Norris Cole has No. 30 retired with LeBron James, New Orleans Pelicans in attendance
February 6, 2016On the ever-growing importance of culture in sports: While We’re Waiting…
February 8, 2016New Orleans Pelicans (18-32) 84
Cleveland Cavaliers (36-14) 99
Box score
The Cavs are back in the win column. After dropping two winnable games against Charlotte and Boston, they responded with a solid 15-point victory over the visiting New Orleans Pelicans. Their record stands at 36-14 after 50 games, including 20-4 at Quicken Loans Arena. They were without Kevin Love (thigh) and Matthew Dellavedova (hamstring) Saturday night, but did well to knock New Orleans’ road record down to 5-20 regardless.
It was a good win, a solid win. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving shot from the outside with greater accuracy than they have over the past week or two. Tristan Thompson went after rebounds like a presidential candidate chasing votes. J.R. Smith stepped up in Love’s absence, scoring 20 points — and continuing to be an oddly reliable offensive option. Anderson Varejao and Mo Williams provided some decent minutes off the bench. For the Pelicans, Cleveland State alumnus Norris Cole showed out on the same day his number was retired.
The Cavs jumped out to an eight-point lead in the first quarter, which LeBron punctuated with this monster of a dunk.
https://vine.co/v/i1APbrmxU0U
They gave back some of the lead in the third quarter, but they led nearly wire to wire. They finished the game strong on the defensive end, enough so that the starters were able to rest the last couple minutes.
And with Kevin Love out, J.R. Smith stepped in at quarterback to find LeBron leaking out on the break.
https://vine.co/v/i1AxBmup2h7
Let’s dive into the digits.
4:18 — The Cavs held the Pelicans scoreless for the final 258 seconds of the game. Dante Cunningham hit a three at the 4:18 mark, cutting the Cavs lead to 91-84. The Cavs scored the game’s final eight points to finish with a healthy 15-point win. After giving up a season-high 39 fourth-quarter points en route to a bad loss against Boston Friday, they held New Orleans to a season-low 14 points in the fourth Saturday.
The Cavs defense was good for much of the game. They were physical with Anthony Davis — more on that later — and stuck by Ryan Anderson’s side. Anderson has been a Cavs killer in the past. He scored 18 in the teams’ first meeting this season, and went for 30-plus twice last year. He scored just six points on 2-of-11 shooting Saturday night, including zero three-point makes.
26 — One Pelican who the Cavs struggled to contain was Norris Cole, who went off for a career-high 26 points. It was a big day for Norris, as his No. 30 was retired at the Wolstein Center earlier in the day. Some of his Pelicans teammates were in attendance at CSU, as was LeBron, his teammate from Miami. The whole thing apparently gave Cole a boost, as he had one of the best games of his career. He did the most damage in the third quarter, scoring 12 points in the first three minutes. He finished the period with 14 on 6-of-8 shooting.
Cole, mind you, has not had a good season. He has been the subject of one article calling his 2015-16 an “epically bad season” and another arguing that he has been “the worst player in the NBA.” He’s shooting 39 percent from the floor and 28 percent on threes. But he’s still an NBA player, and if only for one night he showed what got him into the league in the first place.
41 — The Cavs chucked up 41 threes against New Orleans, their third time taking 40-plus this season. They made 34 percent of them (14), a touch below league average. They are 3-0 in such games, but hardly against supreme competition; they’ve beaten the Suns, Mavericks, and now Pelicans. They were particularly trigger happy in the third quarter, when they went 4-for-16 from beyond the arc. A fair number of the Cavs’ threes were good looks, but they settled too often in the third. In a related story, they shot just seven free throws on the night. (They made them all, which was a treat given some of the work we’ve seen from the line lately.)
And hey, LeBron made a three! Two of them, in fact! His first make, in the third quarter, snapped an 0-for-18 spell that spanned seven games. It was his longest three-less stretch since his rookie season, per Elias via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. James finished with 27 points and 8 assists on 11-of-20 shooting, including 2-of-5 from deep.
15 — Tristan Thompson’s final stat line: 33 minutes, 0 points, 15 rebounds. It was a Rodmanian effort that led the Cavs to a plus-7 rebounding margin. After grabbing a relatively paltry 14 boards combined against Charlotte and Boston, Tristan was back to his glass-marauding ways against New Orleans. He came down with seven offensive rebounds, which helped lead to 21 second-chance points. He was physical with Anthony Davis at every opportunity and really controlled the paint for Cleveland.
He may be missing his lob buddy, Matthew Dellavedova. This was Delly’s third game missed due to a hamstring injury, and Thompson has scored just seven points total during that stretch.
27 — Here’s some nostalgia for you: Anderson Varejao played 27 minutes. With Kevin Love out and Timofey Mozgov struggling early, Tyronn Lue turned to Andy for some punch at the center spot. Varejao played reasonably well, too. He only scored two points, but he came up with 10 rebounds, 2 blocks, 2 steals, and 3 assists.
https://vine.co/v/i1eZJPb7ZAJ
He joined Thompson in bodying Anthony Davis all night and was generally very Andy-ish. 27 minutes is more than ideal for Varejao, but it’s good to see him play quality minutes.
29 — Kyrie Irving scored 29 points, his most since he scored 32 against Washington a month ago. He scored 14 points in the second quarter, helping the Cavs build an 11-point halftime lead. He added four rebounds, three assists, and two steals. He had his midrange game working and finished with a solid shooting line: 11-of-21 overall, 3-of-9 from deep, 4-of-4 from the line. He had been in a three-point slump of his own, sinking just 2 of his last 18 across the previous six games.
He did his best to be professional in the postgame interview, but it seemed his teammates were itching to get out of the building. After a snapping a mini losing streak with a win over New Orleans — in the heat of Mardi Gras season — perhaps some revelry was in order.
"What is this, '60 Minutes' or something?" pic.twitter.com/Bdd5MqFw6b
— Scott @ WFNY (@WFNYScott) February 7, 2016
9 Comments
A win’s a win, but seemed to me the roster disparities, home v. away and the Cavs needing to wash away the previous night’s debacle should have resulted in an easier time with LeBron sitting out the 4th quarter. Not even sure they would have won this one if J.R. had a cold night. A few things:
– LeBron and Kyrie just seem determined to use games to right their errant outside shooting, regardless of game sitch and match-ups. How bout doing that at the shootaround, boys.
– Never would have guessed last year that Mozgov was capable of getting so caught in his own head. It’s not the knee, I’m sure now. He’s playing like a lost rookie.
– Kyrie lets Jeremy Lin get off at will and a few nights later lets Norris Cole go career. Defensively reminds me of Albert Belle daydreaming in the outfield, swing his imaginary bat.
This team could use the break, and I’m glad only LeBron is going to the all-star festivities.
Cavs and Boston combined to shoot SIXTY (60!) free throws. That’s 5 every 4 minutes. It was a terrible game to watch with no flow. This game was entirely watchable and enjoyable to watch, even if the basketball was not elite-level.
My point is that the NBA referees are a real issue. They called a foul on JR that shouldn’t have been called against Boston. Plus, when Mozgov failed to corral that rebound he was also fouled, as a Celtic was guilty of grabbing his right hand. You know what happened after that.
But last night’s game had a bit of flow to it, playing into the Cavs’ collective hands. I said it last year and I’ll say it again: If the referees let the game go, Cleveland has a good shot to win it all. If they get too ticky-tack, they don’t stand a chance.
This team desperately needs the all-star break. I concur about Kyrie’s defense. It’s always been bad but this year he’s been the worst defensive PG in the league.
It is now obvious that Matthew Dellavedova made the right move signing a 1-year deal. This guy is going to get PAID in the offseason. The Cavs have really missed his talents over the last two games. I imagine he will be looking at a 4-year/$45million deal – who knows what the contracts will be with the new TV deal?
yep, Cavs may rue not paying him a little more on a 2-year deal. They may as surprised as everyone else that he’s improved so much. I’m not sure they’ll find a reasonable facsimile for next year without funny money and thinking they probably could have had Delly for 2 years/$6m.
Disagree with this analysis. The reason the Cavs didn’t shoot FTs last night was because they jacked like 40 threes. With Love out, Mozgov playing so weak and no Delly to send lobs for Tristan, no one was venturing into the lane to challenge Davis at the rim. Lue was screaming for Kyrie to attack but his jumper was falling early and it got good to him. Same with LeBron. Last night was not on the refs.
i wasn’t blaming the refs for either game – just making an overall point that if the Cavs aren’t allowed to be physical they have no chance. It just seems that that’s the way they like to play defense.
I’ll never take Delly for granted after the past few games. I am glad only LeBron made the all star team because this team has a lot to work on.
ah, I see now.
I don’t know, making room to tie up Delly may well be worth it. He may be the most important role player on the team, and he is definately our best point guard without an Akron tattoo.