Recap: Cavaliers 120, Warriors 90 (or, HE’S NOT A MACHINE!!!)

Recap: Cavaliers 120, Warriors 90 (or, HE’S NOT A MACHINE!!!)

2016-06-09 Off By Mike Schreiner

The above line, given at 0:35 by the character of Tony “Duke” Evers, played by Tony Burton, may best sum up Game Three of The NBA Finals. It was do or die time last night as the Cleveland Cavaliers hosted the Golden State Warriors. Having lost the first two games of the Finals in convincing fashion, the Cavaliers were facing many questions. Did they really deserve to be in the Finals, or is the Eastern Conference just that weak? Could they get their offense going like it had been throughout most of the playoffs? Could they find a crack in the armor of the seemingly invincible Warriors? You better believe it.

First Quarter

The Cavaliers came out hot on both ends early, taking a 9-0 lead and denying the Warriors any good looks at the basket.The nine-point lead was the Cavaliers’ largest in the series at that point, which says a lot about how things had gone in the first two games.  Warriors coach Steve Kerr quickly called time as the masses in attendance at Quicken Loans Arena roared their approval. The Cavaliers seemed focused in a way they hadn’t been all series. Maybe it was the message they heard before the game.

After the timeout, the Warriors scored the next four points off a pair of baskets by Andrew Bogut before Tristan Thompson had a huge put back dunk off a Richard Jefferson miss. Klay Thompson continued to struggle for the Warriors, missing his first four shots and a pair of free throws. The Cavaliers were missing shots, but created offense through their defense, and pushed the lead to 19-4. LeBron took Andre Iguodala off the dribble for a sweet hook shot and finished 4-4 from the field in the quarter.  Steph Curry starred in an Uncle Drew crossover Vine.

https://vine.co/v/i3wdIOOrO7r/

https://vine.co/v/i3wppxU7B07

The Cavs were so much better guarding the ball to start the game, you would have thought it was a completely different team than the one that showed up for the first two games of the Finals. The Warriors began to make some shots, but it was more a testament to their skill than any defensive slippage by the Cavaliers.

The first major change in the bench rotation with Love out came at the 2:30 mark when Timofey Mozgov and Channing Frye entered together. The Warriors seemed to have trouble with the size, and before you could blink, the Cavaliers had a 30-10 lead. Mozogov altered some shots in the paint and set some nice screens for Kyrie.  The Warriors tired to pull the big men by bringing in Marreese Speights, who hit a quick three, but the inferno known as Kyrie Irving couldn’t be denied and countered with a three of his own. After a turnover by Iman Shumpert—who would’ve guessed?—caused the Cavaliers to lose possession of the ball with four seconds left, Harrison Barnes hit a layup at the buzzer. The Cavaliers still led 33-16 as Irving had 16 points while Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson were held scoreless.

Second Quarter

The Cavaliers started the second quarter with their usual lineup of Matthew Dellavedova, Shumpert, Jefferson, James, and Frye. Shumpert wasted two more of the Cavaliers’ possessions, and the Warriors cut the lead to 13 before Tyronn Lue called time. Irving replaced Frye out of the timeout and gave up and and-one to Harrison Barnes as the Warriors continued to chip away at the lead. The Cavaliers seemed unable to keep up their energy level from the first quarter on either end of the floor as the ball was moving less and the defense wasn’t as tight. The Cavs committed a couple of cheap fouls and Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston continued to have success against the Cavalier bench. LeBron missed several layups in traffic, but Tristan Thompson had another put back to keep Golden State at Bay. The Warriors then scored a pair of quick baskets, including a layup by Klay Thompson for his first points of the game, to get within nine. A scoring flurry by both teams ensued as J.R. Smith hit a pair of threes that were sandwiched around a vicious dunk by LeBron James off a cut to the basket. Meanwhile, Klay Thompson came alive with an and-one followed by a three in transition to keep the Cavalier lead at nine.

https://vine.co/v/i3w9AWlavPJ

The time out didn’t slow Thompson who converted another layup while the Cavaliers turned the ball over twice and seemed to rush their shots. LeBron drove left seemingly five times and I’m not sure he drew iron once, but Tristan Thompson continued his work on the glass by cleaning up an LBJ miss with yet another put back. LeBron then missed a dunk that Draymond Green contested, but the Cavaliers were able to stifle the Warriors at the other end. J.R. Smith hit a three from half court just after the buzzer, and the Cavaliers led 51-43 at the half. Kyrie still led the Cavaliers with 19 points, while Tristan Thompson already had eight points and 10 rebounds. LeBron had a rough half shooting as he went into the break with 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting. While the Cavaliers still led, the Warriors had outscored them by nine in the second quarter, and seemed to have a lot of momentum going into the break.

Third Quarter

The Tristan Thompson show continued to start the third quarter as he drew a shooting foul and hit both free throws just 20 seconds into the quarter. Irving then hit a long two and set Thompson up for a bank shot give the Cavaliers some momentum. After J.R. Smith split a pair of free throws to push the lead to fifteen, Harrison Barnes hit a three for the Warriors’ first points of the quarter. The Cavaliers seemed to buckle back down on defense, and Smith hit a turnaround jumper over Curry before the Warriors called timeout. LeBron seemed almost afraid to shoot for a moment, and had yet another turnover when he stepped out of bounds. He finally hit a midrange jumper and followed it up with a vicious block on Draymond Green. Tristan Thompson then forced a Stephen Curry turnover, and James hit another jumper. Smith and James then hit a pair of threes as the Cavaliers stretched the lead to 22 points.

https://vine.co/v/i3dA5nMwK71

Anderson Varejao then made his first appearance of the night, and the Warriors went on an 11-4 run, led by eight points by Steph Curry, to cut the lead to fifteen. It was a bit surprising to hear the boos raining down on Varejao at The Q after all of his years with the team. The Cavaliers responded to the Warriors’ run when J.R. Smith hit a three of his own followed by an insane alley-oop dunk from King James.

https://vine.co/v/i3dOW9HhBE0

Another and-one by Curry showed that he was heating up a bit and kept Cavalier fans on the edge of their seats. After Irving fouled Curry on a three-point attempt, Steph completed the four-point play. But James answered by making a pair of his own free throws and a beautiful assist to Jefferson as the Cavs entered the final frame with a 89-69 lead. James shot five-of-six from the floor that quarter as he combined with Smith and Irving to score 66 of the Cavaliers’ 80 points. Tristan Thompson continued to dominate inside as he totaled 14 points and 13 rebounds with a quarter to go.  Long after a whistle, Curry went in for a non-continuation layup.  LeBron wasn’t even allowing that.

https://vine.co/v/i3diHMqblTX

Fourth Quarter

The Cavaliers started the quarter with a lineup of Shumpert, Smith, Jefferson, James and Frye. This unit played some solid defense before James fed Shumpert for his first three of the game. Smith then hit his fifth trey of the game before Harrison Barnes responded with one of his own. The Cavaliers continued to move the ball and attack the basket, and James threw down a vicious dunk and scored an easy layup with Golden State asleep on defense. After another layup by James gave the Cavaliers a 26 point lead, fans across Northeast Ohio began to exhale for the first time all night. Soon it was garbage time, and even then the Cavaliers dominated as they blew out the Warriors by a final score of 120-90 to earn their first win of the 2016 NBA Finals. LeBron James finished with 32 points, 11 rebounds, and six assists, Kyrie Irving had 30 points, and eight assists, and J.R. Smith threw in 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-10 from beyond the arc.

https://vine.co/v/i3dvIZEgd2v

Things I Noticed

Many will point to Richard Jefferson starting over Kevin Love as the reason for the Cavaliers’ turnaround, but the reality of the situation is that Kyrie Irving and J.R. Smith finally decided to show up for the Finals. The numbers below bear that out, at least to the extent that the first two games of the Finals cannot be put solely on Love.

Kevin Love

This is not to say that the Cavaliers shouldn’t strongly consider sticking with last night’s starting lineup. It’s fair to say the Warriors are a rough matchup for Love. It’s also true that the Cavaliers have consistently been better with Love on the floor the entire season, including the first two games of the Finals. He also matches up very well against most other teams, including the Oklahoma City Thunder, who the Cavaliers came incredibly close to meeting in the Finals. The idea that Kevin Love is somehow holding the Cleveland Cavaliers back is both unfounded and absurd.

-Kyrie Irving has taken a lot of criticism over the past week, most of it well-deserved, so it was good to see him come out with the kind of effort the Cavaliers need from him if they’re going to make this a series. He moved the ball, took smart shots, and played solid defense. Hopefully the lightbulb has gone on for the rest of the series. Either way, this game served as a reminder of why you don’t give up on 24-year-old scoring machines after a few bad games.

-J.R. Smith played solid defense and moved the ball well, but he almost seemed afraid to shoot early on. It wasn’t so much that he didn’t take shots as he hesitated before each one. Smith is at his best when he shoots in rhythm, and he wasn’t allowing himself to do that in the first two games or even the first quarter of this game. It was good to see him get the mental hurdle of succeeding in the Finals off his back, at least to some extent. When Smith is hitting his threes, the Cavaliers are nearly impossible to defend.  He had a very nice screen in the 1st quarter that helped set the tone for how the Cavs were going to play physical on offense as well as defense.  Watch as he buzzdozes Curry before popping Iguodala in the shoulder.

https://vine.co/v/i3wpeDjQHDj

-Richard Jefferson was very good tonight, but he still had the worst plus-minus of any starter by a noticeable margin, and was absolutely torched by Harrison Barnes, whose 18 points on 7-11 shooting was one of the few highlights for the Warriors.

-One day Iman Shumpert will realize this role on offense is to stand in the corner and take open threes. This will be a joyous day for Cavalier fans everywhere.

-After playing his usual second quarter minutes, Matthew Dellavedova didn’t play again until the fourth quarter. Part of this was Irving’s spectacular play, but Dellavedova has also struggled for the last few weeks. He was the only Cavalier with a negative plus-minus for the game, a rarity for a player who usually excels when measured by that statistic. It will be interesting to see how Dellavedova’s play of late affects his value on the free agent market.

-Some of LeBron missing at the basket in the second quarter was him looking for fouls without being physical enough, but some was the fact that officials allow teams to be more physical with LeBron than just about any other player in the league. It’s annoying, but it’s been that way for thirteen years, and won’t be changing anytime soon.

-After looking a bit better at various points of the playoffs, LeBron’s shot was broken again, at least in the two-and-a-half games of the series. Part of the reason he got to the rim so much easier in the second half of Game Three was that the Warriors could see his shot was falling and they couldn’t just lay off him anymore. Once his outside shot started falling and the Warriors started guarding him out there, it was so much easier for James to get to the basket.

-Tristan Thompson is so awesome. The Cavaliers won the rebounding battle 52-32 over the Warriors and the 13 boards by Thompson was a huge reason why. He was constantly active on both ends of the glass, and had several put backs off Cavalier misses that help stifle Warrior runs. Going into the series, the common belief was that the Cavaliers had to win the rebounding and turnover battles to have a chance against Golden State. Last night was the first time they won both battles in the same game, and the results speak for themselves.

-While some would look at the beginning of the game as proof that the Cavaliers are capable of being a great defensive team, the reality is that they simply cannot sustain that level for a full 48 minutes. Still, they did a great job of staying with their men, which limited switching on defense and allowing backdoor cuts by the Warriors, something that killed the Cavs in the first two games of the series.

-Anderson Varejao didn’t leave, he was traded. Imagine if you spent your whole career with a company and then they let you go. You then have the chance to go work for their top competitor in a job that is a great opportunity for you. What would you do?  This tweet from Marla Ridenour of the Akron Beacon Journal sums it up.

-The talk about LeBron not being a winner based on this Finals is as absurd as the talk of the Cavaliers being better without Kevin Love. If LeBron James retired tomorrow, he would go down as undoubtedly one of the ten best players in NBA history. The idea that last night’s game was the most important of his career was laughable, but even the fools who had that opinion couldn’t argue with the greatness of his performance. He isn’t Michael Jordan, no one is, but he’s a transcendent player in his own right and will be remembered long after his days in the NBA are over.

-While the Warriors still have a 2-1 series lead and seemingly aren’t worried in the slightest, the Cavaliers have some life for the first time since the Finals began. It’s important they have a similar effort in them for Game Four on Friday if they want to truly give themselves a chance in this series. If last night is any indication, the Cleveland Cavaliers have begun to find their way.

 

 

Share