Recap: Cavs 110, Nets 88 (or, Prince and Princess, meet the King)

Brook Lopez (back) and Joe Johnson (illness) sat out for the Nets and the Cavs rode a monster third quarter — and Dion Waiters’s best game of the season — to an easy win, their seventh in a row, Monday night in Brooklyn.

Here’s what happened:

1st Quarter:

The Cavs looked to Kevin Love early again and he responded scoring the team’s first four points. But the Cavs were practically inviting the Nets to score around the basket and LeBron James was sluggish early. His first shot was a long three that barely made it there. Then, after Allan Anderson beat LeBron James and Shawn Marion in transition leading the Cavs to call a quick time-out, James air-balled a three.

Love continued to be the Cavs’ only steady hand on offense, as the 6-10 power forward used an even mixture of post moves and outside shooting to account for 15 of the Cavs eventual 22 first quarter points.

Matthew Dellavedova made his return to the team with 4:30 left in the first and promptly air-balled his first attempt. His next two notches on the stat sheet were both nifty finds for Love three-pointers.

The Cavs continued getting destroyed at the rim, giving up easy slams to Jerome Jordan and Mason Plumlee.

The Cavs limped to the end of the first down three points, while shooting just 37.5% from the field. For the Nets, their own inside-out big man threat, Mirza Teletovic, was the high man of the first frame with seven points.

Oh, and there was a Sergey Karasev sighting.

2nd Quarter:

After a couple of failed attempts, Waiters got hist long-two (patent pending) to fall and then fed Anderson Varejao for a beautiful lay-in.

JAMES JONES! I mean, seriously… How bad does a guy’s defense have to be if he’s capable of shooting threes at a 100% clip?! Okay, it was on only three shots, but for the second time this week, Jones provided the long distance shot in the arm the team had started to get from Mike Miller before his concussion on Thursday in this same city against the Knicks.

Later, Waiters nailed two free-throws, got another long-two to fall and leaked out to convert a transition lay-in. Had he hit the corner three that he took right before his fast-break score, Waiters may have just ripped off his jersey, thrown it into the stands and retired, ’cause there’s nothing like going out on top. But, lucky for us, we get keep riding the Dion Waiters train… at least, just a little bit longer.

Especially considering the Cavs sluggish start, Waiters really needed to see some of his shots start to fall.

But, wait, wait, Waiters wasn’t done yet. The Cavs’ once-and-future trade chip canned an open three to finish the half with 13 points — all in the second.

Oh, and good work, Deron Williams. You proved you can beat a guy off the dribble who’s on his first game back from an MCL sprain. But, Williams just barely beat Dellavedova and, when his shot at the rim didn’t fall, argued himself into a technical foul (which James missed).

A James-to-Tristan Thompson feed gave the Cavs the slimmest of halftime leads 50-49.

3rd Quarter:

James came out looking to be much more aggressive. He scored nine quick points, but the Nets kept getting to the rim when they needed to — and, really, it could have been much worse as they missed some real bunnies — and kept the game close.

Kryie Irving got his first points on three free throws with just under six minutes to go in the quarter. Later, Love fed Waiters on a cut for a baseline slam. Waiters responded by blocking a Williams drive and then hitting a shot at the other end. This got the Cavs transition game humming and they constantly turned Nets misses into points at the other end.

“We just didn’t play hard, period and point blank [in the third quarter]” said former-Cav/current-Net Jarrett Jack. “We play a team like that and they’re very capable on both sides. Things can get out of hand very quickly.”

At the end of three, the Cavs had raced out to a 85-67 advantage.

And then William and Kate met Jay-Z and Beyonce.

4th Quarter:

Tristan Thompson kicked off the quarter with a put-back slam of a Waiters miss. Then, James made the “Oooooh!” play of the night, backing down Bogdanovic three times, each time pulling back, facing his man again, and then backing down again, finally nailing a fall away jumper — a sequence that made the crowd gasp.

Waiters continued to leak out in transition and it helped the Cavs keep the offensive pedal to the medal. By halfway through the quarter and the Cavs lead pushed north of 20, the benches cleared… and all that was left was for James Jones to miss a shot and ruin his 100% on the night (he would finish the night 4-5, all from deep).

Don’t worry, James. You’ll get ’em next time.

Final score: Cavs 110, Nets 88. The winning streak is at seven as the Cavs travel home for a re-rematch against the Raptors tomorrow night at The Q.

Notes:

LeBron James: Number 23 started this one slowly. A transition basket in the first was a layup, not a dunk (gasp!). He got called for a five-second violation in the second quarter and, while he yelled at the official, Kevin Garnett tapped the ball out of his hands and proceeded to inbound it.

Honestly, some of that may have been being guarded by rookie Bojan Bogdanovic and/or Alan Anderson. In the first, it led to a little too much over-dribbling, trying to find his angle, but in the second half, he was able to exploit those match-ups much more effectively.

Kyrie Irving: Did not start out with any of his magic from the last few games. The announcer first mentioned his name when an official review took away his lay-up that (didn’t, it turns out) beat the shot clock. Irving finished 2-10 from the floor for seven points to go along with five assists.

Dion Waiters: It was nice to see Waiters get his offensive groove back. This team really is a good amount juggernaut-ier when Waiters can come in, score and play with the first stringers in the fourth. Waiters scored a season high 26 points and dished out four assists. It took him 21 shots to get there, but he still shot over 50% from the floor (11-21) and even smiled at one point.

“I’ve gotta be patient,” Waiters said, following the game. “I’m used to having the ball in my hands, so I gotta make adjustments… Tonight, the ball kept finding me.”

Anderson Varejao / Tristan Thompson / Kevin Love: This was the kind of rebounding performance many thought would be a norm for this team. Varejao and Love team with a team-high 14 boards and Thompson came off the bench to grab 12 (as well as get 14 points on 6-7 from the floor).

“That was big for us,” Love said after the game. “I think we did a great job cleaning up their missed shots, not giving them second opportunities, and just continuing to get out on the break when we secured the rebound.”

For the game, the Cavs pummeled the Nets on the board 55-33.

Team Defense: They seemed to ratchet up their intensity about halfway through the third which happened to coincide with the arrival of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (surprisingly) and the Cavs breaking the game open (unsurprising). This team is still supremely vulnerable at the rim, but they were pesky on the perimeter — Irving, in particular, did not let an off game scoring lead to a regression of his recent aggressiveness on D — and, like Love pointed out, they limited the Nets to just one shot. Brooklyn shot 44.4% from the floor after a white hot start.

Good win for the Cavs. Still, when you let the Jerome Jordans of the world score at will on you, it will come back to haunt…