Recap: Cleveland 104, Orlando 103 (Or, Expectations vs Reality)

The Orlando Magic are a bad team. They are extremely young and don’t really have anyone to go to on the offensive end. With Vucevic and Ross injured, and Aaron Afflalo suspended, they are too reliant on an up-and-coming athletic freak in Aaron Gordon, a never quite as good as you’d hope, Evan Fournier, and a point guard who’s top half of his vision is blocked by the old duster my mother used to use to get to the top of the ceiling fan, in Elfrid Payton. Yes, Gordon is beginning to come into his own as he has dazzled with highlights and a couple of games with a point total in the 40’s. He’s still limited offensively and less of a play-maker than the Magic need him to be. It is generally expected that the Cavs would handle the beat up Magic. Of course, with the Cleveland Cavaliers, reality is always much different than we’d expect.

The lofty expectations were met, however, during the first half of the game which ended up being a drubbing. The Cavaliers started the game off hot in the first quarter, a rarity the past few weeks. Their play was quick and determined as they had a bit of an edge. It looked like they were a team who had just gotten tired of hearing how many problems they still had to fix. But don’t get me wrong, the Cavaliers benefited from a defense that just had no idea what it was doing. The Magic were completely turning their backs on Cavalier players as they lost their men on a regular basis. Fortunately, Cleveland was not playing down to Orlando’s level and did just what they needed to to succeed. The first quarter looked exactly as you’d expect if you weren’t paying attention to anything but each team’s record.

Ball movement started off quick and crisp as the Cavaliers put on their best Globe Trotter impressions, routinely making the Magic look like the Washington Generals. Watch below as Cleveland efficiently passes the ball around, ending with a behind the back pass from JR to a baseline cutting LeBron who picked up the foul as he finished the layup.

Isaiah’s defense was still an issue on the court as he can’t stop anyone from doing what they want, even the visually limited Payton. At one point, about midway through the quarter, Aaron Gordon drove down the middle of the paint, dished it off to Payton (Thomas’s man), who then finished a wide open layup. All of this occurred as Isaiah Thomas took what looked to be his own personal mental timeout as he watched from a couple feet away. That kind of defense will never stop anyone. It didn’t hold the Cavs back, however, as they ended with a score of 36-20, Cavs.

The second quarter was when things started to get interesting, not because the game got close, but because the team’s fearless leader, Tyronn Lue, had the guts to trot out a lineup of Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade, Kyle Korver, Jeff Green, and Tristan Thompson. Now, I know that Lue was trying out a lineup for the first time in a while, but wow, did that lineup not feature enough shooters. They looked like a team full of old guys who were holding onto a game that is decades old. To my own dismay, the lineup didn’t completely fail. On occasion they turned the ball over because passing lanes were razor thin, but they generally made it work. Talk about exceeding expectations.

This five man group was a complete departure from last year when the Cavaliers were still breaking three-point records. At one point the Cavs scored off of two straight Kyle Korver assists, one even resulting from a rare Korver drive to the hoop. Tristan did just enough offensive rebounding to warrant being on the court. Watch below as he strong manned a rebound and put it up for a dunk.

This likely doesn’t happen against a tougher team, but I’ll take a 20-point lead whenever I can get it. I’ll also take a seven minute stretch with LeBron on the bench that doesn’t end in disaster. The starters checked back in with five minutes to go and finished the quarter off as strongly as they did the first. Cavs up 67-47 at the half.

The third quarter mirrored Cleveland’s last trip to Orlando where the Cavaliers blew a huge lead as they barely held off the charging Magic and brought Cleveland right back to reality. As the starters re-entered the game to start the half, the Cavs inexplicably slowed things down and stalled their own offense, falling into some familiar habits. Orlando wasn’t suddenly playing stifling defense so much as Cleveland stopped passing the ball or forced bad passes all together. The shots stopped falling as the energy levels plummeted. Bad pass followed wasted possession which followed another bad pass and by four minutes left in the third, the lead was cut to nine and Lue called a timeout to stop the bleeding. The Magic then proceeded to come all the way back to tie it at 80. It wasn’t until the last two minutes of the quarter that they started to turn things around.

The lineup that brought them back to life? You guessed it, Derrick Rose, Dwayne Wade, Kyle Korver, Jeff Green, and Tristan Thompson. It was as if they were intentionally trying to spite us here at C:tB as they played above average defense with much needed energy and enthusiasm. The bench squad recovered to end the quarter 84-80.

The same five guys started the fourth quarter and continued to breathe life back into a dead stadium. The second unit succeeded where the starters failed in that they were getting to the fifty-fifty balls and making the hustle plays. They were able to keep Orlando at arm’s length for the first four minutes of the quarters until Lue called a timeout after a sloppy play that resulted in Rose passing up a wide open layup to throw a backward pass to a clueless Jeff Green, leading to an Aaron Gordon dunk on the opposite end.

LeBron reentered the game after the timeout only to have TT rightly earn a flagrant one foul on the offensive end, swinging his elbow directly into the jaw of Evan Fournier. The Magic came charging right back as they cut the lead back to two before IT hit a three off the dribble and a mid-range jumper. The rest of the Cavs stayed flat though and the game stayed close. Whenever the game got close, it correlated directly with stagnation and poor passes. Luckily for Cleveland, the lowly Magic started to miss wide open shots even as the Cavs lost all interest in playing any defense.

Orlando finally managed to take the lead with 0:31.5 left on the clock. And with 11 seconds left, IT drew a foul while stumbling toward the hoop. He proceeded to make both free throws, putting the Cavs up by one. Of course, Cleveland gave up a layup that Orlando promptly blew. The ball bounced around after the rebound, eventually going out of bounds. After reviewing the play, the refs finally ruled it Cavs ball with .2 seconds left on the clock. Cavs win a tight one 104-103, as expected.

Some Notes:

1) As I suspected, this game was much closer than it needed to be. It was almost a carbon copy of the last win Cleveland had against none other than the Orlando Magic. Cleveland tends to play down to their opponent, so no surprises here. Just when you thought they would clamp down and put Orlando away, the Cavs took their foot off the gas. This happens often enough to make it common place. Hopefully it makes them better in pressure situations in the future? I don’t know. Silver linings, I guess.

2) I’m going to continue to say this because it’s not being said enough anywhere else. Kevin Love is not only playable, he’s undoubtedly the second best player on this team. He does everything he can, whenever he can. His team defense has improved by leaps and bounds and his ability to draw a foul is the best on the team and incredibly useful. I’m regularly impressed with his play on the court. At one point in the third quarter while the Cavs were struggling, Love drew a foul, then a charge, made a mid-range jumper, then drew yet another foul, all in succession. That’s big time. He finished the game with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and a block.

3) I was so angry when Lue brought out the completely non-shooting lineup, oh and Korver. Fortunately, for this game, it worked. Rose and Wade even teamed up for the block party below. Rose was tolerable and managed to comport himself in a decent manner tonight, he finished with 9 points, 3 rebounds, an assist, and a block. I don’t expect the same level of production with this unit against a tougher opponent so we’ll see.

I expected this game to be close despite the disparity in talent between the two teams. I haven’t mention LeBron yet and that’s because he was uncharacteristically tonight, finishing with only 16 points, 6 assists, 5 rebounds, and a steal. Unfortunately, he coughed up 6 turnovers and started off 0-5 from the free throw line. His shot is back to being broken and he continues to try to force passes that aren’t there. In addition, Cleveland just can’t seem to shed that lack of desire to play sustained defense. The reality is that this has been a problem for four straight years and will likely continue for the foreseeable future. It is their trademark. The Cavaliers face off against the Thunder on Saturday and they’ll need to bring more effort than they exhibited in this one. Go Cavs!