Recap: Pelicans 119, Cavaliers 114 (Or, May I Escort You to the Bucket?)

2014-12-13 Off By Ben Werth

The Cavaliers completed their tough four in five night stretch by dropping two straight on the road. Cleveland fans were relieved to have both LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in the starting lineup against superstar Anthony Davis. Though the Browed future of the league left the game early, the Pelicans still were able to avenge their loss in Cleveland. Let us get to it.

1st Quarter: The Cavs started the game with the customary Kevin Love mid-post touch. Anderson Varejao made a nice baseline cut from the weakside and finished over Asik in one quick catch and shoot motion. On the defensive end, Blatt put the more mobile Varejao on Anthony Davis duty leaving Love to deal with Omer Asik on the glass. The assignment didn’t go very well. Wild Thing played off of Davis and The Brow made him pay with three made jumpers. The moment that Andy crowded his space at all, Davis upfaked Varejao into picking up the second of two questionable fouls. Tristan made an early entrance at the 9:45 mark.

The Cavs didn’t move the ball very well in the first quarter. Unfortunately, it became the theme of the evening. LeBron saw Luke Babbitt across from him and decided it was time to show everyone that his skills have NOT diminished. Considering LeBron was questionable to even play in this game, it was nice to see the energetic pep in LeBron’s offensive step. What was less enjoyable was his determination to play 2006 era Bron ball. His shot was falling. His stat line looks nice. He looked to punish people in transition. But how many of these highlights come within the flow of the offense?

https://youtube.com/watch?v=DmcgNBLQ_Hc

The first quarter, though high scoring, was a complete bore. The refs couldn’t get the whistles out of their mouths for a second. Tristan had a quick two blocks upon entering the contest leading to a LeBron “and 1” at the :27 sec mark of the above video, but in general the game was jerky and displeasing to watch.

Kevin Love is rightfully criticised for his poor defense, so it must be noted when he does something well. On two consecutive trips, Love forced Davis to pass the ball back out after stonewalling the offensive move, and followed that with a nice rejection against Tyreke Evans. See Kevin, putting your hands up is a great idea!

The Cavaliers thought they got a break when Anthony Davis left the game at the 5:04 mark with what was described as a chest contusion. Dion Waiters checked in at that play stoppage. There is something hilarious about watching Tyreke Evans go against Dion Waiters. If only Waiters had Evans´ ridiculous ability to get to the rim. If only Evans had Waiters´ jumper. Sigh.

LeBron continued to dominate the ball. Two technical fouls from Evans and coach Monty Williams gave The King two freebies to pad his first quarter onslaught. James finished with 21 in the quarter. 35-33 Cavs.

2nd Quarter: Delly, Kyrie, Dion, Power Forward Extraordinaire James Jones, and Tristan filled out Blatt’s lineup to start the period. Kyrie found TT for a soft slam alley-oop on nice PnR action. The Cavalier defense left much to be desired. There was a Jimmer Fredette sighting as he scored two consecutive buckets early. Had he connected on his subsequent three ball attempt, his two remaining fans may have had heart attacks. All three attempts were barely contested. Offensively, the Cavs missed many decent looks off good action. They started 2-10 and only had four points through the first 4:30 of the period.

A quick four points in transition brought Cleveland within one point at the 6:44 mark. Kevin Love added to the fastbreak scoring with a nice “And 1” to put the Cavs back up top at 48-47. It was at this point that Ryan Anderson drilled a three and I said, “For the love of basketball, let him not be hot tonight.” No such luck. The Pelican sharpshooter finished the half with four bombs and 16 points off the bench. Tyreke Evans followed with a three of his own to push the lead to five. LeBron and Love’s combined 44 first half points still left the Cavs down 59-64 at the half.

3rd Quarter: MVP candidate Anthony Davis did not return with the other Pelican starters. It didn’t matter. LeBron put some energy into stopping Ryan Anderson leaving Kevin Love to check Luke Babbitt. The long-locked-one(did anyone actually see his face in this game?) promptly hit a three to push the Pelican lead to nine.

The Pelicans were absolutely destroying the Cavs with dribble penetration. An energy lowlight came when Tyreke Evans rebounded his own miss in transition as LeBron casually watched.

The man could not be stopped. I have happily praised Mathew Dellavedova’s fantastic defense in recent games. In this contest, Delly was annihilated. To be fair, NO ONE could stop Evans, but it was particularly disheartening to watch Evans casually blow by the Cavaliers’ best defensive guard.

LeBron decided it was time to “take over.” Unfortunately, he didn’t decide to dominate from the post, draw a double team, start the ball swing and give his team a chance to get hot from three. No, no. The Chosen One simply held the ball, dribbled a minimum of 28 times before firing deep contested jumpers. Yes, he was absurdly hot. He made them all. Ironically, he only missed two foul shots during his barrage. But there was literally NO offensive movement. Most players are more in tune on the defensive end when they are not standing around on offense. I don’t think it was a coincidence that the defense was paricularly horrific during LeBron’s hero ball. After three, 89-76.

4th Quarter: Kyrie, Delly, Harris, Love, and Tristan started the fourth. It was strange that Dion hadn’t made an appearance in the second half. We later learned that he was out with abdominal pains. Get well soon, Dion. Nothing changed from previous quarters. The Pelicans got into the lane at will setting up wide open shots from the perimeter. Ryan Anderson continued to can threes. When he jab stepped Kyrie for a step back three, I actually started laughing.

Kyrie finally got it going in the fourth. He scored all 17 of his points in the period, but it was certainly a case of too little too late. Some late buckets from Uncle Drew and James Jones made the contest slightly interesting until Evans hit two more baskets in the paint. Blatt pulled LeBron with two remaining.

Thoughts: This is the version of LeBron that makes casual basketball fans fight with NBA junkies. LeBron went for 41, five and five on only 24 shots. He had a bounce in his step, juked, and hit nothing but net on most of his preposterous jumpers. To the casual fan, he looked like the best player in the universe.

To an NBA junkie, this game was utterly infuriating. ‘Bron did nothing to make his teammates better. Outside of one nice weakside block, his defensive rotations were sloppy. He was caught in “no man’s land” in PnR defense. It is the type of performance that screams, “I’m still good!!! I’m still young!!” LeBron is human. I’m sure he was annoyed by those questioning whether his game is deteriorating. It makes sense that he would want to put on a show against the future Brow face of the league. But the Cavs won eight straight with LeBron playing more like Magic than Kobe.

Kyrie is only shooting 36% over his last five games. He has done a decent job distributing over that stretch, but the Cavaliers need Irving to make the open shots afforded to him. Regardless, we should all be thrilled that his knee scare was nothing serious. His shot started to fall in the fourth. Perhaps his slump is already over.

It cannot be stated enough. The perimeter defense was absolutely horrible against the Pelicans. Tyreke Evans is a wizard at getting into the lane. That is the primary reason that he is in the league. But the Cavs should be embarrassed by his success in this contest.

Jrue Holiday has a bit of Joe Johnson in him. He obviously isn’t as big, but Holiday has the same knack for hitting those tough 10 footers in the lane. Those are difficult shots that both players nail with relative ease.

The Pelicans are a fun team. It is a shame that we didn’t get to see more Anthony Davis. Well, maybe not. It was any ugly game without the league’s best young star. Add me to the list of people who desperately want to watch The Brow compete in the playoffs.

The Cavs have a few days to regroup before they begin their five game homestand. Here’s hoping the ball movement and defensive energy return with some home cooking.

 

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