Post Game: Cavs Usurped By Kings At The Q

The Cavaliers entered tonight’s tilt against Sacramento having lost five of their last seven and looking listless doing so. Tonight, the Cavs got a second consecutive triple-double (24/11/11) from LeBron, to go along with 21 points and 16 rebounds from Kevin Love. It was not enough however, as they fell to the Kings by a final of  116-112. The Cavaliers have now lost six of their last nine, appear to be disjointed, disengaged, and careless. You simply cannot go 17/34 from the charity stripe and expect to win games. Even at home. Even against bad teams. Even with King James going TripDub Let’s check out how it all went down.

• The Cavs appeared uninspired by their recent lack of success, as well as the comments about roster composition made by LeBron. Sacramento came out with more energy, and used that to jump to a 10-0 lead in the opening moments of the game.
• Cleveland punched back, however, and answered with a 17-1 run of their own to stop the bleeding and make sure they didn’t get run out of their own gym by an inferior team. The defense was scrambling and closing hard on shooters during the run, and creating a few turnovers was key. The Cavs rallied to take a four point lead at the end of the first.
• A quiet five points in the first half from DeMarcus Cousins should mean that you go into your home locker room with a half time lead, but so much energy was expended simply keeping themselves in the game, that the Cavs were unable to capitalize in a meaningful way. Sacramento outscored the Cavs by 10 in the second quarter, and carried a six point lead into the third quarter.
• The problem, one again, was that once the starters came out, things shut down offensively. A lack of rhythm, a lack of energy, and a lack of ball movement resulted in hollow possessions and the Kings capitalized.
• I continue to be pleasantly surprised by how effective Kyle Korver is in switching defensively when faced with a decision as a result of a screen. He’s a much more capable and athletic defender in the team concept than he is one on one where he often closes out too hard and fast to compensate for losing track of his man floating on the perimeter. This resulted in (by my count) three long range makes by Sacramento wings. This will clean up as he learns his teammates better on that end, and gets a firmer grasp for exactly what sinking and filling means on defense.
• LeBron began the second half strong, scoring 10 points in the first five minutes by creating transition baskets off of misses and dominating guys in the restricted area, and the Cavaliers pulled ahead 61-60 in the early going of the third.
• Real quick Korver thought here. His quick release is ridiculous. It wouldn’t matter, however, if he wasn’t also extremely effective at getting his hips and shoulders squared quickly. Getting a shot of with speed is one thing, and a nice quality to have, but ultimately, you’re just flinging junk at the iron if your body isn’t squared when you come off of the curl. Korver is so Ray Allen-esque in those ways. Really special stuff.
• The third quarter represented the best quarter of basketball the Cavs have played on both ends in quite some time. The defense locked up a bit, and the offense poured in a 35 point quarter. The offense was mostly predicated on transition baskets and corner threes, and that’s fine. The looks were open as a result of ball movement and lots of action from wings and bigs working in unison to create the open looks.
• Defense has been an issue most of the season. One reason there are so many lapses is because when guys lose their man outside as a result of some action by the offense, they close too hard. Running guys off of the three point line is important, but you have to do so under control. Otherwise, the Darren Collisons of the world will midrange you to death, or squeeze zipping passes into windows to open bigs as a result of the post defender having to close out at the elbow. This is easy stuff, correctable stuff, and you hope the Cavs figure it out sooner rather than later.
• An explosive and energetic start to the fourth saw the Cavs take the lead at 94-87. The defensive energy looked better, guys were more engaged, and the simple errors I mentioned above were minimized.
• I’m not sure what the point of having Kay Felder on the floor is if he isn’t going to be bringing the ball up and initiating offense in the half court. He isn’t a threat flying around off the ball, and his tendency to actively and methodically hunt down mid range jumpers means he isn’t a threat spreading the floor. If he has play-making duties, you sacrifice his deficiency defensively. If he isn’t making plays on either end, seems silly to have him out there.
• LeBron’s second straight triple-double proved to be too much, and Kevin Love came up with a huge offense rebound and pass out to Kyrie Irving who knocked down one of his two freebies to pt the Cavs up 104-102 with 12 seconds left.
• Free throw woes plagued the Wine And Gold all night long, and Kyrie’s missed free throw led to…
• A DeMarcus Cousins layup with 3.4 left on the clock tied things up. Because of course it did.
• On the final play in regulation, the Cavs drew up a muddled play, the pass was stolen by Cousins (who got away with mauling Kevin Love) who narrowly missed a 35 foot heave that would have won the game.
• An awful shot by LeBron after a hard fought overtime effectively ended any sort of comeback completion effort. That possession was as bad as it gets. A subsequent free throw make by Cousins put the Kings up for good, to a score of 116-112.