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December 12, 2015Cleveland Cavaliers (15-7) 111
Orlando Magic (12-11) 76
Even though the Cleveland Cavaliers could win Friday night, the Cavs already had a giant loss on Friday when John “Hot Rod” Williams passed away, losing his battle with cancer. But, because life sucks, they still had to play the Orlando Magic.
As is often the case, the Cavs weren’t been playing as badly as their recent three-game skid would suggest, and they weren’t as otherworldly as the score would indicate on Friday night. As is her fashion, The Ball — that leathery and capricious wench — she punishes transgressions and rewards commendable play. But on Friday the Cavs were … better. A lot better than they had been recently. And The Ball — she was good to them.
A major part of the Cavs’ improvement was the The Return of Shumpman, who appeared in his first game of the season after suffering a wrist injury before the season. Someone made a video of Shump standing on the roof of the Q, answering a Bat-Signal like call featuring his flattop. It’s a stylish little video for one of the league’s coolest dudes, though I suspect Iman’s mother wouldn’t condone him standing on the roof of buildings like that without a jacket on — he’ll catch a cold that way.
— Iman. (@imanshumpert) December 11, 2015
The Cavaliers had Friday’s game clinched midway through the third quarter BUT HOW you must be wondering. Let’s lift the curtain on the box score and see how.
14 – I’ll have to settle for how many points Shumpert scored for an excuse to talk about him. Granted, it’s a good reason on its own (his 14 points was over double his scoring average from last season and tied for his fourth-highest as a Cavalier).
But really, Shumpert’s impact on the Cavaliers is a story about what doesn’t manifest itself in the stats. Earlier on Friday, Shumpert said (paraphrasing from the FOX Sports Ohio broadcast) that he may be rusty, but he was going to bring “good” energy to the team regardless — contrasting that with “bad” energy. And though I nor SportVU have a firm grasp on measuring “net energy” contributed by a player, Shumpert was (guessing here) worth about +19 megajoules for the Cavaliers. He fought over screens, cut off drives to the hoop (helping hold the young Victor Oladipo to only four points), stripped balls (yet earned no recorded steals), moved around, and generally raised a ruckus while he was on the court. He didn’t have the best plus/minus, highest defensive rating, most steals, or greatest number of blocks, but he felt like an obvious boost. The Cavaliers looked more kinetic with him on the floor.
Shumpert didn’t look the least bit rusty in 24 minutes (shocking, really) and if he remains as comfortable off the dribble as he was in his first bucket back (clip above) and at ease shooting threes as he was on Friday (2-of-3) while playing solid perimeter defense, the Cavaliers just became that much more difficult for opposing teams to handle.
17 – After the rare, elusive seven trillion on Tuesday night in one of the most ineffectual games of his Cavalier career, Timofey Mozgov responded in a huge way on Friday night. Mozgov shot 8-of-9 from the field on Friday for 17 points, a season high. Mozgov had looked off-kilter and discombobulated all season entering the Magic game, but seemed to rediscover himself in a big way. I’ve been under the assumption that he hasn’t been totally healthy, but Mozzy Bear looked fine on Friday, scoring in the variety of ways he did last season when he had seven 20-point games in just a four-month tour with the Cavs. His teammates looked for him in the post, he looked spry on the pick-and-roll, and he cut when his teammates were driving. He looked supremely confident for the first time all season and at home in the offense for the first time since the NBA Finals. It was nice to seem him rewarded for his efforts, and he’ll add another gear to the Cavs offense if he remains this dynamic.
16 – LeBron James was mean in the second quarter, abusing the Magic for 16 points on 6-of-6 shooting with two and-ones (one of which is shown above). The Cavs are at their best when James directs the offense and flexes his muscles (both literally and figuratively) when he sees his opportunity. He largely used his teammates to do his bidding in the first quarter (three assists and only three field goal attempts), then blitzed the hoop in the second half, picking on Aaron Gordon and others in the post. James’ shot chart (below) shows were he did his damage — nearly all of it in the paint with the exception of two turnarounds from his spot in the left corner and one stray jumper. James finished with 25 points and eight assists while sitting the fourth quarter on a ruthlessly efficient 10-of-15 shooting.
13 & 6 – Kevin Love’s shooting stroke continues to evade him. Love was 2-of-6 on field goals on Friday, and has shot a dismal 15-of-48 (31 percent) on field goals and 0-of-13 on threes over his last four games. But he found other ways to impact Friday’s game — something he needs to do more when his shot fails him. He pounded the glass (13 rebounds) and showed off his passing skills (6 assists). Love needs to be a focal part of the offense, but it doesn’t always have to be by way of his scoring. I would argue that the two times Love found Mozgov with some nifty interior passing in the first quarter sparked the offense that would rocket to a 40-point lead by the fourth quarter.
38.9 percent – The Magic entered Friday’s game having won six of eight games, but returned early Thursday morning from a five-game West Coast road trip and looked out of sorts all night. They shot only 38.9 percent on Friday, a number low enough for Orlando to warrant closing Disney World (well, at least Epcot) for a day as penance. Credit the Cavs defense for playing with some energy, but plenty of the Magic’s damage was self-inflicted. Nikola Vucevic and Andrew Nicholson were both impressive (and Mario Hezonja hit some jumpers), but they were otherwise bad offensively. While they’re 12-11, I still don’t know what to make of this team without a true distributor or offensive maestro.
It was nice to finally see the Cavs take a team to its own woodshed on the road, but let’s put too much stock in the win given the way the Magic played. Though if Cavs continue to play as they did on Friday, they can take some forward momentum with them into Golden State on Christmas Day to face the Warriors — who I think are having a pretty good season so far.
1 Comment
This is why you watch nightly because hands down the Cavs best effort of the season. They made it look easy. Loved the aggressiveness. Loved the flow. And I especially loved seeing Iman Shumpert back on the court. His return looked like it sparked the team. He also made an impact in the game. And my man the Russian Bear played like it. He finally showed why I want him back. Hopefully last night was just the beginning.