Recap: 76ers 94, Cavaliers 79
2013-11-08
The Cavaliers missed two-thirds of their shots and failed to find a rhythm on offense, falling to the 76ers in an embarrassing double-digit loss. Andrew Bynum’s entry into the game elicited a raucous chorus of boos and jeers, and the 76ers harnessed the negative energy into a 36-minute domination of the hapless Cavaliers.
1st Quarter: The Cavaliers came out firing away, and played with energy at both ends. This was a positive sign, as recent away games have featured rather lazy, uninspired ball. Earl Clark took 4 questionable shots in 2 minutes (YOLO!), but the Cavs held the 76ers to 1 shot per possession and rode some streaky scoring from Dion Waiters and C.J. Miles. Waiters scored 8 points in 2 minutes and C.J. followed it up with 6 points in 30 seconds. The Cavs held the 76ers to 2 points in the final 5 minutes of the quarter, going into the commercial break with tons of momentum.
2nd / 3rd Quarters: A 28-14 lead was shockingly meaningless as the 76ers ran off 63 points in two quarters while the Cavs executed some of the most miserable offense ever seen at the NBA level. They had a 5-minute stretch where the only basket was a Jarrett Jack trey. Anthony Bennett sprained his right shoulder (he had surgery on his left shoulder this offseason) early in the 2nd quarter, ending his uneventful evening. Tony Wroten exploded off the bench with thirteen 2nd-quarter points. The game felt over midway through the third as Wroten, a career 25% 3-point clanger, was imbued with enough swag to shamelessly launch 8 threes. He only made 2 of them, in keeping with the statistical narrative, but he was hardly shooting the 76ers out of the game. They played with confidence and athleticism, cleaned up their own misses, and by the end of the 3rd, the Cavaliers, to a man, seemed shell-shocked.
4th Quarter: The Cavaliers showed a little life to start the 4th as they whittled the 16-point 3rd quarter deficit down to 10, but the 76ers stepped on their throats and cruised to an easy 15-point victory. Sergey Karasev got 5 minutes of 4th quarter burn, similar to the type Omri Casspi received last season under Coach Scott. His only notable activity was throwing a bad entry pass out of bounds.
Quick Takes:
-The Cavaliers offense is a mess. Fans may recall the rudimentary offense of the early LeBron+Mike Brown years (but please don’t forget about the juggernaut offenses of the 08-10 seasons) with Bron Bron going 1 on 5 with 4 guys standing in the periphery. The thing is, as ugly as that sometimes appeared, it was often pretty effective. The reason? LeBron is the best player in the league and often took decent shots from decent spots at appropriate times in the shot clock. Tonight, the wrong players took bad shots from awful spots, at head-scratching moments. The game started with Earl Clark heat checking from all over the court, and featured a mind-numbing amount of long-2s and out-of-rhythm 3s early in the shot clock, with defenders contesting. It’s like they’re channeling their inner 2009 Rafer Alston. Only instead of banking in 3s off the glass, they’re just banking the ball off the glass, with no regard for human lives. The formula tonight was – miss a bunch of outside shots, and then get determined to “go inside” with it while the perimeter players stand disinterested 30 feet from the hoop. It was like watching a football team put in a 3rd quarterback with a torn rotator cuff, going into the I-formation, and getting stuffed at the line of scrimmage over and over. A few times, Andrew Bynum received the ball in the high post, was double-teamed, and the other 4 Cavs made no attempt to cut or even get in position to receive a kick out.
-Some of the struggles have to be bad luck. Jarrett Jack and Kyrie Irving missing 20 out of 27 shots seems like an anomaly, although the general malaise on the offensive end seems toxic to the entire team right now. (With one notable exception….)
-It’s time to talk about the most pleasant surprise of the early season. Calvin Miles Junior must be going home at night to bathe in flames…to COOL DOWN. Compare C.J. Miles’ first 122 minutes of last season with his first 122 minutes of this one: 12/55 from the field versus 33/62. And it’s not just shooting: he had 5 assists to 11 turnovers through 122 minutes last season. This season? Nine assists and only 6 turnovers. He’s also made his presence felt on defense more than a few times. Miles is a talented offensive player and sneaky-good athlete. He’s a bargain right now and the Cavs should consider him a part of the future.
-Dion Waiters played pretty well tonight. Our own Nate Smith informed me before the game that Waiters was shooting effectively 62% on spot-ups and 32% on pull-ups. While that extreme contrast is partly due to sample size, the thought crossed my mind multiple times tonight as Waiters splashed home set shots (even ones I would normally consider “bad”) and bricked the falling away ones with the one leg kicked out. His final line looks a bit inefficient, but overall he played well and finished with a team best +/- of zero.
-Tristan Thompson played hard and snagged nine offensive boards. (He had plenty of opportunities.) Cavs fanatic David Zavac mentioned on Twitter how much the hand switch has helped Tristan from the stripe, and not the field. There was a moment in the middle of the game where Thompson stood isolated with Spencer Hawes guarding him 18 feet from the hoop. He attempted to shoot a contested fadeaway and had it blocked. It was puzzling and awful, and I never want to see it again. I’m going to pretend like it never happened.
-I thought Andrew Bynum looked fine tonight. He is a presence in the post and has done a nice job altering shots and even sending a few back. His post game isn’t there yet, but the Cavs aren’t doing him any favors by giving him the ball and abandoning him. I hope he keeps his head up.
-You may recall my perverse satisfaction with posting the eye-popping block differential stats the Cavs incurred last season. Seems the Cavaliers are on track to live below the rim again. Spencer Hawes, a.k.a. Dr. Hoops, deflated the rock tonight, denying the Cavaliers six times. Thaddeus Young added 2 more including a vicious take-down of Dion Waiters at the apex. Through 6 games, the Cavaliers block differential is -16.
@Jake
You said he should START over Clark. At SF? Maybe if our guards were bigger, but they aren’t. You don’t start a 6’6 guy at SF unless he’s a freak of nature.
Miles is 6’6 and what’s the difference if he plays at the end of the game. Clark’s 13 min do nothing.
I think the Cavs are struggling to pick up on Brown’s defensive scheme, which to me is a good thing (when considering how poorly we are playing). There are going to be growing pains, and I think right now the offense is taking a hit because we are trying so hard to figure it out on defense. This is OK. We are a young team, new coach, new system. Once our guys get comfortable on defense, I think the offense will drastically improve. With that said, I’m not a fan of Waiters so far this season, although the fact Kyrie… Read more »
Oh my comment above is directed to writer not Blip.
Excuse me but did you see the same game as me? Cavs shot a miserable 33% (FG). Thompson 5-15, Waiters 7-19, Irving 4-17, Jack 3-10. They were soooo Slowwww on offense. There is no excuse for this. If this doesn’t warrant a serious offensive practice than what does? Brown has got to do something about this offense and fast. You have have BOTH offense and defense to win. Right now we’re going the direction of being the new Bobcats of last year. What a huge disappointment Bennett is. Yeah I said it. He looks too scared out there to do… Read more »
Why do we like Dion’s performance last night? 7-19 from the floor? He’s shooting shooting 38% thus far. Dude deserves criticism, not praise.
Yeah, “pick up basketball.”
Have you stopped by a gym recently and seen how our youth plays pick up basketball today? It actually hurts to watch.
underdog, that description is perfect.
“A very talented group that has no idea how to play basketball together.”
That’s what this team is right now, and that include Brown’s coaching on offense.
The defense has shown some significant signs, but the offense looks like pick up basketball. Way too many plays breakdown, and it seems as if the players don’t really know where to be with respect to one another on simple plays like pick and rolls.
Kyrie can play point because he can do just about anything. But he is not a natural point guard. He does not create anything in this offense except an occasional penetration and dish. He does play off Andy well, but elite point guards make the offense run like a well oiled machine. Everybody looks lost and disjointed in this offense.
His non instinctive point guard play is why the offense looks better when he and Dion alternate there.
Agree with observations made by KJ up top. The loss was nowhere near the disappointment as the way they are playing. A very talented group that has no idea on how to play basketball together. I don’t even think it boils down to effort. They are either incredibly selfish, or incredibly “no clue” about playing team basketball. Bennett has been a disappointment, but I watched five minutes and only saw one pass to him. Fired to him at close range and in traffic. It’s not a new thing. It’s been like that since the first game and I think him… Read more »
Let’s just review everyone- Anthony Bennett- This injury could be a blessing in disguise. I would love to see him get two weeks off to work himself back into shape and kind of forget these first six games. When he is on the floor he does nothing offensively. He stands in the post with no position and he half-heartedtly asks Jack to throw him the ball. He needs to be a man down there. I want him to call for the ball and be more aggressive. He just needs one game or even one big play to get him going… Read more »
The Cavs are not very good right now. We will know a lot more after about 20-25 games.
I agree with KJ. Our PG play has been pretty darn awful. We all love Kyrie, but he has been really awful this season in most areas. Jack, other than his first game, has also been really bad defensively and inefficient offensively. Kyrie has taken a move from Jack that I both detest, and is not a good basketball play. In the PnR, both players are crossing over right after accepting the pick, so they end up blocking the role man, and allow the other team’s big to guard two guys. Chris Paul does it, but only enough to get… Read more »
lets face it there personnel we have is not gelling for some reason…Kyrie is really trying to do 1 on 1 way too much and isn’t hitting his shots….he looks even worse than he did his rookie year…he averaged more points back then…tristan had good rebounding but would still insist on shooting with 3 guys all over him when he could’ve passed it out and re-start another possession. i thought the Cavs passed the ball way too much at times instead of driving and getting fouls. Once again they faced a subpar front line in which they could get the… Read more »
So the Cavs have one of the easiest schedules and they’re 2-4. Is it too early to start hoping for Andrew Wiggins?
So Kyrie and that leadership thing.
We look like a bad team. We have a decent roster with zero chemistry on offense. Mike Brown’s offenses in 08-10, btw, worked ONLY with a player with Lebron’s passing ability. Nobody on our team is as good a scorer, and nobody is even half as good a passer. Lebron should probably get even more credit than he got for taking our teams deep into the playoffs. We had good D, but the offensive schemes were atrocious. Mike Brown’s offenses have consistently been atrocious wherever he’s been. Bring in a consultant for gosh sakes.
I’m sure somehow Dion will be blamed for this loss today (Hi, Nate!) when he and Miles were the best players on the floor for the Cavs tonight. The FACT is that our PG play was awful. Kyrie is dribbling like he is in an old And 1 video. It occurred to me tonight that he is trying to expend as much energy as possible on the offensive end. He should be doing the exact opposite, of course. I am struck too, that for all his penetration how few times he gets easy buckets for himself or others for all… Read more »
Building up a huge lead and then blowing it has been the Cavs MO for a while now. They can’t hold onto a lead. Almost gave the Minnesota game away, too.