Recap: Cleveland 120, Phoenix 95 (Surviving the Tankathon)

The Cavaliers dispatched the pride of the Scottsdale YMCA Mens’ league, Friday night with relative ease. You can’t convince me that was an actual NBA team the Cavs were playing. The most important Cavalier developments happened elsewhere in the NBA, anyway. The “Suns” were without the best of their lineup, sophomore phenom Devin Booker, and in his absence were led by Troy Daniels (20 points), Marquis Chriss (19 points, 10 rebounds), and Josh Jackson (17 points on 20 shots). The game mattered little, and even the Chill Mode Cavs had no problem after a slow start that saw them down 23-27 at the end of the first.

Cleveland more than doubled up in the second, outscoring Phoenix 39-18 in the period. They kept the Suns at arm’s length the rest of the night, and most of the Cavs starters were able to sit out the final quarter. LeBron was his normal brilliant self, with 27, six, and nine dimes in 27 minutes. George Hill was a ridiculous +32 in 26 minutes and while he only scored seven with five boards, he played exceptionally good defense on Phoenix’s lousy guards finishing with two blocks and a steal. Jose Calderon had the steal of the night early as he caught Payton napping (or Elfrid couldn’t see through his hair), and casually stole the ball and took it down the court for two with a classic “old man at the Y” finish.

Kevin Love looked sharp, despite going 2-6 from downtown, and Cleveland worked to get him the ball on the move and on the block. Kev finished with 20 and six and added a handful of steals (mostly off rancid Phoenix passes) to put a +28 imprint on the game. The second quarter belonged to Kevin, JR, George, and Clarkson as they led the attack with Clarkson attacking the rack and J.R. bombing away (3-5) from downtown, and George bringing the D.

Clarkson did go 5-14, but three of those misses were on putbacks, and his 0-2 from downtown were on catch-and-shoot kickouts. If the Cavs can find a way to balance Clarkson’s ball dominance and his ability to get scorching hot, they’ve got a real bench scorer on their hands. I didn’t see him take any especially egregious shots and his ability to attack in isolation is going to be an asset.

The best in-game development was probably the return of Larry Nance who finished with 15 and 10. He missed a couple jumpers, so all his points came from point blank. Larry scored six on putbacks, and the rest came on lane fills, rim runs, and post finishes. Larry and Kevin rebounding is sooo much better than Jeff Green. The best starting lineup for this team is Calderon, Hill, James, Kev, and Larry: five great passers who can all play without the ball, and four great shooters. Larry’s ability to flash and dunk everything would make that lineup absolutely deadly.

Rodney Hood got back on the floor too, but still has a ways to go to be the player the Cavs need him to. Rod was 4-8 from the field, but was a team low -11. Rodney seems to prefer to drive to the mid-post and get into his mid-range game, and he can get that southpaw push/hook shot off against just about anyone and shoot it with a good percentage. But from the three line, he looks like he is not getting square and angling his left shoulder too far forward, causing him to go long on his shots (0-2 from downtown). I hope he’s a redeemable player, but his atrocious RPM with Utah may not have been an illusion. Hood just seems to drift a lot and not make much of a positive impact on the game when he’s in. Getting Rodney going should be a top priority for the Cavs coaching staff.

The backup big man spot seemed to cause some controversy in the live thread. Ante Zizic got pushed to the deep bench with the return of Tristan Thompson, and it caused no shortage of hand wringing. But let me defend coach Drew for a minute. The Cavs know Zizic can play, but they have to figure out if TT can give them anything, and get him back into game shape. He looked slow, heavy, and still unable to finish as he went 2-7 from the floor. Yes, he grabbed 10 rebounds, but a couple of him were on his own terrible misses. One positive development: he does seem to be using his body better on the d-boards, getting his butt into guys and sealing for possession. He’s going to have to, since he appears to have turned into late career Reggie Evans. Still, the Cavs need to know what TT can give them going into the playoffs, hopefully he can get back into shape and give them something.

Ante only played five minutes, but went 2-2 with a nice jumper from the foul line and a post-up which featured a very soft sweeping right hand hook shot. The dude is a field goal percentage maven.

LeBron was his normal brilliant self. I put the highlights up top, but my favorites are the second, third, and penultimate. Early on in the first, James shows some early chemistry with Calderon: first, LeBron rolls on the left wing p/r and flushes a lob. Then he boards and spots Jose leaking out and throws a touchdown for for an easy deuce. Don’t tell me LeBron wouldn’t have been the greatest QB in NFL history. Finally, he steals, spins through three Scottsville Y guys in transition, knocks over Jared “Dadbod” Dudley, and banks the ball in for an and-1. For comparison sake, James is about seven months older than Jared. Hail to the King.

Around the League

Huge development in Golden State as Steph Curry sprained his left MCL. Early speculation I’ve read puts the timetable from 10-30 days for Steph’s return. An offseason full of Warrior excuses awaits. While I don’t think it affects the Warriors’ chances long term other than to confirm that Steph is gimpy and that the Dubs were unbelievably fortunate when it comes to injuries during their two championships, what it does do is give the Cavs hope. The Warriors are not indestructible, and the Eastern conference playoffs are going to be a war. With their recent win against the Raptors, the Cavs have a legit shot to slice through the East and win a championship.

In other news, a late Raptor comeback downed the Nets 116-112. Here’s how things stand right now in the NBA race to the bottom according to the hilarious named website, tankathon.com.

It’s going to be a harrowing few weeks for Guffman, as a win streak could prove brutal. Fortunately, the Nets schedule isn’t easy and there are a lot of teams jockeying for playoff position on their schedules. Orlando is seemingly playing every terrible team in the league over next few weeks, so the we get some relief there, but a back-to-back against Chicago, looks very much like a leapfrog event for the Bulls. These games are going to be ridiculous. The season ends with a Mavericks/Suns matchup. I fully expect to see both teams call up eighth graders for that match-up.

The ridiculousness of tanking seems even worse this year than it did five years ago when I wrote about it. In “on tanking” I quoted a Malcolm Gladwell statement that rings more true now than ever. Until Sunday, Cavs Fans.

You simply cannot have a system that rewards anyone, ever, for losing. Economists worry about this all the time, when they talk about “moral hazard.” Moral hazard is the idea that if you insure someone against risk, you will make risky behavior more likely. So if you always bail out the banks when they take absurd risks and do stupid things, they are going to keep on taking absurd risks and doing stupid things … If you give me a lottery pick for being an atrocious GM, where’s my incentive not to be an atrocious?