Cleveland Browns say farewell to their leader, release D’Qwell Jackson
February 26, 2014Seahawks’ Russell Wilson to dress for Rangers against Tribe
February 27, 2014On the second night of a back-to-back against the best of the West following a tough loss to the Raptors, I gave the Cavaliers virtually no chance of competing tonight, let alone winning. But, they did exactly that, it was a star-studded effort for Kyrie Irving, who trumped the duo of Durant and Westbrook with plenty of help from the other four starters to pull off a fourth quarter stunner, capped by a 40-23 run in the fourth that turned a seven-point deficit into a 10-point lead on the way to a 114-104 victory in Oklahoma City.
There were so many highlights late in this one: Alonzo Gee’s steal and power thump on a breakaway, Kyrie’s out-of-state three point answer, Spencer Hawes’s pair of floating left-handed hooks through the lane, Tyler Zeller zipping through the lane on multiple dump-offs, and Tristan Thompson’s bounce pass feed on a backdoor to Kyrie that extended the lead from six to nine with under two minutes to play. But, the takeaway from this one is that the Cavaliers did not back down when Oklahoma City hit them in the mouth in the third quarter and looked to pull away. Let’s dig into some noteworthy numbers.
42 – The Cavaliers scored 42 points in the fourth quarter. It nearly topped the franchise mark for a quarter at 46 set in both 1979 and 1992! Cleveland shot a blistering 67% in the fourth too.
#2 – Kyrie Irving’s statline deserves its own section. This was one of Kyrie’s best all-around performances from an offensive, defensive, flow, and leadership perspective as a Cavalier given the opponent. For the second straight night, Kyrie and Mike Brown very much bucked the ordinary with Irving playing the entire fourth quarter. Irving scored 31 points with 14 points in the final stanza. That total matched the output from Durant and Westbrook on six less shots. Mix that with nine assists, five rebounds, four steals, three turnovers, and 10-of-19 shooting in nearly 43 minutes and it was a gem authored by Mr. Fourth Quarter. The emotion he showed with assistant Jamahl Mosley after the game on the court was a rare display and a welcomed sign of passion from Irving too.
23-of-24 – The wine and gold have been getting to the line more often and making more successful withdrawals. The Cavs currently rank 10th by getting to the line just about 17 times per game, though they rank 22nd by shooting just under 75%. Tonight, they missed just one foul shot and made seven more trips to the charity stripe than the Thunder. That’s due largely to the fact that the Cavs committed only 14 fouls in this contest. To say the Cavalier defense was airtight tonight wouldn’t be true, but they did limit transition (13 fastbreak points), paint points (32), and the Thunder took 31 of their 80 shots from behind the arc. Over the past six games, the Cavaliers are 143-for-173 at the foul line. That’s a 82.7% clip and an average of 29 trips to the line! From what I can decipher, it’s a product of improved ball movement leading to more open looks where the defense’s only option is to foul to prevent a layup.
19 – The Cavalier defense was also incredibly active in the passing lanes, forcing 19 OKC turnovers. Some of them were unforced errors on miscommunication in the Thunder offense, but the Cavs managed 12 steals as each of the nine players that played for Cleveland picked up a steal with the exception of Spencer Hawes. Luol Deng seems to have resurrected this mindset a bit in the last few games, and Alonzo Gee has always been prone to backcourt deflections when given minutes. Credit Mike Brown for riding Gee for some early fourth quarter minutes to slow down Durant. It gave Deng a breather while not forcing the Cavaliers to play their three point guard lineup, a death sentence against Durant.
36:23 – Four Cavalier starters played at least this much tonight on the second night of a back-to-back. That was Tristan’s minute count with Deng playing slightly over 37 minutes, Jack at 39, and Irving at 43. That’s after Irving put in 45 last night and Deng added 40. The Cavaliers need their backcourt reinforcements back in Dion Waiters and C.J. Miles in the worst way, because the heavy minutes, especially as the Cavs look at another back-to-back scenario on Friday and Saturday are going to start to catch up with them.
40 – That’s the number of points combined from Spencer Hawes and Jarrett Jack. Hawes had a double digit first half where he canned a couple of threes then added more key buckets down the stretch. The big man’s mere presence out on the perimeter stretches the defense and forces them to respect his shot. He’s not tied to solely threes, however, as we saw him take a barrage of shots inside the arc off the ball fake and drive. He took the second most shots on the team, hitting 8-of-18 for 19 points and seven rebounds in his second start as a Cavalier. As for Jarrett Jack, THIS is the guy we handed premium bucks and several guaranteed years. He was confident in his mid-range and outside shot and didn’t force the offense to a screeching halt by dominating the ball. His 21 points were a Cavalier high, and he did it on 14 shots while dishing out four assists and turning it over just once. If we get the Jack from the last two nights for the rest of the season, the Cavaliers have a much better fighting chance to climb back into things.
23 – Speaking of which, with just 23 games left, the odds remain long that the Cavaliers will be able to get into the playoffs. However, it’s certainly doable given the Eastern Conference climate. The Cavs sit just four games out of the eighth spot, currently occupied by the plummeting Atlanta Hawks, who are 1-9 in their last ten and have an upcoming five game west coast swing. If they can get to the eighth spot, there’s certainly not much more to go for the sixth seed, which is the magic slot when it comes to avoiding Miami or Indiana in the first round and having a realistic chance to win a series.
The Cavaliers have a grueling march against the likes of San Antonio, Oklahoma City, Miami, New York, Houston, Toronto, and Indiana at home as well as Charlotte, Phoenix, Golden State, and the Clippers on the road. If the Cavs can beat Utah at home on Friday, they’d be sitting at 24 wins. Going even just 6-9 in that tough March slate could keep them in it with a chance in their final seven games. Those final seven are all against Eastern Conference teams and four of the last five are at The Q. The toughest team in the stretch? The Brooklyn Nets, currently sitting in the sixth spot. Brooklyn, Charlotte (currently seventh), and Atlanta all can be caught by the Cavs. It would not shock me to see one of those three take a free-fall in the standings, and in a footrace with Detroit, it’s only going to take one of those three falling off to open up a spot. I’ll give the Cavaliers a 50-50 chance of making it in if they can pull off a 13-10 clip the rest of the way.
(Photo: Sue Ogrocki/AP)
22 Comments
13-10 will be a tall order, but at least there’s a chance. I wrote the Tribe off several times last year and they always resurrected our hopes. Maybe the Cavs can do the same.
Delly at the start of the 4th was fantastic. Who would have thought OKC was a slump-buster?
AGGGGGGH!!! I didn’t watch this one! Curse you Cavaliers!!! Curse you surprising win in the middle of a 3-game losing streak!
Kyrie was a MONSTER (according to the box score)!
AGGGGGGH!!! I didn’t watch this one! Curse you Cavaliers!!! Curse you surprising win in the middle of a 3-game losing streak!
Kyrie was a MONSTER (according to the box score)!
I’d like for us to just miss the playoffs and luck into a high lottery pick. I just don’t see the positives in getting trounced by Indiana. Sure it looks good to “make it.” The thing is we would be making it as a sub .500 team, which is like getting a trophy for participation. Eff that. Making an 8 seed isn’t gonna make that big a difference for Kyrie staying or going either. Odds are his mind is mostly made up one way or another.
I’d like to see us make the playoffs and let the chips fall where they may. “Lucking” into a high lottery pick isn’t sound strategy…and certainly isn’t much better than at least showing some signs of life as a franchise.
I don’t know, Jason. Lucking into a high lottery pick may not be a sound strategy, but it’s the only one that’s ever worked.
other strategy that worked: hiring Wayne Embry as GM
He really wanted this one. You could tell from the 1st quarter… the kid just gets more enthusiastic and focused for big games like this. I wish we could find a way to bottle that intensity and release it on the Bobcats and Pistons of the world. Just a really great and entertaining performance from Kyrie. He was not going to get beat last night.
I think there’s plenty of value for our very young core to make the playoffs and get thumped by Indiana and Miami. Teams have to learn how to win in the playoffs. It’s a new level of intensity that they just can’t see in the regular season. Regardless of the shame of making the playoffs with a losing record, I think the experience and desire to get back to the playoffs again is better for the team than a minuscule chance at getting one of the top picks in the draft. For better or worse, the Cavs have their core players. Now it’s time for them to grow together.
Them making the 8 seed and going 13-10 just wouldn’t be about them making the playoffs either IMO but instead putting together a winning half of basketball going into the following season and at the same time forcing them to grind in the 2nd half to obtain that playoff spot which would be good experience for future playoff runs. It would show things on the way up especially after the 1st half they had this season. Winning cures a lot even if it was only for 1 half of a season. Also it would help build public appearance for the team which is badly needed. Better to get the experience for the core than continue to hope to lose in the hopes of getting lucky in the lottery. After the top 6 what can’t miss prospects are really in this draft?
I saw Kyrie foolishly show off and carry the ball on a 5-4 break and OKC turn what should have been a 6 point Cavs lead to being up one at the half. I saw OKC gently batting the Cavs around in the early third quarter, like a cat before he finishes off the mouse. Durant showing he can hit shots from weird angles like he’s in the gym by himself and all that. Was tired and turned it off without DVR because I’ve wasted so much time staring at hundreds of obvious losses like this and had no interest in later watching a replay just to see if Anthony Bennett would get some meaningless 4th quarter points.
Forget the stats – they’re a symptom, not a diagnosis – what the hell happened? Did OKC just get bored and then couldn’t turn it on again? Guess I’ll never know. Hey Cavs players, maybe this is why you should keep playing the game to the end.
Except that luck backfired on us during the Anthony Davis draft.
In all fairness, nothing has “worked” in that it has delivered a championship to Cleveland. Let’s mix it up a bit, just for the sake of our sanity.
I only watched the 4th quarter, so I can fill you in on what happened there.
The bench unit apparently wanted to show that Mike Brown can trust them for more than 12min/game. Zeller, Deller, and Gee and B? (hey, it’s Dr. Seuss’s birthday, so that’s Anthony’s nickname here) showed as much intensity as you will see on a basketball court. Irving played with the 2nd unit. I was expecting hero-ball, honestly. Instead, he took the cue from the bench guys. They coupled the intensity with actual passing of the basketball and cutting to the rim. What followed was shots close to the basket that were easy layups or FT opportunities.
Lots of good passing, lots of focus/energy on defense and that included my favorite sequence of events of the quarter (Bennett anticipates and steals a pass, shucks it over to Irving, Kyrie had enough room to get into the lane but opted to setup Delly who drilled his shot).
By the time Hawes and Jack came in, it felt like we were going to win and they both hit their shots and weren’t completely terrible on defense.
Thx, MG. Watching Duke-Syracuse last weekend made me wonder what Kyrie’s game would look like now if he had practiced and played a full year under Krzyzewski’s demands. Or two seasons! (Riiiight). When LeBron was developing some great writer said he looked at times like a guy carrying too many groceries, not yet quite knowing how to employ all those skills. When Kyrie makes some great pass with crazy english for an easy layup I think the same thing. When he quick-jacks a 27 footer and makes it I go nooo!/wow!
Well said, and just to add to that, I personally don’t think there are ANY can’t-miss prospects in this draft. Certainly not Andrew Wiggins. Not Jabari Parker. Not Joel Embiid. Not Julius Randle. Any of those guys could turn out to be a role player.
I’m shaking my head on those deep shots 10sec into the shot-clock whether or not they go in, but I completely agree with everything in your post. well done.
I don’t know where that came from. The effort on defense was fantastic. The ability to move the ball on offense was great. Their rate of play and the way they pushed the game was awesome. So either the Raptors are the new Bulls and have figured out how to force the game to a grinding halt, or the Cavs just decided to start caring a lot more.
I had those same feelings as the Cavs got down by 11 and 12 points at various points in the 3rd quarter. I thought they wouldn’t have the mental fortitude to push back into the game similar to the 3 games prior to last night’s win. I can tell you for sure, the Thunder really wanted the win. Irving went into that FU mode where he’s unstoppable. With about 8 minutes left, he hit a three-pointer to tie the game and then just kept landing haymakers (both with his shooting and with his passing). The fun part was that the rest of the team joined him. Jarrett Jack was more passionate and determined than I’ve seen from him this season. The Thunder were trying hard… Durant had a great game, Westbrook is starting to look like his old self, and Serge Ibaka might have had the best game I’ve ever seen from him. They just couldn’t do anything with the Cavs in the fourth quarter, everything they touched was golden.
It was kind of a fluky win but I’ll take it. The Cavs werent even shooting that well until the 4th quarter, when they got ridiculously hot. Like you said, OKC seemed to be toying with them, I was waiting for them to flip the switch and finish us off, but it never happened. The whole team looked a little shell shocked, included Durant. On a side note OKC seems to have a real dilemma on their hands with the Russell Westbrook thing, he was jacking up bad shots early in the clock and killing momentum. It almost seems like they adjusted a little too well to playing without him. Now he’s back and they don’t know how to play with him.
I think it would help even if the Cavs fall just short of making the playoffs. The experience of the push, coupled with hopefully retaining much of the team (i.e. re-signing Deng and Hawes), should make for next season to finally get in to the playoffs.