J.R. Smith joined a pair of Cavs fans for chicken wings
March 25, 2015Browns to be subject to “severe” discipline for in-game texts
March 26, 2015Cleveland Cavaliers 111
Memphis Grizzlies 89
Box Score
The Cavs’ Wednesday night matchup with the Grizzlies was their first game against a true title contender since they painted a masterpiece with the Spurs on March 12. The wine and gold fattened up their record over the past week and a half against Eastern Conference foes, winning four of five,1 and one could argue that their visit to the Grindhouse would be the first real playoff-style contest of the season.
In the first half, the Cavs were up to the challenge and then some. They beat the Grizzlies at their game, in their house, defending like mad and owning the paint. They added flashes of their own game, whipping the ball around the horn and knocking down open jumpers. They forced turnovers, contested shots, and pursued rebounds. LeBron James was engaged from the jump, and his effort level spread up and down the Cavs roster.
Tristan Thompson never stopped chasing rebounds. J.R. Smith blocked a Marc Gasol shot and dished out assists. Iman Shumpert did his best Tony Allen impression, hounding ballhandlers and forcing misses on would-be bunnies. Matthew Dellavedova knocked down a three and the bench unit more than held their own. Kyrie Irving scored a gorgeous and-one on the Cavs’ last possession of the half. Everything was humming.
Before you knew it, the Cavs had put the game away in the third quarter. The Grizzlies came out of the locker room with a little fire after halftime, but the Cavs snuffed it out in a jiffy. They showered Memphis with threes and broke the will of perhaps the toughest team in the league.
Through it all, Kevin Love, he of dubious happiness and fit, played one of his best games of the year. He shot efficiently from inside and out. He defended Marc Gasol competently, freeing up 7-foot-1 Timofey Mozgov to pester the 6-9 Zach Randolph. He unlocked the Memphis defense with passes of all shapes. He influenced the game in every way he could. One of his few errors was overthrowing LeBron on a full-court outlet pass.
It was a magnificent basketball game. Let us enjoy the numbers like an after-dinner digestif.
14, 14 – The Cavs shot 14-of-19 in that deciding third quarter, including 5-of-9 threes, and all 14 of their field goals were assisted. They outscored Memphis 36-24 in the period, and it felt like a bigger margin than that. LeBron, J.R., and Dellavedova had three assists apiece. Kevin Love scored 10 in the quarter on 5-of-5 shooting. Mozgov, J.R., and Delly combined for 17 points on 6-of-6 from the floor. The Cavs grabbed 12 rebounds to the Grizzlies’ 3.
They led 91-66 by the end of the quarter, and the fourth was a formality. The third quarter shot chart tells the tale (to paraphrase Gordon Gekko, green is good).
CAVS 3RD QUARTER THERMONUCLEAR MELTDOWN pic.twitter.com/4OwpML14Xl
— Peter Edmiston (@peteredmiston) March 26, 2015
51.2/41.2/84.6 – The Cavs’ field goal, three-point, and free throw shooting percentages for the night. The 50/40/90 trifecta is hallowed shooting ground, and the Cavs were one free throw away from hitting those marks. They shot 34 threes, perhaps a touch high (they average 27 3PA per game), but a great many of them were wide open looks resulting from beautiful ball movement.
They played fluid, selfless basketball. They flicked the ball around with ease and purpose, and were like a soccer team olé-ing for chunks of the second half. Mozgov hit Love on a backdoor cut for a layup in the third quarter, and Love returned the favor by passing on a left wing three to hit Mozgov for an uncontested dunk. LeBron was so wide open on one corner three that he had time to reset his feet and take a dribble before draining it.
Memphis entered the game with the league’s third-best defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) and a 50-21 record, second in the West. Didn’t matter; the Cavs tore ’em up.
49-32 – The Cavs outrebounded Memphis by that margin. They dominated in the second half to the tune of a 25-to-9 advantage, with 7 on the offensive end. The starting frontcourt of Love, Mozgov, and James combined for 27 rebounds, but it was Tristan Thompson who paced the team with 11 boards off the bench.
Thompson was at his frenetic best in Memphis, and he drew two loose ball fouls attacking the glass in the second quarter alone. He was only credited with three offensive rebounds for the game, but he got the Cavs more extra possessions than that, and the team capitalized on them. Two such plays came in the second quarter: Mozgov scored on a putback after a foul against Thompson gave the Cavs a fresh possession, and Irving hit a pull-up jumper after Tristan kicked it out to him after an offensive rebound.
36 – This game marked Kevin Love’s 36th double-double of the season. He totaled 22 points, 10 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 blocks. He shot 10-of-13 from the field and hit half of his four three-balls. He defended Marc Gasol for much of the game, holding the Spaniard to 7-of-15 shooting and just 3 rebounds. It was a superb game for No. 0, likely aided by having the past few days off, and perhaps a statement in light of the latest kvetching about his mood and future.
Plus, he interrupted LeBron’s postgame interview to wish his mom a happy birthday. That’s the kind of man I want on my team. That’s the kind of man I want in my life.
16-of-36 – I feel like LeBron and Kyrie should be mentioned more, because they both played in this game; they shot an okay 16-of-36 from the floor. LeBron’s stat line was pedestrian by his standards―20 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists―but it was his energy level that set the tone early. He hammered down a monster dunk in the first quarter off of a feed from Mozgov and was instrumental in some of the Cavs’ finer passing displays. Even better? Only one turnover.
Kyrie led the Cavs with 24 points and had a couple assists. He hit two shots at the end of quarters, broke out a few of his exquisite dribble moves, and outplayed Memphis’ Mike Conley, who finished with 10 points and 5 assists.
15-1 – The Cavs’ record in their last 16 games against Western Conference foes. Their last loss against a team from the superior conference was an overtime loss at Houston on March 1. Their last loss to a West team before that was on January 13 (!!!) at Phoenix. Wednesday’s visit to Memphis was the Cavs’ last game against the Western Conference. Until, that is―
No, I won’t go there. Yet.
1 – French-speaking Cavs Twitter account that I discovered Wednesday night. It is now my favorite French-speaking Cavs Twitter account.
No, I can’t name another one.
https://twitter.com/CavsFR/status/580915718218203137
- The only loss came against the Heat in Miami. [↩]
26 Comments
If this Cavs team shows up for the playoffs, then my apologies to the rest of the league
http://i.imgur.com/WVv2kH5.jpg
“… magnificent basketball game … beautiful ball movement … fluid, selfless basketball … ” Extremely well said re an extremely well played and entertaining game. Lo and behold, great teamwork in the era of the superstar! That open three that LeBron hit was hilarious. He was so wide open after the flurry of lightning quick passes, he looked like he was preparing for a foul shot. And I must mention how satisfying it is to have a center who shoots foul shots as if he actually possesses the muscle memory for it. Go ahead, foul the big guy. See what that gets you.
Nice summary, Will. Not much to add about the BEST PLAYED GAME OF THE YEAR but I will, ‘cuz that’s what I do.
– Coach Blatt, we wash you in applause and you may now give us that self-loving smirk right back. Love on Gasol? Mozgov on Randolph? A great, confident coach knows just when to break out the Jedi mind games.
– Team played like a team, both ends, the kind that HATES each other off the court but on the court are true brothers. Like Kyrie’s nasty aside at the end of the third quarter to Delly to give him that ball NOW so he could beat the buzzer with a layup and do the triumphant chicken run back to the bench. A chicken run, that’s what silences a hostile crowd.
– Every time J.R. smoothly rises up for a 3 I fully expect him to make it and if he doesn’t, well, shoot it again J.R. Every time Delly strains for his heroic frog splay 3 and makes it I wonder what he sold his soul for. Yet their percentages are not horribly different the last week or two. Matthew, work that frog until it’s really reliable, and you will be in this league for at least a decade and then waltz back Down Under with at least $70 Extremely Large banked and ready for beach life.
10-0: record with two days rest and coming off a practice.
35-2: record when scoring 103 or better.
FTS had a great stat from last night too; Since 1/15 the LBJ, Love, Kyrie combo has outscored opponents by an average of 18.8 per 100 possessions with a 25-2 record.
……but ya know, Love doesn’t fit in.
How quickly you forget Big Z. He was our best foul shooter in the first go around with James.
But…but…but Kevin Love was a bad trade and he hates LBJ and he is leaving for NY in the offseason….games like this aren’t supposed to happen!
And Andrew Wiggins is outscoring him, and playing more 4th quarter minutes!
Agreed that J.R.’s shot is more fluid than Delly’s. But, unless I misinterpreted what was happening on the court, I am pretty sure Delly hit a three last night, spun around, kept his arm up, and stared down and/or said something to someone in the crowd or someone on the opposite bench in a very JR Smith-like fashion, which was awesome. Maybe JR’s been working with him after practice to develop this part of his game.
Blatt deserves a lot of the credit for that 11-0. He gets his practice time, and the team runs his offense like a clock. I have to keep reminding myself that these guys still barely know each other on the floor – compared to the other contenders.
… too bad Love is leaving for the Lakers in the offseason.
I wish people would recognize what Blatt is doing. The way he matches people up, the offensive movement, the adjustments… it’s incredible. Can’t wait to see him in a series.
I made the mistake of having Mike & Mike on while I was geting ready for work this morning. It boggles my mind that after this kind of game, they spent the better part of 30 minutes talking about Lebron and Love not liking each other off the floor. It’s really getting to be exhausting.
Also keep reminding yourself that this is by far the most offensive weapons LeBron has ever had around him which is still taking time for him to figure out.
For as much “Love doesn’t fit” talk being run Nationally the real conversation is “LeBron’s game still evolving in with new offensive weapons”.
Cavs’ record against West teams…
2-0 against four of them (LA, LA, Memphis, Minn)
0-2 against the aforementioned Houston, which was a bad loss followed by an OT loss
1-1 against the rest, but here’s what’s crazy: Only Denver and New Orleans did the Cavs take the first one, and both of those second matchups were early in the season. For the other eight (!) teams, the Cavs lost the first matchup, then won the second time – all of them by 10+ except SA and Portland.
In fact, the Diff from Game 1 to Game 2 vs. WC foes (excl. 2-0 teams):
-18 Den
-12 NO
+52 Dal
+29 GS
+10 Hou* (both Ls)
+19 OKC
+17 Phx
+24 Por
+30 Sac
+5 SA
+16 Utah
That’s an average gain of 22+ points in Diff from the first to second meetings against those 9 teams.
Lets see if Blatt gets credit for playing Mozgov on Randolph and Love on Gasol. It worked great.
This is why I never watch any of the “shows” on that network. Sports formats should never have copied the “cable news” formats it’s really eroded the game. Thank goodness the professional sports leagues have their own networks.
Wait wait wait…. so what you are saying is that when the Cavs play a team the second time…. THE COACH ADJUSTS SOMETHING AND THEN BLOWS THE DOORS OFF THEM?
http://i.imgur.com/JlxWPGh.gif
Note the outlier of San Antonio. Pops is still king.
Yeah but Blatt’s a rookie…. oh, dont tell him that.
I know “he who walks behind the rows” loves to spin the Blatt is a rookie coach, I don’t know how he’ll handle the playoffs, he’s never faced anything like this narrative but seriously there have been steady indicators throughout the season (most notably the one you have just posted) that he’s a capable head coach, able to make adjustments and matchups.
HahaHaven’t forgotten Z, just referring to the many big men in the game who are real liabilities at the foul line.
Oh, I think he’s amazing. Anyone I’ve spoken to who followed him in Europe/Israel (which is a bunch) think he’s absolutely brilliant and believe he’s going to be a stud NBA coach.
One reason for these nonsense narratives has to be that the Knicks want to have what the Cavs have, and most of the big media outlets are based in New York City. So they think it’s so unfair that Cleveland gets to watch LeBron, Kyrie, Love, and crew win night after night while they’re stuck watching Bargnani chuck up brick after brick.
It’s not unfairness, of course – Cleveland’s front office is being smart about building a winning team. Getting JR Smith and Shumpert for Waiters and spare parts was basically a highway robbery. The Knicks front office, by contrast, has let David Lee, Tyson Chandler, and a bunch of other contributors go for basically nothing in return.
ESPN is based in Bristol, CT. I don’t think that makes any difference. LeBron sells newspapers.
8-3 vs. the West when LeBron plays.
Grizz announcers spoke to the matchup point – they think very highly of Blatt, and said early that they thought the Grizz could be in trouble if Gasol can’t get going against Love.
They LOVE the Cavs this year. They made some very good points all game. I really enjoyed their broadcast.
Amen. That cat in Detroit would be an all world beater if he could just make a FT.