Recap: Pelicans 108, Cavs 104 (or, Saint Ricky)

This game will forever be remembered as the one where Ricky Rubio’s season ended with the cruelty of an ACL tear, cutting short a superb and almost superhuman performance. Stripped of their floor general for the final 2:20, the Cavs lost the game. The loss of the game is immaterial, but the implications of Rubio’s injury are huge for the organization and of obvious consequence for the ultimate results of the present season, as well as for Rubio himself. I hope that at Cavs:the Blog we will be able to work these out and appropriately commemorate Rubio’s contributions to the Cavs — not least a deep dive on his performance in this game, which was unreal. In a game where Kevin Love also went off, Rubio led the Cavs in every category, notching 27 points, 13 rebounds, nine assists, two steals and two blocked shots. In a parallel universe his ACL remained in tandem with his indomitable will and he won the Cavs the game. But it didn’t, and he couldn’t, and that’s the tragedy of it all.

Unscrambling the Roster Jigsaw

After a laugher “Hybrid League” game against Toronto, the pandemic was a lot less kind to the Cavs in New Orleans; knock-on effects from it were unavoidable. To take the backcourt first, and provide some of the backstory to the game:

Ricky Rubio logged 36:46 in this game and was on pace before his injury for a 39-minute evening. This heavier load was due to the fact that Cavs starting point guard Darius Garland tested positive for coronavirus and was ruled out prior to the game, leaving Rubio with Kevin Pangos and R.J. Nembhard Jr. as backups. J.B. gave Pangos about nine minutes of run, yielding the Cavs 0-3 shooting from distance and a couple of assists. R.J. Nembhard is another healthy point guard on the roster who happens to have more size and inside game than Kevin Pangos, but apart from a full quarter of garbage time against Toronto, Nembhard has logged a total of seven minutes for point for the Cavs this season; he did not play in this game.

Cedi Osman, an experienced hand with ball-handling duties for the Cavs, has been out in covid protocols since December 25. Lamar Stevens (placed in protocols on December 19) was out. Shooting guard Isaac Okoro was returning from protocols and put in 30 minutes in this game, but his handle was shaky (3 turnovers) and his shot flat, going 2-6 from the field, and 2-4 from the line. Okoro’s effective backup Denzel Valentine, is healthy, fearless and loose (in every sense of the word), and played nearly 24 minutes in this game. Collin Sexton has been out of the season since getting injured on November 7. Probably best not to discuss Dylan Windler, who is in protocols. After Garland was ruled out, the Cavs called up Malik Newman, a 24-year-old point guard and graduate of Mississippi State University, up from the G-League on a 10-day hardship contract. Have you got all that? That’s just the non-Rubio backcourt.

Pandemic knock-on effects on the front court in this game were less extensive, although hardly insignificant. Jarrett Allen (in protocols since December 19) was badly missed. Pelicans bruiser Jonas Valanciunas was back in from a non-covid illness and getting his wind back to the tune of 15 points (including 6-8 from the line) and 10 rebounds. Evan Mobley was also out of the protocols, making his first appearance since winning against Miami on December 14 — that’s two weeks in real time. Mobley was in good form, shooting 9-12 for 22 points with seven rebounds. Mobley blocked no shots in this contest and he missed an open three in the final minute, but in all it was an impressive performance in keeping with his growing body of work.

No appearances were made in this game by new G League pickup Luke Kornet or the somewhat more established Tacko Fall, although both were available.

The Pelicans were missing Brandon Ingram, out with Achilles soreness and had a few minor players in the protocols. Zion Williamson remains in no-man’s-land along, presumably, with David Griffin’s career in New Orleans.

The Game

The Cavs came out on fire, putting the Pelicans in a 19-point hole at the end of the first quarter. Rubio started at point, carving up the Pelicans for 10 points, including 2-2 from range. Mobley was unstoppable, going 4-5, and Kevin Love’s entrance into the game unleashed a torrent of three-pointers for Cleveland. Love went 4-4 from distance in the quarter and was joined in the triple party with makes by Evan Mobley and Denzel Valentine.

The Pelicans sole bright spot was the rookie Herbert Jones — a 2021 second-round pick born, raised, and educated in Tuscaloosa Alabama — who ended with the Pelicans high of 26 points.

The Cavs cooled considerably in the second quarter, scoring only 19 points. Cincinnati high school phenom Jaxson Hayes’ entrance into the game gave the Pelicans a spark, scoring seven points and pulling down four rebounds. The Pelicans also began to heat up from three, sinking half of their ten attempts, while the Cavs could not get a single three to go in.

This was part of Cleveland’s eroding lead throughout the night — Dean Wade, Lauri Markkanen, Justin Anderson, and Kevin Pangos combined to go 1-15 from three. The sole player beyond Rubio and Love who made a three-point shot after the first quarter was Denzel Valentine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nzZ4Nnir6E

By contrast, eleven-year vet and LSU prodigal son Garrett Temple went crazy in the fourth quarter, going 5-5 from distance and propelling the Pelicans to final eradicate the Cavs big advantage.

Kevin Love did yeoman’s work to keep the Cavs in this game down the stretch, hitting three of his four triple attempts, but Rubio’s injury deflated them and deprived the team of an orchestrator on the floor for the final possessions. (J.B. stuck with Denzel Valentine rather than going with Nembhard or Pangos for the last two minutes.)

Sports and art are sometimes tied together — Rubio’s masterwork in this game, his control of the floor, he was the maestro in every way. But the end of this game for Rubio, his suffering on the ground, his courtesy and humanity to his teammates, his being helped off the floor with a dead leg and sorrowful eyes, it felt more like a religious painting than anything I’ve ever seen or ever hope to see again in a Cavs game. So a recap which tries to nail down the whole event and lend some rational sheen to what was a gut punch for everyone watching and surely beyond difficult for the Cavs players and organization feels in itself ridiculous and inappropriate, but there it is anyway. Go Cavs, and prayers up for Ricky Rubio and his recovery.

Randoms

The Cavs were feeling good after their beatdown of Toronto and came into this game as the mirror image of New Orleans in the win-loss category (Cavs at 21-13; Pelicans at 12-22). However, the Pelicans had rattled off wins in four of their last five games. Even discounting that stretch as being buoyed by two wins against the inconsistent Thunder, the Pels beat the Bucks in December and took out the Utah Jazz in a last-minute win in Salt Lake City. The Cavs haven’t beaten the Pelicans in Cleveland since March 2018, and, if I am reading the data correctly, the last time they won in New Orleans was in March 2010. The two teams meet again on February 1 2022 in Cleveland.