Cavs Changing Starting Lineup for Game 2
April 18, 2018Confessing My Sports Fan Sins: While We’re Waiting…
April 19, 2018It was only Game 2 of a best-of-seven series, but Wednesday night felt like a must-win game for the Cleveland Cavaliers. With LeBron James, the wine and gold are seemingly never out of a series until it’s actually over,1 but coming back from a 2-0 deficit after losing the first two games at home would have been quite tough.
With that said, No. 23 didn’t allow that to happen. With a dominate performance, he helped the Cavs beat the Indiana Pacers, 100-97, to even the series, 1-1. Outside of James, there are plenty of things that need fixed going forward for the Cavs, but they showed much better effort on both ends of the floor in their win Wednesday night.
Let’s dig in:
2 – Prior to tip off, head coach Tyronn Lue announced that he had made two significant changes to the starting lineup. Instead of Jeff Green and Rodney Hood starting (like they did in Game 1), JR Smith and Kyle Korver were given the nod. It was not only due to the Cavs needing a spark on offense early on, but also to give LeBron James four shooters next to him in the starting lineup. The change worked out, to say the least.
2 – After scoring 32 points and being seemingly unstoppable throughout spurts during Game 1, Victor Oladipo picked up two quick fouls in the first 62 seconds of Game 2,2 forcing him to ride the pine the rest of the first quarter. The Cavs took advantage of the Pacers’ best player getting in early foul trouble in the opening quarter. He finished with 22 points and was 9-of-18 from the field, but was forced to play just 28 minutes due to his foul trouble. That’s quite lucky for the Cavs, considering the Pacers were a plus-11 when Oladipo was on the court.
16 and 20 – Both Lue and James knew that No. 23 had to be aggressive early on, not only to lead by example, but to set a tone as well. In Game 1, James didn’t take his first shot until just over 10 minutes into the game. In Game 2, the King proved that he can dominate at anytime, scoring the Cavs’ first 16 points of the game and a total of 20 in the first quarter, helping the wine and gold start the game on a 16-1 run and hold a 33-18 lead after the opening 12 minutes. He had 14 points in the first half of Game 1; James had 13 in the first four minutes Wednesday night. To go along with his 20 first-quarter points, he also added six rebounds and three assists, a stat line that many NBA players would take for an entire game. The King had that in just the first quarter.
Lebron James has scored 16 points less than 6 minutes into the game
It's the most any player has scored in the first 6 minutes of a playoff game in the last 20 seasons
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) April 18, 2018
29, 8, and 4 – This seems like a stat line that a good NBA player averages, right? Well, what does that make No. 23 if this was his at halftime? He’s kind of good, you guys.
46, 12, 5, and 2 – You see where I’m going with this, right? No. 23 knocked down shots early and often in a dominating night for the King. When the Cavs needed him to step up, he did just that. You can’t ask for much more than that. Not only did he fill up the stat sheet, but he was quite efficient while doing so. It was the 20th time he’s scored 40-plus points in the postseason.
17-of-24, 2-of-5, 10-of-13 – Can you get much more efficient than that as a player? You can, but it would be tough. James came to play, and he rarely missed as well, making 17-of-24 shots from the field, 2-of-5 from deep, and 10-of-13 from the free-throw line. The Cavs needed every basket as well, beating the Pacers by just three points.
Plus-16 – Somehow, even with just six points and three assists before he fouled in just 20 minutes, George Hill led the Cavs in plus-minus. He has to stay out of foul trouble going forward, though.
Minus-7, Minus-11 – With the starting point guard in foul trouble, both Jose Calderon and Jordan Clarkson did not play well in Game 2. The remaining two true point guards on the team,3 the two veterans combined for just seven points. Calderon had five points and a steal while shooting 2-of-4 from the field and was a minues-11 in 13 minutes. Clarkson was just 1-for-4 with just two points and had a minus-7 in 14 minutes. Clarkson has to break out of this funk he’s in.
16 – Luckily, No. 23 dominated Wednesday night. The five players off the bench combined for just 16 points while shooting 7-of-21 from the field. Rodney Hood (plus-1) was the only reserve who had a positive plus-minus.
11-of-28 – When you have LeBron on your team, three-point shooting must be a very integral part of your offense. After making just 8-of-34 shots from long distance in Game 1, the Cavs shot 39 percent from beyond the arc in Game 2. It helps that Lue changed the starting lineup to have four shooters around James from from the moment the game started. Thirty-nine percent still isn’t ideal, but it’s much better than their Game 1 performance. Hopefully they can improve on it (again) heading into the rest of the series.
4-of-8 – Kyle Korver has had quite a tough month, dealing with the sudden death of his younger, 27-year-old brother while also nursing an injury. Hopefully, he can use basketball as a place to take his mind off of everything else. He struggled over the last couple games but knocked down 50 percent of his shots from beyond the arc to come away with 12 points and a plus-15 in 31 minutes Wednesday night.
48 – After getting dominated for the majority of the 48 minutes in Game 1, the Cavs led from start to finish in Game 2 to even the series. They struggled at times, but the wine and gold kept the momentum from the first quarter and bent but didn’t break the remaining three quarters.
Hustle and defense – This isn’t a number, but the Cavs’ defense showed much more heart and hustle in Game 2 than it did in Game 1, especially late in the game. While it may have partially been due to Cleveland playing well and holding a lead, rather than trailing by double digits, the effort defensively took a 180 between the two games.
Thanks to a question asked by WFNY’s Scott Sargent, James complimented the Cavs defense tonight, especially from the two new guys in the starting lineup: Smith and Korver.
Tied 1-1, the best-of-seven series now shifts to Indianapolis for the next two games. Game 3 tips off at 7 p.m. ET Friday night.