Jimmy Haslam puts Knoxville home on the market
March 27, 2015On the 25th anniversary of Michael Jordan dropping 69 on the Cavs
March 28, 2015The NBA regular season is 82 games long. It’s full of ebbs and flows, and even good teams drop games to bad teams. The Cavaliers have defeated the Nets three times this season (including two blowouts), but they were unable to complete the sweep as the Nets played like the team that desperately needed this one to keep their playoff chances alive. The Nets pulled away from the Cavaliers late and won 106-98 after a back and forth game where the Cavaliers refused to consistently defend or put their foot on the gas pedal offensively.
Cleveland Cavaliers 98
Brooklyn Nets 106
Box Score
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54-20 – The Brooklyn bench exploded in this contest, including contributions from two former Cavaliers. Jarrett Jack was 6-for-13 for his 15 points, adding five assists in 25 minutes. He also played down the stretch as Deron Williams sat on the bench. Jack got by Kyrie Irving more than he should have, and it threw off the balance of the defense as the Cavs over-helped on the dribble penetration, opening up easy buckets for the Nets. Earl Clark, signed Friday after being traded by one team and cut by three NBA teams in the last year or so, made three field goals for seven points during the second half. He also managed to stay in bounds when he caught the ball too. Shocking, I know. Bojan Bogdanovic managed 18 of his own, while Alan Anderson chipped in 13.
20 – The veteran leaders of this team, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson, posted 20 point scoring efforts. Lopez missed two of the prior three Cleveland games this season, scoring 10 points with 8 rebounds in the other. Johnson struggled mightily (3-for-9, 6 points) in one blowout loss and did not play in the other. He had 26 points in the four-point loss. It doesn’t seem like that long ago that Johnson, Lopez, Deron Williams, and Gerald Wallace were supposed to lead their own Boston-style rise to the top of the East with multiple All-Stars, does it?
10 – The fourth and fifth options in the starting five, J.R. Smith and Timofey Mozgov, weren’t heard from much on Friday night. The duo combined for just 10 points of 4-of-13 shooting. Mozgov played only 16 minutes, sitting the entirety of the fourth quarter yet again. He has now played in just five of the last 15 fourth quarters. The Cavaliers played small for a good portion of the second half as they tried to match the Nets, who had Joe Johnson playing some power forward. The scoring was basically limited to the three stars, who were the only three that reached double digits.
3 – In the past two games, No. 3 Kendrick Perkins has entered the game as the first big man off the bench rather than Tristan Thompson. In fact, Tristan has not seen the floor until the start of the second quarter in each of those games. Now, the opponents (Memphis and Brooklyn) were each starting two big post players in Zach Randolph/Marc Gasol and Mason Plumlee/Brook Lopez. And, Perkins has yet to get any consistent minutes, so this may just be a predetermined ploy to get him some minutes outside of garbage time. However, he is a train wreck on offense and a foul magnet on defense. I’m glad the Cavaliers acquired him as insurance for a playoff matchup against someone like Chicago, Memphis, or San Antonio that could test our frontcourt. Thompson posted eight points and nine rebounds in the game, while Perkins turned the ball over twice and committed one foul in his five minutes of floor time.
8-of-30 – Sometimes, they just don’t fall. The wine and gold only hit 8-of-30 three pointers, while the Nets outscored them from deep with a 9-for-23 clip. How many times have the Cavaliers been outscored at the three point line in the last 35 games (January 15th going forward)? Including this game, it is just the fifth time that has occurred (1/21 vs. Utah, 2/18 at Chicago, 2/26 vs. Golden State, 3/7 vs. Phoenix) during that timeframe. What has happened more often than that is the Cavaliers outscoring their opponent by 20, 30, even 45 points from behind the arc. On the season, the Cavaliers are making 9.9 threes per game (11.7 since 1/15, most in the league), and they’re allowing 7.6 makes from three (7.2 since 1/15). So, since their team reconstruction, they’re averaging a 13.5 point advantage from deep. Their backcourt was just 3-of-18 tonight (Irving, Smith, Delly, Shumpert). Love and James combined to make 4-of-9.
18 – I really liked Kevin Love’s offensive balance in the first three quarters. He posted 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting as he hit a couple threes but did most of his damage in the low post. The problem? He finished the game with 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting. Love played five minutes in the final quarter (before committing five fouls in the fourth and fouling out) but did not even attempt a shot. Irving and James combined for 11 shots in the fourth with two each for Smith, Shumpert, and Thompson. That’s completely unacceptable to forget about your third best player in a game, especially when J.R., who sometimes masquerades as the third-best scorer on this team, is not hitting shots. The Cavaliers have gotten better in regard to getting Love the ball where he likes it in the low post, but it’s often early in the game and seldom in the fourth. In the fourth, Love is either sitting on the bench as Blatt plays Thompson and the Cavs go small or he’s spotting up in the corner. Of course, there’s value to Love in the corner, but relegating him to that and only that is a crime. I’ve seen more desire to get the ball in good scoring position from Love lately, and he seems to be less plagued by the back spasms. I’ve really liked some of the looks that Love has commanded in the paint in the last two games. Now, it needs to happen late in the game.
8 on 5 – The three referees kind of sucked in this one, but the defensive effort is the reason the Cavaliers lost this game. It was odd, however, to see the Cavaliers get called for five offensive fouls. It was enough that Coach David Blatt earned just his second technical foul of the season. LeBron’s box score line (24 points, five rebounds, nine assists, five steals, three turnovers) looks better than the game he actually played. He made several odd decisions in transition, including two offensive fouls, one missed finger-roll layup, and a miss-dribble that eventually turned into a Mozgov dunk since the center continued to run the floor.
2.5 – Just 2.5 games separate seventh and eleventh in the East. The Cavaliers have largely dominated the Nets this season, though they’ve seldom been at full strength in those games. Kyle did a great job covering these potential matchups earlier today, but I just want to say that I have no shame in wanting an easy first round matchup. Kyrie Love, and Tristan have never played in a postseason game. Injuries can happen. For confidence and injury reasons, I’m all for a sweep or a five game series in the first round rather than a back and forth six game series against Indiana or Miami that could rattle the Cavaliers or wear them out a bit. That second round matchup is looking like it could be the Chicago Bulls, who suddenly have Nikola Mirotic playing out of his mind. If Derrick Rose returns to form, that team is going to give the Cavaliers every sort of scare and could knock them off. I’d rather have a few days off entering that series.
3-6 – I’ve been getting the short straw between my BTBS colleagues Kyle, Will, and Andrew. Since January 15, the Cavaliers are 28-7, yet I’ve covered six of their seven losses! The only one I missed was the Houston game. On the season, the wine and gold are 7-10 with yours truly at the helm. Maybe I should let the newer guys take more games?
2 Comments
I think I would almost prefer a 5 game first round series than a sweep. I’d rather the guys without playoff experience get a little bit of a feel for it rather than walk their way through the first round only to get stunned with it in game one of round two, which should be in Cleveland. A loss on the road in round one would be far less harmful and possibly even more beneficial to help prevent losing home court advantage in round two.
As pretty a win as Memphis was this was almost as ugly. Cavaliers were clearly uninterested from the start but man were they sloppy and defense, well it didn’t exist. The worst part for me was Blatt returning to his usual fourth quarter MO of sitting both Love and Mozgov. Love would eventually return but Mozgov would not. Despite Brook Lopez abusing first TT then KLove.