Recap: Nets 106, Cavs 98(Or, Joe Tries and Succeeds)

After the nearly flawless game played against the Grizzlies, the Cavaliers were feeling very good about themselves. The punctuation win over Memphis after all the Love chatter must have been very satisfying. So it is hardly a surprise that the Cavs came out a bit flat in Brooklyn. Having a celebratory evening in NYC can frequently lead to uninspired play. Let’s get to it.

1st Quarter: With Thaddeus Young out, the Nets started Mason Plumlee. Their twin tower look must have been incredibly intimidating as it took all of eleven seconds for the Cavaliers to call a timeout. Granted, it came because J.R. Smith couldn’t inbound the ball after a Nets deflection, but terror boredom was in the Cavaliers’ eyes.

Fortunately, J.R. saved the miserable possession with a tough step back jumper from the right side. Blatt started Timofey Mozgov against the scorching hot Brook Lopez. After averaging over thirty a game over his last four, Blatt wanted to make sure that Lopez’s push shot got off to a rough start. That left Plumlee to work on Kevin Love. Plumlee has the quickness, but not the skill to blow by Kevin on the block. Kyrie Irving set Love up for an easy three ball in the right corner for what turned out to be one of the few three point attempts to drop.

The Nets moved the ball pretty well, but were sloppy with their cross court passes. One cannot be sloppy against LeBron James. Bron had two interceptions in the first quarter. The King left the first transition opportunity short of the rim, but atoned with a sick And-1 for an early five point lead.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHeuw17m7WM&t=0m14s

After LeBron missed the subsequent free throw, he completely lost Joe Johnson who promptly drained a right corner three. Bron’s second steal of the quarter ultimately led to a Mozzy Dunk. It was not a beautiful break. The transition sloppiness that plagued James earlier in the season made a mini return. His energy was there, but the execution was rough. Kevin Love drilled a nice little righty hook to give the Cavs a seven point advantage. It would be their largest of the evening.

For the second straight game, Kendrick Perkins was the first big man off the bench. Against the Grizzlies’ huge front line, it worked. In this game, it was a disaster. Perk turned it over on his first two touches. Kyrie game him easy chances, but poor Perk is a train wreck in space. It’s almost as though he can’t balance his big body unless it is slammed against another giant human.

After LeBron bulled over Deron Williams foiling yet another steal/transition attempt, Iman Shumpert subbed in and brought some energy to the contest. Iman stuffed himself on the rim again, but followed his shot. When Tristan Thompson subbed for Kevin Love at the 1:22 mark, the “heat check lineup” was in full effect. Delly, JR, Shump, TT, and Perk closed the quarter with a Shump layup that cut the lead to two. After one sloppy quarter, 29-27 Nets.

Big Three.

2nd Quarter: Thankfully, David Blatt put an end to the Perkins experiment, and the customary second quarter unit of Delly, Shump, Bron, James Jones and TT began the period. The Wine and Gold struggled to get open shots. The Nets did a good job of running James Jones off the line. Shump finally hit a jumper off some good ball swing action to cut the Nets’ lead to six. Our old friend, Jarrett Jack and Joe Johnson continued to carve up the Cavs lazy defense with pull-up jumpers and good ball movement.

The Cavs fought back when Delly got a hustle offensive rebound that eventually led to an isolation LeBomb three. The best offensive sequence of the game came on the following possession when Shumpert drove the right side, collapsing the defense before firing it to Delly in the left corner. Matthew then swung it immediately to James Jones on the left wing. It was an action that was beautifully common against the Grizz. In this game, the Nets did their best to clog the swing pass at the expense of the interior. Tristan was wide open on most of his rolls to the rim and Bron hit him on the next possession after looking to the corner. Cool stuff. The bucket cut the lead to four and the Nets needed a timeout.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHeuw17m7WM&t=1m40s

Kyrie, JR, Shump, Bron and Tristan broke the huddle at the 7:20 mark. The Nets bench continued its early work with buckets from Alan Anderson and Bojan Bogdanovic pushing the lead back to nine. LeBron hit another deep three, but it came at the expense of any and all movement.

Shump continued his hard work with another and-1 at the 5:56 mark to cut the lead to three. The Cavs still didn’t have much of an answer for Joe Johnson. He beasted on the inside fighting back any momentum for the Cavs. Still, this was Cavs most active stretch. J.R. drilled a Knick-style stepback three and Kyrie abused the Nets off the dribble in the pull-up game.

When Bron and Love checked in, the Cavaliers attacked the bucket. Without some questionable calls and hot outside shooting from the Nets, the Cavs may have taken the lead. Instead, the Nets took a one point advantage into the break behind strong bench scoring and Joe Johnson’s seven assists. 57-56 Nets.

3rd Quarter: Both teams struggled a bit to start the period. Kyrie got another pull-up jumper to drop before Kevin Love drilled a left baseline jumper off of Pick and Pop. The next possession, Kevin flared behind the right wing line and drilled a three. It gave the Cavs a two point margin and it seemed that the team had turned the corner.

After the timeout, LeBron had a sweet block on Johnson in transition which eventually led to a great drop off dish by J.R. for a Tristan smash. The game slowed down a bit until Smith got whistled for another questionable charge. It was the fifth charge drawn by the Nets. David Blatt, having seen enough, raged for a technical.

Earl Clark, who signed a 10-day contract earlier in the day, made a nice contribution on the offensive end while getting abused by Kevin Love down low. Kevin snared a fantastic offensive rebound that netted two free throws.

Kyrie did his best to kill a mini Net run by drilling a dagger three from LeBron’s foot and picking Jarrett Jack for a transition bucket. LeBron found Tristan for a sweet lob to end the quarter’s scoring. 79-79.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lHeuw17m7WM&t=4m0s

4th Quarter: Neither team had won a quarter by more than two points heading into the fourth. Delly, Shump, Bron, Jones, and TT started the fourth with a possession that featured only one player. 17 dribbles and 14 seconds after LeBron got the inbound, the King took a deep jumper from just inside the arc. Sigh. With no discernible offensive plan, the Cavs struggled. Meanwhile, Bojan Bogdanovic pushed the Nets ahead by five.

A couple possessions after the timeout, LePost proved far more effective than LeIso netting an and-1 and cutting the lead to two. Fortunately, Jarrett Jack started ignoring Brook Lopez inside and the Cavs hung around despite some shaking officiating. The refs whistled Kevin Love on five occasions in only a three minute span. This wasn’t really a Love “fitting out” thing. The referees struggled throughout this stretch.

Joe Johnson then hit a deep dagger three at the end of the shot clock, and Jarrett Jack sunk two free throws to push the lead to ten with two minutes remaining. Those two minutes featured Alan Anderson working his tail off, the Cavs basically giving up, and David Blatt electing not to extend the game.

Thoughts: Maybe Blatt was concerned about Timofey’s rise to commercial fame. It is the only way I can understand playing him only 17 minutes in a game against one of the best offensive centers in the league. I don’t want to watch Kendrick Perkins play basketball. Bringing Perk in as the first big man off the bench must be reserved for special occasions. Yes, we know that plus/minus is flawed, but Moz was plus 8 in 17 minutes and Perk was minus six in only five minutes. Let’s go back to the rotation that was dominating.

The Cavs had a rough shooting evening from deep. Much of that should be attributed to the Nets’ defensive scheme. They simply begged the Cavs to hit the roll man. In the first half, the Nets iced the PnR but sat in the passing lanes on the weakside. They stuck to James Jones on all PnPop attempts. Kyrie was left with a lot of one on one situations in the mid-range game. He capitalized for the most part, but the Cavs weren’t able to get many clean ball swings. In the second half, Mike Fratello kindly pointed out that the Nets started to bring their bigmen to the level of the screen to shut off Kyrie. At that point, the Cavs needed to find the roll man or take the Nets to the hole. The Nets gave up some amazingly easy buckets inside. The Cavs should have attacked there even more.

Kevin Love continues to get closer to the hoop with good results. In the last couple outings, Kevin has often popping for a mid-range jumper instead of only searching for the three ball. He is drilling that shot. It also helps his confidence before unleashing the three. He getting in position for his righty jump hook to drop more frequently as well.

If you like NBA crossovers, Kyrie and Deron Williams are a must see. Kyrie can do anything he wants. Deron’s jump cross with both hands is a joy. No wonder he has troubles with his ankles. He puts ridiculous torque on himself.

Joe Johnson always seems to play up for LeBron. He was a beast in this one. His seven first half assists and momentum buckets hurt the Cavs. Jarrett Jack and Earl Clark also had some mini-revenge on their former team.

The referees may have mistakenly believed they were calling a March Madness game. The block/charge calls were very questionable both ways.