Recap: Cavs 92, Wizards 86 (or, Eye-Gouging Wins)

This game was all elbows and gouged eyes, and the Cavs trailed most of the way. With three of his core players out of the rotation with injuries, J.B. Bickerstaff leaned heavily on Lauri Markkanen from the jump, and rode point guard Brandon Goodwin for an anxious 38 minutes. The Cavs needed a jolt from Cedi Osman in his hybrid role of distributor and chaos-maker, and they got it. The Wizards’ Kyle Kuzma scored 34 points, rarely missing from distance even when blanketed on the wing by the longer Mobley or double-teamed. But Isaac Okoro made several surgical interventions down the stretch, churning to the rim for acrobatic buckets and then locking Kuzma down. An ugly game, but with much scrap and by holding Washington to 16 points in the fourth quarter, the W was preserved.

The Bigs

One silver lining from Thursday’s debacle in Detroit was the reemergence of Lauri Markkanen. J.B. put the ball in Lauri’s hands again versus Washington, and the big Finn showed both mettle inside (5 defensive rebounds, and a crucial tap-out) and precision from the arc. As in his Motor City resurrection game, Markkanen’s timing was off near the hoop, but his aggressiveness still got him to the line. The story from distance was altogether different, with Markkanen canning 6 of 9 triples, makes galore which probably resulted in big high fives around the expansive desk of Koby Altman.

Even with Markkanen playing like a man possessed, the Cavs seemed intent to tunnel themselves into oblivion in the middle of the game. It was then that Jarrett Allen kept the team on his back and Mobley kept motoring away. With his All-Star appearance now firmly in the rear view mirror, Cleveland’s defensive anchor notched 14 rebounds and 18 points (7-8 from the field), and he and Mobley sealed the game with four clutch free throws in the final minutes.

Although he was limited to 14 minutes and had an abysmal (1-10) shooting night, Kevin Love embraced the scrambled and scrappy nature of this game and contributed to some solid stops. Love’s first-half block on the Wizards’ Thomas Bryant was a genuine throwback moment for the 14 year vet, and Love added a steal, three assists, and five rebounds.

Thanos-level block by @kevinlove last night. https://t.co/7Mv8dsUnm7

— Jeffrey K. Rohrs (@jkrohrs) February 27, 2022

The Wizards’ trade deadline moves did them few favors in this game, since they no longer had  Montrezl Harrell (shipped off to Charlotte) and their featured acquisition from Dallas (Kristaps Porzingis) remains a hypothetical and is out with knee trouble. Nevertheless Daniel Gafford logged 24 impressive minutes, putting the Cavs defense in a rare victim mode on a highlight-friendly package of pick and rolls. Markkanen’s aggressiveness helped to get Gafford in early foul trouble, one reason the Cavs were relatively even with the DC club at the half.

Rui Hachimura, covered more in depth in a recent CtB post, sank a couple of effortless threes when left open by the Cavs. However, the Japanese forward contributed little to Washington’s interior defense, and became suddenly timid when shut off on a late drive to the hoop when defended by Brandon Goodwin (who happens to be the Cavs’ shortest player now that Kevin Pangos is on the way back to Moscow). DC’s coach Wes Unseld went with a platoon approach in the frontcourt, mixing and matching Hachimura with Deni Avdija, Thomas Bryant, and the combo guard Corey Kispert in the rebounding scrum. Kuzma snaffled up 13 boards on the game, but showed an aversion to drawing contact, shooting no free throws. Advantage: Cavs.

The Guards 

Because Washington traded Spencer Dinwiddie and shut down Bradley Beal for the year, no one in the league is in awe of their current backcourt. Indeed, the Wizards’ starting guards in this game combined for a measly six points. Raul Neto, the sixth-year Brazilian and default starting point guard, is not handling the increase in usage particularly well — he is shooting about 23% from three, a full ten points lower than his career low with Utah. Corey Kispert is a promising rookie combo guard, but he was outplayed by Isaac Okoro.

Let’s hope that words like back, foot, and toe (not to mention meniscus) are not still littering the Cavs’ guards injury report as the playoffs approach. In the meantime, Brandon Goodwin seems to have J.B.’s ear and his support, and in spite of shooting 2-11, Goodwin put in a competent and competitive performance versus Washington. He was spelled for a total of four first-half minutes by R.J. Nembhard, Jr. The Cavs’ television team noted that Nembhard, Jr., was averaging 22 points a night in his stint with the Canton Charge, but none of that offensive aggressiveness was on display in his limited run.

Given his own relatively late arrival to the squad in 2022 and with Markkanen’s absence, Goodwin didn’t have his timing down with the Cavs’ starting small forward, and a few turnovers resulted. The orchestrations of the offense by Goodwin weren’t flawless; there were 24 second violations, one the consequence of dumping the ball to Kevin Love in the post with 5 seconds left on the shot clock. But Goodwin matched up well with Ish Smith in the veteran Wizards’ backup point guard’s 24 minutes, and was a distinct improvement on Rondo’s half-dozen turnovers vs. Detroit.

Rajon Rondo’s balky toe has given the Cavs’ front office yet more to do in their seemingly eternal search for a backup point guard. On Saturday, the Cavs’ new 10-day contract Tim Frazier was suited up on the bench in case of total catastrophe. Elsewhere in the guard category, Dylan Windler was “on assignment” in the G League. Lemar Stevens was available and raining threes in warmups, but got a DNP.

Trevon Scott, who scored 6 points in the Cavs’ Boxing Day laugher against “the Raptors” in Cleveland, is no longer available for call-up, since he has been traded to the Ontario (California) G-League affiliate of the LA Clippers. Some members of the CtB staff and commentariat are eyeing Dante Exum — he is currently playing for Real Madrid in the EuroLeague, averaging 16 minutes a night with a great 3 point percentage (53%) on limited attempts, and a 90% free throw percentage that looks like it could have an upside.

Coaching

The Cavs closed the gap at the end of the third quarter, but needed a spark as the fourth quarter got underway. Coach J.B. Bickerstaff saw Kevin Love falling down after his arm was hit by Rui Hachimura on a 3-point closeout, and saw his opportunity. J.B. must have gotten extra spicy with his vocabulary, since he picked up a technical foul. The Cavs lost a point but got a spark, the crowd got animated, and J.B. was en fuego in his huddles in the fourth.

Finally, J.B.’s selective use of “Point Mobley” is a real joy to watch. Mobley isn’t being put in a position where he has got to do everything, but the rookie from USC continues to do everything well.

The Cavs and their fans will need a day for their eye sockets to recover from the damage from this ugly game. But even through a bloodshot haze, the W looks alright to me.