Recap: Phoenix 101, Cleveland 110. (Or, I Don’t Wanna Be Right; Just One More Night)
2014-03-12
Tonight, the Cavs looked like what we thought they would before the season. They spread the ball around to all their talented young players and they shot and executed their way to a solid win. During the preseason, it looked like the Cavs were going to be built around the inside out play of Kyrie Irving and the seemingly deep frontcourt, a formation conducive to spacing opportunities. Kyrie led the team, but instead it was Spencer Hawes playing interior fulcrum and Luol Deng who took advantage of their passing to put up an efficient line. The season hasn’t been what Cavs fans expected, but the team is 3.5 games back of a fading Atlanta team, and it’s reassuring to see them still fight for their playoff lives and play productive offensive basketball for a night. The ‘13-’14 Cavaliers may or may not be doomed, but two months ago we wouldn’t have been assured of this resilience.
Spencer Hawes led the initial charge, scoring 17 in the first quarter and hitting a three right from the jump to help the Cavs score the game’s first seven. He offers a crucial element of fluidity to the offense. Hawes can shoot, pass, and move, all of which are crucial skills for a Cavs offense that tends to be creaky and sludgy. Irving and Hawes already have good chemistry, and Hawes’ mobility and versatility make him a threat to roll, pop, or slip off a screen and find cutters and shooters. He even had a behind the back dribble to himself in the first quarter.
Hawes only added another bucket for the rest of the game, but he didn’t need to score much. The Cavs outrebounded the Suns by 15, and made efficient use of those extra possessions, as six players ended in double figures. Dion Waiters was one of those players, but he struggled to run the second unit’s offense at times, coughing it up four times and missing two layups. Waiters is at his best as a kind of super scorer or wild card. As a primary ball handler, he is dynamic but he didn’t set the offense up particularly well tonight. It’s good he often plays alongside Anderson Varejao, which allows him to get the ball in more varied spots.
Tonight was Eric Bledsoe’s first game back from injury, and he looked as athletic as ever, if not a touch rusty. The Suns run a futuristic offense, where most of their core players either shoot well from outside or can penetrate and create shots. The lone exception, Miles Plumlee, is an athletic center who is a very athletic roll partner for any of the Suns’ guards. That kind of formulation could theoretically spell trouble for a bottom-third Cavs defense, but they contained it enough to let their big early lead carry them the distance today. Hawes doesn’t block shots, but he is a genuine 7-footer who causes a few problems. Channing Frye seemed to be open the whole night, and Dragic and Bledsoe continually got into the paint, but it never lasted long and the Cavs rode their steady lead from wire to wire. These next six games are harrowing, and will determine if the Cavs’ slim playoff chances are to be realized. Those opponents in order are: Warriors, Clippers, Heat, Thunder, Rockets, Knicks. That is an absolute murderers row and one sleepy geriatric basset hound at the end as a reward.
This has been a lost season for the Cavaliers. It never really got off the ground to begin with, and none of the offseason additions that were intended to thicken out the roster and provide Kyrie Irving with a framework to drape his artistic brilliance on ended up even coming close to their expectations. Mike Brown still has trouble coaching offense and the team’s number one pick is kind of a ghost. Expectations were high, but the thing about expectations is that they are always high. In short, there are big frustrating problems and the team has been nothing but stinky. But nights like tonight still matter. Exactly which pieces end up being important and to what degree is cloudy guesswork, but seeing the Cavs play like an NBA team was wonderful, even if it’s in a futile, hopeless, particularly dreary stretch of this cold shower of a season. It probably won’t matter, but tonight felt good.
CORY I’LL DRINK TO THAT !!
@Nate- I think the #1 thing TT has to do is go to big-man camp in the offseason, and learn how to muscle up the ball to the rim when he catches a pass right underneath it. I credit him that he has learned that he doesn’t have that ability currently, and has learned to dribble the ball back out instead of going up for the inevitable rejection….but those are wasted opportunities. An NBA power forward that receives a pass under the basket should be able to convert or draw a foul 80% of the time. I’d estimate we lose… Read more »
I also agree, the bashing of Anthony Bennett by Nate Smith was totally unnecesary!
Amazingly I’ve only been kicked out of baseball games on Mancation’s. Interesting side note. Danny Dan Gilbert is going to be on Seth Meyers tonight. Warren Buffet is on too, so it’s probably more business related.
Lol. Make us proud Cory
Nice win. Klay Thompson is out for tomorrows game, so that should help a little. Every game is a playoff game for this young team. I actually think that kind of pressure could be a positive. It’ll make this unit or break them. Challenge them to grow. I don’t look at missing out on the playoffs as a complete failure. The Blazers only won 33 games last season. I might go to the Clippers game Saturday. If i do go, look for me. I’ll be wearing a Dion Waiters 1974 throw back jersey and I’ll be getting escorted out by… Read more »
If we can get it to 2 games out of the 8 by April we have a chance … That short month our schedule is winnable. Not many games left so we need to do better than expected this road trip.
underdog again agree with you I coach high school ball ( 25 yrs ) and I constantly preach to ” MOVE / SWING THE BALL –THE BALL MOVES FASTER THAN A DEFENSIVE PERSON–GET THEM OUT OF POSITION AND ALOT OF OPTIONS OPEN UP WHEN THE CAVS DO THIS ( HELL IF ANY TEAM DOES IT ) THEY ARE A BETTER TEAM—nate I agree with your assessment of A.B. also he could possibly be go from BUST to MOST IMPROVED next year
Yeah. Don’t know what to make of TT. BUT. He has significantly improved at least one thing every year. This off-season, as much as I’d like to see him hit that 15 footer, defense has to be what he brings to bear. The free-throw improvement has been Malone-esque, but he’s still got to keep improving.
I’m not bashing Bennett, JK. He just would have no spot in the rotation on a winning team. It’s clear that he was so woefully out of shape and unprepared, that he should not have been playing, early on. I’ve upgraded his stock from “sure fire worst pick of all time” to “might not suck” to “a just below average replacement player” to “intriguing skill set but needs at least another season to develop before he can make positive contributions.” Trust me, that is a Paradise Lost level ascension.
@JHill ” Delly really is going to be the Australian Patrick Beverly ” I so laughed when you said this. I was thinking the same thing last night. Sooooo Why doesn’t Mike Brown get him in there more to piss off these guys? He’s really good at it. I think Waiters gets a big kick out of it. He always laughing when they get mad at Delly. He said he kept asking Frye in a baby like voice,”You okay . You okay” Frye just looked at Delly and laughed too evidentually.
nomad
just curious why you separate your sentences with hyphens. I haven’t seen that before and thought maybe there was a reason (broken period key maybe?)
Nice review, Pete. I think we’re at our best when we push the ball up the court. I seem to be most frustrated when we walk the ball up then dribble in a stationary spot. The ball should always be moving in one direction or another even if it is being dribbled. Of course, you don’t “unload” TT. You can test his market value or see if he is wanted as a part in a multi player deal. If nobody is going to give any value for him, at the very LEAST he would be a solid component to the… Read more »
Delly really is going to be the Australian Patrick Beverly.
Great game last night! The Suns were very obliging and had several long cold shooting spells. I would love to see the Cavs hang on to Hawes and Deng somehow, though it seems like a long shot. The team is coming together, if they could carry over to next year they’d make a nice jump. I suspect TT will never be an all-star, but I think he’s got a long NBA career ahead of him. The numbers this year don’t really capture his improved play. As long as we don’t overpay, I don’t think there’s any reason not to sign… Read more »
agree with the above comment providing THE BIG ” IF ” Bennett is talented enough ( continues to improve ) to be that starter—–summers how did I do this time ?
TT needs to develop either a very strong, rim protecting defensive game or really work towards being a hybrid, mid-range stretch 4. He’s not athletic enough nor does he have the basic skill set to be this back to basket 4 that he and even the coaching staff believes that he has. Love his energy and his hustle for loose balls out on the court but he really needs to find his niche if he ever wants to make decent money in this league. I know it sucks to assume a niche role for a former #4 overall pick but… Read more »
If Thompson signs the qualifying offer then you just let Bennett start over him and then isn’t going to make any money after that.
Agree with JHill. The fact that he is a #4 pick is meaningless moving forward. All that matters is what the market is willing to pay him, and whether the Cavs believe he holds that much value for them.
That’s why I said he’s not going to get a huge offer from any other team, so you kind of let the market decide what he’s worth then if it’s under that price tag you just match that.
TT is not worth 24 mil over 10 years, let alone 4. if you want the cavs to improve he needs to be a bench player, and we need to find a better PF. I am not saying we need an all star but I don’t see anything in TT’s game that is special, and he does not have the size/strength needed to grind it out against bigger, better PF’s. I don’t feel like wanting 5 more years for TT to finally be good.
@Summers You mean next level commas?
nomad – what’s with all the hyphens?
I don’t think anyone is offering him more than that to make us match.
I think you can offer TT a 24 million dollar 4 year extension to TT and feel like you are getting your money’s worth whether he stays the same and you get a deal if he keeps improving.
(aka bill )—agree with you—like t.t.’s hustle/ energy / overall attitude—-but being a 4th pick we need to see him develop more serviceable basketball skills—-consistent 15′ shot and some moves off the dribble—to his credit he is a hard worker so there is the potential for him to accomplish this—–good game for deng–believe the 3.5 days rest helped him ( Achilles problem ) a lot—will see what happens when we play back to back or just one days rest—-GO CAVS—- WE ARE STILL IN THE HUNT
Nice to get win and at least still be able to think about the playoffs. You guys think it’s time to get rid of TT next year before he’s due for a payday? From last year to this year, he’s stayed about the same in rebounding and scoring but his blocks, steals, and assists have dropped off. His only real improvement is going from 60% FT shooting to 66%. TT seems like a good teammate, rebounder/energy guy off the bench but not skilled or athletic enough to really be a starter. His ceiling is probably JJ Hickson? What do you… Read more »
A couple player comments: – Great game from Hawes. While most will deservedly point to the 17-point first quarter, I also want to give a shout out to him for the rest of the game. The Suns clearly played him tighter after the first period, and I credit Hawes for adjusting and not forcing what wasn’t there. He looked for his shot, and when it wasn’t there he kept the ball moving (take note, Dion). Watching him & Kyrie play off each other is fun to watch. – I feel like last night was the first night I saw the… Read more »
I think Nate just means that as of right now Bennett is not a + NBA player (he’s getting to be at least replacement level though). Him being out forces Brown to play a shorter rotation that now has Andy a ++ player in Bennett’s spot. This was bound to happen whether Bennett got hurt or not.
I still feel like this is the team chemistry that we’d be seeing in late November/early December had we spent that money on someone other than Andrew Bynum.
More mean-spiritedness: finding a way to turn a win into an opportunity to bash Bennett…pathetic.
That was a fun one, with a nerve wracking final five minutes. Feels like the Cavs have dodged a couple bullets this year with guards trying to reintegrate after injury: Westbrook and now Bledsoe. Phoenix seemed a touch off, but the Cavs, to their credit, did enough to win. Three weeks sans Bennett might make the playoffs possible.
Hawes was injured in the second half with a swollen ankle. Hawes seems to be adding a palpable mental toughness and it has rubbed off especially with Kyrie. We all expected it would be Deng to give us this kind of grit. But more often than not, Deng has been M.I.A. but not tonight. I loved when Hawes said alot of teams like this that love to run hate when you run on them back. That’s what he have to do and I told everyone this. ANd who would have guessed Kyrie getting those 9 rebounds? He said he wants… Read more »
This was a solid win
Great win. It has been kind of frustrating seeing Hawes get out to hot starts then not score in the second half, wish we could find a way to keep feeding him the ball. It’s nice to see almost meaningful wins in March though!
Lets. Go. Cavs!