Recap: Blazers 102, Cavs 86 (Or, Monday Can’t Come Soon Enough)

Overview: 

The Cavaliers followed a miserable shooting evening against the Jazz with a truly horrific one in Portland nailing only 34.1% of their shots. The Cavs had more turnovers than assists as they lost every quarter against a hungrier, more disciplined Blazers squad.

The Breakdown:

Cleveland began the evening almost like an NFL team in that the plays seemed variably scripted. I’m not sure whether it was intentional or not, but the customary first play Love post-up off baseline screen action was followed by a 1-3 pick and roll for a weak-side three, a Kyrie Irving dribble drive, and a 1-5 PnR that put Tristan Thompson into position for a left-handed hook. However, the balanced offensive attack didn’t lead to many made baskets. Many early attempts bounced around and out for the Wine and Gold, undermining the best flow the evening would have to offer.

Defensively, LeBron James led the way. Unfortunately for Cavs fans, he didn’t lead them down the right path. The King was both disinterested and slow on that end of the floor all night. His rotations varied between “what rotation?” and “I really probably should get over there, but boy that is a long way to run”. It was the kind of defensive performance that drove most fans crazy before the 2016 championship. James was certainly not alone. The Cavaliers’ weak-side defense was both weakly enacted and poorly communicated. DeAndre Liggins did his best to make up for everyone, frequently abandoning normal rotations in order to contest a shot that his teammates were content to watch sail overhead. The Blazers, and more specifically Al-Farouq Aminu, did the Cavs a favor by clanking many wide open first half threes.

Kyle Korver got some early run with the starting unit when he subbed in for Liggins at the 5:03 mark. Kyrie immediately had a few nice dribble drives that were made easier by Korver’s gravity, but the ball and player movement still left much to be desired. A following bench unit that was to feature Love was short-circuited when Kevin knocked knees, briefly sending him to the bench.

The second quarter started as the first ended, sans Big Three. Kay Felder, Korver, Iman Shumpert, Richard Jefferson, and Channing Frye attempted to build some chemistry as a bench mob, but Frye pressed the issue on offense and Portland took advantage of the lineup’s lack of defensive talent. Allen Crabbe killed the Cavs once again with a variety of shots, only missing one in the half. His 18 first half points led both squads. The highlight of the half clearly belonged to Portland as fantastic rim protection led to this Evan Turner wizardry. Go Bucks?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtUdpF5HmNw

Despite the sloppy laziness of the first half, Cleveland was only down 48-41 moving to the third. The Portland backcourt had yet to catch fire and one could envision a Cavalier stampede. Nope. The Blazers first possession easily broke down the defense giving C: TB favorite, C.J. McCollum a wide open three from the right corner. C.J. only dropped six points in the first half. He quickly made up for the sluggish start hitting silky jumpers from all parts of the floor. Meanwhile, Kyrie, who had been held to only four first half points, began the third frame with a completely out of rhythm three ball off zero offensive movement.

LeBron’s ball-handling was particularly out of sorts. James often made the right pass, but was off target with is delivery. On occasion, he simply passed the rock to the Blazers. Portland did a good job of interrupting passing lanes with their length and energy, but if LeBron were on, it wouldn’t have mattered. He must certainly was not.

The Cavs began to trap higher on the floor against the Portland PnR game, but the trap was often poorly executed, allowing for easy splits of the double-team or simple rejections of the pick leading to straight line drives to the cup. I could be more expeditious with my word choice. They were awful.

LeBron hit a couple threes in the fourth to give the illusion of a possible comeback, but Portland quickly responded with flourishes of there own. Evan Turner was also responsible for the second half highlight when he dove for a loose ball and found C.J. McCollum for a hustle three ball. That bucket gave the Blazers an 85-69 advantage and effectively ended the game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAFh7iXoKr4&t=3m52s

Thoughts

Cheers to Tristan Thompson for bringing a ton of energy on a night in which most of his teammates were in a deep slumber. Tristan’s five offensive boards kept the Cavs in the game as long as they were. It wasn’t a great outing for TT, but he played hard like he always does.

DeAndre Liggins did a pretty good job of checking Damian Lillard off the ball. On ball, Lillard was mostly content to exploit the Cavalier’s awful PnR defense without really scoring himself. He had a lot of hockey assists in this one.

Still, I will continue to believe that the Blazers would be smart to deal Lillard and hand the reins over to C.J. McCollum. McCollum can flat out score the rock, but he is also a fantastic play-maker. His game reminds me of a mix between Terrell Brandon and James Harden. That’ll do. Portland has a ridiculously high payroll. I understand that Lillard is their “star”, but the team makes more sense without him. Evan Turner is a point forward and can split ball-handling duties with McCollum. The rest of the squad is long and athletic. Sure, the Blazers are only 2-3 without Lillard in the lineup, but two of those losses were to the Warriors and the Spurs. Lillard is like Zach LaVine on defense. He has the tools, but can’t figure out how to stay in the play. Only problem is that Lillard is no pup. He is six years older than LaVine and at 26, he is two years older than Kyrie. He is who he is. They need to make a deal.

I predicted in the Live Thread that the Cavs would drill 20-plus threes against Portland. Clearly, I was wrong. Still, there were a lot of good looks early. Okay, not a lot, but it certainly could have changed the equation had some of them gone down.

Oh who am I kidding. This was a schedule loss. The Cavs are hyper-aware of the upcoming Warriors rematch. The guys don’t care about dropping a back-to-back if it means they are fresher for the weekend. Expect a tune-up variety victory against the Kings before the real fun starts on Sunday. Until next time.