LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love playing tons of minutes
November 17, 2014Josh Gordon doesn’t need to be a savior for the Browns
November 18, 2014Denver Nuggets (3-7) 106
Cleveland Cavaliers (5-4) 97
[Box Score]
What a dull game.
The Cavaliers felt like they were sleepwalking through most of this game. The offense was stagnant and lethargic, and when they got good looks, they were missing the shots. The defense is still atrocious, as the Cavaliers let Denver keep them off balance all night long. And unlike the Cavs, the Nuggets were hitting their shots when they had good looks.
After the Hawks game Saturday night, head coach David Blatt made a point that it’s important to always remember that things are never as good as they feel after a win, and they’re never as bad as they feel after a loss. I think a lot of people seemed to assume that the Cavaliers’ four game winning streak meant that everything was fixed. It’s not. After this game, it feels like the Cavaliers are right back where they started. They’re not.
As we were preaching all preseason, there are going to be many ups and downs this season. There were bound to be nights like this as the Cavaliers continue to learn what it takes to play hard and consistently give the required effort to win games in the NBA. Yet having said all that, it’s still pretty frustrating to lose a home game to a struggling team like the Nuggets.
If there’s anything to be scared of or worried about, it’s unquestionably the defense. The Cavaliers are fine when they are hot on offense and knocking down shots. But you can’t grit out wins in the NBA when your offense is struggling if you can’t make up for it on the defensive side of the floor. There are no quick fixes on the horizon for the defense, either. That’s the one thing to be truly worried about with this team.
Now lets get into the numbers.
- 26 – The Cavaliers had 15 turnovers which turned into 26 points for the Nuggets. During the win streak, the Cavaliers were excellent at taking care of the basketball. Kyrie Irving, in particular, was on an incredible run of games with either one or zero turnovers. In this game, however, Kyrie had four turnovers and LeBron James had four of his own. The Cavaliers offense just seemed out of sync in general from the get go. Guys weren’t moving off the ball much and there was a little too much dribbling, making it easier on the Denver defense to stay in position to create turnovers. And while 15 turnovers isn’t horrible in and of itself, the 26 points given up off them shows the team wasn’t getting back in transition. Denver just looked like the hungrier team in this game, and this points off turnover statistics bears witness to that.
- -27 – Kevin Love was a team low -14 and LeBron was -13 in this game for a combined -27. That’s a fairly alarming number for two of the Cavaliers’ three best players. In terms of efficiency, Love was a net -14 and LeBron was a net -12.8. It’s tough to put a finger on why these numbers were so bad in this game. Love wasn’t hitting his outside shot in this game, and this was hardly LeBron’s best offensive or defensive game, but it didn’t feel like they stood out as being especially bad, either. It just goes to show what a strange game this was. Things just felt off in this one. And whatever the reason for it, the Cavaliers are going to have a hard time winning many games when LeBron and Love have such low efficiency numbers.
- 44 to 36 – The Nuggets outscored the Cavaliers in the paint 44 to 36. This stat is often used as evidence of superior post play, but that didn’t really feel like the case in this game, so much. It felt like a lot of the damage in the paint was coming off of the Nuggets getting into the lane with the drive, leading to easy layups and dump offs. And that’s a big part of the Cavaliers’ problem on defense. Teams are getting inside with the dribble way too easily and the help has been slow. This puts pressure on the wing defenders to pinch in, and then the Cavaliers are slow to react and close out when the ball is kicked back out. The Nuggets offense really did to the Cavaliers what the Cavaliers usually like to do to other teams. A good defensive team would be able to adjust to the Nuggets’ talent level, but the Cavaliers just did not do a good enough job adjusting to what Denver was doing. And credit to the Nuggets for making shots when they were open.
- 24 – Ty Lawson had 24 points to lead the Nuggets. Last game against Denver, Lawson wasn’t able to play, which was obviously a huge benefit to the Cavaliers. Tonight, Lawson was simply great. In addition to his 24 points, he also had 12 assists. Lawson was pretty much unstoppable at the point of attack, and when he got to the second level, it seemed like he made the right play every time, sometimes scoring on a layup and other times hitting the open teammate for a quality shot. It didn’t matter who the Cavaliers put on Lawson, whether it was Kyrie, Dion, or LeBron, none of them were able to slow down Lawson at all.
- 20 – Seems like we should end on one positive, right? Dion Waiters was excellent offensively in this game scoring 20 points off the bench. He was hitting big shot after big shot in the second half trying desperately to spark the Cavaliers back into the game. Unfortunately, the Cavs just couldn’t get the stops they needed on the other end to get off on a good run. But with so many players struggling with their shot (the Cavaliers only shot 43% from the field as a team), it was nice to see Dion feeling comfortable in the offense and trying to make something happen. Some shots were a little forced still, but Dion was clearly the hot hand in this game.
There’s not much else to say about this game, really. It’s still too early in the season for me to feel too angry about losses. Frustrated? Yes. But not really angry. I just think it’s really going to take some time for this team to consistently click and find their stride.
It doesn’t get any easier, though, as the Cavaliers now have to face LeBron’s kryptonite in the form of the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night in the Q. The Cavaliers will have to play much, much better than what we saw tonight if they want to have any chance of knocking off the champs. But win or lose, playing the Spurs at home will be a nice litmus test to see where this team really is at this early in the season.
8 Comments
Hopefully, the positive takeaway from this one was that Dion will realize that coming off the bench is his best role and he embraces it. What a disappointment for my first visit to the Q for LeBron Era 2.0.
Waiters played really well last night, including on defense.
Kyrie looks absolutely lost on D. He runs into a pick, scrambles to recover, gets blown past, and seems to have no idea where to be. Love looked great in the first half but spent the second half fighting with Faried, it seemed.
Lebron was sick so perhaps that’s why, but looked like he was not putting much effort in half the time. Adding to that sick piece, his first five shots or so were all short.
Nobody rotated to the left corner 3 repeatedly, and someone is missing their role in getting back when Kyrie or Dion drive for a layup. If that shot is no good it’s often a 2-on-0 going the other way.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. To many three point attempts especially by Joe Harris who couldn’t throw it in Lake Erie last night if he tried. This loss dilutes the accomplishment against the Hawks IMO.
Kyrie Irving had his first bad game in awhile but lets give some props to Ty Lawson of Denver because he made the whole Cavs defense look terrible. Varejao is the one who continues to play like a guy who just got a new deal.
The problem with the Cavs right now is that 3 of their 4 best players have been required to play defense exactly zero times before this season. I blame Mike Brown. Yes, it’s somehow Mike Brown’s fault that Love isn’t a good defense.
Giving up 106 points at home to a bad Nuggets team isn’t on the three point attempts, which were made at a respectable 34.5% anyway.
Whatever.
no one ever mentions Thompson. I was hoping we would move him last summer. all he can do is rebound off the bench, but that’s just n ot enough in this league..how can a guy in his 4th-? yr. have absolutely no post up move in the box, and no mid-range jumpshot{ whatever hand he decides to use!!}he is so slow with the ball in his hands its pathetic, not to mention having zero court sense. he looked stupid out there last night, like he had no clue what to do..! I saw james at one point just shaking his head about it… to me he is a bust!