WFNY On Location: LeBron Does Dallas
January 14, 2016Religion and politics in sports. OK, just religion: While We’re Waiting
January 15, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers (27-10) 95
San Antonio Spurs (35-6) 99
Box Score
The last time the Cleveland Cavaliers visited San Antonio, fans were treated to the Game of the Century of the Season. Kyrie Irving scored 57 points and the Cavaliers emerged victorious against the Mighty Duncans of San Antonio in an overtime heart-stopper. After an early-year tear from January into March against mostly inferior competition (with long stretches at home), last season’s win over the Spurs announced to the NBA that the Cavs were serious about this championship business. Let’s rewatch Kyrie Irving’s game-tying three to force overtime to make me feel good feelings and because Kevin Harlan’s call reaches a frequency that triggers an instant orgas— never mind, said too much. Just watch it.
Accordingly, expectations were high for the Cavs’ 2016 trip to Popo-ville on Thursday. The Cavs were looking to extend an eight-game winning streak after a nail-biter in Dallas, put a stone between the temples of one of the Western Conference Goliaths, and set up a chance at the rare flawless Texas swing against the Rockets in Houston on Friday night. Cavs-Spurs was also the first game in an upcoming round robin between the 1a.-1b.-1c. teams in the NBA, with the Warriors coming to Cleveland on Monday.
So there was a lot at stake on Thursday for a regular season game. You’ll forgive the Cavs and Spurs for not providing another instant classic — but it was still a top-notch NBA regular season game. The Cavs lost — but because box scores are dirty rotten liars,1 let’s take a peek behind the box score and see what really happened.
32– After squeaking out a win in a horrendous shooting performance on Tuesday against the Mavericks, the Cavs came out scorching on Thursday, scoring 32 points in the first quarter. They shot 13-of-22 (59.2 percent) from the floor with tremendous spacing and scoring balance. Though they only had six assists in the quarter (13.0 percent below their season average assist percentage of 59.1), that didn’t accurately reflect the way the Cavs moved the ball and put everyone on the floor in advantageous scoring positions. Like a piece of toast with just the right amount of jam, nearly everyone scored with a nice, even spread: J.R. Smith (10 points); Tristan Thompson (8); LeBron James (5); Kevin Love (5); Mattew Dellavedova (2); Iman Shumpert (2).2 The Cavs’ 32 points was the most the Spurs had allowed in the first quarter all season. Naturally, the Cavs abandoned this offensive philosophy for the rest of the game. They only had nine assists over the final three quarters (an ouch-y 36.0 percent).
6-of-17 – Since his mesmerizing performance against the Washington Wizards last Wednesday, Kyrie Irving has been unspectacular. Irving was 6-of-17 (35.3 percent) on field goals on Thursday, and is 22-of-64 (34.4 percent) over the Cavs’ last four games. He’s only attempted nine free throws in that span. Irving has seriously bogged down the Cavs offense of late, especially when he returns from his first rest early in the second quarter, forcing his shot at the expense of the entire offense. Despite some remarkable performances since his return from injury, Irving’s averaging career lows in free throw attempts and assists in his young 2015-16 campaign. It’s a shame, because I think a lot of good things happened when he looked for his teammates on Thursday (he had four assists and two secondary assists), such as the sick assist to Matthew Dellavedova off a crossover to beat the third-quarter buzzer (shown below). But Irving didn’t do that often enough on Thursday. Right now his instinct when his shot is off is to force it twice as much, dousing gasoline on the flame instead of calling the fire department.3
https://vine.co/v/iOW5uavXXTT
0 – According to NBA.com’s player tracking data, Kevin Love received zero post touches on Thursday. The player tracking stats are flawed at times; but I can only recall one time Love had a chance to post up a Spur (but it was too close to the corner to be “in the post”; he scored, for what it’s worth).4 To review: Zero post touches for the Cavs starting power forward on Thursday. Tristan Thompson received 11 post touches despite no appreciable offensive skills, and Matthew Dellavedova and J.R. Smith each had a post touch. It’s not even about shot attempts (Love did have three shot attempts in the restricted area off the dribble), but running the offense inside-out to avoid relying on perimeter play to initiate everything. I don’t want Kevin Love’s shot chart to look like this!
Tim Duncan received four elbow touches and eight touches in the paint contrasted with Love’s two elbow touches and zero paint touches. The Spurs offense revolved around Duncan in the second half. This allowed Duncan to pass from a post-position, set up dribble handoffs, and set easier picks easier because defenders have to be wary of him, you know, actually getting the ball. Yet the Cavs insist on having their offense based on the high pick-and-roll, which neuters Love’s offensive game and with it the entire team’s. Love is obviously a willing passer (good gawd he had fewer field goal attempts than Tristan Thompson), so put him in a good position to do it. The Spurs have given the Cavs a blueprint on how to run an offense inside-out with a big man who can pass, and yet they refuse to look at it. For what it’s worth, seven-footer and bear-tamer Timofey Mozgov also received no touches in the paint (he had zero field goal attempts, too!), because WHY DO SUCH A THING?
19 to 6, 13-to-2 – The Spurs outscored the Cavs 19 to 6 on points off turnovers, and started the fourth quarter on a 13-to-2 run when the Cavs offense was on life support. The Cavs went from leading by one to losing by ten in that span. It was too much for them to recover.
10% – According to ESPN Stats & Info, LeBron’s usage percentage against Kawhi Leonard was a mere 10 percent. Against non-Kawhis? Sixty-two percent. Kawhi has at least five arms, and has defended James better than anyone in James’ career. He’s the best perimeter defender in the league. James had a super game in spite of facing his Kryptonite (9-of-17, 22 points, seven rebounds, five assists), but dribbled too much in the second half (even though the Spurs consistently cut off his path to the hoop better than anyone in the league) and didn’t have enough help on the offensive end in the fourth quarter.
https://vine.co/v/iOWzTuBMBqF
24 – Tony Parker, long-time Cav murderer, finished with 24 points. Though the Cavs tightened on him in the second half (only six points), Parker kept the Spurs in the game until Kawhi Leonard started making shots and the rest of the team piled on. Parker ate Kyrie Irving alive in the first half, and even Dellavedova had trouble fighting over the Spurs’ semi-legal screens. Oh, Parker also had one personal foul, which is the funniest thing I’ve heard all night, considering he committed no less than 15 reaches against Kyrie Irving and once nearly pulled Irving’s shorts down chasing him over a screen.
4 – Despite all the issues the Cavs had on Thursday, they lost by four on the road to a team that’s won 1000 (or so) games in a row at home and is beating teams by 100 points (or so) every night. In fact, the Cavs were the last team to beat the Spurs at home … last March. That’s not so bad. But Thursday’s loss makes Monday’s game against the Warriors seem a little more important, and Friday’s game against the Rockets is no breeze. Should be fun.
- Okay, I take that back. They’re generally honest about who won and lost games. [↩]
- Kyrie Irving, Timofey Mozgov, and Jared Cunningham did not score. [↩]
- Yes, sometimes it’s good for a shooter to be “on fire.” Except when it’s not. Don’t question the metaphors, damn it! [↩]
- Which makes sense, actually, because NBA.com counts post touches as those that are received 12 feet from the basket. [↩]
18 Comments
SA is going to be a tough team in the playoffs. Good thing we will have no chance that we will have to play them AND GS/OK. One thing that was kind of a bummer to me was that they built a lead in the first, then let SA hang around the whole game. We didn’t have much of an answer on defense of bigs either. Rebound off of 2nd parker missed free throw down 4 hurt. Love gets in position on D, but he needs to be more aggressive on the ball trying to block the shots. He seems to be more intent on distracting the shot than blocking it. I think you need to do both, especially when guys are close to the rim.
One more number – 100. As in the percent greater amount of free throws attempted by San Antonio.
I don’t blame officials but they missed some pretty key calls during those last 2 Spurs runs:
The ball that they thought LeBron somehow dribbled out of bounds;
the play where Kyrie was fouled 3 times before a Spurs defender kicked it away from him and started a break leading to a 3;
the play where the refs thought Dellavedova just happened to randomly fall down on his own even though a Spurs defender was flailing on the floor next to him;
and Kyrie’s corner-3 where the foul was uncalled.
I’m flabbergasted about how many fouls LeBron takes without calls. Of course, he gets the benefit of the doubt, too, so that’s a wash. But while some will point to the Spurs putting more effort into their defense, I saw it as reluctance to govern the game properly by the officials. Leonard gets away with molestation every time.
First half was a “Hi, how ya doin? Haven’t seen you in a while” half. You could tell by the expressions and body language.
Second half was a “Ok, let’s do this” half. SA tightened the screws, and we couldn’t quite match.
And ZERO post touches for Love. That’s inexcusable. Somebody needs to show Blatt some footage from Love’s days in Minnesota.
I only saw the first half so can’t speak to the second, but I saw exactly the same thing. Lebron’s dribble that hit the Spur player and went out of bounds happened right in front of the official and he still missed it.
I also think Green got away with a lot of physical play against Kyrie. Kyrie kept attacking but never got a call, it was really frustrating.
Not to mention Parker’s flailing and flops. The one he did when Lebron was posting him should have been a technical on Parker it was so blatant.
I have no problem losing to the Spurs in San Antonio, but it’s a shame how it happened. The Cavs went through a spell of ice-cold shooting in the 4th quarter and it seemed like they were down 10 points in a flash.
Also, this was supposed to be the game where Mozzy was going to play a big role and really help us with the Spurs’ size. That wasn’t the case and it seemed like he let everybody waltz right into the lane and do what they want. I wouldn’t mind seeing this game repeated with Mozzy starting at center to guard Duncan and Tristan coming off the bench to guard David West.
I think what we saw is typical home bias for the officials and we will probably see the reverse when the Spurs come to Cleveland. They do seem to get a lot of that love and reverence from the referees though… reminds me of a Duke basketball game. You half expect the official who swallowed his whistle to turn around and give a quick bow to Popovich/Krzyzewski
First half – Cavs FG% > Spurs FG%
Second half – script reversal.
And I dont think it was Spurs tightening the screws by any means. Cavs went WAY out of whack on offense. Starting with your point in that 0 touches for Love down low.
Obviously, fire David Blatt.
As others have said (Kirk) I’m officially ready to take the plastic wrap off Andy and send Timo to the long end of the bench. That game so could have been his redemption and reason as to why the Cavs should pay him and it did not go well. He gets another shot in Cleveland on the 30th, best of luck Timo.
Also, Fire David Blatt.
Glad you mentioned this because I was Tweeting during the game asking if SA ever commits a reach-in foul. They do but they sure didn’t get called last night. Also in the third quarter KI drove past Parker and while in pursuit Parker grabbed KI’s jersey. Speaking of Parker. I found it amazing how when he was involved in switches and ended up on a bigger opponent like LBJ how the referees let Parker do whatever he wanted. I assume it’s because he was smaller.
They also missed Mills tripping Delly. The fact Mills fell then Delly fell after being past Mills I guess was just a coincidence.
David West played like I had envisioned him only in a Cavs uniform. He would have fit so perfectly, darn! Cavs need to add Brandon Bass. He can play with his back to the basket, plays decent defense, can rebound but most importantly can knock down a 10-14 foot jump shot. Cavs don’t need someone like Frye they already have enough outside shooters they need someone else inside.
http://data.whicdn.com/images/1819174/large.png
Cavs were entirely to sloppy way to much dribbling and the offense broke down when it was needed the most. When they move the ball they look so much better the problem is they don’t do it nearly enough. I also agree with those who say Blatt should have used his bench more but this was a game where Mo Williams would have probably helped. He could have spelled Delly at the least.
All of this said Cavs lost by 4 points. Fifth game on a six game road trip that’s taken over a week and a half. Spurs were undefeated at home on a nine game win streak and yes they received some generous officiating.
This was my thought exactly on Moz. He has been a huge disappointment this year. We needed him and Tristan to take a step forward in developing to put us over the hump. But instead, both look like they’ve regressed. Moz looks lost and doesn’t have much confidence.
Tristan doesn’t look hungry in any way.
LBJ took the loss hard…
http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/video.woven.com/b56fe9c6c966e5e15cb2f9bd38711cba
I disagree on Thompson I think he played well last night but especially in Dallas. He’s not a center. He’s a PF who should be the sixth man and that’s what he’d be doing if my man Mozgov would be playing better.
You are 100% correct. I’ll say this, though. Tristan actually didn’t look much different during the regular season last year. Maybe a little better. It wasn’t until the playoffs where Tristan stepped up his game and started to dominate. We’ll need that guy again in the playoffs this year and I hope he shows up.
I just don’t understand lack of consistency throughout the game. That is what gets me most. Call it one way or the other, just be consistent.
That’s fair. He sort of lollygagged through the season and stepped up his game big time in the playoffs. Hopefully he can re-light that fire when need be.