Cavs look to begin Luol Deng era with coveted road win in Utah
January 10, 2014Browns appear set on Gase, Malzahn
January 11, 2014
Luol Deng made his Cavalier debut tonight in Utah, and it couldn’t have went much better for the Wine and Gold. Deng showed some nice things in a 4-for-8 shooting effort for 10 points in 21 minutes, but it was the Cavaliers’ 39-point third quarter explosion that allowed them to jump out to an insurmountable lead. Seven Cavaliers finished in double figures, and the Cavaliers thumped the Jazz 113-102 in Energy Solutions Arena to improve to 13-23 on the season and 2-0 since the Deng trade.
Let’s dig into some of the stat nuggets from this game, and there is no shortage of them.
Offensive execution: Everywhere you look across the board, the Cavaliers were awesome on offense. They shot 54%1 for the game, and it was an even more scorching 63% in the second half. It seems the Cavaliers finally figured out that without Bynum, they can and should fastbreak more often. They had 21 fastbreak points in this game, and they used the pass much more than the dribble to advance the ball up the court, which is much more effective at getting it up the court quickly. Perhaps the most pleasing thing was the 54 points in the paint, outscoring the Jazz by 14 in that area. They turned the ball over just 8 times in this game (3 in the second half and 1 in the third) with the newcomer Deng having half of those in the first half. The Cavaliers took just 20 free throws and 14 three pointers, so they had 38 two-point baskets in this game, so they dotted mid-range as well as owning the paint on that end of the floor. As Mike Brown pointed out, the Cavaliers had 13 of their 19 assists in the second half, so the movement was much better once Irving got going.
Deng, he’s good!: The Cavs wasted no time getting Deng involved, giving him the start and looking for him early in the offense. His first basket came on a sideline inbound where he threw it into Andy, rubbed off a pick and cut to the basket for a layup. From there, he hit three mid-range jumpers from 11, 18, and 20 feet along with hitting both foul shot attempts. Mike Brown had Deng on a precautionary 30-minute restriction because of his Achilles injury, and the team opening the lead up in the third quarter prevented Brown from having to send Deng back out there. While Luol did have 4 turnovers, they all came in the first half when the offensive flow wasn’t there. Deng drove to the basket, looking for an outlet and had none on a few of those occasions, losing the handle eventually. It’s going to be nice to have Deng’s defensive influence as well. He had a couple of nice helpside plays tonight that forced Jazz turnovers.
The rotation it is a’changin’: Because of Deng’s acquisition, we expected to see less of Earl Clark and Alonzo Gee. That certainly happened as the duo combined for less than 7 minutes along with Anthony Bennett. Gee and Bennett only got into the game because of the blowout nature. As Brett Huston on Twitter (@SidBreamStache) pointed out, Clark has made just 2 of his 22 three pointers in the last 7 games. Without that 40+% shooting from long range, Clark’s no longer of use to the Cavaliers in the regular rotation. In fact, in two separate instances in this game, Brown used small ball with three of the quartet of Irving, Waiters, Jack, and Dellavedova as he has for extended stretches this season. In another change, Brown also played Irving the entire third and then started him in the fourth along with Varejao. After opening up a 15-point lead at the end of the third, Brown went for the jugular to start the fourth, and it worked. Brown did play a few of his starters all the way to the finish, seemingly wanting them to finish what they had started and to further cement the good habits developed in the second half.
Board domination: The Cavaliers had a little trouble in the first half with both defending transition and checking out on the defensive boards. Enes Kanter posted a double-double with 15 points and 10 rebounds while being a burden inside for Varejao and Zeller. After giving up five costly first half offensive boards, the Cavs gave up just three in the second half, and Varejao ruled the defensive boards by pulling down 13 of them. Tristan had 10 defensive boards, and he won the team lead in rebounding 15-14 over Varejao as the two went a long way in helping the Cavs win the rebounding battle 45-34. As Jacob pointed out this morning, the Cavs are +6.4 per 48 minutes in rebounding margin with the Thompson/Varejao frontcourt.
That third quarter!: The Cavaliers scored a season-high 39 points in third quarter, shot 63%, and outscored the Jazz by 18 points. Again, Jacob comes through with the advanced stats: a 154.0 offensive rating, 87.9 defensive rating, .783 effective FG%, 7 A/TO ratio, and the team grabbed 91.7% of the defensive rebounds available. Kyrie Irving caught red-hot fire, scoring 17 in the quarter on 6-of-8 shooting. Just as impressive, Kyrie grabbed 5 boards, handed out 4 assists, and notched 2 steals. The team had 14 points in the paint and 9 fastbreak points in the third as well. The highlight of the quarter had to be Tristan Thompson saving a ball on the sideline in the backcourt, tossing it cross-court to Irving, who passed it ahead to Waiters, who saved it on the baseline and threw it to Thompson for the slam. Kyrie had 25 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals for the night in one of his best all-around performances of the season.
Strength in numbers: It wasn’t just Irving, though, that played great in this one. The Cavaliers’ two shooting guards, C.J. Miles and Dion Waiters, each had 17 points. Thompson had 18 and 15, and Tyler Zeller turned in one of his best performances all season with 10 points and 6 rebounds. Jarrett Jack added 12 points, and Deng as mentioned before had 10. It was great to see Dion Waiters, C.J. Miles, and Jarrett Jack combine for 0 turnovers in 81 minutes. That’s a big step in curing what has ailed the wine and gold offense.
(Photo: Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE via Getty Images)
- Per our stats guru, Jacob Rosen, aka #JakeyStats, that’s the Cavs’ third best mark on the road in the post-LeBron era. [↩]
8 Comments
Second half the Cavaliers looked like a different team then in the first. Deng had a quiet debut but hey I’ll take a win while he has to play less minutes any time. In fact this was the exact example to which I referred just a day or so ago. I’m also glad Deng gets to start on a long road trip because you know had he only scored 10 points in his home debut some people would have been unhappy.
The Cavs in the last couple of games have been showing the power of team play and sharing the rock. When they keep the offense flowing and their opponents guessing, that makes everyone more effective. When they crash the boards as a team, that gives everyone more offensive opportunities.
Another thing about Clark last night was his bad shot selection. When the ball swung to him he just jacked it up when the defense had rotated to him and the extra pass was there for an open 3. He’s pressing to knock those triples down which is why he’s in a slump. When he was shooting well he was wide open and the defense just let him shoot.
Yikes, Bynum must have been that bad here. They look like a completely different team.
Like Kyrie said they do their best when they run and pick up the pace. Bynum couldn’t run anymore let alone jump 3 inches off the ground. He just didn’t fit well in running team’s system.
So, they do know how to pass, run a d cut to create spacing . Wonderful game.
I’m sure that Coach Brown can figure out lineups that have either Varejao or Thompson on the floor throughout the game, except for blowout situations of course. Zeller will need to exert himself more. It is nice that the Cavs are 3 deep at PG (including Delly) with 5 solid guards. Retain Miles and let Clark and Gee go after the season; extend Deng with Irving following suit. Playoff contention for several years there, especially when Bennett improves.
Clark is a big disappointment for me I don’t know if Mike Brown put in a good word for him like he did Andrew Bynum but if he did that’s 0-2. I’m not sure how much of a role Brown played in the drafting of Bennett either if he did in anyways he’s 0-3 and should leave Chris Grant alone. This is when I’d advocate for the Browns way where the HC has nothing or very very very little with personnel.