Recap: Cavs 91, Toronto 98
2014-02-21
Pretty big game tonight for Cleveland. Riding an NBA-long six game win streak, the stakes got higher, as the Wine & Gold head to Toronto to face their toughest game of the last two weeks. Earl Clark and Henry Sims are gone, and Spencer Hawes makes his Cavalier debut. Tristan Thompson and Anthony Bennett return home to Canada, where AB reportedly had eighty friends and family in attendance. Unfortunately, three of his friends couldn’t make it; Anderson Varejao, Dion Waiters and CJ Miles stayed back in Cleveland to recuperate from their various maladies. That makes for a tough win against a good team on the road.
The game began with brutal offense from both teams, with the score sitting at 4 to 5 after five minutes. Things started looking up though, as in his first few possessions, Hawes drained his two shots, including a three, and also swatted a shot. Kyrie rolled up four early assists, including a pick & pop to Hawes, another to Bennett, and finding Tristan as a roll man. The offense found Anthony Bennett alone for a thunderous slam, and Canada rejoiced, aside from the fact the Raptors were losing 22 to 14. After the first handful of minutes, things were clicking on both sides of the ball for the Cavs.
Cleveland’s defense stayed strong throughout the first half, and Tyler Zeller was a big part of that. He blocked two shots, and seriously altered at least five more; this was certainly one of his most impressive rim protecting halves of his young career. With 1:30 remaining in the quarter, the Raptors had scored only 33 points, en route to a 44 to 39 Cavalier halftime lead.
Then, the third quarter happened. The Raptors moved the ball effortlessly, finding open shots at the rim or from the perimeter. It didn’t hurt that they converted 9 of 11 midrange jumpers. Toronto found Jonas Valanciunas rolling from his picks, or fed him the ball in the post, as part of a 10 point, 4 rebound quarter. Aside from a fantastic Kyrie to Tristan alley-oop, and another TT dunk off a Jack dime, the offense began to labor. On account of a 37 point Raptor scoring binge, the Cavs trailed 65 to 76 heading to the fourth.
The final quarter rarely got a lot better than the third. Bennett almost made a ridiculous dunk in transition, and also slammed home another; at least he and Tristan had highlights for their moms in the stands. After Demar Derozan canned a jumper with 10:43 remaining, the deficit stayed between 10 and 15 until under two minutes left. In the final minute-thirty, Jarrett Jack scored five points and Luol Deng tallied six, making both the final score, and their box scores look better than reality. The Cavaliers lost 98 to 91.
Tough game tonight. Following a 6 and 12 start and trading Rudy Gay, the Raptors have won 24 games against 13 losses. That’s nearly half a season as the equivalent of a 53 win team. And Cleveland was on the road, minus the starting center and two of their better scorers / shooters. There’s really no shame in losing this one.
The recent winning streak and fun All-Star performances made this season and the trade deadline confusing. Are they starting to put it together, or were the last two weeks a mirage? Tonight was a poor night to gauge an answer to that question, but the next two, at home against Washington and then against Toronto, are somewhat must wins. The schedule gets tough in March. If there are hopes for the next 25 games to feature Kyrie, Tristan, Dion and Zeller continuing their recent growth as a team, and an exciting sprint to the season’s finish, the Cavs need to protect their home court against non-elite squads.
A few bullets:
- I’m going to name Anthony Bennett tonight’s MVP. He scored on a jumper, he splashed home a post move, he threw down one monstrous dunk. Nine points, three boards, a steal and a block in 15 minutes? I’ll take it. Mom must have fed him well last night, upped his energy.
- His Canadian amigo played reasonably well, too. Most (or all) of Tristan’s shots came within the flow of the offense, and he finished with 13 points and 9 boards on 57% true shooting.
- Kyrie could not get anything to fall…3 of 16 from the field. He had some open looks rattle out, but also forced shots near the basket. Thanks to attacking and getting to the line frequently, he finished with 17 points, but only on 40% true shooting. His six first half assists initiated some effective first half offense, but of his nine total, four came in the first ten minutes of the game. Is there a website that tracks performance by quarter? I could certainly be wrong, but it seems Kyrie facilitates very well early, then progressively less as the game continues.
- Luol Deng wasn’t as good as his 21 & 11 looks. In the final five minutes with the game largely out of reach, he scored 9 points on 3 of 4 shooting. Prior to that, he tallied 12 points on 3 of 11 from the field, with 1 assist and 3 turnovers. He did drain 7 of 8 freebies (two in the final minutes though).
- Same story for Jarrett Jack. He scored 7 points in the final three minutes. Other than that…2 points in 37 minutes.
- After starting 2 for 2, Hawes finished 3 of 10 for the night. He drained a three though, grabbed ten boards, and blocked three shots, leading the team in plus / minus with +7. No doubt he is an improvement to the team’s big man rotation. Now hopefully the team can string together two fun, exciting months.
“Glad I wasn’t the Cavs GM for the2013 draft.”
Yeah. If you were, you probably would have been fired.
Yes Porter looks really bad. I had him as the pick for the Cavs – based purely on need – he played the 3 and the Cavs really, really needed someone who could play the 3 and get Gee coming off the bench. A concern of mine (looking at the pre-draft tapes) was that Porter looked foot slow in his college games. Now that he is in the NBA – oh boy has this slowness been amplified, he looks very very slow with his feet. I don’t see that improving for some time if at all. Porter is just not… Read more »
Oh and I think Porter had the highest floor among guys the Cavs were realistically considering; and he’s been terrible.
It’s my opinion that 3/4 combo forwards like Bennett have to be able to both shoot like a 3 and bang down low like a 4. Guys like Paul Millsap are 3/4 tweener success stories because they do both. No reason that Bennett can’t follow that path, rather than bust like Anthony Randolph, Thomas Robinson or Derrick Williams.
And the comparisons to Oladipo are premature simple because the combo guard learning curve is shorter than for a combo forward.
“Oladipo had the highest floor and highest ceiling of any player in the draft.”
Was this an ironic comment? He turns 22 soon.
DID I READ CORRECTLY THAT BUCKS MIGHT BUY OUT SESSIONS CONTRACT——WOULD THAT BE A GOOD OPTION FOR CAVS—–THOUGHT HE PLAYED GOOD HERE ( BETTER OPTION THAN JACK )—–JUST ” FOOD FOR THOUGHT ” —APPRECIATE YOUR COMMENTS
We beat the Wiz tonight and are essentially 4 games out of 8-5…so a great rest of the way could conceivably land us a 7 or 6 seed as easily as the 8 seed. Without the necessary tiebreakers obviously that nets us the 8 or 9 spot. 12 or so of our 26 games left are games we ought to win. That’s a ridiculously tough schedule. we will have to go on an absolute tear and hope Andy comes back super healthy and no one else goes down…to even consider a playoff spot. Plus we’ll have to catch some good… Read more »
@Knob, @Cory Hughey et al: It’s true that Atlanta seems like the most likely team to slip out of the playoff, neverless, according to Hollinger’s playoff odds, the Cavs have only a 5.5% chance of making the post season. Tp put that in perspective, Atlanta’s odds are 79.7%. Even the Knicks are 5x more likely than the Cavs are to make the post-season: http://espn.go.com/nba/hollinger/playoffodds We are 4+ games out of the 8th seed (and losing tie-breakers) and have the hardest schedule amongst any team in Eastern Conference. Let’s stop talking about the playoffs and start focusing on playing Bennett, Zeller,… Read more »
Awesome…more JJ…honestly, what is Donald Sloan doing? or Jeremy Pargo?
Cavs will be shorthanded again tomorrow against the Wizards, but the Wizards with be on the backend of a back to back. Every game is important here on out, but beating teams ahead of them in the playoffs are twice as important. That and not falling back into a rut. Atlanta is on one hell of a slide. They could be the team we’re chasing and not the Bobcats. Being first round fodder for the Pacers would still be progress. If you don’t have a top 6 pick this year, I really don’t see a world of difference as the… Read more »
I liked Bennett before the draft, just didn’t think the Cavs would draft him unless they were starting to question whether or not Tristan is a part of the longterm future in Cleveland. The biggest sin that Chris Grant made during his first two drafts was that he never surrounded Kyrie with a P&R partner, a shooter or a rim protector. I get why he drafted the guys he did In the 2013 draft he addressed the P&R and shooting. I can’t stand the way national media ignores what they said a few months later. A TON of mocks had… Read more »
I was on the Noel train. Still think it may have been the best pick (obviously not for the short term though).
I was very high on Bennett last year. kevin was skeptical and Nate thought it was a terrible idea. That’s all I remember but our can look it up. There was a concensus here at one time: Noel. It vanished after the injury. Otto Porter and Ben McL got some love until we saw them in the tourney. Oladipo was I think Robert’s guy after going to the draft. Nate, do I have this right?
I agree with Cory. I was quite impressed with Toronto. Talented players. They played smart basketball and well together. They played very fast all game. Aggressive defensively. Tough. And still young. It’s not easy to fit all those qualities in 7-8 people. (Don’t know why Lowry was on the trading block.) I was pleased we finished close. I thought that in the first half the Cavs played some of their best defense all year. It was obvious that, without Dion and CJ, guys like Deng and Dellavadova needed to be in more of a scoring mode than they are accustomed… Read more »
I wonder if the Cavs try to resign Hawes and move either Varejao or TT around draft time to add another wing shooter…if MB turns Hawes into a competent defender, that’s a strong, young big man rotation moving forward…was I the only one secretly hoping the TT/Barnes rumor was true
LOL, Nate. It is kind of like debating the existence of God at this point.
Kind of expected the winning streak to end against Toronto without Dion and Andy. It would have taken a huge game from Kyrie to win and he didn’t give it. My fear is that they’ll drop the Wizards game tomorrow short handed again and fall back into a rut. This team is still dependent on Dion providing a shark off the bench. I’m just kind of sick doing the what if game with Olapido. It was a draft without a consensus top pick. The odds were against them drafting the best player. Bennett has come around. He’s still not getting… Read more »
Seems to me that all the Rookies this year kind of blow. Oldadipo is decent by regular rookie standards but he’s not even as good as 11th pick MCW, and doesn’t have nearly as much potential value as 12th pick Steven Adams. So you might as well string up 10 NBA GMs from passing on CLEARLY better talent. This last draft was terrible. No one in the top 5 would even be a lottery pick in this draft. This was the definition of just pick and hope for the best.
What, you don’t enjoy having the same argument every three weeks, Hot Sauce?
Argh. This Blog’s Achilles heel: ex-post critiques of draft selections under the implicit assumption that GMs should be able to identify the best possible remaining player in the draft with each selection. Sprinkle in the fact that none of the player being discussed have even scratched the surface of their abilities, and we have a morass of long-winded arguments sinking deeper into a muck of false premise layered upon false premise.
Let’s all agree to pack up and revisit in 18 months.
Oladipo had the highest floor and highest ceiling of any player in the draft. Underdog, the Noel/Porter debate is revisionist history from February of 2013, not June.
Thanks NOMAD and Azure. There are a lot of blogs out there. I think C:tB is the best and I appreciate everyone’s input. My preferences were #1) Noel and #2) Bennett. Although Oladipo had his supporters, my recollection is the majority of fans preferred #1) Otto Porter and #2) Nerlens Noel. Porter – because he was considered to be the best fit. Porter was a glue guy who would have been a great fit, but he wasn’t “great” at anything (hence not a top 5 pick in my mind) . . . and I thought that, athletically, he would struggle… Read more »
I didn’t intend that to be an indictment. Cory is one of my favorite commentors and always has well reasoned opinions. I don’t watch any college basketball, and his thoughts on Bennett pretty much won me over before the draft. Doing a quick google search for “Bennett” on this site before the draft actually returned no negative comments on him. I just think people were expecting to pick 4th and not 1st, and that the selection would have been much more palatable for the national media (especially given his first few months.) I’m starting to get distracted from whatever the… Read more »
Hawes a great pick up for Cleveland- but he’s not a 35 minute man as his jersey stains showed you n the fourth. TO coveted him to back up Valanciunis for the playoffs.
Irving fell apart under pressure from the length of TRoss who has specialized in defending the opposing teams’ star ever since Rudy left the Raptors.
The Cavs just need to lt this team play together for a season or two and they’ll jell like the Raps once the coach figures out the team chemistry. TO had to cleave Rudy from the herd for the youths to shine.
Oladipo sucks, like the above poster said the only reason he would be a benefit to our team is because it would mean no Jarrett Jack
underdog you are a wise man !!!—-love your posts—-keep them coming and help ” educate ” us all
The addition of Oladipo does nothing to solve our spacing issues. It would just be another person that opposing teams could pack the paint against.
I remember Cory Hughey being on the Bennett bandwagon very early on
A three guard rotation of Kyrie, Dion, and Oladipo would have struck fear in the hearts of many a defense. Also, Oladipo’s workmanlike demeanor would have been a nice middle ground between the firey Waiters and the pensive Irving. Oh what might have been…
I’ll be honest, I watch about 0 college basketball other than March Madness. I usually just blindly agree with stuff or move people around based on their draft express interview videos. I didn’t even know who Anthony Bennett was to be honest, I knew I didn’t want Noel, I figured Oladipo would be great. My guy was Otto Porter so take my draft analysis for what it’s worth. But when I youtubed Bennett I really liked what I saw. That guy is in there, it almost showed up last night when he barely missed a BOSSS poster on one of… Read more »
JHill,
So was Bennett your guy leading up to the draft?
The only difference between having Oladipo and having Bennett is that if we didn’t have Jack we’d win more games. It’s not so much of having Oladipo on the team as it is not having Jack. I like Oladipo as much as the next guy, but I like Bennett’s potential more. Neither of them really fit with our team in general at the time. I think it goes to draft strategy do you go for the guy who can turn into a more athletic/longer Zach Randolph who can posterize people, or do you go for Tony Allen with a little… Read more »
Good points, Nate. Just curious, did anyone here push for the Cavs to take Bennett leading up to the draft? Who was the consensus pick here? I think Bennett will work out fine, I just don’t remember anyone thinking he would go to the CAVS.
Hey, I would love Bennett to work out. The dude has an NBA body. He has rare skills for a power forward when it comes to ball handling, quicks, and shooting. But he’s still a tweener, and he has a long way to go. Meanwhile anyone who simultaneously complains about Jack and then says Cleveland should have taken Bennett is missing the fact that Jack wouldn’t be on this team if Oladipo was here. Support for Bennett and team support shouldn’t cloud our analysis of the situation. Bennett’s good games have made him look like a player who posted some… Read more »
Good post, underdog.
Everyone goes off against NY, they are just as bad as we are. Am I the only one that thinks that Jarrett Jack is like 100% on spot up threes this season? Seriously every time he shoots a set 3 pointer it goes in. Why he feels the need to get the ball and step forward 7 inches is freaking mind boggling. Delly has had a rough stretch of games offensively, I think he was forcing things tonight knowing the team needed it. I feel like he needs to drive a bit more when his 3 point shot isn’t falling,… Read more »
Jack is become unwatchable. He’s an atrocity on both ends of the court.
Good write-up! Also, everyone had great comments probably because I agreed with them all. LoL Nate is right about Jack. He’s needs to sit. He was getting abused on defense that he might as well punch everyone’s frequent flyer card as they drive by him. What is up with him deferring easy shots 7 feet in front of him?? Now in defense of Delly ONLY a little mind you on his shooting. Yes it was bad. How many times did this “Deferring to Shoot by everyone” did he get the ball at the 2 second or less mark and made… Read more »
What the Cavs missed most last night in Dion/Andy was the opportunity to really get Jonas and Lowry in foul trouble. They both ended up with 4 fouls and having one of our top foul drawers in Dion out could have really messed up their rotations.
@azure
That’s because for months and months people who wanted to reserve judgment on Bennett and give him time have been told how that pick was a whiff, Bennett is a bust, shoulda drafted Oladipo… Think about this- why in the first place did someone even post Oladipo’s stat line?
I know the Oladipo / Bennett debate will go on for awhile.
One year Barry Sanders was running for 2,000 yards and Emmett Smith for 25 td’s. Once day, after both players had a great game a reporter walked up to Barry and said, “Some people are saying that Emmett is better than you.” Barry looked at him and said, “Sometimes, part of being a mature adult is being able to appreciate the accomplishment of others.”
I think both Oldadipo and Bennett have the talent to impact games for years to come. Can we appreciate them both?
Wow. Hawes is a smart player and really good passer. He’s going to create a lot of offense. He just needs to get closer to the basket when a shot goes up. I like him. But getting minutes for everybody is going to be a problem.
Nate is right on the money. That sequence at the end of the third quarter was huge. We missed five free throws and 2 wide open threes while The raptors were only able to get one Kyle Lowry three out of about 5 possesions. Going into the 4th only down 4-5 as opposed to 11 would have been huge mentally going into the 4th. Also the cavs were kyrie hitting some open shots away from winning this game so it’s not that bad. Jacks horrid pnr defense negates any offensive production he gives. Looking at the shot chart with about… Read more »
Yes, Kyrie did force some stuff, but he started doing it in the third quarter when nothing else was working and the Raptors made their run. I won’t fault him for that. That’s the mentality you want from your best player; he just couldn’t make it work. From the get go, Bennett clearly had the eye of the tiger. I wish Mike Brown would have understood the significance of this game to him and gave him more minutes. Might not have made a difference, but he looked like he was pumped up to drop a 30 and 15 line if… Read more »
Seems like many here just don’t like to give Oladipo any love. Dude is good, and definitely has star potential. I still think AB is going to work out, but there is no need to criticize Oladipo just to make you feel better about AB.
Can we stop comparing Bennett to Oladipo every single time Oladipo has a big game? Bennett plays a THIRD of the minutes of Oladipo. Good god I’m tired of this crap. Oladipo played FORTY NINE minutes last night. He routinely plays over 40.
Tough game, but that 3rd quarter was the game, Raptors shot out of this world and we couldn’t hit anything and the defense wasn’t too great either. The stretch to end the qtr as Nate pointed out with missed free throws, Deng missing a layup and missing a three pointer could’ve put us within 2 points to end qtr despite everything. It was clear we missed Dion and Miles and even AV. Having a full healthy squad we would’ve beat this team by at least double digits. Austin Carr kept warning that Raptors would come back and be hot in… Read more »
Truly missed Dion (and CJ) tonight…Jack was his usual horrid self and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Delly simply cannot shoot. Should be fine when Dion’s healthy, but it was really hard to watch Jack play 40 mins…reallly hard Also, the big man rotation looks like it will be troublesome. This was the obvious problem of the Hawes deal (although I like how Hawes looks on this team). Where do you get minutes for AB and Zeller, esp. when Varejao returns. Personally, I’d rather see TT minutes reduced than anyone else. I don’t think TT needs to play more than… Read more »
I’m not sure what game you were watching Kevin, but this one was there for the taking. We shot way below average while playing solid defense in 3 of 4 qtrs. We were missing 2 of our 3 best scorers, and there were times when they could not miss from mid-range or their contested 3s. They move the ball well and Valinciunas is a force on defense, but we are as good as this Raptor team the rest of the way if we’re healthy. Kyrie looked exhausted tonight and it showed in his shot. Otherwise, it seems pretty clear the… Read more »
6th seed, 6th seed, 6th seed, 6th seed, 6th seed, 6th seed. That is the goal. Beat Toronto in 6 and then take Mia or Indy to 7 and we’ve had a spectacularly successful season. The same as if everything had gone perfectly all season long. Then Kyrie signs and we’re a team that can attract a key free agent.
Man, you guys are like reeds on the edge of a swamp, bending to which ever way the wind blows that day…haha
Reiterate, would rather have Bennett than Oladipo, if for no other reason that Vic is Dion’s age…
Wow. Oldadipo didn’t show up against the Cavs, but holy crap, watching him against the Knicks tonight was depressing.
they competed against a solid team in a hostile environment with a newly acquired player and 3 key players didn’t dress—-3 weeks ago we would be elated with this type of performance—let’s see what happens next week at home with hopefully everyone healthy/ hawes more acclimated to team—— GO CAVS/ BELIEVELAND
This was a tough one, for sure. The 2-7 stretch at the free-throw line between Kyrie and Bennett at the end of the third really hurt. Brown was really in a bind in the third/fourth between Jack and Delly. Jack could not guard anyone, and the Raptors just abused him on defense, but Delly’s offense hurt the Cavs. He’s struggling with the jumper. Ultimately, if Jack is going to stink it up on offense, he needs to sit. He blew two fast breaks in the first half, and I’m baffled why he seems so afraid to shoot threes right now.… Read more »
Bennett doubled Oladiopo’s point total the other night, Jon. So… Hard to get super-mad at this. We just can’t expect to keep winning without 2 of our best 3 players. I got a bit frustrated by Kyrie tonight but these nights happen, I guess. Jack is back to being a dumpster fire. This is how he replays Griffin and co for not trading his over-paid arse? Sheesh… Kevin, I really think this team is playing much better. I don’t think it’s all that “confusing” anymore. As you said, Toronto started hitting jump shots and we went cold, missed some free… Read more »
Oladipo’s line against NY: 30 pts, 9 reb, 14 ast