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March 3, 2015Tribe baseball begins and the Cavs bounce back: While We’re Waiting…
March 4, 2015Boston Celtics (23-35) 79
Cleveland Cavaliers (38-24) 110
On Sunday in Houston against the Rockets, LeBron James suffered a literal kick to the junk while Cleveland Cavaliers fans endured a figurative kick to the junk. It did not feel good. But no amount of ice and frozen food items applied to the nether regions of Cavs fans would make the metaphorical swelling go down. Only a victory could accomplish that, with its mysteriously magical all-healing, junk-soothing powers.
It was imperative that the Cavs put an end to their first losing streak since the time B.B. (Before Bowling), and restore some confidence to kick off a brutal four-games-in-five-nights stretch that includes two games against their chief rivals in the Eastern Conference. The Cavs won another laugher at home, but let’s take a look at the posterior of the box score.
31 – The final margin of victory was a gigantic 31 points, with the Cavs sprinting away from the Celtics through much of the game. This ties the Cavs’ 2009 beat down of the Celtics as the largest ever margin of victory for the Cavs over the much-disliked Celtics. It was was delicious, so much so that Cavs fans wanted to lick their fingers like they had just polished off a bag of Chili Cheese Fritos. The Cavs’ largest lead was 44 points. Poor Brad Stevens, a sincere and seemingly bright coach who went to the Celtics via the Butler Bulldogs, watched helplessly as the Cavs made his offensively and defensively challenged Celtics roster look like, well, the Butler Bulldogs. The Cavs needed to take care of business on Tuesday after the consecutive losses and some tough and important games on the horizon — and the Cavs took care of bid-ness.
12 – The Cavs home winning streak is now up to 12 games after Tuesday night’s win. They’re also in the midst of a seven-game win streak by a double digit margin (the team record is nine games). The Cavs are now crushing teams at home, winning by an average of 16.2 points during the 12-game streak. Before the home resurgence, the Cavs were a paltry 11-9 at home. Without a home court advantage, winning streaks (and thus progress) are difficult to start and maintain. The foundation of the lesser talented Cavs teams of 2008-10 was a dominant home court advantage, going 39-2 at home in 2008-09 and reeling off 16 and 23-game win streaks in that span. Although the mediocre 15-15 road record is disconcerting, it appears the Cavs have reestablished a fierce presence in The Q, which will serve them greatly in the playoffs.
15 – The Cavs didn’t even resemble the team that stagnated offensively against the Indiana Pacers last Friday and the Houston Rockets on Sunday. The Cavs’ 15 fast break points didn’t produce the bulk of the scoring, but they did evince a clear mentality: We are here to destroy you. The Cavs are a good team with their best players, there’s no debating that. But when they attack on the break, they become a whole different animal altogether. It’s as if the crafty, feisty Calico that claws teams into submission grows into a giant tiger ready to maul anything in its path. Why don’t they do that every game? Well, most teams are better not letting them do that. But if the Cavs bring the same defensive intensity (especially on the perimeter) every night, the same care with the ball (they had only eight turnovers through the first three quarters, on pace for nearly four less than their average), and the same mentality to push the ball once its secured as they did on Tuesday, they become nearly unstoppable.
7 – The Cavs had seven scorers in double figures on Tuesday night, showing fantastic offensive balance. LeBron James (27), Kyrie Irving (18), Kevin Love (12), J.R. Smith (12), Timofey Mozgov (10), Tristan Thompson (10), and James Jones (10!) all hit double digits for the Wine and Gold. This team looks much more capable when they share the ball without looking they’re straining to share the ball. Act naturally, fellas! The Cavs had 28 assists on 43 made field goals, an excellent assist percentage of 62.2 percent. This needs to become the norm.
33-12 – The Cavs are now 33-12 with Kyrie Irving, LeBron James, and Kevin Love all in the lineup. They’re 4-12 without one of the trio. Obviously the team is better with its best players, but the Cavs are really really good with its best three players. The Cavs starting lineup is top-five in the NBA in total plus-minus in only 269 minutes. Irving-James-Love is the second best three-man lineup in the NBA over the last 15 games with a net rating of 30.0 — behind only Irving-Love-Mozgov. Actually, the Cavs have 12 of the top 15 three-man lineups over the last 15 games in net rating. That’s bonkers.1 Cavs fans could see it tonight, but the team has another gear with Kyrie Irving doing Kyrie Irving things.
6, 5, & 4 – Joe Harris (6), Kendrick Perkins (5), and James Jones (4) were the only players to score for the Cavs in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game. That will never happen again. Kendrick Perkins had seven field goal attempts. That will probably never happen again. Kendrick Perkins had five points in a quarter, more than tripling his cumulative point total as a Cavalier from two. That will probably never happen again. But stuff like this happens when the team goes full left shark in the first three quarters. Great win for the Cavs, but the next two games against the Toronto Raptors and the Atlanta Hawks are about as big as two regular season games can be. With the Derrick Rose injury and the Washington Wizards’ recent downward spiral, the Raptors and Hawks are the Cavs’ most threatening rivals in the Eastern Conference.
Edit: The post was corrected to eliminate the playoff reference to the Cavs’ 31-point victory over the Celtics. The 31-point victory was the 80th game of the season, on April 12th, 2009. The playoff game in question took place on May 7th, 2010, in which the Cavs won by 29 points over the Celtics.
- To be fair, Golden State still owns the season-long net ratings. But, again, the Cavs are a different team After Bowling. [↩]
22 Comments
Disagree on Brad Stevens, he’ll be running back to college soon enough.
Love your stuff. Small correction: the April 12, 2009 beatdown of the C’s wasn’t in the playoffs. It was the penultimate regular season home game. (Recap here: http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/recap/_/id/290412005/gameId/290412005/boston-celtics-vs-cleveland-cavaliers.) The playoff loss you’re probably thinking of was from 2010, when we stomped them by 29 in Game 3 of that fateful series. (http://www.nba.com/games/20100507/CLEBOS/gameinfo.html)
A reference to my favorite Fritos flavor ever. I thought I was the only person that liked them. You are my friend.
Good article. Should be two good games coming up like you said. I have been following the Cavs pretty heavily this year but apparently not close enough. I have seen the B.B and A.B referencing a bowling outing. I am assuming there was probably a team bowling event that was held when the Cavs were struggling and since then we have been on a roll. Am I correct on this? If not, does anyone mind filling me in on this reference? Thanks
you are correct.
https://waitingfornextyear.com/2015/01/cavs-coach-david-blatt-bowling/
…so you’re saying that Lebron should come off the bench for Mozgov?
I’m enjoying that we’re often at a point where we have to do a three quarter analysis because the 4th is just a silly party.
Thanks for reading my stuff! Also, thank you for the comment and polite correction. The post should be edited to reflect the correction, now. I don’t know what I was thinking. Wrong season, and too early in April to be a playoff game.
They’re the absolute best. I crush bags, then hate myself after. But it’s worth it every time.
Here ya go!
https://waitingfornextyear.com/2015/01/cavs-coach-david-blatt-bowling/
Poor Boston – walked into the Q with their weird pieces parts looking for a game and got smacked by an avenging crap storm. We can’t learn much from this sort of blowout but I have a few questions:
– Tyler Zeller looks bigger/stronger now – why did they play him only 12 minutes if they started him? It’s not like Mozgov wasn;t brutalizing everyone they put on him.
– Why does Mozgov only play 20 minutes each night?
– Kevin Love had the flu and looked it on the bench. Basketball is maybe the worst to sport to play with the flu (maybe rugby is second) unless you want all players on both teams to get it. Sweat and snot on the ball, pass it on, get it back, pass it, sweat all over your man in the post … just watch, someone else on the team will be sick tonight or tomorrow.
– Kevin Love rebounds with great ball hunger. You can’t teach that. A whole bunch of “wanna” in that part of his game.
– Blatt in his post-game presser was defensive about Hero Ball played v. Indy and Houston. Said it was an actual plan and the same thing worked great against Golden State. Don’t know that I’m buying this. I do know that a few months ago there was a whole lot of movement and constant looping. Now it looks like playoff prep offense is get it to LeBron on the wing, and then with 7 seconds left he starts probing. I want to know if this is what Blatt intends or LeBron installing his default playoff offense.
P.s.: Proper use of literally/figuratively – you go, boy.
Interesting Blatt comment on Hero Ball. As a way to slow the game down, bleed clock it’s effective to choke out an opponent in the 4th. Worked great against GS, though they weren’t shooting well (partially our good D). Anywhere else it just seems to take us out of tempo. Against Houston it looked ugly and disjointed and probably played a big part in the overall ineffectiveness of the backcourt.
Cavs look nearly unstoppable when swinging the ball and making quick decisive drives/cuts. Kyrie/Lebron get much more efficient shots when the D can’t set and react. Of course I’m not a coach and I’m sure there are good reasons here to employ. Slower tempo playoff ball may dictate more usage there.
I know Love wasn’t 100% last night, but I’d like to see Blatt run more sets for him as a play-maker on the elbow. He’s a great passer and his size allows him to see over the D for easy entry passes in the key. Seems like every time he does this Moz/TT are positioned deep in the restricted area for efficient shots/dunks. Can also run some off the ball cuts for easy plays. Am I crazy or shouldn’t this be a staple of the offense?
Excellent point. I’ve been reiterating the same thing throughout the year, like in Sunday’s recap (near end).
https://waitingfornextyear.com/2015/03/downed-team-rockets-cavaliers-rockets-behind-box-score/
Perhaps, but will that be because of Brad Stevens, or because of http://www.nba.com/celtics/roster ?
The NBA is a players league for sure, but let’s not pretend he’s doing much that many others couldn’t do. He’s just like in college, solid preparation and usually slow on in-game adjustments. I’m also skeptical of the staff he put together. If he was so bright, couldn’t he of waited for a roster with more talent? He could be a hidden genius, but there’s little evidence of it thus far. I think his coaching chops get a disproportionate benefit of the doubt. just my 2cents
I was definitely under the assumption that the style of play against GS and Houston was intentional. I Know the Knicks and Pistons aren’t great teams but I didn’t see an iso-fest in either of those games, and in general I feel like the offense was running pretty smoothly. The Cavs may have been able to beat GS in an uptempo shootout, but in a slow-down, grind it out, style they didn’t have enough opportunities for early offense and got beat up in the paint. They can’t play that type of game and the Cavs can. Against Houston it didn’t work as well for a variety of reasons but the Cavs did come back to have a real chance of winning against a top team on the road. Without Dwight Howard I think it was a reasonable strategy against the Rockets.
Indy is a different story. I don’t think I’d slow it down and try to beat them with half-court defense. I didn’t watch that game so I don’t know the offense ran, but I do know that Indy is a lot better than early in the season and the Cavs were without Kyrie and Lebron, so I’m not inclined to worry so much about that one.
Thanks guys. I really appreciate it. Another great read
I think you’re missing my point. Sure, the offense against Houston may have been intentional, but maybe LeBron’s intent and not a game plan Blatt wanted. There was a lot of Harden for MVP talk and, as LeBron is want to do, he may have taken that as a personal challenge. He wanted to win that game by himself and have that as the headline. And he almost did, but his iso at the end of regulation, when he was plenty tired, turned into a very low percentage shot. Which is what happens when a good team knows you’re not passing the ball.
As I said, when asked Blatt denied it. But I have a hard time believing Blatt wanted LeBron pounding and 4 teammates standing the whole 4th quarter.
Of course it’s part of the plan… LeBron plans on his name being back in MVP contention. He needs hero ball games to do so.
I’m not advocating for Brad Stevens, don’t get me wrong.
But that roster is… Ugh.
Danny Ainge was like, what if we got 10 role player and 5 never-will bes?
I meant to indicate that I thought it was Blatt’s decision to employ the general strategy and not Lebron’s. I do agree that on a possession by possession basis it’s possible that the strategy may have encouraged stagnation at the wrong (key) time. However, Lebron is very good at doing that specific thing, so it’s not unfathomable that Blatt would have wanted to stick with the plan. Obviously we’ll never know for sure, but I’m willing to entertain the idea.