Cleveland State gets 13 seed in ESPN’s latest Bracketology projections
January 19, 2015
Surviving Winter, Mike Conley, and Sleater-Kinney, While We’re Waiting
January 20, 2015
Chicago Bulls (27-16) 94
Cleveland Cavaliers (22-20) 108
[Box Score]
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The Cleveland Cavaliers have certainly had more than their fair share of ups and downs so far this season. There have been some serious struggles against much lesser teams. But on Monday night, the Cavaliers put together one of their most complete games of the season in handling the Chicago Bulls from wire to wire.
I wrote a couple weeks ago that I felt like the road trip was actually coming at a pretty good time for this team. After all the recent reports of dysfunction and chaos, I thought it would be good for this team to get away from it for a while. When teams are at home or when they play a one-off road game, the players all go their separate ways after the games. They return to their homes and it can be easy to let the negativity sink in.
On road trips, the team travels together, they stay in the same hotel, they eat together, and just in general they spend more time together. Road trips can be galvanizing and help teams further develop chemistry.
That’s not to say that the recent road trip solved all the Cavaliers’ problems or that an easy win over the Bulls means everything is back to normal1. But I do feel like coming off the trades, the road trip did help accelerate the process of working in the new players as well as bringing LeBron James back into the rotation.
It’s awfully hard to find much not to like about this win over the Bulls. The Cavaliers were unselfish on offense for the most part, they dominated on the glass, and they played really well on defense. This game was just a nice reminder that when this team plays close to the style of basketball they are capable of, they are still a very tough team to beat.
Now lets get into the numbers…
- 15 and 15 – Timofey Mozgov was brought into Cleveland to provide the team with a stronger post presence especially on defense, but also on offense as well. Mozgov’s fingerprints were all over this game. He scored 15 points and had 15 rebounds. Going head to head with Pau Gasol looked to be a good test for Mozgov, and Timofey rose to the challenge, holding Gasol to 11 points and 11 rebounds. Comparatively, their performances weren’t as close as those numbers make it appear. Gasol was just 4 of 14 from the field. Not only did Mozgov limit Gasol’s offense, but Mozgov was a force on defense as well. He was credited with two blocks, but he altered and intimidated countless others. You can see exactly why Mozgov was such an ideal fit for what the Cavaliers needed right now.
- Five Double-Digits – All five of the Cavaliers starters scored in double digits in this game. There’s really nothing better than when a team’s scoring is evenly distributed and everyone is getting involved in different roles. The team assisted on 20 of their 41 made FGs with Kyrie Irving leading the way with his 12 assists. The team had gone five straight games with fewer than 20 assists before now having 20 or more in consecutive games. Against the Bulls there were still moments of poor floor spacing and movement, but in general, the starters all played better team offense than we’ve seen from them in recent weeks.
- 6 of 9 – Just as Mozgov is showing exactly why the Cavaliers wanted to bring him in, JR Smith is also showcasing the kind of offensive spark the team was hoping they would get from him. Against the Bulls, Smith was huge on offense. He made 6 of 9 threes for 20 points. Smith had been having one of his worst seasons with the Knicks. He was scoring 10.9 points per game while shooting 40% from the field and 36% from long range. With the Cavaliers now, he has seen those numbers all rise to 14.6 points, 44% shooting from the field, and 39% on three point shots. And remember, those include his 0-fer in his first game with the Cavaliers. It’s a small sample size, but you have to believe the Cavaliers had hoped that playing for a contending team would rejuvenate JR’s season, and so far Smith has been exactly what the Cavaliers need from the SG position. Once Iman Shumpert returns, the Cavaliers will have the luxury of eventually moving Smith to the bench where he can ideally bolster what has been one of the Cavaliers’ most glaring weaknesses so far: bench production.
- 54 to 40 – The Bulls are one of the better rebounding teams in the league. We thought the Cavaliers would be as well, but Cleveland has been wildly inconsistent on the glass so far this season. Against the Bulls, the Cavaliers really took it to them on the boards, winning the rebounding margin by a 54 to 40 mark. Those rebounds helped the Cavaliers earn a 19 to 7 advantage in second chance scoring. The Cavs had three players in double digits on the glass in Mozgov (15), Kevin Love (12), and Tristan Thompson (10). It’s clear the Bulls sorely miss Joakim Noah right now, but credit to the Cavaliers and their reformed frontcourt for taking advantage and making life miserable on the Bulls on the glass for most of this game.
- 37.5% – In addition to being one of the better team offense games for the Cavaliers, this was also one of their better defensive efforts as well. They held the Bulls to just 37.5% shooting from the floor. The Bulls did miss a few good looks here and there, but the Cavaliers just seemed to have a little more energy and focus on defense compared to what we have seen for much of this season. Derrick Rose and Kyrie Irving haven’t played a ton of games head-to-head thanks to injuries to both players, but I thought Irving did a pretty good job disrupting Rose from getting too comfortable on offense. Rose did finish with 18 points, but they came on just 5 of 14 shooting from the floor. Rose did knock down a few three pointers, but the combination of Kyrie’s energy at the point and Mozgov’s size down low teamed up to keep Rose off balance all night when he tried to create offense on his own.
The Bulls are struggling a bit right now. Their once vaunted defense has been remarkably average this season. Thankfully the Cavaliers came out with the right mindset to take advantage of what was given to them. But basketball is a funny game. Often times, our judgment of what makes a good game vs a bad game comes down to the simplest form of whether a team was making their shots of not. The Cavaliers have been missing a lot of good shots this season while their opponents have been knocking down a lot of their own. In this game, those roles were reversed a bit.
Yet it’s not quite that simple. Poor defensive effort can often allow teams to have those good looks. And bad offense can limit your own good shots. So credit has to go to the Cavaliers for the way they played in this game. They didn’t force anything and they never seemed to really be too challenged in this game. They simply took what was given to them on offense while staying active on defense all game.
The All Star break is fast approaching. The Cavaliers have a little less than a month before then to keep getting this thing figured out. After coming out strong on the back end of the road trip, now is the time for the Cavaliers to really take things to the next level. They have thirteen more games before the break with only four of those being on the road. If they can get into a good rhythm before the All Star break, they will be in much better position for the stretch run of this season. This win over the Bulls was certainly a nice first step.
- whatever normal means to this team [↩]
14 Comments
If Cavs weren’t struggling, Kyrie’s defensive improvement would be a big story. I’ve been very satisfied with his efforts there overall. He’ll never be All-Defense, but he won’t be the turnstile he was his first 3 years.
and, that is why for all the negativity LeBron took about “chill-mode,” he is correct to do what he needs to preserve himself. it’s a long regular season and the East doesn’t have enough top teams to worry. After last night, the Cavs are 4.5 games out of a home playoff series despite all of their early season struggles.
stay healthy, learn each other’s games, figure out how we will need to do things in the playoffs. winning enough to get in isn’t really even an issue.
The thing I’ve noticed in general about Irving is he’s been a much more complete player this year than he has been in the past. He’s passing better, he’s defending better, he’s even rebounding better, and while he still has sick dribble moves that’s no longer the only part of his game that matters.
My guess is that part of that was LeBron pulling him aside and pushing him to fix his weaknesses. And unlike another now former Cavs guard, Irving took that to heart and has been noticeably better because of it.
Another big story has to be TT, who has been quietly having the best year of his career: His shooting improved by nearly 7%, which means he’s gotten a *lot* better and deciding when to shoot and when not to.
It’s nice to have JR Smith shooting well.
Mozgov is more nimble than I expected – he covers quickly on defense and therefore eats up a ton of space. On offense Love suddenly had a little room to operate and look for offensive boards – Love might really start affecting games with Mozgov next to him. Thought Kyrie really impacted this game by playing tough defense from start to finish. Seems he’s the player who has bought in most to what Blatt is selling.
The other big factor in this game was the Bulls passivity. Maybe it was the absence of Noah, but Gasol reverted to his old sleepwalking tendencies when he doesn’t have an alpha barking next to him and that entire team didn’t look thrilled to be here. I wonder if this is a normal ebb and flow or maybe if Chicago is starting to grow tired of Thibodeau’s constant haranguing.
LeBron getting rest and not playing too many minutes coming off the road trip was huge. I was going to write something about it, but I felt there other aspects that were more important to cover. LeBron in chill mode on the bench thanks to a blow out is pretty great. On-court chill mode LeBron is a little less enjoyable.
Every single one of these are excellent points. Mozgov does have the ability to hit some shots from the elbow and as the Cavaliers recognize this, it could open up some space for Love to operate.
Sure, it’s got to be frustrating to watch, but, at the same time, he needs to be healthy and full-go in the playoffs (or let’s say post-Allstar to get the body in rhythm).
Cause for cautious optimism!!!!
Cautious cause for cautious optimism at the very least.
Is this how they do it in Europe no wonder Cavaliers have been struggling? C’mon man!
https://vine.co/v/OjL1dlIbHVU
Statistically speaking, Mozgov is a solid center. This year, compared to Varejao (prior to the injury), he’s been a better blocker and rebounder, but not as good at stealing, shooting or passing, which would suggest he’s a stronger defender than Andy, but a little less active on the offensive end.
We could have done a lot worse. And assuming we keep everyone around until Andy’s contract is up, a front line with Andy, Mozgov, TT, and Love will be a force to be reckoned with.
basically agree, though I’m not nearly as high on TT as most others. He’ll get big money, and Andy’s getting big money on his career downside. Mozgov has one more very affordable year (like $6m) and then his pay may skyrocket as a legit 7 footer with some skills in his prime. They’re stuck with Andy due to that new contract. We’ll see if they can keep Mozgov, TT and Love while Lebron and Kyrie get their max.
i’m not down with Chill-mode. It’s either Kill-mode or DNP-mode. read the comments Byron Scott made about Kobe Bryant’s minutes-played.