Recap: Cavs 117, Knicks 88 (Or, I Can Get Used To This)

Gus Chan / The Plain Dealer

The Cavs collected their rings and hoisted their championship banner with poise. They didn’t let their excitement change anything they did. They defended hard holding the Knicks to just 36.8% from the field. They made sure they moved the ball getting 31 assists. And, even though it was a 29 point win, LeBron James and Kyrie Irving made it entertaining by generating at least twenty vines.

The King kept whipping cross court passes and running for easy transition buckets on his way to a triple-double. By halftime, he had 12 points, seven assists, and seven rebounds. By the time he checked out in the fourth quarter, he had 19 points on 9-14 shooting to go with 14 dimes and 11 rebounds.

Kyrie had an almost equally impressive night. He scored ten on 4-12 in the first half, but in the third quarter, he showed he’s the man of 1000 scoring maneuvers. He put up 19 points hitting 3-4 from deep. He hit jumpers over Kristaps Porzingis and even spun around him for a called it bank shot from just inside the 3-line. Whatever Irving wanted to do, Irving did.

The Cavs started the first quarter a little slow. Irving let Derrick Rose get to the rim in a curl motion for a layup immediately. Kevin Love then missed a hook shot, despite catching the ball deep in the post. LeBron scored the first points for the Cavs with a running floater. The Knicks hung in on the offensive end with Carmelo hitting tough shot after tough shot getting five baskets, just two of which were assisted on. The Knicks also pounded the offensive glass getting five offensive boards. Porzingis got four easy points off of them. The Cavs decided to push the pace the entire time. If they could get down the court and find a cross match, they were attacking it. The one instance Melo was on Kyrie, LeBron hit him right away. Kyrie then pump faked before driving in a little to drop a 15 footer.

https://vine.co/v/5d6pJdmXagr

LeBron essentially orchestrated everything netting five assists and countless other hockey assists. One of his dimes came off an offensive board. On that one, he found Kevin Love in the corner before Love pump faked past Porzingis on his way to the rim for a 3-point play. The Cavs ended up taking ten threes and hitting just two, one of which was the last shot of the quarter. All of them were open though. After one, Cleveland led 18–28.

In the second quarter, the Cavs rolled out Channing Frye, James, Irving, Mike Dunleavy, and Richard Jefferson. RJ started off on a good note getting LBJ a dunk after a very long play sequence featuring at least five passes. Most of the offense in the quarter seemed to be the King dunking. For his second throw down, he had a football esque sprint between two defenders trying to tackle him after a steal by RJ. He finished with ease.

https://vine.co/v/5d60Oj3M7lZ

His third dunk came about a minute later when Iman Shumpert shumped the ball away from Carmelo in the paint. James recovered the stripped ball and pushed it up court. Then he tossed it to Irving running near the sideline. Ky finished the play when he threw the ball up about 16 feet into the air. It arced the perfect amount for the King to catch it while it was coming down for an extra powerful slam.

https://vine.co/v/5d6Erih0YV3

The Cavs went up by 12 after that dunk, but the Knicks came roaring back. They went on a 15-5 run in the middle minutes. Irving got the only points during that dark time, finding the basket for a layup and hitting a 3-pointer off the dribble. The Cavs struggled in the quarter because they just couldn’t hit 3s going 2-11 and because they turned the ball over seven times. They entered the locker room up just three, 48-45.

The third quarter started out with Kevin Love getting called for a charge after getting an offensive board. Love redeemed himself a possession later tipping in an Irving miss. He then got a steal, which he tossed to LeBron who drew a foul at the rim for two freebies. The quarter was starting to feel a little special. LeBron then continued his dunk fest.

His first throw down came when he caught the ball near the baseline with his back to the basket. He kept his dribble going and whipped the ball to J.R. Smith in the corner. J.R. then dribbled to the rack and drew help before passing back to the King who  dunked. The King had one dribble and two full steps of power for the slam. Joakim Noah clearly wanted no part of the poster play. He contested from just far enough away that he couldn’t be caught in a photo but also couldn’t be called out for not playing defense.

https://vine.co/v/5dgZlXAj0jV

James also got a dunk off a Kyrie steal. Speaking of Kyrie, he had 19 points in the quarter. He hit 8-10 shots. Irving was basically unstoppable. He hit three( two assisted) 3s. On one 3 he looked at Porzingis before jab stepping him into oblivion and shooting a high shot over him.

Irving even drew a foul on the Zinger when he set a moving screen.

Irving had so many highlight worthy plays in the quarter that if I were to show all the vines on here, my computer would crash. It’s just a Chromebook, but usually it can handle up to ten media items in a post. I’ll only show my two favorite plays here. The first one is Irving showing Brandon Jennings what the dream shake is. Jennings must have been especially salty considering he opted to go overseas and play basketball before entering the draft instead of playing one year at college. The dude doesn’t like learning.

https://vine.co/v/5dgMgdMtxMg

This second highlight is almost impossible to explain. Irving forces Channing Frye to set a gazillion screens before he uses one to lose his original defender. He then careens into the paint and spins into Porzingis. His previous dribbling has the Zinger unbalanced, which makes the spin move super effective. It gives Irving space to get the ball up, so it doesn’t get swatted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgATXfmx5ik

The Knicks couldn’t keep up at all in the quarter, as they just relied on non-Kyrie solo action to score. They had just four assists. The Cavs lost Iman late in the action. He crashed into Kristap’s hip with his head on a drive. His glazed eyes hinted that he was probably concussed. The Cavs entered the final frame up big, 82-64.

The fourth quarter was essentially a formality, but the King started it anyways because he was two rebounds short of a triple-double. James got his final rebound halfway through and checked out. Love played a few minutes drawing three shooting fouls, one on an and-1. The scrubs didn’t do anything amazing, but it was nice to see James Jones hit a 3-pointer. Dunleavy even had a nice driving layup.

Gripes

1.Kyrie still isn’t playing the most intelligent defense. Rose burned him several times, but, more often than not, Irving switched onto the guy that his help defender was on and tried to at least be a nuisance. Rose had 17 points on 7-17 shooting, but he seemed to be skying to the rim anytime Irving was on him. Justin Holiday also hit two 3s over Irving.

2.Kevin Love had a double-double, 23-12. He also had 3 steals, but he went 6-15 from the floor and was 2-6 on wide open 3s. Love missed at least three gimme shots at the rim tonight. He needs to go up hard and try to dunk when he’s driving to the rim. He also couldn’t run the second-unit. In the first quarter, the Cavs tried to run the ball through him. He just kept bricking. However, I do credit Love with continuing to take shots and not shying away from the ball. He also kept rebounding all night.

3.The Cavs went 13-35 from deep on nearly all perfect looks. Hopefully, guys were just nervous and rusty.

Hypes

1.The King is fresh as ever. He had the triple-double, but he also had a backboard crushing block on Courtney Lee. To truly understand this block, you need to find the youngest person you know. Hopefully they’re under the age of ten. Let them try to do a layup. Let them blow by you. Then swat the crap out of the ball. Now, imagine doing that to someone that can dunk and actually dribble. It’s gotta be an awesome feeling. Also grunt when you do it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOlf5ViEFZI

The King also flashed some of the best court vision I have ever seen. Every time he got the ball he was ready to hit the open man no matter the ankle of the pass. I really appreciated a backdoor pass he got to a cutting J.R. Smith in the first quarter when three Knicks were watching him near the elbow.

2.The Cavs offense isn’t dribbling a ton at all this year. They are moving the ball better than I have ever seen them do it; they look borderline scary. 31 assists is ridiculous. They also had 16 fast break points.

3.I know the Cavs defense won’t ever be elite, but they held Melo and the Zinger to  35 combined points on 13-31 shooting. They simply tried to body them and make sure they had to work for every point. And, turnover wise, they caused 18. That isn’t going to happen all the time, but whenever they got a turnover and started a fast break they finished it. That’s something the Cavs can do every night.

4.Kyle O’Quinn is crazy. The guy shot a three, when I’m not even sure he can make a fifteen foot shot. He also fouled Smith, when Smith boxed him the heck out erasing any hope that he had of rebounding over a smaller and weaker man.

5. This night was something I can get used to. The Cavs just have too many guys to stop. LeBron makes the offense function so smoothly. The team almost had too many open shots to count. When the team needed to pull ahead, Kyrie stepped up and put on a scoring clinic to completely demoralize the Knicks.

6.Even though I thought Love didn’t play too great, the King felt differently. When the game was over and Love was being interviewed, the King walked up and playfully patted him. The pair then walked away and did one of their elaborate handshakes.

6.The Cavs play in Toronto on Friday.