveland was experimenting with its backup point guard position, meaning that Yogi Ferrell  played nearly 24 minutes. Lamar Stevens also got some burn, ending up four for eight from the field.

By contrast, the Utah starting five made no changes whatsoever and made only minor modifications to their bench, just tinkering with the very end of the bench to bring in some talent from Iowa State University, via the G League, namely Matt Thomas. Dylan Windler, having been denied the ability this year to take the court against his idol Joe Ingles, was watching the new Utah swingman in the fourth quarter intently.

So in addition to competence, the Jazz also had continuity on their side. We will see if the Cavs can finally find some kind of consistency in their rotations and get Hartenstein feeling more solid and throwing more dimes as the year continues its inexorable march.

Tonight, the Sixers are in town, without Joel Embiid, and Cavs fans can look forward to the long-awaited return of Delly and Kevin Love.

Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova are both available tonight for #Cavs, per Bickerstaff. Both will have their minutes monitored.

— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) April 1, 2021