Recap: New Orleans 116, Cleveland 109 (or, Hart & Ice, but too Much Beef)

[Editor’s Note: CLF and Nate Smith teamed up on this recap. It’s the first recap from CLF since summer league almost 18 months ago. Thanks, Chris! Hopefully more to come!]

Cavs lost a heartbreaker 116-109 to the New Orleans Pelicans. This was the second game of a back to back, and Kevin Love and Matthew Dellavedova did go over the minutes restrictions. But Love missed some crucial baskets down the stretch and they just ran out of gas in the 4th quarter, scoring only 15 points. Desipite the loss, there were plenty of positives to take away.

1. The biggest takeaway was simply a professional effort out on the floor, especially in the context of the Toronto beatdown the night before. Both Coach JB Bickerstaff and Love spoke about the fact that the Cavs came out and played with competitive toughness and selflessness, as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor noted.
   “They brought it from the beginning, they competed the entire game, so I was proud of their effort, bickerstaff remarked.
   Kevin Love added, “we just did a great job of responding after a tough one last [Saturday] night.”
2. Dean Wade earned an emphatic shoutout from Love and as well Bickerstaff after a nice bounce back  performance with 21 points on 8-12 shooting (5-8 from 3), six rebounds, two assists, and three steals, while only turning it over once. This year Wade has really shown good competitiveness on defense and some really good
   shooting on offense. All credit to JB Bickerstaff for finding consistent minutes for Wade to keep his confidence up and reward him for his positive impact on team success.
3. Isaac Okoro also got the Love from both Kev and JB… Okoro put up a career high 19 points on 6-10 shooting (2-4 from 3), three assists, two rebounds, a steal and zero turnovers. All credit to Okoro for his recent play, which has seen an uptick for at least the past couple of weeks. He also played starting 2-guard tonight instead of his normal 3-small forward position, which might be taken as a sign of his growth on the offensive end. He flashed much more ballhandling and scoring creativity than he has all year. Would have loved to seen him get some opportunities with the ball down the stretch. He couldn’t have been worse than Delly or Cedi when trying to score (and the ball was a lot more likely to go in).
4. Cedi Osman was also singled out for praise by Love and Bickerstaff postgame. Cedi dropped 15 points on 7-11 shooting. Bickerstaff gave Cedi particular praise for his seven assists off the bench. Cedi did commit an uncharacteristic four turnovers (almost in a row) in the third quarter which hurt the Cavs badly (-10 plus/minus), but I did like what he had offer in a on-ball/point guard role… that role takes advantage of Cedi’s
   vision and unselfishness.
   Cedi’s defense is criminally underrated by many fans (-0.1 Defensive EPM ranks top half of
   NBA, 1.8% steal rate, ranks top quartile of NBA), he had a block and a steal on the night.
5. Love was healthy and played 31 minutes. He shot the right shots, launching 14 threes… which is appropriate for a guy who just surpassed Cavalier legend Mark Price for second all- time in Cavs history for 3PTs made. It was so nice to see a Kevin Love centered offense, his unselfishness (and Delly’s) was infectious, as they set season records for points scored in a quarter (39 points) and in a half (68), while being without their two top scorers.
6. Delly struggled with the minutes load and New Orleans baited him into brick triple tries late, as Cleveland struggled to score late. 1-11 with 10 dimes is a classic Delly line. I didn’t love the lack of looks for Dean Wade and Okoro down the stretch, as they were two of Cleveland’s better offensive options outside of Love. Instead, it felt like Cedi and Delly trying to do too much.
7. Cleveland (like so many other teams) had no answer for Zion, who carved up the paint with 38/9/4 on 16-22 shooting. The Dude is an absolute wrecking ball, and the most unstoppable one-on-one player in the association right now. Their best chance was Isaiah Hartenstein who just could not stay out of foul trouble and fouled out in 21 minutes but was nonstop passion and passing. Hart finished with 10/6/1 but his four turnovers (a couple due to offensive fouls) loomed large. Still, I haven’t liked a young big this much since Andy Varejao. He just has to stop fouling as a first reaction to anything. Maybe Nate shouldn’t have coached him when he was younger.

The Cavs racked up 29 assists for the game, with Delly dropping 10 dimes and showing everybody why he’s an NBA champion. The only blemishes on Love’s night were his unusual lack of rebounds and missing at least two crucial shots to tie/win the game down the stretch. But I expect him to bounce back and make those types of shots down the stretch this year especially as he gets his wind and rhythm back.

So what were the negatives, frankly there wasn’t much to complain about, the Pelicans had too much firepower in Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram (28, but they made him work). But, the real negative was getting absolutely clowned 24 hours earlier at the hands of the Toronto Raptors. There were peculiar comments (my characterization) by both Bickerstaff and Love in their postgames about their lack of professionalism/competitiveness especially in the beginning of the Toronto game. I can’t help but speculate that both Bickerstaff and Love were sending a message to the starting backcourt while also  rotecting them from criticism by designating them injured.

A few things we’ll be watching for from now until the end of the season:

1.  Can Love stay healthy? And how much do the Cavs protect him from a late season injury (and their lottery pick).
2. How much does Cleveland use Love in the offense? At his Minnesota peak, Love averaged ~28% usage rate. He’s never equaled or surpassed that in Cleveland, and he’s currently at 24%. If we want to see Minnesota Kevin Love (or even 2018 Kev), the Cavs should start using him more, and to see that, he needs to stay healthy and on the court.
3. Do the Cavs keep sitting random guys to see how the team responds? Maybe we see some Okoro at the point. The Toronto loss felt like a playoff exit, but nothing is set in stone. If sitting Sexton was a tank move, it almost backfired. But as CtB’s Elijah Kim noted on the Twitters…

pic.twitter.com/IDWQ5znC8p

— HoopsDogg (@oldseaminer) April 12, 2021