Johnson Bademosi lands with the Lions
March 10, 2016Cleveland Browns cash flow, movies, and Joe Banner trolling: While We’re Waiting…
March 11, 2016Cleveland Cavaliers (46-18) 120
Los Angeles Lakers (14-52) 108
Box Score
Leading up to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers, there were whispers that Kobe Bryant — nursing an ailing shoulder — and LeBron James — to rest a body with little need for the regular season than maintenance and upkeep — wouldn’t play in Thursday’s contest between the two teams. Reports that either player even might not play on Thursday should have all been punctuated with “lol jk,” because everyone on earth knew that it would have taken either a serious maiming or organ failure for either Kobe Bryant or LeBron James to pass on their last opportunity to play one another in an even remotely meaningful game.
For as much as the “thrill of competition” and “being in the presence of greatness” are romanticized, the game’s best still get their rocks off playing one another, challenging each other individually, and exacting the best out of one another. And although Bryant and James (both of whom are more commonly referred to by their first names, a distinction reserved for the uniquely talented and famous) regretfully never met in the NBA Finals, they’ve reigned together over the NBA over the last 13 seasons, and Bryant for the seven preceding seasons: they have 30 All-Star appearances, 5 MVPs, and 13 Finals appearances between them. Either Bryant or James has been in the Finals every season going back to 2007. Until the ascendance of Stephen Curry, they were arguably the league’s two signature players going back to 2006-07 (Kevin Durant may have interrupted that streak before Curry).
TNT showed a graphic during the broadcast billing the game as “The Finale.” I don’t know if The Finale was “Grand” or not — but it was definitely entertaining. It had the feel of an exhibition game: little defense, high scoring, lots of highlight plays, and plenty of pandering. Unfortunately for the Lakers, it wasn’t an exhibition game, (( Or fortunately, rather? The Lakers first round pick in this year’s draft is top-three protected. So … they’re actively trying to lose to ensure they don’t lose that pick, which they will if it falls outside the top three. So don’t cry for the Lakers. They wouldn’t have hired Byron Scott if they wanted to win. )) and Thursday’s game added another L into a column that already had 52 of them. The Cavaliers won the (Sort of) Grand Finale between Mamba and King, but let’s poke around the box score to see how.
21 – After playing the hero in Sacramento, Kevin Love sat out Thursday night’s game as a precaution after bumping knees with Matthew Dellavedova in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s game.2 Why didn’t Dellavedova sit? Because Matthew Dellavedova is made of used jeep parts. His skeleton is the recycled chassis of a Ford GPW used in World War II. That’s why.
Starting for Love was the recently acquired Channing Frye. Having only appeared in seven prior games in a Cavalier uniform, Frye had yet to feel like an integral part of the offense. He took his starting opportunity on Thursday to torch the Lakers from the first whistle, going 4-of-4 in the first quarter (three three-pointers). Frye finished with 21 points on 8-of-10 shooting (5-of-7 from three) and seven rebounds, making it only the second game3 in which a Cavalier has had 20+ points, 5+ three-pointers, 5+ rebounds, and an 80 percent shooting percentage, the other being a 2003 game by the immortal Jumaine Jones. (It’s happened only 52 times in NBA history and four times this season, though in a freakish coincidence Sasha Vujacic did it for the New York Knicks on Wednesday night.)
Beyond shooting the lights out, Frye established a rhythm early — looking like a snug fit in the offense. Kyrie Irving and Frye showed some great chemistry on the pick-and-pop that I hadn’t seen before, and he made a great cut to the basket when he slipped a screen in the second half as three Lakers focused on a pick-and-pop between LeBron James and Matthew Dellavedova. He’s a smart player and a great catch-and-shooter. Cavs fans will start to hear rumbles about Frye being preferable to Love. It will be silly. But Frye is a better shooter, and for the first time on Thursday, Cavs fans saw that Frye can raise the team’s ceiling if he settles into a spot … somewhere in the rotation.
120 – The Cavaliers scored 120 points for the second straight game, their third 120-point game streak of the season. Granted, the Sacramento Kings and Los Angeles Lakers are two of the four worst defenses in the league. YEAH, BUT STILL.
16-of-35 – One of the main reasons the Cavaliers set the scoreboard ablaze with so many numbers was their three-point shooting. The Cavaliers made a bananas 16-of-35 (45.7 percent) threes, compared to the Lakers’ 7-of-22 (31.8 percent), outscoring the Lakers by 27 points from long range. I mentioned Frye above (5-of-7), but J.R. Smith (4-of-7) and Matthew Dellavedova (3-of-5) also pitched in, as did LeBron James (nah just kidding James made one three-pointer and bricked the other three).
52.5% – So the Cavaliers offense hit a deluge of threes and cha-chinged their way to some points. The defense? Mehhhhhh. The Cavs allowed the lowly Lakers (the worst shooting team in the league at a crunchy 41.8 percent) to shoot 52.5 percent. Lakers not named Jordan Clarkson (2-of-12) shot an alarming 58.8 percent. Marcelo Huertas, a 32-year-old Brazilian rookie who played pro ball in Italy and has now played in 33 NBA games, roamed the court unimpeded and put the other Lakers in a position to score. I actually really liked Huertas on Thursday — the way he moved his eyes all over the court and goofed around behind screens until he saw an opening. Perhaps the Cavaliers were just victims of the exhibition-game spirit on Thursday and the Lakers were hot — but they keep allowing teams to look like the Harlem Globetrotters in the first quarter (31 points on Thursday) and allowing players to score on easy backdoor cuts. Iman Shumpert allowed D’Angelo Russell (24 points, four rebounds, five assists) to backdoor him at least three times on Thursday, including consecutive possessions in the second quarter (Russell missed the second layup). The defense wasn’t awful, but it needs to be better than this if the Cavs are to be taken seriously.
26 & 9 – Kyrie Irving had 26 points (11-of-20) shooting and nine assists against the Lakers. His three-ball still comes and goes (2-of-7), as does his ability to get to the line (only two free throw attempts). However — and this might be my imagination and wishful thinking on my part — he’s been balancing his dribbling wizardry with finding his teammates better over the last five-or-so games. His pick-and-pop sets with Frye and a beautiful wraparound, left-hand pass from the top of the key to Thompson deep on the block come to mind as examples of him seeing the floor well. Irving’s averaged 24.8 points per game on 51.7/38.9/85.7 percentages with 6.0 assists over his last five games.
26 to 24, 6 to 16 – Though it wasn’t an epic or incredibly close game, and Kobe Bryant’s skills are obviously diminished, it was kind of a perfect ending to the Bryant-James saga. Bryant outscored James 26 to 24,4 but Bryant’s team lost in the process. Bryant will finish his career 6-16 head-to-head against James. James finished with seven assists to Bryant’s two.
But — and I’ve been offended by the Kobe Bryant Farewell Tour as much as anyone — but it was marvelous to watch them play one last time. They defended each other a surprising amount, and, frankly, Bryant played much better than I expected. Bryant shot 11-of-16 (his best shooting game in years, per ESPN) in 32 minutes, and though practically immobile conjured most of his points through his exquisite, masterful footwork, either shaking Cavs defenders (including James) or seeming to shoot directly through their outstretched arms.
https://vine.co/v/iHw56iB9gm0
James, on the other hand, made most of the nine (out of 18) of his field goals using raw, unstoppable physicality. Just to add to the theatricality, James threw a few spell-binding running fadeaways and a one-handed alley oop off the glass, during which he seemed to pause in midair long enough to do his taxes.
https://vine.co/v/iHwDl7IDj7x
https://vine.co/v/iHwEnPpvWrV
In the end, the game was never in peril for the Cavs, but watching Bryant and James trade buckets just before halftime (they combined for 14 of their teams’ combined last 22 points in the second quarter) was a hell of a lot of fun. Peyton Manning left. Kobe Bryant’s leaving. Now all that’s left is for me to reckon with my own mortality and get old and die. Good Night, Sweet Mamba. (At least you decide you still got it and want to play 20 minutes per game for a contender next season.)
Cleveland Cavaliers (46-18) 120
Los Angeles Lakers (14-52) 108
Box ScoreLeading up to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ game against the Los Angeles Lakers, there were whispers that Kobe Bryant — nursing an ailing shoulder — and LeBron James — to rest a body with little need for the regular season than maintenance and upkeep — wouldn’t play in Thursday’s contest between the two teams. Reports that either player even might not play on Thursday should have all been punctuated with “lol jk,” because everyone on earth knew that it would have taken either a serious maiming or organ failure for either Kobe Bryant or LeBron James to pass on their last opportunity to play one another in an even remotely meaningful game.
For as much as the “thrill of competition” and “being in the presence of greatness” are romanticized, the game’s best still get their rocks off playing one another, challenging each other individually, and exacting the best out of one another. And although Bryant and James (both of whom are more commonly referred to by their first names, a distinction reserved for the uniquely talented and famous) regretfully never met in the NBA Finals, they’ve reigned together over the NBA over the last 13 seasons, and Bryant for the seven preceding seasons: they have 30 All-Star appearances, 5 MVPs, and 13 Finals appearances between them. Either Bryant or James has been in the Finals every season going back to 2007. Until the ascendance of Stephen Curry, they were arguably the league’s two signature players going back to 2006-07 (Kevin Durant may have interrupted that streak before Curry).
TNT showed a graphic during the broadcast billing the game as “The Finale.” I don’t know if The Finale was “Grand” or not — but it was definitely entertaining. It had the feel of an exhibition game: little defense, high scoring, lots of highlight plays, and plenty of pandering. Unfortunately for the Lakers, it wasn’t an exhibition game, (( Or fortunately, rather? The Lakers first round pick in this year’s draft is top-three protected. So … they’re actively trying to lose to ensure they don’t lose that pick, which they will if it falls outside the top three. So don’t cry for the Lakers. They wouldn’t have hired Byron Scott if they wanted to win. [↩]
- According to Ric Bucher on the TNT broadcast. [↩]
- Dating back to 1983-84, which is as far back as Basketball-Reference.com’s player game finder goes. [↩]
- Though James outscored Bryant in their matchups against each other. [↩]