Recap: Magic 114, Cavs 93 (Or, Sometimes A Loss Is Just A Loss)
2017-10-22https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcs3j8qc5SI
The Magic showed up to embarrass the Cavs in Cleveland tonight. They raced out to a 15-4 lead in the span of about five minutes, and the Cavs just couldn’t do anything to get back on track all night. Orlando canned 17 3s and Cleveland hit just seven. And, of those seven, four came in complete and utter garbage time.
Cleveland also turned the ball over 16 times to the Magic’s 12, giving up just 12 points somehow. The score could have been much worse. The Cavs were playing so bad they had Austin Carr flashing back to the dark days ranting: “The Cavs just need to cut the lead down to 12 in the next eight minutes, and then 10 before the half, and they’ll have a chance.” That’s not the exact quote, but you get the gist of it.
Thankfully, the season is young. It’s only game three for the Wine & Gold. Sigmund Freud once said, “A cigar is a just a cigar.” Well, sometimes, a loss is just a loss. There is no way the team can play without effort the whole season. There is no way the defense is broken. There is no way they’ll let another team shoot 48.6% from deep this season. Right? There is no way they’ll play one-on-one basketball with little to zero movement coming from the weak side all season. Right?
The Magic were led by Nikola Vucevic and D.J. Augustin. Vucci Mane put up 28 points on 11-16 shooting to go with five assists and seven boards. D.J. Augustin put up a highly efficient 12 points. He hit 3-4 from deep and dished out ten assists. He was a big reason the Magic had 28 assists on 40 buckets.
The Cavs had some players show up. The King was very good as usual. He scored 22 points on 8-15 shooting and had 14 of the Cavs’ 18 first quarter points. Towards the end of the first quarter LeBron had two +1s for six total points to keep the Cavs from being down even more than 18.
Kevin Love also had a decent evening after shooting 0-4 in the first quarter. He finished the game 8-17 for 19 points. He also grabbed nine boards. Tristan Thompson grabbed nine boards too, but scored only four points.
The Cavs started the night out slowly. Dwyane Wade and Jose Calderon were unable to contain any dribble penetration; the Magic feasted by getting deep into the paint and finding wide open guys. Wade was switching haphazardly, often without talking, and two guys were often staring at a guard dribbling deep into the paint. That forced a third Cav to come over from the weak side leaving a 3-point shooter from the Magic open in the corner. The result was not pretty as Orlando shot 50% on 12 shots and went 3-5 from downtown in the first six minutes of action. Meanwhile, the Cavs opened up the first six minutes going 2-13 from the floor.
During the second quarter, the Cavs continued their weak showing. About a minute in, the Wine & Gold forgot to box out and Bismack Biyombo snagged an offensive board and put the ball back to push the Magic’s lead to 22! Love started to get a little hot though, which kept the Magic’s lead from growing. Love scored eight in a row, including a beautiful dive down the lane where LeBron found him for a nice finish to cut the Magic’s lead to just 15 with 6:09 in the quarter. He ultimately shot 6-9 for 13 points in the quarter.
Love also had a nice dime to a cutting LeBron and showed some serious grit after bricking a 3-pointer and going super hard after the board, which Cleveland ultimately recoverd. The Cavs truly showed a little more effort and outscored the Magic 27-20, but entered the locker room down 56-45. Their extremely simple offense that essentially featured two guys attempting to move while the Magic suffocated zombie like weak side players wasn’t world beating.
It would be natural to assume the Cavs would come out firing on all cylinders to start the third, since a young unproven team had humiliated them for about 18 minutes in the first half, but that was just not the case. LeBron started the quarter missing an alley-oop and the Magic then turned the ball over. Rather than making up some ground, Jae Crowder got called for a charge and gave the ball right back.
The Cavs went on a mini 8-0 run during the middle of the quarter to cut the Magic’s lead to seven. It started with the King hitting a 3 over Evan Fournier. Then Love hit a running floater off a Wade pass. LeBron sparked a Wade 3-pointer in semi-transition after blocking DJ Augustin during a fastbreak to end the run.
🙌 @DwyaneWade#CavsMagic https://t.co/ZPogS1p1UQ
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) October 22, 2017
The Magic roared right back though and held the Cavs scoreless for 3:14 and entered the fourth quarter up huge, 88-65.
The fourth quarter was no better for Cleveland. The Cavs starters stayed in for the first five minutes and gave up an 11-2 run to end the night. The reserves got to play a lot led by Iman Shumpert.
Gripes
- This was a bizarro game. I’m going to stand by that. Every thing in this recap should be reversed. The Magic should be the Cavs, and the Cavs the Magic at all points.
- The Cavalier guard play was horrendous. Jose Calderon and Dwyane Wade went 3-11 for just seven points and six assists. I might have to order a box of forks for this season, because their defensive and shooting inabilities at this point are signifying forked status. Forks will be mentioned a lot this year and not because those two are eating with them, but because they’re just sticking out of their backs.
- Iman Shumpert had 21 points on 5-14 shooting and just two assists. Tyronn Lue left him out with the scrubs during garbage time, and he dominated the ball. He took eight of the Cavs’ 20 shots in the fourth going 3-8 for 15 points. Lue needs to not give Shump any thoughts that he is a scorer or ball handler. Any confidence boost for Shump is only going to result in more off-balance 15 footers and Vine (RIP) length dribbling sequences.
- Someone needs to tell Shump it’s not 1997 anymore. Look at this shot chart.
- Jeff Green also needs to get this news.
- Defensively, the Cavs need to come up with a more conservative defense. They’re switching far too much and having Love come up to the level of screens. He can’t recover fast enough, and when the Cavs switch, it happens so slowly that other guys are having to help over until the switch is completed. This results in open shots for opponents.
- My final gripe of the night has to do with Channing Frye. Why did he only get to play in garbage time? The Cavs shot an abysmal 7-25 from 3-point land. Frye could have surely helped that.
- Having a tinsy bit of off-ball movement probably would have helped their 3-point numbers too. Guys on the weak side weren’t moving at all. The Cavs need to start setting some flare screens for guys like Kyle Korver who was only able to get off two 3s, both of which he missed.
Hypes
- LeBron and Love didn’t give up all evening despite the poor showing from the rest of the team. If they hadn’t each had their respective runs in the first and second quarters the Cavs could have lost by as many fifty points.
- It’s one game and the Cavs aren’t going to shoot this poorly from 3-land all season. And, defensively Lue will probably figure it out.
- He can scream “ICE” right?
- He needs to watch some videos of Tom Thibodeau right now.
The Cavs host Chicago on Tuesday, let’s hope things go better.
A couple weeks after Kyrie’s trade demand, if you told me we would receive Bledsoe, Crowder, Zizic and Brooklyn’s unprotected first round pick…
My utter lack of knowledge of the CBA comes into play here, but is it too late for us to take back Brandon Knight in a trade with Phoenix and stretch pay him? Did the deadline that already pass apply only to players on your current roster, or apply across the board?
I believe the deadline passed.
Unfortunate. Could have used that to get away with a “meh” package for Bledsoe.
Does anyone know what the ESPN Insider article titled “Three Bledsoe trades that work for both sides” with LeBron as the picture of the article? Just wondering what they have us trading.
So that didn’t make sense. Does anyone know what the aforementioned article has us giving up for Bledsoe?
Potential suitor 3: Cleveland Cavaliers
Suns get: Guard Iman Shumpert, center Ante Zizic, protected 2021 first-round pick
Cavaliers get: Bledsoe
Interesting. At first glance, clearly we’d do that. BUT, if LeBron leaves, that 2021 first rounder better be very protected..
And thanks for sharing.
I also have no problem keeping IT and trading for Bledsoe. Calderon is trash and can either be cut or used in garbage minutes, DRose, IT, and Bledsoe could all platoon at PG.
Plus if you trade Shump, you could always use Bledsoe or DRose at SG in certain lineups.
Not trying to be condescending, but could we actually do that? I’m not sure Rose can play the 2. He’d be pretty bad defensively and can’t shoot, so playing off-the-ball wouldn’t work. I’m not a Bledsoe guru, but his 3pt shooting isn’t great either.
If we did do either, it wouldn’t be for very many minutes.
Calderon looks done, which is not surprising, since he looked done last year. Not one of Corby’s better signings.
BELIEVELAND THAT IS ALOT FOR 1 PLAYER—SUNS WOULD HAVE TO THROW IN AT LEAST A 2ND ROUND PICK
Will Corby outbid the Knicks?
2:40 pm: Michael Scotto of Basketball Insiders (Twitter link) hears that the Knicks have indeed contacted the Suns about a Bledsoe deal and Phoenix wants No. 8 overall pick Frank Ntilikina and Willy Hernangomez in exchange for the veteran point guard.
Can’t beat that deal without throwing in the Nets pick. So hopefully not.
They must think the Knicks are morons.
Exactly. The old “announce that Player A won’t play another game for your team and also expect teams to send you a top 10 pick from a couple months ago plus more in return for said player” strategy!
Corby doing work.
According to ‘sources’, Cavs and Suns have talked trade. I’d even throw in Shump’s flattop.
Also, Cavs should trade IT, Shump, Frye. and Zizic for Bledsoe.
IT for Bledsoe is a loss for the Cavs.
IT may never play for the Cavs.
Every person with knowledge of the situation thinks he’s coming back in January and maybe sooner.
And maybe he plays two games and is out for the season.
Or maybe he plays a lot of games but is nowhere near 100%. IT is still a huge question mark, and I don’t understand why people think that just because there is a “January” timetable out there, he magically doesn’t have an injury that could be career threatening.
Thomas and the Cleveland doctors seem to think he can come back from this injury without lingering effects. I don’t know why we doubt them.
1. A player legitimately has to force himself to believe he will fully recover from a potentially career-ending injury in order to put the work in to actually do so. Did you expect him to talk about the likelihood that he’ll never be the same player?
2. The Cleveland doctors can’t and won’t release information about Thomas’ injury. It’s literally against the law to do so. On top of that, see the second sentence of 1., above.
3. What Arch said.
Yes of course a guy in a contract year, who has said that he wants teams to back up the Brinks truck to sign him next season, says he’s going to be healthy.
You’d prefer IT over Bledsoe..?
Yep. Thomas was 2nd team all-nba last year. Once we get him back he fits right into the Irving role. Bledsoe is good but he’s played more than 60 games like twice in his career.
If we lose Thomas we will need to replace alot of scoring.
Cols, I think it’s pretty ridiculous to simply ignore his defensive shortcomings. Do you not remember how painfully terrible our defense was in the Finals?
We have Crowder to play defense now. And Lue has been very smart about putting Love at center. I think those two changed plus a guy who can get buckets at will like Thomas make us almost unbeatable.
I just lol’d. So a defensive-minded SF plus Kevin Love at C = Isaiah Thomas is no longer a net negative against GS?
Wow.
Love at center is not some panacea against teams like the Warriors.
If he is healthy, it is a no-brainer. The bad rapping of IT on CtB is a by product of some who cannot stop grieving over losing KI.
Haha. Dude can’t defend and is a liability against any good playoff team. Since the Cavs only likely play one good playoff team (in finals) it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but it is. Maybe not a “big” deal. Maybe a “short” deal.
Raoul – does defense simply not matter? IT was the worst defensive PG in the NBA last season by a freakin’ mile. I won’t discredit his offensive prowess, and it would sure be fun to watch him during the regular season, but I just don’t understand how he isn’t a net negative against GS or whoever else we might play in the Finals.
Raoul only cares about the regular season!
Not!
Where did the “IT can’t play in the playoffs” storyline come from? He played pretty good last year. What has Bledsoe done in the playoffs?
I don’t get to watch nearly as many games as a lot of you guys do, so I actually cannot give an informed opinion on Bledsoe. But I can see how most writers rank players, and figure the majority opinion might have something to it.
And anyone can spot goofy memes that regularly sweep through this blog.
You’re my George Costanza “always do the opposite” barometer, so I’m fully on board with Bledsoe.
I think Cavs should return TT to starting center and Crowder to bench as well.
Second unit should be: Wade, Korver, Crowder, Green, Frye
No. The Cavs starting lineup of Thomas-Smith-Crowder-Leb-Love is a world destoyer.
Hmmm, I don’t agree. Love will get destroyed by opposing 5s. But maybe I’m wrong.
Glad to see the DWade move. Team should have much better flow with only one slasher guard on the floor at a time. Also JR gets to go back to being 3 and D, which he is really quite good at.
Look, IT, Rose, James + Wade + Beldsoe is an awful lot of PGs. With really only 1 guy who can shoot (IT). The other reason I think we don’t do it is because if we deal our pick, we can’t deal the Nets pick later. This came too early. I never say never: Shump, Calderon + Osman/Zizic? I doubt that is enough. I’d do it, however. No way the Suns will.
James and Wade aren’t PG’s.
Good recap
If Bledsoe is so good, how come the Suns suck so bad? Even with Booker. He’s a Klutch guy, so that means we’ll probably trade IT, Calderon, the Nets pick, Zizic & Osman for him. :)
Bledsoe is good but not great. He’s certainly worse that Thomas and he has his own injury concerns. The Cavs won’t overpay for him.
It sounds like they want Mudiay anyways. Denver will improve with that.
He’s probably better than IT in the playoffs, because he wears adult clothing and plays defense.
They can have him. Mudiay is garbage. Of course they want to tank.
As long as we keep Shump….
Don’t forget Shump!
Bledsoe is fed up and hasn’t been trying much this year. He’s not as good as Shump, but I’d do the deal to get Shump on a winner…
I’ll never understand the logic behind asking why a player is considered good if his team is so bad. This is the NBA. Unless you’re one of a handful of players in the league, your team is going to suck regardless of how good you are if your supporting cast is garbage.
Nobody is pretending that Bledsoe is a top 10 player in the NBA, but he’d surely be a good fit on this team.
All it took was me posting just once about the absurdity of Wade starting and Lue and Wade got the memo /s.
Good move.
Also, please don’t trade for Bledsoe unless you move IT in the process. He doesn’t have a good history dealing with being on a team with 3 starting quality point guards, one of which was Bledsoe no less. The psyche of the team could be broken. The logjam at the guard spots would be terrible.
In the Land we can make this work.
I’m all for trading for Bledsoe, but are the Cavs? Talk about a log jam. IT would seemingly have to be traded when he returns, right? We’d have 3 starting-caliber PG…
They don’t appear to be engaged in discussions with the Suns.
It’s so funny that the Bucks are trying to trade for Bledsoe. They must really be regretting that delly contract since they need another PG.
Maybe the Suns want Delly, or maybe they just want 3 PG’s?
If Corby was with the Bucks, he’d never do that deal.
Bit of a stretch on the Delly hate. Bledsoe is a great player.
Looks like it’s the Bucks, Knicks, and Nuggets so far.
If nuggets end up with bledsoe for mudiay Yeezus.
Yeah that’s like trading Shump for Bledsoe.
Three team trade: Cavs get Bled, Suns get Mudiay, and Nuggets get Shump. Everybody’s happy.
I don’t think anyone is happy getting Shump…