Recap: Cavs 100, Pelicans 104 (or, everyone draw up an offensive set and mail it to Mike Brown)
2013-11-22
Tonight offers an opportunity for Cleveland to rebound from a mostly embarrassing midweek tilt against the Wizards. And what do you know? The one player that wasn’t a complete disaster in that game gets to start. Undrafted rookie Matt Dellavedova supplants injured CJ Miles and Dion Waiters…remember, I compared him to Steve Nash* first. Now, onto tonight’s affair against the vaunted New Orleans Pelicans.
The starting lineup varies greatly from game one, with Dellavedova, Gee, and Bynum differing from October 31st. Cleveland came to play, as the fabulous frontcourt tandem of Thompson and Bynum dominated early. When the Pelicans called timeout after six minutes, Bynum tallied 8 points, while Tristan notched 4 & 5 as part of a 16 to 6 run. Substitutions came early, as six minutes in, Bynum, Dellavedova and Gee already hit the pine. Somewhat amazingly, Cleveland played eleven players in the first quarter (??), and the revolving group of backups struggled mightily; turnovers on three straight Cavalier possessions, combined with a Pelican layup line, fortified a 13 to 2 New Orleans run. The Wine & Gold headed to the first break trailing 20 to 21.
Early in the next quarter, the second string settled down: Jarrett Jack hit a floater; Dion drove for free throws and found Karasev for a corner-three; then Jack found Sergey for another long range bomb. I can get used to corner threes from the Russian rookie. Cleveland forged a solid run, retaking the lead 34 to 27 as Kyrie checked back in with a smooth drive and easy layup. Thwarting a New Orleans mini-run, Dion Waiters flashed his best offensive spurt of the early season, scoring nine points in 90 seconds, behind a driving layup, a corner three, and an and-one & another pair of free throws from attacking the basket. Nine points…all from drives and threes…drives and threes? Watch this stretch in your spare time, Dion. Cleveland’s defense remained sturdy throughout the quarter, and the good guys ventured to the locker room ahead, 51 to 42. Waiters closed the half with 14 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists on 76% true shooting. Tristan piled up 8 points and 6 rebounds on 4 of 6 from the field. Somewhat perversely in a leading effort, the Cavs turned the ball over 11 times, compared to only seven assists; even in a solid effort, the offense still revolves around individual heroics.
The second half started with the two teams trading baskets. One noteworthy item included the advent of “Cleveland successfully running the offense through Bynum in the post”; the big man tossed three dimes in the first five minutes. This early stretch of the quarter also involved some, “oh my goodness, Kyrie Irving is a sick man”, as a swooping, crossing the basket, and-one helped the Cavs maintain a seven point lead when the game went to timeout with 5:35 left in the third. All good things come to an end though; the platoon transition from starters to bench again produced flailing offense and discerning D. Riding a three pointer, two layups and two free throws, New Orleans pulled within one, 64 to 63 at the three minute TV timeout. As the quarter pulled to a close, the lead remained one, with Cleveland up 71 to 70.
Thanks to two Jarrett Jack jumpers and an assist, the Wine & Gold leapt to an early 79 – 75 lead early in the fourth when Kyrie checked back in. Who needs Mr. Fourth Quarter though when you have Jarrett Jack? The wily veteran continued his onslaught…draining a three…then a long two…then an assist to Varejao for a layup…and a dime to Clark for a corner three! Can the Cavs get a road win against a Western Conference team? It looks like yes; 93 to 81, less than five minutes to go!
Nothing comes easy in Cleveland though. Three turnovers and a couple of Kyrie misses, counteracted by an Anthony Davis dunk and a clutch Jrue Holiday bomb, and the lead withers to three with three minutes remaining. I slap my head and can feel an ulcer forming. Next time down, Kyrie drains a pull up, and I can breath again…until Ryan Anderson strokes a deep three. After another hero ball, isolation set results in a difficult shot for Irving…the Pelicans run the other way, Anthony Davis scores on a putback, and the game is tied, 95 to 95 with two minutes left. I shed a lone, mournful tear. Kyrie though, balances a Tyreke Evans drive with a free throw and a driving layup: 98 to 97, Cleveland leads. Impending dread subsides for a moment…but for no reason. Everything is for naught; life is garbage, as Jrue Holiday finds Eric Gordon for a corner three. Cavs trail by two with a minute left, and the rest looks familiar.
After the Pelicans called timeout with 4:48 to go, Cleveland was outscored 23 to 7. Kyrie Irving used 9 of 12 Cavalier possessions. Two of the others were Varejao and Clark turnovers. The Cavs had zero assists. Four Pelicans scored three or more points; four of their six field goals were assisted, with another off an offensive rebound. That was complete garbage. Cavs lose 100 to 104.
New Orleans grabbed 19 offensive boards, turned the ball over 12 times to the Cavs 19, and benefitted from a disparity of 17 attempted free throws. Tough to win that way.
Some assorted notes:
- That end of game hero-ball offense was completely frustrating. Time after time, the play call appeared to be, “Let Kyrie dribble into three guys at the rim”. He didn’t get many calls, and the final five minutes were a mockery of planned offense. Irving finished with 22 points, 2 assists, 4 turnovers on 45% true shooting.
- Where did Tristan go? He played solidly, with 12 points and 8 boards, but sat out most of the second half. He logged only 23 minutes.
- Dellavedova picked up two fouls in the first four minutes. The first guy off the bench? Jarrett Jack, relegating Mr. Waiters to 8th man status on this night. On the scale of “energy level”, I don’t think Dion has been the worst, and thought that was Coach Brown’s criteria for playing time…hopefully the message to Dion is, “shoot less long twos off the bounce”. If so, the message worked early. Dion played eighteen straight minutes in the first half, probably his strongest of the season.
- Dellavedova also racked up two personals in the initial four minutes of the second half. Let’s just say that Eric Gordon gave him some issues. Karasev came off the bench first this time.
- He picked up a fifth foul after 42 seconds of the fourth quarter. The energy level needs reigned in.
- Carrick Felix got playing time. Unfortunately, on his first NBA touch, he stepped out of bounds. On his second touch, the ball was stolen from him. Lesson learned: Don’t take tips from Anthony Bennet on how to start an NBA career.
- Jarrett Jack did Jarrett Jack things, and didn’t have a bad night. He hit some floaters, drained some long twos, and generally helped the second unit score buckets while Kyrie sat. He finished with 19 points and 4 assists.
- Dion had a great first half, but a lousy second one, shooting 0 for 2, with three turnovers. Robert mentions this frequently, but several of the Cavalier youngsters are probably still learning the level of focus and competitiveness that needs brought every quarter of every night in the NBA.
- Earl Clark keeps taking open threes and making them. With a 3 for 5 effort tonight, he resumes his 50% rate for the season. No way in hell he keeps that up, but it’s nice while it lasts.
In some: “not specifically related to tonight, but things on my mind” bullets.
- It seems there is a lot of talk about how Kyrie and Dion each need to be playing “on the ball”, or “off the ball”, and which respective skills they need to be developing. It’s an easy answer: both, for both. Almost any good offense will feature more than one player . When Durant and Westbrook play together, is one the “on ball” guy and the other “off ball”. Is Dwyane Wade just an “off ball” guy with Lebron around? Irving and Waiters need to develop each set of skills (although Kyrie is already pretty damn good “on ball”). In addition to playing off Kyrie, Waiters needs to continue developing a repetoire that gets him to the rim off the dribble (he was a lot more solid in that regard in the second half of this season than he has been in November 2013), but he also needs to…
- Quit gravitating to a spot 35 feet from the basket when he doesn’t have the ball…that is so irritating…it drives me crazy. Nothing positive will come standing halfway between the three point line and half-court! Poor off-ball movement is epidemic to most of the Cavs. When watching the league’s good offensive teams, cutters routinely expose the split-second when their defender loses focus. This rarely happens for the Wine & Gold (early in the second half, Gee cut for an open dunk off a Bynum post up, then Tristan did, too…it was awesome). It definitely won’t happen for a player standing ten feet outside the three point line.
- There has been a decent amount of talk about Andy’s regressed energy level. He almost died last year, right? At age 30? Hopefully, I am being overdramatic, but if he is never the same high-energy basketball player again, that seems reasonable. A mindset can change when confronted with a reality like that. Andy scored four points tonight, and despite nine total rebounds, didn’t grab an offensive board.
*This sentence was tongue in cheek…mostly.
@Jim why when Tristen is clearly like our second best player after Delly?
@James. Given how terrible this team is, I would start Bennett. Why not? Nothing to lose. This team, best case scenario, is a challenger for the 8 seed in the East. Worst case scenario appears to be unfolding. May as well see what you have with the number one pick in the draft.
There were several 4th quarter no calls…
Amico lost me when he suggested Anthony Bennett should start at small forward. By any measure, that would be an absurd decision. I actually thought the offense at the start of the 4th quarter was perhaps the best I’ve seen all season from the Cavs. There was great ball movement, cutting off the ball, and players were getting good looks at the rim or from 3. Then, as many have pointed out, it fell apart when Kyrie took over. I realize Kyrie’s made some great plays the past couple of seasons and had great crunch time stats. What we’re seeing… Read more »
Amico article: Cavs start makes no sense at all, but it’s time to start getting it together.
Some insightful comments. Agree with some. Not with others. But a few interesting observations:
http://www.foxsportsohio.com/nba/cleveland-cavaliers/story/Cavs-start-makes-no-sense-but-its-time-t?blockID=964707&feedID=8888
Not to pick on Delly because I appreciate his effort, but the thinking that he is a defensive stopper is a joke. The only reason he looked good against the Wizards was because he was guarding Bradley Beal who is strictly a jump shooter. Last night he was put on Eric Gordon and he was exposed. As much as Dion can look like shit on defense, he can at least stay in front of guys.
Rich – Are you suggesting that the reason this team had a poor record the previous two years is Irving’s play in crunch time? Or maybe it’s that we’re frequently so far behind after 43 minutes that no one can make up the difference? Cavsfancolumbus – 2 for 6, 1 for 2 at the line, a turnover (and an awful three total for the team in the last four mins) and choosing to whine about a no-call instead of getting back on defense. He was awful when he needs to be special. No coach can make up for that. Scotch… Read more »
Varejao’s edge has always been his energy and his being a half a step quicker to the ball than his opponent. Conditioning- wise he has always been “tough as nails.” Basically, his “edge” is something that would be affected by a long layoff. Currently, he is a half a step late to the ball. Most of that should come back over time. Will we see Andy at his peak again? Don’t know … but Andy is the type of player that makes a team better. Should we trade Andy? Don’t know … but Andy is the type of player that… Read more »
I think we all can see that this is a “development” year and, at this point, our best hope is to sneak into the playoffs and be coming together as a team at that point. That said, Cavs fans shouldn’t overreact to individual games, or stretches of games. Decision making should include trying to win games, but be more heavily weighted towards long term development of the team. The first thing they need to do is to settle in on a starting five over the next month. Kyrie and Dion need to start side by side and figure each other… Read more »
Anthony Davis had 9 offensive rebounds and tipped several to teammates. I’d like to build a team around him. No one could stay in front of Gordon or Holiday. Pels had six guys in double digits.
I agree with KJ on a version of his point. We all know Brown is no offensive genius but I highly doubt he tells Kyrie to go in there, pass up open team members, and drive into a triple team. When Kyrie shook off BS’s last play vs the Raptors last year to bury a 3 from 2 feet behind the line no one got upset. He makes his own plays when he wants too. But he’s such a nice guy, says nice things, and dazzles at times so we don’t hold it against him. Not sure what to think… Read more »
I also noticed that NO had a gajillion second chance points. Maybe more TT would’ve helped with that.
Good read. I had to do a double take on Varejao’s stats. WOw that is bad. BUT NO ONE hardly had offensive rebounds. Team total was 3 I believe. 3 are you kidding me. WHen watching this game; there wasn’t any fighting for that rebound at all. They hurried up and ran down the court and that was all of them. Because they all did it; one would have to think Brown told them to. And yes STOP THE HERO BALL ALREADY!! CAvs are so predictable, so genius in let’s all stand around and watch Kyrie plow into 5 guys… Read more »
Good re-cap Kevin.
Would you rather have Wayne Ellington shooting 3’s instead of Delly?
Would you like to have Omri Casspi right now as the Cavs’ ‘3’ ?
Would it be nice to have Speights rather than Clark ?
You people are delusional! Kyrie is why we are losing!!! You think Brown calls these plays? Kyrie calls his own plays. The only way to get him to not call his own number is to sit him on the bench. This is, as I have been saying ALL SEASON, on Kyrie. Either he buys in and moves the ball and actually looks to create good looks for his teammates or he does what he has done so far, and that is inefficient, ineffective hero ball that leads to more losses than wins. I am surprised no one mentioned how crappy… Read more »
You can’t ask Kyrie to put the entire team on his back every single game in crunch-time. It’s completely unsustainable.
That’s how you get a 20-30 win team. He’s incredibly talented, but he’s not quite yet in the group of players who can singlehandedly drive a team to 40-50 wins like that…
Steve-you are aware that there are actual offensive sets in basketball right? It’s not really hotshot pickup ball by the time you reach the pros. Coaches have a real effect on the game beyond the talent level of their players.
And we have the second worst team in the league according to advanced stats…ninth place doesn’t seem like something we need to worry about right now.
Steve the problem with that is you are asking too much of Irving. play after play in crunch time he was taking on 5 defenders by himself. The team went 6 or 7 straight possession in the last 3 mins without anyone touching the ball but Kyrie, and he shot like 3 for 6 so it not like he was awful considering the cirumstances. having one player go 1on 5 possession after possession is not a sustainable plan. You never see that from a team like the Spurs.
Irving going hero-ball has “worked for two years.” That W-L record sure fooled me.
Didn’t read the article…silly of me, but good game cavs. Can’t win them all. Young team…Grow as a team.
John tha barber
Ahh, the vague and nebulous “play calls”, which is always just something else. You know what worked for this team for two years? Irving beating guys off the dribble in crunch time. If he cant score, and were not talking tough shots, hes missed jumpers with decent looks and made sloppy turnovers, then theres not much Brown can do. Our “star” has not played like one this year, and most of our other problems stem off that.
Look, we have the 6th worst record in the league and have had a very easy schedule (Charlotte x2, Milwaukee (how did we lose to this team? Just look at their roster), Washington x2, New Orleans, etc.). We haven’t even faced the tough teams yet. Lebron is not leaving miami for us after this year. We might as well tank strong for a top 3 pick and take another shot next year. What’s the point of being the 10th or 9th seed in the east?
Chris BroussardVerified account @Chris_Broussard No Cav besides Kyrie has touched the rock in like 5 minutes 7:26 PM – 22 Nov 13 Ryan Kelapire @RyanKelapire 41m @Chris_Broussard Mike Brown did the same with Kobe & the Lakers. It’s atrocious. ————————————————————— This twitter exchange captures my frustration with the Mike Brown offense. Yes, the defensive effort and defensive play of the team has clearly improved under Mike Brown. But offensively, this is a nightmare. Also, good point bringing up Wade’s dynamic off the ball. That’s really where you want Kyrie and Dion to go. The few Heat games that I’ve seen… Read more »