Recap: Cavs 120, Suns 116 (Or, Making it interesting)

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Overview: The Cavaliers were able to hold onto a win against the Phoenix Suns after nearly blowing a 22-point lead, with Cleveland outscoring Phoenix 41-28 in the first quarter and Phoenix turning things around with a 37-24 third quarter. LeBron James had 28 points to lead the Cavaliers, including 8 points in the final 3:11 of play, and Kyrie Irving added 27 points of his own. Devin Booker had 28 points for the Suns, and Eric Bledsoe led all scorers with 31.

The Breakdown:

So here I was, all ready to gush about how the Cavs were finally doing what I’d been asking them to do all season long, particularly in the early going. Instead of getting cute to start the game and play the 3-point game, the Cavs took firm control early, with LeBron being assertive going to the basket right from the opening tip. He was snatching rebounds, pushing at every opportunity, and looking for lanes to the basket instead of laying in the cut and letting a potential triple-double come to him. It took the Suns completely off guard, and Love and Irving were hitting shots from everywhere on the court as well.

With a start like that, it should have been an easy night for the Cavaliers, with the big 3 taking the fourth quarter off. That’s not what happened. The Cavaliers got careless, the Suns came out of halftime aggressively, and turnovers let Phoenix back into the game. LeBron and Kyrie had 7 turnovers apiece, and most of them weren’t even good, aggressive turnovers that were the result of trying to force a home-run pass that wasn’t there. They lost their handle, they got flustered by traps, they got careless with simple passes, and the Suns took advantage on the fast-break to make it a much closer game than it had any right to be.

Cleveland finished the game with 15 assists against 20 turnovers, which is honestly not a formula for success. Fortunately, Kyrie and LeBron redeemed their careless play by being really good at putting the basketball in the hoop. As I mentioned above, LeBron showed a more aggressive side of himself that started Friday night and continued here, constantly putting pressure on the defense with drives in both the half-court and the full-court and looking for easy baskets whenever he could get them. With one exception, he didn’t even take an outside jumper until late in the fourth quarter, when he nailed two clutch threes to extend the Cavalier lead from two to six (Eric Bledsoe made a layup between the shots), and then missed two “LeDagger” shots with a ludicrously high degree of difficulty that would have looked awesome if they went in, but didn’t put the Cavs in serious danger if they missed. (He’s been doing this for over a decade, it’s time to live with it.)

The main point is that I love it. LeBron, at 32, is still a tank. The kick-out game and the perimeter game are important, but there’s no reason to go to them until the opponent proves that they can stop a 6-9, 260-pound freak of nature from just shrugging off dudes and going to the rim. Make them take away your biggest strength before busting out the rest of the arsenal.

As for Kyrie, the man is simply a scoring savant. He finished with seven assists, although I don’t remember him orchestrating the offense the way he did before his brief time on the shelf. Mostly, he just put the ball through the hoop from everywhere. If the initial defender played too loose, he’d nail a three in his face. If the defense played too tight, he’d blow by him and scoop in a layup. If they tried to soft-trap him between the perimeter defender and the wing, he’d pull up from the free throw line and drop in that mid-range pull-up.

That’s basically the game — the Cavs started things out in a beautiful groove, lost focus and let the Suns back in it with turnovers and lazy defense, and got bailed out by LeBron and Kyrie.

Individual notes:

— Not quite sure how to categorize this game from Love — it was right on the line between “Kevin Love, all-around assassin” and “Kevin Love, jack of all trades.” He made some threes, especially early, he got some tough rebounds, drew some sneaky fouls, and made a few jump hooks, but he missed more open shots then we’re used to seeing from him this season, he got bullied a few times on the defensive glass, and was abused on defense a few times.

— Well, Iman Shumpert and DeAndre Liggins played like two guys who know their rotation minutes might be at risk. Liggins was flying all over the court, made his lone catch-and-shoot three, had some aggressive finishes at the rim, and finished with two blocks and four steals, including a steal on an inbounds pass that led to a layup. Shump, meanwhile, returned from his sojourn in the Twilight Zone to go 4-7 from the field, 2-4 from three, and had a few of his signature strips on defense when the Cavs needed them. (I’m not calling them “Shumps.” I have limits.)

— Tristan Thompson is trying to adjust his play as a roll-man — he’s shortening his roll, Draymond-Green style, so that he can use his speed and make a play after he catches it instead of going straight to the rim, where his height becomes a disadvantage. I’m not sure if it’s going to work, because TT is not a guy with Draymond Green’s skill level (to say the least), but let’s see how this plays out.

— After a vote of no confidence from LeBron “we need a point guard,” Kay Felder had one layup on two shots in 8 minutes, and did nothing else of note. His days in the rotation may be numbered. WE WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU KAY.

— Suns notes: I don’t watch this team very often so I don’t know how representative what I saw was, but if Eric Bledsoe hits the shots the defense has to give him he’s unstoppable, Devin Booker can do absolutely everything on the offensive end (he’s so smooth — he reminds me of a righty Michael Redd with a more orthodox shot), and T.J. Warren comes to freaking play. He was up in LeBron’s face all night long. Also, Tyson Chandler is still throwing up 10 point/15 rebound games at — holy crap, he’s only 34? It does go to show you how incredible LeBron is — Tyson Chandler has only been in the league two more years, and I remember people thinking he was done in literally 2010. The odometer is no joke, man.

— Alright, that’s it for now. Will we see the debut of Kyle Korver next game? The only way to find out is to read Cavs: The Blog!*

* This is not, technically speaking, a true statement.