Recap: Cleveland 93, Minnesota 92 (Or, Cavs Bend as Much as Physically Possible Without Actually Breaking)
2013-11-04
Wow that was unnecessarily tense. The Cavaliers lulled everyone all to sleep, before graciously allowing the Wolves a chance to steal this one right at the end. It was a very gentlemanly move, but it was far too kind for the world of NBA basketball. Perhaps the Wolves realized Cleveland was being too generous, as Kevin Love missed a potential game-winning three pointer right at the buzzer, allowing the Cavs to exhale and move to .500. The loss was the first of the season for Minnesota, meaning the Cavs are transitively the NBA champions of the first week or something. Good work team.
The Cavs laid the foundation for the game-long lead towards the end of the first quarter, where Andrew Bynum scored six of his 10 to close out the frame. The Cavs mostly-stellar bench extended the lead to 15 and it held up for a while. Rotations were tight and consistent, as they’ve been all season. Andrew Bynum and Jarrett Jack were the first dudes off the bench, followed by C.J. Miles, Alonzo Gee, and Anthony Bennett. This second unit worked well to expand and solidify the lead against Minnesota’s lackluster bench. Miles torched starters and reserves alike for 19 points, including a big late three to stem the tide of the fervent Minnesota run.
Late-game Derrick Williams shenanigans aside, the Wolves’ bench was a non-factor. On the second night of a back-to-back, their starters played the entire third quarter and most of the fourth as well. It was pretty entertaining to watch Gorgui Dieng’s cameo against Andrew Bynum. He fared about as well as you’d expect, with three fouls in three minutes. The Cavs finished the half with a smaller version of the starting lineup, as Mike Brown swapped Earl Clark (who made three quick buckets then did nothing else, finishing with only 11 minutes) for Jarrett Jack. This lineup moved the ball well, utilizing the distribution skills of their three excellent passers (Jack, Irving, and Varejao).
The foundation for the Cavs success was defense. They held Minnesota to 36.2% shooting for the game and nobody truly looked dangerous except for Kevin Martin, who had all five of the Wolves’ threes. Kevin Love had a good statistical game, but he was pressured often and did not find himself with much room to work. Individual execution wasn’t as sharp as it maybe should be, but this team isn’t exactly stocked with a lot of defensive talent. The scheme worked and the trend of shading over to offer weak side help proved very effective. Andrew Bynum protected the rim and finished with a game-high three rejections, a nice treat for block-starved Cavs fans.
This defensive aggression paired well with an excellent night on the glass. The team grabbed almost twice as many rebounds as the Wolves in the first half, but the overall stellar night was smudged by the debacle of the last five minutes. For most of the night, Anderson Varejao and Tristan Thompson seemed to smother the ball on every miss and rapidly find a point guard to initiate a medium-sized break. Towards the end however, Love and Pekovic grabbed many Wolves misses and made the Cavs pay.
Kyrie Irving endured nine turnovers tonight and did not seem his omnipotent self yet again. This feels like an adjustment period for Irving, as he is learning to play with eight new teammates. There were two crucial botched fast breaks in the last three minutes, each a three-on-one Cavs advantage. Both ended with Wolves points on the other end. If the Cavs convert those easy buckets, the game ends on a less frightening note. With the Cavs holding on to a one point lead with 30 seconds left, Irving called for a clearout and shook J.J. Barea off of him, but missed the 12-footer. Barea almost lost his dribble and was forced to eject to Love on the perimeter. The bearded all-star missed and the Cavs left with a win and a serious teaching moment for Mike Brown.
A few notes:
– Dion Waiters made me grab my computer like in frustration like an angry parent grabs the face of their misbehaving child in movies. He had a few nice drives, but also a couple of gratingly poor fadeaways.
– Tristan Thompson plays well next to both centers. His mobility pairs nicely with Varejao’s and the two of them can both go inside-outside to give the offense a few different looks. When he shares the floor with Bynum, he slides into a more traditional power forward role.
– Derrick Williams moves his feet really close together and splays his knees when he shoots jumpers. It looks like he’s trying to make himself appear to jump higher.
– Andrew Bynum grabbed an eight foot-high rebound with one hand extremely casually in the second quarter. He is quite tall, that fellow.
– Bennett has now gone four games without a field goal. He is 0-15 for the season/his career. I barely remember him touching the ball, except once when he was posting up, lost the ball and ended up hoisting a 28-foot airball as the shot clock expired.
For all the Oden proponents out there – Bosh didn’t play tonight for Miami and Haslem played center. Oden still not ready.
Also, Charlotte Bobcats beat the Knicks. I was impressed with the energy in their game against us and thought they were much improved.
Really? I often read the “recaps” this blog still continues to put out and wonder if the author had actually watched the game. It’s difficult to think you’ve done anything but scan box score and imagine your own 60 minutes. If you honestly believe Jack did anything but look for his own 6th man of the year award so far this season than I have a timeshare I’d like to sell you. For anyone else looking for actual insight to the game FTS is just over there…
12 blocks by 7 players for the Cavs! How about the one by CJ!
I know Dion is stressful, but if he can get his head on straight he could be an amazing set up man . On some of his drives when he slows down, he carves up a whole defense and looks so aware of where everyone on the floor is. That being said his decision is usually to just jack up a shot instead of passing. The offense was amazing in first quarter. Look, we can’t hope for much from MB, but in an offense that usually only involves two players on any play, it’s a good sign that the points… Read more »
Yes, TT’s defense on Love last night was really really good. TT struggle last year guarding stretch 4s, and back-to-back be damned, this was a very solid effort. Nice comments, Kevin.
Read through the commentary – seems like most everyone has kind of hit a lot of good points and the pendulum has sort of settled in the middle now. Big takeaways are that wins are still wins. And losses are still losses. At the 4 game mark this will just be a footnote game that disrupted the T-Wolves start to the season. I, for one am happy to be at 2-2 and think this team will have a lot of growing pains to get through. Reality check is that our starting backcourt is a pair of 21 year-olds with 3… Read more »
Situations that make you vulnerable to transition baskets:
1) Turnovers.
2) Crashing offensive boards – leaving several players deep in the offensive end.
3) Guard penetrating and nobody rotating back.
None of those involve a lack of effort or hustle.
“Yes, the half court defense has been stellar, and it was all game last night. But the Cavs got absolutely SMOKED in transition.”
Baby steps, Grover….baby steps.
grover13 – I think that the fastbreak points is a direct result of our guards going for defensive rebounds (see Kyrie’s statline) and not getting back on defense.
Nupe:
You ever try to shoot baskets when you are out of wind?
One comment on the defense-
Yes, the half court defense has been stellar, and it was all game last night. But the Cavs got absolutely SMOKED in transition. The Wolves got 30 points- a third of their entire point total for the night- on fast breaks. That’s all about effort; nothing more. Aren’t the young, athletic Cavs the ones that are supposed to be beating teams up & down the court?
I’m glad to see that the team is truly improved on defense all the way around. I do wonder if part of the reason Kyries offense seems off is because he’s now expending so much energy on the defensive end of the floor. When only 4 games into the season it’s difficult to make any real conclusions about how good the team or players will be. But I think it’s safe to say our defense is improved from last year – just based on the fact it looks like guys are actually trying and ofcourse any team coached by Mike… Read more »
Rich, didn’t say that at all. I’m showing that it’s completely illogical to think four games is enough of a sample to infer anything like that – you know, what I said, and not the words you put in my mouth.
Hey Guys – check out Kelly Dwyer’s awesome ball don’t lie today.
http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/top-overall-pick-anthony-bennett-going-ghost-missing-161213533–nba.html
“Bennett looked alternately passive and unsure in Cleveland’s embarrassing loss to the Timberwolves, unable to help his mates as the Wolves came back from a 23-point second half deficit to take a one-point win.”
All good comments. Let’s not make broad statements about Bennett’s basketball future until January. The Cavs have been playing intense defense. Offense is going to suffer from the fatigue alone. Especially shooting and finishing. They’ll all be in even better condition in a couple of weeks. They’ll develop more offensive chemistry. Offense should come around. But if they continue to play this intensely on both sides of the ball – will there be anything left in the tank late in the year? I think CJ can play like this on most nights. Jack is a talent . . . but… Read more »
I only saw the second half, but my comments- I agree with Nate; was good to see Dion get benched (for the rest of the game, mind you) after ball-hogging his way to screwing up a 3-on-1. It will be interesting to see how he reacts after that. In what I saw, the half-court defense was really solid….but they got absolutely TORCHED in transition. The Wolves scored a third of their total points on fast breaks last night. That’s unacceptable. Aren’t the young, athletic Cavs supposed to be the ones beating teams up and down the court? Bynum looked good.… Read more »
Lets start with Bennett. He seems to be forcing things. Things haven’t started out well and he feels the pressure. I think they should run a few plays for him and try to give him a confidence boost. I’ll agree that he probably feels lost out there. The second unit is being dominated by Miles and Jack, and he hasn’t found his role yet. I’m sure it’s not how he imagined things would be. Nonetheless, he’s fighting for rebounds when he’s out there. I thought his block on Martin was also a nice play. I’m not worried about his future.… Read more »
The Defense can be just as streaky as the offense if the opponents you are playing are having poor streaks. I don’t follow that argument. What I do follow is that this season the team effort and strategy and rotations are night and day from where they were even under the best stretch from Byron Scott. I don’t think we’ll stay in the top 4 defensively, but there is a reason mike brown almost always has a top 10 defense, and I don’t think that trend will be bucked this year. And before you get into “But his offenses always… Read more »
Although that game was scary to say the least, offenses can be streaky, whereas defenses tend to be more permanent. If our offense is off a bit to start the season, who cares? We have a very young team who is actually playing defense. We have a brand new coach who has to be given some time for the team to buy into what he preaches. I realize Brown’s offenses will not set the world on fire, but we need to give it some time. We also need to give Bennett some time. He looks like the least-conditioned player on… Read more »
So, how come Dion gets bashed for taking bad shots (which really weren’t that bad) and Jarret Jack gets a free pass for taking horrible shots. 3J’s shot selection isn’t exactly stellar, but he’s been connecting so it’s all good. But Dion played better than Jarret Jack and I disagree with calling a step back, jump shot a fade away. I know we all want Dion to attack the rim more, but at the rate he’s getting calls, I can’t blame him for trying to shoot some. He wasn’t hoisting it up with a hand in his face, he usually… Read more »
Scott is ignorant
I don’t get all the worrying??? I’m actually very encouraged. This defense in incredibly improved with Kyrie looking Chris Paul like fighting off screens with authority and understanding what a HOF’r PG does. 15-9-7 type numbers is what we’ll see. Andy is always quality Andy, great to see Bynum have surprising dominance in limited time. Yes, I agree Clark had no business starting games, but Cj Miles could honestly be the long term answer there. Last yr at the start he was a laughing stock and now he is a quality 3. TT speaks for himself. He will be a… Read more »
So, let’s get this straight, it’s illogical to believe they’ll maintain this level defensively, but it’s perfectly reasonable to expect the offense to remain woeful? Go ahead and explain that mind-bender.
My gawd … One week into the season and already baseless who’s the worst #1 pick of all-time?! Wow.
The tireless banging on Dion is expected from here. I know it’s coming every recap but come on with all that Bennett stuff. That seems completely ridiculous no matter how well or poor he’s been playing.
Rich – because they’re as likely to remain that strong defensively as they are to remain the worst point-per-possession offense in the league? Four games is not enough of a sample to infer anything like that at all.
As an optimist, I am with Rich – the defensive transformation is STAGGERING. we play D now and it is our identity. holy crap. i mean, that is almost unbelievable. do people remember how bad we were last year? kyrie is not a lockdown one on one guy, but he is hustling and rebounding and trying on D. good god.
once kyrie and dion get on track offensively, we are definitely a 40-45 win team, with possible upside due to bynumator.
how good does CJ look? even playing some D!
Now, this idea that we won’t get to 30 wins? Right now, we have a top FOUR defense. And this is against 3 playoff teams (likely) in 4 games, and 2 of them true title contenders. Top 4 defense. Let that sink in and then tell me how we don’t get to 30 wins.
If you watched that game and thought “thank god for Jack,” I’ve got some questions for you.
Nate Smith, what’s “inner”about your curmudgeon?
Everything about that game felt like loss except for the final score. This was almost as depressing as our pitiful loss to Charlotte. This team reminds me of the Fratello teams. They have much improved defense and good hustle, but… Andrew Bynum’s cameos are about the only bright spot in the Cavs atrocious offense. TT has his moments, I suppose, but everyone else looks abominable. Kyrie looks alternately tentative and then frustrated. He talked about bringing some leadership to the team, but he doesn’t seem to have any sort of presence out there. Dion Waiters looks as selfish as ever.… Read more »
Nate, your Dion hate is both misguided and tiresome.
I hope it’s just me, but Bennett just does not look like an NBA player when he’s out there. Obviously, it’s only game 4 of his career and he’s really raw and really young. I get all that. But he just looks too raw is what I’m saying. He looks like he’s a long way away from becoming what we’ve all been told his talent level is…; and I understand that his physical attributes are impressive in particular his length. But he looks like he just doesn’t have the skill to play at this level as he is right now.… Read more »
Nice recap of a bizarre game. The defense was fantastic for 43 minutes. Then Kyrie’s “I’m going to get into a hero ball contest with J.J. Barea” brain fart happened. Go watch some tape of Chauncey Billups and Chris Paul, Kyrie. Learn how to play winning basketball. All you have to do is execute your offense and not turn the ball over if you’re up 16 with 5 minutes left. Crap. You don’t have to be a hero every game. You let a 5’9″ point guard get in your head. Then Mike Brown’s I’m going to stop calling plays in… Read more »
I genuinely know it is early, and that I shouldn’t look at other teams’ first round draft picks, but it is really hard to watch Bennett without sighing.