Recap: Cavs 123, Magic 108 (Or, No Defense Required)
2015-03-15
After searching for several streams to watch this game and almost giving up, I’m thankful I kept looking for one. This game was all offense, and I love me some bucket-getting. Defense is just so boring. The Cavs shot 59% from the field and 51% from behind the arc to drain 18 long balls. The Magic shot 47% from both the field and 3-line. While the Cavs just didn’t feel like closing out and were amazed a big man like Nikola Vucevic can shoot so well, the Magic played good old ineffective Mike Brown every man in the paint on every drive defense. Vucci Mane had 22 points, 15 rebounds, and three assists for the Magic. The Cavs were led by Kyrie who had 33 points, dropping five of six threes. He also had four assists. LeBron was pretty awesome too handing out 13 dishes, sucking up eight boards, and scoring 21 points on 9-14 shooting.
First Quarter
The first possession of the game for the Magic showed how the game would be played. After Vucevic missed a hook shot, Elfrid Payton nabbed an offensive board. He missed the put-back, but Dewayne Dedmon finished it. The Magic pulled down 11 offensive rebounds and 22 total boards in the first twelve minutes. The Cavs pulled down just 11 rebounds. Total. Where’s Love when you need him, right?
Vucevic had six points on 9 shots, but more importantly he was nailing his jumpers and pulling Timofey Mozgov out of the paint. Tobias Harris had 14 points on 4-5 shots because of the vacancy in the paint. Victor Oladipo tried to score in the paint too, but converted just one of four shots there. The Magic also made all three of their 3-pointers.
Vucevic’s first quarter shot chart
At times, I thought my stream of the game froze. I expected the next choppy frame that appeared to be a Cavalier closing out. Unfortunately, it was usually a freeze frame of one staring at the rim.
The Cavs offense was humming for the majority of the first quarter. They had 5 assists on 10 shots. Kyrie also had a sick pass out of a double team in the corner. He held the ball long enough Magic fans were almost done marking down the turnover. However, at the last second, he hurled it to an open J.R. Smith for a 3. The King finished the quarter strong. After driving into the paint, he morphed into a jungle gym. Channing Frye used the King’s arm as a monkey bar, but James still finished the 5-foot shot. He converted the freebie, and the Cavs entered the second quarter down, 26-28.
Second Quarter
This quarter had two pieces of scoring bread surrounding a normal chunk of NBA basketball meat in the middle. The Cavs opened the first two minutes on an 11-0 run. James Jones and Matthew Dellavedova both hit threes, while Iman completed an And-1 off of an offensive rebound of a missed three. Iman also found LeBron for a backdoor cut. The two teams then traded baskets. The Magic were led by Luke Ridnour who had a ten points. Vucevic contributed too with eight points.
With five minutes left, Irving decided to start matching some of Nikola’s shot action. After a Vucci post-up, Irving dribbled straight into the paint for a flat footed layup. Vucci then hit a jumper, so Kyrie maneuvered into a 3-pointer via dribbling to put the Cavs up 53-47 with 4:33 left.
The Cavs were 5-7 on 3-pointers in the second quarter
The Cavs launched their lead into space the final two minutes of the first half. They went on a quick 11-4 run. LeBron hit Tristan Thompson for a 16 foot jumper. The next trip down the King drove again and dished to Moz for a shot. James then decided to find Smith for an open three. With three out of five Cavs fed, he had to feed himself. So, the King let Smith hit him in the lane for a dunk. J.R then turned away from contact to fall out of bounds and heave the ball into the air with time expiring. He was rewarded with three free ones. The Cavs went into the locker room ahead, 66-55. They shot 61.9% for the half and made 8-16 3-pointers.
Third Quarter
Mozgov started the quarter with an ugly drive for the Cavs. Vucevic nullified it with a beautiful dribble drive on Tristan. Kyrie took over this quarter scoring 16 points and making two of his three 3-pointers. After a Payton steal and failed fast break, Irving even received a pass from J.R. Smith and jetted the length of the court for a layup in traffic. LeBron helped the Cavs by driving and dishing out four assists. Every time he went into the paint, the paint was flooded by Magic. The King also had a bizarre step through move on Aaron Gordan for an And-1. Gordan seemed like he stopped it, but the King had just enough balance to get a good shot up after some leg on leg contact.
With three minutes left, and the Cavs up by 13, the Magic tried to build their momentum. Aaron Gordan recovered a tipped away post up pass intended for Vucevic. Gordan dunked it, and that led to a David Blatt rage timeout. Out of the timeout, the Cavs looked like they were going to move the ball. It didn’t work, so Irving saved the possession with a baseline floater. Oladipo then went off. He started with an And-1. Then he got rejected at the rim by TT. However, TT ended up covering him a possession later, and Victor blasted by him for another And-1. He missed the freebie though. Victor drew a foul from J.R. Smith by grabbing a steal to get out in transition a few seconds later. Finally, he blew by Matty D for a dunk. Cavs still ahead, 100-86.
Fourth Quarter
The Cavs started the quarter with Matty-D, Iman, Smith, James, and Kendrick Perkins. Smith drew three freebies on his first touch. Then the team decided to let Perkins get involved and started a “is Perkins decent?” debate for two minutes across the world. Perkins scored two in the post on a terrifying sequence of events involving dribbling. Then he fouled on the defensive end by bumping someone (I was surprised because I put money on his first foul of the night being a moving screen, that would be his second one). Mr. Perk threw the ball to the stands his next touch. The team hung onto their 15 point lead while letting Perkins get involved. The world determined he wasn’t “decent.”
After Kyrie checked into the game with 7:28 left, Elfrid nailed a 3-ball because someone forgot you have to close out on him. Iman matched it to keep the Cavs up 13. Vucci made a two and then found Tobias Harris under the hoop for two points. This brought the Magic within nine. They couldn’t get any closer, as the Cavs scored five points off two quick turnovers to go up 14 with about three minutes left. After a Magic timeout, LeBron drove to the lane two times and dished out two 3-pointers. Blatt called a timeout to empty the bench. Cavs win, 123-108.
Gripes
1. The Cavs just refused to close out on the 3-line. I’m chalking that up to the team being tired and wanting to conserve themselves for the playoffs.
2. 16 turnovers is way too many no matter how relaxed the game is. Irving had five of his own and some of them were because he was trying to over dribble.
3. The Cavs couldn’t stop Vucci. Vucci’s ability to score from the post and shoot jumpers confounded the Cavalier big men. They couldn’t figure out where to come out when covering him and that led to Vucevic dictating how he moved, so he got easy shots and could drive if needed. He was also an animal on the offensive boards getting nine of the Magic’s 17.
4. Matty D needs to step up his defense again. Victor Oladipo’s blow by dunk on him at the end of the third quarter was reasonable. Victor is more athletic and has speed on his side. Matty’s foul on Luke Ridnour today was unacceptable. Luke can’t be blowing by you, Delly. Come on, you’re better than that.
Hypes
1. The LeBron and Kyrie lines mentioned in the opening are so perfect. They were both so effortless that I didn’t realize LeBron had so many assists and Kyrie had so many points until I double checked the box score. Also compare LeBron’s line to that of Tobias Harris. Harris had 24 points on 9-15 shooting and 3-6 shots from behind the 3-line. He had eight rebounds, but just one assist. The King is so many levels beyond Harris because of his ability to get those assists. That’s why I didn’t mention Harris in the opening paragraph. Next to LeBron he did nothing.
2. The Cavs used drive and kick action perfectly. Eight of LeBron’s assists led to 3-pointers. 88.9% of all the Cavs 3s were assisted on.
3. How did Elfrid Payton almost have a triple-double? He had ten assists, 13 points, and nine rebounds. I don’t remember seeing any of the rebounds.
4. I love watching Oladipo play. He’s decent at defense. He’s always close to his man and will force some mistakes because of his foot movement tripping people up (he had two steals). What amazed me though was how good he has gotten at driving. He had ten free throws today to lead all players.
5. Only so many players in the league can rock a head band. LeBron no longer is, so Vucci Mane is now wearing one. He looks goofy. LeBron, on the other hand, looks very dapper with his fade. It takes away from his male pattern baldness.
6. Jason Lloyd pointed out that Irving made 11 straight 3-pointers going into the third quarter. 13 straight is the record. Irving’s 33 points on 12-15 shooting is unbelievable. However, I watched the game and wasn’t even surprised by this performance after witnessing his explosion against the Spurs Thursday.
7. LeBron tweaked his knee in the third quarter landing straight on it without it bending at all. He stayed in the game, but will need treatment on Monday according to CBS Sports.
7. The Cavs play the Heat tomorrow. If they can pull of the win, they will have won all four games on their road trip.
@SLAMonline: Before Heat-Cavs, check out our interview with Alonzo Mourning, who had a lot to say about LeBron leaving Miami: http://t.co/kARE59lhbg
I guess Mourning is still mourning the loss of LeBron. Oh and he’s convinced Love is leaving too. He may be right about Love, but he’s also a miami fanboy so I’ll take his biased opinion with a grain of salty.
Kyrie is Eastern Conference player of the week (surprise!).
And LeBron is a go for tonight.
Favorite Lebron is the one that takes care of the ball, attacks the lane, and looks for his team mates. That’s the Lebron we’ve seen out there the past few games, and man are we happy :)
That 180 pass that LeBron made to the Champ last night was pretty cool. Like a QB going through progressions, except in midair. “Corner? Covered. Wing? Nobody there except Lauren. Top of the key? Champ’s open. Let’s go with that.”
It’s the last of his 13 assists here: http://on.nba.com/1EU6pmx
The thing that makes LeBron so special is that I think he can literally predict that those other options aren’t open. His mind doesn’t need to go through that progression like ours does and he eliminates the fraction of a second it takes to make those decisions and whips the pass to where he knows there isn’t going to be a defender. You combine that with his freakish athletic ability and sheer strength and you get the best passing forward in NBA history.
According to Pelton statistically the Cavs have the best offense ever.
Yep. It’s amazing, Yet half the comments at CtB do nothing but complain about the offense.
Even in the first half of the season, when the offense was so often awful, it would have been an exaggeration to say half the comments did nothing but complain about the offense. We’re capable of complaining about more than one thing at a time.
Unfortunately the defense is only league average. It will need to improve in order to win a championship.
It would be unfair to suggest this was all somehow triggered by his arrival, but there’s no escaping the fact Detroit is 2-10 since trading for Reggie Jackson, dragged down by a team-wide shooting slump and a rough stretch of schedule that offered just one home game in the last eight.
http://m.espn.go.com/nba/rankings?year=2015&week=20&src=desktop&rand=ref~%7B%22ref%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FELDGMOZgHu%22%7D
The Pistons got their Josh Smith back.
I can’t believe that I once would have taken Waiters over Kyrie (this was after last season, when Kyrie’s game regressed). That’s probably my dumbest moment as a Cle sports fan.
If you are a Browns fan, the moment you became a browns fan is your dumbest moment as a cleveland sports fan
Speaking as a Browns fan since 1975, I would disagree with this sentiment. If you’d said becoming a fan of the Browns post 1999, then I might agree…
Ha. I’m with you. How the Browns to receive this much support, when the Indians, who are currently doing things the right now, can hardly draw, is a mystery to me.
the right “way”
It’s no mystery. Cleveland is, was and always will be a football town. Modell moved the team, not because they couldn’t sell out games, but because he so badly mis-managed his finances that he would have had to sell the team if not for the sweetheart deal that Lerner helped broker with Baltimore.
Great recap David… I was really into the “is Perk decent” conversation. He definitely looked at least semi-competent this game, which is probably the result of having a couple of days of practice with this team. It’s a given that he’s going to be called for at least one, and probably two, moving screen fouls per game. He actually had a couple of nice buckets in the paint (scary dribbling moves aside). This seemed like the perfect game for Blatt to give him some run and see what would transpire… Perk experiment aside, I still don’t get the Moz rotation… Read more »
I’m firmly in the camp that believes Blatt is saving Moz and Love’s 4th quarter appearances for the playoffs so no one knows how to game plan for them. Its all in the master plan. At least, that’s what I tell myself every game.
I fully support this position. I don’t even like to admit it, because it just sounds like a stretch, but that’s the only explanation I can get comfortable with. The starting 5 is the best 5-man group in the league, and it’s not that close. On what planet does that stop being applicable for 1/4th of the game? It HAS to be intentional on a macro level. It HAS to be. Please, someone, tell me this is a thing we’ll look back at to prove that Blatt is a genius, vs. the first bullet in the list of why he’s… Read more »
This team has been so much fun to watch since they acquired Moz, JR Smith, and Shumpert. I’d almost forgotten about Dion until I saw the comment by Hot Sauce. Can’t wait for the playoffs, but at the same time I hope we don’t face the Hawks too early as they are the only team the Cavs haven’t seemed to figure out how to beat. Also hope Lebron isn’t hurt too badly from bending his leg underneath of his body on that block attempt in the third quarter.
We traded Dion for a first, JR, and Shump.
Amazing.
If you’ve forgotten about Dion, check out an OKC game sometime. Bad Dion in full effect lately with a steady diet of ill-advised step-back, off-balance deep twos and “and one!” shouts galore…
Got reintroduced to Dion on Shaqtin a fool, show is pure comedy. Anyways he was on when he messed up on a fast break and then missed the shot.
Yeay…hard to excited about games like this one.
Well JR fits this team a million times better. They need a catch-and-shoot gunner.. I’d take Vic over Shump in a heartbeat though.
Yeah. Loved watching Oladipo — another great Cavs “What if?” (Like What if Minnesota had Vic instead of Gum Drop Bear? They’d have some scary potential). Remember when people said that Waiters’ game is most like Wade’s? If I’ve seen anyone in the NBA who reminds me of Wade, it’s Victor, especially with the way he can get to the line and defend.
Starting to get a little concerned about Mozgov. He’s seemed to drift in the last few games, especially with his defensive awareness. Maybe he needs to cut out the sugar or something.
Oladipo is just a guy. I’d take JR Smith over him easily.
But yeah, Grant, what a screw up at drafting.
Random thought I had this morning: I remember when Dion was traded, there was a rumor from “sources” that part of the problem with Dion was that he thought he was better than Kyrie. LOLOLOL. That made me chuckle on my way to work. Poor Dion.
They may have started off with similar potential. Kyrie’s work ethic and willingness to learn will continue to separate him from the rest of the league’s young talent.
Dion’s stubbornness and ego will continue to place the ceiling on his potential. They are on completely different learning curves and Dion has no clue what the difference is.
I think the difference between Kyrie and Dion when it comes to LBJ, is that Kyrie has learned how to play off LBJ, while Dion was only able to try and emulate LBJ’s style of play. Waiter’s game is very similar to Bron’s except he’s 4-5 inches shorter, 40-50 less pounds, and he can neither finish as strong at the rim, nor hit the step-back, off-balance fade-away long twos with the regularity that LBJ does.
When you put it that way my game is a lot similar to LBJ’s too!
It’s weirdly true though… Dion’s game is very similar to LBJ’s with the exception of the floor-vision and passing that LBJ has. Dion just doesn’t have a fraction of the talent that LBJ does though.
Still evil…What you are saying is he doesn’t have a similar game to Lebron lol
I guess what I’m saying is that Dion attempts to have the same game as LBJ in that he alternates between driving to the hoop and shooting step-back fadeaway jumpers. The difference is that he has much less success with both shot selections. It’s like Dion has the same mindset as LBJ, but just not the talent to pull it off. Maybe I’m oversimplifying, but I feel like I’ve seen LBJ dribble around and then take a step-back, off-balance deep two that resembles a vintage Dion shot, but LBJ can actually make that shot with regularity whereas Dion just wrongly… Read more »
Two completely different personalities, and two guys who reacted completely differently to playing with LeBron. I get the sense Kyrie is a sponge when it comes to listening to LeBron, and very smart at figuring out when he can shine. He also has benefited immensely from the attention LeBron gets. We all know, that Kyrie is as tough to stop one-on-one as anyone in the league, and now doubling him is lethal. Dion, on the other hand, seemed content to pound the rock, shoot pull-ups, play hero ball, and nurse the chip on his shoulder.
The largest difference between them is that Dion is terrible at finishing around the rim. Kyrie is a magician down there and Dion gets blocked a lot or misses a lot and doesn’t get enough contact to draw fouls.
Agree with all of this. As Scotch and Nate note, Dion’s mental game is a huge problem.
But Kyrie also has an ENORMOUS skill/talent advantage. Better J, better ball handling (by a mile), better mid-range game, better at the rim.
I suppose the fact that Dion didn’t recognize the latter is because of the former.
I still miss his personality, but that trade looks incredibly lopsided now. Shumpert is the wing defender that the team needed, Smith is playing like good Earth Waiters and Mozgov seems to be underutilized. If you really want to look at the trade as what the Cavs gave up to get those three it’s Jon Leuer and Dion Waiters for Shumpert, Smith and Mozgov.
I love the tie back to Leur. That is a great point. That was another great move by Grant for which he doesn’t get credit. He was really good with trades.
Great recap, I gave up on my stream in the second quarter when the score was like 37-28 for like 10 minutes. Followed then on BING sports. Figured Perk would get some minutes with Love out and TT starting. Saw the stats where at one point he was 2-2 with a bock and a rebound, thought that was ‘decent’ well until I saw the +/- and saw -7 and then reading this write up. We missed Love on the boards and TT and Mozzy were kinda ineffective on the glass. Agree with Scotch, it’s like TT said when he was… Read more »
Re; Kyrie. There’s a guy I work with who is a huge Bulls fan and always praises D. Rose to the point of it being extremely nauseating. He often says if not for the injuries , Rose would easily have become the best PG in history and I always chuckle at that. Whenever Kyrie has had a good game this year, I would send an IM or email simply stating #BetterthanRose, just to needle him. He would come back with saying I’m just jealous or one good game is nothing. I’ve not heard a thing from him ever since I… Read more »
Great recap David. Thought you captured the overall ho-hum attitude of the game well. It is weirdly not difficult to become enraged by a bad stream…feels like a tease. This game lacked enthusiasm from the cavs while the magic seemed to play really hard. That’s not a good sign for the Magic…and it only worked for the Cavs because they stayed streaky hot from the floor. Kevin Love’s absence was felt in all sorts of little ways, which i liked. The theme from most recaps around the web was “Cavs didn’t miss Love at all.” There were tangible differences. Our… Read more »
I actually like the Magic as a free agent destination. Young growing core, but none will be probably be superstars. That could be a free agent’s team. No state taxes, and they’ve lured legit max free agents before. They could also pair young talent and picks in a trade for another star.
Nice write up guy. There’s nothing worse than a crumby stream of a game. Well, genocide is worse and country music, but other than those nothing is worse than a crumby stream of a game.
If this was just basically a scrimmage, that’s fine. They got the W, further cemented the #2 seed and gave the Magic an L. Seriously rooting for Orlando in the lottery.
Haha. I despise country music. It’s the one type of music that I hate.
I almost agree with Cols. This was like a scrimmage after they got through the tough part of the schedule with the 2 seed pretty much locked up — and knowing they had another game Monday.
They’ll take Miami more seriously than Orlando. If LeBron plays, Riley’s recent ruminations about the departure may give him some added motivation.
One of the holders of the record that Kyrie approached — 13 straight 3-pointers made — is Brent Price, Mark’s little brother.
Nice. Did not know Brent Price held that record. Very cool.
He and Delonte now share the Cavs record of 11 straight though. Saw that on the ESPN highlights.
The other guy who holds the record with Brent is Terry Mills. (Couldn’t nail this down last night.) Kyrie joins Delonte, Mike Miller and a few others with 11. Here are the leaders, from the NBA Register. Some of these streaks went on for weeks or months before the 3 became a common tool. (Check out Wedman and Delonte!) Most consecutive three-point field goals, no misses, season: 13 Brent Price, Washington, Jan. 15—Jan. 19, 1996 Terry Mills, Detroit, Dec. 4—Dec. 7, 1996 11 Scott Wedman, Boston, Dec. 21, 1984—March 31, 1985 Jeff Hornacek, Utah, Dec. 30, 1994—Jan. 11, 1995 Delonte… Read more »
Easy win. I’m glad they took it easy. No need to have intensity every game until playoff time. They played it perfectly.