That was a huge week for the Cavaliers. Going 4-0 after some post-Thanksgiving Malaise, and reclaiming not only their firm hold on the top of the East but also their title contending form was enormous for this team. Let’s check out how things went down this week.
The Games
Toronto is a really terrific team, and Cleveland has beaten them all three times they’ve played. Things started off a bit on edge. LeBron hit the deck in apparent pain after catching a lob for a transition highlight reel dunk, landing awkwardly on his leg. Once Northeast Ohio started breathing again, 23 rebounded and put in a typical King James performance (34/8/7). Cleveland fans once again held their collective breath when JR went down with what initially appeared to be a serious and significant injury. Seeing JR cover his face with his jersey and appearing to cry was heartbreaking, and I was relieved when I got to The Q and saw that he was in the lineup on Saturday. Even when JR is bad, he matters in terms of spreading the floor. His own gravity as a threat beyond the arch is, in and of itself, valuable, as he pulls defenders into his orbit and their eyes away from LBJ, Kyrie, and Love. Don’t let the Cavaliers success against this team fool you. They’re the most legitimate threat to the Cavaliers throne in the East, and they will be a tough out this spring.
The Knicks, on the other hand, don’t appear to be a threat, despite playing better than most expected them to. Cleveland rolled most of the night to the tune of a 126-94 victory at Madison Square Garden. The Cavaliers did exactly what I proposed that they do more of: run early, and allow that energy to feed their half court offense. Guys were fluid, looked loose, and had a great energy all night long. Tristan Thompson added 20 rebounds (6 offensive) into the mix, and did a nice job on versatile and mobile bigs like Porzingis. Even more impressive was his defense on switches, and his ability to then recover and alter, or block, field goal attempts from rim-running bigs. I absolutely do not care about his 0-5 from the floor, or his FT woes. You scrape that many misses off of the MSG glass, and you get a pass. Especially in a 30+ point W. Kyrie Irving was marvelous, yet again. 28 points on 9-17 from the floor to go with six assists. More on this later.
A Friday night tilt at The Q against a struggling Miami Heat team was more of the same from the Wine And Gold. A 114-84 victory, in which the Cavs played their best defense of the season. Miami shot just 34.8% from the floor, including a miserable 6-27 when dialing up from long distance. The Cavs showed hard, they closed out well, and they made folks miserable with a physical presence underneath. Cleveland also took care of the ball, turning it over only 11 times. Kevin Love was the man of the match with 28 points and 15 rebounds to go along with helping the team effort to limit Hassan Whiteside to eight points and 12 rebounds on just 4-10 shooting. We may be living in a world where the Cavaliers have three of the top 15 players in the league.
On Saturday, the Cavs got out to a hot start against a pretty solid Charlotte team. They got whatever shot they wanted early, made a ton of them, and guys were flying all over the court. Shooting 57% from the floor at home is typically a recipe for a W. Even if you turn the ball over 18 times, as they did. Those 18 turnovers didn’t hurt too badly, however. Charlotte managed to turn the floor over in transition poorly enough that 18 Cavalier turnovers turned into just five Hornet fast break points. Yes, there were 20 points scored off of Cleveland turnovers, but that’s fine. If teams are working off of your miscues instead of just turning the floor over quickly for easy runs to the bucket, you consider that a win. Clearly, you don’t want to be talking about 18 turnover games very much, but limiting what happens immediately in primary transition is a great way around it. Oh, and by the way, some guy named LeBron went out and dropped 44 points, nine rebounds, and 10 assists in another near triple double. JR was back, and despite not shooting it well, appeared to be moving around just fine, and was still doing Other JR Smith Things that add value. Charlotte’s late game run was met with a punch to the throat from Cleveland, and 20,562 folks left feeling great about it.
This Week
In a scheduling quirk, the Cavaliers will play their first of two home-and-home sets in as many weeks. Cleveland will play host to Memphis on Tuesday, then turn around and be the guests of honor in The Grind House on Wednesday. LeBron and Marc Gasol are coming off of Player of The Week honors in their respective conferences. Gasol has simply been great this year. He is doing his usual work on defense, both man to man and in help/zone situations, and has added a relatively reliable three point shot to his offensive arsenal, which was already oozing with skill. Gasol threw in 27/10/5 last week, carrying Memphis to six straight wins despite missing Mike Conley, who was a human buzz saw before a back fracture sidelined him. You’ll also want to keep an eye on Jaymichael Green, who has been terrific since moving into Zach Randolph’s starting role. He doesn’t do anything spectacular, but he does everything well, and always make the right play. He is an underrated passer, and the ball never sticks when it gets to him.
Beating the same team twice with a quick turnaround is one thing, but doing it back to back, with the second night in their building is going to be tough. Especially a building like that. The place is absolutely bonkers, they love their team, and the Grizzlies gritty and burly 1990s style of play thrives there as a result.
Despite being losers of six straight, the LA Lakers could be a tough test on Saturday when they visit The Q. Luke Walton had his team at .500 (10-10) before the slide, and he has them engaged, trusting one another, and playing team basketball. Julius Randle is providing a physicality, and a pit bull mentality that the Kobe era Lakers often lacked, especially recently. D’Angelo Russell is back after missing time with a knee, and by the time the Cavs see them, they ought to be pretty close to being the same team they were before he sat. Former Cavalier Timofey Mozgov will no doubt be looking to prove that he deserved his gigantic payday, and does things that the Cavaliers struggle against. Watch for Larry Nance Jr to be bouncy and electric around the rim and on the offensive glass. I am interested to see how many minutes the Lakers will play Nance with Randle to try to maximize speed.
Trends
If you hear someone say the phrase “pure point guard” or “true point guard”, you should stop listening to the person you heard it from. Things like racking up assist totals, being pass-first, and being a gritty defender are all things of a bygone era. What matters now is whether or not you can make shots, whether or not you dominate the ball in the half court, and how you function as a team defender. In that measure, Kyrie Irving has been masterful in the month of December. His scoring has taken a bit of a dip, but he has become so good at picking his spots within the context of the offense. He has been initiating more offense in an effort to get LeBron more looks off the ball, and the ball doesn’t stick like it used to. He now pops passes into shooting pockets with ease, and on target. He controls the ball like a wizard, and uses his absurd ball handling ability to get to spots, not to score, but now to draw defenders away from his guys. I call this “Maximized Individual Gravity”. Simply put, Kyrie doing a ball room dance with the ball 25 feet away from the rim does not have the same gravity as it does while he’s 12 feet away. The closer he gets, the more dangerous he is, and the the more people wind up in his “orbit”. From there, more guys are open, and he’s better at finding them at this point in his career than ever before.
I’ve talked about Iman Shumpert’s season at length in this weekly column, as well as other spots on this site, and it is time for me to give him some due respect. Shump has turned things around this month, and it is no coincidence the Cavaliers are winning games at the clip that they are. For the Cavs to be world champions again, Shumpert has to be the player he has been in the past. The guy that makes catch-and-shoot opportunities, the guy who runs the floor relentlessly, and the guy who defends with an iron will. In wins this season, Shumpert averages 8 PPG, and shoots over 55% from the field, including 52% from three. Compare that to his performance in losses (4/39%/22%), and it is easy to see what his play means to this club. When Shump is right, he’s almost irreplaceable. Ty Lue and staff need to find a way to make sure that he’s consistently that player.
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