2015 WFNY Author Spotlight: Best of Will Gibson
December 28, 2015
Hot takes for a new year, While We’re Waiting
December 29, 2015Cleveland Cavaliers (20-9) 101
Phoenix Suns (12-21) 97
Box Score
The Cleveland Cavaliers entered Phoenix on Monday to play the Suns after a Grinchy two-game slump over the Christmas weekend. They lost a hard-fought NBA Finals rematch to the juggernaut Golden State Warriors on Friday thanks to some horrendous shooting, then got bludgeoned in Portland against the Trail Blazers thanks to some horrendous basketball. Because of the circumstances (a tough loss the night before, road back-to-back, holiday weekend, Kyrie Irving sitting to rest, Allen Crabbe being possessed by the ghost of Ray Allen), I managed to erase all memory of the Portland game from my mind. Nevertheless, the Cavs had two straight L’s entering Monday’s game.
The Cavs ended the skid on Monday on the front of another road back-to-back in the midst of what’s probably the most brutal part of their schedule. Let’s crack through the thin candy shell of box score and see how.
7 – Kyrie Irving scored the Cavs last seven points in Monday’s contest, carrying (well, dragging) the team over the finish line. Though those were all of his fourth quarter points, he led the team in scoring in the quarter despite playing only four minutes. His seven points were on par with his 6.14 points per fourth quarter since he entered the league, which is a top-five figure in the league according to the FOX Sports Ohio broadcast. He hit a beautiful midrange runner off a screen, rescued a truly terrible terrible possession from most certain death with a long three (though, to be fair, he helped put in mortal peril by dribbling for the first 18 seconds of it), and sank the two clinching free throws.
Irving hadn’t quite resembled himself yet in four games, looking almost like someone who was recovering from a serious knee injury. He’s been shifty but hesitant; quick but cautious. Monday was the most at ease he’s looked all season, especially when he was able to attack Alex Len in the pick-and-roll, toying with Len using his cruel crossover dribble. Though Irving only shot 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) and 2-of-7 from three on Monday night, he led the team with 22 points and made 6-of-6 free throws (he’s 14-of-14 on the season). Monday may have been his breakout game thanks to the late-game heroics. Let’s admire his game-saving three with 23 seconds remaining below, and try to ignore that everything that happened on the possession was ill-advised. Welcome back, Uncle Drew!
https://vine.co/v/iqnO6VVpDvP
Seriously…Look at the fans. At least four Surrender Cobras in the background.
https://vine.co/v/iqneuw6P6p6
8 – The Cavaliers finished with eight blocks on Monday, tied for their third highest total of the season. Richard Jefferson amassed four blocks somehow, which doesn’t even seem right, and Timofey Mozgov added three. Mozzy Bear has had his ups and downs this season (mostly downs), and was stricken from the starting lineup for Tristan Thompson “to inject some energy.” He’s spent most of the season looking like a giraffe underwater — particularly on offense, where he’s struggled to secure the most routine of passes. I thought Mozgov was solid on defense on Monday however, cutting off the path to the hoop on the pick-and-roll, and then recovering to contest shots and cutters. The defensive effort wasn’t spectacular on Monday (I mean, TJ Warren had 23 points), but it was good enough, and Jefferson and Mozgov deserve credit for swatting Suns field goals off their intended paths.
David Blatt says Tristan Thompson will be starting for a while. Says he wanted to inject some energy early on.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 29, 2015
1 – Kevin Love attempted only one shot in the paint in the second half, after attempting four shots in the paint (making three) in the first half. It wasn’t even the number of attempts that was bothersome, but that Love looked completely at ease in the post and off the dribble against both Alex Len and ex-Cavalier and Badger Jon Leueueuer. It seemed as if the Kevin Love jump-hook was going to be there all night for easy points. So naturally, the Cavs abandoned it in the second half.
Even more distressing, Love only played two-and-a-half minutes in the fourth quarter, despite having a plus/minus of +15 in the game, tied with J.R. Smith for the best all night. Granted, Love did appear to have his hand mangled attempting to catch a pass or shoot against Tyson Chandler. He said his hand was fine after the game, but I’ll still assume that coach David Blatt was being compassionate by sitting Love, because the alternative makes as much sense as a broccoli-flavored lollipop.
80.0 – J.R. Smith made 4-of-5 of his contested shots on Monday against the Suns (80.0 percent), and 1-of-6 (16.7 percent) of his uncontested shots.1 If that doesn’t make sense to you, it’s because it shouldn’t. If the Cavs can get someone to hold up J.R. by his ankles while he shoots threes he’ll have a higher true-shooting percentage than Stephen Curry by mid-January. J.R. also played some decent defense in the second half after Devin Booker (the 19 year-old who still gets ID’ed to buy sparklers and was mostly guarded by Smith) went off for 4-of-4 in the first half.
17 – LeBron James had a quiet night for the most part, looking great moving the ball (a team-high seven assists) but oddly off-kilter with his jump shot and iso possessions in which he would normally beat his man off the dribble with ease. But James passed Denver-Nugget-great and probably-most-obscure-great-scorer in NBA history Alex English for the 17th most regular season points in NBA history.2 He also passed Stephon Marbury for 22nd all-time in assists. Another two milestones yawn-ed past by James on a sleepy weeknight. It’s too bad James could not have waited one more day to pass English (not the class, but the scorer) in Denver, when I’m sure there would have been some fanfare from the local fans upon passing one of their hometown greats.
- Using NBA.com’s imperfect but still useful player tracking data. [↩]
- Seriously, Alex English was awesome, but even attentive basketball fans don’t know who he is. [↩]
5 Comments
This game was definitely frustrating in spite of the Cavs leading most of the game. I kept expecting that they would take off and run away with the game at some point, but TJ Warren (of all people) kept hitting shots. It feels like there is always some mediocre player, whether it be Livingston, Crabbe, or Warren, who is all fired up to play against the Cavs and prove his individual greatness. (Don’t get me wrong, I love Livingston from his time as a Cavalier, but he is admittedly a limited player who maximizes the handful of things he does well).
It’s so weird how JR Smith is a better shooter with a hand in his face. It’s even weirder that this ability completely abandons him in the playoffs.
I loved seeing Kyrie start to get his mojo back. Not only is he a key player for the success of the Cavs, but he’s just fun to watch. He is a top-5 player in terms of excitement and amazement (they keep track of that stat at NBA.com now, right?)
I’m hoping as the calendar year turns so will the focus especially now that the excuse of not having everyone healthy is almost done. I don’t like the way this team is playing right now as you said they continue to let other teams, in particular lesser teams, not only hang around but dictate the style of play. Maybe that’s Blatt and his European style I don’t know but I keep hearing Austin Carr talk about it almost nightly how the Cavs start slow and let teams think they have a chance to win.
As for KI I completely agree having him back on the court is like a breath of fresh air. He’s not close to 100% to me but even at a lesser % he’s so much better then the rest of the guards it’s not even close. My biggest question is Mo Williams. Unless he’s hurt worse then we’ve heard he has looked worse then Delly. Delly actually has impressed me with his play.
My biggest disappointment is Mozgov. The offense heck team plays so much better when he’s in the game it just doesn’t happen much at all anymore. Mozgov being replaced in the starting lineup perhaps will motivate him. I don’t like TT starting. Unless he notches a double double all I can think of is how overpaid he is for what he provides.
Tristan has another level he can get to, and it’s frustrating knowing that he only intends to get there on the occasional evening during the regular season. When he turns up his effort level, he’s worth every bit of that money (as we saw in the playoffs last year), but it seems like he’s saving up that energy. He’s the perfect center for the Cavs to have in the 4th quarter because his offensive rebounding just demoralizes and crushes the other team. They work so hard to keep tabs on LeBron, Kyrie, and Love for 20 seconds of shot clock and then they have to do it all over again. But it seems like we only get to see that on rare nights during the regular season.
I think there were a lot of Cavs fans who saw Delly in his rookie and sophomore campaigns and figured that he was already the player he was going to become… and then came to the conclusion that player was not worth giving many minutes. Part of that was probably his undrafted status… why waste time building an undrafted player? As you know, I always liked him. He’s always been a tenacious and annoying defender. I thought he had a funky looking shot, but he was an effective 3-point shooter who would probably continue to get better with that shot. This season he’s added playmaking abilities, which I would have never guessed, particularly in the pick-and-roll. Last year he added the ability to throw that lob pass to the roll man, and this year he made it almost an unstoppable play by adding the float shot to his game. I’m surprised more PGs aren’t doing this because it’s an insanely productive play. If Delly’s defender goes under the screen, he can tee up for a 3-point shot. If the defender goes over the screen, then Delly drives to the hoop and it’s pick-your-poison for the big defender. He can choose to stay with Thompson/Mozgov on the roll, but that allows Delly to put up the floater. He can choose to run out at Delly, but that opens up the alley-oop. The only real way to guard against it is to send a help defender and hope that Delly doesn’t spot the open man.
Delly has improved noticeably to me this season — not sure if the stats back it up or not but he certainly looks like a real player now.
Delly has won me over. Cavs went from little depth at guard to a ton of it. Perhaps some sort of trade can be orchestrated.