Wine And Gold Weekly; Week 8

The Wine And Gold finished out the week 2-1, essentially conceding a road loss to Memphis this week on the second night of a home-and-home style back-to-back. The week’s result saw them push their record out to 19-6, maintaining their Easter Conference lead, and pulling six games ahead of Milwaukee in the Central Division. More on the Bucks later, but for now, let’s take a look at how things shook out last week.

The Games

Tuesday’s 17 point win against the Marc Gasol-less Memphis Grizzlies was a decisive victory. The Grizz, even shorthanded, have a bevy of bigs that all have length, and they still defend the heck out of the half court. Kevin Love threw in 29 points and 13 rebounds, and continued his ascension to the mean in terms of regaining his footing as possibly the best power forward in the NBA. The great news from this one, though, was that JR appears to be JR again. No longer content with being a decoy on the perimeter, JR knocked down 8/17 field goals en route to a 23 point performance. He appeared to have more confidence than he’s had since his pre-injury slump earlier in the month, and the hesitation was gone from his shot. When he simply catches and fires, he’s great. There were also stretches where he initiated offense, given the absence of Kyrie Irving, and looked at least competent doing so. It was the Cavaliers’ best defensive outing so far, maybe, holding Memphis to 40% shooting,  forcing 16 turnovers resulting in 23 points. Not having Gasol is a big deal. I think he ought to be an MVP candidate, really, but nonetheless, a strong win overall.

Things didn’t go as well on the second half of the home-and-home, but that’s to be expected when a team leaves three of the top 15 players walking the planet 730 miles away from the arena. Look, this game didn’t matter. The Cavs aren’t competing for Memphis for seeding, and not a ton would surprise me more than home court in June coming down to head to head record between the Cavs and Grizz. That said, with Gasol back in the lineup (17/11/3), and the Grizzlies lying pretty well, a Cavalier B Team led by James Jones (!) and Kay Felder nearly pulled off the upset with spurts in the second half to close the gap. The Cavalier depth has been much maligned, including here, so it was nice to see that some of those guys could, in fact, contribute meaningfully against a legitimate NBA playoff team. That’s the sort of thing that you don’t see if you don’t rest guys. Particularly encouraging was the outing from Kay Felder (more later).

So…if you haven’t noticed, the LA Lakers are an actual NBA team. Are they good? Probably not. But they play so hard, they do things that you need to, and it looks like there is legitimate growth there. Luke Walton is doing a great job, and the casual NBA fan would be well served to check them out, if for no other reason that to check out how they use Julius Randle. He’s a hurricane of strength and skill and goes full speed all the time. The best part? He initiates offense a ton, both in transition, and in the half court when he brings the ball up. Yes. Really. It appears to be A Thing, and it is the best. LA fought hard, answered Cavalier runs, and made Cleveland work hard. Were it not for a late run in the fourth, we may have had an upset on our hands. Kyrie Irving was a wizard, Kevin Love was equally effective, and after a “Let The Game Come To Me” type of night, LeBron finished with a near triple double. The ball moved, things were lively, and it was a ton of fun to watch this game.

This Week

Oh, no, you guys. The Cavaliers have another home-and-home this week. This time, against the young and surging Milwaukee Bucks. The Bucks are, of course, led by none other than human Swiss Army Tool Giannis Antetokounmpo. Aside from knock down threes, there isn’t anything that he can’t do with alarming ease and regularity. Things didn’t go well for the Cavs last time, as the Bucks used a series of intricate and perfectly executed back door cuts out of their base offense that freed up bigs and rim runners for easy buckets as the Cavalier defense just sort of…hung out. As we know, the Bucks are rambunctious, active, kinetic, and have 747-type length at every spot on the floor. The key is to turn them into jump shooters, make them work hard on defense in the half court, and not fall victim to their hectic and reaching, yet mostly disciplined, defense. They help out, sag off, and fill lanes so well that turning the floor over happens in the blink of an eye. A zone defense may, and probably ought to be, employed early and often in an effort to pack the lane and encourage guys to shoot from deep. Discipline in closing out on shooters and running guys off of the line will be key, or the same baseline issues will surface as low block defenders have to scramble if those shot contesting defenders do not close with care.

Expect some combination of the Big Three to rest, if not all of them, on the second leg of this one as well. As I said, the Cavs are six games up in the division, and anyone that thinks that this team poses any meaningful threat to the Cavs in the East hasn’t been paying attention.

On Friday, the Cavaliers will take on the Brooklyn Nets. Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised, or upset, if they again rested guys. Brooklyn should not be difficult, even coming off of a back to back earlier in the week. Yes, Brook Lopez is as gifted a low post scorer as we have in the NBA. He has an arsenal of back to the basket moves, nifty footwork in the face up game, and good touch out to 15 feet or so. Beyond that, the cupboard is nearly bare. Jeremy Lin has played in only eight games, and even then, I’m not sure that Sean Kilpatrick isn’t their second best player. By the way, he’s been terrific this year. He does a little bit of everything, and provides energy that teams need, but does it with a relatively polished NBA skill-set. Fun young player. Cleveland, barring a mass resting of studs, should roll here to set themselves up for Christmas Day.

So…the Cavs play the Warriors on Christmas and really, despite the hoopla that it will carry, this game is no big deal…I’M KIDDING OF COURSE IT IS A BIG DEAL. Golden State is, simply put, terrifying. They’re the most efficient team that I’ve ever seen, and they can kill you a million different ways before you figure out what happened the first time. They are first in the league in points, first in assists, and, at post, seventh in total rebounding. What does all of that mean? It means that they put enough pressure on offenses to force them into bad shots, then they run the fast and secondary breaks with lightning quick passing, precise and dynamic lane filling, and they finish everything.

This is going to be a monster game, and it would be a huge win for Cleveland. Golden State has figured things out quicker than any other Super Team, they’re doing it better, and they’re a better club than the team that blew a 3-1 lead last June to the Cavs. One thing to watch is that guys don’t even have to dribble. As was evident in Klay’s superhuman performance in which he scored 60 points and dribbled exactly 12 times. Kevin Durant, by the way, is the best player on this roster by about a thousand light years, and is playing the best ball of his career on both ends of the floor, including becoming a legitimate NBA shot blocker. As good as GSW is, I have a strong feeling that the Wine And Gold prevail, giving Clevelanders another Christmas present to enjoy.

Trends

I think that Kay Felder is going to figure it out. Despite his height, he is built sturdily, and has obvious instincts in terms of spacing on both ends. Sometimes, however, it feels like he presses. Remember how I mentioned that Julius Randle goes full blast, but is always in control? Well, Kay Felder is the opposite of that. He’s just going too fast. If he slows down a bit, lets some things develop, and then makes a decision, he’s going to be a really nice player. Now, those things will come as he gets more playing time and the game sort of slows down for him in terms of how he’s able to process what he’s looking at. The Cavaliers are in a unique position with Kay. Not many teams in need of another lead guard can simultaneously win a ton of games, and develop a youngster. Given that Kyrie will sit, either for entire games for rest, or for entire quarters in blowout wins, Felder should be able to get meaningful NBA minutes with a great team and a great staff. Not having to send him to The D League is a major bonus. His nice game against Memphis was a really good start, and fans should keep an eye on a possible repeat performance should Kyrie not play in that second Bucks game.

My feelings about Jordan McRae continue to trend in a downward trajectory. I know that he can fill it up in a hurry and pour in points, but I want to see him display an interest and willingness in doing literally anything else on the floor. He averages one shot attempt per ever 2.1 minutes. To put that into comparison, the best player on the planet, LeBron, averages a shot every 2.04 minutes. I understand that McRae gets looks in garbage time, mostly, but there is no way that he should be looking to score as often as LeBron, regardless of the situation. He also averages one assist for every 7.55 shot attempts. This puts him near the top of the league in that regard for back court players. Is it fair to compare a Garbage Time All-Star and borderline rotation guy to the rest of the league? Maybe not. Having said that, there’s a reason that the extra minutes go to Liggins instead.

Buckle up for a big week. Batten down the hatches. Stay warm. Have a safe, happy, and fulfilling holiday. And most of all, make sure that come Sunday, you’re All In once again.