Recap: Boston 98, Cleveland 92 (or, The Marianas Bench)

The Cavs explored the depths of their roster on Monday night and discovered a close loss to split their series with Boston, bringing their over-all record to nine and six.

Since the Cavs don’t exactly make it easy to tune into their game your author was forced to use remote viewing (a little trick picked up from the boys at Langley), an entirely legal and ethical way to enjoy games otherwise unavailable in the hinterlands of Columbus, Ohio. The Celtic’s broadcast opened with a Cavs-produced hype hit that included five players, only one of which was available for the game. J.B.’s plan to deal with the loss of Love, Lauri, Stevens, Sexton and Allen was to insert Rubio into the starting line-up and “bump everyone down,” leading to a starting lineup of Garland, Rubio, Okoro, Wade and Mobley.

1st Quarter

Both teams came out firing from behind the arc, and while neither team found heat in the early going, the Cavs were making slightly more of their attempts bolstered by solid rebounding on the defensive glass. With 6:58 still left in the quarter, J.B. Bickerstaff squinted down the bench and called timeout to insert Cedi and Tacko for Garland and Mobley, a lineup that would culminate in an Okoro make from distance followed by a quick Okoro steal, drive, and slam. The Celtics called their first timeout with 5:44 left in the quarter after having went one for eight shooting and the Cavs leading 15 to nine.

Following a nice sequence of Cedi stealing the ball at the top of the arc and driving for an easy two, followed up immediately with a deep three from Cedi to put the Cavs up by 11, J.B. took advantage of a foul call to once again plumb the depths, inserting Valentine and Windler in a move that would aver the lineup sorcery J.B. would continue to rely on throughout the game. For the moment the Cavs squad fought on through first-time or low-minute lineups to maintain a 22-17 lead before Garland missed his usual end-of-quarter deep 3 attempt.

2nd Quarter

J.B. rode with Garland, Windler, Cedi, Valentine, and Mobley, decidedly not the horses that brought him but simply the horses he had, to open the 2nd quarter. While Valentine showed some impressive effort on the defensive end, the early quarter was defined by Al Horford’s physical dominance on offense in the paint against Mobley. Mobley was eventually able to find a way around getting trapped under the basket by Horford and strong side help by completing some impressive passes out to Valentine and Cedi for corner 3s, and would answer on defense with a steal and a block to keep the lead at 9 with 9 minutes left in the half.

In perhaps the most impressive play of the half Garland ran a pick and roll with Mobley, who found an open Windler in the corner as the defense collapsed. Chase off the line, Windler drove hard to the hoop only to dish back to Mobley in the dunker spot where he would draw a foul from Horford and maintain the Cav’s scoring advantage.

However, the Celtics continued to hound Mobley in the open floor, and when Tacko Fall came back into the game, they continued to adjust by doubling Rubio whenever he crossed the three point line. Horford and Tatum continued to play physical basketball in the paint to draw questionable offensive fouls, as the Cavs’ starters finished a low scoring, high turnover half up 39-37.

3rd Quarter

The Cavs opened the 3rd with their starters, although the unit would not last for long as minutes piled up and the coaches favored 9 man rotation necessitated unusual line ups. The Celtics threatened to take the lead with several offensive fouls before Rubio went into a series of Iso sets, scoring two, three, and two across subsequent possessions to secure a one possession lead with six minutes left in the quarter. A seemingly tired Mobley would flashed his signature defensive talent before taking his talents to the locker room, after ominously holding his arm. (More on that later).

After a quick timeout that featured many of Cleveland’s finest doing karaoke to Whitney Huston was cut short by an interview concerning analytics with some nerd in Boston, the Cavs went to a small lineup featuring Garland, Okoro, Cedi, Valentine, and Wade. The staff would tweak this lineup throughout the remainder of the game, but it would largely represent the small ball the Cavs would rely on going forward, with the results expectantly mixed. However, the Celtics were not without their own shortages in the front court, relying on Enes Kanter to spell Horford for crucial minutes, which Kanter would spend largely making a mockery of the beautiful sport of basketball in myriad ways, allowing the Cavs to keep the score close heading into the 4th.

The quarter ended with a remarkable series finding Garland drawing a foul with four seconds left, catching the inbound to draw yet another foul with one second left, and draining both free throws to finish the quarter with the Cavs trailing 64-65.

4th Quarter

With Dean Wade pressed into duty at the 5, and Cedi and Okoro flexing into front court assignments, the Cavs immediately struggled to take or extend a lead over the Celtics. J.B. tried once again to use Tacko at the center position, but Kanter bullied him down low, and while a pair of Cedi 3s brought the Cavs within three points of the surging Celtics. Horford’s reentry into the game forced J.B. to bench his last big and go back to Wade with seven minutes left in the game.

The Cavs would stay small for the remainder, challenging Rubio to outscore the opponent while knowing they had largely ceded the paint. Rubio and Cedi often looked lost as the dribbled the rock around the perimeter, but the shots were falling, as Rubio hit consecutive threes before drawing a beautiful foul from Horford on his third triple attempt. The Celtics, beneficiaries of generous offensive foul calls throughout the game, tempted fate with a coaches challenge, and were rightfully spurned. Rubio went two for three on his free throws and staved off the Celtics’ paint domination to bring the score within two possessions.

Garland finished high off the glass over Tatum with three minutes left in the game in one of the young guard’s premier highlights of the early season, and the Cavs would win their own challenge on an out of bounds call that gave them an opportunity to take a lead with 2:21 left in the game, but Valentine would step out of bounds on a made three attempt, and the Cavs would never recover.

Despite Rubio (28/6/6) and Osman (26/2/5) doing their best splash brothers impersonation (12 points each and 6-12 from deep in the final frame), a costly mistake by Valentine made the difference in a game where the Cavs had almost zero margin for error. It was a valiant descent in the coaching bathyscaphe, but Cleveland couldn’t climb out of the trench. A 23/8/5 line for Jason Tatum and five guys in double figures for the Celtics, who shot a respectable 46% on the night. Tatum and Horford (17/9/3) seemed to score a basket every time the Celtics needed to keep the game out of reach. There be monsters.

After the game, we found out why Evan Mobley never returned after holding his arm before walking off the court (a fact not covered on the Celtics Feed).

In 2018, Lauri Markkanen suffered a high-grade lateral elbow sprain and was out 6 to 8 weeks.

In 2015, Jimmy Butler was out 3-6 weeks with a Grade 2/3 ulnar ligament sprain and small bone impaction injury to the left elbow.

In 2019, Hamidou Diallo was out 4-6 weeks.

It varies.

— Evan Dammarell (@AmNotEvan) November 16, 2021

If this were a submarine drama, a light would be blinking red right now in the Cavs’ training room, and we’d be feeling the crushing depths start to buckle the metal of our nascent winning basketball cocoon. Despite the pressure and limited options, the Cavs hope to emerge from the trench to face the Nets on Wednesday with the potential return of Love and Markkanen, but who knows what abominations lurk in the deep to pull the Cavs back down to the watery depths of basketball despair.

So Cavs starting lineup on Wednesday may look like

Garland
Rubio
Okoro
Cedi
Fall

Wade
Windler
Valentine
Davis

— Immanentizing the Evschaton (@leavelander) November 16, 2021