Recap: Cleveland 102, Boston 99 (or, a win, prayers, and other strangeness)

John Kuntz, Cleveland.com

This game had everything: spectacular plays, gruesome injuries, amazing comebacks, awful officiating, baffling coaching decisions, and the best basketball player in the universe prevailing late. It promises to be a long, enigmatic, frustrating, and jaw dropping season for Cleveland.

The game started out with Kyrie canning a floater after being booed during the opening introductions and the game going back and forth before the unthinkable happened.

Gus Chan, The Plain Dealer

Gordon Hayward went up for an alley oop and LeBron contested, bumping him up high. Somehow Hayward’s leg got caught under him, and it folded as he crumpled to the floor. Everyone stopped. “Gordon Hayward is down… Gordon Hayward has broken his leg,” Kevin Harlan intoned soberly. Normally announcers don’t speculate on injuries, but it was completely obvious as Hayward’s leg was dangling sideways just above the ankle. Everyone on the floor looked away. Dwyane Wade took a knee and started praying. After some time as the arena never rose above a low murmer, Hayward was taken off in a stretcher to the well wishes of all the players and the fans.

Play eventually resumed, but no one’s mind was on the game. Boston was obviously shell-shocked and running through the motions as they saw their season flash before their eyes. Cleveland double teamed Kyrie every time he dribbled up top, in a help and recover scheme, and Irving didn’t press the issue, content to work the offense, even though his teammates were bricking shot after shot.

For the Cavs, J.R. came in and gave great energy, with a much better floor game than we saw from him all last season. His dribble looked live, and he had a pull up, a nice floater, a corner three, and set up Tristan with a nice alley oop early. Wade scored an and-one to close out the quarter and put the Cavs up 29-19.

James looked none the worse for wear as Rose found him with two quick assists. And then it was the LBJ show. He was driving, dishing, rebounding, running the floor as an anemic Boston offense subsisted off scoring from a rare three and drive from Jaylen Brown and a couple Aron Baynes jumpers.  Crowder had a very nice first half complementing James with 11 points. Crowder is so glue. He doesn’t do anything flashy, but he is a fundamentally great finisher, hits the corner three, hits his free throws, and moves the ball when the easy score isn’t there.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uJYXX83Y40

As the halftime buzzer sounded after a Kyrie stepback brick, the Cavs were up 54-38.

After Wade and Rose turnovers lead to a Smart layup and a Kyrie to Tatum oop in the first 40 seconds. Ty Lue called timeout. It was obvious the Celtics had been given “Win one for the Gordo” speech in the locker room. Boston looked fiesty and were flying around the court. The Cavs looked like they were playing Memphis third stringers on the road in late January. Fortunately, Cleveland had Kevin Love banging in techs (three on the game), Wade hitting old man post-ups, and LeBron taking advantage or the Celtics’ over aggressiveness to spin and thunder home dunks.

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

You had to admire the Celtics fight, though, and as the third quarter wore on, they clawed their way back from an 18 point deficit. Cleveland started taking and missing quick threes, Wade starting turning it over, and Jaylen Brown started getting to the rack, by diving to the rim when Al Horford got the ball in the post and found him on cuts. Marcus Smart complemented by posting up everyone in Clevleand not named LeBron James. Smart scored over and over and over dropping 12 on six shots in the quarter.

The third was all about the Cavs playing lazy defense, taking stupid shots, and turning the ball over while Smart, Tatum, and Brown ran the floor and attacked the rim when in the half-court. The young guns combined for a whopping 28 points in a 33-18 third. Love’s jumper was wet from canning all those freebies, and the Cavs guards kept ignoring him to take long twos and turn the ball over with bad passes and very loose handles.

As Love and James went to the bench for Thompson and Green, things seem to turn up as Thompson hit a diving Green for a beautiful finish off the bump over Aron Baynes. But it was all pyrite as the Cavs started running offense through Green who was content to do things like dribble around for 10 seconds then clank inexplicable 20 footers. Meanwhile, the old problems with Rose reared their head.

Derrick great at straight line drives, floaters, and athletic moves to the bucket. But when he gets tired, like in the late third. He has little to fall back on. He struggles setting up teammates and doesn’t even try to run pick and rolls (as the Cavs rarely did all night). Rose struggled with his floater and was clearly winded but Lue had little choice but to keep riding him with Wade and LeBron having to rest.

Meanwhile, Smart was straight up abusing Kyle Korver in the post while Ty Lue refused to call for a switch, a double, or substitution, leading to six points in the last two minutes for Smart. Cleveland was only saved by a push and miracle three by Rose to beat the buzzer and leave the Cavs up 72-71 after having just surrendered the lead on a 28-8 Boston Run. The Problems in the third were palpable. How do you not run a play for Korver? How does Lue not make an adjustment on Smart?

Thank God the Cavs have LeBron James. He started the final 12 by finding Green on a cut, and Jeff threw it down with much frivolity. The commentariat was amazed someone finally made a move off the ball for the Cavs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ib1spjI_Jpk

The refs were content to swallow their whistles and let Boston bully LeBron on every drive, and on offense, Kyrie Irving started heating up. His first big bucket came when two Cavs ran to Horford and left Kyrie wide open for a right wing trey to give the Celtics a a 79-78 lead. Then they set him up Uncle Drew with a Banes hand-off/screen to free Irving for another trey from the top right. Irving was really letting the game come to him as he fed guys for shots around the basket when doubled and slithered around screens to free himself for jumpers. Rozier hit him from the same spot a couple minutes later for another three to put Boston up 87-84 with six left.

Somehow Shump scored a couple buckets before being complicit in two turnovers which let Boston push the lead to three again. LeBron dropped a bulldozer layup, but Kyrie just kept dishing as he he hit Brown for a three and Tatum for a layup sandwiched around a LeBron “I’m the biggest bad*** on the planet” triple. A Jaylen Brown J and another Tatum layup drive off a Kyrie dime sandwiched a “Best friends alley oop” for LeBron from Wade. Jae Crowder set a perfect backscreen on the play, but Boston was still up three.

Mr. Clutch tonight was Kevin Love. He got himself an O-Board got himself two at the line. Then LeBron pirouetted into a layup that had the commentariat asking, “was that was three steps our four?” Suddenly the Cavs were up one with 1:19 left.

Crowder and James forced a bad pass on the baseline, and then Ty Lue redeemed a putrid coaching night with a fantastic set play that put Kevin wide open in the right corner. Check it out on this random internet guy’s TV.

The execution here was ridiculous: Love comes up high like he might set a screen for Wade and instead Crowder back-screens for James while Wade pitches to Crowder, to James. Rose cuts from the corner to vacate, and then James feeds Kevin in the corner for a moneyball J. I knew it was good before it left his hands. Why can’t the Cavs execute like that every play? Still, there was much rejoicing.

Up four, it seemed won before one of the dumbest plays I ever seen from Shumpert as he fouled Irving before the inbound, giving Boston a freebie and the ball and making it a one possession game. Fortunately, Kyrie Missed a floater, James milked 22 seconds before throwing up a three, and then Brown clanged a too-wide-open trey in transition. It bounced right to Irving who shorted a pump fake three from the right corner as the buzzer sounded, the crowd exploded, and LeBron hugged him goodnight.

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

Thoughts:

This team doesn’t run an offense 80% of the time and just kind of hot dogs it. The guards’ unwillingness to set up shots for Love or Korver is really frustating. Kyle played seven minutes and didn’t get a shot. That’s insane. There’s no reason for him to be out there if they’re not going to set him up. Kev went 4-9 (6-7 at the line) while Rose and Wade went 8-24. They just take too many long twos. Between that and refusing to reign in Jeff Green and Shump’s groan inducing freelancing, Ty Lue drives me nuts. I have to believe he’s trying to let guys play through the mistakes. I have to believe that.

Wade did play some great defense at times though. He had two blocks this game, including an absolutely clutch one on Banes late. Dwyane is the greatest shotblocking guard I’ve ever seen.

The Cavs had 17 turnovers. And though they cleaned it up in crunch time, it wasn’t pretty. Wade and LeBron each had four. Though I’m pretty sure they got stick with one or two of Shumps. Speaking of Shump, he just does one or two completely head scratching things a game. That foul on Kyrie was one of them. I guess he got away with it tonight.

J.R. finished with 10 points in 22 minutes, and is clearly playing with a chip on his shoulder. He finished +7. Wade had eight points on 3-10 shooting in 30 minutes with a 0 plus minus. Rose was -7 and went 5-14 for 14 points in 31 minutes. Let’s distribute these minutes a little more evenly, coach? Also, don’t exhaust Rose by playing him the entire third.

Kevin Love’s stroke look sharp. Yeah, he finished below 50% and 1-4 from three, but his freebies looked mostly perfect. He should’ve gotten more looks. He finished with 15 and 11.

Jae Crowder is the perfect teammate. He never takes bad shots. Moves the ball and plays great defense. I love him. I’d like to move into a nice apartment in Tremont with him. He’s making me come around on the Irving trade. He finished with 11 and +7 in 34 minutes. He should be playing 36 minutes every night.

The Cavs were very lucky the Celtics can’t shoot. Boston went 8-32 from downtown, which actually topped the Cavs’ 5-22 percentage. Has David Griffin’s departure decreased the focus and execution on the three ball for Cleveland? The Cavs went 21-25 at the free throw line, though which included an 0-2 Tristan Thompson trip. Maybe this is the Korver effect. He ought to be doing something for his $7 mil. He can’t guard anyone, and Cleveland doesn’t pass to him.

Speaking of Irving, I was really impressed: 22 points and 10 assists. The Cavs fans never really seemed to phase him, and with the boos and the strangeness of the first half with Hayward’s injury the time was never right to run the highlight tribute for Irving, so it was nixed. We didn’t see one dopey dribbling foray all night. Truth be told told the Cavs were constantly doubling him with the ball, but Irving let the game come to him and played as unselfishly as I’ve seen him. Irving had 30 double digit assist games in 381 career games before Tuesday (10 came last season). He has one in a single game as a Boston Celtic. Maybe President Brad really is an inspirational leader.

In the preview I noted that the Celtics were going to need Tatum to be a very good rebounder for them to be a better team on the boards. Well, he added 10 to go along with his 14 points. Jaylen Brown was 11-14 on non threes, and 2-9 on threes for 25 points.That’s a pretty good shot chart despite the missed threes.

Fortunately, the Cavs have LeBron James, and Tyron Lue is not afraid to play him as many minutes as he needs to get a win. James played 20 minutes a half after Lue called for “limited minutes” pregame. James finished with an otherworldly 29 points, 16 rebounds, and nine assists and two blocks.

It will be interesting to see how this season shakes out for Boston. Do they have the depth and drive to still be a playoff team after Hayward’s likely season ending injury? They played above themselves a bit in the second half, and will have a hard time with teams that are more disciplined about game-planning them. Still Tatum, Brown, and Rozier impressed me, and I liked their fight.

Best wishes on a speedy recovery to Gordon Hayward too. Sometimes we forget that sports are just an amusement. I’m competitive, but this is someone’s life and health in the balance. I hope we get to see him play again.

After Hayward’s injury, the Cavs blew a golden opportunity to ruin the Celtics’ season. They could have destroyed their confidence for weeks by destroying them in the second half. Instead, Cleveland came out half-a**ed and let the Celtics get confidence back. They could’ve dealt them a serious setback. Instead they gave them the worst thing they could’ve: hope. But as EvilGenius says, “a win is a win is a win is a win.”