Recap: Kings 106, Cavs 95 (or, Choke Job)

The Cavs blew an eight point lead with less than five minutes left in the game to lose in humiliating fashion to the Sacramento Kings 106-95, going scoreless for the last five minutes of the game. Here’s some thoughts and reflections about last night…

1. A J.B. Bickerstaff disasterclass

The immediate spin in the aftermath of the game, offered by the most plugged-in beat writer Chris Fedor of cleveland.com, was that Coach J.B. Bickerstaff felt like he “could’ve found more ways to help.” Running with that, allow yours truly to count the ways…

First and most obvious thing that stands out was J.B.’s godawful lineups and rotations, starting with an eight-man rotation in a back to back game. Granted, three regular rotations guys are out. But allowing one of the Cavs’ most pleasant surprises of the season, Mamadi Diakite, waste away on the bench when he’s done nothing but help the team win (+9.9 net rating in 11 games played this season, 7-4 record) is a head-scratcher. CtB Commentariat member Windmill brought up a great point about how Diakite performed very well against the 76ers and Joel Embiid a few nights ago, but can’t get any run last night as Domantas Sabonis completely destroyed Tower City. What gives J.B.? Unfortunately, J.B. ran out of the press conference last night after less than 90 seconds on the podium so media gets a pass this time.

J.B.’s rotations were a perfect storm of garbage, sticking with terrible lineups too long and not giving enough run to the productive lineups… observe:

Notice how the three worst lineups of the night received 23 minutes of game action, while the three best lineups of the night received about 11 minutes of action. Also notice how Raul Neto and Cedi Osman were instrumental in the best lineups of the night. Credit to J.B. for giving Cedi the maximum amount of run, but why not do the same with the only other players who were impacting the team best: Neto and Lamar Stevens? This was a game the Cavs had to muck up on the defense end, and yet J.B. left two the better defenders on the team (Neto, Diakite) mostly on the bench.

The last thing yours truly will point out is how this team in general has been under-performing compared to expectation. Based on the Cavs’ excellent point differential, the Cavs have an expected winning percentage of .663 and a projected winning percentage of .698 for the season according to nbastuffer.com. Currently the Cavs sit at a .615 winning percentage, which puts the Cavs in the top three of most underachieving teams in the NBA, only getting beat out by the Chicago Bulls and Dallas Mavericks. It’s still early in the season and injuries are a clearly mitigating factor, but trusty old calculator says J.B. Bickerstaff deserves scrutiny for failing to maximize one of the most talented rosters in the NBA.

2. The Big Three dropped the ball

The triumvirate of Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and Darius Garland looked like three players who were sleepwalking through the game, coughing up the ball 15 times in a pitiful display of offense. With younger players comes inconsistency, and that was never more apparent than last night. Perhaps part of Mobley’s problem was playing an obscene 41 minutes on the front end of a back-to-back, due to Jarrett Allen’s foul trouble and J.B.’s refusal to put in Diakite. DG and JA never got cooking because of the packed paint, and that was a wrap. Obviously not having the three best floor spacers on the roster didn’t help, but that’s no excuse for how bad they played down the stretch… especially on the defensive end.

3. The Kangz are for real

Yours truly has been a crypto-Kangz fan throughout the years because they drafted one of my favorite players of all-time, Duke G.O.A.T. Bobby Hurley. There hasn’t been anything to cheer about with the Kings, from fumbling the Luka Dončić pick and trading Tyrese Haliburton. But it appears they’ve found something with Coach Mike Brown, De’Aaron Fox, and Sabonis. They are on pace to reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2005-2006 season! They have a top three net rating in the West as well. They play hard and their offense is elite. It’s easy to draw the analogy that they are this year’s version of the Cavs of last year, one of best surprises of the NBA season.

4. Next up, OKC…

The best thing about the NBA? If a team craps the bed one night, there’s a chance to get right immediately and tonight’s game against the Oklahoma City Thunder is that chance for the Cavs to bounce back. The Thunder have lifted themselves out of the NBA’s basement dwellers, and have joined the 20 teams or so in the NBA mired in mediocrity so far this season. May last night’s game be a fever dream that Cavs’ fans will forget about promptly, Go Cavs!