Onward to Oracle: Cavs-Knicks, Behind the Box Score

New York Knicks (14-15) 84
Cleveland Cavaliers (18-7) 91
Box Score

One might have excused the Cavs if they came out sloppy Wednesday night against the Knicks. A Friday date with the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena loomed, and while it counts the same in the standings, a tilt with a Carmelo-less New York club might have felt relatively inconsequential.

That isn’t quite how things went down at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cavs came out energetic and engaged, moving the ball beautifully in the opening quarter. From there, things got progressively more tense. The Knicks hung around through the second and third quarters, and managed to take the lead a couple times in the fourth. The Cavs didn’t get as many whistles in their favor as they might have liked, which seemed to affect their play a bit. For a while, they just didn’t have it. One dunk by LeBron Raymone James, however, rendered all of those earlier happenings moot and effectively ended the game.

Think Kristaps Porzingis saw anything like this in Latvia?

https://vine.co/v/iAOmVUpM7g9

Still, LeBron was not pleased with the Cavs’ performance. His postgame remarks were broadcast over The Q’s PA system, and he used some colorful language to describe his team’s play.

LeBron thanks fans: "We played like shit, and without you guys" we wouldve lost

— Chris Herring (@Herring_NBA) December 24, 2015

But a win is a win is a win, and this one makes six straight for the Cavs. They are now 12-1 at home. They remain comfortably atop the Eastern Conference. They were fully healthy tonight for the first time all season, and for a time that was very fun. On the Knicks side, Kristaps Porzingis played a hell of a game; his teammates going away from him late was a blessing for the Cavs. Arron Afflalo had a nice game, and overall it turned out to be a better contest than one might have expected.

The first quarter went as well as one could hope, at least on the offensive end. The Cavs assisted on 10 of their 12 baskets, with eight different players scoring in the period. Kevin Love knocked down his first two jumpers — the first a baseline two from Kyrie Irving, the second a right wing three from LeBron James — and pulled down six rebounds in the quarter. Iman Shumpert, Sr. knocked down two threes, lending credence to my suspicion that his wrist healed like Henry Rowengartner’s elbow. Finally enjoying the fruits of a healthy roster, David Blatt played 10 different Cavs, including Mo Williams.

The second quarter was a little less pretty and a little more chippy. LeBron had a frank disagreement with the officials that resulted in a technical foul. A short while later, Tristan Thompson and Lou Amundson exchanged words and both got T’d up. The Cavs’ offense wasn’t as fluid as it was in the first quarter, at least not consistently. They still got their points, with more coming on the break and at the free throw line than at the game’s beginning.

The Knicks, however, did not go away. Kristaps Porzingis buried a trio of triples en route to 16 first-half points, with Derrick Williams — he who was drafted No. 2 behind Kyrie — adding 11 off the bench. New York matched Cleveland’s 13-of-14 showing at the charity stripe, and the Cavs led by five at the break.

Things got tense in the second half. The Knicks won the third quarter by a 22-17 margin, erasing the Cavs’ halftime advantage. The Cavs didn’t play badly in the third. The offense was a little out of sorts, but for the most part they got decent looks. The one thing they did not do is get to the free throw line. Like, at all — they attempted zero free throws in the quarter. On defense they mostly held the Knicks to contested shots; the New Yorkers just made enough of them to make the lead disappear.

The Cavs attacked the rim in the fourth quarter and earned 11 free throws for their troubles (they made nine). The defense ratcheted up — Iman Shumpert’s work on Arron Afflalo was particularly impressive — and they held the Knicks to 25 percent shooting. That would have been even better had they shot better than 26 percent themselves, but so it goes. New York did not get to the line once in the final frame, and that may have been the difference. That, and LeBron’s ginormous slam.

Let us take a look at the numbers before we completely turn our attention to Oakland.

39 — This was not an exhibition in shotmaking, as both teams shot 39 percent from the field. After that lovely first quarter, in which they converted on 55 percent of their attempts, the Cavs shot a frosty 33 percent the rest of the way. The Knicks were in a similar boat, making half of their shots in the first quarter and just over a third from the second through fourth. The Cavs got a fair number of open looks but couldn’t knock them down — they were 5-of-22 from beyond the arc. Their defense held up even as the offense ebbed and flowed, and that was enough to keep the game under control.

23 & 13 — Playing in front of his old man, Kevin Love had himself a ballgame, finishing with 23 points and 13 rebounds. He nearly had a double-double by halftime (15 points, 8 rebounds). He shot 8-of-17 including 2-of-6 threes, and flashed most of everything that makes him so good. The Cavs found him for plenty of touches in the post and he put that ol’ reliable right hook to good use. He even ran the floor and threw down a dunk in transition.

Sometimes Kevin Love throws touchdowns…and sometimes he does this: #CavsKnicks on @FOXSportsOH. #NBAVote https://t.co/8EbGqDYwJh

— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) December 24, 2015

7 and 7 — Not an alcoholic beverage, but Tristan Thompson’s offensive and defensive rebound totals. On a night when the Cavs’ overall effort level wasn’t quite up to par, Tristan and the bench bunch did their best to get the Q excited. He added 10 points to make it a double-double.

18; 29 — This was a pretty clean game, as the teams combined for 18 turnovers when they average about 29. That’s all, really. Just thought it was interesting.

37-of-41 — Speaking of clean, how about the Cavs and Knicks combining to shoot 90 percent from the free throw line? Quite the way to honor Mark Price being nominated for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame.

5; 1-of-7 — Your daily Kyrie Irving update: he wasn’t very good tonight. He mostly looked like himself, but the results weren’t there. Five points on 1-of-7 shooting. (He did have four assists in 19 minutes.)

Porzingis — Not a number, but more of an idea. Kristaps Porzingis did work on the Cavs. The 7-foot-3 rookie from Latvia matched Love’s 23 and 13 output, blocked a shot (it felt like more), and hit 4-of-5 three-balls. He was superb, though he didn’t have much influence on the game in crunch time; he took all of one shot in the fourth quarter. Still a whale of a game for the rook.