Recap: Cavs 120, Lakers 108 (or, Turning Back Time)

If you somehow fell into a coma towards the end of 2009, and didn’t wake up until yesterday… chances are you’d have a hard time believing you were unconscious for very long if you caught last night’s game between the Cavs and Lakers. After all, your eyes would tell you that Kobe Bryant and LeBron James were going at it like they were still on a collision course for a Finals showdown, with the Mamba hitting vintage fade aways and bombs from downtown over Bron… and the King blowing past Kobe for monstrous throw-down jams. There were even loud chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” raining down from the sold out Staples Center crowd. And, though some of the supporting casts might look different, familiar faces were still on display. Sure Ty Lue was now on the opposite sideline, and Shaq was now back in the TNT studios… but hey… wasn’t that the old sharpshooter, Channing Frye, out there gunning away like he did back in Phoenix? Wait, what year is it again?

The final meeting of Kobe and LeBron certainly lived up to its billing, with both stars turning back the clock to a bygone era, and reaching into their own individual bag of tricks. In addition, there were, in fact, an abundance of other flashbacks and revisiting of times gone by for the Cavs and the Lakers in this game… well, actually it often seemed more like an exhibition than an actual game that counted.

Back To Back Slack

The first one was a pretty recent memory of a near identical score from the previous night for the Cavs. On the second night of a back-to-back, Cleveland once again toyed with some of the upstart dregs of the Western Conference, allowing them to fire away at a high percentage rate (52.5%), while still putting the ball in the hoop at a fairly healthy clip of their own. The Cavs marginally bettered their 120-111 score-fest against the Kings with a 120-108 pseudo All Star Game against the Lakers, where defense was little more than a rumor. Still, it was another win on the road to start an important trip west for the wine & gold, and one that wasn’t nearly as taxing or close as the previous night’s endeavor.

Re-Fryed

Just one night removed from his cathartic four-point play that served as a galvanizing agent in the Cavs’ win over the Kings, the Banana Republican, Kevin Love, was forced to miss this stop on the Kobe farewell tour with a sprained knee (the injury reportedly occurred when Kev got tangled up with Delly, which should only add to the Australian Assassin’s resume of crimes against humanity… /s). To maintain the stretch four elasticity of his starting lineup, Ty Lue turned to his seldom used, but newest weapon, Channing Frye for spot duty. Little did he know that he was actually getting the 2009-10 version of the 6-11 Forward who shot almost 44% from downtown that year for the Suns. Just over two minutes into the game, Frye hit the first of his three triples in the quarter off of an LBJ assist…

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Each catch and shoot jumper was smoother than the last, and Frye wound up with 11 of his 21 points in the quarter. Overall, he shot 8-10 (5-7 from beyond the arc), and even pulled down seven boards for good measure in KLove’s stead.

Mamba Re-Vitalized

To combat the deep Fryed onslaught, Kobe Bryant seemed to shed his old skin, shake off his nagging shoulder injury, and get back to his black mamba ways. He hit a long two, a fadeaway, a turnaround jumper and completely juked LeBron for an up and under layup, unleashing his full arsenal early, knocking down four of his first six shots for eight points. This was an early sign of things to come from Kobe on what turned out to be one of his best and most efficient shooting nights all season.

Back To The Future

The Mamba also got some terrific support from the Laker youth brigade of Julius Randle and D’Angelo Russell (the third member, Jordan Clarkson, had a rough night and was not much of a factor). Randle was a terror on the glass and in the paint, and was generally a handful for the Cavs’ front line. Russell, meanwhile, was locked in from distance, knocking down 10 points in the first quarter alone in support of Kobe’s efforts. Also, one other “rookie” of the more elderly variety, Marcelo Huertas, essentially took the game over in the latter stages of the first quarter. The “Brazilian Delly” as he was so dubbed on the Live Thread, used tenacious defense, heady dribble penetration, deft passing and some unorthodox moves to the hoop (sound familiar yet?) to put his stamp on the game and erase the Lakers’ 10 point deficit. A pair of LBJ free throws were the only points the Cavs scored in the final 3:30, but they put Cleveland up 33-31 after one.

Back And Forth

The Cavs tried to put some distance between them and the Lakers to start the second quarter, as first Delly and then Kyrie hit triples to increase the gap. In the spirit of going backwards, Uncle Drew doubled back all the way behind the line for this one…

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Even James Freaking Jones got into the act, getting some rare non-garbage playing time, and went old school grabbing a rebound and driving in for a putback layup.

The Tooth Hurts

However, the Lakers refused to take “Brazilian Delly” Huertas out of the game, even though he reportedly lost a tooth according to Kevin Harlan. Dental issues notwithstanding, Huertas hit another shot, dished two dimes, blocked a Kyrie shot and then stripped a hapless Shump (who should have known better than to be putting the ball on the floor, and may just have inspired a new website: pleasestopdribblingshump.com). With Huertas and Randle handling things, the Lakers evened it back up at 42 apiece.

Flashback Frye-day

Fortunately, Channing Frye checked back in to restore order (hard to imagine typing that line before tonight). He immediately hit yet another three (his fifth of the game), and then after a TT throwdown off a LeBron dime, Frye snagged an offensive board, drove to the rack and laid it in for two more. J.R. also got into the long distance act, drilling a deep three off another LBJ pass. Then, Frye forced a turnover and threw his best KLove outlet pass to J.R. For a moment, it looked like J.R. would have an easy path to the hoop for a breakaway layup… but, instead, he decided to see how high LeBron could actually jump to throw a ball down. He found out…

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The King v. The Mamba Revisited

Out of a timeout, no doubt fueled by the sick dunk above, Kobe initiated the next round of one-upsmanship with LeBron. The final two minutes of the half devolved into a game of “anything you can do, I can do better.” The Mamba hit a turnaround jumper… LeBron made a three. Kobe hit another sweet turnaround… LBJ jammed a dunk home with authority. Bryant nailed a long three… but instead of getting baited into taking another three to close the half, LeBron watched as Delly nailed a triple to close the scoring. Cavs led 64-55 at the break.

Blast From The Past

Given the reports of how bad Kobe’s shoulder has been lately, it didn’t seem like a safe bet that he’d be able to sustain his torrid first half. But, he not only sustained it, he came out firing to start the third period. The Mamba scored seven points in the first few minutes on another three, another turnaround J and a pull up. Only the equally hot shooting of Kyrie was able to balance out the scoring. Then, TT snagged an offensive board and found a cutting LeBron for an easy dunk, and LBJ followed it up with dimes to both Frye and J.R. for threes to push the advantage. However, just when the Cavs were getting some separation, D’Angelo Russell went on an eight point tear of his own, nailing back to back triples and getting to the line for two to cut the Cavs lead to single digits.

Real Delly v. Brazilian Delly

That’s when Delly went to work to show Huertas just who was boss. The “Australian Mamba” drove and dished to Frye for his season high 21st points on a floater, and then one possession later, Delly stuck a triple while “Brazilian Delly” and the rest of the Lakers could only watch in dismay as their hopes began to evaporate. Meanwhile, Kevin Harlan made sure that every announcer from now on knows exactly how to pronounce Dell-A-Ve-DOVA!

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Shump and LBJ both had drives to the rack, and Metta World Peace (who will probably be around even after Kobe is gone) foolishly fouled TT with 2.5 seconds left on the clock, leading to a split pair of free throws. Cavs led after three, 95-82.

The Last Hurrah

As if the Cavs’ lead wasn’t comfortable enough, Kyrie went into full-on MFQ mode. He started the frame with a dish to Moz for an easy jam, then started hitting everything in sight while simultaneously roasting “Brazilian Delly” with his handles as if he were made completely of marshmallows.

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The rest seemed like it was going to be strictly garbage time… until Kobe checked back in with just over six minutes remaining. After a minute or so, LeBron checked back in to have one last mano y mano with the Mamba. Kobe hit one more triple to end with a game high 26 points on an amazingly efficient 11-16 shooting night (3-4 from downtown). With two minutes left, Kobe checked out… and LBJ soon followed, finishing their time together on the NBA hardwood forever.

Hugs ensued…

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The Evil:

Defense Is A Memory. While the Cavs have scored a lot of points lately (they’ve hit 120 in three of the last four games), you have to consider the level of competition they’ve achieved it against. The past two games in particular have been against two teams that have less interest in defense than most. And, likely much to Byron Scott’s dismay, these young Lakers don’t really do much more than stand around and occasionally get in their opponents’ way. Meanwhile, the Cavs have also been giving up a lot of points, while also allowing their opponents to shoot a high percentage. In this game, it was 52.5% to the lottery bound Lakers. Even though they shut down Jordan Clarkson, both D’Angelo Russell and Marcelo Huertas ate up the Cavs’ guards almost at will in the first three quarters while the game was still in doubt.

Passing Only In Passing. The Cavs wound up with 22 assists in this game (one shy of the magical number), but it didn’t seem like they necessarily moved the ball (or moved off the ball) all that well. Given the way the Lakers were playing (or not really playing) defense, much of the available action was either off of isolation or one pass possessions. Maybe KLove being out limited some of the extra passes, but it was rare to see the ball swing from side to side.

Waiting For The Paint To Dry. The Lakers outscored the Cavs 54-36 in the paint, continuing a semi-disturbing trend of the wine & gold not doing more to defend the interior. Moz has been ill the last few games, but hasn’t been the rim protector he was last year even when healthy. TT has pulled down a ton of boards lately, but has trouble allowing penetration to guards and big men alike. Part of the issue can be attributed to a deterioration in perimeter defense that’s allowing guards like Russell and Huertas to dribble-drive and shred the Cavs D with their inside passing. In any event, the Cavs need to find ways to combat this and get back to playing more of the lockdown defense they are capable of executing as the schedule winds down to the post season.

The Genius:

One More Time. With all of the hype surrounding the last matchup ever between Kobe and LeBron before the Mamba heads off into the sunset of retirement, the two legends were more than up to the task. Kobe set his time machine to 2009 and put his full array of work on display to the delight of his fans. Meanwhile, LBJ put on a high flying show of his own, without showing up Kobe too much in the process. It’s a genuine shame that these two never got the chance to meet in the Finals where their rivalry could have actually developed to the point where it would have transcended the game, but as a closing act, this was pretty darn entertaining.

Time To Let It Fly. A large part of the reason this Lakers squad was able to topple the reigning champs on Sunday, was that the Warriors shot abysmally from beyond the arc. This was not an issue for the Cavs, as they bombed away hitting 16 of the 35 threes they took (45.7%). Channing Frye started the assault, but the battle was joined by J.R., Kyrie, Delly and even one each from LBJ and JFJ. Frye (5-7), J.R. (4-7) and Delly (3-5) were the deadliest marksmen on the night, as the Cavs got just about any shot they wanted on the perimeter. Overall, they shot 53% from the field, and had the offense firing on nearly every cylinder.

Timing Is Everything. Getting a back to back dose of the Kings and Lakers came at the right time for the Cavs to kick off this road trip. Even without Kevin Love and Richard Jefferson (toe) for this game, they had plenty of firepower to handle yet another sub-par California team. Wins like this provide opportunities to try out what they have in guys like Channing Frye, while also continuing to round guys like Kyrie and Shump into shape. Though there is some danger in taking too much from beating up on the lowly, at least the Cavs have a couple of days off (and in the same city) before they have to take on a bigger handful in the Clippers.